Birds of prey are preying

 

Movies I watched in 2022

2022 isn't a full return to form for the movie industry, but it's a good few steps forward.  There was still a significant period of time for me where I just wasn't interested to see any movie in the theaters for weeks, if not months.  Overall, though, I saw quite a number of movies.  This won't be a review, per se.  I'm just going to list what I saw with links for streaming if someone else wishes to see them now.

Joie doesn't know where we are going, but...

Joie just wants to go!

Palm tree backlit by the Moon at night

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClnTLINrbZC/

A flight over there (Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and other)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClhZjq5L2JN/

Thanksgiving Squirrel

This Thanksgiving squirrel is thankful that my dogs cannot climb trees. As Toebzilla and Joie barked from different points around the tree, this little guy scooched around to hide behind the trunk.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClWq41jP4aK/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

EDIT: So, who know?  #thanksgivingsquirrel is apparently a thing on Instagram.  Not a big thing, but there's more than a few postings with this hashtag, going back to 2013; with the first post resembling a bigfoot photo.  And, there's even some activity on twitter.  Fun!

Port Gardner Bay - Sun is setting low, big guy and the colors are beautiful.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci_gvhlLeDF 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci_g3luL4Dt/

Duane and Mary Acheson Bench is the perfect place to rest on the way back up the hill on this hike

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci55MDPPb9J/

A view of three tiers at Haines Wharf Park in Edmonds, WA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ciqrum4PohS/

Banana Cream and Mint Chip on a Waffle Cone for my first visit and the last day of this ice cream parlor's season

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CiqibBUvf9J/?hl=en

In N Out Burger in the snow

"Face Plant" @ Summit House Restaurant

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CaxcgDbPLTg/

Crystal Mountain Resort @ Mt. Rainier

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CasidovvQ9U/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CasjbkfviUH/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CaszvxHvJnz/

Evidence of a fox that uses my yard as its own personal highway

Backyard (Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZkfcdFFbJs/)

Crossing the driveway

Telegram is still a thing, and it's an interesting holdover

I recently made a Facebook post about the pager network.  I pointed out that the Flex and reFlex protocols used by the pager network will still be running long after 2G, 3G and 4G are gone. (See below for the sunset schedule.)  It's weird that this old 90's tech will still be in operation after several generations of the cellular network are gone.  (See Old School: Pager Code for look-a-like codes and Beep Codes list for common standard 3 digit codes.)

What's weirder than that?  Telegraph networks are still operating.  That means a system originally started in 1840's will outlast several generations of the cellular network!  Wow!

Now, I must admit that I recently discovered telegrams are still a thing in the 21st Century from a Youtube video.

So, you know what I did?  I sent a xmas message via telegram to my friend.  And, I learned a few things about the process along the way.  Despite operating completely through a website (as all things must), it appears the process still has manual nuances.  For example, any type of special instructions must be typed into the either the address field or other special field, in specific ways.  There's no website checkboxes for many types of instructions, such as stating a delivery date or specifying to only deliver to the addressee.

My friend's telegram was sent by me in November, and slated for delivery yesterday.  However, it appears to have been delivered a day late.  I guess there's numerous possible reasons for the one day delay.  Either way, my friend is very delighted by this unique gift (well, unique for the 21st Century).  

Now, I didn't use iTelegram, which apparently is the successor to Western Union's telegraph service.  I think if I need to send a telegram as a legal document in the future, I would use iTelegram since they provide substantial proof of delivery.

In other news,

Upcoming cellular network sunsets from T-Mobile (some of these services have already been shut down by other carriers): [Edit: this schedule is outdated, as end dates have been pushed out.]

• 2G was already dropped most major services some time ago, but still hangs on with T-Mobile.  They'll be shutting it down in 2023.
• 3G is actually getting shut down before 2G, at the end of 2021.
• 4G is also getting shut down before 4G, sometime during 2022.

A wikipedia article all grown up: Brine Pools

I was watching some nature show back in the mid-aughts that covered the topic of the ocean floor.  This show mentioned the geological formation called brine pool.  Brine pools are amazing "lakes" of brine at the bottom of the ocean.  The water of a brine pool is separated from the ocean above due to the pool's extreme salinity.  Brine pools even have their own surface upon which objects can float.  Imagine this: a submarine floating on top of a brine pool at the bottom of the ocean.

So, why all this talk about brine pools now?  Well, at that time, I was interested to learn more about them.  Upon searching the topic on the Internet, I found nearly nothing.  Wikipedia didn't even have an article about brine pools.  That means it was up to me to create the article.  The only thing I had to go on was what I remembered from the nature show.  So, all I could say was this:

"Brine pools have been discovered at on the ocean floor near methane vents. Lifeforms around these pools do not depend on the sun for energy."

That's it.  That was the whole article.  It's dangerous (metaphorically) to add articles to Wikipedia.  Wikipedia is a vicious and uncaring environment with nearly draconian rules about what can stay and what must be removed.  It's doubly risky (again, metaphorically) to create an article with only one sentence for a topic that isn't well know.  The final risk is posting such an article without any citations.  

By some miracle, the brine pool Wikipedia article grew.  This happened due to other editors adding more detail and cited sources.  Images were added soon after.  I kept an eye on the article and helped edit it further from time to time until late 2010.  At that time, the article grew to include a couple of images and three subheadings, each with a short paragraph.  By the Wikipedia measure, it was "2,960 bytes".  

2010 is around the time I stopped editing on Wikipedia in general, but for no other reason than I just got too busy.  So, I forgot about this little article over time.  It wasn't forgotten by others, though.  The article had a moderate number of edits between 2010 and 2017.  Its size grew to a modest 3,410 bytes by the middle of 2018.  

In August of 2018, according to the article's history, something weird happened.  An anonymous editor added a new subheading with a rather large paragraph.  The problem with this edit was that the subject of the subheading had nothing to do with brine pools, but was actually about the land formation of artificial brine sinks.  The edit appears to have been made in good faith by someone who did not understand the topic of brine pools.  After some back-and-forth edits, the incorrect subheading was removed by other editors.  After that, edits to the article went quiet until September last year.

It appears that someone familiar with the topic of brine pools added a ton of detail in Fall of 2020.  Edits by others quickly followed.  The article ballooned to 10,269 bytes, then again to 21,471 bytes.  Over the past year, the article has received regular and quality edits.  It's turned into a good article about the subject.  The current version of the article is 28,184 bytes with five well flushed-out subheadings and tons of cited sources.  Of course, a lot new information has been discovered about brine pools in the past 15 years, which may have something to do with the explosion of information added to the article.  Most of the cited scientific studies were published since the inception of the brine pool article.

How did I suddenly remember this little article that could?  Literally yesterday, a related geological formation, called cold seep, showed up in a news feed.  Cold seeps are associated with one of the three methods that form brine pools.  So, I was reminded about the article I created all those years ago.  I checked out the brine pool article, and it is glorious (hyperbole, of course).  

I'm glad I was able to contribute in some small way to the dissemination of scientific knowledge.  I've created many other Wikipedia articles, but this one seems to be the most impactful.

One side note, I've actually referenced Wikipedia a lot over the years!  Check out this search: Wikipedia search.

#Edmonds shoreline near the #kingstonferrytoedmonds

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUQyAHtPzCN/

#margarita @ #azulrestaurantandlounge in #MillCreekWa #millcreekwashington

 

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Pasta Picnic at Picnic Point Park facing Puget Sound

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CT0CkqQF4hp/

Tis the season of #grapes 🍇 and #gourds 🎃

 

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