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Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

bbc.co.uk

61–70 of 106 posts

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#61
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the rest of the time it's illegible scrawl and has no place in basic education. Even [0], the US declaration of independence, is horrendous to read compared to this 8 year old girl's handwriting. https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-declaration-of-independenc... ?

Not sure which cursive is taught in the US, but to me (having learned cursive writing in Southern Europe in the 90s) that looks surprisingly legible, if not for the quality of the picture in your link. Here's a high-res version: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/United_S... Except for the "double s" that looks like an "f" (that ligature was common also in fonts for bookprinting at the times, so it's…

I thought you were going to be exaggerating but I agree, pretty legible, especially when zoomed in.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#62
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US they've stopped teaching cursive, at least in some areas.

In the right hands and with the right practice, cursive is beautiful and a work of art.

> In the right hands and with the right practice

Also the right kind of pen. Cursive can be beautiful with a nib pen or some fountain pens, but it tends to be ugly with a ballpoint pen.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels somehow significant that the Facebook reply ended up being its own message in a bottle.

Savage. But accurate. We should start making articles about that. Person checks their nested nested spam, other inbox on Facebook and finds endearing highly relevant message from the turn of the decade.

Don't remind me of it. I missed some important messages because of that stupid feature back when I used Facebook.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#64
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like D'Nealian[1], which is designed as an introduction to handwriting that facilitates learning cursive. 1 = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Nealian

I have to agree - my first thought was that the writing looked "pre-cursive". As a late teen I abandoned cursive in favor of something that I could read. These days about the only thing I write by hand is my signature. It's a squiggle.

I'm sort of embarrassed to admit it but I can no longer write anymore. I can barely hold a pen and make any letter at all... anyone else feel like this?

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#65
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d bet almost everyone who uses Instagram and/or Facebook has stories like that. It’s crazy how poor of a UX choice it is, and I imagine Facebook did it this way only because they’re so bad at spam prevention.

I have no use for LinkedIn generally (at least not now) but I've had an account for years with links to some old acquaintances I don't really care to be associated with anymore, due to several industry, geographical, and social changes. I checked it on a whim about a year ago and found an old message from someone I hadn't talked to in over 7 years, very professional message just trying to catch up. I have no other so…

do you want to talk to the person?

then just explain that you don't use linkedin actively, and go from there. if they are not bothered by that they will reply. then possibly offer to switch to a different medium like email that you are less likely to miss.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#66
post #2

Look how neat that handwriting is. None of that nonsense scrawl they introduce in KS2 now (I believe Americans call it cursive)

Some people, including some commenters down thread seem to think cursive is about being fancy. It’s not, it’s an efficiency play for writing faster. That’s of course useless in modern day with so little actual hand writing. So it’s less common in schools

That's a common misconception. It stopped being more effecient when we stopped dipping pens or quills in ink. Lifting the pen from the paper tended to cause splattering too so you wanted to keep the pen on the paper rather than lifting it for every letter.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#67
"Nautically" speaking, if you must release your bottle from the shore and not in the middle of the sea, how/where should you do it to ensure it travels as far as possible? That's a question that comes to my mind whenever I think about message in a bottle.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Savage. But accurate. We should start making articles about that. Person checks their nested nested spam, other inbox on Facebook and finds endearing highly relevant message from the turn of the decade.

Don't remind me of it. I missed some important messages because of that stupid feature back when I used Facebook.

Yep me too. I still feel sad about it sometimes.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#69
post #31

I wrote a message in a bottle when I was young. I still have very dim memories of being excited at the possibility that somebody in another country years later would find it. According to my folks, however, there were some issues. First, I was four years old and couldn't write, and second, I threw the bottle into a small pond. But my parents didn't want to dampen my enthusiasm at the time.

I had a similar experience at the beach around 6 or 7 but it ended with me getting yelled at by some surfers for littering.

It is a very romantic way of littering though

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#70
Amazing. This message is 12 years old, but I intercepted it just before it was crossing the Russian border. https://photos.app.goo.gl/8HyVefn7oHJTw3xy9

Also I had a message from Japan in a Suntory Whisky bottle, but I cannot find it. Written in Nipponese it was.

Achually I have found at least 6 bottled messages. Most of them uninteresting and from nearby.

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