Natioal Geographic's Best of April and Best of May
My Second offering at solving ---How many degrees of
Separation is there between Brilliance and an Eccentric?
I have written about George Eastman, the
inventor of photographic roll film, obtusely inventing a 13 month calendar that
ran scheduling at the Kodak Company for 65 years after his death. This is my first example answering “How many
degrees separate brilliance from being an eccentric”. Today’s blog will be my
second attempt to expose another famous American who obtusely tries to launch a
national or in this case an international project.
Andrew
Carnegie
(November
25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-Americanindustrialist
who led the enormous expansion of the American steel
industry in the late 19th century. He was also one of the highest
profile philanthropists of his era; his 1889 article
proclaiming "The Gospel of Wealth" called on the
rich to use their wealth to improve society, and stimulated a wave of
philanthropy.
A little
known story about Andrew is is an obtuse project of his to simplify spelling so
that USA English could and should become the #1 International language of the
world. Andrew Carnegie petioned President Teddy Roosevelt to form a committee
to launch his spelling reform.
The
Simplified Spelling Board was announced on March 11, 1906, with Andrew
Carnegie funding the organization, to be headquartered in New York City.
The New York Times noted that Carnegie was
convinced that "English might be made the world
language of the future" and an influence leading to universal
peace, but that this role was obstructed by its "contradictory and
difficult spelling".[1]
Carnegie committed $15,000 (1906 dollars – over $350,000 in 2010 dollars[2])
per year for five years to get the organization off the ground.[3]
Charles E. Sprague of the Union Dime Savings Institution,
the board's first treasurer, noted that the group was careful to keep the word
"reform" out of its name and gave the word "believe" as an
example of a word that would benefit from elimination of its unneeded
"i", stating that "If believe were spelled 'beleve', I think it
would be a good change."[4]
On March 13,
1906, The New York Times editorialized in support of
the Simplified Spelling Board's efforts, noting that 90% of English words are
"fairly well spelled", but that "a vast improvement could be
effected by reducing to some sort of regularity the much-used tenth that makes
most of the trouble".[5]
An editorial in the following day's edition noted that opponents of the board's
efforts had suggested that the language be kept as is, only taught better, but
that the members of the board would respect the language's history in its
improvement efforts without hiding or distorting it.[6]Brander
Matthews, the board's chairman, emphasized that the board's primary
mission in simplifying the language was to eliminate unneeded letters, noting
that "[s]implification by omission – this is its platform; this is its
motto".[7]
Isaac Funk wrote to The Times on March 20, 1906, emphasizing that the board's
first aim was "a conservatively progressive evolution, aiming chiefly at
the dropping of silent letters", accelerating a process that had been
going on for centuries. This would be followed by the use of a phonetic alphabet developed by the American Philological Association
and including the 40 basic sounds used in English. Phonetics would be taught to
children in nursery school or kindergarten.
There were
300 words listed to be the first words in this enterjetic project. The board's
initial list of 300 words was published on April 1, 1906. Much of the list
included words ending with -ed changed to end -t ("addressed",
"caressed", "missed", "possessed" and
"wished", becoming "addresst", "carest",
"mist", "possest" and "wisht", respectively).
Other changes included removal of silent letters ("catalogue" to
"catalog"), changing -re endings to -er ("calibre" and
"sabre" to "caliber" and "saber"), changing
"ough" to "o" to represent the long vowel sound in the new
words altho, tho and thoro, and changes to represent the "z" sound
with that letter, where "s" had been used ("brasen" and
"surprise" becoming "brazen"
and "surprize").[9]Digraphs would also be eliminated, with
the board promoting anemia, anesthesia, archeology, encyclopedia and
orthopedic.
The board
noted that the majority of the words in their list were already preferred by
three current dictionaries: Webster's (more than half), the Century (60%) and
the Standard (two-thirds). In June 1906, the board prepared a list of the 300
words designed for teachers, lecturers and writers, which was sent out upon
request.[10]
In June 1906,
the New York City Board of Education
received a report from the Board of Superintendents recommending adoption of
the 300-word list, and would pass on the recommendation to the Committee on
Studies and Textbooks for approval.[11]
And would you believe A Presidential order---WOW,
In August 1906, President of the United StatesTheodore Roosevelt had supported the plan,
signing an executive order at his
home in Oyster Bay, New York, mandating the use of
reformed spelling in his official communications and messages to Congress.[12]
Prof. Matthews stated that he had received no advance notice of the President's
order and had been taken by surprise when it was issued.
I would say
Andrew and Teddy both match my requirements for ‘How many degrees of Separation is there between Brilliance and an Eccentric?’
A lion’s mane jellyfish in the North Atlantic waters of Bonne Bay, a Japanese white-eye in a city park in Tokyo, an Holy Week procession in Sicily, starry skies over a small town in the Indian Himalaya. This month’s round-up of Photo of the Day features a few of my personal favorites. Some are familiar scenes, others less so, but all have a story to tell; a memorable photograph of a situation that has been photographed many times before; serendipitous compositions revealed to keen observers; photographs so beautiful they bring our attention to wonders, and fragility, of our natural world.
In the above image, Your Shot member Joe Motohashi went to photograph birds in Tokyo’s Zenpukuji Park on an early spring day—and looked around. “There was one early blooming cherry tree there. And I found a couple of Japanese white-eyes going to it … I tried to catch the quick movement of the bird while being careful about light.” Procession of the Mysteries. April 29 Photograph by Willem Kuijpers, National Geographic Your Shot
Launch Gallery
Since 2002, Your Shot member Willem Kuijpers has been photographing i Misteri in Trapani, Sicily. He caught this painterly moment of two women resting during the slow-moving Easter procession, where stations of the cross are carried through the city on the Friday and Saturday of Holy Week. “Achieving the shot was only walking around and trying to be aware of the hidden gems in the streets,” he says.
Skyfall. April 20 Photograph by Jayanta Roy, National Geographic Your Shot
Launch Gallery
Grainy, impressionistic, lovely. Says Your Shot contributor Jayanta Roy, “This photo is a previsualization; I had wanted to capture a rain of stars over Kanchenjunga for a long time, so I chose the location and timing, which is at almost midnight. It was bone-chilling, the wind was so strong and cold. The location is a tiny village called Lungtung in eastern India, population ten.”
Bonne Bay Drift. April 21 Photograph by David Doubilet, National Geographic Creative
Launch Gallery
Photographer David Doubilet was on assignment for National Geographic photographing wildlife in Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence when he photographed this colorful and exotic-looking lion’s mane jellyfish in Bonne Bay. The beauty of this creature drifting in the crystal-clear waters underscores what there is to lose as years of overfishing, warming waters, and possible offshore drilling cause concern for the health of the gulf’s ecosystem.
Shane Kalyn sums this scene up nicely in this submission to the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest :
“There is an ethereal, otherworldly feeling to this photograph, as this little island in the middle of Tumuch Lake in northern British Columbia appears as if it’s floating in the clouds. To bring us back to Earth, a fish has left a ripple in the water on the left-hand side of the shot. The scene was amazing to witness, let alone be lucky enough to photograph—totally the right place at the right time.”
Happiness is a Warm Sun. April 25 Photograph by Kersti Kalberg, National Geographic Your Shot
Launch Gallery
Sun, plus white horse, plus an irresistably anthropomorphic expression of bliss come together to equal one very sweet photo.
“It was the first beautiful winter day in over a month, and the sun came out and everybody just stopped,” says Kersti Kalberg, a member of our Your Shot community. “The world almost stood still, and the silent happiness just poured in.”
Traveling on a ferry between the European and Asian sides of Istanbul, Your Shot contributor Merve Ates noticed this composed moment, inspiring her to draw her own connections.
“The boy on the right was sitting next to me. I was listening to the screaming of the seagulls and smelling the sea air and taking several shots but also waiting for a particularly interesting moment, and suddenly I noticed the window reflection. It seemed like the man and the boy were sitting side by side. In reality, the old man was reading the Koran, while the young boy had a worried look on his face (maybe about his future—who knows?). Two separate lives, together in the same frame.”
Every spring, melting snow creates a dreamscape in Tragöss, Austria. Green Lake, which for most of the year is no more than six feet deep, expands with the inflow of snowmelt, swallowing part of the park that surrounds it: trees, hiking trails, benches, bridges, and all. The lake’s depth reaches some 30 feet and provides a unique experience for divers—for a few weeks at least.
“Here is a farm in Beyşehir, Turkey,” Your Shot photographer Seyit Konyali writes. “Shortly after the birth of lambs, shepherd İsmail [stays with them while they are] running around. He is wearing a poncho made of their mothers’ wool. This makes the lambs feel closer to the shepherd while their mothers are out feeding.”
“This land symbolizes the rhythm of the people, as it was formed through generations of farmers shaping it with irrigation,” says John Qu, a member of our Your Shot community. “It is a rare phenomenon of man-made beauty disguised as a natural occurrence.”
Qu captured the photo of the Yuanyang rice terraces while traveling in China’s Yunnan Province. “I’ve traveled to this place multiple times, purposely in the winter, when the rice terraces are flooded. I’ve gone through the entire area and observed that the light at sunset, with the reflection and high angle, would make the terraces look more like a piece of abstract art, yet with real trees and huts. The shot was taken from a mountain above. I waited a few days for the perfect moment.”
“Warm inland. Cold at sea. So fog rolls in,” writes Your Shot member Cedric Delves, who captured this image in Folkestone, along the English Channel coast. “Cricket is prone to any and all even faintly adverse weather conditions (presumably why we English play it outdoors). Anyway, it fails to stop play this day. That said, she looked ready to quit, asking her brother over and over whether it was time to go and look for an ice cream!”
“With my police escort I had arrived at my lodgings at dusk, perched on the edge of a massive escarpment in Yemen’s Wadi Doan,” says Your Shot contributor Paul Nevin. “In the fading light and on the valley floor, I could see this fortresslike village. Having imagined how it might present under a rising sun, I was up at first light. Below me, shepherds and their goats made the only sounds. The sun rose, bathing the escarpment in golden light. It seemed like an eternity before it finally gilded the top of the village—magic.”
Alexa Keefe is the editor of Photo of the Day, a curated look at photography around National Geographic. The full archive is accessible here
!["Here is a farm in Beyşehir, Turkey," Your Shot photographer Seyit Konyali writes. "Shortly after the birth of lambs, shepherd İsmail [stays with them while they are] running around. He is wearing a poncho made of their mothers' wool. This makes the lambs feel closer to the shepherd while their mothers are out feeding."](http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/files/2014/06/140611-konyali-pod-04.jpg)
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