Adders and the Addle Pated

Getting close to departure for England.  I'm at the point at where I am steering clear of runny nosed people, even adorable grand children.  It's no fun to be sick far from home.  Once I'm on the ground in rural Northumbria the Things to Worry About shift.  Bad weather of course.  Aches and pains, one assumes.  And adders.  

In our part of Wisconsin there are no venomous snakes.  And if I happen to stray south a bit I  know what a rattlesnake looks like.  I won't bother them, they won't bother me.  But adders, those lone venomous critters of the British Isles (sans Ireland, thanks Pat!), well I don't know what they look like or how they behave.  Here's a picture to help me with the identification:

Got it.  They look enough like rattlers to encourage a wide berth.

But one thing leads to another, and I got to wondering if there was a connection between the words Adder and Addled.  Seems pretty close.  But......nah.

Adder has a long and distinguished history.  It seems most medieval cultures had a similar word for serpent.  I figure the whole Garden of Eden case got them disproportionate attention.  In Gothic the word was nadrs.  In German it was, and still is, natter.  The various dialects of Old English being derived from Germanic sources the word was similar.  At some point a typo occurred, and "a nadder" became "an adder".

The most famous modern use of the word comes from the British classic "Blackadder", in which the scheming titular character always had a side kick named Baldrick, who could charitably be described as "addle pated".

"Pate" refers to one's head.  It derives from the Latin "patina" which means dish and also gives us the word pan.

My initial assumption that addle had a connection with a low crawling reptile, well, I was wrong.  It's considerably worse than that, and I don't feel obliged to recount it.  Lets let it be with the observation that it was not too far removed from the noxious insult that was unearthed at Vindolanda a couple of seasons back.  I think Secundinus and Baldrick had qualities in common.....

When Worlds Collide - The FIRST game for 2026.....

FIRST is known for "teasing" next year's game with early trailers.  They seldom give any real clues, just the name, the sponsors and some ambiguous images.  For 2026 it looks like the theme is archaeology!

Well, my mechanical engineering skills have fallen far behind the current technology, and my software skills have always been minimal.  But archaeology?  That I know!

Tree Shaped Tombstones - A New Road, a New Discovery

The route to and from the new deer hunting land takes me down roads I've never traveled before.  I mean that literally, not figuratively.  They traverse some wild and lonely parts of the back woods.  So I'm consulting my map program periodically, and while doing so I noticed a little country church.  Anah Emmanual Church, some five miles east of Spooner, Wisconsin.

I didn't have much in the way of expectations regards "Tree Shaped Tombstones".  The church was only built in 1909, past the heyday for these monuments.  But there ya go, a dainty little example of the "rugged cross" variant.  The interesting thing is....its only a few years old!  So somebody out there is making new versions that are close enough to the 19th century originals to fool my well trained eye.  Good for them.

A closer look.  Sorry 'bout the lighting, chance finds rarely happen during the pre-sunset "golden hour".  And for that matter, with gravestones traditionally facing east, anything I encounter late in the day is likely to be back lit.

I don't usually pay much attention to more pedestrian monuments, but this one caught my eye:

I assumed Country Ray was a nick name, and that he was a bit of a character.  Well, I appear to have been half right!  Rest in Peace Country Salquist.

A One star review, and a Shot across the Bow.

Ah, Facebook.  There was a time when it was the unquestioned global information exchange.  Also of cat videos which I'm fine with.  I had little use for it until my archaeology friends encouraged me to hop on as a way to stay in touch.  I've stuck with it.  So far.....

I know many people are unhappy with the platform for reasons political.  Me, I'm tolerant of such things.  You provide a service that I find useful, respond to what your customers want, and are not total jerks.....I'll stick around.

But in the last six months Facebook has, as I see it, taken a huge nose dive in quality.

Not across the board.  I still stay in touch with those far flung friends and enjoy seeing their posts of travels, adventures.  And in some cases, cute cats.  But there's all this other "stuff" now.

I'm fine with Sponsored Posts.  FB needs to make money.  I glance at them and move on.  But there are other more intrusive ways FB shoves stuff in front of me.

For a while it was big batches of people (?) they suggested I follow.  Most of them were of no interest to me.  Every professional and semi-professional sport in the US and the UK was suggested.  As well as lots of other junk.  I only really got annoyed when the suggestions got Suggestive.  Scantily clad young ladies who, if followed into a dark alleyway, would at best rob you at knifepoint.

You can get rid of these suggestions by using the established FB system, just hitting the "no thanks" button near the top of such solicitations.  If they come back a second time you can report them for a variety of things.  Selling illegal animals was my favorite.

The Suggestive suggestions are now gone, but something worse lingers on.  Facebook Reels.

No doubt in response to Tiktok, FB launched this a year or two back.  And the subject matter is A) not relevant to me and B) often disgusting.  A majority seem to come from Asia, and I suspect more than a few are AI generated.  You can click on Show me Less of This at the upper right corner of a batch....and the same ones turn up instantly.  You can also click on individual Reels and report them as disgusting, violent, etc.  This seems harsh, but the content is in many cases precisely that.  You get people draining abscesses, both human and veterinary.  You get people collecting huge hauls of small unhappy looking fish from muddy ponds in the Philippines.  You get tattoos and tattoo removal.  You get stuff that - from the teaser photo - falls into the "Don't know, don't wanna know" category.

Reelly now.  We have the equivalent of the Great Library of Alexandria, the Library of Congress and pretty much every classic of stage, screen and page available in a hand held device....and we get this:

Facebook ignores any guidance along the lines of "For the love of Zuckerman, don't show me this".  And there is no official way to nuke the Reels feature entirely.

But there are unofficial ways.  I'm looking at a browser extension that will let me get rid of Reels and other dreck on Facebook.  FB is understandably not happy about this sort of software and the odds are fair that it would in response become poutingly become less functional overall.

So here's the deal.  I'm standing pat until after the spring archaeology jaunt.  After that I'm going to tame Facebook, and if the Algorithms strike back I will ditch it entirely.

For those reading my regular writings (Detritus of Empire) that I cross post here, well, I'm looking at Substack as an alternative.  I'd keep it free of course.  

OK Facebook, that there's your shot across the bow.  I'd like to think its close enough to splash a little water up on the bridge and leave a few muddy, unhappy fish flopping at the feet of Admiral Zuckerberg.

------------------------------------------

Ever wonder how much the internet is keeping an eye on you?  We all have our anecdotes.  Here's another.  A few days after composing the above, and while it was still in Draft, Facebook Reels went away.  Coincidence?  Or Admiral Zuckerberg staring at the dead fish all around his bridge and telling his first mate (probably the flatulent little girl shown above) to stand down.....

A four star review.

Consider this a pair of "product reviews".  One for something that has always been good and is getting better.  One that is going the other direction.   

Always good to start on a positive note.  Carhartt.  They make work clothes and have done so for generations.  My "gear head" son favored these when he was in high school.  Since then the brand has oddly become popular in unexpected ways and places.  I forgot to take a picture of their store in Lyon, but ye gads 'n kitty cats, here's just one of their stores in Paris, center of the Fashion World!

See also Milan, Rome, London.  And Moscow?

Generally when a brand goes global and upscale it loses its original focus.  But Carhartt has stayed true to its workwear origins, and in fact has gotten better.  I do all of my clothing shopping at one of the "guy stores" in our area.  And every time I'm looking for something sturdy and a bit "niche" I find it.  And with the Carhartt tag.  Lightweight dirt and tear resistant pants for overseas digging trips.  Got it.  A nice looking and durable rain jacket.  Likewise.  I'm wearing a Carhartt winter jacket to near extinction having picked it up five years ago and worn it on every cold day in Wisconsin.  Of which there are many.

All three of my sons also seem to have Carhartt as an increasing part of their wardrobe.  I think I've seen some on the daughter in laws too.

So how has Carhartt managed it?  I think just by paying attention to the basics.  They've established the brand and not gone cheap on the quality.  Some of their stuff is apparently still made in the US, but most of the things I've bought in recent years come from elsewhere.  Given the history of the company as a major contractor for US military uniforms over many conflicts you have to marvel just a bit at the tags announcing Made in Vietnam.  Huh, those who say we lost out on the chance to save 'Nam from communism must be scratching their heads at the rampant capitalism that has taken hold.

Although I suppose the stuff about ALL HARDWORKING PEOPLE is just a bit Bolshie....

My next review..... not as happy....

 

Order and Chaos - Robotics 2025/26

Same room.  Sort of the same mission.  Two very different vibes.

Wednesday, 5pm.  End of season pizza with the robotics team.  A time to say good bye to our seniors.  I've known some of them since they were runty 6th graders.

Monday.  Morning and on into noon hour.  As part of our long range recruiting I gave a quick presentation on robotics to a bunch of tech ed classes.  And for good measure, set up the robot in the cafeteria.  It was not running, but could still hold its own lunch tray.

This was a quiet moment.  Then the bell rang announcing 6th grade lunch.  Egads......

Bedlam.  But I remind myself, some of those highly accomplished graduating seniors are kids I met when they were goofy 6th graders.  It's a lot of work to get from point A to point B.  

A bit of time off from robots now, but there is plenty coming up in the supposed "off season".

Strange Fish #12 - Yellow Perch

This is sort of an accidental cache.  When I knew I had to do something about the geocache that had been incinerated in a campfire, I decided to bring my fishing gear along on the retrieval mission.  Three casts, three nice yellow perch.

Now, you might question the "strange" status of this fairly common fish.  Well now.  The reason they were biting like crazy is that it was their spawning season.  And speaking of crazy, these guys are promiscuous to a degree that I decided to give them Strange status.  Geeze, fish orgies, who knew....

Anyway, here's the new custom container.  It's not a perfect match but I do have practical limitations.  I don't for instance want people to hurt themselves on nasty dorsal spines.

It will go near the location of the previous cache, but I think I'll hide this one carefully.  Its kind of showy.

Heraculeum, Wisconsin.

Well, no.  There is no such town in Wisconsin, but we do have a Sparta, a Troy and a diminutive Rome, so its not entirely implausible.  But Heraculeum would have been considered bad luck.  It was one of the communities destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

Its the less famous cousin of Pompei.  But conditions at Heraculeum were a bit different.  Without getting too far into the technical weeds, Heraculeam was hit with a blast of heat so rapid that all the oxygen vanished, leaving organic material to be preserved, albeit in a charred state.

Most famously, an ancient library was discovered at the Villa of the Papyri.  The conservation challenges associated with preserving, unrolling and reading 1800 priceless ancient scrolls are considerable.  Suffice it to say that it can be done.  Slowly.  Carefully.  Imperfectly.

But getting back to Wisconsin.  I had a fun geocache on the banks of the Chippewa River.  It had photos and information on a local historic landmark.  I had it nestled inside an odd bit of hollow masonry.  Imagine my surprise when a geocacher reported back that they had found it.  Incinerated.

I've had caches be chopped up by loggers, swiped by kids, swept away by high water.  But this was a new one.  You see, it turns out that somebody had built a fire ring out of the abundant rubble on the banks.  Including.....

Yep.  The poor geocache was still inside the masonry.  And very much the worse for its roasting.

Charred PVC pipe.  Entirely melted on one end.  The darker, crispier part on top was a metal fastener that of course transmitted even more heat.  Looks bad, but hey, if scrolls can withstand a volcanic eruption........

Let's saw it open.

Remarkably there were things still intact inside.  The melted plastic is a ziploc that had contained the photos and sign in log.  Geocachers use these as moisture is the bane of geocaches.  Well, this was the driest geocache log in recorded history!

Some of the photo could still be made out.  Its of the dam just up stream.

And the log.  I'll have to post this on the local geocaching site.  If there is not a Hall of Fame yet, this should start one.

There are lots of videos out there on how they Xrayed the scrolls and used some very sophisticated software to reconstruct the text without the need to unroll these delicate items.  Here's a short overview.  It's pretty amazing.

 

Hunter-Gatherer Land

I'm going to use the "Homesteading" tag here, even though the new project is not at this time being considered as a residence. 

We had an opportunity to buy some land.  Not much on it but a garage, but there is an electrical hook up.  Other than that it is just....there.  A place for the younger generations to have adventures, and for the Hunter Gatherer demographic to, well, hunt and gather stuff.  Also of course a place where endless keep busy tasks will be available.  Hey, retirement demands things to do.

So, lets boil some maple syrup.

Let's explore some of the numerous deer stands that come with the place.

There are lots of blackberry bushes.  Some members of the tribe are hoping for edible mushrooms, although the few fungi we saw this early looked like tough, probably toxic stuff.

Hank the dog is not used to being off leash.  His opportunity to romp, roll, sniff and lift his leg freely was probably the happiest day of his life.  And the next time we make it back up it will be again.  Dogs are blessed.  They remember very little.  Sorrows, such as they experience, leave no mark.  And every time that the sun is shining and they find something stinky it is their Best Day Ever.

Naturally the trail cams have already been deployed.

Sneezy, Sleepy and ???

I was at Walmart.  Yes, even I go shopping on rare occasions.  And I saw this:

It is a display of allergy pills that have "branding" associated with the recent Snow White remake.  Movie related marketing is not new, but seems to have been in decline of late, along with the general fragmentation of entertainment and the decline post Covid in movie theater attendance.

Snow White 2025 looks to be on track to become a major money loser, and to some marks a sea change in how movies will be made.  Others have commented at length on the recent trend to just take old ideas and mix them up by swapping in actors of different race, gender or some such.

Well, tickets are expensive and audiences of late ain't buyin'.

Only two "dwarves" are shown.  Sneezy and Sleepy.  Suggestions for the other five?  Obviously Floppy, and depending on your take on society I guess you could go with Wokey.  I spent all of 90 seconds trying to dream up a few more but decided that's about all this question merited.

Let the Digging Begin

It's been something like 15 years now.  Hmm, maybe 16.  When the snow finally melts here in Wisconsin I'm off for my annual archaeology trip overseas.  In 2020 nobody went anywhere.  In 2021 the Covid restrictions were almost, but not quite eased up enough to travel.  And one year I went on a dig in Belgium.

Otherwise its the usual gig, digging Roman sites along Hadrian's Wall.

Of course at first the big draw is the thrill of discovery.  Your first pottery shard (that usually happens on Day One of your rookie season!).  Your first coin.  The first time you get to dig down in the anaerobic layers where everything - wood, leather, horse manure, etc - is preserved as in an 18 century old time capsule.

But after a while your priorities change.  You just enjoy the sunshine.  And the chance to re-visit places you've been before and had great fun.  I have my once a year helping of Sticky Toffee Pudding.  

And I get to see my digging pals.  I've written about them in the past, often dubbing our little cohort "The Anaerobes" in the fashion of a sketchy garage band.  Here's some of them in their Natural Environments.  The first day of Vindolanda excavations is today.  I'll see you all in a few weeks.....

From Latte to Lynching. A Curious History.

Downtown Chippewa Falls.  Spring of 2025.  Right down on River street is the "Market on River".  It's a fun place.  Restaurants, a coffee shop, space you can rent for events.  There are swank apartments on the top floor with a magnificent view.

It's been a retail establishment for less than a year.  But I knew the place in its previous incarnation too.....

From 2016 to 2020 the robotics team operated out of this building.  The ground floor was a production shop that refurbished and later manufactured CNC machines.  The top floor was the residence of the owners, with the aforementioned great view.  The second floor was, for about 4 months each year, Robot Land.

I think our drivers became extra proficient because they had to learn to drive around those wooden pillars!

Those marks on the floor are significant.  Prior to its use as a cnc company the building had sat empty for a while.  Before that it was a warehouse for a shoe manufacturer.  But I think much of the layout actually dates back to when it was a wholesale grocery business.  Marks on the floor designated specific storage areas.

This is the location, although the date of the picture is unclear.  The Mercantile company built on the spot in 1903, but their place burned down and had to be rebuilt on the same footprint in 1916.  If you pay attention to such things you can maybe see where older and newer areas of foundation exist.

Obviously a bit of prime real estate like this would have earlier history.  Lets take a look....

In 1883 the entire block was basically hotels.  The train station was across River Street.  Here's what the corner looked like then:

Part of the site is vacant, but part is taken up by the River Hotel.  Note the skinny yellow structure coming off the back.  It was probably an elevated walkway so that upper floor patrons could trek over to the outhouse without needing to do the stairs!

The railroad station was not there in this 1874 "Birdseye View".  Trains did not come to town until 1875, and not to this side of the river for a few years after that.  But the hotel seems to be there already.

Across River street, on the future site of the train station, there is a single building.  And a large tree.  Does the latter factor into the dark side of our little history?

The year was 1849.  Our best source for early history of the area was a Thomas McBean who did not turn up until 1856, so this was a story he'd heard, not witnessed.  As he recounted in 1904...

"As I stood near the alley on Island Street between River and Spring, looking at the new building of the Chippewa Valley Mercantile Company, the thought came to me that I was standing on the spot where, 55 years ago this summer, the Indian was hung by a frenzied mob of toughs from some of those early days."

The story he then relates is a sad one indeed.  In that early time there were Ojibway camping near modern day Spring Street.  A Frenchman named Caznobia had come up from Galena Illinois with a party of rowdies.  He proceeded to get drunk and try to enter the wigwam of a native and his wife.  He was ejected, but tried again using "..rude and insulting language to the Indian and his squaw.."  In 1904 you probably could not come out and say it, but likely he had dishonorable intentions towards the woman.

Well, the Ojibwa man stabbed Caznobia who was taken in dire condition to the home of a man named Hurley, who had just opened the first saloon in town.  Probably that's where the "fire water" that played such a role in this tragedy originated.

An incensed mob gathered and, undeterred by the remonstrations of H.S. Allen the leading citizen of town, the Indian man was strung up and lynched on a nearby pine tree.

Repercussions were immediate.  The white population of Chippewa Falls at this point was very small, perhaps 100 not counting transients.  As many as 1500 Ojibwa gathered in the days that followed, threatening to burn the settlement if justice was not done.

With difficulty they were persuaded to settle for the ring leaders being sent to justice.  A Tim Inglar and three others were sent down river to Prairie du Chien, at that time the nearest point where a court was functioning in Wisconsin Territory.  Alas for the cause of justice the six Ojibwa men who accompanied this party got nervous as they drew near the lands of their traditional enemies the Lakota, and turned back.  With no witnesses against them the four men who led the lynch mob were set free.

That in any case was the tale told to young Thomas McBean in the 1850s, as it was remembered by him the better part of a lifetime later.  It has the ring of truth to it even if a few details like just how many Ojibway had gathered and with what intent may have been embellished.  A slightly different version of the story appears in several sources from the 1870's, but its likely that McBean provided the information for those as well.   The man who started all the trouble, Caznobia, recovered from his injuries.

McBean said that the unfortunate Indian was buried near the pine tree, and that the tree "...stood there for many years after I came here."

But for how many years?  And, can we see it?  I think the tree shown in the 1874 view is not the right one.  Here's the exact spot that McBean stood at while remembering this dark event in local history.  The back of the Mercantile building is on the right.

Now it is a fair question, just how long did the tree stand there?  McBean lived in Chippewa Falls from 1856 until he went off to war in 1861.  He returned circa 1865 and was here into the 80's at least.   Birdseye views are reasonably accurate but not down to the level of individual trees, which artists probably sketched in where they thought it would enhance the overall work.  But we do have a single early photo that might show us something.  Its from 1870 or 71, so twenty years plus from the events he described.  But trees, especially big trees, can last a long time.....

I've put an arrow over what appears to be a tall pine tree.  It is standing next to Spring street just down the alley from where Thomas McBean was standing when he was pondering that dark day.  

Chippewa Falls saw another lynch mob in the 1870's, not long after this picture was taken.  But that's a story for another day.

  

"Skillsville" Uh, did you think this through PBS?

I don't watch much TV.  Not even much of the streaming variety and almost nothing of the traditional broadcast variety.  So when I peruse the monthly update from Twin Cities Public TV its mostly out of curiosity.  How long can they keep "Call the Midwife" and "All Creatures Great and Small" going.  Clear into the modern era?

But I have a soft spot for their children's programming arm, PBS Kids.  Hey, once long ago my son and I were featured on a TPT show called Dragonfly TV!  Check it out!  Ah, good times.  And did the adventures of a precocious kid and his then cool dad launch any engineering careers?  Maybe.  I mean, yes, I actually know of several.

So I was at first interested then dismayed to read about the latest kids program over there, Skillsville. 

Here's the premise: 

Welcome to “Skillsville,” an animated series that encourages kids ages 4-8 to “power up” the skills they need for future success in careers and everyday life! In each episode, friends Cora, Dev, and Rae solve real life problems by using the strategies they’ve learned in "Skillsville,” a video game where the players get to manage their own virtual city. By trying out various jobs, the gamers help keep the city running smoothly, and when things go wrong, it’s up to the three friends to find a creative solution

What an absolutely horrible concept!  I watched the "Air Traffic Controller" episode.  Three admittedly cute kids, who appear to be left untended and on their computers all day, ask a sort of omniscient AI to put them into a virtual reality to play pilots and controllers.  The immersion is instantaneous and total.  It's way better than their real lives.

And of course they screw up.  A batch of beach balls magically appears and the kid directing the airplanes gets distracted.  Two planes are about to crash!  But then implausibly they stop just short.  The kids pause the game, at least the portion of it that was about to consign cute video Beeples to a fiery death, and cheerfully jump about zapping the balls just like in the games with which modern kids corrode their brains. 

Now, I have nothing against computers generally or even video games.  But they do very little to prepare kids for life.  

Dragonfly TV, which I linked to above, was "Real kids doing real science".  Ideas were created, tools deployed.  Things were built and tested.  By real people.  Things went right.  Or they went wrong.  You learned the consequences.

Given the bleak state of education post Covid, made worse by the intrusion of AI that increasingly "thinks" for people, pushing the idea that kids will prepare for the real world by consequence free actions on a video screen is at best a cheap and lazy concept for a show.  And if the tykes actually buy into it, a further decline in our abilities to do the things humans should be good at.  Using a screw driver.  Actual in person interactions.  And yes, getting the occasional skinned knee from trying something that was really not the best idea.

Can anyone who has never skinned a knee ever evaluate even day to day risks?  I don't want them directing the take off of any airplane I'm on.