Thirty Days Out from Winter Solstice

      January 21 signals that the winter solstice was 30 days ago. The winter solstice meant that it was dark and dreary with short days. We could satisfy ourselves by saying that from Dec 21 on the days will lengthen and we can look forward to spring.

     So I have a little comparison of Dec. 21 and Jan 21.


    Date            sunrise         sunset       hours of daylight

      Dec. 21              8:43                    4:23                       7:39

     Jan 21                  8:32                    4:59                       8:27

      
     So the sun rises 11 minutes earlier...not much is it?

    The sunsets 36 minutes later...nice gain.

    We get 47 minutes more sun than 30 days ago. 

     Not bad eh?  From now on the days start to lengthen at a faster rate and we start to notice the difference.

     How has your winter been going when it comes to hours of sunlight?

   

Never Let Old Guys on Computers

    When you read my sad story, you will understand why I say, "Never let old guys on computers."

     For some time I have been thinking about scanning photos.I want my children to have all my photos. After all, many of the photos are about the kids.

    First I had to sort out a few issues about equipment. Once I had that under control it was time to discover how everything would work.

   My plan was to scan the photos and send them. So first, I planned to use windows photo gallery. I wanted explanations on each photo. I worked and got info on the photo. Then I decided I better test this and emailed a photo to myself. Well, the info didn't go with the photo.

    Well, plan B, why not use Picasa? I hadn't used Picasa for 5 or 6 years. I couldn't find the Top line that gives you all the options. I thought I must be missing something so messed around for a few hours before deciding that part of the picasa program had gone missing.

     Okay. Download Picasa again. The download went smoothly. After that things went off the rails. I signed out of Picasa. When I went back I couldn't find Picasa 3. Worse than that the old Picasa came up. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't find Picasa 3. Then I made a blunder and uninstalled Picasa 3. By that time I'd had enough and went to bed.

    Thinking things over in the night, I thought I would go to my trusty son for advice

    When I opened my computer in the morning, I saw the Picasa 3 short cut on the desk top. 

    Ooh! That's where it was. Why didn't I see that? 

    So plan AA by now, download Picasa again. Fine. Okay, maybe I should test this out. I'll email a sample to myself. I wanted to use Hot mail. I was asked some questions I'd never heard of before. They wanted to know information about my email server. I was stumped so it was a good time to stop for lunch. During lunch the light bulb came on. Picasa wants you to use Gmail. So check this out after lunch and it works like magic. 

    So after days of stress and much swearing I finally have a system that works. I mailed my baby photo to my daughter. She thought I was really cute and then she said, "I still think you're cute!"

    Now any of you who have read this post to this point, have probably been saying,  "Why didn't he do this or that?" I hope that you include these asides in your comments. I might not be able to use your suggestions , but I will learn from them. It might also be that and old man stays on his computer!

     It's funny how when we do new things on the computer we learn much more than were looking for.

My graduation class 1957. I'm in the back row on the right... the really handsome one!

Nature and Technology

     Nature and Technology is a very well written blog that a friend of mine writes. Naturally nature and technology are his main interests. So with a solid base in technology he uses excellent photos to illustrate his posts.

     Since he works full time his posts are infrequent.

     He's writing a series of posts now that anyone interested in the outdoors, backpacking or photos should read. This summer he went backpacking and crossed the Rockies 

     So go over and take a look at Nature and Technology.

Never Let Old Guys on Scanners

     Like a number of other bloggers I've been mumbling about digitalizing some of my old photos. My kids are 43 and 45 and they don't have photos of their childhood and growing up. 

     So  I have a plan. I'm starting with the Micro Manager's and my photos when we were growing up and before we had kids. You know, the photos your kids like to laugh at! I picked 25 of my photos that show the highlights of my life before children. 

    I have to gain some more experience in scanning. I know it can get better, but I'm not looking for professional stuff. I just want to pass things on to those for which it has meaning. 

    So yesterday was the first day. Of course, I found some classics and this is where I say, "Keep the old guys away from scanners."  

    So you know you're going to see a couple of momentous historical photos.

The adorable blogger in 1940

I always had to look after my brother

The blogger with bib overalls.

The obligatory first day of school photo. My brother is starting gr. one and I'm starting gr. two.

     You see why old guys should be kept off scanners.  I promise I'll improve.

Rover Knows Twice as Much as You Think

      I usually listen to the Current from 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM on CBC radio. Sometimes something really catches my attention so that I have to share it in blog land.

     Arlene Weintraub, a science author , has written a book about the contribution of dogs to cancer research. It surprised me what dogs contribute in cancer research.

    Dogs get similar cancers to humans. In some ways dogs receive the same cancer treatment as humans. With dogs some different drugs can be given to them to see what effect they have on the dog's cancer. The dogs have cancer so it's not like some tests where the animal is given a condition and then "Oh let's see what will this do." The dog already has cancer and new drug therapy can be tried. So many things can be learned about a drug therapy that has not been approved for human use.

   What real caught my attention was that they are training dogs to identify blood samples where the person has cancer. A number of blood samples are taken. Most samples are not from people having cancer and some blood samples come from people who do have cancer. Dogs can be very accurate in picking the blood sample where the person has cancer. Some cancers are very difficult to diagnose until it's too late. Ovarian cancer is one where it's difficult to identify early.  They are hoping that dogs can identify blood samples that will tell if the person has ovarian cancer. Dogs can be trained to pick other specific cancers. 

     The dog's sense of smell is adequate to pick up the correct scent. The dog has to concentrate and not get sidetracked to pick up the correct scent. The dog has to be on his game. The dog will pick the sample with cancer by stopping beside the sample and sitting down. The same process happens when dogs are used to search luggage for illicit drugs.

    I know that dogs have a very keen sense of smell but I didn't realize that it could be applied to a cancer diagnosis. It adds more meaning to the phrase a dog is man's best friend.

Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

     In the last year I've read many good books but none of them were fiction. Somebody in blog land must have recommended All the Light We Cannot See and it's a good story.

    The story is set during WW II. It features two children: one in France and the other in Germany.  The author tells their stories by alternating chapters. So one chapter describes what happens to Werner and the next one tells about Marie-Laure. The author makes their lives realistic as he describes the horrors of war children had to go through.

    I don't normally like war stories or stories with violence. This one was dark but I couldn't put it down. It's easy to read. There's lots of conflict and most of the predictions I made about what was coming next were wrong.

    For all stories a certain amount of research has to be done. Either Anthony Doerr did a lot of research or was extremely knowledgeable about science. Whether it was radio, physics, snails, biology or minerals and gems the details were there. Marie-Laure was blind and he had to know in great detail how blind people function.

    In the end we come away understanding much more about the horrors of war during the war and what people suffer years after the war.

    Now I haven't told you any part of the story. You'll have to get all the story yourself.

 I enjoyed the story and recommend it.

     After I finished reading this story I noticed that it won the Pulitzer prize.

     Don't check Wiki Pedia as it gives a story summary

I'm a Fourth Generation Canadian!

     Well, you may be wondering "What's he talking about?" Well, you also know that he is going to tell you.

     In my last post I wrote a little about Ukrainian Christmas. What was also on my mind is that customs and traditions are slowly disappearing. 

     Let me use my family as an example. Western Canada opened up and was settled in the early 1900's.  My Great Grandpa, born in 1842 came to Canada  about 1900. He was about 60 and brought all his adult children and their families. Great Grandpa was looking for a place where he could have land, follow his Lutheran faith, speak the German language and not be conscripted into an army as they were pacifists. Western Canada looked like a place that would allow him freedom to follow his way of life. 

     Life was great for the family. They had free land. Life was hard but they happy compared to what they left in the Ukraine.

     Today 110 years later, probably none of great Grandpa's ancestors speak German. Very few of them are Lutherans. Some of his grandsons were in WW II. So most of the traditions and customs have been lost Gradually we mixed with other people. Children went to school and learned English. My Dad's first language was German. We don't eat  the same foods our grandparents made. 

     So when I described Ukrainian Christmas I wanted to tell how traditions have gradually been lost. Most Ukrainians came here after WWI and the Russian Revolution so some of their customs are still practiced. Ukrainians my age do not speak the language. When the language is lost the culture soon disappears.

  Now what in the world has "fourth generation " got to do with this? First of all, we are a very "new" area. 110 years ago there were few Europeans here and the aboriginals had been locked up of reserves. Much of North America has been settled for hundreds of years. Much Europe has been settled for 1500 -2000 years. 

     So by for generations much of the culture was lost.