Does anyone out there know if I get even more benefit than just high gas mileage due to the fact that the gas engine on the prius shuts down while I am stopped in traffic or at stop lights?
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Arbitrary Roman Empire based length milestone 3000
Monday, July 21, 2008
Body Plastination sensation
We visited the Body Worlds 2 exhibit at the Maryland Science Center when we were in Baltimore on Saturday. The exhibit is made up of many bodies and body parts that have been subjected to plastination, a process that leaves the bodies looking very realistic but preserved. This one focused on the brain as an underlying theme, but explored all parts of the body and plastinated corpses in various poses.
I snuck a picture even though there were signs saying no photography permitted. The had scared people so much in the exhibit that even the other patrons were warning me I could lose my camera. I must have missed a more full speech about camera confiscation at the entrance.
I should have taken a picture of the look of horror combined with fascination that was on our faces during the tour of the entire exhibit. It was very interesting to see the body parts and the exploded anatomical displays. Many of the veins, arteries and nerves were colored differently for easier understanding, some bodies had the skin left on in strips to be artistic, but you couldn't forget that these used to be people, and I am not a big autopsy, dissection or corpse fan myself.
The room showing the stages of human development in the womb was especially interesting even as it was vaguely unsettling. Even though I had seen pictures in books it is amazing when you see the real thing and how tiny a fetus is in the early stages, yet it has all of the features of a baby at the small size. Some of these displays were soft tissue in formalin some were pregnant woman who had died while pregnant (apparently) and were plastinated.
Wikipedia lists the steps of plastination. First the body is embalmed with formaldehyde as a regular burial might be, then the body is dehydrated by soaking all of the tissues in acetone, the acetone is boiled out by reducing the pressure which sucks the polymer in during the impregnation step, then comes hardening or curing step and finally posing. The bodies in the display were posed in all types of ways, the one seated as above was the mildest. There were upside down skateboarders and yoga practitioners, an ice skating couple and a baseball player in mid-swing.
I recommend the exhibit.
I snuck a picture even though there were signs saying no photography permitted. The had scared people so much in the exhibit that even the other patrons were warning me I could lose my camera. I must have missed a more full speech about camera confiscation at the entrance.
I should have taken a picture of the look of horror combined with fascination that was on our faces during the tour of the entire exhibit. It was very interesting to see the body parts and the exploded anatomical displays. Many of the veins, arteries and nerves were colored differently for easier understanding, some bodies had the skin left on in strips to be artistic, but you couldn't forget that these used to be people, and I am not a big autopsy, dissection or corpse fan myself.
The room showing the stages of human development in the womb was especially interesting even as it was vaguely unsettling. Even though I had seen pictures in books it is amazing when you see the real thing and how tiny a fetus is in the early stages, yet it has all of the features of a baby at the small size. Some of these displays were soft tissue in formalin some were pregnant woman who had died while pregnant (apparently) and were plastinated.
Wikipedia lists the steps of plastination. First the body is embalmed with formaldehyde as a regular burial might be, then the body is dehydrated by soaking all of the tissues in acetone, the acetone is boiled out by reducing the pressure which sucks the polymer in during the impregnation step, then comes hardening or curing step and finally posing. The bodies in the display were posed in all types of ways, the one seated as above was the mildest. There were upside down skateboarders and yoga practitioners, an ice skating couple and a baseball player in mid-swing.
I recommend the exhibit.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Sousaphone destroyed in parachute accident
A parachutist overflew his landing site and plowed into a military band at a military review in Kansas Thursday, hurting several band members and destroying at least two sousaphones.
After some concern that there would not be enough members to continue the ceremonies, the band played on.
I am worried that incidents like this will quell the recent enthusiasm for playing the tuba and sousaphone generated by the advent of the Sousaphone Hero video game. Once kids realize how dangerous playing the sousaphone can be they may think twice about taking it up. Or it may have the opposite effect, as thrill junkies hop on the sousaphone bandwagon due to the romance of braving danger to play the instrument they love.
After some concern that there would not be enough members to continue the ceremonies, the band played on.
I am worried that incidents like this will quell the recent enthusiasm for playing the tuba and sousaphone generated by the advent of the Sousaphone Hero video game. Once kids realize how dangerous playing the sousaphone can be they may think twice about taking it up. Or it may have the opposite effect, as thrill junkies hop on the sousaphone bandwagon due to the romance of braving danger to play the instrument they love.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Mathmatical Rice Krispie Treats
A square plate and a coincidental cutting and stacking of (approximately) square Rice Krispie treats produced a tasty square pyramid with some interesting mathematical qualities. The layers of the pyramid are each a square, 1, 4, 9, 16 (Integer sequence A000290), they form a pyramid and summing each subsequent layer yields the (obviously called) square pyramid numbers, 1, 5, 14, 30 (Integer sequence A000330).Two other interesting properties of the square pyramid numbers:
- The sequence contains exactly one square greater than 1, namely 4900.
- Gives number of squares formed from an n X n square. In a 1 X 1 square, one is formed. In a 2 X 2 square, five squares are formed. In a 3 X 3 square, 14 squares are formed, and so on.
The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences is fun for looking for interesting sequences of integers, if you like that kind of thing. They even have the Lost numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, sequence A104101). The encyclopedia generates lists and graphs of number sequences, but even more interestingly, though less useful, it will generate a sound file of the sequence as played on an instrument of your choice.
First Cucumbers of the season, tomatoes soon!
Last week afforded the first ripe and ready cucumber of the season. We like them best in a cucumber salad that is merely vinegar, sugar and cucumbers.
Pre-picking
Post-picking
One of the grape tomatoes is almost red enough to pick, soon there will be many. Other notable tomato varieties this year are (from left to right above): Rutgers (a big slicing tomato), the Grape tomatoes I already mentioned, San Marzano (a plum, saucing tomato) and Yellow Pear (a small bite size variety). We threw down some ground up left over egg shells for calcium to prevent blossom end rot, but this year it is the irregular rain that is killing us and giving some of the tomatoes dreaded blossom end rot.
Pre-picking
Post-picking
One of the grape tomatoes is almost red enough to pick, soon there will be many. Other notable tomato varieties this year are (from left to right above): Rutgers (a big slicing tomato), the Grape tomatoes I already mentioned, San Marzano (a plum, saucing tomato) and Yellow Pear (a small bite size variety). We threw down some ground up left over egg shells for calcium to prevent blossom end rot, but this year it is the irregular rain that is killing us and giving some of the tomatoes dreaded blossom end rot.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Monkey mask in the trash
We are left with a mystery.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Belated Independence Day Fireworks Pictures
Wilmington, Delaware had really good fireworks on the Fourth of July this year and we were able to see them up close down on the Christina river on the Riverfront. My technique this year was to watch the fireworks and enjoy them while taking plenty of pictures with my camera, but not pay to much attention to the camera so I could enjoy myself. It worked reasonably well. It doesn't waste film, it's just 1's and 0's in the memory. Here are some examples that I like.
The Building in the background is the River Tower of Christiana Landing, a condo high-rise intended to bring people to live at the Riverfront, which mostly seems to have brought real estate speculators regretting their purchases instead.
They seemed to shoot the fireworks from the base of Christiana landing, I think that if you were watching them from the building you would have been too close, if you can imagine that.
There were fireworks that exploded into smiley faces which I did not catch but there were plenty of pretty blue ones and ones with streamers.
The Building in the background is the River Tower of Christiana Landing, a condo high-rise intended to bring people to live at the Riverfront, which mostly seems to have brought real estate speculators regretting their purchases instead.
They seemed to shoot the fireworks from the base of Christiana landing, I think that if you were watching them from the building you would have been too close, if you can imagine that.
There were fireworks that exploded into smiley faces which I did not catch but there were plenty of pretty blue ones and ones with streamers.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Delaware Crazy Blue Hen Criminal Roundup with extra fireworks
This chapter of the Delaware Crazy Blue Hen Roundup features the intentional and unintentional lawbreakers of Delaware.
A Fowl Crime Indeed: I wonder if taxidermy has as many regulations as tax preparation. This taxidermist was caught illegally stuffing some birds without a permit. He needed a permit to keep migratory waterfowl in his shop and he was busted by an undercover Fish and Wildlife Enforcement agent. There are undercover agents that actually investigate these crimes? That is more surprising than the crime itself. (plush blue hen with sound at Amazon)
Numismatastic: This couple remodeled their home recently and were rewarded with an extra bonus of $1,100 in change, pennies, quarters, and silver dollars, that they rescued from the previous owner's bar and kitchen counter decorations. They freed the hundreds of dollars in embedded coinage by soaking the coins in paint remover to unstick them from countertop and each other. A penny remodeled is a penny earned?
Bananas stolen, Monkeys questioned: The Port of Wilmington is the major northeast port for the Dole Company. Apparently fruit master criminals know this as well as they stole $40,000 in bananas from the port. Obviously authorities are looking at know monkey crime bosses in the area for clues to the whereabouts of the missing fruit. I have seen bananas for around $1/lb or even less so that is a 20 ton load of bananas in two trucks. How the crooks will fence these bananas is anybodies guess. This theft is on the heals of the theft of a truckload of chickens donated to a local food bank. Police are questioning foxes guarding the henhouse where the incident took place.
Fireworks are illegal in Delaware - even the Billboards advertising them say that: Just before the 4th of July is the season for fireworks billboards in Delaware. Delaware is such a small state that one can be shopping in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey in only a few minutes, especially to beat taxes on gas or alcohol or restrictions against fireworks. I know that the fireworks stores in Pennsylvania are not even allowed to sell fireworks to Pennsylvania residents. Thus Delawareans can buy them but you can't use them. 
Not just bottle rockets and big stuff, but no sparklers or even the snaps that you can throw at the ground to make a little noise. Worse, the State Police and Fire Marshall watch to see Delawareans purchase fireworks in PA and then stop them when they cross the state line with the fireworks. I suggest not obviously buying huge quantities of fireworks on July 3rd while undercover police are watching. The police confiscated $1000 worth and arrested five people the week of Independence day.
A Fowl Crime Indeed: I wonder if taxidermy has as many regulations as tax preparation. This taxidermist was caught illegally stuffing some birds without a permit. He needed a permit to keep migratory waterfowl in his shop and he was busted by an undercover Fish and Wildlife Enforcement agent. There are undercover agents that actually investigate these crimes? That is more surprising than the crime itself. (plush blue hen with sound at Amazon)
Numismatastic: This couple remodeled their home recently and were rewarded with an extra bonus of $1,100 in change, pennies, quarters, and silver dollars, that they rescued from the previous owner's bar and kitchen counter decorations. They freed the hundreds of dollars in embedded coinage by soaking the coins in paint remover to unstick them from countertop and each other. A penny remodeled is a penny earned?
Bananas stolen, Monkeys questioned: The Port of Wilmington is the major northeast port for the Dole Company. Apparently fruit master criminals know this as well as they stole $40,000 in bananas from the port. Obviously authorities are looking at know monkey crime bosses in the area for clues to the whereabouts of the missing fruit. I have seen bananas for around $1/lb or even less so that is a 20 ton load of bananas in two trucks. How the crooks will fence these bananas is anybodies guess. This theft is on the heals of the theft of a truckload of chickens donated to a local food bank. Police are questioning foxes guarding the henhouse where the incident took place.
Fireworks are illegal in Delaware - even the Billboards advertising them say that: Just before the 4th of July is the season for fireworks billboards in Delaware. Delaware is such a small state that one can be shopping in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey in only a few minutes, especially to beat taxes on gas or alcohol or restrictions against fireworks. I know that the fireworks stores in Pennsylvania are not even allowed to sell fireworks to Pennsylvania residents. Thus Delawareans can buy them but you can't use them. 
Not just bottle rockets and big stuff, but no sparklers or even the snaps that you can throw at the ground to make a little noise. Worse, the State Police and Fire Marshall watch to see Delawareans purchase fireworks in PA and then stop them when they cross the state line with the fireworks. I suggest not obviously buying huge quantities of fireworks on July 3rd while undercover police are watching. The police confiscated $1000 worth and arrested five people the week of Independence day.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Simpsons invade the backyard
I wish my mom liked or just knew of the Simpsons as much as this mom does. Apparently she made all of these Simpsons cutouts from scratch and then placed them in the yard of the family home as a present for her son who just graduated from high school. The yard, in Whycocomagh, Nova Scotia, looks like the shot in the beginning Simspons credits where the camera pans quickly across all of the Simspons characters.
The whole set of pictures of the Simspons characters is on flickr.
The whole set of pictures of the Simspons characters is on flickr.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
HO HORC license in delaware
I was stumped as to what a HO HORC license plate could mean. It sounds like the noise you make before you hork up some phlegm. But then I realized, as I eventually do, that sometimes you read the license as a word and sometimes you say the letters. Thus this license says HO HOR C (cee) - "ho horsey". Which makes much more sense when you consider the horse painting on the spare tire cover. Mystery solved. I would have understood it better if it was on the back of a horse.
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