CNN Photos of the week 9/28/2025

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/25/world/gallery/photos-this-week-september-18-september-25

Pausing

This blog will pause after tomorrow for about a week.  That time would be a good one to read some of my 5760 posts or to start your own blog.  "Blog" comes from "web log".  I use Google's facilities for blogging, which is free.  There are many other blogging services, too. I recommend that if you try blogging, you aim to write every day.  It gets easier and more valuable, the longer you do it.

Poor mannered web pages

My wife taught me how to make web pages and I have made quite a few.  The first time, a few years later, that I was reading a web page and damned if an ad didn't pop right up, at the very spot I was trying to read!  I think that is very impolite programming!  That and similar tricks make me angry, not inspired to buy.

My ignorance

When a person reads books much of the time, looks at news on the internet like CNN and Numlock News, it becomes difficult to preserve his own ignorance.  Knowledge, insights persist in sticking in the mind.  Then there is Google and other computer programs, often called "search engines", that search for answers to specific search topics and questions.  I just read that there are about 1500 search engines available somewhere.  I am confident that searching for "AI" is not the same as searching "Search Engines" but that is another tool, and search item that affects the quick answers available by the internet.  

I enjoy the title of the Sam Wineburg book "Why learn history when it is already on your phone"?  I could try to cook up a situation where it is handy or valuable or imperative to know some history and my phone was left at home or I am in a place without a signal.  But I would rather think about modifying Wineburg to "why learn anything when it is already on your phone". 

Several of my friends have developed eye problems but my wife has her phone set to listen to her question and speak answers aloud.

Sixty-Five!

Sixty-Five!  That's not my age.  It is the number of years I have been married to this wife, Dr. Lynn Kirby, PhD.  I gather that some guys are deeply attracted for other reasons but I have been attracted to highly intelligent women.  Maybe it is my mother who got me going in that direction.  Maybe it is my sister.  It may be one of those genes I got from Dad or from Mom.  Whatever, she's got it and I love it!

Of course, it doesn't hurt that she is also gorgeous, stylish, that she is a dancer and a gymnast and articulate, too.

Wow! Maga!

I was surprised when I saw an article that said it could help me empty my mind.   I enjoy dumping my mind every now and then, just cleaning the whole thing out. I read through the article and it said that if I want to empty my mind, I should read a magazine.  I realize that Maga- anything is controversial these days but I feel that human attention is an important force.  Basically, what I put my attention on is what I notice, what I think about, usually what I remember.

According to what I found on the internet while searching "history of the word magazine", our current usage derives from previous use of the word to mean a place for ammunition storage, as a warehouse.

Stay alert for changes

I saw my first 2027 date today.  The bottle of juice is marked with a 2027 "use by" date.  Time is rolling by.  Here in the Northern hemisphere, we have summer for about another hour and then fall begins.

CNN Photos of the week 9/21/25

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/world/gallery/photos-this-week-september-11-september-18?

My book group wants 2 fiction suggestions

I think it would be okay to suggest and use something from early childhood.  I remember "The Pokey Little Puppy" and "Ferdinand, the Bull".

You remember, maybe.  The pokey puppy was often distracted by something curious and Ferdinand was not attracted to fighting.  He preferred smelling the flowers.  We didn't learn much about his interactions with cows.

Now that we are more or less ancient, we may have interesting insights into such characters, their habits and our memories of the stories and the effects on our thinking.

What I actually suggested was "Dona Flores and Her Two Husbands" by Jorge Amado and "The Way of All Flesh" by Samuel Butler.  I had to look at this list of books t.ly/mYBnZ for those two titles for those two to come to mind but I did remember enjoying those novels.

Computers vs. other devices

I am steadily impressed with how much more convenient it is to use my computer than my iPad or smartphone.  I can easily enlarge print, use both hands together, find and copy paragraphs with the computer.  It can be awkward or inconvenient to get to the computer but it is clearly better.

Again?

I came across a book called "On Repeat", meaning setting a CD player or similar device to keep re-playing a piece of music.  I am interested in the contrast between the idea of playing a song again and the habit of some readers to avoid reading a book they have read.  I suspect the difference lies in the time it takes to play a typical musical composition and the time involved in reading a book.  The book "An Experiment in Criticism" by C.S. Lewis asserts there are two kinds of readers, those who re-read a book and those who don't.

When I taught the fun course to education grad teachers, "Personal Reading for Professional Development", most of the students were mature adult teachers with years of experience teaching.  I often encouraged them to find a book they remembered fondly or one that changed their lives and take time to re-read it.  I remember most of them who tried that found the 2nd time was a very good one that reminded them of the earlier experience.  

 

C.S. Lewis was a professor of literature and you can bet that he read and re-read a book many times over.

I have written about my quick test for students.  It was the one where I asked the class to raise their hand if they had read the assignment, usually a chapter in my book, "Testing, Grading and Instructional Format" (t.ly/q1tkV) .  Most students raised their hand.  I would select a student at random and verify: "You read the chapter." "Yes, I did".  "Good.  Now the first words are "not only".  What is the next word?"  The student never knew the next word.  I am confident that students never would pass my stupid test.

A widespread art

When I stroll through Q Gallery, an artists's cooperative on Main Street, I see excellent art.  But I don't see much of the most widespread art. I am confident that in the history of art, there have been some who were reluctant to include along with painting and sculpture, that other art, the use of words.  An art seems characterized by a material of the art, maybe clay or paint.  In the art of words, we tend to use speech and ears or writing materials like paper and pen.

It seems to be THE fundamental human art, the use of language, spoken or written.  Freud and others saw the parts of human life that matter but that are only available through words.  True, you can tell I am interested in you when you catch me looking at you so often but it isn't until I use words to describe my envy of your height or notable repartee, that you realize what aspect of you gets to me.

A biggish deal for right-triangles

I learned from Windows news and interests feature that today is a day for Pythagoreans to note.  Today's date is 9/16/25.  Those three numbers: 9, 16 and 25 are an example of the relation of the legs of a right triangle to its hypotenuse.  You remember: A squared plus B squared = C squared.  So, a right triangle with a 3 inch side and a 4 inch side will have a hypotenuse of 5 inches, just like you learned back then.

Victoria Huston

When we were first married, I was reading a Peter De Vries novel and a portion of it was very funny.  I wanted my wife to share in the pleasure and I wanted to see her reaction to an event in the book.  So, I began reading the book aloud to her.  I enjoyed reading to her and she liked my reading and we have been doing it ever since.

When we are reading, sometimes one of us has had enough of a given book and we need to find something else.  That happened last night, when we decided to stop with "Sharp", a self help book. We could spend quite a bit of time searching for and deciding on something else but if we are open to fiction at the time, we may fall back on Victoria Huston.

We have read 5 or so books of hers and they are reliably satisfying for both of us.  Her Loon Lake series includes 19 books, centered on the same characters we have gotten to know.  The fictional town in northern Wisconsin of Loon Lake has a woman sheriff.  A retired dentist in that town is a good alternative coroner when her unreliable and often unavailable official coroner is elsewhere.

If you are looking for a good book, I recommend Victoria Huston's Loon Lake series. 

CNN Photos of the week 9/14/2025

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/11/world/gallery/photos-this-week-september-04-september-11?

Don't you agree?

It can come as a shock to find out how uncertain and varied the world is.  It's cold outside!  Depends on where we are.  How we are dressed.  How healthy we are.  Which thermometer we look at.  The humidity.  Wind.

That's already six factors that affect how cold it is.  And they are always changing!

"Northern Exposure"

I used to enjoy the tv show "Northern Exposure", about a young physician from New York City, relocated to the small (fictitious) town of Cicely, Alaska.  It is mostly about an intelligent clunkhead who manages to be insulting without trying.  I use typical internet search software such as Duckduckgo and also the app called "Just Watch" to find out if an old show is available.  It is on Amazon. If I am in a hurry or lazy, I could just try Amazon and Netflix and have a pretty good chance of seeing what I am after. I grew up in several spots in Baltimore and have now lived more than 50 years in a much smaller city, further north.

She was not pleased with Roman emperor Constantine

We were driving along listening to a Great Courses tape.  The lecturer said the Council of Nicea was having difficulties with its version of the properties of God.  Constantine was chairing the group and grew tired of the doctrinal split.  As emperor, he ruled for the doctrine of the Trinity. She felt he didn't really know the properties of God and was not suited to rule on what she had to later learn in Lutheran school.

Control-Alt-Delete

I got a Windows update last night. This morning, I got one of those severe warnings along with a handy phone number to call for help in dealing with a virus invasion.  Lynn got one several years ago.  She called the number in the message and we became convinced later that following the helpful advice was what gave baddies access to install trouble.  I think the bill later was $200 to remove the troublesome insertion that helpful sweetie had inserted while "helping" her deal with the problem.  

A more recent difficulty had me carry my laptop to genuine Help.  The young woman who came up to assist lifted the machine, hit a few keys and handed it back.  It was clear that she knew a sequence of keys to use and I asked her what it was.   She told me but I quickly forgot it.  When things went sour today, I searched.  At first, I didn't get anything that helped but with a few adjustments to my search terms, I read to try "Control-Alt-Delete" and that helped a big bunch.  

I don't have the personality to do that sort of work steadily but I am glad I succeeded.  Took maybe a half hour.

Highlights I chose from David Hand's "The Improbability Principle"

https://sites.google.com/view/kirbyvariety1/improbability-principle-by-david-hand

This book by a British mathematician is a collection of events that are highly improbable and yet happened.   If you are interested in surprising things that had very low chance of happening and yet did, order it or borrow it from a library.  The link goes to a web page of citations and comments I made while reading the book.

Here is a link to the book at Amazon.  It is available in paper and ebook.  A 2nd-hand copy can be bought for $1.64.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=improbability+principle&i=stripbooks&crid=L36NNT1JC231

Broadcast and streaming

My search says that the first newspapers were published in 1605 in Germany.  Of course, you wouldn't make a newspaper unless you had a sizeable audience of people who could read.  Radio came along in 300 years.  Here's some artificial intelligence statements about talk coming through the air:

1. The first radio broadcast occurred on December 24, 1906.

2. It was conducted by Reginald Fessenden in Massachusetts.

3. The broadcast included a program of music and readings.

4. It was transmitted to ships at sea, marking a significant milestone.

5. This event is often considered the birth of radio as a medium for mass communication.

We could ask what is mass communication but you know that.  Since early "mass" communication depended on being able to read, who had the first public school?  Artificial intelligence reports the first public school anywhere was opened in Scotland in 1567. 

Creating public schools meant more citizens who could read, not a skill formerly available to many.  Much like times and places with computers, reading and writing in any language was a special skill that a person would not bother with, somewhat like being welder or a cardiologist now.

Much of my life as been affected by being able to read and enjoying reading.  I got my first library borrowing card when I could print my name.   About a quarter century later, I was able to step inside the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland and I first saw this famous scene:

I reacted with both awe and admiration.  THIS is how a library should look!

Once I grasped that streaming would allow many choices, and repetitions if desired, I realized I definitely wanted to be part of streaming items I chose.

Calling at the agreed time

If I agree to call a friend at 9 tomorrow morning, how will I know what time to call?  That's easy: look at the clock and call when it's time.  But it takes a bit of time to go to the phone.  It takes a further bit to dial.  It takes a further further bit for the call to go through.  So, allow for the use of a little lead time in which to place the call.  How much lead time?

This sort of worry-warting is exactly what I read about in Edward Boring's "History of Experimental Psychology".  Evidently these minute differences in estimating, reading and recording times showed themselves to be important in astronomy.  When we are dealing with astronomical events, it can be important to record events very accurately.  But my colleagues on other continents will see events at different times.  Besides, their timepieces may not be set as accurately as mine.  Or, they may be more accurate.

In the age of broadcast media, where there was no system of choice, the broadcast of an important event was available at a given time and not otherwise.  Many people wanted to tune in at the agreed -on time and not miss any of the broadcast.  We are in a transition period when you may be able to catch a recording of the program if you have the right equipment.

Improved control over ourselves

My daily blog is called "Fear, Fun and Filoz".  It has a search function, which is launched by inserting a word or two in the search window at the top of the page.  I have over 5700 posts and I have mentioned many topics that have been the subject of my thinking.  

A friend showed interest in the book "Incognito" and in looking at a Kindle reader copy.  That book by Dave Eagleman really got to me in showing me that all humans, just like me, have all sorts of intelligences in them that the person cannot tap into consciously but that influences a person's behavior.  It is like we have secret brains that guide us and inspire us without our conscious access to them.  I guess for most people the knowledge that we are attracted to this person but less so to that person is an example they can buy into.

I am aware of how demonstrative and convincing that book has been but there have been other sources of importance in this area, too. My blog post of 12/9/2021, called "Watch Her" mentions several other books and talks that have had strong value.  The psychology professor, Lisa Feldman Barrett has some books and TED talks that are very helpful, too.  If you have not tried TED talks, they can be excellent.  Dr. Barrett emphasized that we can learn to exercise much control over our moods and emotions.  That knowledge can assist us in seeing how we feel and modifying those feelings if we want to.

Improved control over ourselves

Ballet of Elderhood

Lynn likes to check her balance and stretching and such.  She struck a pose and tried to lift a leg  but cried out "Cramp!" That was the inspiration for the ballet we are composing, one that celebrates Elderhood.  Don't expect many amazing leaps and bounds.  And yes, Cramps! may make an appearance.

Pen and paper

It could be pencil and paper but pens and ink tend to last longer.  Now is the time that students are getting notebooks and writing instruments to use in their school classes. But without classes, I tend to get some words "down" every day.  There was a time when "word processor" was new and interesting.  For a guy who discovered in 8th grade typing class that speed in striking the letter keys didn't matter if the RIGHT keys were not struck, computer word processing was wonderful for leaving no trace when corrections were made.  Google "Docs" has a fine correction mode that often finds errors.  It is also pretty good at tolerating some weird writing or spelling that I WANT to do. For people with difficulty remembering, a written note can make a big difference.

I just read that written composition is often outpaced by dictation, which is often 7 times faster at getting desired words down.  There are many tools these days that produce writing from speech.  But composing blog pages or emails is not something I am comfortable doing too quickly.  

I am very grateful that things have moved to the point that I can get a notebook and pen at a price I can afford and use them often.

Scissors

It seems more and more that the main kitchen tool is scissors.  Ok, maybe the microwave is used for even more meals.  Still, just about everything comes in a bag.  The bag often says "Tear here" but trying to tear there doesn't work.  Very often, I need to track down a pair of scissors to cut off the top of the bag for the cookies, or vegetable or whatever.  Correct, I don't want my lettuce or crackers to be stamped with an ink barcode.  A nice easy-to-use bar code on a bag is neater and less poisonous.  

Kirby and the Kalevala

I planned to write about the surprise I got, following up on learning about my wife's ancestry.  But I checked and posts already in the blog make clear what I wanted to write about.  The main point was the psychic significance to me of finding that she has a bit of nearly all major groups of humans.  Not all but nearly so.  In my first college class, the professor paused calling the roll and asked my-to-be wife if her last name was Finnish.  She said it was.  I had not met anyone of Finnish descent and I was interested.  A few years later, we were married and something again got me interested in Finland and its culture and history.  

I had heard of the Finnish epic poem, Kalevala, and that it had influenced American writers.  I thought our college library might have that work translated into English.  You can imagine my strong reaction, lasting until now, upon finding that one translation was made by a man named William Kirby!  Well before I was born but still a gripping coincidence!

Blog posts that mention C.S. Lewis

t.ly/HCaKG

C.S. Lewis was a well-known supporter of Christianity.  He was a professor of literature at Oxford and Cambridge.  Now I consider him a little too strident and rigid but was one of my very favorites in high school and early college.  

I wanted to see if a link made with the Firefox browser would lead to a selection.  It does.  This link goes to a selection of my 5700 blog posts that mention Lewis.  

I have two paths to this blog.  One is emailing a post to individual addresses and the other is reading a post from the blog page on the internet.