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March 18th, 2026 
Patents, Encoders, a Missing DLL, and the Format That Refused to Die
There is a particular kind of frustration that belongs entirely to the early internet era — the frustration of having a thing that almost works. You could see the shape of the future perfectly clearly, you could practically reach out and touch it, but some combination of slow connections, incompatible formats, and labyrinthine licensing agreements kept yanking it just out of reach. The MP3, for a good decade and a half, was the perfect emblem of that frustration. It was everywhere, it powered a revolution, and it was also, in certain precise legal senses, not entirely yours to use freely.
This is the story of how a German engineering project from the 1980s became the soundtrack of the 2000s, held hostage by a thicket of patents that kept lawyers employed for thirty years, and how a small open-source audio editor on your Windows desktop became an unexpected front line in that quiet, grinding war. Continue reading The Long, Strange, Wonderfully Petty War Over the MP3.
March 9th, 2026 
Anti-gravity is much closer than one might think. I know a man that has been levitating for years, but that is a story for another day. Meanwhile one might enjoy reading The Anti-Gravity Bible, a research reference guide that might help those interested in the science to gain a broader understanding of where the science stands today. The only thing missing are the unknowns, but they usually are are they not?
to read the Anti-Gravity Bible, a research compilation of all things anti-gravity.
February 25th, 2026 
RESEARCH NOTE
FPL-0125
MAY 1970
WOOD FINISHING:
Blistering, Peeling, and Cracking of House Paints from Moisture Forest Products Laboratory, Forest Service U.S. Department of Agriculture
When too much water gets into paint or into wood beneath the paint, the paint may blister or peel. Understanding the causes of these failures will help homeowners to diagnose the particular problem and take corrective measures.
Blistering
Moisture blisters should not be confused with temperature blisters or glossy backblisters. Their causes and cures are not the same. Moisture blisters usually contain water when they form, or do so soon afterward; temperature blisters do not. Temperature blisters usually occur within 1 or 2 days after painting with dark-colored paint on cool days in the fall, and are usually in only the last coat of paint. Glossy-backblisters, as their name implies, have a glossy material on their backs; moisture blisters do not. Glossy-back blisters usually involve several layers of old paint. Continue reading Wood Finishing – Blistering, Peeling, and Cracking of House Paints from Moisture
December 15th, 2022 
When one thinks of the English countryside or rural France replete with rambling country house estates and fairly tale chateaus sitting alongside grand chapels and country church spires, one might imagine a realm of manners, neighborly love, and country gentlemen. However, history informs us that this is not always the case and that one may well encounter a few country rogues and degenerate rascals along the wandering footpaths, forests, and verdant vales. Continue reading Artistic Endeavour in the Absence of Country Gentlemen
February 24th, 2026  5R4 GYB Tube to view of the schematic for an RCA designed 50 Watt 4 Stage HiFi Power AB Amplifier
to view a complete copy of the RCA Receiving Tube RC-30 Manual – 1975
Click here to learn more about the 5R4 GYB Tube at The Valve Museum
Click here to visit a guitar amplifier building resource site.
February 23rd, 2026  1765 Meins Circulating Library Lending Library
A CATALOGUE OF MEIN’s CIRCULATING LIBRARY; CONSISTING Of above Twelve Hundred VOLUMES, in most Branches of polite Literature, Arts and Sciences; VIZ. Continue reading Mein’s Circulating Library
February 22nd, 2026  Inside the belfry of SS Medard and Gildard’s parish church, Little Bytham, Lincolnshire, England Culture runs deep in England. I am reminded of this when I run across esoteric orgainsations and societies that unless one is well informed the existence of which would remain unknown to the general public.
How does a society of bell ringers grab ya? Yes, they have one.
Click here to learn more about The Whiting Society of Ringing.
According to their website:
“The Whiting Society was founded in 1968, and takes its name from its founding father, Arthur Whiting(1908-1975}, who was a ringer at All Saints, Marple, Cheshire. Arthur was frustrated with the boring and seemingly interminable business meetings of the Chester Diocesan Guild at the time, which no infrequently overran into, and sometimes wiped out, the time allocated to evening ringing. He determined to form a group dedicated to making ringing enjoyable and actually getting on with it, rather than debate and discussion.”
 The tower of the old church with the hearse house in the foreground, All Saints church, Marple. 8 August 2008
I do recall watching an excellent Midsomer Murders Episode 3 or Series 5 entitled: Ring out Your Dead
Well….Why not? Caveat: I must presume that the Whiting Society of Bell Ringers are a bit more civilised and polite.
httpv://youtu.be/LFmjYWIXtbQ
September 30th, 2022
I
Verum usque in præsentem diem multa garriunt inter se Canonici de abscondito quodam istius Abbatis Thomæ thesauro, quem sæpe, quanquam adhuc incassum, quæsiverunt Steinfeldenses. Ipsum enim Thomam adhuc florida in ætate existentem ingentem auri massam circa monasterium defodisse perhibent; de quo multoties interrogatus ubi esset, cum risu respondere solitus erat: “Job, Johannes, et Zacharias vel vobis vel posteris indicabunt”; idemque aliquando adiicere se inventuris minime invisurum. Inter alia huius Abbatis opera, hoc memoria præcipue dignum iudico quod fenestram magnam in orientali parte alæ australis in ecclesia sua imaginibus optime in vitro depictis impleverit: id quod et ipsius effigies et insignia ibidem posita demonstrant. Domum quoque Abbatialem fere totam restauravit: puteo in atrio ipsius effosso et lapidibus marmoreis pulchre cælatis exornato. Decessit autem, morte aliquantulum subitanea perculsus, ætatis suæ anno lxxiido, incarnationis vero Dominiæ mdxxixo.
“I suppose I shall have to translate this,” said the antiquary to himself, as he finished copying the above lines from that rather rare and exceedingly diffuse book, the Sertum Steinfeldense Norbertinum.[5] “Well, it may as well be done first as last,” and accordingly the following rendering was very quickly produced:
[5]An account of the Premonstratensian abbey of Steinfeld, in the Eiffel, with lives of the Abbots, published at Cologne in 1712 by Christian Albert Erhard, a resident in the district.
The epithet Norbertinum is due to the act that St Norbert was founder of the Premonstratensian Order. Continue reading The Treasure of Abbot Thomas – from Ghost Stories of M.R. James
September 29th, 2022 
CHAPTER 1 – Introduction
KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS
On the decline of the Roman power, about five centuries after Christ, the countries of Northern Europe were left almost destitute of a national government. Numerous chiefs, more or less powerful, held local sway, as far as each could enforce his dominion, and occasionally those chiefs would unite for a common object; but, in ordinary times, they were much more likely to be found in hostility to one another. In such a state of things the rights of the humbler classes of society were at the mercy of every assailant; and it is plain that, without some check upon the lawless power of the chiefs, society must have relapsed into barbarism. Such checks were found, first, in the rivalry of the chiefs themselves, whose mutual jealousy made them restraints upon one another; secondly, in the influence of the Church, which, by every motive, pure or selfish, was pledged to interpose for the protection of the weak; and lastly, in the generosity and sense of right which, however crushed under the weight of passion and selfishness, dwell naturally in the heart of man. From this last source sprang Chivalry, which framed an ideal of the heroic character, combining invincible strength and valor, justice, modesty, loyalty to superiors, courtesy to equals, compassion to weakness, and devotedness to the Church; an ideal which, if never met with in real life, was acknowledged by all as the highest model for emulation. Continue reading The Age of Chivalry
September 29th, 2022 
The Beginnings of English Witchcraft
It has been said by a thoughtful writer that the subject of witchcraft has hardly received that place which it deserves in the history of opinions. There has been, of course, a reason for this neglect—the fact that the belief in witchcraft is no longer existent among intelligent people and that its history, in consequence, seems to possess rather an antiquarian than a living interest. No one can tell the story of the witch trials of sixteenth and seventeenth century England without digging up a buried past, and the process of exhumation is not always pleasant. Yet the study of English witchcraft is more than an unsightly exposure of a forgotten superstition. There were few aspects of sixteenth and seventeenth century life that were not affected by the ugly belief. It is quite impossible to grasp the social conditions, it is impossible to understand the opinions, fears, and hopes of the men and women who lived in Elizabethan and Stuart England, without some knowledge of the part played in that age by witchcraft. It was a matter that concerned all classes from the royal household to the ignorant denizens of country villages. Privy councillors anxious about their sovereign and thrifty peasants worrying over their crops, clergymen alert to detect the Devil in their own parishes, medical quacks eager to profit by the fear of evil women, justices of the peace zealous to beat down the works of Satan—all classes, indeed—believed more or less sincerely in the dangerous powers of human creatures who had surrendered themselves to the Evil One. Continue reading The History of Witchcraft in England – The Beginnings
December 2nd, 2021  New York Times Press Run circa 1942 – Library of Congress Photograph NEWSPAPER.-Printed sheets published at stated intervals, chiefly for the purpose of conveying intelligence on current events.
The Romans wrote out an account of the most memorable occurrences of the day, which were sent to public officials. They were entitled Acta Durna, and read substantially like the local column of a country weekly paper of to-day. Before the invention of printing letters were written regularly by persons in the chief capitals of Europe and dispatched to those who felt an interest in public affairs. For this the correspondents were paid. The earliest English journal in print was the Weekly Newes from Italy, Germanie, &c., in 1622, a prior newspaper preserved in the British Museum which contained an account of the Spanish Armada being regarded as a forgery. The first attempt at reporting Parliament was made in 1641, and the first daily newspaper in England was the Daily Courant, in 1702. The London Times was founded in 1788. Continue reading History and Facts on American Newspaper Production from the Colonial Times Through the 1890s.
November 19th, 2021
CHAPTER I
PENAL METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Prisons as places of detention are very ancient institutions. As soon as men had learned the way to build, in stone, as in Egypt, or with bricks, as in Mesopotamia, when kings had many-towered fortresses, and the great barons castles on the crags, there would be cells and dungeons in the citadels. But prisons as places for the reception of “ordinary” (as distinct from state or political) criminals for definite terms only evolved in England many centuries afterwards; whilst imprisonment as a punishment in itself, to be endured under rules made expressly punitive and distressful, may be described as essentially modern, and reached its worst phase in the nineteenth century. Continue reading Penal Methods of the Middle Ages
October 7th, 2021  Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras, India, 1890 CLAIRVOYANCE
by C. W. Leadbeater
Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Pub. House
[1899]
CHAPTER IX
METHODS OF DEVELOPMENT
When a men becomes convinced of the reality of the valuable power of clairvoyance, his first question usually is, “How can I develop in my own case this faculty which is said to be latent in everyone?”
Now the fact is that there are many methods by which it may be developed, but only one which be at all safely recommended for general use—that of which we shall speak last of all. Among the less advanced nations of the world the clairvoyant state has been produced in various objectionable ways; among some of the non-Aryan tribes of India, but the use of intoxicating drugs or the inhaling of stupefying fumes; among the dervishes, by whirling in a mad dance of religious fervour until vertigo and insensibility supervene; among the followers of the abominable practice of the Voodoo cult, by frightful sacrifices and loathsome rites of black magic. Methods such as these are happily not in vogue in our race, yet even among us large numbers of dabblers in this ancient art adopt some plan of self-hypnotization, such as gazing at a bright spot or the repetition of some formula until a condition of semi-stupefaction is produced; while yet another school among them would endeavour to arrive at similar results by the use of some of the Indian systems of regulation of the breath. Continue reading Clarivoyance by C.W. Leadbeater
February 24th, 2026 
SHIPPING FISH THREE THOUSAND MILES TO MARKET.
By E. D. CLARK, Bureau of Chemistry. 1915
MILLIONS of pounds of halibut and salmon are shipped each year across the United States from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast. Few of the persons who help to consume this vast supply realize that the fish has come overland. They imagine that its freshness is due to their own proximity to the ocean and believe that if they were so unfortunate as to live far inland good sea food would be unattainable. As a matter of fact, it is the Pacific, not the Atlantic, which now furnishes the bulk of the salmon and halibut consumed in the country. For various reasons the Atlantic catches have diminished to such an extent in recent years that the supply from this source would be quite insufficient to supply even the large cities along the coast itself. On the other hand, the catches in the Pacific are enormous. The fisheries of Alaska alone yield annually products that are valued at two or three times the $7,000,000 paid to Russia in 1867 for the Territory, and the annual output of the Pacific salmon canneries is valued at $30,000,000. Sixty million pounds of fresh halibut alone were shipped east last year. Continue reading Shipping Fish Three Thousand Miles to Market
September 20th, 2021 
CHAPTER I. Of the Holy Scripture.
- Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary unto salvation; therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his Church; and afterwards for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the holy Scripture to be most necessary; those former ways of God’s revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.
- Under the name of holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the Books of the Old and New Testament, which are these:
Continue reading Westminster Confession of Faith – 1646
September 11th, 2021  Harvey Wiley, Chief Chemist of the Department of Agriculture’s Division of Chemistry (third from the right) with his staff, not long after he joined the division in 1883. Wiley’s scientific expertise and political skills were a key to passage of the 1906 Food and Drugs Act and the creation of the FDA. WINE MAKING.
Wine making rests also largely upon chemical principles. In grapes we find large quantities of sugar combined with organic acids, of which tartaric acid is the chief, coloring matters, tannic principles, etc. The production of wine of fine flavor consists in securing the fermentation of the sugars of this mixture with appropriate ferments and under carefully controlled conditions of temperature. Only through the most careful chemical control are the most favorable conditions maintained. Consciously or unconsciously, the wine maker is a practical chemist, and under the influence of modern research the scientific principles of wine making are very much more firmly established and more easily practiced than they were before the conditions under which wine is produced were thoroughly understood. Continue reading The Relation of Chemistry to the progress of Wine Making, Brewing, and Distilling
September 10th, 2021  “Saint John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, the main gateway to the Priory of Saint John of Jerusalem,” black and white photograph by the British photographer Henry Dixon, 1880. The church was founded in the 12th century by Jordan de Briset, a Norman knight. Prior Docwra completed the gatehouse shown in this photograph in 1504. The gateway served as the main entry to the Priory, which was the center of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitallers). Courtesy of the British Library, London. Rules for politeness should be unnecessary. But although we have no belief in rules, there are certain hints which may be useful. There is a natural rhythm in life which varies with temperament. Quietness and gravity and steadiness of feature are signal marks of good breeding. Approachableness and patience in giving up the whole of one’s attention to those who seek it at the moment, are needed. Few things are so vulgar as to be everlastingly in a hurry. Egotism is also a mark of ill-breeding; one should beware of unnecessary apologies, for apology is only egotism in another form. Serious discussion with disinterested people on one’s personal domestic troubles, and particularly on one’s health, is decidedly bad form; so is carelessness in speech and conversation in any direction. Continue reading A Note on Ill-Breeding from a Knight of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem
September 8th, 2021 
The University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee has a long heralded tradition of assisting farmers and growers through it’s Agricultural Extension Service. The following bulletin entitled Grape Growing in Tennessee discusses the Muscadine variety of grapes among others. Muscadine grapes are often found growing wild in Tennessee. On my grandfather’s West Tennessee farm, a stand of ancient tree-sized vines of Muscadine grapes provided several gallons of the fruit each year that were used in making homemade wine, jams, and jellies. With the skin on the jams and jellies would be of a purple colour. Removing the skins allowed for beautiful emerald green coloured jams and jellies.
to read about growing grapes in Tennessee
September 8th, 2021 
The Lost Art of Wine Making at Home
Some Recipes Popular a Century Ago Revived to Show How Our Forefathers Brewed Their Own Beers, Made Their Own Ciders, Distilled Their Own Liquors.
The manufacture of homemade liquors is all but a lost art. A century ago every farm had its formulas, whether for the brewing of beer, or the making of cider, or wines from the fruits of the locality. But the wines of commerce became so cheap, and the coming of the railway made them so easily obtainable that, except in a few rare cases, the homemade sort fell into desuetude; whether innocuous or not is in dispute. Much water has passed under the bridge since Macculloch, writing in 1816, said, “the price of the sugar is the price of the wine.” Even in those days it was probably true only of certain kinds in certain conditions. Continue reading Homemade Wine Recipes from the 16th and 17th Centuries
August 24th, 2021  Sloop of War Jamestown – Photo from book The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, Series 1, Vol. 3. Several years ago, I purchased a small memory book entitled Album of Love from the mid 1800s.
Much like scrap books of today, these books were used to keep memorabilia such as autographs, photos, newspaper clippings, and sometime drawings and water colors. They were elaborately designed and published using fine rag paper and often contained beautiful engravings. In this particular book which belonged to one Mrs. Kitty Lenox of Trenton, New Jersey living in Philadelphia at the time, we find beautiful poems written by friends wishing her well upon a departure. I will share some of these beautiful words with you below. She apparently went by the name Kate. The date in the cover of the book is Sept. 1870, however most of the writings are from 1861 and 1862 during the Civil War. The book also contains several romantic engravings.
Perhaps the most significant poem in the book is one written by a sailor serving in the US Navy who was departing the port of Philadelphia on the Sloop of War, Jamestown, which in October of 1861 was re-commissioned to defend the Atlantic Coast from Confederate privateers.
Parting Words to Kate
Farewell! The (word is hard to make out) trxxxxx ocean calleth me;
The white-sailed vesel awhile my home must be!
Duty far across the ever-rolling main
Has called me — called me not in vain
I go to other lands; yet think ye not,
My own dear friend, you shall never be forgot!
Oh, “twas no easy task to bid my soul
Its memory of sorrow to control!
Farewell! farewell! and Should I no more
Return to my own, my loved, my native shore,
Oh, “in a better country” in the land
Where dwell God’s pure redeemed one, may I stand!
Farewell! the patient hand that hold me here,
Think you I shall not find it everywhere?
Yes, yes, this trust Shall every fear dispel—
God will protect me ever!. Kate — Fare ye Well!
AB Maloney, U S Navy
U.S. Sloop of War Jamestown Sept. 20th, 1862
February 23rd, 2026 
From the classic British Movie, The Shooting Party, a 1985 British drama film directed by Alan Bridges based on Isabel Colegate’s 9th novel of the same name published in 1980 we find a scene set in the billiards parlor whereupon the host of the weekend shooting party Sir Randolph Nettleby walks in on Lord Gilbert Hartlet, known to be a crack shot in the bird hunting realm, sighting in a new set of Purdy shotguns, guns handmade in England by James Purdy & Sons since the year 1814 : Continue reading On Exquisite Statuary for the Fine Country Home: “I Can Get’em at the British Museum”
June 4th, 2021 
Reprinted from FineModelShips.com with the kind permission of Dr. Michael Czytko
The SAN FELIPE is one of the most favoured ships among the ship model builders. The model is elegant, very beautifully designed, and makes a decorative piece of art to be displayed at home or in the office.
Doubts on San Felipe’s historic authenticity I have heard voiced or seen many times, mainly in forums on ship history and ship modelling. There was the contribution of Toni Alvarez Silva of April 1999 in some forum, who went three times to the Museo Naval in Madrid. He could not get any information there whether the San Felipe existed or not. He also contacted Mantua and Artesania Latina and asked them about their model kits of the San Felipe, without getting convincing responses. Continue reading Historic authenticity of the Spanish SAN FELIPE of 1690
February 24th, 2026  Wyggeston’s Chantry House in Leicester: grade II* listed and part of the Newarke Houses Museum. Built by William Wyggeston as a chantry house. Privately built chapel
Secondly, a chantry chapel is a building on private land or a dedicated area or altar within a parish church or cathedral, set aside or built especially for the performance of the “chantry duties” by the priest. A chantry may occupy a single altar, for example in the side aisle of a church, or an enclosed chapel within a larger church, generally dedicated to the donor’s favourite saint. Continue reading Chantry Chapels
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