Meteorologist, oceanographer, Python solvem probler, experimenter, Raspberry Pi tinkerer, geek dad, manager, space enthusiast, ham radio lover, science columnist, ADHDer, synthetic intellect curious, linux admin cosplayer.

Image Source Audit – 2026-04-27

Summary

  • Posts checked: 26
  • Total embedded images: 90
  • Images with proper attribution: 76
  • Images flagged: 14

(Header overlay images set in YAML frontmatter under header.overlay_image / header.teaser are intentionally excluded from this audit per scope rules.)

Flagged images (missing or unclear source)

Post: 2026-04-09-The-machine-that-learned-too-early.md, line 24

Image path: /assets/images/Rosenblatt_portrait.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “Frank Rosenblatt with the Mark I Perceptron at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory. Cornell University photo.” Issue: Source is given (“Cornell University photo”) but no licence / public-domain status is stated. Cornell is a private university, so PD cannot be assumed. Suggested fix: Verify licence on the image used and append the appropriate tag, e.g. “Cornell University photo, fair use” or replace with a Wikimedia/PD alternative and credit accordingly.

Post: 2026-04-09-The-machine-that-learned-too-early.md, line 56

Image path: /assets/images/Mark_I_Perceptron.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “The Mark I Perceptron – 400 photocells, 512 association units, and electric motors that turned potentiometers to learn. Now in the Smithsonian. Photo: Smithsonian National Museum of American History.” Issue: Credit names the holding institution but no licence / PD statement. Smithsonian holdings have a mix of licences (some CC0 via Open Access, others restricted). Suggested fix: Confirm the Smithsonian Open Access status and append, e.g. “Photo: Smithsonian National Museum of American History (CC0)” or the actual licence found on the source page.

Post: 2026-04-09-The-machine-that-learned-too-early.md, line 78

Image path: /assets/images/NYT_perceptron_1958.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “The New York Times coverage of the Perceptron, July 1958. The Navy’s promise of a machine that could ‘walk, talk, see, write, reproduce itself and be conscious of its existence’ would haunt AI for decades.” Issue: No source, photographer, or licence given at all. New York Times articles from 1958 are still under copyright in the United States. Suggested fix: Either remove the image, replace with a public-domain primary source (the NYT clipping is not PD), or append a fair-use credit, e.g. “Source: The New York Times, July 8, 1958 (fair use).”

Post: 2026-04-10-The-machine-that-built-IBM.md, line 74

Image path: /assets/images/IBM_701_frame.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “The IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine. … Photo: IBM Archives via Wikimedia Commons.” Issue: Source (“IBM Archives via Wikimedia Commons”) is given but no licence is stated. IBM Archives images are not automatically public domain. Suggested fix: Check the Wikimedia Commons licence tag and append it explicitly, e.g. “Photo: IBM Archives via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)” or similar matching the actual file’s licence.

Post: 2026-04-10-The-machine-that-built-IBM.md, line 82

Image path: /assets/images/Williams_tube.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “A Williams tube from an IBM 701. … Photo: Computer History Museum via Wikimedia Commons.” Issue: Source given but licence missing. Suggested fix: Append the Wikimedia Commons licence, e.g. “Photo: Computer History Museum via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).”

Post: 2026-04-10-The-machine-that-built-IBM.md, line 272

Image path: /assets/images/IBM_701_console.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “A close-up of an IBM 701 console and control panel. … Photo: Wikimedia Commons.” Issue: “Photo: Wikimedia Commons” is a host attribution, not a licence. No licence stated. Suggested fix: Append the actual Wikimedia Commons licence found on the file page, e.g. “Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.”

Post: 2026-04-12-Three-mathematicians-from-Poznan.md, line 30

Image path: /assets/images/Enigma_machine.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “A military Enigma I machine … Photo: Museo Scienza e Tecnologia, Milan, via Wikimedia Commons.” Issue: Source given but licence missing. Suggested fix: Append the Wikimedia Commons licence (likely CC BY-SA 4.0 for the Museo Scienza files), e.g. “Photo: Museo Scienza e Tecnologia, Milan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).”

Post: 2026-04-12-Three-mathematicians-from-Poznan.md, line 94

Image path: /assets/images/Bomba_Polish.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “A 3D reconstruction of the Polish bomba kryptologiczna. … Image via Wikimedia Commons.” Issue: Source pointer only (“via Wikimedia Commons”); no creator, no licence. Suggested fix: Add the file’s creator and licence as listed on Wikimedia Commons, e.g. “Image: Karsten Sperling via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)” (verify actual creator/licence on the file).

Post: 2026-04-12-Three-mathematicians-from-Poznan.md, line 190

Image path: /assets/images/Poznan_monument.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “The Enigma Codebreakers Monument in Poznan, unveiled in 2007. … Photo: Wikimedia Commons.” Issue: Host attribution only; no licence stated. Suggested fix: Append the Wikimedia Commons licence, e.g. “Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0” (verify actual licence on the file).

Post: 2026-04-13-The-forecast-that-reached-the-Nobel.md, line 70

Image path: /assets/images/Manabe_portrait.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “Syukuro ‘Suki’ Manabe (born 1931). … Princeton University/Wikimedia.” Issue: Princeton University is a private institution; “Princeton University/Wikimedia” gives source but no licence, and Princeton work is not automatically PD. Suggested fix: Add the Wikimedia Commons licence found on the file, e.g. “Photo: Princeton University via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)” or replace with the Cabinet Office of Japan / Royal Society photo if a clearer-licensed alternative exists.

Post: 2026-04-17-The-decade-the-forecast-got-good.md, line 130

Image path: /assets/images/CDC_6600.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “The CDC 6600, designed by Seymour Cray. … Photo: Computer History Museum via Wikimedia Commons.” Issue: Source given but licence missing. Suggested fix: Append the Wikimedia Commons licence (commonly CC BY-SA 4.0 for CHM files), e.g. “Photo: Computer History Museum via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).”

Post: 2026-04-18-The-women-they-wrote-out-of-the-photo.md, line 20

Image path: /assets/images/ENIAC_women_programming.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “Two of the ENIAC programmers at work on the machine. … U.S. Army photograph.” Issue: Bare “U.S. Army photograph” with no explicit licence/PD statement. The convention used elsewhere on the same blog (post 2026-04-02) is “U.S. Army photo, public domain.” Suggested fix: Append “public domain”, i.e. “U.S. Army photograph, public domain.”

Post: 2026-04-18-The-women-they-wrote-out-of-the-photo.md, line 58

Image path: /assets/images/Jean_Bartik_ENIAC.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “Jean Bartik at the ENIAC. … U.S. Army photograph.” Issue: Same as above – no explicit licence / PD statement. Suggested fix: “U.S. Army photograph, public domain.”

Post: 2026-04-18-The-women-they-wrote-out-of-the-photo.md, line 70 (figcaption)

Image path: /assets/images/Betty_Holberton.jpg Current alt or figcaption: “Betty Holberton. She invented the breakpoint, designed the UNIVAC console, helped write the COBOL and FORTRAN standards, and changed the color of computers from black to gray-beige. Photo: U.S. Army.” Issue: Bare “Photo: U.S. Army” with no explicit licence / PD statement. Suggested fix: “Photo: U.S. Army, public domain.”

Per-post summary

Post Images Flagged
2026-03-24-The-man-who-forecasted-weather-with-a-pencil 1 0
2026-03-25-The-number-that-connects-turbulence-to-war 1 0
2026-03-26-The-line-that-models-cannot-draw 0 0
2026-03-27-Reading-the-sky 0 0
2026-03-28-The-ghost-in-the-grid 0 0
2026-03-29-The-man-who-tamed-the-equations 0 0
2026-03-30-The-first-climate-model-had-5KB-of-RAM 0 0
2026-03-31-The-butterfly-that-broke-the-forecast 0 0
2026-04-02-From-cables-to-chaos 9 0
2026-04-03-The-swedes-got-there-first 6 0
2026-04-04-The-magician-who-told-no-secrets 4 0
2026-04-08-The-blueprint-von-Neumann-gave-away 9 0
2026-04-09-The-machine-that-learned-too-early 3 3
2026-04-10-The-machine-that-built-IBM 6 3
2026-04-12-Three-mathematicians-from-Poznan 6 3
2026-04-13-The-forecast-that-reached-the-Nobel 3 1
2026-04-16-The-man-who-caught-the-computer-disease 3 0
2026-04-17-The-decade-the-forecast-got-good 3 1
2026-04-18-The-women-they-wrote-out-of-the-photo 4 3
2026-04-19-God-is-real-unless-declared-integer 6 0
2026-04-20-The-empire-that-its-creator-repudiated 5 0
2026-04-21-The-language-that-refused-to-die 5 0
2026-04-22-The-fireman-and-the-visionary 3 0
2026-04-23-The-man-who-fit-the-entire-ocean-in-half-a-megabyte 5 0
2026-04-24-He-made-Walker-right 5 0
2026-04-27-The-machine-that-looked-like-furniture 3 0
TOTAL 90 14

Clean (all images sourced)

(Posts that contain at least one body image and have no flags. Posts with zero body images are listed separately below.)

  • 2026-03-24-The-man-who-forecasted-weather-with-a-pencil.md
  • 2026-03-25-The-number-that-connects-turbulence-to-war.md
  • 2026-04-02-From-cables-to-chaos.md
  • 2026-04-03-The-swedes-got-there-first.md
  • 2026-04-04-The-magician-who-told-no-secrets.md
  • 2026-04-08-The-blueprint-von-Neumann-gave-away.md
  • 2026-04-16-The-man-who-caught-the-computer-disease.md
  • 2026-04-19-God-is-real-unless-declared-integer.md
  • 2026-04-20-The-empire-that-its-creator-repudiated.md
  • 2026-04-21-The-language-that-refused-to-die.md
  • 2026-04-22-The-fireman-and-the-visionary.md
  • 2026-04-23-The-man-who-fit-the-entire-ocean-in-half-a-megabyte.md
  • 2026-04-24-He-made-Walker-right.md
  • 2026-04-27-The-machine-that-looked-like-furniture.md

No body images (header overlay only, not in audit scope)

  • 2026-03-26-The-line-that-models-cannot-draw.md
  • 2026-03-27-Reading-the-sky.md
  • 2026-03-28-The-ghost-in-the-grid.md
  • 2026-03-29-The-man-who-tamed-the-equations.md
  • 2026-03-30-The-first-climate-model-had-5KB-of-RAM.md
  • 2026-03-31-The-butterfly-that-broke-the-forecast.md

Notes / patterns observed

  • The most common defect (10 of 14 flags) is “X via Wikimedia Commons” without a licence. Wikimedia Commons hosts many licences (CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA at multiple versions, PD-old, PD-USGov, GFDL, fair-use), so the hosting platform alone is not a licence. Each Wikimedia Commons file page states the licence; that string is what should appear in the credit.
  • Three flags on post 2026-04-18 are all “U.S. Army photograph” / “Photo: U.S. Army” with no “public domain” suffix. Posts 2026-04-02 and 2026-04-16 use the same source correctly (“U.S. Army photo, public domain” / “U.S. Army photo, ARL Technical Library, public domain”). The fix on 04-18 is just a matter of appending the standard PD tag.
  • Post 2026-04-09 has the only image that is wholly unsourced (NYT perceptron clipping, line 78) and the only image that may be a copyright problem rather than just an attribution-style problem – 1958 NYT articles are still under copyright in the U.S. and would need a fair-use rationale or a different source.
  • “NASA” / “NOAA” / “Los Alamos National Laboratory” / “U.S. Army” written with an accompanying “, public domain” tag is the consistent house style and is treated as proper attribution throughout this audit.