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Since I am nearly convalesced from  my;      LAPARASCOPIC PARASOPHAGEAL HIATAL HERNIA REPAIR AND NISSEN FUNDOPLICATION  I may be able to get a Blog out once in a while . However, I am still dealing with OLD AGE (90).

A TOUCHING STORY

Ways of touching; Most of these may become obsolete?

USA                 Handclasp, shaken

                        High Five

                        Hug (worst)

French             Kiss Bot Cheeks

                        Say Chp\ou

           

Italian               Say Chou?

English            ?

Dutch              ?

Danish             ?

Russian           ?

Mexican           ?

Canadian         ?

 FROM MERDE.COM

I received his from a friend and had to pass it on. It seems the Brits have a beer understanding of words than we do.  Writer is named Nate White and this was posted on a blog-stite called MERDE,com. (mere means shit in French) This is a slightly biased view of our current World Leader (King Trump).

MERDE.COM. (Nate White)

A few things  spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no-class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility , no compassion, no wit,, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no-self awareness, no humility, no honor, and no grace.  All qualities, funnily enough, which his predecessor Mr, Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump's limitations  into embarrassingly sharp relief.

  Plus, we like a laugh, and while Trump may be laughable, he has never said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing  not once, ever.  Don't say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally, not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to that British sensibility, - for us , to lack humor is almost inhuman.

  But with Trump, it's a fact. He doesn't even seem to understand what a joke is, - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

  Trump is a troll. And like all trolls he is never funny and never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn't just talk in crude, witless insults - he thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like- algorithm of Peter-prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

  There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. , it's all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly up front. Well, we don't. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All heroes are plucky underdogs; Robin Hood, Dick Wittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky nor an underdog. he is exact opposite of that. He's not even spoiled rich-boy.  Or a greedy fat-cat. he's more a fat white slug, a Jabba the Hut of privilege.

  And worse, he is that most unforgivable off all things British , a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transform into a sniveling sidekick instead . There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.  

   So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps third - Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think " Yeah, he swears like my kind of guy" is a mater of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

*Americans are supposed to. Be nicer than us, and mostly are:

*  You don't need a particular keen eye for detail topsoil flaws in the man.

   This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people and other people too, his faults seem to pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it's impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence ot two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless int an art form, he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakesphere of shit. Hi faults have flaws, also so on infinitude. God knows there have to be alwsys been stupid people in fact, if   Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled from human flaws,- he would make a Trump.

120 BLOG BOOK REPORT

LOGITUDE  by Dan Sobel

1668  Surveyors and cartographers  figured out that you could determine your Longitude anywhere on the oceans if you knew the time back in Greenwich , England. This motivated John Harrison, a mere English woodworker, to begin his quest  to put together what we call a watch.

1610   A life pension I ducats by King Phillip III of Spain was offered as an incentive.

1707  After 2,000 men died on the Scillies rocks in Southern England, the search heated up.

1668 Tables printed by Domenico Cassini (U. of Bologna) .

But kind of sketchy at best .

1666  - Founded French Academies des Sciences w/ Jean Colbert to solve Longitude Problem.

                Imported Christian Huygens (Charter Member)

@ Paris Observatory, Danish astronomer Ole Roemer made his discoveries; the eclipse of all four Jovian satalites would occur ahead of schedule when Earth came closest to Jupiter in its orbit around the Sun.

This changed the concept of speed of light, to be measured by men.

   Takes a long distance to get the speed of light, not just from the next hill.

1675    Measured speed of light to be 300,000 kilometers per second (Only slightly underestimated).

Observatory @ Greenwich, England established to rectify and diligence of “Tables of Motions for care and diligence of “Tables of Motions of the Heavens” in order to find Longitudes.

  1637   Galileo applied the pendulum problem & plans for 1^st pendulum to assisting the navigator to determine his Longitude.

Huygens invented spiral balance spring as an alternative to pendulum for setting clocks, he patented it in France in 1673 Hooke was a surveyor & builder of steam  engineer,was ineresed in other things, cause of earthquakes, actions of springs.

An Idea!  Set up cannons at 600 miles apart, fire at particular times. Great idea if they had known that the ocean was 2,0000 to 2,459 fathoms deep, not just 300 fathoms.

1714  England offered rich prize for anyone to come up with the solution, about 20,000 pounds (Millions in today’s currency). For a accuracy of 3 sec/day which equals about  ½  degree or 2 minutes.

Flamsteed had ben mapping the heavens for 40 years & not released his data. (it was called “The Lunar System”)

John Harrison bult H-1 mostly of wood Carpentry (Learned from his father). John’s son took over after his father’s death.

1715   Jon  also built H1, H2 & H3 in 1715  1717

It it good to remember that the pursuit of Longitude was the great challenge of that time.

Harrison spent the nexr 5 years piecing together the first Sea Clock H1. It marked the first in a series of attempts, all wood, small amount of brass & balances. It  weighred about 75 pounds. And  4’ in all directions but it was virtually friction free!, no oiling involved.

He had a difficult time getting taken on board to make a trial use ,  the Royal Society thought H2, if it was a mechanisim was OK ,but it  did not pass muster with the builder, Harrison.

In 1731, two inventors, English & American,( created independently,) developed the Quadrent (or-Octant) and were able to find Latitude + Longitude, but it took about four hours time plus a knowledge of the tables soon to be published. (See Thacker). It defined the distance between  celestial objectts  (mostly at night?)  .  Flanmsteed had made about 30,000 observations!   They were started by Tyco Brahe of Denmark earlier.

1720-42   Halley moved to the Island of St. Helena to plot the moon & stars.  Rather difficult as the sky was usually overcast.

The user of the Lunar Method had to master Math and Astronomy or gain vast experience in the use of it.

1750  - H4  Harrisons Masterpiece  It took him 13 years to build ( It had 753 separate parts), mostly wood.  

H-3 was 2’ high, 12” wide,   H-3 could meet requirements   of ship shape.

Reverend Maskelyne was the “boogie man” here, as he supported the Lunar Method.

                                (Astronomy + Optics)

1761 – Harrison Works with Charles Mason & Jeremiah Dixon for 2 years before their famous Mason/Dixon line between Penn. & Maryland

Capt. Cook carried one of the Hs’ chronometers  one of his voyages as a test case (trial).

Harrison presented to the Board of Longitude in the summer of 1760. It lost only 5 seconds after 81 days at sea!

However, the Board needed more convincing  before giving out 20, 0000 pounds.

1766   He actually got the  OK for the last 10,000 from the
Board but not actually giving him the money.

I DON'T KNOW IF THEY EVER DID.