Thursday, December 17, 2015

Updates: Today's Doodle, Boyton book, Danish instrument, 2 million page views; short break


There are a few things to catch up on for SearchResearch... 

... so I wanted to drop you a note with a few odds-and-ends.  

 1.  If you haven't seen today's Google Doodle, you really should.  It's worth playing the Doodle game all the way to the end.  Just go to Google.com (TODAY only), and you'll see what I mean.  


And... Happy Beethoven's Birthday!  


 2.   Remember our fun Challenge with Paul Boyton? Both Rosemary and Remijj found a full PDF copy of The Story of Paul Boyton (by Paul Boyton; originally from Project Gutenberg).   This is an excellent find.  I printed out a full copy for myself, and am having a wonderful time reading it.  

 3.   Speaking of Paul Boyton, I also found a few fun newspaper articles about Boyton.  (I did this by searching the Google's News Archive.) Here's one from the April 7, 1889 edition of the Morning Review (Spokane, WA) that lists all of the wonderful things he did in one of his "swimming programes."  Fascinating.  (Click to see at full size.)  


And I also found this article in the Aurora Daily Express, July 8, 1898 (Aurora, Illinois), in his column, "Our New York Letter," Dexter Marshall writes about Paul Boyton as "one of the most picturesque yarn spinners to ever draw breath..."  Which tells me that we should take some of his tales with a grain of salt.  Interestingly, this same paper reports on the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the US by President McKinley, and has several advertisements for "slaughter sales," which are what we might call "fire sales" -- deep discounts (and having nothing to do with actual slaughter).   



 4.   The Danish optician's instrument?  Whatever happened to that?  Answer:  We still don't have definitive proof of what it is one-way-or-the-other.  Until someone happens to actually spot one in the wild (or more likely, in a museum), we'll keep this Search Challenge as unsolved so far.  

 5.   Just so you'll know, our blog just exceeded 2 million page views.  Yes, you're part of a trend!  Thanks, readers, this has been a great ride thus far--with more to come.  The next goal:  5 million page views!!  

 6.   Speaking of the blog thus far, after next week, I'm going to take a couple of weeks off over the holidays.  Don't worry, I'll be back with more Challenges, 1MMs, and updates.  So stay tuned... 

Search on! 


15 comments:

  1. Good Morning, Dr. Russell. Congratulations for more than 2 million page views! And thanks for sharing with us the new links and data. You are right, finding your blog is one of the best parts in my life.

    Doodle is amazing.

    In point 6, one question. We will have a SRS Challenge next week or you will close activities with the answer for this week Challenge?

    Enjoy day, Dr. Russell.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Ramón.

      I'll post the answer to this week's Challenge on Monday, as usual. I might also write an occasional post (as things come up), but I'm going to do a special project for SRS over the next couple of weeks. I think you'll enjoy it when we get to January!

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    2. I am sure of that Dr. Russell. Every Challenge, 1MMs and posts are full of knowledge and fun. Thanks for your comment.

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  2. thanks for the updates/heads-ups
    enjoy the away/down/other time… harder & harder to come by in the netwebage…
    slàinte, memjir, or whateverever VI letters are strung together ;)

    No. 9 - with vocals

    …was wobbling about and between the most recent questions…
    neat way to spread your insights
    feliz
    interesting collection of distraction clips
    X CSN&Y
    1983
    vs
    1979

    ☸ ina ☸
    Dharma
    modern wheel in a wheel
    square wheel

    OBE Clegg, 62
    KAYA - Afropolitan, 12/08/15
    non-selfie
    humchar
    janus
    cat of sorts
    ordered 4, €57.90/per+shipping, impulse prepper buy

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    Replies
    1. Hi Remmij! Thanks for sharing the links. José Felicino's song in English story is new for me and very interesting.

      Related to songs, Tuesday night I was watching TV Show and this quote appeared:

      “Dance like nobody's watching,
      Love like you've never been hurt,
      Sing like nobody's listening,
      And live like it's heaven on earth.”

      Searched for the author: [sing like nobody's listening]

      Mark Twain? Satchel Paige? William Purkey? Susanna Clark? Richard Leigh? Anonymous?

      Come from the Heart

      Kathy Mattea - Come From The Heart

      Happy Weekend!

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    2. Ramón - the Quote Investigator site is a good find and interesting to read through - like Mr. O’Toole's approach & the thoroughness of his research. Thanks for pointing it out.
      Looks like you are headed for a sunny Saturday - time to ditch the screen and enjoy the outside…
      The Chronicle of Higher Education - Garson O'Toole in the article & comments
      Quote Investigator
      QI/fb
      QI/twitter
      an earlier Pablo search that included Steve Jobs

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  3. Replies
    1. Thanks for the links, Remmij. Glad you liked QI, with your links about them we can learn even more.

      About Johnny Clegg, I wander if Dr. Russell went to concert. Glad that you shared more dates to listen Johnny.

      For this week SRS Challenge [una rueda dentro de otra]

      EZEQUIEL REVISITADO: RUEDA MULTIDIRECCIONAL
      Ezequiel; Ovnis (UFO)?

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    2. I didn't go to that concert, but I DO have tickets to a Johnny Clegg concert in March! (In Northern California.)

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    3. Remijj -- thanks for those links. I found Clegg's address at KwaZulu-Natal to be really interesting. Hadn't seen that before.

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    4. Good morning, Dr. Russell. I am sure that will be a great concert. Looking forward to know how good it is.

      I watched yesterday a TV show. There a fountain was shown that made me remember this SRS Challenge What's the story with the star?

      [Fuente Mudéjar]

      Fuente Colonial de Chiapa de Corzo.

      Wikipedia Spanish

      [mexico mudéjar fountain]

      Architecture and Urbanization in Colonial Chiapas, Mexico By Sidney David Markman Mentions "El Rollo" in Tepeaca, Puebla as another octogonal building, mudéjar desing.

      [el rollo Tepeaca]

      El Rollo

      El Rollo: information in English.

      I am sure that if Dr. Russell didn't make this challenge; I would not have paid attention to this fountain. Thanks, Dr. Russell.

      I wish for Dr. Russell, all SRS readers and friends, the best and happy Holidays.

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  4. Is it already a year since we did that fish mystery data challenge? I look forward to 2016. I hope to contribute while in Mexico. If not possible I hope to be back in March. Happy Holidays.

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  5. during the down time, some research items/tools/approaches to check… FoDs (Friends of Dan)
    end of year list
    the GIJN resource link

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Remmij! :) I'll visit those links and videos and some others you have shared that still are in my queue. Enjoy the down time and have great time.

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