The 'Bary

Cough Cough Sneeze Sneeze

2009-05-03T15:50:00.003-04:00

Miss Susan has been using this song for years and it works!
For a healthier world, teach it to your kids, your grandchildren, your friends children.

Cough Cough
Sneeze Sneeze
Cover your mouth
Please Please
Let's be careful
How we cough
Let's be careful
How we sneeze
Catch those germs
Right i-in your sleeve
Ah Ah Ah Choo!

Credits:
Susan Plimpton - Writer Songsinger
Fr. Richard Tardiff - Guitar
Filmed on location at the Southwest Harbor Public Library
http://www.swhplibrary.org/
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

nor'-wester, n.

2008-06-30T07:07:00.003-04:00

1. A waterproof hat worn by sailors; a sou'-wester. Also...

OED Online Word of the Day
31 June 2008

The New Yorker as a Commodity

2008-06-01T18:28:00.006-04:00

Between the articles published at the New Yorker's web site, the full text archive in Marvel!, recent copies in the free box at the library and copies on top of the Maine Pack at the transfer station, the New Yorker has become a commodity available at close to zero incremental cost.

Stanford 0, Oxford 1

2008-05-02T10:02:00.003-04:00

Via this list which I got from here, I listened to most of Dr. S. D. Lee's lectures on Old English from Oxford. They are wonderful! Dry? Not a chance. He obviously loves his topic, he's witty and funny and and the students obviously enjoy him and he provides lots of context both to the time and to the present. My notes are here.

Encouraged by that experience, I started listening to Ben Franklin and the World of Enlightenment from Stanford's iTunes site. They don't make it easy to found out detail of the course (and so I haven't) like who the lecturer is. Maybe it's just as well, because he's not very good, especially following Dr. Lee. The Stanford leacturer says "um" a lot, tell jokes that aren't very funny, has a lot of filler in addition to the um's and is sloppy with his facts and citations. Maybe he nervous knowing he's being recorded. I think the material is fundamentally interesting but it remains to be seen if I'll stick it out to the second lecture. Beyond that, I don't like the Stanford on iTunes site. It's very closed and proprietary, and does little more than send me to the main iTunes store.

Catalog Cards 1

2008-04-04T19:05:00.003-04:00

Catalog Cards 2

2008-04-04T19:00:00.000-04:00

Calalog Cards 3

2008-04-04T18:55:00.003-04:00

I scanned these card full size (7 1/2 X 3 1/2) to a PDF and then used youconvertit.com to convert the PDF to a zip file of JPGs.

I've been painted!

2008-04-04T12:17:00.004-04:00

I took the photograph on the top last summer when Susan indulged my long standing habit of walking across bridges.

April Trial: Search ALL of MARVEL! at Once

2008-03-31T08:43:00.003-04:00

Try it here.

My quick test drive ("Kate Douglas Wiggin", all databases) was favorable, but by today's standards I wouldn't call it an "intuitive interface."

Complaints:

It doesn't give me a URL to repeat my search.
When I click View on the ValueLine result I'm told, "This subscription is not included in your account."
When I click on a result it doesn't do what a normal link does, that is, give me a new browser window configured the way I like it (and the way I expect it.) Rather it give me a new browser window that it configures. And I don't like it.

Nine Low Bandwidth Sites Useful for Dialup, PDAs & Cell Phones

2008-03-27T14:28:00.013-04:00

There are lots of sites around aimed at mobile devices - cell phones, pdas, etc. - that could be helpful for someone cursed with a dialup connection to the web. Mind you, my experience with these sites is using my Palm T|X for which they are very useful. I've been fortunate in not having had to use dialup in a long time.

Here are a few low-bandwidth sites that I've found useful:

Google Mobile: I use this a lot.
The Weather Channel: This is set up for a 36 hour forecast in Southwest Harbor, but it's easy to change.
Google News: Most of the links in this version of Google News go to low-bandwidth-friendly sites.
Bar Harbor Weather from Jackson Lab: This site works well not because it was designed for mobile devices, but because it was designed a long time ago - it was last updated in 2004. Thanks again to Gregg TeHennepe. Even though it's fast, it includes lots of information: tides, marine weather, animated radar loops, and links to many more weather resources.
Gmail Mobile: If you have a gmail account, this is where to get a very low bandwidth look at your inbox and send emails.
Gmail's basic HTML version: This isn't a spare as the Gmail's mobile version, but you might prefer it with a large screen computer and dialup. Either way, my recommendation: if you don't have Gmail, get it!
Amazon Anywhere: I don't use this much myself, but it is definitely fast.
Google: Enter a URL:: I don't use this much anymore, because there are so many sites these days that cater to mobile devices, but this might come in handy: enter the URL of a page that takes a long time to load and Google will try to make it suitable for use on your slow, small screen device. For example here's The 'Bary using the service.
del.icio.us/html/mshook/pdafriendly: Finally, here are one hundred sites that I've found to be of interest of the years which I decided were also low-bandwitdth-friendly. Have a look. You might find something interesting.

I welcome additional suggestions. Leave them in the comments.

URLs for Specialized Minerva Searches

2008-02-15T09:52:00.002-05:00

I've long use this url:
http://ursus2.ursus.maine.edu/search/i
to find books in Minerva using an ISBN.

It got me to wondering, what about the other 26 letters of the alphabet?

Here's the answer.

Bruce Feiler on Word for Word

2007-12-11T07:42:00.000-05:00

Bruce Feiler gives a fantastic historically and scripturally-based (from all three traditions) presentation on the Abrahamic tradition. It give motivation for action and hope.
Bruce talks fast. That allows him to say more really good stuff in the allotted time. You can download or listen to the presentation here. (Click on the little blue arrow icon to listen without downloading.)

SWHPL has two of his books - Abraham : a journey to the heart of three faiths and Walking the Bible : a journey by land through the five books of Moses - and a cassette audio book of the Walking the Bible. If those are out, Minerva has many more.

This fits in well with the topic of the Camden Conference which takes place February 22-24, 2008. These books aren't on the reading list, but they might as well be.

Opera Mini Broswer Notes

2007-11-20T14:42:00.000-05:00

There's a new release of the Opera Mini browser for devices with small screens: mobile phone, pdas and portable games. I've installed it on my Palm and have written up some notes, mainly comparing it with the Palm's native Blazer browser.

The notes are here.

Why do I mention it?

"mobile devices outsell personal computers worldwide by a margin of 20-to-1." (Related in my mind - from a year ago, "The mobile phone has now surpassed bicycles as the number one selling consumer device in India. That's unbelievable in a country where 80% of the 1.1 billion population survives on less than $2 a day and 70% live in villages.")

In a very few years, more people will access the internet with these small screen devices than will access it using a laptop or desktop personal computer.

Are we prepared for that?

Sambingo....

2007-11-16T23:26:00.000-05:00

...has a blog!

Camp Phoenix book available

2007-10-16T15:38:00.000-04:00

Camp Phoenix : the history of a Maine sporting camp : T5 R10 Piscataquis County, Maine Nesowadnehunk Lake / Bill Horner, MD.

Now available at the library for sale (to benefit SWHPL) and to check out.

Moke

2007-08-07T14:34:00.000-04:00

I like minimal things. They often elucidate the structure and operation of more complicated things. We've got one such minimal object in these parts: a Mini Moke.

I'm also interested in the history of of technology. So far as I know, the Mini on which the Moke is based invented the transverse engine, front wheel drive configuration which so dominates the automotive world today.

In addition, the Moke's fabricated metal side pontoon tub structure anticipates by a few years the structure of the Lotus 25. And to my mind, the front of the Lotus 25 inspires the original Mazda Miata.

GoGetIt Test

2007-07-19T10:09:00.000-04:00

Federated search comes to Maine. Give it a try:

In the current release, GoGetIt! indexes records from the following databases: URSUS, MARVEL!, Mariner Indexes and Databases, Windows on Maine, Maine Music Box, Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), the title list of electronic journals at the University of Maine, and a subset of PubMed and the Directory of Open Access Journals.

Quietside Festival Parade

2007-07-14T13:52:00.000-04:00

Photos by Amy Vicaire

Send me a few if you've got some you like: mshook [at] gmail [dot] com

Inspired by the Steamer Mount Desert

2007-07-11T10:40:00.000-04:00

The north wall of the outer lobby of the Southwest Harbor post office is covered with a mural sized photograph of the sidewheel steamer Mount Desert leaving the harbor. There's also a model of the Mount Desert in the reading room at the library. Apparent in both of these is the walking beam of the single cylinder steam engine that powers the vessel.

As I've been researching the Mount Desert I'm reminded how easily an environmental image like the photograph in the post office can sink into the background of our consciousness. Several people I've asked about it have had to go take a look at it to remind themselves what it is I'm asking about.

I'm no different. I frequently don't see it when I'm getting my mail. But often when I look at it, I try to imagine what it must have been like to see that huge engine in operation. It must have been a mightily impressive sight and sensory experience.

So what was it like?

I've not found the particulars of the Mount Desert but I did find the specs (and photographs and first person accounts) of the sidewheeler J. T. Morse, built in 1903, which also plied these waters:

214' overall
199' waterline
31' beam
50' overguards
12'1" depth
780 gross tons
410 net tons
600 I.H.P. single beam engine

Hmm. 600HP. That's more than any car your likely to find on the street, but somewhere between the Hinckley Picnic Boat (435HP) and the Hinckley T44 (960 HP total). No further particulars there about the engine though. But the Great Lakes steamer Owana is similar and here are her specs:

Length � 200.6'.
Beam (at the hull) � 32'
Depth � 20' ... She was
powered with a low pressure beam engine,
48" cylinder by
108" stroke;
750 hp,
65 p.s.i. steam, and turned her paddle at
35 rpm

A piston four feet in diameter making a nine foot return trip every two seconds!

Alas, so far as I can tell, there are no surviving sidewheel steamers driven by walking beam engines. How close can we come to recreating that experience?

In the photographs we can only see the tops of the engines. Fortunately the Mariners' Museum in Newport News has a model.

What about full sized sidewheelers with other types of steam engines? If we're willing to travel, we're in luck. The Waverly is "the last sea-going paddle steamer in the world." In service in Scotland, she's bigger then our steamers: 240 feet long - 57 ft 3 in maximum breadth. And we can see her triple expansion engine in operation at 44 rpm.

There are a slew of excurion steamers on Swiss lakes. The Montreux represents the hopes and dreams of steam nuts everywhere: Built in 1904, she was converted to Diesel power and continued service in 1961. In 2001 she reentered service with a two cylinder diagonal engine newly designed and manufactured by DLM AG. The engine would not be out of place in an operating room.

10/18/07 Update: I've gathered some additional information about American marine walking beam engines here.

EB White Model T Mystery Book

2007-04-23T16:51:00.000-04:00

Inspired by David Weitzman's wonderful Model T: How Henry Ford Built a Legend, I've been riffing on the Tin Lizzie. I like it because it's minimal, simple and archetypal. There are some wonderful resources: videos, parts catalogs (I could almost build one from scratch), photos , wonderful online books and and plain old paper books.

Somewhere in my surfing I came across a reference to EB White's book Farewell to Model T and From Sea to Shining Sea. I'm surprised and shocked to find that it is not in the collection of any Minerva or MaineCat library.. The Blue Hill library isn't on either of those systems. I felt certain they would have a copy. But no. The only library copies I found online are in England!

I wonder if they have it at the Friend's Memorial Library in Brooklin. Their catalog is not online and they're not open today.

Apparently the book is a republication of two White essays. I found the first in the May 16, 1936 issue of the New Yorker. The second essay is from 1953, but I've not found it.

I also found a 1936 book version of the first essay at the Owls Head Transportation Museum, but they're not letting it go.

Why doesn't any Maine library have a copy of this book?

(Photos courtesy of Flickr photographers. Click on them to see who)

Dawkins' divorce and daughter

2007-03-27T12:17:00.000-04:00

I've just come across a bit of evidence which may help explain why Richard Dawkins so often leaves scientific method behind when he attacks religion:

Now Dawkins does a wonderful analysis in his book The Selfish Gene, and again in later papers in more detail, of Roman Catholicism. As I'm sure you know he's pretty vehement about Roman Catholicism, largely because his daughter, when he split up from his wife was educated against his will in a Catholic nunnery and it must have been pretty painful for him to see this process happening. So he spells out what happens in Roman Catholicism.

This is from a presentation that Susan Blackmore gave at Pop!Tech in Camden in 2005.

A little more evidence:

He married Marian Stamp in 1967, but they divorced in 1984. Later that year, Dawkins married Eve Barham – with whom he had a daughter, Juliet Emma Dawkins in 1984 – but they, too, subsequently divorced. He married actress Lalla Ward in 1992.

This is from Wikipedia (detailed references for both quotes are here) and should be considered, like everything, in context.

I suggest this piece by Scott Atran as an antidote.

Where we've been...

2007-03-27T12:08:00.000-04:00

You may notice a gap of almost a year between my 11 May 2006 post and my recent 18 March 2007 post. This is where I've been.

Vigil Photos

2007-03-18T23:35:00.000-04:00

www.flickr.com

The Wisdom of Father Brown

2006-05-11T18:30:00.000-04:00

I've been listening to and enjoying The Wisdom of Farther Brown by G. K. Chesterton.

Althought called chapters, the sections are actually independent short stories.
I've found that I'm listening to each story twice, the second time to see how all the pieces fit together. It's a luxary that regular mystery novels don't afford.
As mysteries, each has the drive to find out who done it.
Each is a gem of an orthodox Christian morality play or sermon.

Support the Markey Network Neutrality Amendment

2006-04-30T17:35:00.000-04:00

Find out more here.

One reason why.