PK Porthcurno

Porthcurno is unusually well known for its size because of its history as a major international submarine communications cable station. In the late nineteenth century, the remote beach at Porthcurno became internationally famous as the British termination of early submarine telegraph cables, the first of which was landed in 1870, part of an early international link stretching all the way from the UK to India, which was then a British colony.

Porthcurno was chosen in preference to the busy port of Falmouth because of the reduced risk of damage to the cables caused by ships’ anchors.

In the Inter-War years, the Porthcurno cable office operated as many as 14 cables simultaneously, for a time becoming the largest submarine cable station in the world, with the capacity to receive and transmit up to two million words a day.

Porthcurno is still known colloquially by the acronym 'PK' being represented in Morse code as 'di-dah-dah-dit' followed by 'dah-di-dah'. In the early days of expensive telegraphy, this could be sent unambiguously with just two letters instead of ten.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porthcurno

Envy v Jealousy

The main difference between envy and jealousy is that envy is an emotion related to coveting what someone else has, while jealousy is the emotion related to fear that something you have will be taken away by someone else.

See more at http://www.diffen.com/difference/Envy_vs_Jealousy

What is a Mummers Play, and what is mumming?

Mumming is a word for disguising oneself, going door to door, and performing songs, dances and plays in neighbour's homes and in public places. It's a very old and widespread custom, going back at least to the Middle Ages.

The type of play we call a Mummers Play today is a little less ancient and less universal. In fact, it may not go back any further than the 18th century, since earlier English-language references to "mumming" either are vague about the exact type of performance, or are clearly a different kind of play.

Modern Mummers Plays have a basic recurring plot that is used as an excuse for the actors to sing, dance and rhyme. The plot involves a fight between two champions, who can be St. George and the Dragon, or St. Patrick and the Turkish Knight, or any other combination of historical or fantasy characters.

See more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-d-winick/mummers-play_b_2371695.html

Atlantic Crossing (1)

Atlantic Crossing is Rod Stewart's sixth album, released in 1975. It peaked at number one in the UK (his fifth solo album to do so), and number nine on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Crossing

 

Atlantic Crossing 1 (AC-1) is an optical submarine telecommunications cable system linking the USA and three European countries. It transports speech and data traffic between the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands and Germany.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Crossing_1

Dually noted

I emailed someone today about two topics.

She responded, "Dually noted."

I'll never know if she was demonstrating her ignorance or her wit.

from Google Groups

Errors of automaticity

When our attention is distracted we carry out highly practised behaviours automatically, occasionally at inappropriate times.

Like putting the milk out and the cat in the fridge.

In a classic diary study of everyday slips and lapses Reason (1979) got people to describe all sorts of cute out-of-context slips.

One person reported unwrapping a sweet (candy to the rest of you), throwing the sweet away and putting the wrapper in his mouth, another to putting shaving cream on his toothbrush and another to going upstairs to change for the evening, then finding himself wearing pyjamas.

Although practice makes perfect, it can also make an unthinking robot.

See other ways attention goes wrong at http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/04/18-ways-attention-goes-wrong.php

The Cocktail Party Effect

For psychologists the ‘cocktail party effect’ is our impressive and under-appreciated ability to tune our attention to just one voice from a multitude.

At a party when bored with our current conversational partner — and for the compulsive eavesdropper — allowing the aural attention to wander around the room is a handy trick.

See full article at http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/03/the-cocktail-party-effect.php