Blogging. Blogs - Good Ones

Collection of Blogs, good ones! I'll start with this one:

I found Poseidon's Underworld when I was hunting for a picture of Yvonne Joyce Craig. He has a great page of vintage pin-ups. The blog has a lot of film history and pop culture on it.

http://neptsdepths.blogspot.com/

Pin-ups: http://neptsdepths.blogspot.com/2014/04/lets-go-on-easter-leg-hunt.html

(Blogging)

Maps (on-line)

Geographicus Rare and Antique maps: the site has some beautiful maps for sale, with digital images and enlargements available on-line. Some of the historic maps are so beautiful!
http://www.geographicus.com/


Old Alabama Railroad Map
http://www.history-map.com/picture/000/Railroad-Alabama-Old-Map.htm

McLemore Cove, Chickamauga, and Lafayette, Georgia

McLemore Cove (near Chickamauga and Lafayette, Georgia): Civil War history ~ Union soldiers spent the night of September 17, 1863, camped near Cedar Grove Methodist Church. A battle took place at nearby Davis Crossroads (intersection of GA 193 and GA 341, where local Hog Jowl Road runs S/SW from the crossroads (i.e., going straight south from 341 instead of turning puts you onto Hog Jowl Road). [Sherpa Guides]. http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/mountains/cumberland_plateau/chickamauga_valley.html

Description of the Battle of Davis Crossroads
and its significance (from AboutNorthGeorgia.com):

General Thomas's Union troops, of Sherman's grand army, had secretly moved through gaps in Lookout Mountain, en route to Atlanta, pushing through the plateau/mountaintop to reach McClemore Cove late in the day, September 9, 1863 (Negrey's troops ~ 14th Corps vanguard). Now they no longer enjoyed the cover of the mountains. They were spotted near Stevens Gap by men of General William Martin's Cavalry Division (3rd Alabama Regiment, Confederate). They had "stumbled upon the center wing of William S. Rosecrans' Union Army of the Cumberland" (AboutNorthGeorgia.com/ang/Battle_of_Davis_Crossroads). "Martin wired Bragg [at hdqrs., Lafayette], reporting an initial troop strength of 4,000 to 8,000 men...vulnerable to defeat..." (Martin then withdrew to Pigeon Mountain). "Martin's men began to reinforce the front of Pat Cleburne's division with trees and rocks, intended to prevent a Union force from passing over the mountain."

"Bragg wanted to keep Rosecrans west of Chickamauga Creek to protect the Western and Atlantic Railroad and his storage depot in Ringgold, Georgia and use the wide creek as a defensive barrier between the two armies." [Through gaps in intelligence, illness of an officer, etcetera, Confederate support troops weren't in place for Bragg's officer, Thomas Hindman, in the planned attack. "The only problem with Bragg's plan was that Cleburne was firmly ensconced on Pigeon Mountain with a good deal of debris in front of him. Cleburne was also bedridden with a stomach ailment." [Superiors did not yet know that Cleburne was sick.]

[Negrey was still unaware that rebels were in the area and "crossed Chickamauga Creek, boldly moving across McLemore Cove at the head of his column in Marching formation and without skirmishers deployed." Negrey's troops were fired upon, Negrey's first realization that the enemy were around. "with haste he reformed into battle formation, sent out skirmishers, and continued forward movement to Davis Crossroads, where he determined to prepare his defenses for an attack in the face of increasing Rebel resistance. George Thomas rode in, spoke with Negrey and agreed with his decision to stop forward movement."]

When Bragg realized his advantage ~ that he had Union troops at a disadvantage, and that he could possible destroy a large portion of Thomas's troops and divide Sherman's army by destroying its center ~ he quickly changed tactics and planned a major attack.

However, his officers were confused as to exactly where and how many Union troops there were. When "Union artillery began responding to the Confederate fire from the far side of Chickamauga Creek, hurling shells into the Rebel line," Hindman feared the fire to be "from the main body of Thomas's force." That, "plus the waning daylight, forced Hindman to call off the attack." So ended the day of September 11, 1863. Bragg reprimanded Hindman.

"It was the Battle of Davis Crossroads that warned Rosecrans that the Confederates were 'in force' east of Lookout Mountain. Because of Bragg's willingness to attack, Rosecrans altered his plans to advance into Georgia's Ridge and Valley, perhaps even taking Rome. Instead, he would march...toward the relative safety of Chattanooga."

"For Bragg, it meant a series of communication errors resulted in a lost opportunity."

[If Bragg had had his way, he would have slaughtered a large portion of Sherman's grand army, destroying its center and dividing the army, the other two wings of which had separated to cross east (Chattanooga) and west (Alabama) of center.]

SOURCE: http://www.aboutnorthgeorgia.com/ang/Battle_of_Davis_Crossroads

(Plus my knowledge from other readings).

Area Map, Lafayette, Georgia:

Link to Map:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/LaFayette,+GA+30728/@34.7120465,-85.2811479,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x88603e24c0f84fef:0xfa9237a80e3f89f9

Webmaster Tips and Link Requests

These are the current URLs associated w/your Weebly sites (no personal domain, just the Weebly generic address):

http://aboutdaltoncarpet.weebly.com

http://chatsworthwagontrain.weebly.com

Here is a link to a cool little tool. This lets you generate some gibberish, for when you're trying to build a sample page and just need some text to fill it up quickly:

Gibberish Generator
http://tee-2.com/design-gibberish.html


These sites have politely requested links on Southern Muse.

Most are commercial, or probably so, but have placed heavy-text historical articles on their sites, as well. Webmaster's note: check and see how much of a trade-off each one would be.

Historical Paintings

http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/pdf/historical_paintings.pdf

Italian Lighting Centre
http://www.italian-lighting-centre.co.uk/chandeliers-a-brief-history-through-time/

Artist/Photographer - Hiroshi Watanabe
http://www.hiroshiwatanabe.com/

FotoFlexer On-Line Image Editor and Other Great Photo/Video Tools

Pixlr
I have used this photo editor to good effect, adding a tonal filter to my photo, and downloading the photo in its full size, without having to open an account. So far, it is free and easy to use. I hope that doesn't change! I noticed that it has tools for cropping and some other tools I haven't tried yet. It all looks great!

https://pixlr.com/x/

LunaPic
LunaPic: This might be an excellent free tool. It provides the ability to rotate by degrees instead of just standard right angles. Has social-media share features. I didn't even have to log in to repair and save my image! Criticism: the default "Save" was in GIF format. However, you can change the format by using the file tools (save as jpeg).

http://www141.lunapic.com/editor/


FotoFlexer

Great on-line image editor: I tried this and was able to do some nice, simple effects to fix a mediocre photo. It is less gimmicky than some of the other on-line tools and has some nice effects, such as "retro" and "cross process." It also has some standard portrait filters. Nice tool! I didn't have to set up an account or log in. The site gives you some options to share with Facebook, Flickr, PhotoBucket, and other sites.

http://fotoflexer.com/


Fotor
Not recommended unless with premium account, and I haven't tried that. Has decent tools and I used it a time or two with good results; however, they've started adding a big, fat watermark over the whole picture, and you can't get rid of it without going premium. When I was using it, I did have difficulty finding a brush or clone tool small enough to be useful--could not do detailed work with the big brush!

Meme-Arsenal
Use this online tool to create a meme!
https://www.meme-arsenal.com/en/create/chose

TinEye 
Reverse Image Search (finds your image if duplicated on the Web)
https://www.tineye.com/

Sites to Create Short Video Clips and Gifs for Social Media!

Playola

http://playola.co/

Gifs.com
https://gifs.com/

Setting CutePDF to open in Google Chrome instead of Internet Explorer in Windows 7.

Setting CutePDF to open in Google Chrome instead of Internet Explorer in Windows 7.

Ack! Let me backtrack. How did I do that???

________________________________________________

OPEN WITH:

[Program doesn't show in Windows Default list].

So... I used drop-down: 'other programs.'

[Program still didn't show].

+ UNCHECK the box that says "Always use the selected program to open this file."

Click the "Browse" button.

Browse through "Local Disk (C:)" [That icon is WAY over in left column].

Open "Program Files (x86)".

Open "Google" folder.

Open "Chrome" folder.

Open "Application" folder.

Choose "Chrome" [that is, Chrome.exe, the application].

Once you've chosen it, re-check the box that says "Always use the selected program to open this file."

__________________________________________________

[Now, before all of this, even, I'd had to set CutePDF
to open in a browser instead of to open in Adobe Reader; but
the only browser Windows was showing in the default list
was, of course, Internet Explorer.]

All of this started with an attempt to save a PDF, and save it in a 6x9 format.

To do the 6x9 format, I changed the page size in both my "Word" document and in the PDF Printer properties to "Custom" and "6.00 width" x "9.00 height." Seems as if I also had to choose the printer tray of "only one." There were some questions (load lengthwise, roll feed, etc.); so far, I don't know how to answer those questions, and haven't yet found the answer in forums. I left it at default. Also, in setting the custom page size in Windows7, with the weird printer interface that's available for my HP Deskjet 5000, I couldn't find some of my usual options, including any way to name and save the custom format I'd just configured. In my old computer, I did manage to save a Custom format. Maybe it has to do with using CreateSpace's template. I haven't downloaded that yet on this new PC.

Still beating my head against Microsoft's user-unfriendly brick wall, as always happens when I get a new machine. Consolation: this time, I have a back-up (very old) PC, on which I plan to load Linux and see if life gets any better...

Schistosoma Images (Link)

Google Search: Schistosoma Images

http://bit.ly/GoogleSearch-Schistosoma-images

Fungi
Fungi include one-celled yeasts slightly bigger than bacteria, and multi-celled mushrooms and molds.

Fungi do not have chlorophyll to make their own food, so they get their nutrition as parasites or by breaking down remains of dead plants or animals. Some fungi are poisonous (e.g., Amanita mushrooms), but some have beneficial uses. For example, Penicillium notatum produces the antibiotic penicillin and Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the yeast used to make bread rise and to brew beer. Fungal diseases are called mycoses and include:

Aspergillosis - infection of sinuses and lungs

Blastomycosis - skin and pulmonary infections

Candidiasis - cutaneous and vaginal infections. Candida albicans is the most common cause of vaginal yeast infections.

Coccidioidomycosis - may cause cough, chest pain, shortness of breath

Cryptococcosis - may be transmitted in pigeon droppings

Multicellular parasites

Multicellular parasites include various kinds of worms and fungi that cause diseases such as:
Ascariasis (roundworms)

Hookworm

Lymphatic filariasis or elephantiasis (transmitted by mosquitos)

Pinworm

Schistosomiasis (liver or blood flukes)

Tapeworm

Trichinosis - a disease caused by consumption of poorly cooked meat that contains cysts of Trichinella spiralis.

Tinea corporis, tinea pedis (ringworm, athlete's foot)