Photos – Page 2 – Journeys of Heart and Mind

Enigmatic computer

Once it was realised that a letter could be coded as any other letter except itself, even this tiny clue could help point the cryptographers in the right direction.

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Image of the day – 155

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

Why is this old computer enigmatic? Some of you will know, some might guess correctly, others may have no idea. I took the photo in July 2012 at the Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park where highly secret work was done during the Second World War to break the German Enigma code as well as other enemy codes and ciphers.

This is a working replica of the famous Colossus computers used to crack those very difficult codes. And computer power alone couldn’t do it, it required clever minds to look for little hints that could make the ‘unbreakable’ code breakable. As an example, once it was realised that a letter could be coded as any letter other than itself, even this tiny clue could help point the cryptographers in the right direction. And there were always cribs that could help, the knowlege that a particular operator always began with the same phrase was an enormous help.

No original Colossus machines exist, after the war ended, Churchill gave strict orders that they should all be dismantled and the parts broken into small pieces.

The idea behind Colossus was the brainwave of Alan Turing, a mathematical genius who worked at Bletchly Park during the war. The Bombe that preceded it was originally designed and built by Polish engineers. Turing and his team designed and built a British version, physically different but doing the same job.

CSO (then based at Bletchly, now at GCHQ) intercepted the coded messages, while teams produced the German plain text, translated it into English and passed it to the British government and military planners.

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

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A conversation with ChatGPT

Rotated parking

Consider the poor removals staff when it comes to picking up or delivering a whole houseful of furniture.

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Image of the day – 154

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

Today’s photo is slightly giddying. This is Paradise Square in Sheffield; I took it in July 2012 when we were visiting family there. Here’s an amusing thought, but perfectly true – more car parking spaces are available in Paradise Square than had it been on level ground! But that doesn’t mean it’s a car parking paradise. Make sure your handbrake is firmly on and if your car has a manual gearbox, perhaps leave it in gear for added safety. Be careful when opening the door, too. I wonder if car insurance is more expensive if your address is on Paradise Square?

And consider the poor removals staff when it comes to picking up or delivering a whole houseful of furniture. Those hydraulic lifts at the back of the vehicle, usually so helpful, would be almost worse than useless! Would it be best to park across the slope? Or would facing uphill or downhill be better?

This must be one of the steepest car parks in the world. If you’re aware of one with an even steeper slope than Paradise Square, leave a comment. Thanks! (I found one, linked below, but I bet there are more.)

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Image of the day – 59

An early photo

The dog in the photo was Chloe, a wire-haired fox terrier. Although it’s a fine day, the waves look fairly energetic suggesting strong winds across the Irish Sea.

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Image of the day – 153

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

This is a photo of my younger sister, Ruth. Bear in mind that I’ll be 77 this summer, and you can deduce right away that the photo is quite old! I took it on a beach in mid-Wales, I believe in 1963 so it’s worn well. Ruth was building a lovely sand castle; Mum and Dad were on the beach nearby, as were my other two sisters, the weather was sunny and warm, and all was well with the world. It usually is when you’re on holiday!

But what else can we learn from this image?

Well, you might notice it’s a bit blurry, that’s because it was taken with a cheap Kodak Starmite camera with no focus control and a cheap lens. But what you can’t see is that the original was poorly framed and had a sloping horizon so I had to crop it for a better composition. The original is a Kodachrome transparency on 127 roll film. It’s dusty and I had use GIMP to clean it up.

But there are other things we can see. The bucket is red plastic, but the spade has a wooden handle and a painted steel blade. That alone would give an approximate date, given that plastic buckets were a recent innovation while wood and steel spades would have been similarly replaced with plastic only a little later. The flags were paper with wooden sticks.

Just think of this from a waste point of view. Only the bucket in this image would have produced waste that could not recycle itself. The spade, the flags, the clothes Ruth is wearing, even her footwear, when discarded would gradually rust or be digested by soil bacteria. Most of it would be gone within a few decades, though the rubber soles might take a tad longer. But the plastic bucket will still exist in some form unless it was incinerated. Most likely it’s still in landfill somewhere near Cirencester as that’s where we lived at the time.

The dog in the photo was Chloe, a wire-haired fox terrier. Although it’s a fine day, the waves look fairly energetic suggesting strong winds across the Irish Sea.

I have other early photos, mostly on black and white emulsions of the Ilford FP series, but a few others in colour.

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Photos the old way

Managing old family photos

Hoarfrost on Cotoneaster berries

During a summer night, molecules of water in the air condense as droplets of water on leaves, we call it dew. But on a cold winter’s night the water condenses as ice and we call it frost.

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Image of the day – 152

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

It’s a pretty picture, isn’t it? Red berries in wintertime, covered with glistening ice crystals. I used this photo once for a Christmas card. The ice is very decorative, and it’s easy to understand why we talk about icing on a cake (frosting in the USA).

The ice crystals form as the air cools at night. Air can hold significant amounts of water in gaseous form, but the precise amount depends on the temperature of the air; warm air can hold much more water than cold air. That’s why water condenses on cold surfaces. Take something out of the fridge and leave it in a warm room, and five minutes later it will be covered in droplets of water. That water was in the air but you couldn’t see it or feel it because water vapour is a gas.

During a summer night, molecules of water in the air condense as droplets of water on leaves, we call it dew. But on a cold winter’s night the water condenses as ice and we call it frost. Hoar frost, or rime, forms slowly over a number of hours and the kind of ice crystals that form is dependent on humidity, pressure and rate of temperature change. It can be quite subtle (view ‘The snowflake designer’ below for the details).

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Nearly a year ago now…

Frosty cobweb

The snowflake designer

A bird called Jenny

There was a pre-decimal British coin carrying a picture of a wren on the reverse, still in use when I was a small child. There were four farthings in a penny … or 960 of them in a British pound sterling.

European wren (Wikimedia)

ad hoc post – 1

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So, what bird might that be? Why, the Jenny Wren of course. If you live in Britain you’ll probably be familiar with this old term.

My son-in-law, Paz, sent me a link to a wonderful video of a Eurasian wren singing. Because the video has been slowed down, the sound is lower-pitched but also stretched out in time. As a result you can hear far more of the detail in this small bird’s singing performance. It’s truly amazing! But don’t take my word for it, watch and listen for yourself…

Paz is always amusing with his choice of titles; this time his email to me was entitled ‘Trogloclanger’. This is a portmanteau from Troglodytes (the Latin genus and species name of this wren), and The Clangers – fictitious inhabitants of space who made a whistling noise and figured in children’s stories. (You probably don’t want to watch an episode of The Clangers – but just in case, here’s one.)

It’s worth mentioning the Wikipedia article on the Eurasian wren because it provides a lot of detail about this little bird, and was also the source of the photo. Learn more about the ornithology and etymology from Wikipedia. There’s a separate article about the family Troglodytidae in general. Almost all species of wren live in the Americas, or islands in the region.

There was a pre-decimal British coin carrying a picture of a wren on the reverse, still in use when I was a small child. There were four farthings in a penny (‘four’ and the ‘far’ in farthing are cognate) or 960 of them in a British pound sterling. So you’d need just over 9½ farthings to make a decimal penny – that’s inflation for you!

At the time many people supposed that the smallest British bird was chosen for the reverse of the smallest British coin. But that is not the case as the goldcrest is our smallest bird.

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Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Image of the day – 89

Image of the day – 2

The Sopwith Pup

The navy and the army (the Royal Flying Corp was part of the army) ordered numbers of the planes and they served well until superseded.

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Image of the day – 151

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

This lovely old aeroplane is a Sopwith Pup, as used by the Royal Flying Corp during the First World War. Sopwith was a major British aircraft manufacturer of the day. This aircraft is still flying from time to time in England where it’s based at Old Warden Airfield, itself a survivor of the First World War. This particular aircraft was built after the war and modified back to the fighter configuration.

In the photo the engine is being tested after maintenance, so a couple of side panels have been removed for inspection. The propeller was spinning, you can see the motion blur in the image.

Here’s the same aircraft in action.

Design and construction

Based on a smaller, earlier aircraft, Sopwith designed the larger Pup as a fighter in 1915 with the first prototype appearing in 1916. Both the navy and the army (the Royal Flying Corp was part of the army) ordered numbers of the planes and they served well until superseded and transferred for training purposes as newer, more effective fighting planes rapidly evolved.

This aircraft was much lighter than its German counterparts. It could take off and land on grass surfaces, in quite short distances. The Pup was very manoeuvrable, had a tight turning circle, and a high service ceiling for those times.

The Pups were replaced with Sopwith Camels during 1917.

Old Warden Aerodrome

Old Warden was a First World War air station, as already mentioned. It lies just north of Shefford and south-east of Bedford. Today it’s the home of the Shuttleworth collection of old aircraft and motor vehicles, a very fine and famous collection with a long history, originally as a private collection, but now open to the public. The old aircraft are frequently rolled out, and often one or more are performing in the air.

Everything that’s not active on a particular day is stored in a series of First World War hangers and those are all open to visit as a museum with informative explanatory material on display as well. There is active maintenance and restoration going on, and some of that may be on display too.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, and are in the area, I highly recommend popping over for a visit.

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Pasqueflower

Plants are available from garden centres and will grow happily in your garden given the right conditions. These plants belong to the buttercup family and are near relatives of the anemones.

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Image of the day – 150

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

This makes it three in a row for flower images. The pasqueflower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) grows wild in the Cotswolds on dry grassland areas open to full sunshine. It was once quite common, and although not actually threatened, is something of a rarity these days. There’s a Cotwold dry valley site near Cirencester where there’s a reasonably large colony, but to keep the plants safe, the location is not advertised. However, plants are available from garden centres and will grow happily in your garden given the right conditions. These plants belong to the buttercup family and are near relatives of the anemones.

Protecting endangered or rare species (both plants and animals) is of ever growing importance. There are several ways species come under pressure and we’ll look at those first.

Challenges to survival

Habitat loss is the primary cause of decline for many plants, including the pasqueflower. Land improvement, especially the use of fertilisers to increase crop yields, is an issue for plants adapted to poorer soils.

Physical removal of plants or hunting of animals is an issue too. Most species can cope with limited amounts of removal, but if population levels fall drastically, there are real dangers. The dodo died out on the island of Mauritius following hunting by European sailors. The flightless birds were unafraid as they had no natural predators, so they didn’t run away from their hunters. They were welcome fresh meat after weeks at sea on salt beef.

Ecological damage also causes harm, sometimes unexpectedly. After the dodo became extinct, a tree species mysteriously stopped reproducing. Gradually the population was reduced to only older trees. It turned out that the fruit contained toughly seeds with tough shells that would only germinate after passing through the gut of a dodo. Links like this between organisms can be critical.

Climate change is another danger, especially for plants. If climate change is slow organisms can change the range of places where they grow; if it’s fast, animals might adapt, but some plants may need an entire year to move a few metres.

Pollution is a further serious issue and can exacerbate the other problems already mentioned above.

Diseases of both plants and animals can become pandemic and risk extinction, especially when populations are already stressed by droughts, loss of habitat, or pollution.

Attitudes

Given all of the above, what should our attitude be to the current situation?

Some people will shrug their shoulders. – Perhaps they don’t understand the peril the world faces, or they don’t understand the need to help the natural world recover. Or maybe they just feel there is nothing they can do about it.

Others may understand enough of the science to realise there is a danger, to see that it can be reduced (if not entirely averted), and to take some personal actions to help.

Biologists, ecologists, nature enthusiasts, and climate scientists understand only too well what is happening. Usually, they will be trying to communicate the issues whenever and wherever they can.

Followers of Jesus, and people of other faiths will often understand that we should do all we can to protect this world we live in, and live in ways that will reduce the damage.

All of the groups mentioned here are either responding already, or need help to see and understand that the natural world needs our help and that every single one of us can make a difference. Education and commitment are the way forward, so please share this post with anyone you know who might be influenced by it.

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Image of the day – 60

My Father is a farmer

The heart of a tulip

I worked as a professional botanist when I was in my twenties and thirties, studying and publishing scientific papers on pollen and pollination.

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Image of the day – 149

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

I have another flower image for you today. This one shows the centre of a tulip flower in more detail than you might normally see. I’ve placed the centre of the flower towards the lower right of the frame so you can see more of the petals towards the upper left. You’ll notice that the petals are yellow near the centre, orange a bit further out, and pink further out again. What a beautiful combination!

The reproductive parts

Tulips are monoecious, a botanical term that means each plant produces both male and female reproductive tissues. The female part of a tulip flower has three stigmas in the centre. Unlike animals and some more primitive plants, the male reproduction process doesn’t involve motile sperm. Instead, pollen is released as a yellow dust, sometimes dry and carried by the wind but in the case of tulips and many other plants, sticky and carried by flying insects.

Flowers work as attractive beacons for pollinating insects, they’re usually brightly coloured, are often fragrant which helps insects detect them from a distance, and provide food – sugary nectar at the base of the petals, and pollen. Bees collect the pollen and carry it back to the hive as a protein rich food for their larvae. Plants produce more pollen than necessary and can spare some in return for the pollen transport provided by the bees. The pollen grains stick to the pollinating insects and as they visit flower after flower, some of the pollen is transferred from the anthers of one plant to the stigmas of another. This cross-pollination is exactly what the plant needs for the female tissues to develop further and produce viable seeds.

Tulips have five of these anthers, and if you enlarge the image and peer closely you can see yellow dust clinging to them. That dust is the pollen.

Intricate

It’s an astonishingly intricate process in which the plants depend on the insects and the insects depend on the plants. I could go into much greater detail; I worked as a professional botanist when I was in my twenties and thirties, studying and publishing scientific papers on pollen and pollination. Maybe some time I’ll write a bit more about that.

Next time you see tulips in the park, at a florist or supermarket, or in your garden – just think about the intricate interactions going on right there!

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Image of the day – 93

Meadow cranesbill

Large White

A glorious colour contrast

The climate has changed dramatically in the past, but it has always happened slowly, usually taking tens of thousands of years.

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Image of the day – 148

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

Here are two flowering plants with colours on opposite sides of the colour wheel. They’re very distant relatives; the yellow Narcissus (daffodil) is a monocot, the purply-blue Streptocarpus is a dicot. You can’t get much further apart in the family tree of flowering plants, but they look well together.

These two plants simply could not survive in one another’s home territory. The Narcissus needs plenty of moisture, produces leaves in late winter, is not troubled by frost, and flowers in the springtime. It also appreciates some bright sunshine.. Streptocarpus cannot take any degree of frost at all, and is touchy about water. Not enough and it will wilt and die, too much and… wait for it… It will wilt and die! It likes the soil to dry out completely and then have a real drenching, but do not water it again until the soil is really dry. It likes shade or partial shade, but not full sunshine.

Adaptation

The fact that these two plants like such different conditions is nothing to do with the fact they are very distant relatives. All plants growing in the wild are well adapted to the soil type, climate, other plants and animals of the places they inhabit. Natural selection over many, many generations will ensure that this is so. It’s only the survivors that will have a chance to produce seeds. By definition, the next generation comes only from the plants that survived the current generation. Survivors thrive; the rest die out.

Climate change

And this in turn is one of the challenges life faces in the changing climate we are creating. The climate has changed dramatically in the past, but it has always happened slowly, usually taking tens of thousands of years to shift from ice age to interglacial, or from desert to semi-desert to grassland to forest. A species may seem to move north or south, east or west, remaining in the climate zone that suits it best. But what is actually happening is that as a climate zone shifts geographically, conditions become less suitable in one area and more hospitable in another. Perhaps the species manages to survive a little further north than before but struggles and dies on the southern edge of its old range.

This process takes time, but the global warming trends we see due to greenhouse gas releases are many times faster than any natural climate change. Populations cannot respond fast enough under such circumstances; they go into decline and die out – the species may then become extinct, gone forever.

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Christmas cactus

Firethorn berries

A rose in the rain

Climate change – What can I do?

Bare trees along the horizon

Trying to make out any details when the sun is shining in your face is really difficult. But if you turn around so the sun is behind you, shining over your shoulder, it illuminates everything you can see.

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Image of the day – 147

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

This photo was taken on 6th March, it was a grey evening, the sun had set and the only hint remaining was a touch of pinkness in the areas not shrouded in cloud. The ground around me as I walked was already well into dusk.

Details remaining visible

The only details visible were in the edges of the cloud against the fading sky, and the branches of the leafless trees. But what exquisite details those were! Delicate differences in the shades of grey in the clouds, and a wonderful filigree pattern in the branches, varying from one tree to the next.

It’s a subdued scene, still and inactive, but delightful for all that.

Light and dark

In broad daylight the picture would have been so different! The grassy fields this side of the row of trees would have been vibrant green, the sky would have been bright blue and the clouds white or perhaps grey with white edges.

Another kind of light and dark

If you follow Journeys of Heart and Mind regularly you’ll know that I do my best to follow Jesus. I’m not going to say much about that here, maybe I’ll write another article to explain a bit more.

But I will mention here that this image reminds me that Jesus talked to his followers about light and darkness. Imagine the view in the photo if the sun had been visible just above the trees. The brightness would have been quite blinding, trying to make out any details when the sun is shining in your face is really difficult. But if you turn around so the sun is behind you, shining over your shoulder, it illuminates everything you can see and the detail is crisp and sharp, things are well defined, there’s no glare, there are no shadows unless you look to one side or down at your feet.

Light can dazzle us and hide things from view, or it can make things much, much clearer. It all depends which way you look.

Jesus is like that too, I find. If I look towards him I am dazzled indeed! If instead I look towards the places he’s illuminating, I can see everything very clearly. I need to do both, I need to be dazzled by him, but I also need the clarity provided by his light as it falls on the world around me. There’s a double benefit, he dazzles me, but he also informs me.

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Dark sky, bright light

Mist arising

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Image of the day – 155

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Image of the day – 154

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Image of the day – 153

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Image of the day – 152

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ad hoc post – 1

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Image of the day – 151

Design and construction

Old Warden Aerodrome

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Image of the day – 150

Challenges to survival

Attitudes

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Image of the day – 149

The reproductive parts

Intricate

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Image of the day – 148

Adaptation

Climate change

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Image of the day – 147

Details remaining visible

Light and dark

Another kind of light and dark

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