Thursday, December 18, 2014

Black Hole --Rabbits have commandeered this post!--

Weeee! We finally got a hold of the computer! Hmm, what to post? It looks like the dog was going to write about black holes? Haha, how funny! Black holes aren't real, are they? Silly dog. We should play Parcheesi! Or, even better, make up rules on how black holes work. Won't that be fun?

Hmm, so we don't know what black holes are, so we'll have to make them up. Think of a black hole like a cartoon hole that you can place anywhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PYPfJyIFrA
This is what a black hole is, a small flat portable hole you can carry in your pocket. Dashedly useful for when your caught cheating in Parcheesi, wot wot?

*All right, bunnies go back to your game! Silly wabbits!*

*Ahem* As I was saying, black holes are nothing at all like that. They have to do with gravity, and are often super massive. What's more, they wouldn't fit in your pocket. :P  A black hole is a region of space-time where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light can escape. As a special treat, I've invited Shadow, a small black cat with extra-ordinary knowledge of black holes, to share what he knows.

Good Morning everyone. My name is Shadow. I've spent a lot of time traveling with Schwarzschild the mouse. He first introduced me to the theory of wormholes and black holes. Since then, I have been investigating in my own quiet way, the subject of black holes. As Sheepdog stated, they have a massive gravitational pull, which sucks everything around it into its center. The point where objects first begin to be pulled, and cannot escape is called the event horizon. Remember that term, I'll use it later. Anyways, this theory was first considered in the 18th century by a pair of outrageous squirrels by the name of Michell and Laplace. Their work was expanded by my friend the mouse. He really is quite bright! Black holes are what I call an observable enigma, they actually exist according to our top scientists. For example, they theorize a super-massive black hole is at the center of our galaxy, keeping all the stars rotating around it in orbit. Another fascinating feature of black holes, is even though they are by all accounts invisible, any particles including light will accelerate as they approach the black hole, giving off a blinding light until they are swallowed up. This light surrounding the black hole is perhaps the brightest objects in the universe. The center of a black hole, also called the singularity is theorized to have infinite density. Any object sucked in is compressed, and added to the total mass of the black hole. Black holes can be formed through the collapse of a star, or other giant object. Once formed, black holes were originally though to last indefinitely. 

However, a recent discovery by a very intelligent hawk by the name of Stephan showed that black holes emit a kind of radiation. In short, it releases certain particles while gobbling up all other particles. If the black hole has not other particles to swallow, it will eventually release enough hawking particles that it will evaporate. A small black hole the size of a car would evaporate in an instant due to this radiation. A black hole the size of a star would take significantly longer. 

Thanks Shadow. Sorry about the rabbits...

No worries. If the lesson is over for the day, I may go join them actually. A cup of cocoa sounds pretty good. 

 

Wormholes (A big adventure for a small mouse)

Happy Thursday everyone!

Today we will be taking a look at wormholes (continuing discussion from our dimensions). Now currently we know nothing about wormholes except what we have seen from star trek. :P After some poking around however, I found a pair of experts on the subject; EinsteinTail, and RosenEar, a pair of white mice. They have started a science club which meets on the great golden bridge every 5th Tuesday. A smarter pair of mice you have never seen. They even managed to beat the rabbits at Parcheesi last night! And as any observer will tell you, rabbit-Parcheesi with its Calvin-ball-rules and card swapping is no easy feat. Through these lengthy discussions at the golden gate bridge (sometimes lasting for hours at a time) led to the discovery of wormholes, or is as formally known by the club: the Einstein-Rosen Bridge.

This time I traveled to the golden gate bridge to talk to these two mice, and decided to meet with their club a few days ago. They lost me in their debating and endless chattering, but the cheese buffet was delicious!

A wormhole, or Einstein-Rosen Bridge, is an unobserved hypothetical phenomenon that is basically a tunnel or shortcut from one location to another. Picture a 2-dimensional world, where the observer can only see in 2 dimensions. a wormhole would be a 3-dimensional tunnel from one spot to another. To the observer, an object would seem to disappear from sight, then re-appear in another location entirely. Now picture this in our world, only the tunnel would have a sphere as the opening, pull the object out of our 3-dimensional space, and into a different dimensional space where the distance from any one point to any other point could easily be much shorter. This is what a wormhole is. Although one has never been observed, the math behind these wormholes is sound, and many thought-experiments have developed. A senior mouse of the club, Schwarz, would often begin these thought-experiements, which included lots of paper, hard thinking, and plenty of erasers. Sadly, he was unable to come up with anything helpful. His child, a very tiny mouse, was perhaps the first to to discover a solution to a wormhole problem. He hypothesized that a wormhole in the center of a black hole meets the required properties to exist without violating natural law. A black hole has the densest matter in the universe. This gravitational pull could create, then collapse a wormhole in such a way that the entrance to the wormhole and the exit to the wormhole are in exactly the same spot. If you can picture that, imagine that because one can observe particles entering the black hole from either side, one must be able (potentially) to see them exit either side. Thus, the black hole has two sides if you will, one for the entrance of the wormhole, and one for the exit of the wormhole. These would enter and exit in to locations, or possibly in two universes. Needless to say, the small mouse was immediately praised and given a cup of hot chocolate for his efforts. Upon further examination the club discovered that such a phenomenon would almost immediately collapse in on itself. But it gave opened the door for traversable wormholes which were discussed during a very cold winter when the mice lit their fire. 

It was a cold day, and the mice lit a small fire for the first time that season. They noticed that there were still 2 logs left over from last year. While the small mice began to build the fire, two older mice, known as Thorne and Morris, began theorizing about a wormhole allowing space and time travel. They wondered if the two logs represented a stable wormhole (which they conceded is impossible without some form of undiscovered exotic negative-energy), then the wormhole would start and finish at the same time in the fireplace. However, if the wormhole were created, and the 2nd log was placed in a spaceship, sent to mars and back, then by the laws of time dilation, the 2nd log would have aged 1 minute less than the 1st log which had stayed in the fireplace the whole time. Therefore, by jumping through the wormhole from the 2nd log, they would likely have traveled back in time by 1 minute. They then extended the analogy to a close-to-light-speed travel by the 2nd log. Suppose they were able to accelerate it much faster. Why then, there might be a 2 year difference between the two. While they could not travel back in time further than the creation of the wormhole, they could certainly travel back to the time it was created. Very please with themselves, they forgot all about the fire, and began eating the cheese plate because they were so hungry from all their hard thinking. 

The group as a whole, with their fire finally lit, began talking about the possibility of wormholes which existed in space for hundreds of years. If such a stable wormhole already existed, why it was possible to travel to a fixed point in the past, whenever the other end of the wormhole was created, or any time between depending on the speed and trip the second portal may have taken since it's creation. Their small group gradually grew as more mice began coming to this small meeting, including Deutsch and Raychaudhuri, both mice from Harvard, who added their ideas to the masses. 
 Schwarzs' Child didn't come often after that. It was soon noticed that he had disappeared, and the club believed that he, getting tired of endless talk, went out and found a wormhole on his own and may be anywhere in the universe by now...


*squeak squeak*
 

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Relativity

Albert Einstein is most well known for his general theory of relativity. Today we are going to tackle as best we can, this theory of relativity. To do this, we have phoned in the best source we could find: Chico the 7th. Chico was Einstein's dog. Although Chico disliked Einsteins work, (and would frequently bite the mailman in efforts to cut off Einsteins correspondence) he nevertheless learned quite a bit from his master. This knowledge of relativity (in dog lingo) he passed down to his offspring. Chico the 7th has had no formal college training, but has attended several lectures on the subject, and has been working on a theory of why cats are so annoying (corollary, why cats' bones tend to disappear when they sleep). But I digress.

Chico, it's good to hear from you. What can you tell us about all this relativity nonsense?
Well, it's not nonsense, if you go in for this sort of thing. :) Now lets see, where to begin. The theory of relativity has been around since before Einstein. He just improved it. Simply put, any law of nature should be the same at all times, that is, any person observing a tree falling will see just that, a tree falling. To this we will add the dimension of time. Suppose one sees a tree falling, and then 5 minutes later, another person sees a different tree falling in the same way. By comparing these two instances, we can record and observe the results, and begin to calculate the energy involved. It is in this way scientists can make testable predictions on the laws. 
Okay, I can picture that. I spend a lot of time outside and around trees. :)
Now lets look at the theory of general relativity. Einstein did most of his most famous work with the general (and special) theory of relativity. The theory of special relativity states that these laws of physics (like the tree falling) should be the same in every inertial frame of reference.
What's that mean?
It means assuming where you are standing is a non-moving entity. Technically, you would be standing in a forest, on earth. Now the earth is moving around the sun, but for our purposes, we assume the earth is standing still in reference to the tree. So, special relativity states that the laws must remain the same (the tree will fall toward the earth and emit a loud THWUMP). This allows special cases, like a non-inertial frame of reference to have a different set of laws. For example, the light from a distant star is traveling at the speed of light. How can we still see it? Because even though we seem to be standing still, the earth is traveling pretty fast, the sun is moving about our galaxy, and the light is traveling not away or across the earth, but directly towards the earth. So, we can see particles traveling at the speed of light. 
You're very smart for a dog, did you know that?
Thanks fluffy. Like I said, I attended a few lectures, and the subject fascinates me. As I was saying, the theory of special relativity allows for special cases to be made. Now then, in special cases, physics professors would historically attack the problem (*gobble snarf*) using a coordinate transformation, first to an inertial reference frame (back to our tree problem), calculate it, and move it back to the special case (absolute inertia). Our star problem above would be a little more difficult. But since it would use strictly non-inertial reference frames, it is not constricted to our regular laws of nature. 
Thanks...I think. Now lets move on to the question we have been dying to ask. According to Einstein, is time travel and faster-than-light travel possible?
This is a question I am often asked. This question deals with a branch of relativity called time dilation. Time dilation has been proven and tested with astronauts and the ISS. Time dilation, simply put, is an actual difference of elapsed time between two separate events relative to gravitational pull. A dog on earth with a pocket watch, and a dog in space with the same pocket watch may observe that after a day apart, their watches would be about 42 minutes off from one another. This is not due to a mechanical failure of the watch, rather the nature of space time itself. Here's another example: place a cat in a spaceship for a little over 2 months. Place another cat on earth. At the end of the time period, the cat on earth will have waited spent 81 days watching tv and taking naps. The cat in space will have only spent 80 days watching tv and taking naps. This 1 day difference is due to the space time/gravitational difference between earth and the first layer of space around our planet. furthermore, the further away from gravity you go, the slower time will appear to pass for you. The same theory holds true for velocity. The faster you are going, the slower time will pass for you. The ISS space station, for example, is moving much faster than most of our commutes to work. They are also further away from the gravitational pull of the earth. They age more slowly, (e.g. 0.007 seconds less than we do for every 6 months they are in space). The difference isn't earth shattering, but it is a marked change.
I see. So you can alter the speed you travel through time using speed, and force.
That is correct. Some scientists theorize that if you are able to move fast enough (many times the speed of light), then time will slow to a crawl, then a stop, then move backwards. At a practical level, scientists hope one day to create a strong enough propulsion system to send humans to the far reaches of the galaxy without the dramatic aging. A human may travel 8 years in space, but for them, only 1 year may have passed. Likewise, you can also travel very slowly in space, and near a dense object with a heavy gravitational pull. This would speed up your clock, and slow everyone else clock. For example, if you traveled to the center of the earth, you may emerge having spent 5  years there, only to find the earth has only spent 1 year. However, the effect of reversing it becomes a much more difficult problem to solve. 
So you cannot travel backward in time?
According to our current understanding of time dilation, we can travel forward into the future, but cannot travel backwards. We have proved that traveling ahead is possible, we just lack the technology to jump forward years or decades. Einstein also proposed a universal speed limit on the universe. He believes the speed of light is the fastest possible particle. In other words, the star trek enterprise would be stuck at warp 1. :(
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Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Diminsions in Time and Space

Dimensions can be disputed, both how many they are, what each one is, and how they apply to our lives. A physics professor may disagree with a math professor on the details of the number and explanation of each dimension, which we will get to in a little while. Just to see what will happen, we have invited one of each to attend today's lecture:

I will begin with my rudimentary definitions of dimension:

1st Dimension: a point or line. The point or line has no width, or thickness, and can only exist in one direction.

2nd Dimension: Think about area. the second dimension is like a square or circle; flat, but with 2 directions: width and length. Circles, squares, basic shapes, and even complex shapes can all be 2 dimensional.

3rd Dimension: Now think about volume: cubes, spheres, swimming pools all have 3 directions: width, length, and height. Most of what we interact with on a daily basis is 3 dimensional. Actually, even a piece of paper has 3 dimensions, it is just very thin.

4rth Dimension: Although this can be disputed, Time is the generally accepted 4rth dimension. While time is not a spatial dimension, it can interact with the previous 3 dimensions. Water for example, when placed in a freezer will turn to ice. Was it always ice? As it progresses through time, it will change depending on its environment.

Our mathematician however, loves to complicate things: (and he loves graph paper)

     The dimension of a mathematical object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it.
Huh? Lets ask him more slowly to define this:
     When drawing any object on a set of axis (graph paper), if you can refer to a point in your object using a single coordinate (such as 1,2) then the object is in the 1st dimension. Any object which requires 2 coordinates, will be in the 2nd dimension. A box for example, has area, and would need at least 2 points to define it. A sphere, would need 3 points to define it. And so on and so forth. 
Ahh, that makes a little more sense. This sounds very much like our informal definition above. Oh wait, I don't think he's done:
     However, there are strange cases of objects like a unit circle, which are 2 dimensional, but can be defined as being 1 dimensional! A point in a unit circle can be specified by two coordinates, but on a polar (circle graph) you only need one polor coordinate! Thus, it exists in 1 and 2 dimensional space.
 Hmm, I didn't know that. Oh, he's still talking:
     In vector analysis/matrices mathematics there can be many more than 4 dimensions. While these dimensions do not exist as we see, and they do not even define nth dimensional objects, they are used simply to compare points, figures, and sets to one another. 
Okay, I think he lost me in there somewhere...
     Fractal dimension is another example of a unique set of mathematics. Fractal dimension implies some objects may be between dimensions. For example, the perimeter of the Koch Snowflake we examined a month or two ago. The perimeter is a line, which by our definition, is 1 dimensional. However, that line weaves and swerves, and continues expanding indefinitely. This is too complex to be 1 dimensional, and yet has no area like a 2 dimensional object should have. Fractal dimensions have been put to use to define these unique case.
Ack! Okay, lets move on to the physist's, maybe he'll have some straight answers for us. Oh good, our physist is much more practical about all this: well for the time being anyway. 
     There are 3 dimensions which are clearly defined. The first dimension is a point or line, the second has area, the third has volume. Time is often referred to as the 4rth dimension, but is viewed as different in nature to the first 3.  We can *currently* only move through time in one direction.
He agrees with our basic definitions, and will consent that time is often referred to as the 4rth dimension. He can observe things changing over time, has no problem with this. 
He then launched into a 45 minute lecture about string theory and superstring theory, which involved 10 spacetime dimensions. Basically speaking, each new dimension is another force acting on our object. Gravity, for example can be a dimension, or the sun pulling on the planets, or the galaxy pulling on our solar system. This is a very rough introduction, but it led to a 90 minute argument between the mathematician, and our physicist. In the end, they both stormed out, but not before eating all the snacks. :P





Thursday, December 4, 2014

Cold and Wet (Brrrrrr)

Woof woof!
Good Morning everyone. I apologize for not posting last week, I admit I took a week off to enjoy stuffing, pies, Turkey, and all those wonderful things. Yessiree, it was a week to be thankful for! We began our week with some Holiday baking, (this included flour fights with the bunnies of course! Our masters weren't too happy, but it was fun!). However, they were both in good moods, having all of Thursday off work to enjoy our company, and family of course. We took a car trip to visit family, and had an awesome thanksgiving dinner! There was cranberry sauce, fresh crecent rolls, orange salad, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and of course a large Turkey! Then afterwords, we played some games, enjoyed 3 kinds of pie, chocolate bars, and ice cream! It was a great night.

The next morning however...
One of my masters went out Black Friday shopping at O-Dark Thirty. I crawled into bed and took his spot. :) He seemed to have good luck though, and came home with plenty of bags to stimulate the economy with. It was fun seeing what all he picked out, and I'm excited for Christmas! By Sunday, both masters were ready to start off the Christmas season with a bang. They decorated the place and played Christmas tunes all day. I jumped up on the couch to stay out of their way. They have been slowly adding decorations this week, and may put up the outside lights this weekend. Oh! And last night the bunnies and I made banana bread, and chocolate covered rice crispie balls.

Say...anyone up for a Christmas party? :D


Friday, November 21, 2014

Interviews, Holiday Treats and Life

Today's a double post day!

To bring some of you up on the news, here we go!
One of my owners didn't get the interview they were hoping for, which was a bummer. She had applied for a library position a couple weeks ago, and looking forward to the possibility of an interview. Yesterday we received a polite rejection letter. :( However, she recently applied for a supervisor position at her current work. We are praying this works out for the time being, but are open to what God has planned for us all. She has been kept really busy this week, but it balances out the last couple weeks, and she gets next Thursday off for sure! We are excited to play on that day. :)

We did a lot of baking the other night, and probably used close to 12 eggs in the process! I had no idea that 2 batches of pumpkin bread took that many eggs! During all this, we discovered an excellent recipe for GF Pumpkin bread, most delicious! Use regular recipe, then add an extra egg for moistness and softness. It helps to balance the rice flour. Once baked, we promptly froze them. We are looking forward to more baking projects in the coming weeks. And the Christmas season is just around the bend! Anyone available for a Christmas party, or get-together?

On the whole, things are going rather well, we are keeping busy, and working on getting things straightened out. Our church seems to have a hole for our age group. They have 18-24, which my owners have barely outgrown, and 30+ groups for couples, and young families. There isn't really a 20-30 age group for college graduates. They may ask about this at some point, but are having a hard time getting hold of anyone at church. :( It would be nice to find some others in Wilsonville to hang out with. I have walked myself to the dog park a few times, but most dogs are inside in this kind of weather. Besides, my fur absorbs water like a sponge.

But it's hard to be in low spirits when its the Friday right before Thanksgiving! Bring on the Holiday Season!




A day of excitement

Good Morning Everyone!
*Yawn* It's been a rather lonely week, since both my owners have been working very odd hours. Iv'e been reduced to joining the rabbits on their crazy bored game days. The blue one keeps cheating by the way. However, they both came home early on Thursday! The bunnies ran and hid when they walked in the door (something to do with missing chess pieces I think). In any case, it turns out they were going shopping, and decided to take me on a car ride! We went to costco first, where they spent a long time in the store looking for food. Meanwhile, I was left in the car. It's not so bad though, I had tunes to listen to, had a staring contest with a shelty in a Crystler 2 spots over (and lost), and even got to bark at the birds! These seemed not to be the migratory birds, by the way. I wanted to drive around the parking lot for a little while, only I couldn't reach the pedals. :( Oh well, it may not have been the best idea.

Once we arrived home, they had a quick dinner and began baking! Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, and meatloaf! And they even let me lick the bowls. That brings us to the evening. Once they settled down for the night, the bunnies insisted there was this new calvinball game they created. I was tired, but agreed to entertain them for a while. The game goes something like this:

Take a sequence board and double deck of sequence cards. Each player is dealt $100 worth of poker chips. 10 Red marker tokens are used, to mark the first 10 cards flipped over. Before the game begins, each player can bet on which cards on the board will be flipped over. Here is the betting and betting returns sheet:

Things you can bet on:
Joker                                       10:1
Exact card:                             5:1
4 Card square with a joker:    5:1
4 Card square:                        2:1
Row, or Line: (per card)         1:1

Anyway, they played until all hours of the night. It was a day of excitement though!

Enjoy your Friday!
Woof!



Thursday, November 13, 2014

Koch Snowflake

Good Afternoon all!
It snowed last night! Yip Yip!! And it's very cold too, the bunnies are all covered in blankets by the heater. In honor of the first snow of the season (granted, only a few flakes hit the ground, but it still counts), today I will show you the koch snowflake. This is a mathematical shape, named after its likeness to a single snowflake. First, a few terms to work with:

Segment: pretty simple, a single line of unit length 1.
Iteration: the act of repeating a process with the aim of approaching a desired goal. each repetition of the process is also called an iteration; thus 3 iterations means repeating the original process 3 times. got it? good.
Area: the quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional figure or shape. i.e, the area of a rectangle is width * height.
Perimeter: the length of the path that surrounds a two-dimensional figure or shape. i.e, the perimeter of a rectangle is width + width + height + height.

All set? Okay, here we go!

The Koch snowflake is named after Helge von Koch, a Swedish mathematician who specialized in pure mathematics, (read number theory). The Koch snowflake is a fractal shape, similar to the fractal tree I described a post or two ago. Fractals are simply shapes that keep on dividing, and splitting. I'll demonstrate:




These are the first 4 iterations of the koch snowflake. In the first iteration, we see an equilateral triangle. To create the 2 iteration, draw a new equilateral triangle in the exact middle of each line segment, proportional to one third the total length of the segment. Simple, right? Now, to create the 3rd iteration, notice we now have 12 smaller lines, instead of 3. No matter, we will continue to draw an equilateral triangle in the exact middle of each of the 12 line segments. Now we have 48 very small line segments. You may notice each time we create a new iteration, the total number of line segments increases drastically. The 4rth iteration will have 192 line segments. Have you figured out the pattern?
Each new iteration multiplies the total line segments of the previous iteration by 4.

Now it is beginning to look like a snowflake!!
Now lets look at some very interesting properties with this snowflake we have created.
Perimeter:
Assume each original side length of our equilateral triangle has a length of 1 unit.
The first iteration has a perimeter of 3 units.
The second iteration has 12 side lengths, but the length of each is only 1/3 as long: .333*12 = 4.
The third iteration has 48 side lengths, but the length of each is only 1/9 as long: 1/9*48=5.333.
The fourth iteration has 192 side lengths, but the length of each is only 1/27 as long: 1/27*192= 7.111
...And you get the idea.
But wait, are we saying that the perimeter of this snowflake gets infinitely large? Yes! If we extend the number of iterations to say, 1 millionth iteration, the perimeter will continue to grow with it. Remember that a line has no width, it can be thinner than a human hair. while our computer screens may not show every detail, in theory the perimeter can be 1 billion units long! wow!

Now lets look at the area. Will the area also be infinitely large? Sadly, no, here's why. In a nutshell, think about this: no matter how complicated the perimeter gets, can we still draw the same size box around it? lets look at a GIF showing the first 7 iterations:





While our snowflake is continuing to grow, it looks like it will never be taller or wider than it appears in the 3rd iteration, that is the rest of the points will grow around the snowflake, but it will still fit inside a circle! So, what is the area of the koch snowflake? The formula is a little complicated, but if we assume the area of our original triangle is about .4333 units squared. Therefore, using the associated formula for a koch snowflake, the total area of an infinite koch snowflake would be about .6928 units squared.

Say, is it still snowing outside? No? That's too bad. Calculating raindrops isn't nearly as much fun. Ah well, it may snow again tonight! Farewell for now!!





Thursday, November 6, 2014

Eulogy to a Dog

Bonus Post!
I found a larger portion of the dog transcript and thought I would share it:

Gentlemen of the jury: The best friend a man has in this world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it the most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog.
Gentlemen of the jury: A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.
If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies, and when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even to death.

Phrases (No Math Required!)

Good Morning (Yip Yip)
Sorry about the delay in this post, but the bunnies have been using the computer non-stop playing some game with lots of numbers. I think they were boasting about 4.13 octillion the last time I heard. Anyway, they are finally asleep, worn out from playing Parcheesi all night. :P And so now I have a chance to catch up with the world. Things around here are going fairly well, Tuesday night there was a party to celebrate one of my master's birthdays. We played games, made Italian food, and had a great time! The weather has been classic rain, and more rain, but its been about 10 degrees warmer than usual, which has bee good for my fur, but I wonder what it may do to the snow this year. As long as we have plenty of rain though, I guess I'm not worried. *stretches paws* I think it's time for a tea and crumpet break. I'll be back in a moment...

Okay! *munch munch* much better! Lets see now, where was I? Oh yes, phrases. Many of our common phrases originated from long ago, and while some of the origins may be easy to deduce (batten down the hatches for example, means prepare for a storm), some of them are harder to guess at. We will look at a few of my favorites:

"The Bitter End"
-To the last man; the last extremity.
This phrase is actually an old nautical saying, first written down in 1627 by Captain Smith in his publication Seaman's Grammar:
"A Bitter is but the turne of a Cable about the Bits, and veare it out little and little. And the Bitters end is that part of the Cable doth stay within board."
Thus, a bitt is a post on the deck of a ship used for fastening cables and ropes. When a rope is played out to the bitter end, it means there is no more rope to be used.

"Ship-Shape and Bristol Fashion"
-In first class order.
This is one of my favorite phrases, as it easily conjures up pictures from that delightful film, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. It originates from two separate phrases: "Ship-Shape", and "Bristol Fashion". Let us look at the first. Ship-Shape was first used in Sir Henry Manwayring's The Seamans Dictionary: "The broom being of no use for the Ship, but only for to make her Ship Shapen, as they call it." Obviously, Ship-Shape means to have a tidy/clean ship. The second half of the phrase, "Bristol Fashion" comes from the coastal town of Bristol prior to 1803. Bristol is several miles from the sea, and as such has one of the most variable tidal flows anywhere in the world. The tide can range upwards of 30 feet. Ships that came in on the high tide were often beached at low tide. Therefore, they had to be built sturdy, and all cargo securely stored away. Over the years, the phrases were  used together.

"An ill wind that blows no good"
-something bad happens
while at first glance, seems to have a nautical origin,  the first recording of this phrase is from an English Proverb book written in 1546 by John Heywood: "An yll wynde that blowth no man to good, men say." The phrase appears later meaning the opposite, in sir Walter Scott's text: "Nane were keener against it than the Glasgow folk, wi' their rabblings and their risings, and their mobs, as they ca' them now-a-days. but it's an ill wind blaws naebody gude." Here the meaning is the opposite, meaning that a wind that didn't provide benefit to someone would be a bad and unusual one indeed (sounds ominous, yip yip).

"A dog is a man's best friend"
Of course I had to put this one in!
While the exact origin of this phrase is at least as old as 1821 (found in a newspaper article) the most famous story is that of an owner and his dog:

In 1870, a farmer shot a neighbor's dog and, in the subsequent court case where the owner sued for damages, the lawyer George Graham Vest gave a tear-jerking speech that became known as the Eulogy to a Dog:
"Gentlemen of the jury, a man's dog stands by him in prosperity and poverty, in health and sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow, and the snow drives fiercely, if only he can be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens." - And so on...**

**excerpt from www.phrases.org.uk

Enjoy!
Woof!!






Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Luck (and how to find it)

Good Morrow all ye chaps and chapesses:
With Halloween falling on Friday the 31st (read Friday the 13th), it is important to remember how to steer clear of bad luck, and create enough good luck to survive the day. As a side note, I will be backing cookies while typing this *pulls out ingredients. Salt shaker falls on the floor*. First of all, lets go over all the good luck charms we can come by in an average household. These charms will help to ward away the bad luck *begins adding ingredients to the bowl. drops an egg by accident. Black cat begins sampling the egg*. Here are a few things you may have around your house. Mirrors are good luck, they bring out your charm, and beauty. Try breaking an older mirror. Having lots of mirror shards increases your good luck! *finishes adding ingredients, and begins to mix the bowl. A dishcloth falls on the floor, meanwhile, the black cat begins taking a nap on the table*. As I was saying, other good luck charms can include umbrella decorations in  your home. The larger the umbrella, the better. Also, having birds as pets can bring good luck. I recommend Ravens. They make great company, and always have a great story to tell. *Cookie dough is done, I begin "lightly" sampling the dough. A picture frame falls off the wall* Ahem! 2 Dollar bills can be good luck, as well as a ladder near your door. I know, people have the silliest superstitions. Oh well, *places ladder near the door*. It can't hurt, right? Finally, opals are known to bring good luck to people, especially if it is not your birthstone. Get opals, and hang them up all over the place. I don't have any opals myself, so I just hang rocks from the ceiling. *what's left of the cookie dough gets placed in the oven. The black cat wakes up and begins licking the bowl*. Well, that's all for now. Good luck surviving Friday the 31st (read Friday the 13th).


On an unrelated note, things are going quite well, if rather busy. I have 4 long days this week to stay caught up with work, and life in general. I am enjoying hanging out with friends and family these past few weeks, and very excited about the weather and the turning of the seasons! I may be doing a murder mystery night this weekend, and would love to do a second one later in November if anyone is interested. :) What else? Christmas is looming closer, as is Thanksgiving and I'm excited to see everyone. Finally, I wish I had a pet, but our apt. is a little strict on the matter. Maybe a betafish? Well, the cat would probably eat it. :P


That's all for now,
*Woof!*


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