#research posts

[alexanderwales]

I've heard some people lauding the NATO phonetic alphabet, and am just sort of scratching my head about that.

Like, here were the criteria for words in the alphabet:

Be a live word in each of the three working languages.

Be easily pronounced and recognized by airmen of all languages.

Have good radio transmission and readability characteristics.

Have a similar spelling in at least English, French, and Spanish, and the initial letter must be the letter the word identifies.

Be free from any association with objectionable meanings.

But then you look at what they actually picked and it's like ... okay, you picked a bunch of names? You picked "Whiskey"? On the assumption that what, this is a drink that's common everywhere in the world? That everyone is fine having an alcoholic drink as one of the words? Nowadays I can pull up a global map of whiskey consumption, but that's not something they could do in the 50s, and I would guess that they were not considering e.g. Muslim pilots. (Some places do actually change out "Whiskey" for this reason, along with other regional variants, which are exactly the sort of thing you want in a standard everyone is supposed to be on the same page about.)

And alright, whatever, I think the list is kind of confusingly culturally bound given what the criteria were, but it served its purpose well enough ...

Except that as standards do, it began to be used in other places, including by civilians, and including by civilians when both parties have not agreed on the NATO phonetic alphabet. It would be great if we all had an agreed upon phonetic alphabet that everyone knew, but the fact that some people don't know it makes it a lot worse, particularly if you're on a customer service call, and particularly if you're on a customer service call with someone who is not a native English speaker and who was not raised in the same cultural context that the NATO phonetic alphabet assumes.

If you, like me, love terrible quality PDFs, then some helpful soul made a FOIA request for "The Evolution and Rationale of ICAO Spelling Alphabet", and you can read it. This is a fun read for me, because it's not just concerned with the phonetic alphabet, but the history of it, and in one case they're just like "welp, we have been completely unsuccessful in locating this file". And I'm sitting here in 2024 reading a ratty PDF of a file from 1959, thinking "yup, that's how it is sometimes, they do all that work making a report and then no one fucking preserves it".

(Most of the document is about whether they would use the US-UK version or the ICAO version, and then some modifications and why they were made, and this is all interesting, but I'm kind of still scratching my head about some of these, especially given what they say the criteria were. "An international alphabet designed to fit the multilingual requirements of all nations"? Maybe they really thought that's what they were doing in the 1950s.)

Anyway, this isn't to say that I think we need a new, better phonetic alphabet, just that I think the current one is not actually the pinnacle of standards that some people seem to think it is, and in fact, it contains a lot of baggage from the time and place it was made. Further, it's being used in places well outside the environment it was made for, and unless everyone is trained in it (and maybe even if they are) some of the deficiencies get magnified.

[tanix-dragon]

Today was my five-year awakening as my fictotype. Wow, time flies.

-Research

[ellynneversweet]

Netted Purses

"It is amazing to me," said Bingley, "how young ladies can have patience to be so very accomplished as they all are."

"All young ladies accomplished! My dear Charles, what do you mean?"

"Yes all of them, I think. They all paint tables, cover screens, and net purses. I scarcely know any one who cannot do all this, and I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without being informed that she was very accomplished."

- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

In case you were thinking that the netted purses Bingley’s talking about are basically string grocery bags, they’re not.

As far as I’ve been able to make out, this particular sort of needlework is usually described in contemporary 21st century museum sources as the following: filet lace, lacis, netting, darned netting.

Lace being lace, there are many many regional variants and variant names, but something along the lines of the work described has been documented as existing since at least the 16th century. If you’ve ever done cross-stitch, 3d beadwork or other grid-style work, this is not dissimilar. It consists of a fine net made using a gauge and needle or shuttle, which is then embroidered over to whatever degree the worker desires, depending presumably on their skill, free time and level of interest.

If you’re of a video-watching bent, you can try looking up Armenian lace or possibly Turkish lace over at youtube. You can see a 90minute video here of someone making a net-style lace (full disclosure, I have not watched the whole thing, but you’ll get the drift) or a very quick video of several types of Croatian lace making, including showing someone using a gauge to keep their stitches even when making a netting stitch (gauge starts at 4:42). Several of the examples below are described as using ‘bibila work,’ which some digging suggests is a term for a type of point lace made in Greece and/or the eastern mediterranean generally and which probably refers to the free-standing or appliquéd elements on top of the netting.

Though the videos above use a standard blunt embroidery needle (as you might for cross-stitch) there is such a thing as a netting shuttle that looks, basically, like a double-ended, very small two-pronged fork, which would be useful for managing a long length of thread (example here, please note they look NOTHING LIKE a tatting shuttle).

An interesting point (at least as far as Pride and Prejudice fans are concerned) is that netted purses were apparently a popular gift for ladies to give to young men, which might also explain why examples of miser’s purses seem to have a slightly different style of decoration than purses with handles and drawstrings.  (And, as far as Pride and Prejudice is concerned, raises the delightful notion that Bingley, Noted Single Man and Prize Catch, probably has a drawer somewhere full of purses from hopeful husband hunters.)

(courtesy of the MFA Boston)

(courtesy of the MFA Boston)

Many many many more examples below the cut:

Close examination suggests the green vines are a chain stitch, so they may have been worked with a tambour hook? That would have required putting the netting on a frame, however. 

(courtesy of MFA Boston)

Note the free-standing flowers serving as a tassel at the base!

(courtesy of MFA Boston)

Note some of the flower petals on this one are 3d.

(courtesy of the MFA Boston)

Note the beautiful varied fringe at the mouth of the bag, made of strips of lace. (courtesy of the MFA Boston)

(courtesy of the MFA Boston)

(courtesy of the MFA Boston)

This one has little balls! If you look closely, you’ll see they’ve been worked over with net, too. 

(courtesy of MFA Boston)

(courtesy of MFA Boston)

(courtesy of MFA Boston)

Apparently made of coconut fiber! Given decorative netting was a scaled-down version of the same thing used to make (fishing) nets, I wonder if this might have been made by a sailor?

(courtesy of Meg Andrews)

This is apparently a crochet in a net-style stitch -- high resolution shows there’s more than one strand per loop of netting but it’s hard to see exactly what’s going on. However

(courtesy of Cooper Hewitt)

From the same source, and almost certainly knotted -- although again, the caption describes it as ‘crocheted.’ The thread does appear to be a coarse ply.

(courtesy of Cooper Hewitt)

With sequins.

(courtesy of Granite Pail Collectibles)

Some kind of internal framework, looks like it would bounce satisfyingly. (courtesy of the FIDM Museum)

(courtesy of Artstor)

Endless miser’s purses:

Here the beads look to have been strung on the thread used for the netting. 

(courtesy of MFA Boston)

Note the parti-coloured pattern on this appears to be accomplished by switching out the thread for certain loops of the netting, rather than by over-sewing darning or a piece of appliqué. Each loop would have been knotted to the two below. Fiddly work.  

(courtesy of the MFA Boston)

(courtesy of MFA Boston)

(courtesy of MFA Boston)

(courtesy of MFA Boston)

(courtesy of MFA Boston)

Really clear with this one that a different colour thread has been used for each line of netting to produce that lovely stripe. 

(courtesy of Ruby Lane)

[mollafer]

Sorry it took me so long to get to this. I’ve been searching through two different books trying to find this story, and I finally found it. 

So, I think this is an interesting theory, but I have one of my own:

Basically, this whole situation was Colonel Stephen Moylan’s fault. This dude sent a letter to Washington that just talked about Tallmadge’s shortcomings, including the procuring of necessary supplies and equipment, as well as the treatment of his platoon’s horses. In my opinion, the colonel was probably just jealous of Washington’s and Tallmadge’s relationship, and wanted to throw Ben under the bus. 

In Tallmadge’s defense, he tried very hard to gather supplies and take care of the horses, but it was extremely difficult without the money he needed. Tallmadge was constantly concerned about money, and wrote Congress very often asking for more money for supplies. He actually ended up paying for more supplies, mounts, and even paying his soldiers’ salaries out of his own pocket.

So, I really think Tallmadge actually did drop the ball and didn’t take care of his horses, but he couldn’t take care of them since he didn’t have the money he needed. He was probably stressed out anyway about the lack of money, and of course other problems in the army, so I kinda don’t blame him for screwing up, but Washington probably wouldn’t have found out anyway if it wasn’t for Moylan, so I’m just gonna blame him lol. And to be fair, the harsh letter that Washington sent Tallmadge was also sent to Moylan, so he got in trouble too. 

Tallmadge attempted to defend himself. He wrote back to Washington saying they were lacking supplies and his soldiers weren’t paying attention to their duties. He didn’t want to take responsibility for the slip up, but eventually he must of realized it was his fault, because he offered his resignation to Washington, but of course Washington didn’t accept. Their relationship was rather tense at this point, and they didn’t talk for awhile, but I guess Washington let it go and forgave Tallmadge a few months later.

But yeah, I don’t think Tallmadge took the fall for anyone. He probably just felt like his soldiers weren’t doing their jobs and that they couldn’t take care of the horses without supplies, but he tried his best to defend himself to Washington. I think he knew it was really his own fault that his platoon was in such bad condition, but he was also probably pissed at Moylan for ratting him out.

Thank you so much for the theory though, @iwasthatlostcause! You could possibly be right too, but I guess we’ll never really know for sure. 

[betweenpacifictides]

As a person who isn’t skilled in Zbrush compared to Maya, it can be difficult to really harness the program itself and also utilize the tools necessary in order to make crisp cut edges, distinct designs, or certain shapes, without manually sculpting it yourself and it can be tedious.

One of the sub tools/sub-palettes I’ve looked into in order to research for this blog post was Live Boolean. These are one of many tools that you’re greeted within the program but there’s no direct explanation as to what it really does.

Live Boolean, for lack of a better word, is a feature in Zbrush that enables a real-time preview of how boolean operations look through sub tools.

If you’re like me, however. Booleans weren’t much of a concern to understand or comprehend if you’re a person who isn’t well averse to character modeling or just modeling in Zbrush as a whole. And looking up what Booleans are and what they do exactly is more difficult than it seems, given you’re only provided with videos on how to use them, but they’re not necessarily explained what they are exactly.

Booleans essentially allow you to add, subtract and intersect two different sub-tools together in order to make new shapes or objects without much issue. This sub-tool is relevant to not only make modeling more convenient, but utilized for practical use, such as Jewelry Design, and 3D Printing to name a few.

For basic setup, you’d load your geometry into Zbrush, and then in sub tools, you can append an object in the same world space. You don’t have to Extract any object, given it’s in its own layer. After that, you can turn on Live Boolean in order to see the general preview of how this subtool can work. Make sure to mark the geometry that’s going to be the main focus of the boolean as Start. This marks that this object is going to be of importance.

(circle scaled for reference)

A lot of where you’re going to focus on is the sub tool channel itself. There’s not direct inclination as to where you can tweak your results at first but it’s marked by symbols on each object that's of world space.

It's also important to note, in terms of adding, in live boolean mode, though it may not look like much. Once we finally finalize our boolean what this does exactly is "merge" our two objects together so for example, if we were to boot this up to create a 3D Print of this object, it makes the process easier given that the data provided won't mistake our merged boolean as two separate objects within the printing process which would cause issues down the line.

In order to finalize/Execute our Boolean, we’d have to go under Boolean tab in sub tools, and click Make Boolean Mesh. This does not make direct changes to our current object in world space, but it creates an entirely new object in the Tools section up top.

[mollafer]

“Prayer at Valley Forge”

Once again, I have stumbled upon something amazing during my late night conquests to learn everything there is to know about American history.

I found this absolutely beautiful painting by Arnold Friberg.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I’ve never seen this painting, especially since while I was conducting more research on it, article after article mentioned that it was one of the most famous paintings from American history and that nearly every American has seen it before, and I was like “Um, well I guess I’m late to the party.” Anyways, when I saw it, I literally started to feel a little emotional. And I’m not one to become emotional from anything, let alone a painting. I just think it’s so powerful and gorgeous. It gave me chills.

But anyways, I was reminded of the episode of Turn: Washington’s Spies were Washington goes out into the woods and speaks to his dead brother (which is, btw, one of my favorite scenes of the entire show). And I happened to find another portrait that looks nearly identical to that scene that I thought was so cool. I’m not even sure sure if people made the same connection I did regarding this portrait and the episode, but just in case they didn’t, I really wanted to share this with everyone.

When I saw that scene, I had no idea this was such a widely debated topic on whether or not Washington really went out into the woods in Valley Forge and said a prayer. I read from this website that a man named Isaac Potts wrote in his memoirs that he witnessed this scene, so I don’t really understand why people don’t believe him. Why would someone lie about that? 

People also debate whether he was a religious man or not (a little side note: there’s a quote trolling around the internet that people have attributed to Washington: “It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.” Apparently there’s no evidence that he ever said this, but I like to think he did). From Mount Vernon’s website, I found this quote: “Looking at Washington's theological beliefs, it is clear that he believed in a Creator God of some manner, and seemingly one that was also active in the universe” and “Washington referred to this God by many names, but most often by the name of ‘Providence.’” I read that, and I was like “OMG PROVIDENCE! That’s what Ben and Caleb were talking about in episode 8 of season 2!” And in the behind-the-scenes video AMC posted for that episode, Craig Silverstein says “Washington was a man who believed in Providence. He believes that everything will work out for him.” 

So, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m sure George Washington at some point did pray at Valley Forge, maybe to his brother, God, or both, but I’m sure he needed to feel that validation that he was, in fact, doing the right thing, by leading the Continental Army. I’m a huge Washington nerd, and I love learning new things about him, so I hope some people can learn something new from this, or at least be intrigued :)

Happy Independence Day, my fellow Americans!

[mollafer]

The Culpeper Minutemen

I found something neat online, and I’m not sure if anyone else in the Tumblr universe has seen this, but I’m telling this story anyways because I love American history and sharing new things that I learn.

In Turn: Washington’s Spies, Washington gives Abe the code name “Culpeper,” right? It never even occurred to me how he came up with that name, but today I found out on Wiki that it’s an allusion to Culpeper County, Virginia. So, I did some research on Culpeper County and stumbled upon the short, but awesome, story of the Culpeper Minute Men!

First, some background. In July 1749, 17-year-old George Washington was commissioned as the first County surveyor. One of his first duties was to lay out the County's courthouse complex, which included the courthouse, jail, stocks, gallows and accessory buildings. So, that’s how Washington became acquainted with the district. 

Around the time when America was near entering war with Britain, tensions were high, and the Continental Congress and other Patriots called upon the colonies to organize small militias who could be prepared for battle at a minute’s notice. Thus, the Culpeper Minutemen were organized on July 17, 1775 under a large oak tree in "Clayton's old field" (later known as Catalpa Farm).

The Culpeper militia next fought in one of the first battles of the Revolution, the Battle of Great Bridge in December 1775. The battle was a complete American victory. There were accounts of the battle that even suggested the British were unnerved by the reputation of the frontiersmen, that’s how bad ass they were! Not soon after, the minutemen were absorbed into different regiments of the Continental Army and even served in Valley Forge. 

There aren’t many other accounts of the minutemen that I could find online, but they did reorganize in 1860 under the same oak tree in which they formed in 1775. They used the same flag as well, and served in the Confederate Army for the duration of the Civil War (yikes). 

Although I’m not sure if Washington gave Abe his code name in regards to the amazing work done by these minutemen in the Revolution, I’m sure he, none the less, respected these men for their bravery and commitment. I, personally, hold a lot of admiration for all the minutemen of the Revolution, not just the Culpeper regiment. They were civilians, not soldiers, who held such strong loyalty to their hometowns that they were willing to give their lives to protect it. They were truly honorable men who often are over-looked in history, but deserve nearly the same, if not more, praise than the soldiers of the war received. 

So, I hope you enjoyed this little story, because I really enjoyed researching it! I have another post queued for the 4th of July that I really can’t wait to share, but I wanted to hold off posting it until the holiday as a tribute. It’s a story that means a lot to me and I thought what better way to celebrate the 4th than with a little extra American history!