Villach, Austria – Kirchtag, 1975

Posted on December 5, 2013 by The Old Wolf

Villach, Austria is located in the state of Kärnten (Carinthia) in the South, and is situated on the Drau river. It is an important traffic hub for the entire region of southern Austria and the Alpe-Adria area. It is also beautiful – I lived there from February to August of 1975, and while I was there I was privileged to experience Villacher Kirchtag, one of Austria’s largest cultural festivals.

Kirchtag (literally “church day,” but encompassing more of a summer harvest festival than anything else) was begun on 1 August, 1936. It begins on the first Saturday in August and runs for a week. The annual Trachtenfestzug (regional costume parade) that takes place on the first day can attract 40,000 to 50,000 spectators.

Below, for your viewing pleasure, the photos I took of the event in 1975.

To the Amusement Park

Rides

Fireworks

Parade

Local clergy

Parade

Hauptplatz festivities

More Fireworks

Ferris Wheel

Amusement park

Parade

Making a point

Parade

Dancing girls

Spook Alley

Parade

Crowds gather to watch the parade

Hauptplatz

Parade

Looking towards the train station

Folk Dancing

Parade

Hauptplatz again

Looking the other way

Parade

Local costume

Oh my God it’s a bear get in the car!

Parade

Local color of a different kind.

Music everywhere

My Kirchtag-ID, similar to today’s concert or event wristbands.

Our little meeting house was on the second floor of one of the buildings along Hauptplatz, giving us a front-row seat for all the festivities. I love Villach, and I have enjoyed every chance to get back.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Snake Oil Trade Cards

Posted on December 4, 2013 by The Old Wolf

Back in the day, worthless patent medicines with outrageous claims were marketed shamelessly to the gullible public.

Front

Back

Found at the UCLA Digital Library

Good thing we’ve come so far beyond those times.

Oh, wait…

The Old Wolf has spoken

Ms fnd in a lbry… real-time

Posted on December 4, 2013 by The Old Wolf

I previously posted about Hal Draper’s delightful mathematical science-fiction story – the only one he ever wrote – about the challenges of storing and indexing data in ever smaller spaces, requiring ever-larger retrieval indices. But back in 1966, librarians were taking stock of their growing inventories of information, and turning to computers to lend a helping hand… uh, transistor.

1966. “To the rescue. Many librarians believe computers are the only means to effectively cope with their bulging bookshelves.” New York World-Telegram and Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Library of Congress. Found at Shorpy.

This photo was taken three years before I took my first FORTRAN class, on a Univac 1108. The advances I have seen in technology in my lifetime rival what my grandparents experienced moving from horse-and-buggy days to the advent of commercial jets, from radio to television. My smartphone has more processing power than the IBM 370/138 I worked on as a graduate student; I always wonder with white-hot curiosity what my grandchildren will be experiencing.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Commerce on the streets of Naples

Posted on December 3, 2013 by The Old Wolf

“The alleys are a self-sufficient microcosm.”

My previous posting of the umbrella repairman reminded me that there are countless other ways that people made a living in Naples, many of them without license or government sanction. Whatever you could do, you could probably find a market for your services.

These photos depict Naples in the 60s. Unless otherwise noted, quoted text and images are from “La Città Parla – Napoli” (1969, Casa Editrice A. Morano di Napoli)

Mattress-maker

Knife Grinder

Bra vendor

“Scaccia-malocchio”

The “scaccia-malocchio'” (or “guastafatture”) drops by various retailers to practice a ritual with his censer in order to ward off the evil eye. He is sometimes paid for his interventions.

Repairing cigarette lighters

Scrivano pubblico – the public scribe. Many Neapolitans remain functionally illiterate, and these people serve a valuable function.

Selling home-made kazoos.

Water-Seller

Water-seller

“The ‘pizza oggi ad otto’ (pizza today to eight) is eaten today and paid for in eight days. The wandering pizza vendor is also the bill collector. In eight days you can eat another pizza, which you will pay for sixteen days later. The vendor requires no written invoices – he trusts you… or rather, he trusts that you will be hungry again in eight days.”

Cigarette black market in the alleys – all tobacco and salt trade is regulated by the government. “American Cigarettes” are manufactured from recycled cigarette butts.

Wandering paladins singing historical ballads.

Candy Vendor

“Impaglia-seggie” – re-caning chairs

Used Shoe Market

“For those who know that elegance begins (not ends) with shoes, buying used shoes for an entire lifetime can be an all-consuming frustration. This is why the sun of the wildest ambition is sometimes seen reflecting brightly from the shiny toes of a pair of patent-leather shoes… brand new ones.”

Graziella was born in 1864. She is seen here 100 years later, selling taralli in Santa Lucia.
Image from The Italians, Face of a Nation by John Phillips.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Mathematical Fiction Re-discovered on the Internet

Posted on November 29, 2013 by The Old Wolf

I learned to love Science Fiction as a child; the first story I read was “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel,” by Robert Heinlein. I was hooked at once. Over the years I have read thousands of novels and stories, many of them remembered only in bits and snatches from decades ago.

Thanks to the Internet, many of my favorite stories have re-surfaced, indexed by the all-powerful Google – which makes this post somewhat meta in nature.

One such story was the delightful “MS Fnd in a Lbry“, written in 1961 by Hal Draper. My mother’s name was Draper, but this was a name adopted by the family to avoid anti-semitism, so there is unfortunately no relation.

Draper took a break from his life’s work of promoting Marxism, and wrote one science fiction story. The information explosion, and associated storage and retrieval problems, is humorously examined in this short story. (This story is also of historical interest, containing one of the earliest predictions of the Web.) The story originally appeared in the December 1961 issue of the magazine Fantasy and Science Fiction. Reprinted in Isaac Asimov and Janet Jeppson (eds) Laughing Space and Groff Conklin (ed) 17 Times Infinity.

All I did was search for “nudged quanta,” and there it was. And I thought to do it because of a photo I happened across at reddit, courtesy of /u/o0OIDaveIO0o, and then posted to Facebook:

In just 25 years. One of the microcards at the bottom stores more than all the others combined. While not directly associated with Moore’s Law, the rapid progression of storage miniaturization has been mind-boggling, especially for those of us who lived through the early days of computers. Nowadays kids take massive storage like this for granted, but to see 16 gigabytes of data stored in a piece of plastic smaller than my fingernail simply boggles my mind, even though I used the technology daily.

We’ve come a long way from An Wang’s 1955 patent for core memory – 1 bit per doughnut.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Why “Black Friday” is a truckload of camel ejecta

Posted on November 29, 2013 by The Old Wolf

I’ve always known it. With the exception of a few scarce loss-leaders on the front table at Staples, or the one or two flat-screen TV’s listed at a ridiculously low price at WalMart, the things people are disembowelling each other for could be had for the same price at other, much more peaceful, seasons.

An article in the Wall Street Journal talks about the dirty secret of “Black Friday” discounts:

The common assumption is that retailers stock up on goods and then mark down the ones that don’t sell, taking a hit to their profits. But that isn’t typically how it plays out. Instead, big retailers work backward with their suppliers to set starting prices that, after all the markdowns, will yield the profit margins they want. The red cardigan sweater with the ruffled neck on sale for more than 40% off at $39.99 was never meant to sell at its $68 starting price. It was designed with the discount built in.

Why this is not common knowledge by now is beyond me, other than the fact that most people get their educations from slanted news media and the National Enquirer.

The Week gives some more information in an article entitled Black Friday ads: 4 sneaky pricing tricks — and how to spot them The summary:

They mislead us on original prices (“Original Prices” are grossly inflated.)
They push derivative products (The wares they’re selling often aren’t the cream of the crop. These models are, unsurprisingly, unreliable and shoddy. Derivative products often have fewer features than comparable sets as well.)
They repeat deals from last year (90 percent of Black Friday ads from 2012 contained at least one of the exact same items selling at the exact same price as in 2011.)
They use rebates (Shoppers often forget to submit rebates — which is exactly why retailers love them.)

Each of these points comes with advice on how to beat the retailer at his own game, or at least make sure you’re not falling for the scams.

If you need a visual summary, I found this one over at reddit, courtesy of /u/guyinnova

Do yourselves a favor. Stay home on Black Thursday and Black Friday, shop on December 4th (or at other less-stressful times), and do your homework. You’ll save both money, stress, and possibly life and limb.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

18 Films Soon to Be Released

Posted on November 28, 2013 by The Old Wolf

Over at Woahdude, a list of 18 films being released between now and February, with capsule summaries.

A condensed version, with my assessment in orange.

Frozen – There’s a good chance that I’ll see this one in the theaters. It looks cute and smart.
The Hobbit – This one’s a no-brainer. Tempted to go for the first midnight showing, but I’ll wait until the madness dies down.
Anchorman: The Legend Continues – Meh.
Jack Ryan – Probably a Redbox special at some point if there’s nothing better.
47 Ronin – Looks interesting. I enjoyed The Last Samurai, this will probably be on the same level. Redbox.
American Hustle – Meh.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – A possibility. I’ll be curious to see how they treat this story.
The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) – In the name of all that’s holy, why?
Nymphomaniac – Not a chance in Hades. I’d like to see society extolling the virtues of faithfulness and stability rather than this kind of camel ejecta.
The Green Inferno – This looks like a gratuitous gore-fest
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – Looks silly
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – This will be watched at some point for certain, but probably not in the theaters.
The Monuments Men – I had no desire to see “Inglourious Basterds,” and I have no desire to see this one either.
The Wolf of Wall Street – Seven thumbs down. We get too much of this kind of people in real life, I don’t need to see their lifestyle glorified on the big screen.
Grudge Match – this one looks funny, and very meta: two aging boxers who can’t get a break any longer take each other one for the sake of exposure. I’ll probably catch this one in the theater when it comes to Water Gardens in Spanish Fork.
The Lego Movie – Not much for me there. If I had grandkids close by, I’d consider taking them.
Robocop (2014) – Looks like a great popcorn flick to lift my spirits when I’m down in the dumps. Redbox most likely.
Pompeii – This one makes me think of “Gladiator vs. Dante’s Peak.” Looks like a fun ride, if you don’t take the history too seriously.

That’s a lot of films coming up – I think Frozen and The Desolation of Smaug are my only real chances of catching this one in a first-run theater. As for the rest, I could miss them altogether and not lose any sleep over it.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Geography: The revenge of Europe

Posted on November 27, 2013 by The Old Wolf

Over at BuzzFeed, they asked Brits to label a map of the USA. Most of them didn’t do very well.

This one is funny – others were abominable. Squaresies?

Turnabout is fair play, so they also asked Americans to label a map of Europe:

But the question got more personal when I decided to see how well I would fare instead of pointing the finger of scorn at the poor showing of others. So I did the following maps with no prompting or cheating, and here is the brutal result:

I started with Europe, which I have spent a good part of my life crisscrossing for work, study and pleasure. I swapped Kosovo and Montenegro, reversed Sardinia and Corsica – Ocatarinetabellatchitchix would never forgive me, I’m off to hide in the maquis – and got Lithuania and Latvia backwards. I did remember to put Malta and San Marino in, but forgot Monaco and Gibraltar, although I know they’re there. Totally zoned out on Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova, and anything eastwards there be dragons. I give myself a B+, but I should have done better.

Then I came back home to see how well I would do with my own country.

For as many times as I’ve driven across this nation I should have these down cold. Kansas and Nebraska got reversed; I’m sure I’m no longer welcome at my cousin Laura’s place in Olathe. I have been in Kentucky but only a few times passing through, and I couldn’t dredge up its name to save my soul. Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa simply vanished from my memory; even trying to recite Wakko’s song about the capitals didn’t help, i could only get halfway through. I put Michigan on the wrong side of the lake, and reversed Vermont and New Hampshire. Thank Mogg I know where Maine is or I’d be sleeping in the gutter tonight. I do know where Rhode Island is, but I just forgot to write it in.

Again, probably about a B+. Shameful.

I thought about trying Africa, but looked at an outline map and promptly threw up. I could place Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Mali, and Mauritania. I could do Egypt, Libya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, the DRC, and Madagascar. Given all the princes and government officials who have contacted me, I should know exactly where Nigeria is, but frankly, Scarlet, I don’t give a damn. ^[1] Beyond a couple of random others, it would be just like that “Sorry, No Idea” above. I know there are lions and tigers, but only in Kenya. ^[2]

How about trying to identify the provinces of Canada? Well, BC’s out west, then moving east I know there’s Alberta and Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, and Newfoundland; Nunavut’s up in the frozen north, and I know I’ve missed a few, but I haven’t spent a lot of time up there. Australia? Geez. I could probably place Queensland, NSW and Canberra, because I’ve been there, and I know where Tasmania is – the rest of the country is Kangarooland for all I know.

Asia? Too many “-stans” that I couldn’t even begin to identify; China, Mongolia, India, Tibet, Pakistan, and Bangladesh I know; I could place Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Viet Nam, but would probably mix up Laos, Burma, Cambodia, and any others that happen to be out there. And as for the islands of the sea, I can name a lot of Pacific and Caribbean countries, but would get an “F” if I tried to place them on a map.

This all popped up over at Facebook, and a comment my son left is germane: “What’s the point?”

Well, there are a few good reasons for knowing this kind of thing. First and foremost is winning bar bets and getting karma on reddit. Specialized knowledge would be useful for specific careers – say, if you work for the Census Bureau, or FEMA, or certain other government agencies, or the UN High Commision for Refugees, or the merchant marine, or things like that. Or if you’re a Geography teacher.

But more importantly, broad knowledge is a symptom rather than an end in itself.

In Synergetics, Buckminster Fuller said,

“We are in an age that assumes the narrowing trends of specialization to be logical, natural, and desirable. Consequently, society expects all earnestly responsible communication to be crisply brief. . . . In the meantime, humanity has been deprived of comprehensive understanding. Specialization has bred feelings of isolation, futility, and confusion in individuals. It has also resulted in the individual’s leaving responsibility for thinking and social action to others.”

And in The Roving Mind, Isaac Asimov said that

“Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field.”

But by far my favorite quote about specialization and the expansion of knowledge comes from Robert Heinlein, in Time Enough for Love:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

At the age of 14, I was described by my camp counselors in the following words:

“However unorganized his body of knowledge may be, he is still a source of many bits of information, and despite his mere 85-lb. bulk was one of our most determined and energetic trippers.”

The older I’ve gotten, the worse it gets. The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know – and I want to know more. I want to know and understand it all. And having a mind that has remained as scattered and disorganized as it always has been, one which can remember some of the most arcane and useless facts imaginable and still forget where the hqiz I put my keys 10 minutes ago, doesn’t help one bit.

Focus is definitely a challenge, because we only have a limited time on this green earth, and there are things that need to be done. As a youth I was admonished to concentrate my efforts into sufficiently few lines of endeavor that I might become proficient, giving me strength in my position in life. In some ways, I have done that. In others it’s been really …

Squirrel!

The Old Wolf has spoken.

[1] He said “my dear.”
[2] That’s a joke.

Nighthawks: Art and Life.

Posted on November 27, 2013 by The Old Wolf

The iconic Edward Hopper painting. Diners like this were common in New York as I was growing up. I’ve mentioned them before, but every now and then I’ll see something on the Internet that fans the fires of nostalgia once again.

April 1943. “Baltimore, Maryland. Trolley leaving the terminal at night.” Photo by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. Found at Shorpy.

I love old photos like this – they help me connect to a world that was; so very close and yet otherwise untouchable.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Playing in the World Game

As One

Villach, Austria – Kirchtag, 1975

Snake Oil Trade Cards

Ms fnd in a lbry… real-time

Commerce on the streets of Naples

Mathematical Fiction Re-discovered on the Internet

Why “Black Friday” is a truckload of camel ejecta

18 Films Soon to Be Released

Geography: The revenge of Europe

Nighthawks: Art and Life.