I’m using Piwigo to build out an archive for a nonprofit I’m working with and wanted to log down some issues and observations:
Piwigo is an open source platform. Open source software is not always the most user friendly or polished, but Piwigo is OK.
Installation was actually pretty straight-forward.
Really important to check plug-in compatibility. Several of the plug-ins I had hoped to use unfortunately have not been maintained. One plug-in I tried caused major headaches–I later realized it wasn’t expressly compatible with the version of Piwigo I was using. I’m not sure if the issues were because of compatibility issues, but it’s something to note.
I’m not sure what the issue is, but so far, PNG uploads have given me major problems–slowing the software to a standstill (other parts of the site that aren’t reliant on back-end server processes were seemingly unaffected by the uploads), even though PNG files are purportedly compatible with Piwigo. When I deleted the PNG files and switched to only JPGs, the issue went away.
About five years ago, I wrote a post on this blog listing the oldest cruise ships serving at the time at the world’s major cruise lines. I published the post on March 6, which was five days before the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus disease to be a worldwide pandemic. A lot of ships were sidelined and scrapped as a result of the pandemic, but the industry rebounded and there’s been a round of new ships that have entered service in the past couple of years.
In this post, I am reposting the list with relevant updates, mostly for my curiosity. Keep in mind that I am getting most of this information from Wikipedia so there might be some errors. This time, the table is arranged in order by the age of the cruise line’s oldest ship.
[M]odern life has a pacing problem. Middle age is uncomfortably crammed with career and caregiving responsibilities, while many older people find themselves with neither enough purpose, connection or income to live comfortably.
In the first weeks after Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, a coalition of nations conducted a colossal, if often haphazard, airlift to extract tens of thousands Afghans suddenly in grave danger because of their work for foreign governments or Afghan security services. But without the U.S. security blanket — the last American C-17 cargo planes left at the end of August — few countries have been willing to hazard their planes and their people to continue evacuations, leaving thousands of at-risk Afghans with few options for escape.
Enter Ukraine, a small but battle-hardened nation after years of war with Russian-backed separatists. After Kabul fell, Ukraine’s giant Ilyushin military planes were among the first to arrive to help with the evacuation. At one point, a group of Ukrainian G.U.R. officers left the security of the airport and, firing their rifles into the air, cleared a path for a pair of buses transporting journalists to safety.
I love this story, especially because all of this unfolded just a few months before the Russian invasion.
I strongly recommend reading the whole article if you have a New York Times subscription–given everything that was thrown at the Ukrainians, it’s amazing that this evacuation happened at all.
When I moved to Washington, D.C., in 2002 we all lived in 9/11’s shadow. We waited for bombs in the Metro, for more anthrax envelopes, for a sequel to the previous autumn’s terror. We watched planes headed for Reagan Airport fly low over the Potomac, always half-expecting them to veer.
With the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II earlier this month, there are a couple of things I’ve heard from others that I believe really demonstrate, at least symbolically, how much some little things that I always took for granted will be changed now that the Second Elizabethan Era has come to a close. These changes will likely last for the rest of my lifetime:
It is unlikely that many of us who are now alive will ever hear God Save The Queen sung live again. The present monarch is a king, and the next two immediate heirs apparent are princes (and the younger of the two is 9 years old).
Queen Elizabeth II celebrated Silver, Ruby, Diamond, Saphire, and, most recently, Platinum Jubilees. While not all of these Jubilees were celebrated with the same level of pomp and circumstance, I lived through so many of them that it was easy to take them for granted. King Charles III is 73 years old. While I assume we will see some celebration when he marks 10 years on the throne, he would have to make it age 97 to celebrate his Silver Jubilee (which, given the longevity of his parents, is not out of the question). However, there is a greater-than-naught chance that I will never see a British Jubilee again.
Students who borrowed less earned worse grades and fewer credits. And most surprising, those who borrowed less were more likely to default on their student loans over the next three years. This puzzling correlation is borne out by other data. Historically, those with more student debt have been less likely to default on their loans. A plausible explanation is that more borrowing made it possible for students to obtain more education, which led to higher earnings and a better capacity to pay off debt.
Susan Dynarski
Mr. [Peter] Harf, JAB’s chairman, agrees. He said he had recently read “The Order of the Day,” a historic novella by Éric Vuillard set in the years before World War II. One scene takes place in February 1933, when Hitler and the president of the Reichstag encourage 24 German industrialists to donate to the Nazi party. The businessmen — representing companies that are still prominent German corporate names, like Siemens, Bayer and Allianz — duly open their wallets.
Mr. Harf said it made him think that not enough voices in business were speaking up against the re-emergence of nationalism and populism in Europe and the United States. Every time business leaders make decisions, he said, they should ask, “What does this mean for our children? What does it mean for the future?”
“In history, businesses have enabled populists,” he added. “We mustn’t make the same mistake today.” Then he quoted the Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal: “For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.”
from “Nazis Killed Her Father. Then She Fell in Love With One,” by Katrin Bennhold, new york times
For Ajume H. Wingo, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies democracies, the fate of the statues matters less than how they are removed. “Justice must be seen to be done,” said Dr. Wingo, who argued that the statues should not be taken down covertly, but rather in public ceremonies that are as prominent as their original unveilings.
He suggested a symbolic, if not literal, torching of Confederate statutes. “That is how you take the power of it,” he said.
I found this video of LuminAria from Disney California Adventure Park on YouTube after reading about it on MiceChat. I never saw this show in person (in fact, I wouldn’t make it to DCA until 2016) but I was curious to see what it looked like. This show ran for only one season in 2001 (the year the park opened in 2001).
It’s not a bad show by any means, and I love seeing how Paradise Pier looked like when the park first opened. The smoke must have been awful for those with sensitive lungs though.
