Can you name all of the Presidents? - A quiz

Can you name all of the presidents off the top of your head? Try the quiz here.

I am embarrassed to say that I only got 31 out of 43 presidents on this quiz. The most shocking part is that I lived on some of these streets yet I was still unable to remember them in the heat of the moment. Enter as many last names as you can in 10 minutes. I have a nephew who could do this when he was 4 (with some gentle intermittent first name prompting from his father.)

I can console myself with the fact that I knew the two least remembered presidents (only 48% remembered them). I have actually been to the presidential library of one of them (Thank you for the recommendation, Sara Vowell), and the other I remembered as one of the "caretaker" President's of the United States from a school musical on the "I Love Lisa" episode of the Simpsons. On the pother hand, I had a lot of trouble with the pre-Civil War presidents.

26% of people who took the test remembered them all. How did you do?

(via Neatorama)

Without the express written consent of Major League Baseball

Whenever I daringly post from a baseball game in progress (such as in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington this year, or Chicago's Wrigley Field) I always jokingly put that I am worried about copyright or describing the game, because I don't have the "express written consent of Major League Baseball". My reporting must be bad or I am a small fry because I never had any trouble.

One of Cory Doctorow's students, Crystal Larsen, had a final project in the class to explore getting press credentials to bloggers so that they could write about MLB games. I guess credentialing is a first step towards easing up on the heavy hand the MLB has and would open up sports writing to a whole new crowd. I don't expect that I would want any credentials for my infrequent visits. But I do have some friends that are crazy about baseball that might be interested.

Are there plans to land the Space Shuttle on Easter Island?

I just finished reading the book Shuttle Down by Lee Correy. This 1981 story of an emergency landing of the Space Shuttle on Easter Island definitely has many of my favorite things all wrapped up into one.

It has the Space Shuttle, an exciting emergency landing, Easter Island (or Isla de Pascua or Rapa Nui or Te Pito O Te Henua), heroes that are engineers and finally a little Cold War intrigue.

When we were on Easter Island we learned that the Mataveri International airport runway had been widened and the airport modernized by the United States for NASA as an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle. This was in November of last year and there wasn't a Shuttle mission until December. How cool would it have been to see the Shuttle land on Easter island? While there are emergency landing sites all over the world, one is in Dover, Delaware. If that ever happened I would be in my car driving south to see it as soon as I could.

The book takes place long before the airport on Easter Island was prepared to take a Space Shuttle landing and the story revolves around getting the airport upgraded to allow NASA to get the Shuttle off of the island and one of the true heroes of the book is Red Richardson the NASA engineer who is in charge of getting it done. The book is credited with getting the NASA emergency procedures changed to take into account these situations and may be responsible for getting Easter Island its long runway, which allowed us to honeymoon there in the first place. Thank you, Lee Correy.

In great Cold War tradition the Russians even try to make a grab for the Space Shuttle. Do you remember the Cold War, when there was a right side and a wrong side? Even the CIA's release of the "family jewels", the embarrassing illegal activities from the height of the Cold War 50's, 60's and 70's, makes some folks think that the Cold War was the good old days compared to today's international situation. Those parts of the book were a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

While the book seemed to portray Easter Island fairly authentically the one critical mistake is that it repeatedly described the Moai as pointing out to sea and watching over the part of the world towards which they faced. Any Moai standing on Easter Island that are not in the quarry are restored, since every statue was knocked down during the wars on the island and when they were standing or when they were restored they faced inland, not out to sea. Our guide on the island pointed out that the Rapa Nui people believed the Moai concentrated the mana of their ancestors and watched over the part of the island they faced.

Broad Winged hawk comes to work

Today, I had another broad winged hawk encounter but with a better camera than the last time. This hawk was at work roosting in the trees around the parking lot but right in front of the office window. At first it appeared injured as it hobbled around on the ground and flew from branch to ground to branch, but around lunchtime I saw it soaring high above, so I imagine that it is fine.

(click for larger images)

Here it is perched.


Perched with eyes closed


Perched with a good shot of the tail below the branch as well.


On the ground facing toward.


On the ground facing away.

After some further review of hawks on the web, this appears to be an immature broad winged hawk and not a Cooper's hawk (no red eyes) or Red Tailed hawk (no red tail). The broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus) summers in the eastern United States and is very common.

I would still like the expert opinion of a bird watcher, especially if they were familiar with birds of the eastern United States or the Delmarva peninsula.

Whatever

The insouciance of WHATEVR on this license plate is enhanced by the faux barbed wire frame.

Shellpot Creek muddy with no rain

This is the first time I have seen Shellpot creek this muddy with no rain. I checked the weather reports and the Shellpot stream gage and neither indicates that it rained last night yet I woke up this morning and the creek is this muddy yellow color. The muddy stuff even seems to be covering submerged rocks. Last night it was clear. I wonder if this is something natural or did someone dump something into the creek or disturb it upstream to cause it. Any theories from creek watchers out there?

Poorly chosen ad suggests eco-catastrophe

If Sherwin-Williams really did "Cover the Earth" with the zillions of gallons of paint it would take to make this advertisement a reality, I think that would rate as an extiction level event.

I would also imagine that any chemical company (paint contains chemicals) would shy away from the image of pouring their product all over everything. I love chemicals, but appreciate the correct application of them.

High price of 3 rail fence posts takes toll on local aesthetics

In a bold move defying conventionality this person has decided to continue the fence, not with the original three tier system already in use, but with a two tier system. Was it to save on the high cost of fence rails? We can only speculate on the economic tradeoffs that caused them to defy common sense, aesthetics, or logic and impliment their rail elimination strategy. I suppose in modern fence design there is no transition that is too jarring.

Happy Second Thoughts Day

Since the Lee resolution on American Independence was passed yesterday July 2nd, but the delegates didn't get around to adopting, announcing or signing the Declaration of Independence (except for John Hancock who signed it July 2nd) until tomorrow July 4th, I imagine that they took this day to have grievous second thoughts about their treasonous activities. Shouldn't today be American Independence Second Thoughts Day?

I am glad they went through with it. What many people don't remember is that the Revolutionary war continued until 1783, long after Independence was declared.

Quick question: Do the British have July 4th?
To see the answer highlight the text below between the [ ]
[Smart Answer: Of course they do, they just don't celebrate Independence Day!]

Do you know all of the State Quarters?

I still randomly collect these quarters but I haven't been keeping up. Test your state quarter acumen.

Quarter Backs
Score: 85% (17 out of 20)

(via Neatorama)