CAPTCHA

I learn so many cool things in my preservation class. Lately we've been talking about digitization and whether it is a viable form of preservation or just a way to increase access. I believe the two go hand in hand, but that's not the point of this post.

Have you ever wondered where the images of distorted words used for online security come from? the text comes from digitized books and newspapers, and every time you solve one, you help to digitize the text of a book.

A digitized book isn't much good if it's just a series of images representing the pages. Users demand instant searchability within the text, so Optical Character Recognition was developed to let computers "read" the text. But not every text is so easily read, which leaves a lot of words unrecognized and unsearchable. So a CAPTCHA program is used to allow the general public help decipher the words. Each CAPTCHA displays two words for the user to transcribe as a security measure, to prove that the transaction is legitimate. One of the words will be completely unreadable to computers, but the other is. If the known answer is correct, the program assumes the unknown is as well, and the translation is added.

Pretty cool, huh? I bet you didn't know you were helping to digitize the New York Times when you logged in to leave a comment on a blog or post a link on facebook. That knowledge makes deciphering the twisted CAPTCHA words a little less annoying.

You can find out more about CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA here.

-Kim

Sunrise, Sunset

It's been a whirlwind couple of weekends! Let me get you up to speed.

The dental work is progressing smoothly. Two Fridays ago I went in just for a cleaning/check-up and was told I was doing great. The site was clean, and the healing was progressing well. It's nice to have a dentist tell me I'm doing well for once. I guess you just have to find someone who understands that gum problems can't always be solved just with floss. This past Friday I went in again to get my stitches out. They actually began coming loose on Wednesday, but I decided not to worry about it. A piece in the back came free as I was rinsing out the area Wednesday night, but nothing else unraveled, so I just left it alone. When Fatema saw it on Friday she wasn't concerned at all. As the swelling of the tissue goes away, the stitches always get loose. It's just a good thing I was already scheduled to get them out on Friday, because what was left wasn't going to last much longer.

The removal of the stitches was actually the worst part of the process so far. They used a topical anesthetic so it wouldn't hurt, but I could still feel them pulling. Dr. Chung used a tiny dental scissor to cut the stitches, and Fatema had a long pair of tweezers to pull them out. I don't like having four hands in my mouth at once, so I'm glad it was over quickly. I remember it taking quite a while to put the stitches in, and I know it was a long piece of thread, but I was still amazed at the length of the thread pieces that were coming out of my mouth. It's very disconcerting. But again, afterward I was told that everything looks great and they're impressed with my progress. Good news. Even better it the fact that I won't go under the knife again until after Thanksgiving, so I should almost be able to eat like a normal person. I've moved up from rinsing my teeth with the plastic syringe to gently cleaning them with q-tips dipped in the prescription mouthwash. By next week I should be back to a toothbrush! It's amazing how small things like this can make me so happy.

What else have I been doing?

The weekend between these periodontal experiences was the New England Archivists (NEA) fall conference here in Boston. There was a good talk on monetary appraisal, and the session on whether we consider physical objects to be archival materials was interesting. The keynote speaker was Richard Cox, a big name in the archives world who has a reputation for offending people. My favorite bit from his talk was his comment that archives students "don't come to learn about technology, the come to fondle old stuff." Touche Mr. Cox. But as far as practicality is concerned, I don't put much stock in what he has to say. Apparently he spoke in a friend's class while he was in town and said that Simmons students are getting too much practical instruction and not enough theoretical. Say what? If we are going to be out in the field actually archiving things, shouldn't we know how to do it? The only reason nearly all the members of NEA are Simmons alums is that we have an edge entering the field with our internship experience. We can always add to our theoretical knowledge as we go, through keeping up with the literature and going to events like this one. At least that's the theory I intend to test.

This weekend was even better. On Saturday Adrienne, Kacie and I braved the rain to go to the International Antiquarian Book Fair. We could only stay for about half an hour, because we had tickets for the matinee performance of Fiddler on the Roof. This is the farewell tour for Chaim Topol, the original Tevye, so we wouldn't have missed it for anything! Topol is 74 now, but he's still incredible. His voice is amazing, and his acting is hilarious! Overall the show was great. I especially loved all the impressive dancing. My dad tells me he was one of the bottle dancers in a production when he was in college, and after seeing what these guys could do, I really wish there was a picture of him doing that back in the day. Actually, the whole show made me very sentimental, even a little homesick. I picked up the soundtrack at the show and have been listening to it ever since. Even without the benefit of my iPod, "Miracle of Miracles," "If I Were a Rich Man" and "Sunrise, Sunset" play in my head nonstop. I've decided I should look for violin sheet music for the show--it would be a great thing to add to my repertoire. Do you think they would ever let a woman play the role of the fiddler? Because I could totally do that part and make it look real. At the start of the show I could tell that he was faking and it was the violin in the pit orchestra that was really playing, but at the very end I think it was him. I could do that.

On Sunday I had the chance to hear Ravi Zacharias preach at Park Street Church, but I didn't go. Instead, I joined David and Josiah at Tremont Temple Baptist to hear our dear old friend Roger Fredrickson preach. He had come out from South Dakota to lead their missions conference, and this was his last day in town. You should have seen his face when we went up to greet him after the service--such surprise, followed swiftly by a glowing smile and a warm hug. Roger is one of the sweetest men I've ever known, and it was great to see him as a reminder of home.

The pressure of the semester is starting to get to me, and going home for Christmas break is sounding better every day. Thank goodness next week has a break too.

-Kim

Team Digital Preservation and the Deadly Cryptic Conundrum

My prof showed this in preservation class on Thursday. I'm so glad the government is giving grant money to projects developing educational cartoons.

-Kim

Dianna and Ann

As I continue working on my semester internship project at the Congregational Library, I am continually coming across individuals and materials that make me think of Dianna and her upcoming trip to India. I suppose that's not really surprising, since I am researching a Christian missionary society. But the connections are too powerful to be written off as mere coincidence.

I've always been interested in/excited about Adoniram Judson because of my connection to him through camp Judson. In the course of my research, however I'm becoming more and more impressed by his first wife Ann Hasseltine. (In the course of his missionary work Judson was twice a widower and three times married.) The Judsons, in 1812, were the first missionaries to be sent out from America, along with several others from the ABCFM. Their mission was to India. I was especially moved by a sermon I found in the Congregational Library collection. While not an official commissioning service, the message does address the imminent departure of the missionaries, paying special attention to the women, which is surprising for the era. Following is an excerpt of the "Sermon, delivered at Haverhill, February 5, 1812, on the occasion of two young ladies being about to embark as the wives of Rev. Messieurs Judson and Newell, going missionaries to India. By Jonathan Allen, pastor of the First Church in Bradford." Please forgive awkward phrasing, grammar and punctuation--it was 1812, after all. This section was addressed directly to Ann Hasseltine Judson and Mary Newell.

My dear children--you are now engaged in the best of causes. It is that cause for which Jesus the Son of God came into the world and suffered and died. You literally forsake father and mother, brothers and sisters, for the sake of Christ, and the promotion of his kingdom. In this employment you, probably, have an arduous work before you--A work, that will occupy all your talents and much of your time.

"When I was at Chinganoor," says Dr. Buchanan (a place inhabited by christians) "the sight of the women assured me I was once more in a christian country. For the Hindoo women, and the Mahomedon women, and, in short, all women, who are not christians, are accounted by the men an inferior race, and, in general, are confined to the house for life, like irrational creatures."

It will be your business, my dear children, to teach these women, to whom your husbands can have but little, or no access. Go then, and do all in your power, to enlighten their minds, and to bring them to the knowledge of the truth. Go, and if possible, raise their character to the dignity of rational beings, and to the rank of christians in a christian land. Teach them to realize, that they are not an inferior race of creatures; but stand upon a par with men. Teach them that they have immortal souls; and are no longer to burn themselves, in the same fire, with the bodies of their departed husbands. Go, bring them from their cloisters into the assemblies of the saints. Teach them to accept Christ as their Savior, and to enjoy the privilages of the children of God.

[...]

And may the Lord himself be with you, and support and comfort you, and be your portion forever.

And now I use Allen's powerful words to commission and encourage Dianna Anderson, on her own mission to India with Faceless International to join the fight against human trafficking.

Dianna, in this employment you have an arduous work before you--a work that will occupy all your talents and much of your time. It will be your business to teach the world of these women, who suffer in sexual slavery and destitution. Go then, and do all in your power to be enlightened and to enlighten our minds, and to bring us to the knowledge of the truth of these gross injustices. Go, and if possible, raise our character to the dignity of rational beings, and to the rank of Christians who do not ignore evils present in the land. Teach us to realize that these girls are not an inferior race of creatures to be bought and sold but stand upon a par with all mankind. Teach us to remember that they are children of God. Go, and show them the love of their Redeemer. Go, and may the Lord himself be with you.

Go, and in serving, inspire us to serve.

-Kim

Learn more about Dianna's mission to India here.

surprises, not emergencies

So I ended up visiting my dentist on Monday. I was going about my work at my internship, when all of a sudden I noticed an odd feeling in the back of my mouth. It felt like there was a piece of string back by my tongue. Naturally, I assumed s suture had come loose, so I called my dentist to see what we should do about it. She was in surgery with another patient, but when she called me back later in the afternoon she said to come on in and let her take a look at it.

When I got to the check-in desk at the 2nd floor periodontal unit I told the receptionist that I didn't have an appointment but that my dentist had told me to come in and have them page her when I arrived. The response was "so it's an emergency appointment?"

Well, not really. To save time my answer was "I guess so." But really, it wasn't. There was no pain, no blood, just a piece of string that felt really weird. I guess they only have two labels for appointments in their system: planned or emergency.

It turns out that what I was feeling was not the all-important outer suture--purple thread in a continuous stitch that would have had to be tacked down instead of cut out--but a large piece of the inner, yellow suture, which should have dissolved after five days. This was 11 days after the surgery. So Fatema pulled out the offending piece of thread and flushed out the rest of the surgical site while she was at it. She says things are looking good, but the purple sutures still won't come out until next Friday.

So really, there was no emergency and not even a real problem. That suture was supposed to come out on its own, we just didn't expect to see such a large piece at once, or so late in the game. Surprise!

-Kim

"Into every generation, a slayer is born"

And this time, it was me.


This was my costume for Halloween this year: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The hair is all wrong, but short of buying a wig it was the best I could do.

Until a few months ago I knew almost nothing about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But after being told by several different people that I was missing out on something great, I decided to find out what they were talking about. Since I love Joss Whedon's other work, it seemed like a pretty good idea. So over the summer I set myself the goal of watching the whole series. That's 7 seasons, for a total of 144 episodes, each about 42 minutes long. Since the Simmons library has the whole series it was no trouble getting my hands on them, and the lack of homework gave me the time I needed to plow through and immerse myself in the awesomeness that is Buffy (And the awesomeness of Spike, but that could be a whole different post).

A while back I drafted half of an essay detailing why Buffy is such a good show, but in the end it all boils down to great, believable characters. Sure, most of them have superpowers or drink blood, but their personalities and their choices are real. That's what's so great about fantasy and science fiction--the writers have to work harder at making things real. In order for a reader or viewer to believe the fantastic events that happen, we have to believe in the characters, we have to see them react the way a normal person would. In real life dramas writers can get away with making ridiculous characters, in fact, they almost have to in order to make everyday happenings seem exciting. But the fantasy writer pairs the fantastic with the mundane, grounding the demons in realistic human experience.

That's part of what makes Buffy so cool--she feels real. She's just a teenage girl trying to fit in at school and have fun with her friends, and the Hellmouth keeps getting in her way. And as Faith once put it, at least she's a hot chick with superpowers. What more could I aspire to be for a night?

-Kim