25 August 2019

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The Bones of Old London
Rumination upon the capital’s osteological history.

MyHeritage Adds French Record Collection: Nord Civil Marriage Records, 1792–1937

Does Birth Order Affect Personality?
"... firstborns tended to be more conscientious, extraverted and willing to lead. Contrary to expectations, they were also more tolerant and emotionally stable than adolescents with older siblings. Yet the differences were very small ..."

Change and Continuity in Maps of Norwich
A blog post from the Norfolk Record Office features the Yarmouth Hutch map  (NRO, Y/C 37/1depicting the Norfolk/Suffolk coastline ca 1000 AD with South at the top of the map and North at the bottom.



5 Fastest and Free File-Sharing Apps to Transfer Large Files Online
From Make Use Of — I'll have to reconsider WeTransfer which has been my choice recently.

Starbucks Monetary Policy
Your balance in a company cash card, points balances, Canadian Tire money and the like are effectively an interest-free loan.

The Inspection Paradox is Everywhere
Buses are supposed to arrive at constant intervals, but in practice, some intervals are longer than others. If you arrive at random you're more likely to do so in a long interval between buses because it’s longer.

How to become a great impostor
A long read; the story and methods of Ferdinand Waldo Demara, a charming rogue who tricked his way to notoriety.

Bird migration animation

Look at all the undocumented migrants from Central and South America — need a taller wall?

2 comments:

David Hook said...

Re: Starbucks Monetary Policy
I don't know that point balances or Canadian Tire money would count as interest-free loans, because those rewards are acquired in exchange for making purchases, rather than in exchange for money. Company cash cards and gift cards definitely are, because you are giving the company money in advance with the plan to exchange it for something later on. In the meantime the company can use that money elsewhere. But there is no money given to the company in the case of loyalty points or Canadian Tire money

Anonymous said...

That bird migration animation was wonderful John. Thank you.

One should note that all of those individual dots must represent thousands of individual birds.

It brought back memories circa 2007 when I spent most of one day in late September sitting on my step daughter's deck in Saskatchewan watching thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of geese flying overhead, streaming directly south against the sky in continual Vs. Wondrous to have seen that. Cheers, BT