Musings

Yeah, this is a regular 4-way corner, but there is a roundabout not far away.

Aha. Traffic circles have stop lights controlling entering traffic. Roundabouts do not.**

I have heard multiple times that both save petrol and are safer; however, I was sure annoyed to discover the fancy ones in the neighborhood above are too narrow for delivery trucks and other long vehicles to negotiate without bumping over the curb and crushing the herbage.

* Word invented for this headline….

** Clarification from Time mag, discussing the trend toward adding roundabouts to our roadways.

Posted at 11:11 AM | 2 Comments »

This may look heavily photoshopped, but it isn’t; it’s just an oddly exposed reflection.

I’m worried. Officially.

Awake absurdly early (again), I checked the morning-fresh headlines, finding this one for a Jonathan Weisman piece in the WashPost: As Campaign Heats Up, Untruths Can Become Facts Before They’re Undone.

My worry comes from this trend among some folks in this country: repeat what you believe or wish to be true enough and it will be true. Maybe the corollary is: if you want it to be true, just say it over and over until you find yourself back in Kansas (aka the Dorothy approach).

How can we (continue to) accept this approach among our leadership?

This behavior is not limited to conservatives, although they seem far more willing to employ it. One sample from Weisman:

On Friday, in Cedarburg, Wis., McCain repeated that Palin had sold Alaska’s state jet on eBay, although Palin herself was careful during her vice presidential acceptance speech to say she merely “put it on eBay.” It did not sell on the online auction site.

McCain aides said yesterday that nothing they have said about the bridge is untrue.

In this case, Palin is doing a more-or-less honest, yet misleading, dance. She did list the plane on eBay; that’s true. But she didn’t sell it there. McCain apparently either hasn’t been corrected by Palin or his staff (worrisome) or he can’t remember that the plane was only listed on eBay, and not sold there (really worrisome).

Is it too much to expect honesty—and forthrightness—in public statements by our leaders?

Posted at 5:58 AM | Comments Off on Illusion of truth

Seagull trying to make his/her private ecosystem work in his/her favor….

For those who doubt the systemic nature of ecology and food webs:

Botulism, for example, is killing tens of thousands of birds around the Great Lakes. Studies indicate that two invasive species triggered the outbreak. The quagga mussel, introduced from Ukraine, filters the water for food, making it clearer. The sunlight that penetrates the lakes allows algae to bloom, and dead algae trigger an explosion of oxygen-consuming bacteria. As the oxygen level drops, the botulism-causing bacteria can multiply. The quagga mussels take up the bacteria, and they in turn are eaten by another invasive species: a fish known as the round goby. When birds eat round gobies, they become infected and die.**

I compose this while listening to a podcast of Terry Gross talking to Thomas Friedman, who always approaches his analyses knowing that he is looking at a complex interconnected system. Right now he’s railing about McCain and others advocating for drilling, which means continued reliance on oil, and continuation of this hazardous relationship with oil-producing countries (often not our geopolitical friends, like Russia, Venezuela, much of the Middle East), rather than opting for solar and wind energy, which would be more economically secure….

Sorry for not continuing this rant, but I need to go back to considering complex sociopolitical systems that functioned in the recent past, when nation-states formed at various places around the globe….

* OR: Don’t eat the round gobies.

** From Carl Zimmer’s article “Friendly Invaders” in yesterday’s NYTimes.

Posted at 12:39 PM | Comments Off on Botulism<>energy dependence*

Yeah, this is an ore carrier at the Soo Locks, but it fits the topic. Yeah, loosely. But.

They’re not much for resting on their laurels over at Google. Ashlee Vance at the NYTimes reports (blogs) that Google has taken out a patent on a floating data center, essentially allowing them to avoid the real estate market by mooring servers mounted in containers offshore, yet near demand centers (I’m assuming, for example, New York City, LA, and maybe even Chicago and St. Louis).

Just off the top of my head, I have two questions. One: power; as I understand it servers are power hogs, so will they pair the server-barges with wind turbine farms? Two: bad weather—hurricanes, ice storms—seems like the potential for service interruption is extremely high under certain conditions.

Still, interesting.

Posted at 10:31 AM | 2 Comments »

This is Carol’s picture from several weeks back; The Botanist reports eating perhaps this very melon earlier this week….

You may have heard that the term “maverick” originated with the practice of a Texas rancher named Samuel Maverick, who wouldn’t brand his cattle, saying that it hurt them too much. This meant he exercised dibs on any unbranded cattle in his area. So, now we use maverick for unbranded range cattle, and for someone who’s independent-minded and refuses to conform to group mores.

What you may not have heard is that his grandson, Maury Maverick, originated the term “gobbledygook” to refer to nonsense language or deliberately obscure wording.

I heard about Maury from The Botanist, who heard Maury speak in the late 1930s, when he was a US House member from Texas; I got the etymological detail from, where else, Wikipedia….

Posted at 4:44 PM | Comments Off on Avoiding gobbledygook?

Yes, this is anniversary day—the maiden voyage of this lovely handmade drift boat, in 2003, and also of our iPhone acquisition, last year.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Maiden voyage

Here’s the label on the 122×56 inch slab….

One lead to the next….

You see, I got to visit the place where our vanity and tub deck stone will be cut. The bonus was I got to be the opinionated client about how to lay out the pieces.

First, we picked out the stone several weeks ago, when we picked out the bathrooom tile. I think it’s called Cherokee marble, and it’s maybe even from a Georgia quarry, so even though we’re raping the landscape for our interior decorating, we’re being the building trades equivalent of “locavores.”*

Today, I met Dick-our-wonderful-contractor over at the stone place. We checked in and received our special costumes for visiting the floor. (It’s been a long time since I was in a factory….)

The lovely Sonya escorted us deep into the cutting area, where we met Stewart, who did the layout. He’s a genius. The stone has two really cool inclusions, and he helped me get one into the vanity top and one into the tub deck, and fit all the other tub deck pieces into the slab such that they will look just right. I think we’ll get a backsplash for the vanity out of it, too!

I’m just so tickled; the pieces are better than I’d hoped!

So that was the first new experience. And here’s the second. I* made a gallery of pictures from my adventure. Check it out below! (Click on one of the thumbnail pictures and you will see it larger, and then can page through the assortment.)

* Not so with the shingles, for example.

** With help from The Guru. Obviously.

Posted at 1:54 PM | 1 Comment »

I swear: this is the true color of a morning glory that I saw just over a year ago….

Posted at 4:56 PM | Comments Off on Brilliant blue

See our new bat-room floor—pre-grouting?

My dear, dear friend KW is not the only one with new sandals this fall. I know KW is not a Keen fan, but I love them. I don’t like their normal prices, but I got these on sale!

However, given KW’s heartfelt endorsement of Crocs (but not for walking, just for around-the-house-ing), I may have to give them a try. I keep getting put off by their sheer ungainliness/awkward aesthetics.

Posted at 4:30 PM | 2 Comments »

Ohio barn photo turned into stitch pattern…. (Two views.)

It started here: I’m reading Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader. I became curious about bobbin lace, the lace Barry refers to, which I’d vaguely heard of, but didn’t know much about. I sought out Wikipedia, not surprisingly.

Then I started musing about the long-ago past, when I did a bit of bargello needlework*. Of course, there’s also a bargello page, too!

Then I started thinking, gee, it’s a natural to have a computer program optimizing needlepoint (etc.) designs.

Of course. A bit more googling, and I even found a free trial version of a program for the Mac, called Stitches. And downloaded it.

Well, I did find a bug or two, but successfully imported a picture and had it allocate colors that could be converted into threads and needlework. Wow! The program says this image is a mere fifty-five colors….

* Proof lies in the four pillows on my couch, presently covered by protective plastic sheeting….

Posted at 9:25 AM | 3 Comments »