An etymology share: “What Time Is ‘Noon?”

Posted By on March 31, 2021

When was ‘noon’ a time that was later in the day … clocklike 3PM? Let’s check with merriam-webster.com:

There’s something aesthetically pleasing about the word noon. Its palindromic spelling feels appropriate for the middle of the day, when the sun is directly overhead and the hands on the clock are pointed upward in a straight line. It’s even spelled with letters found more or less in the middle of the alphabet.

But there was once a time when noon referred to a different time of day—and that fact is reflected in the word’s etymology.

Noon takes a path through Middle and Old English, where nōn denoted the ninth hour from sunrise. That word derives from the Latin nonus, meaning “ninth,” related to novem, the word for the number nine. If you mark sunrise at approximately 6:00 in the morning, that puts noon at around what we would now call 3:00 P.M. Romans called what we now call noon meridiem, literally the “middle of the day”; hence our designations A.M. (for ante meridiem) and P.M. (post meridiem) for the hours before and after the noon hour.

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After 6 days, the Ever Given is moving and the Suez Canal is open

Posted By on March 30, 2021

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The news that has captured much of the of the world’s interest this week was the very large Ever Given container ship lodged sideways in the Suez Canal by EvergivenStuckSuezChart40+ mph winds (and perhaps some mechanical issues?). The “Empire State Building” size ship snarled traffic for 6 days surprising most people as to just how difficult it was to refloat and move back into the channel. Thankfully on Monday it was finally freed.

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It wasn’t until I saw the navigable channel illustration (right), did I understand how the ship was wedged in so tight. It was still shocking that even the largest tugs struggled to pull it loose and only after days of dredging and waiting on tides. It was also eye-opening to see just how much of the world economy in our JIT (Just In Time) manufacturing, inventories and supply culture we all depend on, especially now that businesses are starting to open after nearly o year of COVID19 shutdowns.

Music Monday: The Band and Kodachrome photography

Posted By on March 29, 2021

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Worked on some spring yard clean-up over the weekend

Posted By on March 28, 2021

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Business change, server updates, an idiom & a friend’s new toy

Posted By on March 27, 2021

This past week was an on and off work week. I’ve been struggling to update software and the latest Linux flavor on an old WMCpageserver while telling myself “I’m getting too old for this.” Right or wrong attitude, I think keeping up with fast-paced technology change is a young person’s game.

On the plus side, a client that I thought left, came back and wanted me to recover their account, emails and old website … but in the same week, another long time customer has decided they were ready for a redesign of their website and asked me to transfer their data. Over the years I knew that I should have been recommending a CMS platform, but when customers are happy, why rock the boat?

Interesting fact

The origin of the idiom ‘rock the boat’ is attributed to American statesman, lawyer and politician William Jennings Bryan, who was famously quoted “The man who rocks the boat ought to be stoned when he gets back on shore.” In this 1914 quote, it is evident that Bryan was referring to those who stir up trouble.

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Tech Friday: What is the best smartphone for 2021?

Posted By on March 26, 2021

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The current opinion by many who review technology (and Consumer Reports) is that the best smartphone for 2021 is the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max … although might be a bit larger than many are comfortable putting in iiphone7carmount_3their pockets.

Personally I’ve shifted from wanting something small, like my old Samsung SPH-i500 aluminum bodied flipphone (stlll a favorite) to an iPhone 5 (loved it) to my current much larger aging iPhone 7 Plus (photo right). If you are following along … the size I’ve been willing to stuff into my front pants pocket has grown and is often annoying. If I can’t get an Apple flip—iPhone in the near future, I’ll probably consider the smaller format iPhone 12 Pro.

For those in the Android OS world, the choices are probably more challenging as there are  a lot of options … but Consumer Reports does a little heavy lifting and suggested the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G at the top end and the OnePlus Nord N10 5G as a budget “best phone” and OnePlus Nord N100 for Best Phone for All-Day Battery Life.

Consumer Reports’ battery champ, the OnePlus N100, slightly exceeded two days of power with a single charge. However, the handset featured some of the lowest rated cameras that the magazine has ever tested. Other phones scoring well with battery life included the Samsung Galaxy A71 (43 hours) and the iPhone 12 Pro Max (41 hours).

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Investing: Buying Vertex $VRTX for 2021 and hopefully beyond

Posted By on March 25, 2021

For the most part, I’m a conservative investor, although a regular channel trader, and I rarely speculates on risky upstarts, IPOs, zero-profit tech stocks, muskbitcoinpharmaceutical long-shots or the latest crazy … cryptocurrency trend. Since most “risk” involves speculation, I see it more akin to gambling than eyes-open informed value or growth investingboth which are subject to up’s and down’s in our economy. Do I often wish I had an “all or none” Bitcoin-trader personality? “Yes,” but early investing and living through company bankruptcies, buyouts, margin leverage positions, futures market trades and regular options losses … it taught me the comfort of a good night sleep and a “steady as she goes” slower growing diversified investment Naturalishistoriaportfolio. One thing that never seems to be easy, is predicting market sell-offs and gyrations — 1987, 2001, 2008 and the 2020 coronavirus pandemic come to mind. Timing is never easy.

VertexI also recognized there are some established companies that can provide steady income and growth which become more attractively priced on occasion (usually in hindsight). For example, Pfizer $PFE was one of the first out of the gate with a COVID19 vaccine and so I bought in early expecting a little more upside movement on top of a nice quarterly dividend. To my surprise, it didn’t happen … which I’m saying so that you take my next stock mention in the pharmaceutical sector with a proverbial grain of salt.”

Having watched Vertex Pharmaceuticals $VRTX get hammered last fall when its alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency lung-and-liver drug failed a trial and they announced it would be discontinued, the stock fell out of favor. The company still has a lot to offer, but a lot of investors turned away. Vertex is still profitable with patents in place until the 2030s on their cystic-fibrosis franchise of drugs and is still working on another alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency drug which is currently in phase 2 trials.

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So like a few pharmaceutical analysis that I read, I’m thinking $VRTX might be undervalued and worth buying on market weakness (buying under $210)? Early this month, the Cowen analyst Phil Nadeau called Vertex a top large cap pick for 2021 saying, "we expect Vertex to recover in 2021 and would use the recent weakness to build a position in this premier biotech."

Sticking with what I know: Bought my 4th pair of Vasque boots

Posted By on March 24, 2021

The more I think about it, the “lamer” it appears to be talking about shoes … but truth be told, the Sperry Topsider reviews and shoe insole posts still are in the top ten when it comes to blog numbers.

I’m posting a photo of my newly arrived clearance priced Vasque hiking boots and previous ones … as this will be my 4th pair of Vasque boots. The first pair were light-duty summer weight and lasted quite a few years of hiking with my buddy Jeffuntil I started using them for work boots. OldNewVasqueHikingBoots2103I upgraded to a full leather pair which seemed to take forever to break in, but held up for years until the rubber sole split loose from the leather (poor design since they could not be re-stitched like older full leather hiking boots).

The 3rd pair (current) were end of the season clearance boots and have held up well (photo), but definitely have not been used for hiking like the other two. They are probably still my favorites even though they are insulated (but I still wear all year around). Unfortunately they are starting to crack a bit and suspect they need to be replace before doing an hiking.

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Weddings and Nice Weather indicates Spring 2021 has arrived

Posted By on March 23, 2021

LilacBudsOut210321Besides what has become an annual photo of one of our lilac bushes pushing out buds, this past weekend was the first weekend of spring. Besides the new growth and greening lawn, we celebrated with our neighbors of 25 years, Pam and Jim by attending  their son’s wedding in Cincinnati. It was a beautiful wedding for a beautiful couple. Congratulations Andrea and Jared Miller.  

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The great part for us was that the wedding was in East Walnut Hills at St. Francis de Sales Parish with 2+ hours between the service and reception dinner which gave us the afternoon to “walk” over to Taylor’s apartment and visit with him. Megan has given his apartment a female touch, although Taylor is just fine when it comes to caring for and decorating his place .. it has been a few years since college (wink, wink). It was great to spend the afternoon before driving down the the Bell Center for the reception and evening. We had a great time.

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Music Monday: More Than a Feeling – Boston 1976

Posted By on March 22, 2021

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Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog