The Camouflage Trees of World War One

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If this were a trivia question … Did the armies fighting in World War One built fake trees in their factories, ship them to the war front, and assemble them as lookout points? … I would have said “Yes” because the idea was so stupid that it must have happened.

FACT: Both the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire) and the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States) manufactured, transported, and assembled ‘fake’ trees in the fighting zones of World War One.

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Written for Touring the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace.

COOKING MADE EASY: 4

Classroom Clipart

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COOKING MADE EASY: 4

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While stumbling through Google the other day, I fell upon these videos.

I am NOT a connoisseur-type chef. My specialties are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Deli meats, and microwavables.

I do have a crock pot, and I have a few recipes that I have been successful at preparing.

The Simplified Saver Cooking Blog looked not only easy to do, but they looked very tasty.

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Here’s the catch… I hate eating things when I don’t know ahead of time what they taste like. (Yes, I’m a baby. … I’ve heard it all before. … Water off a duck’s back.)

If, during quarantine, any one you have the ingredients available, and are so inclined, to test out a few of these delicious-looking treats, drop me a line.

I don’t think that I will attempt any of them until after quarantine.

New foods to me, stressful you see. (You thought I was a baby. … Really, I’m like a wise, but ever-compassionate Yoda.)

FYI: I’ll probably drop one of these each week, just seeking a helpful connoisseur.)

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Written for On Line Exploring and Cooking.

PHOTOGRAPHY: THE EXPOSURE TRIANGLE

PHLearn

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PHOTOGRAPHY

THE EXPOSURE TRIANGLE

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I found trying to understand THIS concept the most difficult. The videos seem to imply that it would be- They continued to say, “You have to continue to try this yourself as you take pictures to fully grasp how your camera works.” Or words to that same effect.

So …. I investigated a lot of videos for clarification.

The VOCABULARY for THE EXPOSURE TRIANGLE

THE METER

• The meter is a tool on your camera that will automatically set THE EXPOSURE TRIANGLE for you. (So, why learn all this stuff to begin with?) Being able to personally control THE EXPOSURE TRIANGLE means that you can creatively have far more control of your outcome- the perfect picture that you desire.

APERTURE

• The aperture controls your field-of-depth for your composition. (Do you want to object you are shooting to be clear and the background blurry, or do you want your entire picture as realistic as possible?)

ISO

• You want the ISO setting to be as low as possible. Test your camera to see what is the camera’s best ISO. Try starting around 100 ISO.

SHUTTER SPEED

• If you picture is too bright- speed up the shutter speed.
• If your picture is too dark- slow down the shutter speed.
• *Remember to go no slower than 1/60th because of the shaking of the hands when you take pictures.
  

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This video did a good job at regurgitating the vocabulary in a show-and-tell way.

It helped me…

I think.

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Self-adjusting the  EXPOSURE TRIANGLE means that instead of the camera automatically doing all of these things for you, you are controlling each tool by itself.

And then practice… practice… practice.

I hope the video  helped. (I am going to wait for warmer weather … then do my own personal investigating.)

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Written for Photography and On-Line Tours.

THE ODYSSEY

OUP-Blog

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THE ODYSSEY  

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Another of the books recommended for reading by my tour guide for The Aegean’s Tour was The Odyssey.

Below are links, if you would like to read Homer’s Classic.

The Odyssey (full text)

The Odyssey (audio of full text)

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I hope you will enjoy them.

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Written for The Aegean Sea On-Line Tours.

COOKING MADE EASY: 3

Classroom Clipart

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COOKING MADE EASY: 3

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While stumbling through Google the other day, I fell upon these videos.

I am NOT a connoisseur-type chef. My specialties are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Deli meats, and microwavables.

I do have a crock pot, and I have a few recipes that I have been successful at preparing.

The Simplified Saver Cooking Blog looked not only easy to do, but they looked very tasty.

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---

Here’s the catch… I hate eating things when I don’t know ahead of time what they taste like. (Yes, I’m a baby. … I’ve heard it all before. … Water off a duck’s back.)

If, during quarantine, any one you have the ingredients available, and are so inclined, to test out a few of these delicious-looking treats, drop me a line.

I don’t think that I will attempt any of them until after quarantine.

New foods to me, stressful you see. (You thought I was a baby. … Really, I’m like a wise, but ever-compassionate Yoda.)

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FYI: I’ll probably drop one of these each week, just seeking a helpful connoisseur.)

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Written for On Line Exploring and Cooking.

WHY CAN’T I SEE THE STARS?

Lighting Reasearch Center

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LIGHT POLLUTION is a major problem with seeing the stars in the sky late at night.

• The stray lights from cities and towns illuminate the skies so that often only the brightest of heavenly lights are visible to the eye.
• A cloudy night, humidity in the air, and the brightness of the phase of the moon also will effect what is visible in the night skies.

The brightness of a star is expressed by the term magnitude.

The magnitude of a star is a measure of how bright the star is to be seen here on Earth.

• The nearer the star- the brighter the star,
• The more power generated by the star- the brighter the star.

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EarthSky

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Here are the objects you can see at night…

-26.5 … The brightest object- the SUN

-12.7 … The second brightest object- the MOON

-4 … The planet VENUS

-1.4 … SIRIUS– The Dog Star

2.0 … POLARIS– The North Star

6 … This is as far as the naked eye can see.

10 … You can see to here with binoculars.

14 … You can see to here with a telescope.

30 … The HUBBLE Telescope can see to here.

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FYI: When looking at objects in the sky…

• Stars twinkle
• Planets do not twinkle.

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Written for Astronomy.

LEARNING MORE ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY: ISO

PictureCorrect

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IOS: this describes the sensitivity of your cameras sensors.

• The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive your camera is going to be.
  • The higher the ISO, the brighter the picture.
• The lower the ISO number, the less sensitive your camera is going to be.
  • The lower the ISO, the darker the picture.

In the daylight, an ISO of 100 or 200 might be appropriate.

At night, an ISO of 600 or 800 would be more appropriate.

The following video should assist in explaining things even further.

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Written for Photography and On Line Tours and Learning.

THE ILIAD

The Conversation

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THE ILIAD

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One of the books recommended for reading by my tour guide for The Aegean’s Tour was The Iliad.

Below are links, if you would like to read Homer’s Classic.

The Iliad  (full text)

The Iliad  (audio of full text)

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I hope you will enjoy them.

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Written for The Aegean Sea On-Line Tours.

COOKING MADE EASY: 2

Classroom Clipart

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COOKING MADE EASY: 2

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While stumbling through Google the other day, I fell upon these videos.

I am NOT a connoisseur-type chef. My specialties are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Deli meats, and microwavables.

I do have a crock pot, and I have a few recipes that I have been successful at preparing.

The Simplified Saver Cooking Blog looked not only easy to do, but they looked very tasty.

---

---

Here’s the catch… I hate eating things when I don’t know ahead of time what they taste like. (Yes, I’m a baby. … I’ve heard it all before. … Water off a duck’s back.)

If, during quarantine, any one you have the ingredients available, and are so inclined, to test out a few of these delicious-looking treats, drop me a line.

I don’t think that I will attempt any of them until after quarantine.

New foods to me, stressful you see. (You thought I was a baby. … Really, I’m like a wise, but ever-compassionate Yoda.)

FYI: I’ll probably drop one of these each week, just seeking a helpful connoisseur.)

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Written for On Line Exploring and Cooking.

FROM DUSK TO DAWN

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FROM DUSK TO DAWN

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There are THREE designations for TWILIGHT.

CIVIL Twilight

• At early dusk, a person can still read a book outside without a light.
• Only the brightest stars and planets appear.

NAUTICAL Twilight

• The stars that are needed to navigate the seas and the lands are now visible.
• You can see the horizon from afar.

ASTRONOMICAL Twilight

• There is not enough light in the skies to see the horizon.
• Now, the faintest of stars can be seen with a telescope.

Depending on where you are standing on planet Earth, the stage of twilight can last from a little over an hour to over three hours.

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Written for Studying Astronomy.