The most famous artist for this type of saucy postcards wasDonald McGill.
He was nearly 80 years old when he was put on trial (1954) under the Obscene Publications Act,found guilty and fined. Today the postcards are worth a fortune.
I recall scanning postcard racks while on vacation and buying several of these to send to friends.
is a nice easy to remember password that works for every site I visit, and for all the internet places I go to everyday. One would think this is an easy request, but it seems to be damn near impossible to achieve. Among the worst password requesters are Google, and Apple. Both companies demand using passwords, and that they be changed often. In the process they drive users nuts. Probably even worse than Apple is Norton password manager which requires it’s own password to enter before you can access your passwords.
Being memory challenged makes this particularly difficult to navigate. Just try reading the instructions offered by Google. They might as well be in Egyptian hieroglyphics as far as I am concerned. I am an Apple person, but if a simpler system becomes available I’ll dump everything Apple in favor of simplicity. I have an Apple user-id, but it seems that Apple can not recognize that id in any of it’s many discrete applications like iCloud, Apple Store, iTunes, iPhotos, iMovies, etc. Compound that with devices like iMac, iPad, iPhone, iWatch, and many more. I would think a simple droplet of blood applied to a device would solve the problem. I may go anemic or worse yet die because of a lack of blood, but it might be easier to use the devices.
Last week my internet service took a crap, and stopped working. In order to get it up and running I decided to reset the system by shutting everything down. I went too far, and shut off my iMac as well. That was a tragic error on my part. The most tragic was trying to re-enter my own computer after a shut down. It has been three years since the machine has been shut off, and that time gap caused me to forget the Apple id, and password for the machine. It took a full four hours of watching, and listening to Youtube videos made by two different guys from India who spoke a mile a minute with a strong Hindi accent, and tons of trial and error efforts using their recovery steps to finally get into this Mac which sits on my desk unused by anyone but myself. Success was finally achieved and unlike the woman who gives birth and forgets the pain immediately upon seeing her child my pain continues. Now, for whatever reason, in the great wisdom of Apple the Mac acts just like my iPhone. If it is unattended for a few seconds it requires, you guessed it, a password to enter again. I am positive that this useless feature can be turned off, but I may not live long enough to learn where the switch is. I will sleep easier now that I am protected from my wife getting into my computer when I’m away.
Man typing on the keyboard trying to log into his computer forgot password
In trying to understand why all this is necessary, I vision the workplace where every colleague takes over your keyboard when you turn your back, or go to the john. I would sooner booby trap that individual and spray him with indigo blue ink than have to reenter the password every time.
Throughout all this I keep hearing about how smart artificial intelligence has become, but in my opinion this problem is beyond the capabilities of AI. Maybe in another hundred years after electric cars rule the planet, and the air is thick with the smoke of hydrocarbon fueled electric power stations, AI will be smart enough to solve the password problem. However, there is no incentive for Apple, Google, Norton, and the others to solve it because they are making too much money selling updates to newer machines that need more passwords. Like I said above, I’ll reward the company who solves the pw problem permanently with my cash. In the meantime, I’ll keep asking Santa for a solution. His elves suffer from the same malady and may be able to make the miracle happen.
My goal to read four books a month this year is nearing completion. I just finished reading Absolute Power by Daniel Baldacci as number 46. With two more to go It’ll be close. The weather here just turned nasty, and the daytime temperature is minus four degrees Farhrenheit with wind chills below -20 degrees. Not that that means I stop moving, but the world seems to slow down when it is cold. Our library closed because of yesterday’s snowstorm, and the upcoming Christmas holiday. Getting something to read is going to be difficult. Additionally, the weather has caused my internet service to slow down to zero. The only thing I can still watch is Youtube. My e-mail, news, and WordPress are all down, and I can’t even go online to ask them for help. Anyway, let me tell you about Absolute Power.
For sure, the best mystery story I read this year. Baldacci crafted a fiction that kept me, the reader, on the edge of my seat from page one through page 469. There was never a dull moment in this story. The characters were real, believable, and likeable, well, that is except for the two protagonists who were despicable. The fact that the plot revolves around a crooked President made it even better for me. I hate politicians and love conspiracy theories. This story is loaded with both. Many stories begin to finalize twenty pages from the end, Baldacci chose instead to take the mystery into the final pages, and I couldn’t tell how the culprits were going to be dealt with until the very last sentences.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves mystery stories, or to anyone who just loves a good story.
In the battle with the young squirrels attacking the bird feeder I lost several skirmishes. Each time I had to revise the original squirrel guard. Why am I so focused on beating the squirrels? Good question. I feed birds for my amusement. Yes, but I also feel extra sorry for them during the winter months because the food sources are greatly diminished. The squirrels have the same food shortage, but they don’t amuse me as much as the birds. Although they have given me great joy in watching them defeat my mechanisms for keeping them out of the larder.
I spend a good deal of money buying bird seed, in fact I almost swore at the checkout person the last time I paid for twenty pounds, it rang in at $45.95. Then, when I came home and left the bag unopened and unattended in the garage overnight, I found a hole had been chewed through by a resident mouse. I’m being attacked from all fronts.
Feeding a squirrel compared to a bird is like feeding a Saint Bernard compared to a Yorkshire Terrier. They consume a lot of food and eat several times a day. Not to mention that it isn’t one squirrel it can be six or more. They come from every tree in the neighborhood.
Design number one (R1) was a six inch stove pipe suspended from the feeder and surrounding the pole. The theory is that between the diameter and the slippery surface the rodents will avoid climbing the outside. Squirrels are very smart and within nano seconds they determined that the best route was to squeeze through the center of the pipe while climbing the wooden pole. I knew this would fail, but I wanted to see just how effective this deterrent would be. Zero!
The second design (R2) had me drill a series of holes around the perimeter of the pipe and to fill them with long screws. The idea was to make the squirrel hit the screw and to back down. This system lasted about fifteen seconds. They just wiggled past the screws and up the pole.
Revision 3 (R3) I added a series of wooden blocks to fill the voids between the pipe and the post. Again, it took about forty-five seconds to find a spot through which the animal could wiggle his way past. Less slender squirrels just chewed on the wood and made an opening that allowed a new highway to open.
Now for the latest version, I removed the pipe and took it to my operating room, the “Shop.” I traced the diameter of the pipe on a piece of scrap pine and cut it out on the band saw. Next, I did the same for the post. Then I screwed the filler piece to the inside bottom of the pipe. After reinstalling the pipe on the post I filled whatever little space there remained between the post and pipe with wood blocks. The results are in the video below.
See the Squirrel chewing away at wood fillers trying to find space enough to squeeze through to the pole. Notice the pile of wood chips laying around the base of the pole.
I think this revision completes the job, but I fear he may chew through the post like a beaver and I’ll find my feeder crashed to the ground
