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The Eye of the Sahara

8/21/2020

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IT LOOKS DIFFERENT FROM SPACE
Beginning in 1968, when Apollo 8 set out for the moon, the human vision of the earth changed and will never be the same again. Satellite photography has shared many new visions of our world with the general public.

Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders said it all. "We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth."
Image Credit: NASA - Photo Source: spacecoastdaily.com/apollo-8-pilot-bill-anders                     

​Whether or not objects on earth are visible from space depends, of course, on the distance from the planet. At several hundred kilometers from earth, we have seen things about our planet not visible from the normal human perspective. The Eye of the Sahara is one of these features that remained hidden until the advent of space photography.
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​​THE EYE OF THE SAHARA
Officially named the Richat Structure, the Eye of the Sahara was first described in the 1930’s. The geologic structure is a prominent circular feature in the Sahara's Adrar Plateau in west-central Mauritania, in North West Africa.

Because the location is remote and inhospitable, no one had paid much attention to the geological find since the 1940s until it was photographed from space. These photos rekindled interest. At first geologists thought it was a crater, but the more recent and accepted theories suggest that it is, in fact, an eroded dome 25 miles in diameter, exposing sedimentary rock in layers which appear as concentric rings. A product of erosion that took place in geological time. Photos of the area may flutter the heart of a geologist, but they don’t impress the average person.     ▼Photo Source: excitementnnet.blogspot.com/eye                                                          Photo Source: en.wikipedia.org/Richat_Structure ▼
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​This is not supposed to be a geology lesson. It's enough to say the geology of the area is volcanic, and the cooling of the rocks dates back to between 94 and 104 million years ago. 
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ARE YOU IMPRESSED YET?
I didn’t think so.
Apparently, no one else was either – at least enough to do more research in such an inhospitable location.
Seen from space, however, the photographs look like this.

Image Credits: NASA                                                    Image Credits: Sentinel 2B on 2017-07-26                               Image Credits: NASA    
PhotoSource: express.co.uk/Atlantis-found              Photo Source: earthstartsbeating.com/the-eye-of-sahara/         Photo Source: Wikipedia Commons 
 Image Credits: NASA                                        Image Credits: NASA                                         Image Credits: NASA      
Photo Source: dreamstime.com/richat-structure       Photo Source: youtube.com/watch?v=jfpeM0ehRf8      PhotoSource: earthstartsbeating.com/the-eye 
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WHAT WILL WE PHOTOGRAPH NEXT?
Now that there’s a realistic movement and investment to send tourists to space [not in my lifetime – Boo-hoo!], no doubt humans will discover many more mysterious and wonderful things about our planet. Unfortunately, The Eye of the Sahara will not be on anyone’s bucket list for a while – at least until there is tourist travel in space.
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 Image Credits: NASA  - Photo Source: mysterioustrip.com/eye-sahara


Sources
http://excitementnnet.blogspot.com/2012/10/eye-of-sahara.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richat_Structure
https://www.thoughtco.com/eye-of-the-sahara-4164093
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-eye-of-the-sahara-is-still-a-mystery-2016-7
https://www.zmescience.com/science/geology/the-eye-of-the-sahara-05102010/
https://www.dw.com/en/our-beautiful-planet-the-eye-of-africa/a-41517470
https://www.earthstartsbeating.com/2017/08/04/the-eye-of-sahara/
https://www.science101.com/scientists-find-mystery-ominous-eye-of-africa/
https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1042776/Atlantis-found-lost-city-Sahara-desert-atlantis-eye-of-sahara-location-conspiracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfpeM0ehRf8
https://gizmodo.com/the-eye-of-the-sahara-is-an-enigmatic-desert-landmark-1607604961
https://www.dreamstime.com/richat-structure-mauritania-circular-feature-under-clouds-collage-richat-structure-mauritania-circular-feature-under-image139318462
https://mysterioustrip.com/eye-sahara-richat-structure/
https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/en/earthview/2003/tp031015.html
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Fingerprint Island

8/14/2020

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​​
​LAND OF THE GIANTS?
The coast of ancient Croatia must have been inhabited by giants…and one of them left a thumbprint.
                                                                           ▼Photo Source: amusingplanet.com/2017/croatian-island
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▲Photo Source: total-croatia-news.com/fingerprint-island

From the air, the thumbprint, a tiny island named Baljenac in the Adriatic Sea, really does resemble a fingerprint. Humans have discovered many things about our earth since the advent of space photography.

Undoubtedly, locals may have made the observation about the shape long ago, but pictures from above brought the novelty to the attention of the public in general.

RIDGES AND GROOVES
Part of the Sibenik Archipelago off the Dalmatian coast, this one-half square mile speck of dry land seems a strange place for someone to construct the ridges and grooves which create its visual similarity to the thumbprint. A closer look at the photo reveals the uninhabited islet is covered with 66 miles of low stone walls.
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Credit for Photos: sibenski.slobodnadalmacija.hr
Source of Photos: amusingplanet.com/2017/croatian-island
Many of the walls were built centuries ago by residents of the nearby island of Kaprije, who have been exploiting the area since ancient times and continue to do so. Kaprije, currently inhabited by only 150 people, and other islands in the archipelago also contain similar walls, but at a much lower density. The barriers defined ownership boundaries among three hundred farmers of agricultural plots of land, and for protection from the wind.

Since the coastal soil is very rocky, local material was abundant and the rocks removed from the land were utilized by the farmers for the dividers. The walls have no mortar holding the rocks together. As in other cultures, stone smiths selected rocks to fit together like pieces of a puzzle and piled them one on top of the other, together forming a grid of sorts of ridges and grooves.

AGE
Some of the walls were built as late as the 19th century, but they were probably erected at various times over the past several centuries. Several islands in the archipelago served as a refuge for Christians during the Ottoman conquest in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, so it is possible that the walls began to rise at that time.

Croatia recently requested its inclusion in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites. I don't know if this island will make it onto the UNESCO list, but it's not particularly good for your bucket list unless you are flying very low over the Adriatic.

Just Sayin'
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Sources:
https://www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/28319-croatia-s-fingerprint-island-gets-spring-makeover-and-some-international-attention
https://labrujulaverde.com/en/2019/09/the-tiny-croatian-island-that-has-more-than-23-kilometers-of-walls-and-looks-like-a-fingerprint-from-above-the-air/
https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/hr
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/03/this-croatian-island-looks-like-giant.html
https://interestingengineering.com/croatian-island-looks-like-massive-fingerprint
 
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THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE OF TRANSYLVANIA: The Haunted Hoia Baciu Forest

8/7/2020

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THE ULTIMATE HAUNTED FOREST
When one speaks of mysterious or haunted places, the first location that comes to an American’s mind is not the Hoia Baciu Forest in Romania. In fact, most Americans have probably never heard of it, although the word Transylvania no doubt rings a bell. In parts of Europe, however, the 729 acre forest near Cluj-Napoca, Romania, is considered the Eastern European Bermuda Triangle.


​Image Credit: Brian Dunning ▲
Photo Source: https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4520

Bustle.com names it as one of the ten creepiest places in the world.
“There are many rumors regarding exactly just what (or who) resides within the trees of Hoia Baciu. Some say it's the spirits of murdered villagers, others have claimed to have spotted UFOs. While many believe those who enter risk never leaving, those who've trekked the forest and lived to tell about it have reported suffering from unexplained physical symptoms like scratches, burns and nausea.”
Even the Discovery Channel sent a team in to investigate and make a documentary.

THE REAL DEAL
Hoia Baciu Forest is located northwest of the city of Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania, Romania, near the open-air section of the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania. The area is used for recreation, such as biking, paintball, airsoft, archery, and similar types of outdoor activities.
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​The forest covers about three square kilometers, or roughly 729 acres. [There are minor discrepancies regarding size provided by various sources.] Its southern border is east-west and to the north the forest ends on a smoother slope, which meets the Nadăs River.

Archeological evidence has been found of a Neolithic settlement in the Hoia Baciu forest believed to have been established around 6500 BC, the oldest evidence of permanent habitation found in Romania.

Photo Credit: HoiaBaciuForest.com
Photo sources: pinterest.com/510666045220294833/  and
thesun.co.uk/archives/missing-people ▼
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Within the forest, there are groves of odd-shaped trees, and local folk-stories about paranormal events in the forest date back many generations, but this is the extent of any “real information” unless you want to get into demographics, geology, etc. Science stuff. None the less, the legends have fueled many movies, stories, and rumors about the forest.


​​LEGENDS AND FOLK TALES
Most of the tales are unverified, anecdotal, and lack details and dates. Still, even today, many visitors who go into the forest report coming out having experienced strange sensations or seen weird things.

● Strange Disappearances
The forest is supposedly named after a shepherd who went missing in the forest with a flock of 200 sheep. No dates or names other than Hoia Baciu.

Another urban legend tells of a five-year-old girl who disappeared in the forest and was never found despite intense searches. She emerged five years later dressed in the exact clothes she was wearing when she went missing and with no recollection of the five year interval. Tales diverge here, some saying she was still five years old with her clothes in perfect condition, others claiming she was ten and the clothes stretched and broken to fit a ten-year-old body. [That seems a real “stretch”.]

​One legend reports a woman disappearing in the forest who later [nothing said about how much later] returned with a genuine 15th century coin in her pocket.
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Photo Source: mysterioustrip.com/hoia-baciu-haunted
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Photo Source: mysterioustrip.com/hoia-baciu-haunted
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Photo Source: romaniajournal.ro/hoia-baciu-forest
​● Strange feelings and sights
Visitors to Hoia Baciu and locals both attest to unusual feelings of anxiety and the sensation of someone watching them. They report unexplained apparitions, ghost sightings, appearances of light orbs, breaking of drop-dead silence by shrill giggling of females, and emergence of unexplained faces in photographs that were not visible otherwise to the photographers. Electronic devices and cell phone often malfunctioning inside the forest, but when outside work normally.
● Strange rashes and illnesses
Tourists and locals have reported developing unexplained rashes, scratches, and illness after having entered the forest. Others have sought medical treatment for burns and high fevers.
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Photo sources: essentialhome.eu/inspirations/   fanwave.it/en/mysteries/hoia-baciu
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Photo source: pinterest.com/pin/ 774126623422692389
THE UNEXPLAINED
Believe it or not, there are a couple of things about the mysterious forest that are not ​explained by a good imagination or paranormal events.
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● The Circle
Within the forest there is a perfectly circular area where no trees will grow. The soil of this vegetation-free area has been tested scientifically. Soil samples revealed no anomalies that would prevent the growth of any plant life, including the kind of trees surrounding the clearing. According to one legend, the clearing is protected by the spirits of murdered peasants, who are guarding a gateway to other spiritual dimensions.
​                                                                                                     Photo source: express.co.uk/Missing-people-ghosts-crop-circles  ▼
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​● UFO Sighting
Over many years, residents of Cluj-Napoca and the Transylvania area have often reported seeing strange lights and lights in the sky. A flurry of such reports in the early 1960s captured the interest of biologist Alexandru Sift who began to study the unusual phenomenon associated with the Hoia Baciu. Over years of study he amassed over 60,000 photos.

In 1968, Emil Barnea, a military technician, took photographs of what appear to be flying disc-shaped entity in the sky, the first photographed UFO sighting in the area.
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◄Image credit: Emil Barnea, 1968
Source:nzherald.co.nz/travel, https://eldritchstories.wordpress.com/tag/ufo/ and others  
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The last reported UFO was filmed over Baciu Forest in 2002 by two Cluj residents who lived on the top floor of a building on the outskirts of the neighborhood Manastur. The UFO’s were caught on film for 27 seconds and were described as an evolution of a bright object in the sky that was shaped like a cigarette and a length of about 50 meters. The UFO rose and went across the sky until it went into a mass of clouds and disappeared.
​​​▼Photo source: horrorfuel.com/2018/hoia-baciu 
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Sift continued his studies until he died in 1993, shortly after spending a couple of weeks in the forest. He supposedly had burns all over his body and a high fever. He allegedly discovered areas within the forest of high radioactivity, and the symptoms of his illness are consistent with keratosis, a sickness caused by over exposure to ultraviolet rays. Studies conducted after his demise did not corroborate his theories about radioactivity.

Although Sift photographed many phenomenon, and shared those photos with other scientists, most of his collection disappeared within three days after his death and most of his notes were burned. Those salvaged each ended with the                 sentence, “Knowledge if harmful; ignorance is bliss.”  creepy cre pasta.fandom.com/Romanian_Experiment
                                                   
The few photographs and notes left were published in a book entitled, Fenomenele de la Pădure Hoia-Baciu, written by Adrian Pătruț, professor of chemistry and a friend of Alexandru Sift.

Pătruț has continued Sift’s research and states that what happens in Hoia Baciu Forest is not paranormal at all, but natural phenomenon yet unknown to science. The people who suffer illness after coming out of the forest may be EHS which is Electromagnetic Hyper Sensitive, a hotly contested topic in both medicine and science. The “unofficial” list of symptoms of this hypersensitivity closely replicate those complaints and illnesses of those reacting to time in the forest. He believes that as we learn more about electromagnetic fields, the explanation will come to light.

ENTER DRACULA
There is no real connection between the fictional Dracula character from Irish writer Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula and Hoia Baciu Forest, other than both of them are located in Transylvania, Romania. The time between locations is four to ten hours, depending on your choice of transportation. Somehow the tourist trade has made an erroneous connection.
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Tales of the supernatural had been circulating in Romanian folklore for centuries. Regardless of specific stories about the haunted forest, it was Stoker’s novel that brought Romania’s recognition of and reputation for the paranormal to the rest of the world. Stoker never visited that country, but threw himself into learning all he could. “To research his immortal tale, Stoker immersed himself in the history, lore and legends of Transylvania, which he called a ‘whirlpool for the imagination.’"
romaniatourism.com/dracula-legend.html
Strangely, his Count Dracula novel was not published in Romania until 1990.

Stoker’s character Count Dracula was inspired by a well-known figure in Romanian history, Vlad Dracula. Vlad, nicknamed Vlad Tepes [Vlad the Impaler, a title he came by honestly], ruled Walachia at various times from 1456-1462.
​
He was born in 1431 to a noble family at the point in history when the Christian Holy Roman Empire was fighting with the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Wallachia was caught in the middle. Vlad III's father, Vlad II Dracul (meaning ''dragon''), was a member of the secret order of the dragon, created by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Dracula means ''son of Dracul'', which is why Vlad III is called Dracula.

He lived his adult life in Walachia, which is not even in Transylvania, and is now called Muntenia. There were periods when he was imprisoned Pest and Visegrad [in Hungary]. The name Dracula is literally translated in Gaelic as Drac Ullah meaning bad blood.
Stoker selected Bran Castle to be the setting for his novel, Bradsov, Romania
Photo source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bran_Castle ▼
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​Bran castle was not the home of Vlad II Dracul. Stoker depicted the imaginary Dracula’s castle based upon a description of Bran Castle that was available to him in turn-of-the-century Britain.

The imaginary depiction of Dracula’s Castle from the etching in the first edition of “Dracula” is strikingly similar to Bran Castle and no other in all of Romania. Stoker is widely purported to have used the illustration of Bran Castle in Charles Boner’s book, "Transylvania: Its Product and Its People", (London: Longmans, 1865) to describe his imaginary Dracula's Castle.

The mansion is currently owned by the Archduke of Habsburg [who got it back from the Romanian state after the Communists confiscated it from his relatives in 1948]. It’s a museum and a major tourist attraction, but there is an article on the internet claiming that it is for sale. Built in 1388, the huge edifice has no bathrooms and, while the current asking price is undisclosed, the 57-room manor situated on 22 acres was listed previously at $135 million.

BACK TO THE HAUNTED FOREST
My take-away from all the research is that Bram Stoker’s novel focused attention on Transylvania and its penchant for the paranormal. The 1968 UFO sighting rekindled interest, and tourism took hold, ramping up the old legends and using the Transylvania reputation to concentrate interest.

Whether or not the forest is haunted … who knows? Some of the more recent firsthand accounts are compelling, but I’m guessing Adrian Pătruț’s theory about natural phenomenon will eventually pan out.
​
Still, if you’re traveling in the area, a visit sounds like a fun adventure.
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Sources:
http://romaniatourismhttp://romaniatourism.com/dracula-legend.html#:~:text=Count%20Dracula%2C%20a%20fictional%20character,various%20times%20from%201456%2D1462.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=12281492
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoia_Forest
https://www.eonline.com/news/542246/dracula-s-castle-is-for-sale-but-you-ll-have-to-pay-a-very-pretty-penny-for-it
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/draculas-castle-airbnb
http://foryourgadgets.com/bizarre/20-creepiest-abandoned-places/20/
https://www.bustle.com/articles/180956-20-of-the-creepiest-places-on-earth-to-send-chills-down-your-spine
https://hoiabaciuforest.com/truth-about-the-hoia-baciu-forest-an-area-on-earth-created-55000-years-ago-by-atlanta/
https://www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/688418/Missing-people-ghosts-crop-circles-World-s-most-haunting-holidays-hoia-baciu-chernobyl
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298474-d3822459-Reviews-Hoia_Baciu_Forest-Cluj_Napoca_Cluj_County_Northwest_Romania_Transylvania.html
https://mysterioustrip.com/hoia-baciu-haunted-forest/
https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-ideas/weird-and-wacky/ufos-ghosts-and-missing-people-is-this-the-creepiest-forest-in-the-world/news-story/6018ad7b5d2ae27d61f2def7666491dd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoia_Forest
https://mybestplace.com/aroundtheworld/en/hoia-baciu-haunted-forest-of-mystery-in-transylvania/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiluLXrliZM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crooked_Forest
https://www.stefsjourney.com/exploring-romania-haunted-forest-hoia-baciu/
http://www.longshadowofchernobyl.com/photos/the-abandoned-city-of-pripyat/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/324048135670142506/?lp=true
https://factslegend.org/20-interesting-mysterious-hoia-baciu-forest-facts/
https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/vampire-history
https://www.livescience.com/24374-vampires-real-history.html
https://www.livescience.com/40843-real-dracula-vlad-the-impaler.html
https://blog.continentalcurrency.ca/vampires-transylvania/
https://hoiabaciu.wixsite.com/project/about?lightbox=dataItem-ji4m2faz2
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=12281492
https://eldritchstories.wordpress.com/tag/ufo/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/177188566564543395/
https://www.romaniajournal.ro/travel/the-obscure-secrets-of-the-corvin-castle/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/510666045220294833/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/871264/ufos-ghosts-and-missing-people-is-this-the-creepiest-forest-in-the-world/
https://www.essentialhome.eu/inspirations/lifestyle/haunted-places-visit-spooky-halloween/
https://www.romaniajournal.ro/travel/hoia-baciu-forest-one-of-worlds-most-frightening-places/
https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/Romanian_Knowledge_Experiment
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/hoia-baciu-transylvania-haunted-trees-ufo-ghosts-how-to-visit-camping-alex-surducan-marius-a8023136.html
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/poenari-castle-vlad-the-impaler
https://mybestplace.com/aroundtheworld/en/hoia-baciu-haunted-forest-of-mystery-in-transylvania/
http://horrorfuel.com/2018/01/15/supernatural-natural-hoia-baciu-forest/
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july - National Ice Cream Month

7/25/2020

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​The third Sunday of July -- this year July 19 -- was National Ice Cream Day, and July is National Ice Cream Month, both established by presidential proclamation in July of 1984. I intended this post for Ice Cream Day but life misfired and I didn’t make it. Rather than let it sit for a year, I decided to post it because it is still National Ice Cream Month for a few days and, if you like it, Ice Cream is always good.
​
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WHAT'S IN A NAME? 
Ice cream is one of many similar “frozen” desserts including "frozen custard," "frozen yogurt," "sorbet," "gelato," and “sherbet”. These terms are used to distinguish different varieties and styles.

In the United States, “ice cream” applies to a single variety, and most governments around the world regulate the terms used according to relative quantities of the main ingredients (usually the amount of cream) and trade agreements. [e.g. Brandy and cognac are essentially the same, but any beverage using the name Cognac must be made in the Cognac region of France, while brandy can be made anywhere in the world. Both are made from grapes, and actually come from white wine.]
​
Today’s style of ice cream was made possible only by the discovery of the endothermic effect which allows cream to be frozen. Prior to this, cream could only be chilled. It was the addition of salt, which lowers the melting point of ice by drawing heat from the cream and allows it to freeze.
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WE ALL HAVE A PAST
Even ice cream has a long history. Like many things, the earliest precursors of ice cream came from China, although the dates are rather fuzzy. Following is a list of more-of-less-factoids about the origins and development of ice cream.

​King Tange of Shang Dynasty
​Photo source: https://www.ancient.eu/Shang_Dynasty/
1617 – 1588 BC
The Chinese are credited with making the first iced dessert, which was snow gathered from the mountains with fruit juice poured over it. King Tang of Shang of China had 94 ice men who helped to make a dish of buffalo milk, flour and camphor. Later, they developed another similar mixture of milk and rice frozen by packing it in snow. They are known to use ice houses to keep food cool as early as 1100 BC. The earliest known ice house [yachal] dates to 1780 BC, built by Zimri-Lim, the King of Mari, in the northern Mesopotamian town of Terqa.

970 -931 BC
Biblical references also show that King Solomon was fond of iced drinks during harvesting, and there is evidence that similar iced fruit drinks were popular in other locations in the middle east.

400 BC
400 BC, the Persians concocted a special chilled food, similar to a snow come, made of rose water and vermicelli, which was served to royalty during summers. The ice was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavors.
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356 – 323 BC
Alexander the Great enjoyed snow and ice flavored with honey and nectar. He is known to have used ice houses during his reign.

Photo credit: Daily Mail Online
​​Photo Source: funeralwise.com/alexander-great


200 BC
The first known record of the endothermic effect is written in the Indian collection of fables entitled Pancatantra, dating back to 200 BC. Some sources indicate it was the written in the 4th century AD.
200 BC
At about the same time the Chinese took an innovative leap from a sorbet to a sherbet-ice cream by introducing a basic milk and rice mixture which was frozen by packing it into snow.
100 BC – 400 AD
The Romans used snow flavored with fruits and juices. During the reign of Nero Claudius Caesar (A.D. 54-86), he frequently sent runners into the mountains for snow. The Romans used Ice houses from about 300 BC to keep foods fresh.
400 AD
In 400 BC, the Persians came up with a special chilled food, made of milk, sugar, rose water and vermicelli, which was served to royalty during summers.                                  A ancient-type yakhchal in Yazd, Iran - Photo source:south-africa.blaauwberg.net/
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​  618 - 907 AD
During the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese concocted a type of ice cream using heated, fermented milk, flour, and camphor. This began to resemble what we call ice cream.

1200s AD
The earliest written description of the endothermic effect (freezing) comes in the 13th century writings of Ibn Abi Usaybia, an Arab physician. The technique of "freezing" does not appear in any known  European sources before to the 16th century.

“The origins of the ice cream we know today are believed to have first emerged in Italy. In view of the strong Arabic influences there, drawing upon the ancient iced traditions of Rome, of China as well as of others, this does not appear too surprising. Sicily itself was actually an  Islamic Emirate during the years 965 to 1072, so in a sense the ‘oriental traditions’ may have bloomed on European soil in their very own right.”   https://www.icecreamnation.org/ancient-china/

1300s AD
The explorer, Marco Polo (1254-1324), is believed to have seen ice-cream being made during his trip to China and introduced the dessert to Italy. He returned to Italy from the Far East with a recipe that closely resembled what is now called sherbet.                                                             Painting of Marco Polo receiving recipe from Khubla Khan
                                                                                                                                      Photo source: icecreamnation.org/ancient-china/
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Since the Arabs had perfected the methods for making ice cream, Marco Polo was not necessarily the person who introduced those methods to Europe. There were many opportunities for the information to reach Europe. The Italians are credited for creating the first ice cream [similar to today’s gelato] some time during the thirteenth century.

1533 AD
France was introduced to the Italian ice-cream-like frozen desserts by Italian Catherine de Medici when she became the wife of Henry II of France.

1559 AD
Europeans develop a method whereby a freezing effect was created by using ice and salt – the technical precondition for ice cream-making of a more modern type.

1600s AD
King Charles I of England (1600-1649), is said to have offered his chef £500 a year to keep his ice-cream recipe a secret from the rest of England.

1600s AD
In the sixteenth century, the Persianate Mughal emperors from India employed relays of horsemen to bring ice from the Hindu Kush to Delhi, where it was used in fruit sorbets. Qulfi (also Kulfi) is a popular frozen dairy dessert from India and is often described as "traditional South Asian ice cream." It was adopted from Persian bastani sonnati, Persian ice cream.

1686 AD
Ice cream was first made available to the general public when Sicilian chef Procopio Cutò (also known by his Italian name Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli and his French name François Procope), introduced a recipe blending milk, cream, butter and eggs at Café Procope, the first café in Paris.

1744 AD
The first official account of ice cream in the New World comes from a letter written in 1744 by a guest of Maryland Governor William Bladen.

1776 AD
Phillip Lenzi opened the first ice cream shop in America in New York City in 1776. The term "iced cream" from "iced tea". The first advertisement for ice cream in the United States appeared in the New York Gazette on May 12, 1777.

1790 AD
Records kept by a Chatham Street, New York, merchant show that President George Washington spent approximately $200 for ice cream during the summer of 1790. Inventory records of Mount Vernon taken after Washington's death revealed "two pewter ice cream pots."
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1800s AD
Ice cream remained a rare and exotic dessert enjoyed mostly by the elite until insulated ice houses were invented around 1800. At that point ice cream became more accessible to the general public.
​Noblewomen eating ice cream in a French caricature, 1801.
Photo source:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les_Glaces.jpg
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1801 AD
Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, is said to be the first person to write down a recipe for Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream, believed to be the oldest recipe for ice cream in the US. The original document resides in the Library of Congress.

1813 AD
Dolly Madison served a magnificent strawberry ice cream creation at President Madison's second inaugural banquet at the White House.

1825 AD
Edible ice cream cones were mentioned in French cooking books as early as 1825, when Julien Archambault described how one could roll a cone from "little waffles".

1832 AD
American confectioner, Augustus Jackson, created multiple ice cream recipes as well as a superior technique to manufacture ice cream.

1843 AD
Philadelphian, Nancy Johnson, received the first U.S. patent for a small-scale hand-cranked ice cream freezer.
Photo source: snowballmachinery.wordpress.com/first-ice-cream-machine/
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​1851 AD
Jacob Fussell, a Baltimore milk dealer, pioneered the first commercial manufacturing ice cream in America.

1874 AD
 The ice cream soda was invented by American Robert Green, although there is no
                                             conclusive evidence to prove his claim.
1888 AD
Another printed reference to an edible cone is in Mrs A. B. Marshall's Cookery Book, written by Agnes B. Marshall (1855–1905) of England. Her recipe for "Cornet with Cream" said that "the cornets were made with almonds and baked in the oven, not pressed between irons".
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​She wrote four books: Ices Plain and Fancy: The Book of Ices (1885), Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Book of Cookery (1888), Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes (1891) and Fancy Ices (1894) and gave public lectures on cooking. She even suggested using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream.

Agnes Marshall, "queen of ices"
instrumental in making ice-cream fashionable
Photo source: factory-shops-cape-town-south-africa.blaauwberg.net/


LATE 1800s AD
Several men claimed to have created the ice cream sundae originated in the late 19th century. Some sources claim the invention of the sundae was intended to circumvent blue laws, which forbade serving sodas on Sunday. Towns claiming to be the birthplace of the sundae include Buffalo, Two Rivers, Ithaca, and Evanston.

1902-1903 AD
Edible ice cream cones were patented by two entrepreneurs, both Italian, separately in the years 1902 and 1903. Antonio Valvona, an ice cream merchant from Manchester, UK, patented a biscuit cup producing machine in 1902; in 1903, Italo Marchioni, an Italian ice cream salesman, filed for the patent of a machine which made ice cream containers.

1904 AD
A man named Ernest E. Hamwi is also given credit by some for inventing the ice-cream-cone, which seems contrary to the fact that patents granted a year before. However, the legend has it that during the 1904 St Louis World's Fair in the United States, his waffle booth was next to an ice-cream seller who ran short of dishes. As a favor, Hamwi rolled his waffles to hold the ice-cream and the cone was born. Probably both are true.

1920 AD
Harry Burt puts the first ice cream trucks on the streets in the US.

1930 AD
A larger, "dripless cake cone" with a larger bowl-shape was invented in the 1930s. It allowed the ice-cream to sit in the bottom of the cone rather than nestle on the top.
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1984 AD
Former US president Ronald Reagan, issued Presidential Proclamation 5219, designating the third Sunday of July as National Ice Day and the month of July as National Ice Cream Month.
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                                                     Photo source: blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/national-ice-cream-month/
ICE CREAM AROUND THE WORLD
The development of all ice cream may be a world-wide team effort, but not all ice cream is created equal. All versions are delicious, but there are in traditional recipes and flavors, both locally as well as internationally. Here are a few of the most interesting.
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Persian Bastani
Made from Persian Rose Water, Saffron and Pistachio Ice Cream
                                                                                                     Photo Credit: Izy Hossack
                                                                 Photo source: food.com/recipe/bastani-persian
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Italian Gelato
Gelato is a popular frozen dessert of Italian origin. It is generally made with a base of 3.25% milk and sugar. It is generally lower in fat than other styles of frozen desserts. Wikipedia
                                                                                    Photo Credit: Suzanne Ball | Food, Food blog
                                                                                    Photo source: epicurean-traveler.com/gelato
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Japanese Mochi
Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made with glutinous rice flour and has a chewy texture. Mochi Ice Cream is a thin layer of mochi wrapped around an ice cream filling. It’s creamy, sweet, with a little chewy outer shell, and just a very delightful treat.

Photo Source: kirbiecravings.com/mochi-ice-cream/
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Chinese Huangjiu Bangbing
New in 2016, Huangjiu Bangbing is now the most popular ice cream in China, It tastes like wine and is made from yellow rice or millet, sold more than 40,000 sticks in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province alone in the first year on the market. While the Chinese ice cream isn’t so different in texture, they go in for bizarre flavors, such as beer, chili, garlic, and celery.  Photo Credit and Source: chinadaily.com.cn/Bangbing
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Israeli Halva
Halva, a sweet candy-like treat made from sesame seeds mashed into a sugar-and-honey paste, is common in many Israeli dishes. On a hot day in Tel Aviv, cooling off with Halva ice cream is a popular pastime.
​Photo Credit: Thinkstock - Photo source: travelchannel.com/ice-cream-around-the-world
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Turkish Dondurma
Turkish ice cream, dondurma, has a similar pliability to taffy. The street vendors in Istanbul have fun with its pliable texture, wowing passersby with its ability to not fall off a stick or melt. It’s thickened with salep, a flour made from orchids, which only adds to its exotic appeal.
                                     Photo Credit: iStock - Photo Source: Photo Source: travelchannel.com/ice-cream-around-world

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Filippino Cheese Ice Cream
Ice Cream from the Philippines mixes two comfort foods that to the American ear may sound odd … cheese and ice cream. Once sold only by street vendors, today it’s crafted with real cheddar cheese by the brand Magnolia and sold in grocery stores all over the Philippines.                           
                                            Photo Credit: iStock - Photo Source: travelchannel.com/ice-cream-around-world
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German Spaghetties
Leave it to the Germans. Germany’s spaghettieis resemble a plate of pasta, but this is vanilla ice cream drawn through a pastamaker and then topped with a strawberry topping (to look like tomato sauce). This playful play on pasta was created by an Italian in Germany in the 1960s and has been a popular dessert ever since.

Photo credit: Christian Cable, flicker - Photo source: travelchannel.com/ice-cream-around-world
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Indian Kulfi
A mix of condensed milk, sugar and exotic flavors like saffron and cardamom, Kulfi has a dense texture more similar to custard than ice cream. Traditionally, this cool treat was only found in India’s street markets, kept frozen in earthenware pots of ice and salt. Now its popularity is so widespread, you can find it in Whole Foods’ frozen-food aisles.

Photo credit: Christian Cable, flicker - Photo source: travelchannel.com/ice-cream-around-world
 
ENJOY YOURSELF AND EAT AS MUCH ICE CREAM AS YOU WANT!
 
Sources:
http://www.holidayscalendar.com/event/national-ice-cream-day/
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-ice-cream-day-third-sunday-in-july/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/find_out/guides/tech/ice-cream/newsid_3634000/3634978.stm#:~:text=An%20ice%2Dcream%2Dlike%20food,by%20packing%20it%20into%20snow.
https://www.idfa.org/the-history-of-ice-cream
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream
https://factory-shops-cape-town-south-africa.blaauwberg.net/articles/all-about-foodstuffs/all-about-ice-cream
https://icecream.fandom.com/wiki/History_of_Ice_Cream#:~:text=History%20of%20Ice%20Cream,creating%20ice%20cream%20and%20milk.
https://epicurean-traveler.com/three-rules-of-gelato-how-to-order-like-an-italian/
https://chinafoodingredients.com/2015/08/21/china-the-worlds-biggest-ice-cream-market/#:~:text=Ice%20cream%20is%20believed%20to,up%20to%20the%20frosty%20dessert.&text=The%20Chinese%20word%20for%20this,Chinese%20word%20for%20'ice'.
https://www.travelchannel.com/interests/food-and-drink/photos/ice-cream-around-the-world
https://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/10-extreme-ice-cream-flavors
https://kirbiecravings.com/mochi-ice-cream/
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/food/2016-08/04/content_26345623.htm
https://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/10-extreme-ice-cream-flavors
https://www.icecreamnation.org/ancient-china/
https://forknchopstix.com/did-the-chinese-invent-ice-cream/
Photos only:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les_Glaces.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24554290
https://factory-shops-cape-town-south-africa.blaauwberg.net/articles/all-about-foodstuffs/all-about-ice-cream
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69984
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38329624
food.com/recipe/bastani-persian
https://snowballmachinery.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/the-first-ice-cream-machine/
http://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/leonco/2015/07/15/july-national-ice-cream-month/
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The rainbow Mountains, China

7/10/2020

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I’m off on a binge about the marvels of nature; particularly colors in geology.

My initial interest in travel was driven by my background in architecture. I wanted to see how ancient cultures expressed their ideas and values in their architecture. I still desire that, but experience has expanded my horizons to consider the impacts of the geology and other natural phenomenon on both the culture and the architecture. Now I’m all about interesting and unusual places.

It’s much easier these days to even find out about such locals than it was before the internet, but traveling to remote places is harder and harder for me. So I’m taking you on trips to interesting places through others, their writing and
photography.

THE RAINBOW MOUNTAINS, CHINA
I had never heard of the Rainbow Mountains, much less aspired to go there, when I ran onto a reference stating that something was a colorful as the Chinese Rainbow Mountains. I had to know.

They are located in Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park which is in the Gansu province of northwest China. The 200 square mile site was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009. The park has been popular with Chinese tourists for years but only now becoming an attraction for foreign visitors.
​
The two maps show the location in China and how that country relates to surrounding countries. The region we are talking about is in yellow.
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Photo Source: https://sites.psu.edu/passionallywagner/2015/11/16/rainbow-mountains/
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Photo source: https://www.chinadiscovery.com/gansu/zhangye/maps.html
SHAKE IT UP, BABY
These mountains are composed of sedimentary rock, cretaceous sandstones and siltstones, deposited in more or less flat layers millions of years ago, on the bed of the ocean.

​The deposits contained iron, trace minerals and organic matter. Fifty-five million years ago tectonic forces created the Himalayas Mountains as the Indian Tectonic Plate collided into the Eurasian Plate, folding the flat layers and thrusting them upward and exposing the sedimentary layers at weird angles.
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​The colors of sedimentary layers exposed by the mountain-making process often have complicated origins. The range of colors includes the primary colors and generally result from the compounds of iron, organic carbon, and trace minerals. Weathering and erosion remove the upper strata of siliciclastic rocks and bring to light amazing variations in color.

Image source: campbellhigh.org/ourpages/2017/
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A COUPLE OF IMPORTANT POINTS
Before you peruse the photographs, which blew my socks off, a couple of points about our perception of color to keep in mind.

Let There Be Light
Newton observed that color is not inherent in objects. Rather, the surface of an object reflects some colors and absorbs all the others. The human eye perceives only the reflected colors.

Together, the human eye and brain translate light into color. When an object appears black, the object or surface is absorbing all wavelengths light. When we see white, the object is reflecting all wavelengths of light. When it appears as a particular color, the object is reflecting only one wavelength (which we perceive as a color) and absorbing all others.

My first point is that light (intensity, direction, etc.) makes the difference in how something looks.
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​Beauty In The Eye Of The Beholder
The other point is that photographers usually want a beautiful, or at least artistic, representation of the subject being photographed.

Cameras can be set to manipulate light. I’m not implying the photos are doctored, but they are probably taken at the best time of day in the right weather to get the most vivid colors. Standing there, you might see what appears in the photo to the right. The professional photographs will show the mountains at their most dramatic. It is all in the lighting.                                           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Photo Credit: Tim Zachernuk - Photo Source: grist.org/stripey-mountain   
EVERYTHING'S COMING UP RAINBOWS
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Photo Credit: imaginechina.com;  Image Source: forbes.com/2016/rainbow-mountains
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                 Photo source: travelercorner.com/rainbow-mountains

This land is do dry that there are no plants on animals there. That’s dry. The hills consist of multi colored sandstone such as red, blue, green, brown and yellow.
 
The primary color is a deep red sandstone. Weathering, mixed with water and oxygen oxidizes elemental iron into iron oxide, which is notable for its dark red coloring. The Rainbow Mountains are largely characterized by this iron oxide staining of its sandstone Danxia formation.
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Photo Credit: Angelinaloren
Photo source: flickr.com/photos/75515041@N06
Instances occur where oxides form different colors; oxidized limonite or goethite will produce brown or yellow staining of sandstones, magnetite can form black staining of sandstones. If there is iron sulfide present, you will get a metallic yellow color imparted by the sulfur. Meanwhile, green coloring is often due to chlorite or iron silicate clays. The bluish-greenish-gray is produced from either organic plant matter or a mineral called glauconite found in marine environments. 
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         Photo source: in.musafir.com/blog/                                Photo Credit: imaginechina.com                                             Pinned by: Terra Hermética
                                                                                  Photo Source: forbes.com/2016/rainbow-mountains              Photo source: facebook.com/photo?fbid=2328

MORE RAINBOWS
I was surprised to discover another range of Rainbow Mountains, this time located in the Andes of Peru, about two hours drive from Cusco. After all, rainbows exist around the world, so why not rainbow mountains.
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Photo Credit: By Peruwikila - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
Photo source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76653424
 
Vinicunca, or Winikunka, also called Montaña de Siete Colores, Montaña de Colores or Rainbow Mountain. Here there are seven colors due to mineralogical composition. Pink is red clay, mud and sand. The white comes from calcium carbonate, red from iron and clay. Green is a compound of phyllites and clays rich in ferro magnesian. Yellow due to sandstone rich in sulfurous minerals. The sources seem to rarely mention the blue coloration.

SO MANY WONDERFUL PLACES TO GO AND NOT ENOUGH TIME
 
Sources:
https://www.chinahighlights.com/zhangye/attraction/danxia-landform-geological-park.htm
https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2016/03/02/rainbow-mountains-china-earths-paint-palette/#4879b7db3e5e
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rainbow-mountains-china-danxia-landform_n_3683840?guccounter=1&guce_referrer
http://inspire.lifepinner.com/2019/03/29/true-colors-of-china-rainbow-mountains/
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/rainbow-mountains-china
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2013/aug/01/rainbow-mountains-china-in-pictures
https://www.chinahighlights.com/zhangye/attraction/danxia-landform-geological-park.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2013/aug/01/rainbow-mountains-china-in-pictures#/?picture=414163198&index=0
https://www.pantone.com/color-intelligence/articles/technical/how-do-we-see-color
https://www.minerals.net/resource/property/color.aspx
https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-rocks-get-their-colors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhangye_National_Geopark
https://csmgeo.csm.jmu.edu/geollab/Fichter/SedRx/color.html
https://weather.com/science/news/breathtaking-rainbow-rocks-china-20130710
Photos only:
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=232810990695661&set=pcb.232812080695552
https://grist.org/living/zen-break-check-out-chinas-gorgeous-stripey-mountains/
https://in.musafir.com/blog/most-extraordinary-mountains-in-the-world.aspx
https://in.musafir.com/blog/most-extraordinary-mountains-in-the-world.aspx
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75515041@N06/10791466616
http://travelercorner.com/rainbow-mountains-zhangye-danxia-landform-china/




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EVERYTHING YOU NEVER NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT THE 4TH OF JULY

7/3/2020

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Since Fourth of July is upon us, I’m blogging about US Independence Day. I try to be timely by recognizing and writing blogs about holidays and observance days that we hold dear in the United States…or not so dear, as it appears sometimes.

But alas, after I did some preliminary research, I realized there isn’t much to write about the Fourth of July that everyone doesn’t already know. Or so I thought!
                                              Image credit: Library of Congress
▲Photo source: nashvillelife.com/4th-of-July                                                         Photo source: loc.gov/exhibits/treasures ▼ 
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HAVE YOU READ “THE DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE” RECENTLY?
Listening to the news over the last several months, I’ve wondered what the words “independence” and “freedom” mean to the people of the United States. We all seem to have our own version, and sometimes they are incompatible.

I’m willing to bet that only a small percentage of Americans have read the Declaration of In-dependence in the last ten years; a few, never.

According to some historians, it is the most important document ever written in this country; even more important than the Constitution, because it identifies the principles by which this nation holds together. Right now we need to be held together more than ever before. We only have ourselves to do that.

Read it. You may find out it does or doesn’t say some of the things you think it does. The word ”independence” isn’t even in the adopted title. Still, the words continue to resonate in the 21st century as fundamental truths.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT FOURTH OF JULY
Although articles are often entitled “fun facts”, they are usually “interesting” facts about the holiday. I did learn a few thing I never knew or didn’t remember after a hiatus of sixty years…and it’s always interesting to see how many “known facts” on the internet disagree with each other.
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​JUST LIKE TODAY, IT WAS ALL ABOUT TAXES
"Taxation without representation!"

At the beginning of the Revolutionary War [April 1775], not many of the colonists wanted complete separation from Great Britain, but gradually the population began to favor complete independence. You all remember that, right?

Of course you do. And you remember, when Richard Henry Lee introduced his motion to the Continental Congress for independence, it was tabled and a five-man committee appointed (Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York) to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain. Maybe you recall hearing that, too.

On July 2nd, 1775, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote (NY delegation abstained) and on July 4th, the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson.                  “Declaration of Independence” painting by John Trumbull 1818
                                                                                                                                                   ▼   Photo source: acei-global.blog/facts-about-the-4th-of-july
FACTS YOU’LL NEVER NEED ABOUT JULY FOURTH
I found these facts interesting although not of monumental significance in terms of the history of the United States. They are in no particular order and, as you can see, are not particularly memorable.

● John Adams believed July 2nd was the correct date on which to celebrate the birth of American independence, and would reportedly turn down invitations to appear at July 4th events in protest.
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● John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only two signers of the Declaration of Independence who later became presidents, both died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826—the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
◄​ Photo source: acei-global.blog/facts-about-the-4th-of-july
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● According to the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Jefferson’s inveterate shyness prevented him from playing a significant role in the debate within Congress. John Adams, a leader in those debates, remembers that Jefferson was silent even in committee meetings, though consistently staunch in his support of independence…”  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Declaration-of-Independence
That was news to me. I never thought of Jefferson as being shy.
◄Jefferson’s portrait painted by Charles Wilson Peale, 1791
Photo source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Declaration-of-Independence
● “Only two Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The majority of signers penned their signatures on August 2, 1776.” http://www.rfdtv.com/story/32328872/4th-of-july-fun-facts#.WwhI_0gvzcc

Or was it only one?

● “Only John Hancock actually signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. All the others signed later.” https://acei-global.blog/2013/07/03/20-fun-facts-about-the-4th-of-julyindependence-day/
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● The Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 men from 13 colonies. Of those 56, eight were born in Great Britain.
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● Benjamin Franklin, the oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence [70 at the time], proposed the turkey as the national bird but was overruled by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who recommended the bald eagle.

● The youngest signer was Thomas Lynch, Jr. [27] of South Carolina. https://acei-global.blog/2013/07/03/20-fun-facts-about-the-4th-of-julyindependence-day/
Or was he?
● “…Edward Rutledge was the youngest at age 26.” http://thepioneerwoman.com/fun-and-learning/twenty-interesting-things-about4th-of-july/

● The original draft of the Declaration of Independence was lost. http://www.rfdtv.com/story/32328872/4th-of-july-fun-facts#.WwhI_0gvzcc   Library of Congress   
Oh, well. I’m sure they have a copy of the one that was adopted and signed.

● Congress made Independence Day an official unpaid holiday for federal employees in 1870. It didn’t become a federal paid holiday until 1938.

● The first Independence Day celebration took place in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776. This was also the day that the Declaration of Independence was first read in public after people were summoned by the ringing of the Liberty Bell.
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● The Liberty Bell was cast at London’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry. It arrived in Philadelphia in August, 1752. The metal was too brittle and it cracked during the test strike. It was recast twice by local workmen. In its early years the bell was used to summon lawmakers to legislative sessions and to alert citizens about public meetings and proclamations.

● Every 4th of July the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is tapped [not actually rung] thirteen times in honor of the original thirteen colonies.

Photo Credit: posted to Flickr by Tony the Misfit at flickr.com/photos/
Photo source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liberty_Bell_2008.jpg

● The tune of the National Anthem was originally an English drinking song called “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The words have nothing to do with consumption of alcohol but the “melody that Francis Key had in mind when he wrote those words did originate decades earlier as the melody for a song praise of wine.”  http://www.colonialmusic.org/Resource/Anacreon.htm

READ THE DOCUMENT. THEN GO CELEBRATE THAT YOUR LIVE HERE.
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Sources:
https://parade.com/24863/kenjennings/america-101-take-our-fourth-of-july-quiz/
https://acei-global.blog/2013/07/03/20-fun-facts-about-the-4th-of-julyindependence-day/
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/july-4th
http://www.pbs.org/a-capitol-fourth/history/history-independence-day/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/fireworks-american-history_n_5552960.html
https://acei-global.blog/2013/07/03/20-fun-facts-about-the-4th-of-julyindependence-day/
http://thepioneerwoman.com/fun-and-learning/twenty-interesting-things-about4th-of-july/
http://www.rfdtv.com/story/32328872/4th-of-july-fun-facts#.WwhI_0gvzcc
2020
https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-real-independence-day-tt-0702-20190702-l3vl5kijdzci3jhbkbrecfaz2m-l3vl5kijdzci3jhbkbrecfaz2m-story.html
https://www.dtnext.in/Lifestyle/Spirituality/2018/08/13022008/1084010/What-is-the-true-meaning-of-independence.vpf
https://news.emory.edu/stories/2014/06/er_pursuit_of_happiness/campus.html
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-what-independence-day-really-means-20190704-teue64vyz5getk4jaq4v3z2qxe-story.html
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1776-1785/the-final-text-of-the-declaration-of-independence-july-4-1776.php
https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/declaration-of-independence
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1776-1785/jeffersons-draft-of-the-declaration-of-independence.php#par1
http://nashvillelife.com/Nashville-4th-of-July-Parades  
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/uc004215.jpg|
https://acei-global.blog/2013/07/03/20-fun-facts-about-the-4th-of-julyindependence-day/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liberty_Bell_2008.jpg

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WRITING A BOOK REVIEW

6/26/2020

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I’ve been thinking about adding Book Reviews to my website. Because I have not written many, I started analyzing reviews on various websites to determine what to think about while l’m reading a novel.
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The first thing I discovered is that you need a different mindset; reading for pleasure and reading to write a review are different. The second; many reviews don’t say much other than repeat what is written on the book jacket, or that the reader liked or didn’t like the book.

I needed to do some research and find out what the “experts” believe should be in a good book review.
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GENERAL GUIDELINES
After reading “how to” articles by a number of experts on book reviews, there were several things that all of them advised. Like everything else, most of the rules of thumb are just common sense – but common sense isn’t so common. Each of us needs to be reminded of every now and then. Remember, there are differences between books reviews of fiction and non-fiction. I am focusing on review of novels.

● Good Reviews are a lot of work.

● Be brief / pithy
In most cases, less than a thousand words.

● Target type and length of review to the place to be published/ sent
Goodreads, Amazon, and others have specific guidelines for reviews. Don’t use the same review for all sites. Write separate reviews.

● Prepare before reading the book
In order to write a good and complete review, you need to prepare yourself beforehand and know what you are looking for as you read.

● Review the novel you read, not the novel you wish the author had written.

● Remember, you are writing the review for the reader, not the author.

PREPARE TO READ THE NOVEL
Before reading the novel, decide whether or not you intend to write a review. Reading a novel for pleasure first, and then deciding to review either produces a less helpful review or requires more work.

● Determine how you will keep notes. It’s useful to note passages that demonstrate points in your review.

● Think about the genre of the novel and what expectations readers have for that genre. You are looking for whether or not the genre is correct.

● Consider what the title suggest to you. You may need to advise the reader.

● Be clear on what you are going to consider while you are reading the novel.

I love lists, so I have created my own checklist for these items with space to record my thoughts and examples as I read. I find the process similar to preparing to judge a context.
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​CONSIDER WHILE READING THE NOVEL
These and other appropriate questions should be kept in mind while reading. Note the places in the book which are outstanding or letdowns.

● Can you envision the setting, time period, atmosphere or mood, the season? Can you put yourself into the story?
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● What is the story about? How soon do you know what it’s about?
My own two cents: By the end of the first chapter, the reader should know what kind of novel it is, the mains characters (or at least one of them), and the first goal. The protagonists’ goals may change through the course of the novel, but there should be an initial goal.

● How is viewpoint handled and does that contribute to or detract from the story?

● Are the characters well-drawn and multi-layered? Believable? Likeable? Not particularly likeable, but intriguing? Which characters move the story?

● Is dialogue believable?

● What is the theme? How many pages does it take to really understand the theme of the novel? What elements make this apparent to the reader.

● How does the story begin: action or description? What elements are introduced to the reader in the first chapter? Is there a good hook?

● Does the genre seem to be appropriate for the story?

● Are the loose ends tied up before the end of the novel?

● Is the conclusion / resolution satisfactory?
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WRITE THE REVIEW

Gather your notes and thoughts
At this point you might want to think about your reaction to the overall experience. -- how you feel about the novel and why? Then review your notes.

● Is there a particular audience that the novel would, or would not, appeal to?

● What is the overall tone of the novel? Suspenseful? Thrilling? Melancholy? Reflective? Humorous? Pedantic? Heartfelt? This give the reader an idea of what to expect from the novel. The tone may not be spelled out, but should be clear by the tone of the review.

● How would you describe the author’s writing style?

● Is it well-edited? Are their inconsistencies in the storyline?

● Does the novel “feel” as though it needs more work?

● How does this book compare to other works of the author? Same themes?

Identify concrete examples and/or quotes which illustrate what you liked and disliked about the work.

Contents of the Review
Experts are consistent with what should be in the review, in general terms, but often define those differently.
One expert recommends the reviewer “Have an opinion. Even if your opinion is totally middle-of-the-line — you didn’t hate the book but you didn’t love it either — state that clearly, and explain why.”

● Title, author, and genre

● A brief synopsis of the storyline
Be sure to avoid major reveals or spoilers. Write in your own words and don’t just copy the book jacket. The synopsis sets the stage and gives the reader a sense of the book without explaining how the central issue is resolved.
The summary should also include (but without spoilers or story ending):
▪ The genre
▪ Theme
▪ Setting
▪ Main conflict
▪ Main characters
Exactly how much of the story should be contained in the review varies depending on the expert, but they all agree on “No spoilers”. Reedsy.com recommends not mentioning anything that happens beyond the midpoint of the novel.

● Critique / Evaluation
Dudleycourtpress.com says, “As a critical assessment, a book review should focus on opinions, not facts and details.”
A good review shares the reviewer’s good and bad experiences with the novel. Be honest but avoid being rude, offensive, and insensitive. Give an honest appraisal of the book from your perspective, and tell the reader the reasons you reacted that way. Any the considerations touched on above are appropriate for the critique, but only those that apply. Keep it short.

This is where you can use examples or quotes from the book to demonstrate what you liked and disliked.
Also, comments on the author’s other works might fit here or in recommendation, such as: “If you liked Jane Doe’s Bridges, you will enjoy River.”

● Recommendation
You don’t have to write, “I recommend…” Your opinions and recommendation should be clear by now if you have woven them into the text and selected words carefully.
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Praising the author is up to the reviewer, but only when they deserve it. Don’t sound like you are “sucking up”.
Identify which audience would appreciate the book, which wouldn’t.
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THE PITFALLS
Jay A. Fernandez, professional writer and editor, writing for Lithub.com/13-common-mistakes, lists thirteen common pitfalls in writing reviews. I’m sure there are a lot more, but keeping track of these is enough to keep you busy.

Length of the review has already been mentioned, but here are some of Fernandez’s others.
● “Grandiose claims
Beginning a review with a hyperbolic sentiment may sound good, but what does it actually mean?”
Personally, I would throw into this category of mistake statements like “This book changed my life.” I doubt that rarely happens in the short run.

● “Lack of clarity”

● “Repetitiveness and redundancy
This typically stems from your impulse to make sure the reader cannot possibly miss the incredibly insightful point you’re making.”

● “Casual narcissism
There’s a curious paradox at play with this one, and I see it all the time. Yes, you’re the one reviewing the book. Congratulations! But, for goodness sake, you don’t need to call attention to it.”

● “Over-explication of plot
Describe like dimensions of a pool without letting reader jump in the water.”
I really like this analogy.

● “Nonsensical arguments
This is not the same thing as lack of clarity, though they can overlap. One involves employing unnecessarily florid language and galloping sentence construction to obscure a perfectly good point, while the other was never a worthy point to begin with.”

● “Self-flattering literary references
I would suggest that you avoid throwing in those references to Heraclitus and Anna Akhmatova unless you’re sure they’re organic. Often they have only the most tenuous relevance to the point at hand. Their only purpose is to show the reader that you are a reviewer with a breadth of knowledge…”

● “Limiting assumptions
Let your deft description of plot and sharp analysis of the strengths and flaws of the writer’s work lead the reader to decide for themselves whether the book is going on the Buy Now list.”
This point is a bit inconsistent with advice of other experts to mention which audiences would and wouldn’t like the novel, but I strongly agree with good plot description and good analysis letting the reader decide. But what do I know?

● “Structural Seizeure
Make it flow A review that has random blocks of plot description dumped here and there, out of order, requires the reader to do too much work sussing out what’s happening.”

● “Inconsistent Pronouns
In making reference to the potential reader of the novel (and reader of the review), too often the reviewer uses a mix of pronouns that is disorienting. If you’re sometimes referencing “you” and sometimes “we” and other times “one” and somewhere else “reader” or “readers,” it’s sloppy and confusing.”
Never use “I” in a review. It is not about the reviewer. That I get, but I don’t believe readers of reviews get that confused with these “inconsistencies.” I believe some of them coming from an effort to avoid repeating the same words over and over and over.
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● “Lack of criticism
Unmitigated praise is logically absurd. Every work of writing has its weaknesses, especially once personal tastes are factored in. It is your job to point to them, in a clear-eyed but tactful (and tactical) fashion that measures the work against reasonable standards for literature and/or its genre. If the prospect of hurting an author’s feelings causes you to hesitate, that’s a good sign that you’re likely to be respectful. If you aren’t willing to run that risk at all, you oughtn’t be reviewing books.”
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​CONFLICT OF INTEREST
This is another of Fernandez’s pitfalls.
“Do not review anything by anyone you know or have had more than glancing contact with in your professional or personal life. The reason for this should be obvious. Otherwise authors may as well get their mothers to write the reviews. This goes for grudges, too.”

I believe Conflict of Interest warrants a section of its own. At one time, Amazon actually encouraged authors to have their friends use the Customer Discussions feature to promote their book, but that has changed.

Reviews by family, friends, and other authors was a hot topic for discussion among writers when Amazon came out with the policy of taking down reviews by other writers. The “handy hint” of not writing reviews for other author-friends and friends emphasized by nearly every expert of book reviews. Amazon’s current policy says, “We don't allow individuals who share a household with the author or close friends to write Customer Reviews for that author's book.”

David Wogahn, writing for Authorimprints.com/, defines the difference between customer and editorial reviews and gives an overview of what can and cannot be done in relation to reviews.
● “Customer Reviews
Reviews written by regular readers who also assign a number of stars (1-5). Most authors are referring to Customer Reviews when they reference a book's review count on Amazon.”

● “Editorial Reviews (According to Amazon)
An editorial review is a more formal evaluation of a book usually written by an editor or expert within a genre, but can also be written by family and friends.”

Sorry. Someone needs to help me understand. I find some of the suggestions about not writing reviews -- for authors you know -- a little confusing. After all, writers are also readers…big time.

However, I learned during my thirty-five years in government, that the appearance of Conflict of Interest can be damaging even if legally or ethically there is no real Conflict of Interest. If you value your reputation as a reviewer, or simply wish to avoid any “Appearance of Conflict”, regardless of real or legal conflict, then you should probably follow Jay Fernandez’s advice and simply not write those reviews.
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If you do have a connection with the author or have received an advance copy of the book to review, be honest with the reader and let them know. In any case, review and follow the book review guidelines for the intended site.
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​CONCLUSION
After researching all this, posting reviews for books I read on my website is starting to sound like a whole lot of extra work I don’t want to do.

Just sayin’.
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​Resource Links for Guidelines:
Amazon Customer Reviews (FAQs from Authors)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/customer-review-guidelines-faqs-from-authors

Amazon Community Guidelines
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/

Amazon Promotional Content
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId

Goodreads Review Guidelines
https://www.goodreads.com/review/guidelines

Author Guidelines
https://www.goodreads.com/author/guidelines

Sources:
https://readingladies.com/2019/01/12/how-i-write-a-fiction-book-review/
https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/book-reviews/
https://www.dudleycourtpress.com/amazon-reviews-how-to-write-a-good-book-review/
https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/how-to-write-a-book-review
https://lithub.com/13-common-mistakes-in-book-reviewing-and-how-to-avoid-them/
https://www.lexico.com/grammar/writing-a-fiction-or-non-fiction-review
https://www.writing-world.com/freelance/asenjo.shtml
https://www.writing.ie/guest-blogs/do-book-reviews-have-genres-too/
https://www.authorimprints.com/amazon-book-review-policy-authors/#:~:text=Amazon%20says%3A,feature%20to%20promote%20their%20book.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=amb_link_1?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201602680&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=RZ3FMMTWWMEHSZ8ZM7CG&pf_rd_r=RZ3FMMTWWMEHSZ8ZM7CG&pf_rd_t=7001&pf_rd_p=0899374c-d640-4eb5-b09a-46f41837ca2b&pf_rd_p=
https://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/customer-review-guidelines-faqs-from-authors
https://www.authorimprints.com/amazon-book-review-policy-authors/#:~:text=Amazon%20says%3A,feature%20to%20promote%20their%20book.
 

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What goes around, Comes Around: Language and Emoji

6/15/2020

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ARE HOMO SAPIENS BACK WHERE WE STARTED?
​The modern human species [Homo sapiens] evolved about 200,000 years ago in Africa. The ability to think and plan for the future, to remember and learn from the past, is what distinguishes humans as being a “higher order of consciousness.”

Researchers believe that language came into being only 100,000 years ago. [And you were worried when your child didn’t speak until age 3.]

Language, in this context, means a systematic way that members of a social group [in this case, homo sapiens] communicate with and express themselves to each other using verbal, manual, and written symbols.

The modern human species developed about 200,000 years ago. Researchers believe that language came into being only 100,000 years ago. [And you were worried when your child didn’t speak until age 3.]

​Language, in this context, means a systematic way that members of a social group [in this case, homo sapiens] communicate with and express themselves to each other using verbal, manual, and written symbols.
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​The oldest written symbols created by Homo sapiens -- discovered so far -- are the well-known cave paintings which exist on nearly every continent.

Because the oldest of ancient cave art has been dated at 64,000 years – the projected age is up for grabs depending on what you read -- it makes sense that linguists conclude verbal language developed before the written/artistic expression. That is an ongoing debate. Archeologists are always making new discoveries, and dating methodologies are becoming more versatile, sophisticated, and accurate every year.

The point is that humans presumably walked first, spoke second, and didn’t get around to written symbols until later in their evolutionary history.

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                             Lions, Chauvet Cave, France  (Courtesy Jean Clottes, Chauvet Cave Project)
                                                 Photo Source:  archaeology.org/issues/221-1607/
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​FAST FORWARD TO THE 20TH  CENTURY
Over the past 50,000 years or so, human society has come a long way.

Progress came very slowly at the earliest stages of development and population growth but began to accelerate about 1400 to become faster and faster along with technological advancements.
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The following graphs give a visual idea of the rate of population growth and technological advancement for the last 10,000 years and technological growth since 1400 AD. The indicators are fuzzy [my apologies] but the important visual aspect is the curve: the rate of growth.
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Technological growth since 1400 AD                                                                                               Population growth since 10,000 BC
Original source: Unknown                                                                                                                Photo Credit Scrapes project
Image source:whizolosophy.com/growth in technology                                                                    Photo source: scientificamerican.com/population-growth
ENTER THE COMPUTER AGE
Close to the top of the technology curve is the late 20th century when we began to use computers.

Computers initially produced text, which is only one dimension of communication. Evidently, text alone was not adequate to communicate completely.

In 1982, Scott Fahlman, professor at Carnegie Mellon, developed the emoticon because he felt user posts, specifically humor, on an internal online bulletin board were misinterpreted. Text alone didn’t effectively convey the context you get from other forms of communication: vocal tonality, hand gestures, body language, or facial expressions. [Note that emoticons are not the same as emoji.]

The need for conveying emotion did exist, and soon a proliferation of emoticons exploded on the internet, none of them consistent with the other. For example, the font Wingdings was developed and used by Microsoft. When I tried to give an example here, this platform won't accept that front. However, wingdings was not readable by me...and probably not readable by most people who were just beginning to buy and use cell phones. Emoticons, despite the name, were also unable to communicate emotion.
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At critical mass, in 1986, the Japanese stepped up to the plate with kaomojio [face characters] which convey emotion through eyes and mouth. Each character is crafted with letters, characters, and punctuations from multiple languages to extend the range of possibilities, but this system had its problems as well.
Kaomojio - Image source:
medium.com/@heytory/emojis
                                              
This was followed in the 90’s by a variety of digital smiley faces and pictograms, a different set on each platform, making them untransferable to another operating system, so to speak.

In 1987 the Unicode Consortium, a non-profit organization, was created to develop a universal character encoding scheme called Unicode. Before Unicode, there were hundreds of competing standards for text encoding, similar to the same problem pictorial symbols were facing.

RISE OF THE EMOJI
Eventually, the emoji* was born. Emoji in the strict sense refers to such pictures which can be represented as encoded characters. Any number of our modern languages use pictorial symbols for letters and words, so the concept isn’t new, but the need for this kind of written symbols originated with computer and cell phone communications. 
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In 2020, emoji are everywhere; they have taken over our lives. Back in 1999 things were different. Shigetaka Kurita, a Japanese interface designer, seeing the shortfalls of the current sets of symbols and their use, desired to design a better method of conveying complex meaning and intent. He created the first collection of 176 emoji for a Japanese internet platform I Mode.

They were so successful that other mobile carriers designed their own, which were then proprietary and couldn’t be used by other companies.                                           

                     The first and Original Set of Kurita’s Empoji                                                                                                           Shigetaka Kurita
                              Image Source: cnn.com/emoji-shigetaka-kurita                                                 Photo source: webdesignerdepot.com/history-of-emojis/    
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​Apple can be credited for popularizing the Unicode of emoji internationally by syncing its popular products and iPhones using emoji.

In 2007, a team at Google requested that the Unicode Consortium recognize and create universal standards around emoji to unify the pictograms cross-platform.

The original proposal was accepted, and 114 emoji were added to Unicode 5.2. By 2017 there were 2,666 emoji on the official Unicode Standard list.

The fact that emoji do not represent words but rather emotions lets people add emphasis through gesticulation. Essentially, by adding a gesture to a word adds a personal emotion which helps clarify the text.


IS EMOJI THE FIRST UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE?
English is often referred to as the universal language, but if you look at the numbers, that belief doesn’t hold up.

“English has 339 million native speakers, with a further 603 million speakers who use it as a second language. This means there are around 942 million more-or-less fluent speakers in the world. And with another 500-plus million users with some degree of fluency, that makes for more than 1.5 billion people alive today with proficiency in English. But here comes the undiplomatic put-down; in comparison, Emoji dwarfs even the reach of English.”
Vyv Evans [Professor of Linguistics | Language & Digital Communication Consultant | Author | Public Speaker | Broadcaster] 08-05-2017 |linkedin.com/pulse/emoji-new-universal-language

Evans statistical support of that last statement is rather overwhelming.

Fahlman, when he developed the emoticon, suggested that it might become the universal language, but it didn’t. While many agree that emoji, the offspring of emoticon, enriches communication, there are those who are withholding their opinions about it being the universal language. Just as there can be confusion between words in any language [such as flat versus apartment ] emoji can be easily misinterpreted and mean different things to different cultures, language and age groups.
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The HighSpeedInternet.com conducted a study which found the following as some of the most confusing emoji internationally. Image source: https://www.highspeedinternet.com/resources/emojis-the-universal-language-of-the-internet
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“Emoji are interesting because they’re, in some ways, symbolic of the hyper-visual present we inhabit. They’re short-cuts, if you think about it, and are deeply culturally specific,” said Harmony Siganporia, Assistant Professor teaching Culture and Communication in MICA.

And because of that countries, cultural groups, communities, even social groups have attributed certain emoji with meanings that were not originally intended. Quite a few studies have been conducted which corroborate this. In China, for example, the simple smiley face may be interpreted as a sign of sarcasm. The V for victory emoji is offensive to those in the UK; Chinese consider the hand-wave to be a snub, and the thumbs-up and horn sign have sexually explicit undertones in certain countries. Eggplants and peaches have a similar problem. Emoji are even used by gang members to set up drug deals and commit crimes.

ARE EMOJI EVEN A LANGUAGE?
My own opinion, based on my research, is that emoji have become an integral part of the internet-electronic communication language which supplements the text portion by adding emotion and/or humor. It is also a playful relief to text, which can be painfully sterile.
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​Despite their contribution to communications, emoji can’t act alone without text with the exception of certain thoughts, particularly single word responses, such as thanks, or feelings, such as I’m sad.

Without the text, more complex thoughts and communications can be misinterpreted just as easily as words. After all, text was not the primary way the vast majority of humans communicated until the printing press was invented in the 1400s. On the evolutionary time line, that’s right next door to electronic communications, emoji, and exploration of Mars.

In an obtuse way, homo sapiens have come full circle in that we still need verbal, manual, written symbols to communicate with each other. The only difference is that we’re communicating on a different, much higher platform.

Just sayin’.
□

*Note: The word emoji can be singular or plural, but apparently discussions between linguists are moving toward plural.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji
https://medium.com/@heytory/emojis-the-complete-history-6dc81a330144
https://www.todaytranslations.com/about/language-history/emoji-language-history/https:/www.todaytranslations.com/about/language-history/emoji-language-history/
https://zapier.com/blog/use-emoji/
https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2016/10/the-surprising-history-of-emojis/
https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/universal-language-or-culturally-specific-symbols-what-do-emojis-really-mean-1796371.html#:~:text=Many%20have%20said%20that%20emojis,can't%20read%20or%20write.
https://www.highspeedinternet.com/resources/emojis-the-universal-language-of-the-internet
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20151012-will-emoji-become-a-new-language
https://www.languageinsight.com/blog/2019/is-emoji-becoming-a-global-language/#:~:text=The%20word%20Emoji%20comes%20from,modern%2Dday%2C%20global%20language.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/emoji-new-universal-language-its-making-us-better-vyv-evans#:~:text=Emoji%20is%2C%20today%2C%20incontrovertibly%20the,highly%20instructive%20point%20of%20departure.
https://medium.com/@Wolfestone/the-full-circle-from-caveman-paintings-language-to-emojis-f0f92ee5c2
https://blog.frontiersin.org/2018/03/07/language-cave-art-mit/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/02/acoustic-caves-rock-art-language-origin-spd/#:~:text=Representing%20Thought,date%20back%20roughly%2040%2C000%20years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Maltravieso
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-population-growth-creeps-back-up/https:/charnaflamscrapesproject.weebly.com/%22
https://whizolosophy.com/category/today-s-world-projecting-tomorrow/gallery-charts-graphs/accelerating-growth-in-technology
https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2016/10/the-surprising-history-of-emojis/
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/emoji-shigetaka-kurita-standards-manual/index.html
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/221-1607/trenches/4551-trenches-france-chauvet-dating  



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salute to old glory

6/12/2020

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I PLEDGE ALLIEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Flag Day, celebrated on June 14, commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States which occurred on June 14, 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.
 
Flag Day is not only to celebrate its creation, but to acknowledge the ideals behind it. It is a time to pay respect to what's become part of American iconography.
 ▲The Flag adopted by The Flag Resolution
 2nd Continental Congress, June 14, 1777
Photo source: http://www.davidcourreges.com/usflag.html​

The 1777 resolution, adopted during the American Revolution, states that “the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white” and that “the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” Our “stars and stripes” was based on the “Grand Union” flag, a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of 13 red and white stripes.

AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS
Like our country, our flag is a work in progress. Changes have occurred periodically as needed. Each time a state is added to the United States the number of stars is changed to reflect the number of states. The stripes now remain at thirteen representing the original thirteen colonies.
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The Second Flag Act”, 3rd Congress, 1st Session,
January 13, 1794
“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, That from and after the first day of May, Anno Domini, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, the flag of the United States, be fifteen stripes alternate red and white. That the Union be fifteen stars, white in a blue field.”

 ▲The Second Flag Act”, 3rd Congress, 1st Session, January 13, 1794
Photo source: http://www.davidcourreges.com/usflag.html
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The Third Flag Act”, 15th Congress, 1st Session,
April 4, 1818
"STATUTE I, CHAP. XXXIV - An Act to establish the flag of the United States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That from and after the fourth day of July next, the flag of the United States be thirteen horizontal stripes,
 ▲Third Flag Act, 15th Congress, April 4, 1818           alternate red and white: that the union be twenty stars, white in a blue field.
Photo source: http://www.davidcourreges.com/usflag.html
​
 SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That on the admission of every new state into the Union, one star be added to the union of the flag; and that such addition shall take effect on the fourth day of July then next succeeding such admission.”
You'll notice each time something is changed, the text becomes more long-winded.
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Executive Order 1556, William Howard Taft, June 24, 1912
​At this point the Executive order becomes very specific about size, height of poles, and a lot of detail that probably went into the Flag Code later on.

◄Executive Order 1556, William Howard Taft, June 24, 1912
Photo source: http://www.davidcourreges.com/usflag.html
​

ONE NATION, UNDER GOD
Although Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777, the “observance” of the flag took about a century. There are a variety of stories and opinions about who started the tradition.

No harm, no foul. Obviously, more than one person can come up with the same or similar idea.

● 1861 - Hartford, Connecticut claims the first celebration.

● 1885 – Grade school teacher Bernard J. Cigrand organized, for his students, the first recognized formal observation of a Flag Day at the Stony Hill School, Waubeka, Wisconsin, to celebrate the flag’s birthday. It was held every year after, and the observance caught on with individual communities and spread rapidly. Apparently, Cigrand had tried for a long time to convince the Congress to declare June 14 as a national holiday.

● 1897 – Governor of New York orders the display of the US flag on all public buildings.

● 1889 - The most recognized claim for initiating Flag Day, according to Wikipedia, came in 1889 from George Bloch, principal of a free kindergarten for the poor of New York City. Bloch had his school hold patriotic ceremonies to observe the anniversary of the Flag Day resolution. This initiative attracted attention from the State Department of Education, which arranged to have the day observed in all public schools thereafter.

Ironically, the man upon whom the honor of being known as the “Father of Flag Day” was bestowed, is William T. Kerr. He is credited for founding The American Flag Day Association in 1888 while he was still a schoolboy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (I don’t know who gave him recognition as the Father of the American Flag.)
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It always takes time to get things done.

Finally, both President Wilson, in 1916, and President Coolidge, in 1927, issued proclamations asking for June 14 to be observed as the National Flag Day. It wasn’t until August 3, 1949, that a National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress. However, ​Flag Day is not an official federal holiday.

◄140th U.S. Flag Day poster.
Artist unknown – US Library of Congress
Photo Source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day
 
INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL
The flag represents the ideals of the United Stated and what it represents, and should be honored and respected as such. How's that working out? 

Yes, Virginia, There Really Is A Flag Code
Why are you not surprised? We have laws and codes for just about everything imaginable.
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True to form, there are conflicting references to the law itself. USFlag.org references Public Law 829 as the "Flag Code". However, in a report to Congress entitled The United States Flag: Federal Law Relating to Display and Associated Questions [April 14, 2008] states that "This report presents, verbatim, the United States in Title 4 of the United States Code and the section of Title 36 which designates the Star-Spangled Banner as the national anthem and provides instructions on how to display the flag…"                                                                             Image Source: sctimes.com/do-you-know-flag-code ▲   

Who knew? ​But onward! Another reference on the website https://www.legion.org/flag/flagmyths says, "The 77th Congress adopted this codification of rules as public law on June 22, 1942. It is Title 4, United States Code Chapter One."

The Meaning Of The US Flag
While the code does not articulate any definition of what the flag is supposed to mean, it is generally thought of as representing the principles of liberty, justice, and humanity, and the patriotic ideals and spiritual qualities of the citizens of the US.

FLAG MYTHS
​Most Americans know a little about the US flag. Some remember that the thirteen stripes in white and red represent the thirteen colonies and the stars on the field of blue represent the union of the states under one federal government. Also, we all have heard, been taught, learned, that Betsy sewed the first US Flag. There are a number of myths, or at least misinterpretations, related to the US Flag.
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● Betsy Ross Made The First American Flag
That’s what I was taught back in the day. In those days, if it was in print, it had to be correct, right? ​Wrong. There is no historic evidence that Elizabeth Claypoole [her maiden name] Ross was involved in either the design or production of the flag that made its debut in 1777.

It appears that this myth found fertile ground in 1870 when Betsy Ross' grandson, William Canby, first made this claim [100 years later].

▲Metal Print of Illustration of Betsy Ross Sewing The American Flag; Artist unknown. Photo source: fineartamerica.com/george-washington-watching
                                                                                             The Great Seal of the United States of America; Photo Source: https://www.greatseal.com/ ▼
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​● The Red, White, And Blue Symbolize American Sacrifice.
Nothing in the statues mentions an official reason or explanation for the colors of our flag. When people say the colors symbolize something, they are probably referring to the explanation given by Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress, about the meaning of the colors in the Great Seal of the United States which are also red, white, and blue. Thomson's report to the Congress in 1782, says the "white signifies purity and innocence; red, hardiness and valor; and blue signifies vigilance, preservation, and justice."
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● It has always illegal to burn the American Flag
Burning the flag was illegal until 1989, when the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 in Texas v. Johnson that burning the flag is a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court’s decision invalidated a 1968 national flag-desecration law, as well as similar laws in 48 states (all except Wyoming and Alaska).

In response, Congress passed the Flag Protection Act, but that law was also challenged and wound up in the Supreme Court. The court in 1990 essentially affirmed its earlier ruling, stating that any law banning flag burning violated free speech. Thus, in 2020, burning the flag is still legal, although there are those in Congress currently attempting to change that. 

● It's Okay To Wear Clothing Depicting The American Flag
Wait! Don't buy that T-shirt yet. The US Flag Code states the flag "should not" be displayed on any article of merchandise. [Other references say the words are "Shall never".]
.The Code also states that the flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever and goes on to say specify a number of things. Technically, if you wear garments or use beach towels bearing replicas of the US Flag, you are violating the Flag Code.

Don't worry! The law doesn't have any provisions for enforcement, so are there are no Flag Police lurking around the corner to fine you. However, we should respect the flag, and I don't believe that last photo shows a lot of respect...a lot of everything else, but not respect.

● The Pledge of Allegiance has been recited in Congress and other governmental bodies for a long time
The Pledge was written by Francis Bellamy [a magazine editor] in 1892, and was recited in public schools before 1898. The Pledge wasn't recited on the floor of the House of Representatives until 1988. The Senate began using it as part of the opening ritual in 1999.

● The US Has 51 [or 52?] States
The good old USA has only 50 states. The last one added was Hawaii in 1959. Apparently, some people [mostly outside the US] believe that the federal District of Columbia, Washington DC, is a state, which it is not. Others may include the unincorporated territories like Puerto Rice, Guam, and American Samoa, to name just a few.
​
The flag code does prohibit the display a US flag with fewer than 50 states. However, any officially approved American flag, irrespective of the number or arrangement of the stars and/or stripes may continue to be used and displayed until no longer serviceable.

MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL
Respect the flag and treat it properly.□
 
Sources:
http://www.answers.com/Q/What_does_the_United_States_Flag_Represent
http://www.usflag.org
https://www.nyhistory.org/web/crossroads/gallery/all/pewterers_banner.html
https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL30243.pdf
http://search.excite.com/excite8/search/web?fcoid=417&fcop=topnav&fpid=27&q=flag%20etiquette
https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/flag-day
http://www.debunkingmandelaeffects.com/51-or-52-states-in-the-united-states-of-america/
https://www.legion.org/flag/flagmyths
https://www.reference.com/geography/51-states-fa0d9935e4f12b61
https://www.aflag.com/flag-etiquette/
https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/celebrate/flagdisplay.pdf
http://mentalfloss.com/article/547248/rules-displaying-american-flag
https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-mean-if-the-US-flag-is-upside-down
https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/use-of-american-flag-as-car-cover-sparks-neighborhood-debate/article_e17bc242-6433-11e1-ad0c-0019bb2963f4.html
https://www.greatseal.com/
https://www.nbc-2.com/story/36587395/condo-resident-being-threatened-with-lawsuit-for-hanging-american-flag
https://www.congress.gov/109/plaws/publ243/PLAW-109publ243.pdf
http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/betsyross.html
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/vintage-illustration-of-george-washington-watching-betsy-ross-sew-the-american-flag-american-school.html?product=metal-print
2020 Research
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0614/Flag-Day-What-are-the-rules-for-displaying-an-American-flag
https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/celebrate/flagday.pdf
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/14/us/flag-day-2019-trnd/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_(United_States)
http://www.davidcourreges.com/usflag.html
https://www.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2018/05/19/do-you-know-flag-code/619047002/
conclusion



​
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national Donut Day

6/5/2020

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​Put Your Hands Together for the Donut Dollies
The first Friday in June is National Donut Day. The purpose of a national day dedicated to donuts is not to remind us of good health practices, or lack thereof, but to honor the ladies of the Salvation Army who first served donuts to the soldiers on the front lines during WWI.
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Photo source: news.salvationarmynorth.org/dough-front-lines
In 1917, 250 women volunteers from the Salvation Army went to Europe during WWI to serve home cooked meals to the soldiers on the front lines. They set up service huts in abandoned buildings to cook, mend clothing, provide writing supplies and stamps, and provide medical assistance.

One day in France two of the Salvation Army officers, Helen Purviance and Margaret Sheldon, decided to make a surprise for the soldiers. They made sweet dough and patted it into shape by hand, but later discovered they could use a wine bottle as a rolling pin. Since they had no doughnut cutter, the lassies used a knife to cut the dough into strips and then twisted them into crullers

Frying them was back-breaking work using an 18” potbellied wood stove. Someone had to lean over and tend it constantly to keep the temperature even for frying. Finally Ensign Purviance ended up kneeling in front of the stove for hours. They worked nearly all night but managed to make only 150 doughnuts. The next day they doubled the count. With better equipment and more help, the ladies fried as many as 9,000 donuts daily.​
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    Ensign Purviance and helpers                          Ensign Stella Young                                  Doughnut Dollies
    Photo Credits: Various from the actual “dollies”                                                                                   Photo source: worldwar1.com/dbc/doughnut.htm 
The story goes that several soldiers asked for donuts with holes. An elderly French blacksmith devised a donut cutter from the top of a can of condensed milk for Ensign Purviance. Soon the Salvation Army ladies were known as the “Doughnut Girls” or “Doughnut Dollies” or “Doughnut Lassies.”
​
In 1938, the Salvation Army decided to honor these proclaimed "doughnut lassies" by recognizing an annual pastry holiday that could also raise awareness (and money) for their charitable efforts. National Doughnut Day was born.

  ▼Cover of the Salvation Army Magazine "War Cry" November 9, 1918, depicting "Doughnut Dollies"
Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain - Photo Source: mentalfloss.com/national-doughnut-day
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​ANCESTORS OF THE DONUT
The origin of the donuts is not clear cut. There seem to be numerous versions of where and how the food originated and, probably, most of them have a basis in truth. What people eat has to do with available materials and technology at the time.

Ideas or inventions, and recipes, do happen through pure synchronicity of thought. Two people are trying to solve the same problem with the same basic available knowledge, and come up with the same or similar answer.

Donuts are basically made from sweetened flour dough which has been fried. There are cake donuts and yeast-raised donuts, usually enhanced with fruit, sugar, honey, cream or other food stuffs. Just about every corner of the world has a local equivalent of the donut made in a similar manner, although not necessarily in the same shapes.
​
​  ▼Dutch olykoek (oily cake) - Photo source: wikiwand.com/doughnut_varieties
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The earliest origins to the modern doughnuts are generally traced back to the olykoek ("oil(y) cake") Dutch settlers brought with them to early New York (or New Amsterdam). These doughnuts closely resembled later ones but did not yet have their current ring shape. One of the earliest mentions of "doughnut" was in Washington Irving's 1809 book A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. Wikipedia presents an extensive list of donuts from around the world.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_doughnut_varieties.

I’ve listed below some of those taken from Wikipedia which have different ingredients, going back to food stuffs that were available in that location in the past, and those with different shapes.

Today, just about every country has what Americans call donuts and refer to them as “donuts” or another word in their language. I didn’t list those. A donut is a donut is a doughnut. Also, all of these countries have a wide variety of donut variations, not just the one shown below.
_________________________________________________________________________      South Africa            Croatia                  China                    China                    India
      Koeksister              Hroštule / Kroštule     Gaoli dousha/ Jung       Mandarin  yóutiáo               Gulgula  
                                       Favored with zest, orange         Meringue filled w/ red bean paste,                                                    Sweetened deep-fried
                                                      liqueur, or limoncello.                made w/ egg whites, not dough.                                                                  flour balls  
       Indonesia                    Iran                       Iran                 Macedonia             Malaysia
     Donat kentang         Zoolbia / Zulbia                   Bamiyeh                       Mekici                          Kuih keria  
    Ring shaped fritter made w/                                                                                                                                                        Ring shaped fritter made w/ flour 
     flour and mashed potato                                                                                                                                                                   and mashed sweet-potato
__________________________________________________________________________________________________ 
        Nepal                    Italy                   Vietnam                   Spain           Caribbean Area 
          Sel roti                        Struffoli                       Bánh cam                         Churro                         Kurma
​Ring shaped rice doughnut       Made with Potatoe dough        Deep-fried, filled with mung
prepared for Hindu Festivals                                                         bean paste, a vegan/ vegetarian
                                                                                                         substitute for whipping cream.
     Costa Rica ​            Lithuania              Germany              Romania              Japan                  Puntarenas                   Varškės spurges             Berliner                         Gogoși                   Pon de Ring
​ Somehow the consistency             Filled with Cottage Cheese        Everywhere in Germany these                                           Eight separate balls attached,
   of dough keeps cream                                                                   are called Berliners except in Berlin.                                        made of tapioca flour and  
   inside in liquified state                                                             There they are called Pfannkuchen, Pancakes                                     and wheat flour
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Sources:
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-doughnut-day-first-friday-in-june/
http://www.holidayscalendar.com/event/national-donut-day/
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/88294/why-are-there-two-national-doughnut-days
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughnut
http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/doughnut.htm
https://news.salvationarmynorth.org/2013/06/a-taste-of-history-fried-dough-front-lines-the-salvation-army/
https://athenshistory.org/national-donut-day-june-2nd-2/
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Bite/2015/0604/National-Doughnut-Day-The-surprising-origins-of-America-s-most-American-holiday
http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/doughnut.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughboy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughnut
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_doughnut_varieties



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