Optical Character Recognition Programs

     I have posted on this subject a long time ago, but the other day I had to reset my Firefox browser and in the process lost one of my most used apps, an optical character reader, and had to reinstall it. So, here is an update on a couple of must have free OCR programs. 

     Copyfish is an optical character recognition (OCR) extension for Firefox and Chrome web browsers. It extracts text from images, videos and PDF files. Copyfish is an add-on that lets you extract text from almost anything in a browser tab...extract text from videos, PDF files, and images including photos, screenshots, memes, error messages, etc. 

     It puts an icon in the address bar of your browser. All you have to do is click on the icon, select the area with the text you want extracted and Copyfish opens a separate window, extracts and displays the extracted text which you can copy to the clipboard, redo the OCR, recapture or translate. 

     The translate button opens a new window showing Google Translate with your text pre-pasted so all you have to do is choose languages. 

     Copyfish does a good job with basic tasks. By the way, in most of the applications you have to right click on the icon. If you're looking for more functions there are two paid plans with extra features. 

 

Chrome 

Firefox 

 

     FreeOCR is quite basic and very simple to use. It allows you to import directly from twain scanners, PDFs and popular image formats and the latest release has been tested with Windows 10. Available default languages are English, Danish, German, Finnish, French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish.

     The output is in plain text and can export to Microsoft Word format. Free OCR uses the latest Tesseract (v3.01) OCR engine. This is an older program that works with indows XP (Service pack 2), Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 Desktop. I have not tried or with Windows 10 or 11.

Marbles

     These small spherical toys are often from glass, clay (crock marbles or commies, short for common), steel, plastic, or agate (a type of rock). If they were steel (actually ball bearings, they were called a "steely". In my youth clay marbles were extremely rare and plastic marbles had not yet been invented. 

     Marbles vary in size; they are: peewee ones, ones you might call a normal size, shooters and then giant ones that used to be called "boulders". The three smallest sizes of marbles are about 1/2 inch diameter, 9/16 of an inch diameter and 5/8 of an inch diameter. The 1/2 inch marbles are slightly smaller than a Chinese checker marble and are not used in official games. The 9/16 of an inch marble is used most often for Chinese checkers. The 5/8 of an inch size is the kind most used in marble games and as decoration. 

     In official marble competitive the 3/4 inch marble is known as a "shooter." Each player needs only two or three shooters for competitions. Outside the North America, 1-inch marbles are sometimes used as shooters. Large marbles are uncommon in competition unless the players have made modifications to the rules. 

     Marbles over an inch in size are not are not allowed in standard games. Marbles larger than 2 inches are rarely used in official games. They are usually made by artists who specialize in marble art. The large size lends itself to elaborate designs. You can get involved in this hobby by visiting HERE. 

     Marbles are made using many techniques, but they are either hand-made or machine-made. Marbles were originally made by hand and were fashioned by grinding. Glass marbles can be fashioned through the production of glass rods which are stacked together to form the desired pattern, cutting the rod into marble-sized pieces using marble scissors, and rounding the still-malleable molten glass. 

     One mechanical technique is dropping globules of molten glass into a groove made by two interlocking parallel screws. As the screws rotate, the marble travels along them, gradually being shaped into a sphere as it cools. Color is added to the main batch glass and to additional glass streams that are combined with the main stream in a variety of ways. Cat's-eye marbles have colored glass veins injected into a transparent main stream. Applying more expensive colored glass to the surface of cheaper transparent or white glass is also a common technique.

     Currently, the world's largest manufacturer of playing marbles is Vacor de Mexico. Founded in 1934, the company now makes 90 percent of the world's marbles. Over 12 million are produced daily. 

 

There are many different types of marble games: 

Knuckles down, or when I was a kid, knuckles down tight, where the knuckles have to be on the ground. 

Quitsies and no quitsies...a player can stop the game any time with no consequences. 

Keepsies...players keep all the marbles they win. This was always played back when I was a kid. Big winners would walk around the playground showing off their large bag of marbles. One snobbish rich girl relished flaunting a shoe box full of marbles which she did not win because she never played; her parents bought them for her. We despised her. 

Elephant stomps allows a player to stomp their marble level with the ground surface, making it very difficult for other players to hit. 

Bombies allows a player to take one or two steps while holding thier marble and, while closing one eye, will line up over one of the opponent's marble and drop the marble trying to hit the one on the ground. 

Leaning tops is when a shooter leans in on their off hand for leverage over an indentation on any type of surface or obstacle.

The Hanging of Horse Thieves

     There was supposedly an Old West saying that if you stole a man's horse, you had condemned him to death, which is why stealing a horse was a hanging offense. 

     The truth is the hanging of horse thieves is a legendary myth, sort of anyway. Marshall Trimble, author and the state of Arizona’s official historian, was unable to discover a single instance of a horse thief being hanged by a legal court. Legal is the key though...a lot of horse thieves were hung...vigilantes lynched 'em. 

     The death penalty for horse theft never existed, but a lot of men, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and at least one woman, Belle Starr, did spend time behind bars for stealing horses. 

     Historically, punishments were often severe for horse theft, with several cultures pronouncing the sentence of death upon actual or presumed thieves, but not in the United States although several societies were formed in the US to prevent horse theft and apprehend horse thieves. 

     Even today horse theft continues around the world. Horses are stolen for their meat, for ransom or in disputes between their owners or others. Horse theft today is a crime, like auto theft, punishable by felony jail time. 

     Horse theft is still relatively common, with an estimated 40,000 horses a year being stolen. Punishment for horse theft can be severe...a woman in Arkansas was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 2011 theft of five horses and equestrian equipment; one of the horses was later found dead, while the others were recovered. The European Union horses born after 2009 are required to have microchips. 

     Dating back to medieval and early modern times horse thieves were common and they were severely prosecuted with punishment including branding, torture, exile and in some societies even death. 

     The death penalty as a punishment for horse theft dates back as far as the first century AD, when one Germanic tribe sentenced horse thieves to death while murderers got away with a fine. 

     Horse theft was harshly punished in the French Bordeaux region in the 15th–18th centuries. Punishments ranged from whipping to a lifetime sentence of service on a galley ship. This latter punishment was also given to perpetrators of incest, homicide and poisoning. 

     In Pennsylvania, the An Act to Increase the Punishments of Horse Stealing was passed in 1780 and repealed in 1860. The law stated, "the first offense [the convicted] shall stand in the pillory for one hour, and shall be publicly whipped on his, her or their [bare] backs with thirty-nine lashes, well laid on, and at the same time shall have his, her or their ears cut off and nailed to the pillory, and for the second offense shall be whipped and pilloried in like manner and be branded on the forehead in a plain and visible manner with the letters H. T." 

     In the United States, the Anti Horse Thief Association, first organized in 1854 in Clark County, Missouri, was an organization developed for the purposes of protecting property, especially horses and other livestock, from theft, and recovering such property if it was stolen. A similar group, which operated mainly in Ohio, was the Bentonville Anti-Horse Thief Society. Men suspected of being horse thieves would be pursued by members of the organization and often hanged without trial.

Lake Ontario

Fun fact: Lake Ontario is the only Great Lake not to border the state of Michigan. 

     It's the last in the Great Lakes chain and it serves as the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. The lake's average depth is 283 feet (86 m), with a maximum depth of 802 feet (244 m). 

     The Moses-Saunders Power Dam regulates the water level of the lake, but as with all the Great Lakes, the water level changes owing to seasonal changes in the yearly water input longer-term trends in precipitation. 

     The lake is an important freshwater fishery, but it has been negatively affected by factors including over fishing, water pollution and invasive species. 

     Because of its depth, the lake does not completely freeze in winter, but an ice sheet covering between 10 and 90 percent of the lake area typically develops, depending on the severity of the winter. Ice sheets typically form along the shoreline and in slack water bays, where the lake is not as deep. 

     During the War of 1812, the ice cover was stable enough the American naval commander stationed at Sackets Harbor feared a British attack from Kingston, over the ice. The lake has completely frozen over on only five recorded occasions: in 1830, 1874, 1893, 1912, and 1934. 

     When the cold winds of winter pass over the warmer water of the lake, they pick up moisture and drop it as lake-effect snow. Since the prevailing winter winds are from the northwest, the southern and southeastern shoreline of the lake is referred to as the snowbelt. 

     In some winters one area may receive twenty or more feet of snow. Also impacted by lake-effect snow is the Tug Hill Plateau, an area of elevated land about 20 miles to the east of the lake. The Hill, as it is often referred to, typically receives more snow than any other region in the eastern United States. 

     Lake-effect snow often extends inland as far as Syracuse, New York, over 40 miles to the SE, with the city often recording the most winter snow accumulation of any large city in the United States. 

     The lake has an effect on the climate. Foggy conditions (particularly in fall) can be created by thermal contrasts and can be a problem for recreational boaters. 

     Lake breezes in spring tend to retard fruit bloom until the frost danger is past, and in the fall delay the onset of fall frost, particularly on the south shore. Cool onshore winds also retard the early bloom of plants and flowers until later in the spring season, protecting them from possible frost damage. This microclimate effects has enabled the growing of apples, cherries, pears, plums, and peaches as well as fostering a wine-growing region. 

     There are estimated 200 sunken ships in Lake Ontario. The oldest recorded shipwreck and the only fully intact British warship ever found in the Great Lakes is the 80-foot sloop of wa, the British HMS Ontario. It sank during a storm on October 31, 1780 and was discovered in June, 2008 in more than 500 feet of water. 

     The largest ship to sink in Lake Ontario was the 253-foot Nisbet Grammer; Itwas what is known as a canaller, a ship designed to slip through the Welland Canal with loads of grain and coal that larger ships couldn't carry. 

     It was first launched in 1923 and on May 31, 1926, it was just setting out from Buffalo to Montreal when, in a deep fog, it was rammed by another steamer, the Dalwarnic. A large hole was opened in the Nisbet Grammer and it sank in 15 minutes; luckily, its entire crew escaped safely onto the Dalwarnic.

The Dihydrogen Monoxide Parody

     At one time or another just about everybody has seen the dihydrogen monoxide parody on Facebook. It warns us about this substance which is in almost everything we eat and drink is responsible for thousands of deaths annually in the United States alone. 

     The parody often calls for dihydrogen monoxide, or DHMO, to be banned, regulated, or labeled as dangerous. 

     Additionally, it has been observed that DHMO is the major component of acid rain, contributes to the greenhouse effect, can cause severe burns, is fatal if inhaled, contributes to the erosion of the landscape, accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals, may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes and has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.

    Despite the danger, dithydrogen monoxide is often used as an industrial solvent and coolant, in nuclear power plants where it is emitted in clouds of vapor, in the production of Styrofoam, as a fire retardant, in many forms of animal research and in pesticides. Even after washing, vegetables that we consume remain contaminated by this chemical. 

     And, we all know some people like one of my Facebook friends who reposts the meme because he believes it is real and he actually wants it banned! This parody plays into chemophobia and demonstrates people's lack of scientific literacy, belief in conspiracy theories, conformation bias and paranoia. Dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) is a name for the water molecule, H2O. 

     Chemists have developed a description of what liquids are and what they can do, but DHMO breaks the rules. For the purposes of this post DHMO will be referred to by its more common name of water. When in its solid form (ice) and it is dropped into its liquid form the ice floats. Icebergs are another example of the strange phenomenon of a solid floating on its own liquid. Compare that to similar situations. Solid butter won't float on melted butter and rocks won't float on melted rocks (lava).

     Molecules slow down when the get cold and they take up less room. This causes things to shrink a little bit, but ice floats because water expands when it freezes and that makes it a powerful force. Through freezing and melting, water has seeped into rocks and broken them up into soil. 

     In frozen lakes and rivers, the ice insulates the water underneath, keeping it a few degrees above freezing point, even in the coldest of winters. Water is at its most dense at 39.2 degrees F (4 degrees C) and at that temperature it sinks to the bottom of a lake or river. Because bodies of water freeze from the top down, things living in the water have somewhere to survive. If water behaved like a normal liquid this would not be the case. 

     A water molecule is made from two very light atoms (hydrogen and oxygen and, at the ambient conditions on the surface of the Earth it should be a gas.

     Here is a strange fact: hot water freezes faster than cold water; this is known as the Mpemba effect, names after a Tanzanian high-school student named Erasto Mpemba, who found in 1963 that hot ice-cream mix froze faster than a colder mix in a classroom experiment. He wasn't the first to notice this effect though. Other guys like Aristotle, Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes wrote about it, but Erasto gets the credit. 

     Some bugs can walk on and a steel needle can float on the surface of water because of the water’s surface tension, which is immense when compared with that of other liquids. 

     This happens because water molecules stick to each other. In the liquid form, the hydrogen atoms of one water molecule are attracted to the oxygen atom of another molecule. Each water molecule can form up to four bonds and that gives water a cohesiveness unique in liquids. It's this last factor that explains why water is a liquid on the surface of the Earth: the hydrogen bonds hold the molecules together in such a way that more energy than normal is needed to separate them. i.e. to turn water into gas you have to boil it. 

     It's this bonding that enables water molecules to pull each other through the body. Water's ability to dissolve nutrients and and move them around our bodies is important to our life. DNA, proteins and molecules that make up our bodies wouldn’t work without water. The billions of molecules inside our body do their jobs because their interaction with water.

     The same mechanism means that plants can suck water up from deep below the Earth’s surface. 

     Water is difficult to compress because in its natural state its molecules stay closer together than the molecules in other liquids. The harder something is to compress, the easier it is to move it around if you apply a pressure to one side of it. 

     At a mile deep, the ocean’s water is compressed in volume by only about one percent. 

     Water ill stick to almost anything it comes across. Salt (crystals of sodium chloride) dissolves in water because the hydrogen bonds pull the sodium and chlorine atoms away from the crystal, leaving them to float freely through the liquid. 

     Water is so good at dissolving things that it is almost impossible to find it naturally in a pure state; even producing it pure in a laboratory is difficult. Almost every known chemical compound will dissolve in water to a small (but detectable) extent. Because of that, water is one of the most corrosive chemicals known.

Toxicodendron diversilobum

  

     ...otherwise known as poison oak. It's one of several members of the sumac or cashew plant family that are native to North America and cause contact dermatitis. Others are poison ivy and poison sumac. 

     The weeping, itchy rash caused by these plants is the most common allergic contact dermatitis in North America, and an estimated 10 to 50 million Americans suffer from it every year. 

     Identifying poison oak is the best way to avoid it! In open areas with full sunlight, poison oak forms a dense, leafy shrub usually 1 to 6 feet high. In shaded areas, it grows as a climbing vine, up to 75 feet or more, supporting itself on other vegetation or upright objects. In my case, it is entangled in the hedges which is how I came in contact with it while trimming them.

     Poison oak is not a true oak, but its leaves are superficially similar to a true oak, grow singly, not in groups. The adage ‘‘leaves of three, let them be’’ refers to each leaf of poison oak having three leaflets. This adage is not always true though. Leaves normally consist of three leaflets with the stalk of the central leaflet being longer than those of the other two. It's uncommon, but leaves can have five or seven leaflets and in even more rare cases nine. Each leaflet is 1 to 4 inches long with toothed edges. The leaves' surface ranges from glossy to dull in color, thin to leathery in texture and sometimes even "hairy." 

     Poison oak is deciduous, meaning that that seasonally it sheds its leaves. This can make detection and identification almost impossible in the winter and early spring because the plant has no leaves. In early spring new leaves are green or sometimes light red and they grow to the left then to the right along the stem. Poison oak produces small, white-green flowers at the point where leaves attach to the stem. It also produces whitish-green, round fruit in late summer and can persist into fall and winter. 

     Poison oak is a long lived. The seeds have a hard coat and can remain viable in the soil for years. Once they germinate and the plants become established, plants can form suckers, or underground stems, and spread. In addition, vines that contact the ground often form roots, creating new plants and over time a single plant can cover a huge area. 

     Believe it or not, the leaves and stems are a food source for many animals including deer and livestock. Birds and other animals eat the berries without adverse effects. The passage of the hard seeds through the digestive tract facilitates germination by reducing the period of dormancy. 

     Poison oak, poison ivy, and poison sumac causes allergic contact dermatitis in humans. The plant oil (urushiol) does not appear to cause allergic reactions in cats or dogs because their coats protect them from the oil unless the plant cpomes in comtact with an area that has no hair. 

     Approximately 50-75 percent of the adult population is sensitive to the plant's oil. Peak sensitization occurs between 8 and 14 years of age. Once a reaction occurs, repeated exposures further increase sensitivity. Conversely, long periods with no exposure will reduce an individual’s susceptibility. There is also evidence that suggests children born to two sensitive parents will also be sensitive.

     Contrary to popular belief, just coming in contact with poison oak doesn’t mean an individual will get a rash. The oil is found in the stems, roots, leaves and skin of the fruits so usually damage is required for plants to release the oil. For this reason slight contact with uninjured leaves will not result in getting a rash.

     Urushiol is dries quickly and can persist on objects and retain its ability to cause an allergic response for months or even years. This means that tools, clothing, pets, vehicles, and other objects that come in contact with the oil can continue to spread the oil. When poison oak is burned, the oils can disperse via the smoke particles. Breathing this smoke can cause severe respiratory irritation.

     In the fall, leaves become enriched with oil which can result in higher levels of exposure. In winter the leaves become dry and fall off and the oils are reabsorbed into the stems making the leaves non-allergenic. Bare stems in the winter, especially if they are damaged, can release oil resulting in exposure. 

     There is currently treatment for the rash other than avoiding exposure by covering the skin and washing with soap and water soon after exposure. Hypo-sensitization medication used to be available, but were taken off the market when they were found ineffective. To date no measures have been found that prevent or act as a cure. 

     If one is sensitive to poison oak, the skin rapidly absorbs the allergen so the key in minimizing or preventing an outbreak is to remove the oil from your skin as quickly as possible. The oil degrades in water, but significant amounts can be removed only if washed off immediately. After 10 minutes only about half of th eoil is removed and after 30 minutes it's too late...all of the oil has been absorbed. 

     Removing the oil is similar to removing grease! The best way to remove it is to wash with a damp washcloth and liquid dishwashing soap going in one direction. Use repetitive, high-pressure, single-direction strokes with the washcloth under warm, running water. This uses friction and heat to remove the glutinous oil.

     Research has shown that isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol poured over an exposed area then washed with plenty of cold water is also effective. Be sure to thoroughly wash your hands, especially under the fingernails. All exposed clothing, equipment and pets should be washed thoroughly in soap and water. Note: using only a small amount of water or disposable hand wipes is more likely to spread the oil than remove it. 

     Over-the-counter products (Tecnu, Zanfel and special soaps) have also been shown to be effective at removing urushiol oil from the skin. Once exposed, within 1 to 6 days after exposure, skin irritation and itching will be followed by water blisters, which can exude serum. The serum does not does not transmit the rash to other regions of the body or to other individuals. Time to appearance and severity of rash depend on the amount of oil absorbed and the skin thickness. The most common culprit for re-exposure are fingernails, clothing, tools, and pets.

     The rash, blisters, and itch normally disappear within 1 to 2 weeks without any treatment. Relieve the itch by using wet compresses or soaking in cool water, applying over-the-counter topical corticosteroid preparations, calamine lotion can help. 

     See a doctor in the event of a fever, pus, soft yellow scabs or tenderness of the rash occurs. Or, if the itching gets worse or keeps you awake at night, the rash spreads to your eyes, mouth, genital area, or covers more than one-fourth of your skin. See a doctor if the rash does not improve within a few weeks, is widespread and severe or you have difficulty breathing. 

     Physically removing poison oak by pulling it by hand or using a shovel is possible, but it is essential to remove the entire plant including its roots. The plants should be removed in early spring or late fall when the soil is moist and it is easier to dislodge roots. Using a shovel when the soil is dry will usually just break off the stems, leaving the roots to resprout. 

     Even the cut and dried brush can cause am outbreak, so bury it, put it in an out-of-the-way location or take it to a disposal site. 

     When hand pulling poison oak wear appropriate protective clothing, including washable cotton gloves over plastic gloves. Wash equipment, tools and all clothing, including shoes. There are herbicides available for controlling poison oak and some lawn companies may have the resources to deal with it.