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Thread: A little bit of trivia

  1. #1
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    A little bit of trivia

    I still get amazed at the power of the internet and search engines. It is no place to hide

    In our weekly paper they run an insert of the Diary of Daniel Royer which he kept from 1880 until his death in 1911. For some reason they list the day of the week and the date but not the year and there are times I'm interested in the year and am curious about something he includes in his entry.

    Last week he included the following entry: Thursday, May 25: Cloudy with partly clearing weather in the afternoon. Easterly winds. Fahr. 60, 70, 60. It rained part of last night and this afternoon with a rainfall of 1/4 inch. It is not much but still keeps the soil in good condition. The ship Quito sailed from the Port of New York on the 10th of May with a cargo of corn, 200,000 bushels for the famine stricken India for readers of Christian Herald.

    Using Google I had an account of this ship and it's voyage from the Missionary Review of the World, Vol. 23 within seconds. I found that the voyage was in 1900, the value of the cargo was $100,000 and the voyage was expected to take 40 days and arrive in Bombay. The cost of the charter, $10,000.

    A few more seconds and I had a photo of the Quito at the dock, loading in NYC.

    The Quito is below
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    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  2. #2
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    Interesting, Dave, thanks...The Merchant Marine is a segment of sea life in my studies that had a significant impact on the outcome of WWII...I've only scratched the surface of research in that area, but the differences between MM and Navy living were enormous...They even coexisted on the same ships...I'm reminded of an old Humphrey Bogart movie on the subject, and now I need to watch it again......Ben

    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  3. #3
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    When I think about these occurrences I often reflect on my youth. My parents were both avid readers and interested in a broad scope of things. We had one room which was the library, with built in shelves on two walls---full of countless books.

    Not suffering from the current pressures on kids to be joiners we had a far more simple life, which revolved around milking cows. The evening milking concluded at 7 PM. My father, my brother and I would all go to the house together where my Mother would have dinner ready. We would all sit down together and eat together and often linger at the table when done eating. There was no TV---we talked and seldom was that idle talk. Questions would come up and commonly my brother or I were sent off to the library to retrieve an Encyclopedia Vol or some other reference. Often by the end of our discussions there would be a small stack of books to return to the library.

    Sadly, not many families have that experience together, we have lost the "art" of togetherness and now look to external connections which take precedence over family. But, I digress, had we had a laptop or tablet at the table my brother and I would have had far more time to eat
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  4. #4
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    I think the point of the thread was the innovation the internet has been been. I agree most heartily having been an adult on both sides of that occurrence. I saw from the first day I was introduced to it that this was the single biggest improvement to our general populace knowledge base since the printing press. I think my introduction came in 1988 or 89. At that early time, the ‘net was just finding its way and the search features were rudimentary even if the information was there somewhere, it was hard to find. I recall using “Archie” mostly in the early days and later “Veronica” or “Jughead.” I even had a website that had a bot that collected search engines a user could cycle between to run queries, when one did not turn up what you wanted. Then, in the late 90’s Google came along first as an experimental program and then as the standard before it became the monopolistic evil it evolved into.

    Those libraries Dave writes about that many of us had and still have collecting dust have become an anachronism, except for serious researchers like our precious metals salvager. Talk about an anachronism...
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  5. #5
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    Our livingroom is 24' x 24' with built in bookshelves on two walls. When I built that room in 1983 they were actively used, today they provide ambience and job security for the cleaning ladies.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by wacojoe View Post
    Those libraries Dave writes about that many of us had and still have collecting dust have become an anachronism, except for serious researchers like our precious metals salvager. Talk about an anachronism...
    That reminds me, I have so much this time, it'll take two trips......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

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