Pirates: Where Does the “Black Spot” Come From?

History, The Arts
Movies and TV shows featuring Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and their supposed exploits usually deviated enormously from reality. Even when there was a grain of truth, the productions were often encased in fictitious chaff. But Westerns were not the only shows we craved. Pirates were an enormous favorite as well. Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, were popular Hollywood fare for a buccaneer-hungry public. Fictional Pirates [caption id="attachment_24548" align="alignright" width="300"] Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver with his parrot[/caption] Ned Buntline and Zane Grey enthralled the young with action/adventure stories of the 'Wild and Wooly West'. Robert Louis Stevenson gave us cowboys of the seas in his salty novel Treasure Island. Treasure Island features Long John Silver, the peg-leg buccaneer, and his band of misfits. Included in…
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Bakelite: The Chemistry of Art Deco

Chemistry, The Arts
[caption id="attachment_22984" align="alignright" width="480"] 1935 Bugatti[/caption] Styles come, styles go. Art Nouveau came. Art Nouveau went. Next came Art Deco. Nouveau was stylish to the point of ostentation. Deco was simpler, more modern. It reflected a change in Society's perspective. Art Deco surfaced just before the start of the Great War, later renamed World War I. The fires of Art Deco were fanned by the end of the War, and rolled in at full steam with the Roaring Twenties and the age of the Flapper! [caption id="attachment_24622" align="alignleft" width="340"] Bakelite clock[/caption] Art Deco - a Brief Description Art deco was, as its name hints, of French origin. It started before the Great War (WWI) did, approximately the first to second decade of the 20th Century. Art Deco combines geometric designs…
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Tree Burls and Burl Wood: So Ugly They’re Beautiful

Tree Burls and Burl Wood: So Ugly They’re Beautiful

Biology, The Arts
[caption id="attachment_21404" align="alignright" width="440"] Image: Evelyn Simak CCA-SA2.0 License.[/caption] About 24 years ago, my 4th grade daughter advised us the next day her school science fair project was due. No big deal, ordinarily, we had not been told there was even going to be a science fair! I have a technical background and I hated to think my daughter would appear to be a failure at such an event, so, scratching my head, I figured I'd better come up with something we could accomplish as a father-daughter team, and in a hurry. My Wile E. Coyote (Supergenius) Idea At the time, we were living in a small house in beautiful, forested acres. Our trees included hickory, oak, cucumber magnolia, black gum, linden, tulip poplar, black locust, Paulownia, and (yes!) other…
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How I Relate to Mrs. O’Leary, Her Cow, and the Great Chicago Fire

People, The Arts
[caption id="attachment_15804" align="alignright" width="480"] Currier & Ives Image[/caption] The Great Chicago Fire was a deadly, massive fire that ran from October 8 – October 10, 1871. Hundreds of people were killed, but outstandingly, 110,000 were left homeless. The exact cause of the fire was never established, but it began in a barn owned by one Mrs. O’Leary, just behind 137 DeKoven Street. A map was made in 1871 showing the area of the conflagration. Examining Pieces of the Puzzle One of the theories was that it was Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern that ignited the fire. Certainly it is the most romantic theory. But how does Mrs. O’Leary and a fire in her barn relate to me? First, it involves the famous Abraham Lincoln photographer, Alexander Hesler. It…
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Random Electroform Art – How It Can Be Created

The Arts
[caption id="attachment_14086" align="alignright" width="480"] Gold-plated dendritic copper electroform art.[/caption] Art takes many forms. As a chemist, I was assigned the task of forming high frequency electrical devices. I "grew" them from water based solutions of copper salts. I then electroplated them in gold baths. I'd found my kind of art - random electroform art! No one can say it is unoriginal. Preparation A form, or mandrel, was made of machined aluminum. A sodium zincate dip and rinse followed. Copper was grown over that. Not all areas received growth, though. Forms were masked to prevent growth in certain spots with a vinyl coating. This was applied by dipping and "painting." Growth After drying, the mandrel was inserted into the bath. Electricity was applied. Copper deposition began. After growth completion, the piece…
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Vintage Movies: Will They Disappear?

The Arts
[caption id="attachment_5554" align="alignright" width="380"] A young Lionel Barrymore.[/caption] Vintage movies - what will become of them? The previous few generations were the first to enjoy movies and television. Video added another dimension previously unknown in recorded entertainment. First there were the silents. Not offering speech, rather than presenting films in dead silence, musical accompaniment, perhaps by an organist, was provided. Later, approximately 1927, “talkies” began to feature human speech. A New Era Black and white films experienced tremendous growth in quality of cinematography, although some of the actors--those with a background in the silents—over-dramatized their characters. In the late 1930’s, basically black-and-white films had embedded within them a few scenes in color. Of course, in time, most motion pictures were entirely filmed in color. Moving On Up Larger screens and…
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Exquisite Russian Composer Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov

The Arts
[caption id="attachment_4660" align="alignright" width="380"] Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov[/caption] Do you enjoy classical music that is not overly dry and formulaic? Then surely you love Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov (Васи́лий Серге́евич Кали́нников). What—you’ve never heard of him? Guess what? Neither had I, though I had enjoyed his music very much. I first heard it in, of all strange places, the computer game Sherlock Holmes – Nemesis. From Fantasy to Reality Strip the man of his dress suit and put an earring in his ear and you might mistake him for a 21st century punk artist. Though most of us never heard of him, he was favored by his peers, which included Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. Kalinnikov had unlikely origins, yet by the age of 14 he was firmly entrenched in his musical career. Tragically,…
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