March 27, 2022

BBC: The medieval-era boats hiding in the River Foyle, Northern Ireland

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-60866202

[Every so often, when conditions allow, archaeologists are rewarded with another offering from the distant past. Two more boats, understood to be from the medieval-era, have emerged from the River Foyle. The boats, known as logboats or dugout boats, were found
at a "dugout boat hotspot" near the Lifford Bridge.

snip

Marine archaeologist Dr Niall Gregory said the two boats now bring the total number found at this particular section of the river to 15. Overall, 21 such boats have been found at the confluence (meeting point) of the rivers Mourne and Finn into the River Foyle. Logboats are made from hollowed-out trees and can vary in size depending on the tree trunk used,
Dr Gregory told BBC News NI.

snip

About 500 logboats have been found across the island of Ireland, he said. One of the largest recorded was found in lower Lough Erne and measured nearly 60ft (18m) long and 3.2ft (1m) wide. "These two boats found at the Lifford Bridge site were cargo ferry boats," he said. "These boats were designed as work horses, to move and manoeuvre with some degree of agility within a moderate to strong current.

snip

Logboats are "notoriously difficult" to date based upon hull size and shape alone, and carbon dating is the only definitive means of obtaining a conclusive date. Dr Gregory estimates - based on the hull shape, use of medieval nails, distorted wood grain and remains of sapwood on the exterior - that they are of a medieval-era. Previous boats found at the site have been dated from between 600 AD to 1520 AD, he said. Dr Gregory believes these boats, from their characteristics, are more likely to be later rather than earlier in that range.]

There's more text and photos at the link. These types of articles always interest me. I
have edited the text to maximize the information provided in this OP and still meet our
4-paragraph rule.

March 25, 2022

Reuters Pictures: Art in support of Ukraine as seen in various countries March 24, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/art-in-support-of-ukraine-idUSRTS6KLOR

Let's all do what we can to support the people of Ukraine.

March 25, 2022

Reuters Pics: See (Judge Ketanji Brown) Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearings

https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/scenes-from-jacksons-supreme-court-confi-idUSRTS6KDTY

See it all here, some faces we hold dear and others that we don't want anywhere near
these proceedings.

I have taken liberties in editing the title to provide information and clarity.

March 25, 2022

BBC: Your pictures of Scotland: 18 - 25 March, 2022

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-60793679

It's all here! Critters, places and people galore. This weeks' gallery has my
(barking) seal of approval!

March 25, 2022

Guardian: 'The week in wildlife - in pictures March 25, 2022

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including mating frogs, vervet monkeys and a rehabilitated bald eagle.'

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2022/mar/25/the-week-in-wildlife-in-pictures

This weekly gallery presents views of critters, places and some people too.

March 24, 2022

Reuters Pics: Madeleine Albright, former U.S. secretary of state and feminist icon: 1937 - 2022

https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/madeleine-albright-former-us-secretary-o-idUSRTS6JJHP

This photo gallery shows Madeleine Albright in various locations with various persons
while performing her duties as Secretary Of State.

To view a record of Madeleine Albright's life and career as SOS see the following link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright

March 24, 2022

Al Jazeera: Nigeria: 7,000 Boko Haram, other fighters surrender in a week.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/24/nigeria-7000-boko-haram-other-terrorists-surrender-in-a-week

[Some 7,000 members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram have surrendered in northeast Nigeria in the past week, according to local media reports.

On Wednesday, the News Agency of Nigeria quoted Major General Christopher Musa, a top commander in the region, as saying that an onslaught targeting ISWAP and Boko Haram fighters has continued to record significant success.

Musa said at least 7,000 Boko Haram and ISWAP members surrendered in the last week during the operations.

“This is evident as thousands of the insurgents comprising combatants, non-combatants, foot soldiers, alongside their families, continued to lay down their arms in different parts of Borno to accept peace,” he said.]

I consider this to be very good/productive news indeed. There's more text and a photo
at the link.

Note: Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been
allied together.

March 24, 2022

I just got done checking the weather. I see that my son in Upper Michigan is now up to

294 inches of accumulated snowfall so far this winter. I did the math and that's 24.5 feet.
It looks like they won't hit the record this year but it's still a lot of snow.

Don't you feel better now? I know I do!

March 23, 2022

It's time for Tech Talk today, March 23, 2022. It's been awhile but I do have some new

information so bear with me as I recap:

In January of 2020 Microsoft informed us that they were halting support for WIN 7. That
didn't bother me since I consider WIN 7 to be the best thing they've ever done. But here
in March of 2022 we're still getting regular updates for WIN 7.

I decided to see how Microsoft is handling support for WIN 8.1 and found out that they've halted Primary Customer Support for it. They are providing Secondary Support
until 2023. At least that's what I read. We'll see how that goes.

I'm still using WIN 10 also and will as long as we have our two WIN 10 machines in the
house.

I have observed that some problems with websites that I encounter using WIN 10 and
the Firefox Browser can be corrected by re-booting the browser and sometimes I just have to shut everything down and re-start WIN 10. Whatever works is good.

March 23, 2022

There was crazy weather here in Albuquerque yesterday. I observe the weather at all

times by looking out my bedroom window but since yesterday was my shopping day I
experienced it for real.

Early in the day we had some rain, some snow, some clouds and some sun. Then last
night at 10 pm I looked out to see some Serious Snow coming down.

This morning my car was covered with Serious Snow but our parking lot was mostly
just wet. As the day went on the sun came out and eventually all the snow melted off
my car. How's your crazy weather?

UPDATE: I just looked at our weather report and this coming Sunday our high is
supposed to be 80! Now that is crazy!