OK. Time for a rant.  It seems to be a common belief that turn signals give you the right to do whatever it is you were signalling to do.  This simply is not the case.  The fact is your turn signal only indicates your intention to turn or change lanes or whatever.  If someone chooses not to let you in, that is their prerogative.

I make a habit of signalling well before what I intend to do.  We would all be a lot safer on the road if we were just a little bit more deliberate in our driving habits.

Neither Snow nor Rain ...

I stumbled across this today.  Do you know this phrase?

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

Of course we know this as the postal service creed. But, it's not. According to the USPS, they have no official creed. The reason this phrase has been associated with the postal service is because of an inscription on the collanade outside of the James Farley Post Office in New York City. The inscription was placed on the building by the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the Farley Building and the original Pennsylvania Station in the same Beaux-Arts style.

An interesting aside:
The original Pennsylvania Station stood directly opposite the James Farley Post Office building which was meant to match in strength the colonnade that originally faced it across 8th avenue.  The original Pennsylvania Station was unfortunately demolished in 1963, much to the horror of many who opposed its destruction. The New York Times editorially lamented: "Until the first blow fell, no one was convinced that Penn Station really would be demolished, or that New York would permit this monumental act of vandalism against one of the largest and finest landmarks of its age of Roman elegance." ["Farewell to Penn Station". The New York Times. October 30, 1963. (The editorial goes on to say that “we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed”).]

"Neither snow nor rain ..." is actually a borrowed phrase from Herodotus' Histories (Book 8, Ch. 98) and describes the faithful service of the Persian system of mounted postal messengers under Xerxes I of Persia.  Wasn't that the Persian ruler who led the battle agaist the Spartans in the 300 movie??  The original phrase read:

"It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed."

Portions of this post are borrowed from:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USPS_creed
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Farley_Post_Office
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_(New_York)

Hadrian's Wall

What comes to mind when you think of Hadrian's Wall?  Personally, having only read of it in history books and only seen glimpses of it in movies, I have this vision of a massive, impenetrable structure - much like I have seen of the Great Wall in China. But that is not necessarily the case with Hadrian's Wall.


Hadrian's Wall was built by the Romans around 120 AD, during the rule of emperor Hadrian. It was a time when the Roman Empire had ceased to expand and there was a general concern of maintaining existing lands. Some say that the wall was built to protect Rome from the barbarians, but other sources suggest that the northern peoples that remained, in what is now Scotland, presented little threat to the empire. The wall instead may have been built as a political display of might. It's possible that the wall was even covered in plaster and white washed so that it gleamed in the sun and could be seen for miles around (Anthony Everitt (2009) Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome, Random House).

The most heavily fortified border in the whole of the empire, the wall was 80 Roman miles long (about 73 statute miles) and extended west from Segedunum at Wallsend on the River Tyne to the shore of the Solway Firth - clear across, what is now England. In places, the wall measured roughly 10 feet wide and 10-20 feet tall - depending on construction materials available - and was buffeted on either side by berms and ditches. Definitely not as formidable as the Great Wall in China. Construction also called for 80 small gated milecastle fortlets, one placed every Roman mile, holding a few dozen troops each, and pairs of evenly spaced intermediate turrets used for observation and signaling.

A significant portion of the wall still exists, particularly the mid-section, and for much of its length the wall can be followed on foot by Hadrian's Wall Path.

More information can be found on Wikipedia.

Miniature Paris

Miniature Paris
Originally uploaded by 1Sock

I think this tilt shift affect worked better than my first attempt. Perhaps, looking down on your subject helps to accentuate the miniaturization affect.

What Holds Clouds in Place?

I am curious. Why should clouds group together in the sky? Why do the edges of clouds always look like they are slowly evaporating away?  The edges of clouds always appear to be moving away from the main mass of cloud. How come we never see them moving in toward the cloud?  Perhaps clouds form due to surface tension, like how oil forms into globules when floating in water. But then why don't clouds have smooth rounded edges like oil globules?

The Awesomeness of LIDAR

I am regularly asked what I do for a living. This is a difficult question to answer. I spend a lot of time in front of a computer manipulating digital data into a custom product. That final product, as well as the data collection is defined by the client.  The client knows what their goal is and so defines what technology would best be suited to achieving that goal. Usually, a salesperson is involved in the decision about what technology should be used for collection as they are aware of our capabilities and the type of products that we provide. 

In this case, the technology is a remote sensing product called LiDAR, short for Light Detection and Ranging. To collect data using LiDAR, you need a plane with a LiDAR array on board that can simultaneously send a laser point and receive a laser point and record the data that returning laser point represents. The returning laser point does not actually contain any data, however data can be surmised by, for instance, how fast the light returns to the source or the intensity of the returning light.

The speed of the laser return can determine the elevation of the object that it hit before reflecting back to the source, once you take into consideration the known variables - the altitude of the aircraft or the speed of light through air. This data can then be recorded in a computer that can plot the information in XYZ ( or in three-dimensional space).  In the first picture, every point is a hit from a laser pulse.  As you can see, different objects are recorded at different heights, such as houses or trees. The colorization in the photo is color shading based on the height of each point. 

The intensity of the laser return indicates the reflectivity of the object that it hit before returning to the sensor.  Sometimes, if the laser pulse hits something that doesn't reflect at all (such as water or a new asphalt road), the laser pulse will not return to the sensor, which leaves a void in the data. For those wondering why water might not be reflective, the truth is that it is very reflective, but because of ripples or wave action, a laser pulse rarely reflects back in the same direction it came from after hitting water.  Notice in the second picture that the intensity reveals walkways that were not visible in the color shaded relief in the first picture.  

This final photo is a combination of the color shaded relief and the intensity image above. This image allows you to see the heights of features as well as the detail of other surrounding features. 

Isn't LiDAR amazing?

Toy Car

Toy Car
Originally uploaded by 1Sock

I recently applied a "tilt shift" technique to this picture. What is tilt shift you ask?

From Wikipedia (The Fount of All Knowledge):

"Tilt-shift photography" refers to the use of camera movements on small- and medium-format cameras, and sometimes specifically refers to the use of tilt for selective focus, often for simulating a miniature scene. Sometimes the term is used when the shallow depth of field is simulated with digital postprocessing; the name may derive from the tilt-shift lens normally required when the effect is produced optically.

"Tilt-shift" encompasses two different types of movements: rotation of the lens plane relative to the image plane, called tilt, and movement of the lens parallel to the image plane, called shift. Tilt is used to control the orientation of the plane of focus (PoF), and hence the part of an image that appears sharp; it makes use of the Scheimpflug principle. Shift is used to adjust the position of the subject in the image area without moving the camera back; this is often helpful in avoiding the convergence of parallel lines, as when photographing tall buildings.

In this case, I used software to achieve the affect. Pretty cool, eh?

Foliage

 The word is foliage people

 

Not foilage

 

Get it right. 

 

Isn't that some pretty foliage??  I like it a lot. 

Quality of Life vs Insurance Company Meddling

Recently I changed medical insurance companies from Blue Cross Blue Shield  (my company's insurance plan) to Aetna (my wife's company's insurance plan). There were a variety of reasons for the switch, but one of the biggest impacts recently - something that I did not anticipate - was a denial of prescription. 

Methylphenidate (Ritalin)

 

I take a daily dose of Ritalin LA for a minor case of ADD. I've been taking 30mg daily for more than 5 years. Under the new plan, the insurance company suggested to the pharmacy that they should fill the order with Vyvanse rather than Ritalin. I think the problem might be cost and the insurance company does not want to pay it.

 

Lisdexamphetamine (Vyvanse)

But here's the thing ... Vyvanse is a different compound. I have serious qualms about switching compounds just because an insurance company doesn't want to pay for another one. Don't get me wrong, Vyvanse might work wonderfully, and maybe even better than Ritalin.  Under different circumstances, I might even be willing to try it, but not when I am fresh out of my regular meds.  Perhaps, I should have planned ahead more, though I have never had an issue getting it filled.  What about quality of life? The insurance company is not my doctor - they're not going to be the ones I call when something is not working right. What if something goes drastically wrong?  As far as I am concerned, I would want some supervision before I go changing compounds. 

The pharmacy suggested that I have my doctor call the insurance company and tell them that I will only take Ritalin LA and that should do the trick. So I left it in the doctor's hands this morning. I am going into my third day without taking it. Not a big deal, people (especially kids) usually take weekends off, but if it goes much longer, I will start to experience withdrawal symptoms. Hopefully, this is resolved quickly. 

Update:  I got a new prescription this afternoon from my doctor, but this time she wrote it for Vyvanse, instead of Ritalin! Another receptionist said that she heard the industry was running out of Ritalin.  But my pharmacy said they had the Ritalin I needed, it was the insurance company that was refusing to pay. I guess I need more information so I can make an informed decision, so ... I made an appointment for tomorrow to discuss the issue with my doctor. Here's a link to a recent article about the shortage of ADHD drugs: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/health/policy/fda-is-finding-attention-drugs-in-short-supply.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1

Update (Jan 10):  I talked to the doctor this morning about options, given that my regular Ritalin meds are not available. We discussed several alternatives to Ritalin and settled on Concerta. Concerta is a methylphenidate - the same compound as Ritalin - but, due it being a different manufacturer, it has different release times associated with its extended release qualities - 22% immediate and remaining 78% over 10-12 hours.  For the record Ritalin was 50% immediate and another 50% after 4 hours.  Our decision to go with Concerta is an attempt to minimize the impact to my system and the withdrawal symptoms that I am already beginning to experience from stopping the Ritalin - going into my 4th day off. I am going to monitor this very closely as I am pretty nervous about changing it in the first place. 

Update (Jan 11): Trouble sleeping last night. It may have been anxiety or it may have been that I took my first dose of the Concerta at 11am (kinda late in the day) yesterday. Maybe tonight will be better. I am able to focus more on my work today than yesterday. Maybe this will work out after all. 

Update (Jan13): Ok. I am now on my fourth dose of Concerta. The release times have been difficult to adjust to, but I think my system is sorting it out. The 1st and 2nd days were pretty rough. This type of drug is a difficult thing to monitor because it is adjusting a brain chemistry that is "not quite right" to begin with, by buffering connections between synapses and neurons. As such, the affects of the drug are difficult to sense. But, I believe I was having an issue about 4 hours after taking the medication because my body was expecting that 50% Ritalin hit and all it was getting was a small portion of the 78% remaining from the Concerta. It left me with a lot of up and down emotional swings. I figured I would give it a week and if I was still feeling the same, I would go back to the doctor. 

TOS

 For those in the know you probably know that the acronym TOS stands for "The Original Series" of Star Trek. You know, the one with Kirk, Spock and Bones. Pam is a die hard TOS fan. In fact, she loves it so much that she doesn't acknowledge the other Star Trek (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine & Voyager) series' validity. Well, that may be a little harsh, but she does like TOS a whole lot more than those other imposters. 

I was thinking today about the grammatical use of The Original Series acronym. Since the "T" is for "The", how does it work when one says something like:

"Pam is a huge fan of the TOS series of Star Trek."

Would that be correct?  If we are to rewrite that phrase without the acronym, it would read:

"Pam is a huge fan of the The Original Series series of Star Trek."

Well, that's not right. Too many repeated words. 

Perhaps one could say:

"Pam is a huge fan of TOS." and be done with it. 

Personally, I believe the following should be true:

1. An acronym should not contain a "The" at the beginning of the acronym. Too confusing. 
2. Use of an acronym should not include having to decipher it in order to use it grammatically correct in a sentence. Too annoying. 

Cat Food

Yesterday, when I got home from work, I saw a big spot on the floor where Peeper (our cat), apparently was not able to stomach her dinner. Whole bits of food - not even chewed. Disgusting, right?  Did I feel like cleaning it up?  No. So, I left it. 

This morning, Peeper was very persistent about getting her breakfast. When Pam and I got downstairs, I was going about getting myself ready for work and Peeper was meowing incessantly. Finally, I turned toward her and said "Well, why don't you eat what you left on the floor last night?" And as I turned to gesture toward the pile of puke on the floor, I see that is just we she had done. All the whole bits of food were gone. 

Eeeeeeeew!

She got her breakfast. 

UPDATE: Lest one think that is all we gave her for breakfast, I meant to suggest that we gave her some more food, given that she made the ultimate sacrifice of cleaning up the mess for us. 

Piping Hot

When I looked up the origin of the phrase "piping hot" tonight, I had no idea how old the phrase was. Interestingly, if you can believe it, we have been using this phrase in common English since the days of Chaucer in the 14th century. 

In 1390 in The Miller's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote:

He kembeth his lokkes brode, and made hym gay;
He woweth hire by meenes and brocage,
And swoor he wolde been hir owene page;
He syngeth, brokkynge as a nyghtyngale;
He sente hire pyment, meeth, and spiced ale,
And wafres, pipyng hoot out of the gleede;
And, for she was of town, he profred meede;″

Another source suggests (along the same lines):

"The derivation of this little phrase is the sizzling, whistling sound made by steam escaping from very hot food, which is similar to the sound of high-pitched musical pipes."

Interesting. I am not sure if this what Chaucer was getting at, but given the choice, I prefer mead too. 

Historic Cars in Maryland

I found out today that a car only needs to be 20 years or older to be considered an antique or "historic" car in the state of Maryland. This means that, according to MVA regulations the requirement for an inspection is waived and the registration for plates is around half that of other, younger cars on the road. 

There is a catch though.  Historic cars cannot be driven full-time. There is a mileage limitation. There are also restrictions on "where" you are allowed to drive. The gist of the latter is that they really don't want you driving on the highways, however, being that there are some places that can't be reached except by highway, they can't completely restrict you from getting on the highway.  Therefore, the rule for the most part reads that you "shouldn't" use the highway.