- Symphony orchestras
- Guitar music
- Animals
- Warm socks on a cold night
- Hot cocoa
- Iced tea
- A good night's sleep
- The smell of the air after the rain
- Road trips
- Computers
- Taking photographs
- Nice people
- Mexican food
- Chinese food
- Radio
- Snow falling (not too much though)
- Back rubs
- History
- Mel Brooks' films
- Freshly-ironed cotton shirts
- Astronomy
- Superman
- Open Source software
- Airplanes
- Noodles
Friday, September 14, 2007
25 Things I Like
Just for fun, let's do a list. This is a list of 25 random things that I like. Can you come up with a list of things you like?
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Better than Sex??
Today, I got back in touch with my inner geek to solve a problem that has been bothering me for weeks. The answer turned out to be so simple, so easy, that I was surprised I didn't think of it before. It does require thinking outside the proverbial box, and finding an alternate way to solve a problem. After it worked, I must say it beats ice cream and cake. Better than sex? Perhaps.
Here is the problem. I daily get a file of sales on the product I manage for my employer. This comes out of our data warehouse, and comes in the form of a text file with comma separated values. Every day, I get the previous day's sales. So over time, I accumulate many files with the same structure, but containing sales from different days. What I need is a way to easily catch up on combining these into a single file, and being able to maintain it on an ongoing basis.
To give you an idea of what I am talking about, I made some phony files that will illustrate this little trick. My work files are huge, but to show how this works, these are small. The method is the same. Here is an example of a file for one day:
As you can see, each field or column is separated by commas. Here is what it looks like when you open the file in Excel or a similar spreadsheet program.
Every day, another similar file comes in, and each may have different numbers of rows. I have been trying to avoid opening one file at a time, selecting the data, copying it into a new file, and repeating that process over and over. I figured I might be able to develop a macro to help, but even that is not easy for this project. This has been perplexing me for weeks.
Then today, something in the back of my mind popped out. I have been looking at this from an Excel-centric approach. For whatever reason, I remembered about using the DOS COPY command to concatenate files into a new file. This will only work if the files have the same layout, but in the case of my particular problem, they do. SO, I put all the files in the same folder (or Directory as DOS calls them), opened a DOS window, and using the DOS command:
COPY *.csv newfile.csv
I successfully combined the files into one file named newfile.csv. Here is how the command executed (which took only seconds).
As you can see, it took all three files and copied them into one new file. I then opened the new file in Excel, and here is what I now have.
You notice that since each file had a row of column headings, I now have three sets of headings scattered in the file. No problem. I will just sort the data and delete the rows with the duplicate headings. Infinitely faster than manually opening many files in Excel and doing the routine of select, copy, paste. I now have a single data file with which to work. WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!
Simple, elegant, fast and effective. What more could anyone want? Plus, I am surprised it took me so long to come up with this, as a few months ago, I posted on this very blog how to create a spreadsheet from the DOS command prompt. Sometimes the solution is so simple that you overlook it, getting stuck in one way of looking at things.
Here is the problem. I daily get a file of sales on the product I manage for my employer. This comes out of our data warehouse, and comes in the form of a text file with comma separated values. Every day, I get the previous day's sales. So over time, I accumulate many files with the same structure, but containing sales from different days. What I need is a way to easily catch up on combining these into a single file, and being able to maintain it on an ongoing basis.
To give you an idea of what I am talking about, I made some phony files that will illustrate this little trick. My work files are huge, but to show how this works, these are small. The method is the same. Here is an example of a file for one day:
As you can see, each field or column is separated by commas. Here is what it looks like when you open the file in Excel or a similar spreadsheet program.
Every day, another similar file comes in, and each may have different numbers of rows. I have been trying to avoid opening one file at a time, selecting the data, copying it into a new file, and repeating that process over and over. I figured I might be able to develop a macro to help, but even that is not easy for this project. This has been perplexing me for weeks.
Then today, something in the back of my mind popped out. I have been looking at this from an Excel-centric approach. For whatever reason, I remembered about using the DOS COPY command to concatenate files into a new file. This will only work if the files have the same layout, but in the case of my particular problem, they do. SO, I put all the files in the same folder (or Directory as DOS calls them), opened a DOS window, and using the DOS command:
COPY *.csv newfile.csv
I successfully combined the files into one file named newfile.csv. Here is how the command executed (which took only seconds).
As you can see, it took all three files and copied them into one new file. I then opened the new file in Excel, and here is what I now have.
You notice that since each file had a row of column headings, I now have three sets of headings scattered in the file. No problem. I will just sort the data and delete the rows with the duplicate headings. Infinitely faster than manually opening many files in Excel and doing the routine of select, copy, paste. I now have a single data file with which to work. WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!
Simple, elegant, fast and effective. What more could anyone want? Plus, I am surprised it took me so long to come up with this, as a few months ago, I posted on this very blog how to create a spreadsheet from the DOS command prompt. Sometimes the solution is so simple that you overlook it, getting stuck in one way of looking at things.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Cherry Creek Sights
Nice looking Bus Stop sign
This morning, the spousette wanted to take me to a crepe restaurant she found out about, located in the Cherry Creek North district. So, we made the trek into Denver, and while I wasn't impressed with what are reputed to be fantastic crepes, I did see a few things that caught my attention. I am sure they are very excellent crepes, but I think I just am a man of simple tastes. In any case, it was sweet of her to want me to experience them. I had one with ham, eggs, and cheddar inside. In any case, I hear the place ladles out a mean french onion soup, so I may go back again.
As usual, I brought along my trusty digicam, and managed to get a few shots of things that drew my eye. All of the photos can be seen in a larger format by clicking on them.
At the top of the page is probably the nicest looking Bus Stop sign I have ever seen. It is very artsy, colorful, and fits nicely with the neighborhood.
Close by was a mailbox like none I have ever seen. Yes, it is R2D2, ready to take your messages to the rebel forces. I felt like dropping a postcard into it saying, "Help me Obi Wan Kenobi. You're our only hope!"
"Funny. I don't recall ever having owned a droid."
Next up, this vintage bicycle someone had locked to a lightpost. Very nice condition, and a very earth-friendly transportation mode. Not to mention the health benefits. Segway's may be technologically cool, but when you compare someone riding one of them with someone on a bike, the Segway rider looks like a geeky dork, while the bike rider actually looks like a healthy human being.
A cool old bike!
Speaking of vintage rides, how about this? Yet another cherry '57 Chevy Bel-Air, parked along the street. This one is similar to the black one in an earlier post, but it is not the same car. It has the word "Chevrolet" over the flying "V" on the hood, as well as a front license plate. Still, what a beauty!
Wouldn't you like to drive this around town?
Finally, this has nothing do do with much of anything. I had this to drink with my crepes, and I just like the look of the label. So here it is!
Tasty & sweet!
Blue Bell & A Surprise
A sign I haven't seen for a long time
A few posts back, I mentioned how I found that Russell Stover's candy store is selling Blue Bell Ice Cream here in Colorado. So, since my hospital visit showed I didn't have a heart attack, I decided to risk it and go ahead and enjoy the yummy goodness. Indeed it was, but I had a little surprise this morning when working on the pictures I took. More on that in a moment.
They had lots of flavors available, and they were as creamy and yummy as Blue Bell always is. I decided to try 2 dips . . . one of Banana Nut and the other of Peaches & Homemade Vanilla. The picture below is how they looked after I had taken a bite or two. I had decided to run to the car and get the camera to take a picture, but not before I had eaten a bite or two. As you can see, the surface had started to melt just a little, which was fine.
Peaches & Homemade Vanilla and Banana Nut Blue Bell
Now this looks like a delectable treat, and it was. But I did alter the photo just a little bit, to show what I thought I was getting. The combination of eating outside and my running to get the camera caused me to miss something. Something I didn't notice until I was putting these pictures up on the blog this morning made me a little sick. No, it isn't the Blue Bell, but it looks like I didn't notice at the time, a little extra protein landed on the peach ice cream. I can only assume I consumed it. YIKES!
Below is the unaltered close up of what looks like a little gnat or fly of some kind stuck in the creamy goodness. Oh my! I guess I got a little extra protein. Since I didn't notice, and ate it all, maybe I should suggest the flavor of Peaches & Gnats! It didn't ruin my enjoyment when I ate the cream, so I will be back. It wasn't Russell Stover's or Blue Bell's fault. That's what I get for eating outside and not paying close enough attention. Yet another reason why I will eat inside next time.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Airshow for Model Aircraft
Today was a very pleasant day here in Colorado, a perfect day to be outdoors. After the episode at the hospital, it made me all the more glad to be outside rather than lying in a hospital bed with an open-backed gown!Last weekend after my son crashed his model airplane, we decided to go to a model airshow this weekend, and learn more about these small-scale aircraft. At first, it couldn't have been more perfect flying weather. In fact, we were going to be able to try flying some of the trainer airplanes they had there to learn with. Unfortunately, a cold front kicked up the wind to where we couldn't do that. Still, there was some spectacular piloting going on via radio control.
These planes start as low as just under $200, and go up in price to thousands of dollars each! There was one guy there with a big trailer used to transport his airplanes to the show, so it is obvious this can be a very expensive hobby if you really get into it. Of course, most hobbies are like that, aren't they?
These little airplanes can really get moving, some of them up to 100 miles per hour in actual speed. To scale, it would be even faster than that! Here are a few of the photos I took today.
The top photo shows some aerobatic maneuvers by a gasoline-powered airplane flying nearly straight up. The pilots are so skilled that they can make the planes hover in a vertical orientation, not using the wings at all, but the propeller for not only propulsion, but also to keep it airborne.
This next picture shows the fantastic, beautiful blue Colorado skies we had today. This airplane was performing some tricks, and in this shot, you can see the flaps on the wings, oriented to make the plane twirl.
Model aircraft in flight - click to see large version
The next shot shows a model airplane on approach to the runway, with the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in the background. This model airstrip is near Golden, Colorado, famous as the home of Coors beer.
Model airplane approaching the runway
Seeing these airplanes in the sky, it is easy to mistake them for full-sized craft. The reason I don't say "real" airplanes for the larger ones is that these are every bit as "real" as their big brothers. They just are too small for people to ride in them. To get a sense of scale, take a look at the next picture, where an airplane was receiving some mechanical attention prior to takeoff.
Getting prepared for flight
There was one airborne visitor who it looked like was performing for the crowd, or maybe just enjoying the airshow. This hawk was circling overhead for the entirety of the three hours of the show. One thing I like about this picture is that you can see the feathers spread out on the ends of his wings. All-in-all, a fun afternoon, and certainly an improvement over the hospital!
Working too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack!
The title of this post is from Billy Joel's song, Movin' Out, and comes to mind after the events since Thursday afternoon. The good news is that I did not have a heart attack!
It is approximately 1:30 am Saturday morning, and I am wide awake with my biological clock all out of whack. I have been up for about three hours. Why is my clock so turned asunder? It all has to do with what started out as a fairly normal Thursday afternoon. I was talking with a coworker when all of a sudden, I felt very hot. I even mentioned it to him at the time. Then I noticed that I had moderate chest pain, especially when breathing deeply. As the afternoon wore on, I felt very strange. I had a bit of a feeling that can be described as a mixture of mild nausea with a light-headed feeling. It got so bad that I took some work material to a conference room, as I didn't feel like sitting in the open cubicle area at my office.
I tried to stick it out for the entire day, but ended up feeling so bad that I left work at about 4:30 pm. When I got home, I began to be concerned about the possibility of a heart attack. I took two Alka-Seltzer tablets, hoping that the aspirin and antacid in the medicine would help. It didn't.
My wife tried to get me to consider going to the Emergency Room early in the evening, but knowing the inconvenience of a hospital visit, I said I wasn't going. As we were getting ready to go to bed at 10:00 pm, she went on WebMD. There she saw that my symptoms were indicative of needing to seek medical attention. So, off to the ER we go.
We arrive and begin checking in. As soon as I mentioned chest pain, the staff jumped into action. First alarming thing was my blood pressure. Typically, it is around 125/85. Not this time. The reading was 175/115! The nurse's look of alarm was disquieting to say the least. I was told to get into a wheelchair, and promptly rolled down to an ER treatment room.
During the course of time between 10:00 pm and 5 am, I was continually hooked up to a vital signs monitor, poked for an IV, given nitroglycerin tablets to dissolve under my tongue, given 2 electrocardiograms, had blood tests for indicators of heart attack and blood clots, injected with contrast dye, and had a CT scan of my chest. Oh yeah...and hours and hours of just lying in a cold treatment room, worrying about my wife being up all night as well.
At one point at about 3 am, I thought they were going to let me go home and come in for tests on an outpatient basis. The blood work was negative for heart attack indicators, and the ekg seemed pretty normal with what the doctor described as a minor irregularity. The nitroglycerin had gotten rid of my pain and the blood pressure was down. The doc decided to do one more blood test to check for blood clots and also another ekg. That's where it got sticky!
The blood test came back indicating blood clots, which he said is meaningless. The test is good if it comes back negative, but a positive indicator may mean nothing. Hence, the CT scan. Also the second ekg was different than the first. Hooboy! The CT came back fine, but my BP is creeping back up, and since the second ekg varied from the first, they decided to hold me over for more tests and observation.
Finally at 5:30 am on Friday, I am rolled to a regular hospital room for more taking of medical histories, and a few minutes of rest. At about 8:30, my doctor comes in and recaps what I had been told by the ER doc. He recommends a stress echocardiogram, which will give a clear picture if I have any heart blockage. So it isn't long before two ladies come and take me down to a room with a treadmill and a small bed. In comes a man with a big machine that will capture the ultrasonic images of my heart. So first, he takes images of my heart at rest. Then the cardiologist comes in and the team has me get going on the treadmill, all the while monitoring my vital signs. Once my heart is going at a fast pace, it is quickly back onto the bed for more ultrasound movies. The good news is: 1. I have a heart, and 2. There is no blockage in my heart. That is good to know, after 50+ years of eating transfats that none of us used to know were killers.
SO, back to my room, more monitoring, more blood tests, lunch and finally release from the hospital. So now, I have to get a blood pressure monitor, take daily aspirin and BP meds, and go back to the doctor in a week.
After release, I took my wife to her eye doctor appointment, and so by the time I got home at about 4 PM, I lay down on the couch and am out. Goodnight! I wake up at 6 and go to bed and instantly back asleep until just before 11:00 pm. So here I am awake, it is now 2:00 am, and I just finished eating some ramen noodles, since I only had a tuna sandwich in the last 38 hours. Somehow, I need to go back to bed and get 3-4 hours more shut eye to get back on a regular time schedule.
Now I am wondering...why did my BP shoot so high? I sure don't want to get a stroke, so I guess it is a good thing that I went in to the ER, but why did this happen? The BP didn't want to come down, so I have to take these meds daily and monitor my blood pressure like a hawk until I get to the bottom of this. At least it's good to know that the Heartbreak Hotel Hot Dog I wrote about last month didn't kill me! I also went through a similar episode of chest pain, overnight hospital stay, and tests about 4 years ago, but the BP wasn't through the roof that time. I am just glad I am here to tell the tale!
It is approximately 1:30 am Saturday morning, and I am wide awake with my biological clock all out of whack. I have been up for about three hours. Why is my clock so turned asunder? It all has to do with what started out as a fairly normal Thursday afternoon. I was talking with a coworker when all of a sudden, I felt very hot. I even mentioned it to him at the time. Then I noticed that I had moderate chest pain, especially when breathing deeply. As the afternoon wore on, I felt very strange. I had a bit of a feeling that can be described as a mixture of mild nausea with a light-headed feeling. It got so bad that I took some work material to a conference room, as I didn't feel like sitting in the open cubicle area at my office.
I tried to stick it out for the entire day, but ended up feeling so bad that I left work at about 4:30 pm. When I got home, I began to be concerned about the possibility of a heart attack. I took two Alka-Seltzer tablets, hoping that the aspirin and antacid in the medicine would help. It didn't.
My wife tried to get me to consider going to the Emergency Room early in the evening, but knowing the inconvenience of a hospital visit, I said I wasn't going. As we were getting ready to go to bed at 10:00 pm, she went on WebMD. There she saw that my symptoms were indicative of needing to seek medical attention. So, off to the ER we go.
We arrive and begin checking in. As soon as I mentioned chest pain, the staff jumped into action. First alarming thing was my blood pressure. Typically, it is around 125/85. Not this time. The reading was 175/115! The nurse's look of alarm was disquieting to say the least. I was told to get into a wheelchair, and promptly rolled down to an ER treatment room.
During the course of time between 10:00 pm and 5 am, I was continually hooked up to a vital signs monitor, poked for an IV, given nitroglycerin tablets to dissolve under my tongue, given 2 electrocardiograms, had blood tests for indicators of heart attack and blood clots, injected with contrast dye, and had a CT scan of my chest. Oh yeah...and hours and hours of just lying in a cold treatment room, worrying about my wife being up all night as well.
At one point at about 3 am, I thought they were going to let me go home and come in for tests on an outpatient basis. The blood work was negative for heart attack indicators, and the ekg seemed pretty normal with what the doctor described as a minor irregularity. The nitroglycerin had gotten rid of my pain and the blood pressure was down. The doc decided to do one more blood test to check for blood clots and also another ekg. That's where it got sticky!
The blood test came back indicating blood clots, which he said is meaningless. The test is good if it comes back negative, but a positive indicator may mean nothing. Hence, the CT scan. Also the second ekg was different than the first. Hooboy! The CT came back fine, but my BP is creeping back up, and since the second ekg varied from the first, they decided to hold me over for more tests and observation.
Finally at 5:30 am on Friday, I am rolled to a regular hospital room for more taking of medical histories, and a few minutes of rest. At about 8:30, my doctor comes in and recaps what I had been told by the ER doc. He recommends a stress echocardiogram, which will give a clear picture if I have any heart blockage. So it isn't long before two ladies come and take me down to a room with a treadmill and a small bed. In comes a man with a big machine that will capture the ultrasonic images of my heart. So first, he takes images of my heart at rest. Then the cardiologist comes in and the team has me get going on the treadmill, all the while monitoring my vital signs. Once my heart is going at a fast pace, it is quickly back onto the bed for more ultrasound movies. The good news is: 1. I have a heart, and 2. There is no blockage in my heart. That is good to know, after 50+ years of eating transfats that none of us used to know were killers.
SO, back to my room, more monitoring, more blood tests, lunch and finally release from the hospital. So now, I have to get a blood pressure monitor, take daily aspirin and BP meds, and go back to the doctor in a week.
After release, I took my wife to her eye doctor appointment, and so by the time I got home at about 4 PM, I lay down on the couch and am out. Goodnight! I wake up at 6 and go to bed and instantly back asleep until just before 11:00 pm. So here I am awake, it is now 2:00 am, and I just finished eating some ramen noodles, since I only had a tuna sandwich in the last 38 hours. Somehow, I need to go back to bed and get 3-4 hours more shut eye to get back on a regular time schedule.
Now I am wondering...why did my BP shoot so high? I sure don't want to get a stroke, so I guess it is a good thing that I went in to the ER, but why did this happen? The BP didn't want to come down, so I have to take these meds daily and monitor my blood pressure like a hawk until I get to the bottom of this. At least it's good to know that the Heartbreak Hotel Hot Dog I wrote about last month didn't kill me! I also went through a similar episode of chest pain, overnight hospital stay, and tests about 4 years ago, but the BP wasn't through the roof that time. I am just glad I am here to tell the tale!
Monday, September 03, 2007
Labor Day Finches
An artsy filter treatment in Photoshop of a yellow finch - Click to see full effect
Today is Labor Day, a day to honor the ever beleaguered workers who help make this country great. Since we celebrate Labor Day by not laboring, it was a day of relaxation at the home of my oldest son and his family. All in all, quite a day; a radio-controlled airplane crashed and was destroyed, we had good grilled meat made by my son on the grill, ran from yellow jackets that were attracted to our food, and photographed some yellow finches.
The photo at the top was one of them. I decided to play around with this one in Photoshop to see what a filter might do for it. I like the effect as a nice change up from standard photos. The photo below is a shot of the same finch and its mate. They actually approached a hummingbird feeder, then flew over to the fence and stayed there for several minutes. Their color was not quite so brilliant as the yellow finches I photographed in Wisconsin last year. I don't know if they are a slightly different species, or just at a different stage of maturity. Still, they were very pretty birds.
A pair of yellow finches enjoying a Colorado Labor Day
Topping off the day, we had some ice cream. Good store-bought ice cream is hard to get around here. What we had was a disappointment. I have noticed a Russell Stover's store on Colorado Boulevard in Glendale has a Blue Bell sign in the window. Blue Bell from the little creamery in Brenham, Texas, is exactly right with their slogan, "The best ice cream in the country." I plan to make a run over to the Russell Stover's soon to check out what they have. Blue Bell doesn't distribute in Colorado, but a few restaurants (e.g. Cracker Barrel) have Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. So I am curious to see what else I may be able to get! I'll report back on that soon.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Thoughts on September and the War
Time marches on! It is hard to believe it is already September. So here we are, Labor Day Weekend here in the United States, and I for one, am very happy to have an extra day off on Monday. It's a little after 7:00 A.M. as I write this, and the sky looks clear and blue, so we should be getting this new month off with a nice day.
September is typically a month of change here along the Front Range. It starts off rather warm, and most years we have at least one snowfall before we get to October. The last couple of years, we have not had that, and I think it may have something to do with the climate changes brought on by global warming.
The Autumnal Equinox takes place later in the month, and we will see the days become shorter than the nights. The big change won't take place until November 4 this year. That is when we go back to Standard time, moving the clocks back an hour, and lose the sun an hour earlier, but gain it an hour earlier in the morning. The equinox marks the official beginning of autumn, my favorite time of the year. It does bring some degree of trepidation and caution, as in recent years, some bad things have happened in autumn., but I am holding out positive thoughts for this year, whatever good that will do!
Autumn also brings the changing of the leaves. I remember the colorful landscapes of the Smoky Mountains in autumn. Here in Colorado, it is the time to see the aspens turn bright yellow. The weather begins to cools down, letting us realize that while the cool air is a wonderful respite from the heat of Summer; that the blustery days of Winter are not very distant.
This month also marks the six year anniversary of the attacks on the United States by radical Islamic suicide terrorists. Yet today, the leader of the terrorist organization remains a free man, due to the inept bungling of the so-called "War on Terror" by our government. Instead of focusing on those who attacked us, the U.S. administration decided it was a good excuse to wage war on the nation of Iraq and their bogeyman of the day, Saddam Hussein, who while an evil man, had nothing to do with the attacks on America.
Now the President is ratcheting up the rhetoric against Iran, as his excursion into Iraq has gone from bad to worse. It is about to cost yet another 50 billion dollars of our money and untold numbers of lives. If we attack Iran, we will unleash a war that makes the Iraq expedition look like a Sunday stroll. Congress needs to find the backbone to tell this President NO! No more!
This bunch of chicken hawks in the administration that avoided serving in Vietnam must feel they have something to prove. What they are proving is that they are unfit for office. If we get into yet another military situation, all of the young college Republicans who promote this war may change their tune, as I expect in that situation we would see the reinstitution of the draft. Our troops already serve extended and repeated combat assignments. All we need for the draft to come back is one more war somewhere.
This September marks 16 months until we get a new President, unless this one somehow illegally suspends elections on some pretext of national security. The good news is, it is only 16 more months of Bush & Cheney. The bad news is we still have 16 more months of Bush and Cheney!
September is typically a month of change here along the Front Range. It starts off rather warm, and most years we have at least one snowfall before we get to October. The last couple of years, we have not had that, and I think it may have something to do with the climate changes brought on by global warming.
The Autumnal Equinox takes place later in the month, and we will see the days become shorter than the nights. The big change won't take place until November 4 this year. That is when we go back to Standard time, moving the clocks back an hour, and lose the sun an hour earlier, but gain it an hour earlier in the morning. The equinox marks the official beginning of autumn, my favorite time of the year. It does bring some degree of trepidation and caution, as in recent years, some bad things have happened in autumn., but I am holding out positive thoughts for this year, whatever good that will do!
Autumn also brings the changing of the leaves. I remember the colorful landscapes of the Smoky Mountains in autumn. Here in Colorado, it is the time to see the aspens turn bright yellow. The weather begins to cools down, letting us realize that while the cool air is a wonderful respite from the heat of Summer; that the blustery days of Winter are not very distant.
This month also marks the six year anniversary of the attacks on the United States by radical Islamic suicide terrorists. Yet today, the leader of the terrorist organization remains a free man, due to the inept bungling of the so-called "War on Terror" by our government. Instead of focusing on those who attacked us, the U.S. administration decided it was a good excuse to wage war on the nation of Iraq and their bogeyman of the day, Saddam Hussein, who while an evil man, had nothing to do with the attacks on America.
Now the President is ratcheting up the rhetoric against Iran, as his excursion into Iraq has gone from bad to worse. It is about to cost yet another 50 billion dollars of our money and untold numbers of lives. If we attack Iran, we will unleash a war that makes the Iraq expedition look like a Sunday stroll. Congress needs to find the backbone to tell this President NO! No more!
This bunch of chicken hawks in the administration that avoided serving in Vietnam must feel they have something to prove. What they are proving is that they are unfit for office. If we get into yet another military situation, all of the young college Republicans who promote this war may change their tune, as I expect in that situation we would see the reinstitution of the draft. Our troops already serve extended and repeated combat assignments. All we need for the draft to come back is one more war somewhere.
This September marks 16 months until we get a new President, unless this one somehow illegally suspends elections on some pretext of national security. The good news is, it is only 16 more months of Bush & Cheney. The bad news is we still have 16 more months of Bush and Cheney!
Friday, August 31, 2007
A Few More Denver Road Shots
An odd mile marker, but at least it has the correct shields
A few posts down, I showed a mile marker on Interstate Highway 76 that incorrectly bears a U.S. 76 shield. I see my buddy, R-Dub thought the mistake was worthy of his road geek blog as well, so I am glad he was able to get a picture of it too. You never know how long such goof ups will stand before they eventually get corrected. A few miles before the one in the previous post, there is this odd one. The shields are correct, but this one bears what seems to be tenths of a mile numerals, but rather than matching the white type on green, the tenths are black on white.
An unusual sign for a sweeping loop exit
This 30 mph exit sign caught my eye, but even more unusual is the exit number. It is more clearly caught in the closer photo below. The first exit on a highway is usually Exit 1, but here we have Exit 0. Almost sounds like a good title for a sci-fi story . . . Terror Off Exit Zero!
Seldom seen Exit 0
Lots of freeways now have the high-mast lighting with an array of beams to cover large areas of the highway or interchange. These are so high that the typical man in a cherry picker can't change the bulbs. How do they do it? They bring the bulbs down to the man.
This bulb array was lowered, but no crew was in sight. Still, it afforded the rare opportunity to capture the array at near ground level. In the background are the same arrangement with the beam array fully elevated to the top of the mast.
Low Beams!
Finally, here it the answer to how the tolling authorities differentiate between free carpool traffic and tolled single-occupancy vehicles when a HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) Lane is also made into a HOT (High Occupancy - Toll) Lane. These are also commonly known as "Lexus Lanes", as they give a class distinction in that those who can afford to avoid traffic tie ups can use them, while the rest of us stay stuck in traffic.
On I-25 on the north side of Denver, single occupant cars may now make use of the old HOV lanes by paying a toll. There are no toll booths, but require a transponder to decrement the toll amount from the driver's account. I have wondered if someone with a transponder who happens to have an extra occupant ends up paying a toll anyway. Apparently the problem is solved by signs directing HOT traffic to a transponder-reading lane under the structure in the photo below, while free HOV traffic goes through on a lane that doesn't read the transponder. Skeptic that I am, I am not sure I would trust it not to charge me anyway!
HOV/HOT Tolling Gantry
So, what better way to finish off the month of August than with yet another road geeky post! Now, it's on to September!
Nesting Owls
Owls nesting on an office building in Englewood, Colorado
Yes, I know this is a pretty sorry excuse for a picture, but it is the best shot I could get so far. This photo was taken with a telephoto lens, hand holding the camera, and shooting through the dark glass of my office building that is next to the one where these birds are nesting. Still, I wanted to put this up, because these are such beautiful animals.
This pair has found a safe perch in the eaves of the rooftop of one of the buildings on the campus where I work. You can see that they are situated down behind the girder, with just their heads peering out over the top. They appear rather docile during the daylight hours, as they are nocturnal creatures. Still they watch out over the landscape on and off during the day. I am curious to see if we have some baby owls making their appearance in the near future.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Give Me Your Cheesy Statue Knock-Offs
The Iconic Liberty Enlightening the World, or more commonly known as The Statue of Liberty, stands proudly in New York Harbor, a symbol of the promise of freedom offered by the United States. Given to this nation by the people of France in 1889, Lady Liberty has welcomed immigrants, warriors returning from the battlefield, and tourists to America's largest metropolis for 118 years. Arguably, this is the most copied statue in the world. In Paris, France, there are two replicas, the most famous overlooks the River Seine, facing toward her New York original. Cities around the globe have replicas prominently displayed. Here in the United States, there is even a replica at the New York, New York hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.One massive distribution of Lady Liberty knockoffs was done by the Boy Scouts of America. Between 1949 and 1951, the youth organization distributed over 200 low-budget replicas to towns and cities across the United States. About half of them are known to still be around. I have seen at least two of these, one of them just yesterday. The first one was many years ago, and it stands (or at least did decades ago) at Boy Scout Camp Sidney Dew in Georgia. The one I saw yesterday, shown here, is on the grounds of the Weld County, Colorado courthouse.
Like all of the statues distributed by the scouts, this one is not a close replica at all. The face is somewhat misshapen and rounder in features than the original. I also noticed this one appears to be getting tired, as the torch is not being held up exactly straight, if it ever was. Still, it is one of the remaining examples of this post-World War II act of patriotism by the scouting organization, and is proudly displayed 57 years after it was donated in 1950.
As the current government in Washington continues its assault on our freedoms, let's hope that our actual liberties don't die before the demise of these statues that personify those ideals.
Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is?
"Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?" So sang the rock group Chicago back in 1970, in their hit song from their first album, Chicago Transit Authority. People have been asking that question for centuries, and have devised all kinds of devices for providing the answer. In Denver's Cranmer Park, there is a more modern version of one such device that dates back to antiquity. A giant sundial stands there to mark the hours as the earth makes its daily rotation in relation to the Sun.
The sundial in Cranmer Park, Denver. Click photo to enlarge.
This is not the original sundial in this park. This is one placed in 1966 to replace the first one, which was placed in 1941. The stone is tilted to the plane of earth's equator, and the shadow producing rod points pretty much at Polaris, the North Star. According to the instructions engraved in stone behind it (enlarge picture below to read), you can make adjustments from solar time to standard time by using the diagram on the instructions. They appear to have been engraved for the 1941 dial.
As you can see from the time indicated, I was at the park at noon solar time, and that is very close without any adjustments, as my watch indicated 1:02 PM, but that is Daylight Savings Time, which adds one hour to standard time. Standard time is the average for the time zone, and the Mountain Time Zone's average is at the 105 degree meridian west of Greenwich, which the instructions tell us is at Navajo Street in Denver. Therefore standard time in the Mile High City is just about solar time. Since time zones are drawn for convenience, and not necessarily true to solar time, Denver is closer to the Central Time Zone than the Pacific. If one heads east on I-70, you enter the Central zone at the second county in Kansas, just past the town of Goodland, KS. That is about 200 miles away. To reach the Pacific Time Zone, you have to traverse two-thirds of Colorado and all of Utah to the west, entering Pacific time in the state of Nevada.
Instruction chart from the original 1941 sundial. Click to enlarge.
The sundial in Cranmer Park, Denver. Click photo to enlarge.
This is not the original sundial in this park. This is one placed in 1966 to replace the first one, which was placed in 1941. The stone is tilted to the plane of earth's equator, and the shadow producing rod points pretty much at Polaris, the North Star. According to the instructions engraved in stone behind it (enlarge picture below to read), you can make adjustments from solar time to standard time by using the diagram on the instructions. They appear to have been engraved for the 1941 dial.
As you can see from the time indicated, I was at the park at noon solar time, and that is very close without any adjustments, as my watch indicated 1:02 PM, but that is Daylight Savings Time, which adds one hour to standard time. Standard time is the average for the time zone, and the Mountain Time Zone's average is at the 105 degree meridian west of Greenwich, which the instructions tell us is at Navajo Street in Denver. Therefore standard time in the Mile High City is just about solar time. Since time zones are drawn for convenience, and not necessarily true to solar time, Denver is closer to the Central Time Zone than the Pacific. If one heads east on I-70, you enter the Central zone at the second county in Kansas, just past the town of Goodland, KS. That is about 200 miles away. To reach the Pacific Time Zone, you have to traverse two-thirds of Colorado and all of Utah to the west, entering Pacific time in the state of Nevada.
Instruction chart from the original 1941 sundial. Click to enlarge.
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