It links Google Maps with Wikipedia and will show you all the places in an area with Wikipedia articles.
It will start in your location if you have location sharing on, otherwise you can scroll and zoom to wherever you want. Clicking "List" at the bottom shows the articles in a list form. en.nearbywiki.org/map/
So, all of the old take-out containers that I have carefully curated are in the recycle bin and we'll be replacing our black spatulas very soon.
I have to admit that I begrudge this. I've been careful these past few years to only save three container types, throwing out all the ones that don't match.
I've only saved two rectangular models (patent no. ZL201530113129.9 T-32 and CN ZL 2012 2 0653314.8) and a circular model (patent no. ZL201530113105.3).
Now I am left with 3 white circular containers (patent no. ZL201530113105.3) and 16 white rectangular containers (patent no. ZL20153113129.9 T-32). I'll have to get used to using rectangular containers for my breakfast concoctions.
I've put the old black containers in the recycle bin. Although there's lots out there saying that black plastic is difficult to recycle at best, and the City of Toronto doesn't want it, the City of Ottawa Recycling page, "what goes in your blue bin", doesn't say not to put black plastic in the blue bin.
So there we are.
Look what landed on the sidewalk next to the Stick Library. I'm pretty sure it's a squirrel nest.
And I'm no animal scientist or forensic specialist, but I think that's a dried-out squirrel skull there. Making me suspect that the nest fell when its inhabitant was no longer able to maintain it after succumbing to natural causes.
However, I should add that while the Stick Librarian acknowledges that my theory could reflect reality, her wider experience and exposure to the world of crime leads her to suspect that other squirrels took action against the inhabitant of this nest causing their demise and the destruction of their home.
I should note that while I did not do a comprehensive study, I did turn over the detritus a bit with my snow shovel and found no other bones, but did find some furry fluff in with the leaves and twigs.
It was only a few years ago that I got curious about the clumps of leaves and twigs we'd see up in the trees. That's when I learned they were probably squirrel nests, and I was surprised to also learn that the nests usually only house one squirrel except when it's a mother and her babies. It seems that squirrels aren't really that companionable and when you see them interacting with each other, they're not playing, they're fighting.
Although the cable no longer serves any purpose because the TV signals it carried now come over WiFi, the cable is completely functional. And who knows, some day, I may have a use for it.
But I threw it out.
I'm a 64-year-old man and I threw out something that could possibly be useful some day.
This might mean that people, specifically me, can change.
On the other hand, I've probably got four or five hours in which to change my mind.
I got a Pixel 5 smartphone a few years ago and even though it is past its support date from Google, I am still learning how to do things with it. For example, when looking at photos, some of them showed movement on the phone. When I uploaded them to my desktop, they were still photos with no movement.
Then, a few weeks ago, I learned how to export them as GIFs and preserve the movement.
In honour of the current heatwave, here is my first GIF - Manon at Rideau Falls on February 14. That frozen mist in the air was cold, let me tell you:
From last week, a very large wasp or hornet that wanted to get into my house:.
From this morning, Manon picking service berries in an effort to thwart the squirrels and maybe get a enough for a pie:
Just in case there is someone out there who would like to do this and they have a Pixel 5, or maybe some other phone that works the same way, here is how I saved these photos as GIFs:
1 - In the Pixel 5 photo app, tapped the 3-dot menu icon on a moving-photo
2 - Swiped over to the word "Export" and tapped it
3 - Selected "GIF" and tapped "Export"
I have to say, making GIFs this way is an awful lot easier than how I did it before - importing a video into Gimp and doing all sorts of stuff.
The only thing is, I haven't learned why the Pixel 5 sometimes takes a moving picture and other times takes a single still picture.
For about ten years, Canada has been announcing that incandescent bulbs are being phased out and last August the United States banned the sale of most incandescent light bulbs.
The sales ban is to help fight global warming. Incandescent bulbs use more energy to produce the same amount of light as LED bulbs. This is largely because much of the energy in incandescent bulbs goes to creating intense heat. If you've ever touched a turned-on incandescent bulb, you learned this the hard way.
While the heat makes incandescent bulbs less efficient for lighting, it makes them useful for heating things. For example, old Easy-Bake Ovens used a 100-watt bulb to cook Betty Crocker treats.
And I need incandescent bulbs to heat the wax in my lava lamps and create the spooky flowing movement inside them.
It seems that Hasbro has developed a heating element that can replace the 100-watt bulb in an Easy-Bake Oven. But a heating element alone won't work for a lava lamp because you need light to see the hypnotic flowing lava. Without an illuminated incandescent bulb, a lava lamp is a dull bottle holding a dull lump of wax.
After some research and experimentation, I have the following recommendations.
For smallish lamps (16" high, 3" diameter):
[While it is easier to find 40 watt bulbs with E17 bases and an R14 or R39 shape, I suspect it is a bad idea to use the stronger wattage. It might also be unwise to use a globe-shaped S11 or a cylindrical T8, but I'm prepared to do it when my R14s and R39 burn out and can't be replaced. I did once melt a hole in a plastic-based lava lamp using an S11 globe-shaped bulb.]
For the larger, original lava lamp (16" high, 4.5" diameter):
If you get excited and think you've found some R14 shaped bulbs with E17 bases for a really good price at Rona and then two days after you get home with your super cheap bulbs you realize that they are actually 40 watt bulbs that are only good for your big lava lamp that needs an E26 base, I have good news. You can order E26-to-E17 socket adapters on Amazon that work just fine.
Every time I've been in a hardware store in the past few years, I've checked for bulbs. Often, there have been none but when there was one or two, I bought them. They haven't been cheap. It has been many years since I've seen a suitable bulb in a grocery store or a dollar store.
Amazon has Haraqi R39 E17 25w bulbs at $14.99 for six ($2.50 each).
Lowes, Rona, Home Hardware and Home Depot don't seem to have any suitable bulbs.
My best wishes to any of my fellow lava lamp lovers. I'll be happy to share any news I get on this crisis with you and will be grateful for any news you have for me. And while I hate to talk about future projects, I have been thinking that it's time for me to make my own lava lamp (and could use any tips on where I can find perchloroethylene.)
In the better-late-than-never news category, I am happy to report that the Stick Library now has signage in French. [Dans la catégorie des nouvelles, il vaut mieux tard que jamais, je suis heureux d'annoncer que la brancheothèque a désormais une signalétique en français.]
The Stick Librarian wishes to thank our friend Aline for the French name and she apologizes to her translator friend Patricia-Anne for taking so long. But the Librarian's assistant bears some of the responsibility for it taking so long. [La branchothécaire souhaite remercier notre amie Aline pour le nom français et elle s'excuse auprès de son amie traductrice Patricia-Anne d'avoir mis autant de temps. Mais l'assistant du brancheothécaire porte une part de responsabilité dans cette lenteur.]
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