Guy Fawkes Day Bonfire Night - We Are Not the Only Americans Celebrating

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent
To blow up the King and the Parliament
Three score barrels of powder below
Poor old England to overthrow
By God's providence he was catched
With a dark lantern and burning match
Holloa boys, holloa boys
God save the King!
Hip hip hooray!
Hip hip hooray!

A penny loaf to feed ol' Pope
A farthing cheese to choke him
A pint of beer to rinse it down
A faggot of sticks to burn him
Burn him in a tub of tar
Burn him like a blazing star
Burn his body from his head
Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.
Hip hip hooray!
Hip hip hooray!
~Traditional English Rhyme - 17th Century

The English don't fool around when it comes to poetry, do they? They can also hold an awesome grudge! Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament in 1605 and they burn him in effigy to this day!

If I didn't already know about Guy Fawkes day, I would be learning that today. But we have been holding our own Americanized version of bonfire night for several years. Whenever I mention it "Oh, yes, the fifth of November, bonfire night. We'll be burning an effigy. Are you?" the response is usually a blank stare, a slow backing away as if I'm crazy, or, most frequently, "What?"

Why do we celebrate this English tradition? My son is 1/2 Brit and I don't want him to forget his heritage. Well, really we do it because it is fun. We enjoy eating some good food, having a nice bonfire, setting off some fireworks, and burning an effigy. But the Brit thing is where we started.

For the years we have been celebrating, I have never met one American person besides our annual Guy Fawkes group that has ever burned an effigy, and with very few exceptions even knew anything about Guy Fawkes day. So maybe I am teaching something new today, as well as learning something.

What I learned today is that our isolated little group in central Michigan is not the only place Guy Fawkes is celebrated in the US. There is a place in RI that has been celebrating longer than we have and they seem to take it seriously, even reenacting the trial of Guy Fawkes. Strange, they do not burn an effigy. There is even a Center for Fawksian Pursuits. I think we would qualify as a North American Bonfire Society, so maybe they are not the only ones.

Learn more about Guy Fawkes:

• A Brief History
• Bonfire Night
• Guy Fawkes: A Biography
• Bonfire Night Recipes

So, very cool! Next thing you know, they will be celebrating Thanksgiving in England! (Maybe not.)

Note: This celebration may well catch on. There is a lot more information on line this year than there was 4 years ago.

Something else I learned: According to historians the gunpowder involved in the Gunpowder Plot decayed (left to sitting too long, and separated into its component chemical parts) rendering it harmless. So it would not have blown up Parliament anyway.

Uh-Oh. Google To Index Facebook Comments As Search Results

As a social good, I think privacy is greatly overrated because privacy basically means concealment. People conceal things in order to fool other people about them. They want to appear healthier than they are, smarter, more honest and so forth.
~Richard Posner

First off, regarding the above quote, I chose this one for today's post because it made me laugh. Richard Posner does not seem to know anything about life online. The problem is not the ability to conceal, it is the problem of sharing too much! (I also question his understanding of privacy. What the heck?! Privacy means to fool people?)

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13739_3-9854409-46.html


I was not sure who Richard Posner is, so I googled him. Richard Posner was born in 1939, and is currently a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago. He was a Judge on the US Court of Appeals. He believes we are in a depression, not a recession. He can be reached via email at rposner@uchicago.edu. You can view his resume/CV, see books and articles he has written, and learn about some of his activities here. Way to conceal things Judge Posner!

Google, it seems, now plans to index Facebook comments as search results. I can already hear the paranoid outcry against Facebook for this. I'm not sure if this is necessarily the fault of Facebook - could they stop Google from doing this anyway? There are already links to Facebook that show up in Google search results. Do a vanity search (search your own name) and if you are on Facebook you will show up in the results - unless you selected NOT to appear in search results in your settings.

Before you run screaming off to delete your FB account: unless you have set your account as "public" your comments will not be indexed. Unless you comment on the posts of someone who does have a public profile. But other than that your comments will be safe from the prying eyes of someone who is searching on Google. The advertisers FB shares your info with... well, that's another story.

Whenever there is a privacy issue on Facebook (and those come up frequently) multitudes of people get upset. The FB conversation immediately goes in to full "I hate Facebook! I wish there was an alternative!" mode. In the long run, this may well benefit Google+.  Yet I find it hard to believe that Google will index Facebook comments and not index Google+ comments...

Note: I have both Facebook and Google+ accounts. I keep both accounts as private as is allowed.

I Get My Hour Back! Daylight Savings Time Ends November 6

Tempus fugit
~Ovid

So I have been wondering when daylight savings time ends. It seems particularly late this year. Despite wondering and worrying, I have not done anything to establish when it happens this year - until today!

November 6. That is this weekend.

Daylight Savings Time was Benjamin Franklin's idea. His idea was that we should make better use of daylight. I guess he was a late sleeper.

Daylight Savings Time  decreases the amount of daylight in the morning hours so that more daylight is available during the evening.

DST also helps conserve energy (or so they say). The study that is relied on for this postulate was done in 1975. The thesis of the study was that energy usage was related to the times that people go to bed and when they wake. Also assumed is that people use lights, appliances, and electronics in the evenings when they are at home.

It is possible that in 1975 people were home more in the evenings and were less inclined to have lights, appliances, and electronics using energy in the early morning hours. In 2011 I don't think that is the case. I would posit that the average household in the US now uses more energy in the early morning hours than an equivalent household in 1975. At 7 a.m. the TV is on, the computer is on, and there are even new appliances that were not de rigueur back in the 20th century - today we may well grind our own coffee with a small appliance, brew the coffee in a coffee maker, microwave our breakfast, and run the dishwasher - all before we leave for work.

While I am thrilled to get my hour back I question the usefulness of Daylight Savings Time. I don't think it is saving me any daylight (or energy).


Note: Other countries also participate in DST.

Something else I learned: Daylight Savings Time has nothing to do with farming schedules or children waiting for a school bus.

E Pluribus Unum, The Great Seal of the United States

Arms:
Paleways of thirteen pieces, argent and gules; a chief, azure; the escutcheon on the breast of the American eagle displayed proper, holding in his dexter talon an olive branch, and in his sinister a bundle of thirteen arrows, all proper, and in his beak a scroll, inscribed with this motto, E Pluribus Unum.
Crest:
Over the head of the eagle, which appears above the escutcheon, a glory, or, breaking through a cloud, proper, and surrounding thirteen stars, forming a constellation argent, on an azure field."
Motto:
E Pluribus Unum

Front and Reverse

In 1776 Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson were appointed to design the Great Seal of the newly formed United States.  They created the preliminary design. Two committees and 6 years later the Great Seal was created (1782).

The symbolism in the Great Seal was explained by the designers:
On the front the 13 stripes on the shield represent the original states united. E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one) refers to this union. The eagle signifies the newly formed union should rely upon itself. The olive branch and arrows of course, denote peace and war. The 13 stars in the constellation at the top indicate the US taking it's place as a sovereign nation.

On the reverse the pyramid signifies strength and duration. The eye and Annuit Coeptis (Providence has favored our undertakings) symbolize providence in favour of the American cause. The date 1776 is obvious. the Latin Novus Ordo Seclorum (A new order of the ages) refers to the newly formed union.

Read transcript from the Papers of the Congressional Congress from 1782. The details of the great seal commence under Thursday, June 20th, 1782.

Note: E Pluribus Unum, although intended to be the national motto, was never technically designated as such.  "In God We Trust" was designated the national motto by an Act of Congress in 1956.

Something else I learned: There is a lot of conspiracy stuff related to the design of the Great Seal of the United States.

Michigan Central Depot: Emblematic of the Decay of Detroit

Detroit turned out to be heaven, but it also turned out to be hell.
~Marvin Gaye

I read a blog post by a friend and fellow blogger the other day. It got me thinking about the heartbreak I feel whenever I drive in to downtown Detroit. Detroit is my hometown, although I don't necessarily remember it in it's glory or heyday. You have to be blind or completely indifferent to be stoic in the dregs of Detroit.

If you do a Google image search for Michigan Central Depot or Detroit Rail Station you will see a plethora of pictures of the once grand, now gutted and condemned building that is the obligatory image of the beautiful and horrific decline of a once vibrant and thriving city. So today I learned something about the fate of a railroad station in the Automotive Capital of the World.

There are some great pictures here, comparing the building as it was in 1973 (just before it closed the first time) and in 2008 after years of neglect, thievery and vandalism.

Michigan Central Depot was opened in 1913. It was built with every bit of the grandeur of Grand Central Station. Despite the relative isolation of the station there was a streetcar terminal at the north entrance, and it was expected that business would build up around the station as had happened with Penn Station in New York. Keep in mind that this was 1913 - well before cars became the preferred mode of transportation.

Michigan Central Depot was a beautiful building with beaux-arts neoclassical styling. Massive arched windows and Corinthian columns formed the building front. The inside was modeled largely like an ancient Roman bathhouse. There were vaulted ceilings and paired Doric columns and a huge copper skylight.  There was a restaurant and a coffee shop. There was also limited parking (remember this was built when there were still few automobiles).

There were several floors above the terminal, used as offices. The uppermost floor (18th story) was never completed. There was also a basement that was used for baggage handling and mail.

Between WWII (a busy time for the station) and 1956, passenger traffic became so depleted as to spur an attempt to sell the station. The facilities within the depot began to close quickly thereafter and the building began to deteriorate.

Amtrak took over national passenger service in 1971 giving the depot a last hurrah. Renovations were made in 1978 including new tracks. The above story offices were occupied by rail company employees. But it was not to last. There were no passengers riding from the Michigan Central Depot and in 1988 the building was closed for all time.

It still stands, a decrepit monument surrounded by barbed wire, a testament to what the city of Detroit once was, and a harsh reminder of what it has now become.

Note: If I won a huge lottery jackpot, I would buy and renovate this building, employing only Detroit residents. There are plenty of people still living there that remember this beautiful building when it was vibrant and untouched by dire circumstance.

Something else I learned: Gerald Ford would have rather played football for the Detroit Lions than have been president of the US.

End of the Month Update October: I Have learned 31 New Things

So far my plan to learn something new everyday is working! A little over a month into it, and I am keeping pace. It easier to learn something on some days than others. But I have posted something learned for every day since Sept 25 even if not on the exact day of learning.

From menhirs to cat purrs, fashion to reincarnation, and hand guns to tropical fruit. There really is a plethora of things to learn in the world. I am enjoying this exercise very much!

Is it a Cork if it's Not Cork? The New Synthetic Wine Bottle Stoppers

When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
~Aristophanes

Cork from specific trees found in Portugal and the Mediterranean region have corked wine since the seventeenth century. The bark of cork trees is harvested every 9 to12 years. Cork trees are not ready for bark harvesting until they are at least 25 years old. The bark is not suitable for wine corks until the third harvest. Cork trees can be harvested around 15 times in their lifecycle.

There are 17 billion bottles of wine produced every year, so keeping up with the cork demand is nearly impossible. Enter the synthetic plastic wine bottle stopper. It can't be a cork because it isn't cork. Synthetics now seal approximately 9 percent of the wine produced yearly. So that's about a billion synthetic "corks" a year.

Does it affect the quality of the wine?  There is some concern that the synthetic stoppers may leech chemicals into the wine over time. Synthetics are intended mostly for short term wine - not the type that is aged for years before being ready to drink. The aging process of red wines involves miniscule air contact, which is not possible with the synthetic stoppers so they may oxidize more quickly.

Three is an issue with cork corks that is absent with the synthetic stoppers: 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) which sounds much worse than it is. TCA is a fungus that grows in cork and it can taint the wine. Wine spoiled because of the presence of TCA in the cork is know as "corked" wine, and is generally not palatable. It is not harmful, it just makes the wine smell and taste bad.

Synthetic stoppers are generally intended for use with wine that will be consumed in less than 5 years. Ultimately, conserving wine for long periods of time is the goal, so synthetics just don't seem to be the best option. Synthetics on the other hand, do not crumble or break.

There are also cultural  reverberations. Cork as part of the wine experience is elegant and traditional. I can't see much point in snorting over a synthetic stopper. Synthetic stoppers will take a large percentage of the fun out of wine snobbery.

It seems that only time will tell which wine stopping method will prevail.

Note: The what kind of cork is best argument seems to be isolated to red wine.

Something else I learned: Wine does not turn to vinegar no matter what corking method is used. (I guess it just smells like it.) Other wine myths.

If a Tree Falls in the Forest...

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.
~Robert Louis Stevenson

A 1500 year old sequoia tree - actually two trees fused at the base - along the Trail of 100 Giants in Sequoia National Park crashed to the ground on September 30. A visiting tourist captured some of the fall on video:


Sequoia trees have relatively shallow roots, and the theory about the fall of the mighty tree is that the ground was soggy after a particularly wet winter. "Sequoias do fall. That's how big sequoias die," said Nathan Stephenson of the U.S. Geological Survey.

The US Forest Service now has to decide what to do with the fallen tree. The debris has been cleared, but the trunk is blocking the popular tourist path. This is not just a felled tree, it is a 1500 year old tree in a protected national park. Some of the options include rerouting the trail, creating a tunnel through the trunks, carving steps and building a bridge over the trunks.For now, the trail has been reopened and people are climbing the fallen giant.

Something else I learned: Sequoia trees can live for 4000 years.