mortiz080

In 1782 ....   ... the new United States was negotiating for a treaty with Great Britain. But things were moving a bit too slowly for Benjamin Franklin, who took up the fake news  strategy writing an entirely made-up, fake letter.  The letter, (purportedly from Capt. Samuel Gerrish) was printed in such a way as to look like a regular newspaper supplement. Even though he was in France at the time, being a printer, Franklin could get easy access to a print shop, so making it look "real" was simple for him.  Few other people at the time could do this.    By April 22, Franklin had made up this fake news story, purportedly published as a supplement to a Boston newspaper. Not since he and Lafayette had drawn up a “List of British Cruelties” in 1779 had he written in such detail about the cruelties that were committed by the British and their allies.  He wrote John Adams, “it might make them a little asham’d of themselves.” He was explicitly looking to i...

This is tricky.   This week we've been investigating the connection between the weather changing and aches/pains in the body.   Is it a real thing when your aged parent complains about the changes in the weather?   I've often wondered this, and in doing a bit of searching I found that it's not as simple as you might think.  Reminder: Here's was the Challenge for the week--can you find evidence for these?   1.  Can changes in the weather cause real joint pain?  2.  Can changes in weather cause  other  kinds of pain in the body?  3.  If so, what's the mechanism that causes the pain?  (How can this possibly be?)  Fair warning up front:  I thought this was going to be a simple Challenge.  I didn't know it would turn out this way!!  Let's start with a few obvious queries:       [ "joint pain" weather ]       [ "joint pain" AROUND(5) weather ]  Looking at the SERPS...

Myths and folk tales sometimes...   ... have their origin in reality.  This week we take up one of the most persistent of all folk stories--the connection between weather changing and aches/pains in the body.   You've probably heard this before from your aging Aunt Matilda or antique Uncle Roy,   "When it's going to rain, my knee / hip / ankle starts to hurt.  It's the rheumatism..."   Is this a real thing?  Or is it a story handed down through the ages?  I've often wondered this, and in doing a bit of searching I found that it's not as simple as you might thing.  So... Here's the Challenge for the week.   1.  Can changes in the weather cause real joint pain?  2.  Can changes in weather cause other  kinds of pain in the body?  3.  If so, what's the mechanism that causes the pain?  (How can this possibly be?)  I know it's simple to do a quick search and find an answer--but I'm hoping you'll do more...

Masses of animals fascinate...  Birds, bugs, mammals--when they all get together in vast quantities, they amaze us.    This week we want to search out two particular kinds of swarming animals to get a sense for how many of them move  en masse  together, and how they're doing these days.   As I mentioned, I've seen fairly large numbers of ladybugs gathering on stone walls in Yosemite:     Now imagine this same kind of ladybug swarm extending for another 20 meters down a long, low, granite stone wall...   1. What's the largest ladybug grouping together that you can find?   (Or a swarm, or a  loveliness  of ladybugs, although that mass noun is disputed.... but it's such a great term!)    Even though "loveliness" is a great term, the fact that it's disputed suggests that it's probably NOT a great search term.  In this case, let's start with the simplest possible query:       [ largest la...

A large number of any living creatures moving together is always a sight to behold...  It could be the vast rivers of wildebeests that annually migrate in Africa, or millions of passenger pigeons that once darkened the skies of North America, or the monarch butterflies that travel in gigantic swarms from the US to southern Mexico in the fall, but in all cases, the earth moves and we're amazed.   This week we want to search out two particular kinds of swarming animals to get a sense for how many of them move en masse  together, and how they're doing these days.   When I was walking through Yosemite Valley in the fall, I spotted a huge  number of ladybugs clustered together on a rock wall.  I estimated there were at least 1 million bugs packed cheek-by-jowl (or antennae to elytra , in the case of the bugs) along that 50 meters of wall.   1. What's the largest ladybug grouping together that you can find?  (Or a swarm, or a  loveliness  of l...

Travel is an endless source of SearchResearch...  While in DC I found this fountain that seemed so out-of-place and unlike other fountains that I had to wonder what the backstory was.   As you can see below (look at the very plain fountain two pictures down), it reminded me of another fountain in Petaluma, California.  What's the thread that links these two distantly separated (and stylistically separated) water fountains?  Can you figure it out?   1.  What  kind  of fountain is this one shown above?   (Yes, I know it's a water fountain... but there's much more to the story than that.)  This kind of fountain has a specific name...  It's not hard to figure how where this fountain is.  You could look at the EXIF metadata ( see my earlier post on how to examine EXIF metadata ) and find that it's at 38.893889, -77.021283, which puts it solidly in the center of Washington DC.  Note that the GPS red pin in the above map isn...