Today I learned...

They were living pretty much in a dump at the time and it allowed him and his wife to move into a better place. I knew the details better shortly after I read On Writing, but it's been a while. Maybe it was 40,000?

Oh, I didn't see you there Moose. Yeah, I almost wanted to say that, but it seemed ridiculous.

 

I think it's funny how they refer to him as "Stephen E. King", but the subtitle for the photo reads "Steve King", which is not his real name.

Also, if you don't know who they're talking about, the photo makes him look (at least for a second) like a serial killer.

 

I found out today that Coco Chanel was a German informant and "horizontal collaborator" during World War II.

 

In about a month, I'll be performing Carl Orff's Carmina Burana -- and almost everybody knows some of it, even if they don't know it. I'm sure you all know this bit.



But I'm saying that because I found out today that, when Carmina debuted in 1937, the Nazis were obviously in charge of Germany ... and wanted to censor some of the pieces. Why? Well ... Carmina Burana is a collection of medieval poems set to music, some dating as early as the 11th century, and some of them are somewhat ... racy. All about springtime, and what people get up to in springtime ... after dark. And there's a poem about what people get up to in the pub -- drinking, and puking, and gambling, and losing their shirts, and all that sort of thing.

The Nazis didn't like any of that one bit, no-siree-bob. They said, "No ordinary people having fun vhile VE are in charge!!!"

But Orff gave them a big raspberry and refused to cut anything. So, the Nazis backed off, but kept tabs on Orff throughout the war -- presumably to make sure he wasn't making "degenerate art" etc. (as the Nazis called it).

After the war, the Allies tried to see if good old Carl was a "person of interest". But although Carl made money off the Nazis, he was never a Nazi himself, or even a member of the Nazi party. So, the Allies left him alone to make music.

And that, in a nutshell, is the story of Carl Orff, probably one of the many Germans who was investigated by both the Nazis and the Allies for trying to make an honest Deutschmark.

 

Today I learned from Donald Trump that the derivative of ln(x) = 1/x

35-second video of him teaching math to Biden:

https://packaged-media.redd.it/c44706xcodvc1/pb/m2-res_640p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1713567600&s=081faede035e2eaa6275f25cb642a2ad8cc456c6#t=0

 

Obviously this is faked. Neither of them is good enough at advanced mathematics for this. But although it's a fake, it's nicely done.

It reminds me of Tom Lehrer's "The Derivative Song". (See below, about 1:40). The rest is also gold.



And speaking of which ... "The Elements Song" is still amazing, but Tom takes it at breakneck speed here. Phenomenal!

 

Today I learned about the Leopards Eating Faces Party. It began with a tweet from 2015 (below), and has grown to refer to:

It’s even spawned the subreddit /r/LeopardsAteMyFace

 

Hah! Everyone in the world needs to know about this and we all have been chosen to spread the word!

 

Today, I learned that administrators in a primary school in the UK have nothing better to do than measure the length of the girls' skirts. (Can I say "F***ing perverts" on this forum???)


The story from NDTV

 

Today I learned that HelloFresh is a machine-learning-enhanced meal-kit company. There’s something unsettling about an AI telling me what I want to eat.

HelloFresh has been making use of AI for some time already

 

I taught at a Catholic high school for years. The uniform included the option of girls wearing kilts. In the last year, the school board has announced they are phasing out the kilts. Grey pants for everyone.

 

Today, I learned that researchers at Groningen University are teaching computers to spot sarcasm.

Wow! A sarcasm detector, just for widdle ol' me?!

 

Today I learned that a gross refers to a group of 144 items (a dozen dozen, or a dozen squared).

 

In the middle of the night, my cat jumped down from her windowsill bed and onto my leg, claws out to stick the landing, of course. Today I learned that if someone stabs me while I am in a deep sleep, I will for sure wake up instantly.

 

Are you sure the cat didn't have more sinister motives? Maybe it was trying to determine how deep a sleeper you are, for purposes of later attempts on your life.

 

Yep. From wikipedia: "The term can be abbreviated gr. or gro., and dates from the early 15th century. It derives from the Old French grosse douzaine, meaning "large dozen”."

 

Today I learned that in July, 1952, the very last electric tram in London was decomissioned and replaced with diesel buses. (Progress?)

But the ordinary folks of London loved the trams so much, because it allowed them to travel where-ever they wanted for the flat fee of sixpence, that they turned out to cheer the last tram at midnight. Here is a picture, and some videos.



(Image description
Goodbye, old tram. The city of London has definitively dismissed everyone's carriage now supplanted by buses. Load up to the impossible with passengers who have broken every regulation and raided everything that could constitute a memory - labels, tags, hooks, handles, ticket holders etc. - the last car of the last line she made her last trip, garled with flowers and greeted by thousands of people with shouts and songs. Illustration for Courier Sunday, 20 July 1952.
Photo credit
© Look and Learn / Bridgeman Images)

 

Today I learned that a YouGov survey that asked, "What would you like to do most for a living?" found that the most desired job is author - we're all storytellers at heart.

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/11565-bookish-britain-academic-jobs-are-most-desired

 

Singing or playing an instrument? This is one of my favorite chorale pieces. My husband and I were in a choir that performed this piece at the Grand Teton Music Festival back in the eighties. He's also played French horn at other performances.

 

It's also worth noting that academic jobs (author, librarian, academic) are more desirable to people of a middle-class background than to those of a working-class background. I couldn't say exactly why -- how would I know? -- but perhaps, in general, people in a middle-class background are more secure financially, and have more time to dream of upward mobility. Maybe? *blush* I may be wrong! There's probably more to it than that. But I did say "perhaps" and "in general".

Also, in terms of the gender gap:

I think these "men" and "women" might be dreaming again (or possibly YouGov mean "boys" and "girls"?) This sounds like what children say when adults ask them "What do you want to do when you grow up?"

I know I wanted to be an author when I finished school, and was about to go to university. My parents told me to study business and computer subjects instead. I wasn't interested in first, but soon knuckled under, worked hard, and graduated with a "credit" (or roughly 70-75%) average ... which isn't bad, considering that in the first semester, I failed three out of four subjects. (Oops). What can I say? I was young and stupid, and thought everything was easy, like many other 18-year-olds. *blush* I soon learned better, and worked hard to fix my grades.

I had some (i.e. lots of) free time during my university years, and filled it by playing sport and writing stories and poetry. Of course, I've learned a lot and advanced in the craft since then. By my standards these days, those early efforts are kind of embarrassing.

Singing with the RMP (Royal Melbourne Philharmonic) choir. Very exacting (but professional!) chorus-master. I've learned so much, and developed my vocal abilities a lot, since joining the RMP ... *thinks* ... about 8 years ago.

Before that, it was a local choir for about 7 years. I spent that basically learning the basics: reading music, sticking to my clef despite what was going on around me, plucking up the courage to sing a solo bit. A busy, but relative unrewarding, time. I call it my "galley-slave years".

 

That's pretty cool! I looked it up and discovered it is the oldest performing choir in Australia.

One learns a lot singing in choirs, and it opens doors to amazing places. My husband traveled with a choir to Poland and to Russia shortly after that country opened for tourism in the late 1970s. Some years ago, our local chorale sang Carmina in Carnegie Hall. Nope, I wasn't along on that trip, but I did get to sing Verdi's Requiem with Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México. We even got paid for that last gig. Not much, but we did get paid.

My husband retired from both the symphony and symphonic choirs, but is still directing and singing with the barbershop chorus at 75. His voice has held up much better than mine. First I lost my high D, then I lost my high C, and then I lost my patience and said the hell with it when I was in my mid-fifties.

May you have many happy years of singing ahead of you.

 

Thanks! I already have something like 19 years behind me.

That is cool, and even cooler that you got paid. *thumbs up*

The RMP is doing a quick tour of New Zealand next week. I'd have loved to go, but I can't get the time off work. Oh well.

LOL! I love that.

I'm a baritone-bass, and I only recently (in the past year or so) gained my low C and my low B-flat. Why? Because no-one ever asked me to sing that low. I was pretty happy with that, until I saw Oktavists (super-low basses) on YouTube singing a D-flat ... which is freaky, and made me a bit jealous. The rumble's so low, it shakes the floorboards.
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Anyway, what did I learn today?

Harry Pointer, who lived in England from 1822 to 1889, probably took the first cat pictures that we can positively date and identify. He took his pictures in the 1870s.

There are older photos, sure, but we don't know exactly how old, or who took them, because the people who took them didn't date them or write who they were. Why? Because they didn't realise they were making history. They just experimented with their cameras.

On the other hand, we know a few things about Harry. First, he was an army sergeant, and more than that - a member of the Life Guards that protected Queen Victoria. He also taught physical education and military discipline in schools, before finally retiring and taking photographs.

So it's funny to imagine this big, burly, shouty bloke yelling discipline at school children, and then whispering sweet nothings to cats so they would sit still for the camera. His pictures became incredibly popular. He also took some beautiful pictures, and more than that -- he added little funny captions. So, you might say he invented the very first LOL Cats.

Sadly, in the late 1880s, his wife passed away, and Harry was so overcome with grief that he died a few months later. But while he lived, he brought joy to a lot of people and took care of a lot of cats. So, good on him.

Feel free to click the link above and see his pictures. They are adorable.

 

Lovely! Thanks for sharing.

 

I think it's very simple.

Here's a cat.
Here's a bowl.
Here's a camera.
Have some fun.

Whee!