There was some cloud on the moon, which I liked. I took this picture in roughly the same place as I took the double one of the dogs, three posts back; it was a couple of evenings ago. I used a tripod because of the long exposure. It’s not quite a full moon, but as near as dammit. I can’t explain where the warm colours come from; all I did was make the whole image a bit less dark, using Photoshop. The brick-red colour on the horizon is in the general direction of Oslo; however, I don’t remember seeing it when I took the picture.
Here’s one I took a little way up the road. I used a different camera setting (a shorter exposure) and the cloud had gone by that time. It’s very different, much less colour; more like an etching or something:
A Bad Guide 
Gorgeous photos, just gorgeous.
Wow. Thanks.
I also took photos of the moon which turned out to have that orange tone (it was on a film, not a digital picture). It might have to do with the wave length for which the camera is set. Remember what you have when you take a picture of a place lit by a light bulb: it’s all orange. But why would the sunlight reflected on the moon have a modified wave length is something of a mystery.
Ami, ami, ami,
Toi qui vis loin d’ici,
Dis-moi si la nuit
Tu vois la même lune que moi
(Enzo Enzo)
My daughter & her schoolfriends the twins (who’re studying physics) want to set up a fat farm on the moon, where you can lose weight (but not mass) really easily. But in English–not in Norwegian–they don’t make a distinction (or so we think).
I like this novel idea of approaching people’s weight problems from the gravitational end of things. If you’ve been bothered by sagging bits, you can reduce the sag while keeping the bits. You can lose weight without being personally diminished in any way.
Mass vs weight brings out the peevologist in me. I was taught the difference in school, and was taught that (as physicists use the words) kilogram is a unit of mass while pound is a unit of weight, and more generally of force. This is a crucial distinction in physics. Outside of physics it presents opportunities for making a pedantic ass of yourself. So, for example, if your pediatrician says that your child weighs 30 kilos you might come back with “no, you mean her mass is 30 kilos”.
If the US were to completely stop using pounds, then this opportunity would be lost for some, although the hard-core pedant could still say “No, that’s her mass. She weighs about … newtons” (using a unit of force instead of mass).
Some years ago one of my son’s science teachers insisted on “mass” instead of “weigh” as the verb for establishing how many grams of something you’ve got in the lab.
Tu vois la même lune que moi
I See The Moon
And of course saying mass creates enormous confusion for Roman Catholic physicists.
I am moved by the fact that we all see the same moon.
“The same moon” in a different sense: Every 29.5 days or so there is a new moon. Well, to our ancestors it seemed new; the old one was gone. The new one waxed to full and waned to nothing and was gone.
The word “crescent”: As I understand it, it comes, by some route, from a Latin word meaning “wax” or “grow” or “get bigger” (related to “increase”).
So here’s my little joke: The shape that we call “crescent” (whether referring to the moon or pastry or anything else) is not the shape of a waxing moon, but rather the shape of a moon that is either early in the early stages of waxing or in the late stages of waning.
Another bit of lunacy: what is commonly called a half moon (that half-circular shape) also has traditional names involving the word “quarter”, for perfectly reasonable reasons.
saying mass creates enormous confusion
It’s a Messe.
“..was taught that (as physicists use the words) kilogram is a unit of mass..”: quite so. But it doesn’t stop our German cousins using the kilogram of force whenever they feel like it. P.S. do you know that by happy approximation the Newton of force is about equal to the weight of an apple?
Depending, of course, on the apple. And the planet.
The sun has just set now. The moon must be rising then. I’ll have a look in a moment. It’s quite funny to think that on Mars and in Norway we might be seeing the same thing at the same moment.
La même lune que moi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFk6VP3OUo8
Last year, John Cowan taught me a word I never heard of before: plenilune. — http://mauricianismes.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/mare-aux-vacoas/#comment-982
Empty: pound is a unit of weight, and more generally of force
Ah? But then why do we see “lbf/in²” on this manometer?
For some time I used tons and kilograms for forces and ton.metres for moments, and even kilogrammes per square centimetre for pressures. Now I’m a good boy again and I do my calculations in kN, kN.m and N/mm² (or MPa*).
* If you want to please the French, use Pascal’s name in your units, Newton’s if you want to please the English.
Sig, I would suggest that we go outside and look at the moon at the same time to see if it’s really the same one. Unfortunately it’s overcast here (it’s snowing).
For a really confused unit you have to go to the US, where structural engineers (& therefore architects) use “kips” for units of force. One kip = one thousand pounds. Actually it’s a quite clever way of decimalising, because you canuse 0,2 k without resorting to how many lbs & oz you’re talking about, but for this kind of thing I would have been better off studying in England.
do you know that by happy approximation the Newton of force is about equal to the weight of an apple?
Happily apt.
There’s a beautiful sky tonight, not a movement in the air, Mars hanging out next to the moon and bats criss-crossing above our heads.
Here the sun is setting and the moon about to rise. I hope I remember to look for it, and Mars, later.
The sky is clear. We had a lovely but insubstantial snowfall the day before yesterday, a cold day yesterday (okay, it started and ended at about -10 C, no big deal by Oslo standards).
This afternoon we un-decorated our Christmas tree — we all felt that it was finally time for that — and I took it away. My wife, who had not been out of doors all day, said that it looked pretty cold out there, and she then proceeded to estimate the temperature with impressive accuracy based on the curl of the leaves of the rhodendrons.
How nice that you left it up so long. The goats LOVED eating our Christmas tree; apparently they prefer fir to the spruce that grow around here. That’s a veery impressive rhododendron trick of your wife’s; they don’t grow here (chalk) otherwise I’d try it.
Dearie: do you know that by happy approximation the Newton of force is about equal to the weight of an apple?
I told my daughter. This is such a useful thing to know. Thanks, Dearie.
Sig: If you want to please the French, use Pascal’s name in your units, Newton’s if you want to please the English.
And Watt’s for the Scots.
How do you pronounce “joule”, with “oo” or “ow”? People seem to say oo, at least in the US, but I got the idea somewhere that that’s wrong.
The WiPe article on the unit doesn’t address this, but the article on the man for whom it was named gives the oo sound for his name, so perhaps I was misinformed.
It also mentions that he was both a physicist and a brewer, and the other article mentions that there are about 100 joules of energy to be had from drinking a drop of beer. Does that mean that the energy released in burning the carbohydrates in a drop of beer could raise an apple 100 meters? Sounds wrong to me. Is somebody confusing calories with kilocalories? Or confusing the literal sense of “drop of beer” with the “have a wee drop” sense?
I was also taught to say “jowl,” back in the ’60s, but it seems we were misinformed. The Supplement to the OED (1976) said “The pronunciation ‘jool’ is now usual for the name of the unit and the physicist. Although some people of this name call themselves ‘Jowl’ and others ‘Jool’ … it is almost certain that J. P. Joule (and some at least of his relatives) used Jool. For evidence on this point, see Nature (1945), vol CLII, pp. 354, 418, 479, 602.”
This Appendix to the Cardwell biography goes on to discuss the issue at length, but unfortunately Google won’t let me see the crucial part.
Kips? What’s wrong with foot pounds?
Foot-pounds are something different. They are units for measuring moment (leverage).
I always said joules (not that I’ve used the word more than five times in my life). I’ve noticed that my daughter says “yules”, on the principle that j is y in Norwegian..
Wow. Beautiful photos. Beautiful moon. Beautiful woods. Wow.
Thanks. I’m very glad you’re back, mab.
I was told in lectures decades ago that we all say “jool” but that the bloke himself might well have said “jowl”. Similarly, I was told not to pronounce De Moivre in the French style, because the chap was a cockney, not a frog, so we should say de Moyvr. The German (language) names we pronounced in approximately German style – Oiler, that sort of thing.
I always said joules
Thanks, that’s very helpful.
I trust everyone knows that W.E.B. DuBois is dooBOYSS, not some Frenchified version.
the chap was a cockney, not a frog
It says here that he was born French but become a Londoner at about the age of about 18. Who knows how the Brits said his name?
We said “jewels” too, but in a Chicago philosophy class, WEB DuBois was “doo boiz”. Oh, and Worchestershire is “worstersher”, not a common word here as people prefer ketchup or especially mustard and piccalilli.
I had a terrible time with my night pictures, they didn’t turn out at all like Kron’s. I suppose it’s a combination of camera, photoshopping software, and lack of snow. Still, it was fun to try.
W.E.B. DuBois is dooBOYSS, not some Frenchified version.
Most words of French origin which have oi in English, like voice, choice and many others, preserve the Old French pronunciation oi, which became wé in Middle French and much later wa in Parisian French (wé still survives in some rural areas, including in Canada). So English words that seem to distort current French words actually reproduce the Old French pronunciation, which has been seriously distorted during the evolution into Modern French. (This is the closest there has been to the English Great Vowel Shift). Another case of preservation of Old French in English is the pronunciation of ch and j, as in choice and joy among others. Not that the English intended to preserve those pronunciations: the two languages just happened to follow different paths of phonetic evolution.
Worchestershire is “worstersher”
If referring to the famous sauce, I have always heard the name as “woostersher” (from knowledgeable people who would never have said “shire” at the end).
Actually, I meant “wooster sauce”; “woostersher” would be the county.
In the US we call it Worcestershire sauce (in writing).
It is written “Worcestershire sauce” everywhere.
Thank you, that’s a very enlightening account. Learning so much about French, I’m going to have to start looking out for different pronunciation–hitherto I haven’t been up to noticing such things.
There is a town of Worcester as well as the county of Worcestershire. In England it’s known as “Wooster” sauce while in the US they stick to the name on the label. It’s funny stuff, deadly on its own, I think. I sometimes add it to things while I’m cooking in order to mix up the flavours a bit. I’ve heard that other, proper, cooks do this (e.g. Robin, e.g. here).
I trust everyone knows that W.E.B. DuBois is dooBOYSS, not some Frenchified version.
In England it would even be dewBOYSS. I remember hearing Bob Dylan say Du Bwah, but as Language said when I mentioned it, he was probably doing it out of perversity, to confuse people, and certainly not because he didn’t know how to say it.
I don’t know if anyone ever thought it was called “What’s this here sauce?” or if that’s just a joke.
It is “wooster sauce” in Canada too, given the stronger British influence, but I know some Americans who also use that pronunciation.
Well, it’s not just a pronunciation, it’s a different word (no -shire).
“Not that the English intended to…”: what is English that it could have an intention?
She means that, although the Scotspersons, as usual, used great foresight, the Englanders (and possibly the Welshpersons too) were far too stupid.
There’s a stop on the London underground, an Essex suburb called Theydon Bois. It’s pronounced the English way, but if you don’t know the place it must be a bit worrying asking for a ticket: do you go for a Frenchified “A return ticket to Taidon Bwah, please,” and sound like a pretentious wally, or do you risk the ticket clerk’s derision for not even knowing a French name when you see one? Best to use the ticket machine, probably.
Or wear a top hat and monocle and call it “Timbees.” An American reporter might overhear you and do a feature story.
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dearie me: “Not that the English intended to…”: what is English that it could have an intention?
By “the English” I meant the people of England (as AJP understood), not the English language. But my comment was not intended to imply that the English people’s lack of intentionality in the matter was a failing on their part.
If we must be judged by each other, I hope it will be by our deeds and not by our intentions.
and please don’t judge me by my prepositions: I regret the false parallelism of “… by each other … by our …”
With learning through writing a blog like mine it’s not to judge everyone over how their prepositions look.
Sorry, m-l, I carelessly misread you. (Sneeze, snuffle, blows nose, retires to bed with hot toddy.)
Good night, dearieme, you’ll feel better in the morning.
I have had to unplug my phone here. Tomorrow is a minor election day and the automated phone bots are making my life miserable. I googled some of the numbers and people report getting phone calls every 6 minutes from some. Arrgghhhh. I tried answering then hanging up, but they just call right back. And the no-call list is no help, political phone calls are exempt. Didn’t think congress would pass a law against that one, did you?
“you’ll feel better in the morning”: dear lady, I didn’t.
Too bad, dearieme. I don’t know what else to suggest. Repeat of earlier regimen, maybe?
Chicken soup, definitely. With garlic. Freshly squeezed orange juice brought by a sympathetic Sweet Young Thing. Lately I’ve developed a taste for Australian port, too.
Now, can someone tell me what to do about the rent when your landlord has disappeared? I would imagine that either he is in custody or the landlady has a restraining order and he won’t be around.
Nijma, there should be some office at City Hall or such that deals with landlord and tenant disputes, which should be able to tell you what to do. In most places tenants are not supposed to withhold rent, but if there is a dispute about a failing on the landlord’s part they can put the money in some sort of official account to be held until the dispute is resolved. If the landlady is not the right person to give the check to, you might have to set up that kind of arrangement.
Of course, m-l, thank you. Why didn’t I think of that? I really hope the landlady ends up with it though. Before I moved in I was helping the landlord with painting and so forth, and he told me a long story about the previous tenant who didn’t pay any rent when he was out of town for a year. I can only imagine what he might say about me later. He told me he quit drinking too, and goes to AA, but I know that story’s got some holes in it.
I think you put it into an escrow account that you open at a bank, but I’m no expert on Chicago housing law.
Thanks, I’ve been tied up with emergency dental work this last week, but today I saw the landlady and she prefers I write her name on the checks, but she says she can still cash them if it has her husband’s name. The full explanation of check-cashing challenges my Spanish too much, so I don’t understand the details. He is not in custody but is staying with family. Poor baby, she has two black eyes still, another bruise on her forehead, and she says (in Spanish) “but I am not bad” as if that should make a difference. I’ll still call the city before I write any check. She says he is not paying “los biles”, pronounced BEE-lays. I was always taught that bills were “las cuentas”. She says it is both, I suspect some influence from English there.