TubaChristmas

I had a new musical-social experience last week. TubaChristmas 2004. I was encouraged into it by a friend, who wouldn't let me use the excuse that I am not good enough, joking that nobody would know if I was off or not, among 200 other tubas! About 5 months ago, I got a used Baritone horn, or euphonium, which is sort of a baby tuba. I thought I could learn the fingerings fairly quickly, and it is in the same range and uses about the same mouthpiece and music as my trombone. It turned out to be tougher than I thought, and I got through the beginner stage fine, but really have a tough time when things get faster or more advanced. But I had gotten to the point that I can play the basic stuff, and I thought, "How hard can Christmas carols be?" Well they kept me jumping, that's for sure.

TubaChristmas is a national thing, occurring in more cities every year, organized locally, usually one per state in December, and promoted as a free public concert. I know there was one in Rockefeller Center, NY the day after ours in Essex Connecticut,because I met someone who was in it. The participants all play some size or shape of the tuba family, from giant double basses, to Sousaphones, to baritones and more rare configurations like double-bell euphoniums (euphonia?) . Four part harmony starts at low and goes down. What a great sound, though. Well, it turned out there were only ~100 Tubas, but still a feast for the brass lover's ear.

Did I mention it was held in an unheated old railroad warehouse in the restored train complex in Essex? People who had come to ride the old trains heard the music and wandered in.
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College age Sea Monkeys?

A posting on Fragments From FLoyd gives me another reason to doubt the flexibility, sense of humor or at least the appreciation of life of the next generation. Fred, professor of biology in Virginia (and so much more), did not describe this incident to disparage the students, but as a tongue-in-cheek failure of his stand-up comedy approach to a class lesson. However, I read more into it.

He enhanced his lessons about "brine shrimp" by relating some tales of the experience and folly that old fogeys like me remember well. These creatures were sold as "Sea Monkeys" in exaggerated ads in the back of comic books and magazines in the 60s and 70s. Great fun. Maybe we didn't really believe the hype, but in ordering these or planning to get them, we visualized the little faces and personalities of the mail order pets as depicted in the ads. Anyhow, Fred's college kids didn't get it, or they got it and were bored.

I don't know about you, but I lived breathed and cheered for professors with attitudes and stories like this when I was in college. Above and beyond the bland facts and figures. Maybe it was because Allegheny College was quite a strong and advanced liberal arts school, but I remember a lot of great teachers like that, seemingly bursting with enthusiasm for their subjects, especially my first two years (way back then). I loved it. I was sometimes a lousy student, but I loved it.

I still have a vivid image of Dr. Paul Cares (gee, I will have to look up his name to be sure) that I had for a History of the Far East. He was a large man, deep and powerful voice, heartily explaining the chapters we had supposedly read for that class.

In this particular lecture, he was illustrating that habits and cultural differences between nationalities could not be easily set aside, and are easily misunderstood. He told the story of a wealthy man in the US who had an Asian chef in his household serving him loyally for years. He knew the man prepared meat on the floor, in that typical baseball catcher-like crouch position, that looks so uncomfortable to most of us. So he decided to get him a large butcher block table as a gift -- hopefully to make his job easier. Of course the chef thanked him profusely for the new table, but when he used it, he hopped up on the block, crouched down and worked as usual. When he told that story, Cares was animated, eyes sparking with humor, arms waving, cheeks and jowls in motion, totally immersed in the story. I still remember it after about 40 years. Not boring, that's for sure.

CADD drawings show their age.

The year 1947. The task: an architect drew by hand with artistic stroke and tedious detail the plans - multiple pages 36" x 48" for the dam and associated buildings, occupied and controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The Place: Buggs Island Lake - the huge reservoir on the N.C. - VA border that flooded untold acres and provided water for the region with watersports and vacation property a byproduct.

The year 1995: I was involved in training the army personnel to scan and convert those plans and others to images to be stored for archive on computer media. It sounds simple, but making the whole system work, from the hardware interface, with wide scanners, plotters, and PCs, plus the the software control and image format options made it quite a complicated process.

I squirreled away and somehow still have a couple of the images of a cross section of the main dam, with the power turbines, dam construction, and main headquarters building. There is much more to see on the complete drawings, with the great handwork, but here are a couple of clips that are interesting. They show some of the engineering but also a bit of social history common in 1947 Virginia. Check out the separate facilities on the third clip.

Title Block area for the Powerhouse section.

Cross section of the dam and turbines.

I was in this building in 1995, and I don't remember the rooms being marked this way.

Wayne Green

In the first few years of the Microcomputer revolution, 1980's, I had the honor and curiosity of being hired by Wayne Green of New Hampshire. I was in Virginia, and through an ad and a trip to N.H. I got a job selling software (Instant Software) and publications (80Micro, etc.) to the first computer stores in the mid Atlantic area. I got to meet and talk with Wayne Green, who was a bigger-than-life professorial man, who told us stories of how he had met with"the Steves" (Wozniak and Jobs) in their garage before they made it big, and how he had started Byte Magazine from scratch, only to have his wife and his lawyer run off together and through a maneuver stole the entire operation from him. He took it in stride and started up a whole new empire, including magazines and specialty software. He was a true innovator and entrepreneur , and thought BIG and smart (mensa). I was part of his first outbound sales force, that lasted a little more than a year. Exciting time, back when the computers available, mainly for pioneers and nerds, were Exidy Sorcerer, TRS80, Apple II, Timex Sinclair, Atari400, Comodore Pet, Altair, etc. Wayne Green was always a controversial figure, first nationally notable with his 73 Magazine, his Ham radio magazine in which his editorials were the most fun, informative and clever platform, forcing new ideas on a traditional bunch of CQ-ers. For instance he reasoned (argued) that the Morse code requirement for new licenses should be dumped, since nobody used it anymore, and new users were diminishing. The old timers were mad and resisted because, "If I had to learn it, the new guys will too."

Over the years, Wayne Green hung in there, sprouting new ventures and selling them later to other publishing outfits, writing and traveling, doing anything his heart desired, it seems. As his scientific and opinion editorials were sought out in the early years, and his intellect brought followers all along the way.

He developed a more controversial philosophy in his more recent years, some would put it in the conspiracy theory arena. There were mystical ideas,mixed with longevity hints, very far out predictions and explanations of things in the world with much more depth and information than the average person can handle. When I read a piece he wrote 5 years ago, I was shocked, because it seemed that he grasped and believed every wacky thing I had ever seen anywhere. He has predictably been a frequent guest of the Art Bell, George Noore (sp?) overnight conspiracy radio crowd, putting an unfortunate triviality to this man who has had an extraordinarily interesting and productive life.
I noticed on his website a listing of "Things I have done" that is worth a scan. Many people would find it a full life to have a few lines of this list in their memories.

• piloted a nuclear attack submarine 800 feet under the Pacific ocean.
• piloted an Air Force C5B (it's bigger than a 747).
• climbed the Great Wall of China
• visited the Chinese terra cotta army in Xian.
• operated a ham station from the famed American Embassy in Tehran.
• operated from the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
• operated for two weeks from King's Hussein's palace in Amman, Jordan.
• visited the lost city of Petra in Jordan.
• scuba dived in the Red Sea.
• visited 133 countries (so far).
• helped new technologies such as cellular telephones. personal computers, and compact discs to grow into major industries.
• represented the US at an international communications conference.
• represented New Hampshire for Governor Sununu at a governor's conference in Halifax.
• served on the New Hampshire Economic Development Commission.
• been a president of the Peterborough NH Chamber of Commerce.
• been on the board of directors of billion dollar IDG corporation.
• been a professional psychologist.
• had over 1,000 (long) editorials published - so far.
• started first digital communications magazine in 1951, (Amateur Radio Frontiers).
• started the first microcomputer magazine (Byte). )
• started the first computer magazine devoted to a single computer (80 Micro - for the TRS-80)
• started the first Apple magazine (InCider).
• started the first Commodore magazine (Run).
• started the first laptop computer magazine (Pico).
• started one of the first personal computer software companies (Instant Software).
• opened computer software stores - eventually sold a national chain of 58 stores.
• while in college started a broadcasting station (WRPI) which is now the largest student activity.
• served on the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Board of Overseers and RPI Council.
• served as the First Executive in Residence at RPI.
• served as a consultant for the RPI Business Incubator - which won the 1996 prize as the best in the country.
• been a licensed amateur radio operator as W2NSD since 1940.
• pioneered amateur radio repeaters since 1969, starting with WRLAAB on Mt. Monadnock NH.
• established amater radio in Jordan in 1970 and wrote their rules and regulations.
• supplied and installed the first repeater in Jordan, J-Y73, in 1973.
• helped radio amateurs pioneer FM, radio Teletype, single sideband, and slow scan TV.
• bounced amateur radio signals off the Moon from the big dish at the Arecibo Observatory, PR.
• been editing and publishing amateur radio magazines for 47 years.
• a state-of-the-art digital recording studio.
• four record labels and produced over 150 CDs.
• helped re-popularize ragtime music and personally knows all of the top ragtime performers.
• started 25 successful publications in the radio, computer and music fields.
• published over 100 books.
• wrote one of the first books on digital communications.
• been on an African hunting safari.
• visited the ruins of Ba'albek in Lebanon, the Queen of Sheba's water catchments in Aden.
• visited the Pyramids, the Sphynx. the ruins in Athens, the Taj Mahal and Katmandu.
• visited the head-hunter longhouses in Sarawak.
• helped organize and lead trade groups of around 250 people to yearly electronic shows in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
• given keynote addresses to radio, educational, computer, and music conferences.
• helped invent a new kind of loud speaker - borrowed $1,000 on my car to start a manufacturing company and within two and a half years it became the largest speaker manufacturer in the country with seven factories.
• performed in The Mikado and Pirates of Penzance in high school
• served as president of radio clubs in high school and college.
• served in Navy 1942-1946 in WWII - electronic technician on USS Drum SS-228 (which is on display at Mobile, Alabama) for five war patrols.
• been a radio engineer and announcer in North Carolina, Florida and Virginia.
• been chief cameraman at WPIX-TV (11) in NYC.
• produced and directed network TV shows in Dallas and Cleveland.
• a reputation as a gourmet cook.
• served as president of Porsche Club of America.
• raced my Porsche on the Nurburgring and Solitude race tracks in Germany.
• both driven and navigated in many national SCCA car rallies.
• served as a founder and first secretary of American Mensa.
• a Ph.D. in Entrepreneurial Science.
• lectured on entrepreneurialism at Yale, Boston University, Case Western, Babson College, RPL and many other colleges.
• been on the first commercial airline flight between Philadelphia and New York in 1927.
• flown with father since 1922.
• served on the FCC's National Industry Advisory Committee (NIAC).
• served on the FCC's Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC).
• testified before a Congressional hearing on the music industry.
• had the usual toys: airplane, Porsche, yacht, Jaguar, Mercedes 600 Pullman limosine.
• worked on a Guggenheim grant on a color organ for the Guggenheim Museum on 5th Avenue.
• graduated Bliss Electrical SchooL Tacoma Padc MD.
• attended Radio Materiel School on Treasure Island, San Francisco and graduated as ETM2/c.
• served for five war patrols on SS-228 USS Dnun, made ETMI/c.
• taught electronics at Submarine School, New London CT.
• organized and run successful mail order Elm Stamp Company at age 12.
• sung in St. Pauls Church choir as boy soprano.
• sung in Philharmonic Choir of Brooklyn.
• sung in Erasmus High School Choral Club.
• pioneered the 6-meter ham band as the first New York City station on that band.
• run a 6-meter beacon station for several years in cooperation with the Radio Amateur Scientific Observations (RASO) program.
• for years had a VHF/UHF station on Mt. Monadnock NH; regularly heard for over 600 miles.
• been Excutive Secretary of the Music Research Foundation, Madison Avenue, N.Y.
• worked for GE as a test engineer on Army radio equipment.
• been an engineer at Airborne Instrument Laboratories in Mineola NY developing radar equip.
• tried marijuana in 1948 to see what it was like.
• tried LSD in 1960 to see what that was like.
• drunk with shipmates on liberty while in the Navy. Have seldom drunk since.
• tried smoking as a teenager, thought it was stupid. Ignored peer pressure.
• know the real dope on Amelia Earhart's last trip.
• been convinced that NASA had to have faked all of the moon landings.
• driven from Brooklyn NY to Peterborough NH (250 miles), averaging 100 mph one night - including a gas stop.
• interesting friends such as Barry Goldwater, King Hussein, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Rod McKuen.
• been convinced that with proper nutrition and avoiding poisons we ran dependably live to over 100.
• ridden Starlit Night, the Ringling Brothers top show horse.
• a professorship of horsemanship and taught riding instructors.
• a Hubbard Dianetic Auditor certificate and has processed over 100 patients, with some remarkable successes.
• swum the three mile length of Coney Island many times.
• investigated crop circles and a UFO hovering over a house in nearby Francistown NH.
• Other than all that I've been taking it easy and having a great time.

Isn't that amazing? rgb

Sporting spirit?

I am not a regular sports fan, but I probably am like a huge block of people in the country, the fall baseball fans, taking interest in the playoffs and the series only, even though they have a casual favorite or interest in the regular season. I cherry pick from the sports smorgasbord, (to mix my metaphors). Basketball is even less on my radar screen, mainly because it has become such a physical game, relying on slam dunks and push push push hubris based contest of monster players. I sincerely hope and believe it is not a racial thing going on with me, but the dominance of the game by these huge muscular monster players does not make it more attractive to watch. It just is not interesting to me. For instance since I moved to Connecticut, I have loved watching and following women's college bball, with a national champ team up here. The girls are athletic but otherwise regular people, you feel that you might meet on the street. Great fun and rivalries, and skill levels more like I remember from high school. I know it's not fair to compare them to NBA players, but it is a big difference. It's a totally different sport.


This current NBA brawl controversy shines a spotlight on the issue that I think really is at the heart of this. These athletes have been plucked in many cases (not all) from a very crude and low point of culture which values fighting for your imagined honor, defending your manhood no matter what. Charles Barkley was interviewed about this. He has proven he will say his mind without fear of holding back. But probably reflects what others would say and think, but hesitate to say. He said that a player who has been hit or thrown at, or whatever by a fan has a right to "beat the hell out of them" no matter what "to defend his manhood.". He has NO concept of a gentlemanly, lofty alternative position of civilized men who rise above things by turning away from something like this, in everyday life let alone in a player/fan situation. (How a drunk fan throwing a drink, or a punch, or a cuss threatens someone's manhood, It's not clear).


This ghetto/macho "I'm gonna be badder than you, mf" mentality is embedded in these offending players probably because of their upbringing and background. Just because they are plucked out and paid three million a year to be stars doesn't change their mindsets overnight. Who knows, maybe it is this macho drive that makes their success in such a physically driven sport possible. In any case, it should not be tolerated, and our society should make a statement that it will not be tolerated.

It looks like NBA has done this with suspensions, very responsible actions, but the silly defenders of the players are coming out of the woodwork. They range from players, to announcers to pundits. Oh, they say first that the players were wrong and all that, then they launch into a defense, saying the fans started it, and they should be accountable too, and you can't blame these guys (even thought they made a mistake) for being worked up, etc. Baloney! Yes, if a fan crossed the line they should be ejected, fined, arrested or whatever if appropriate. But not by the players! What nonsense. And it's not just that the fans are paying millions to see these players, just because it is the civilized thing to do. The fans must be dealt with by security or whatever, geesh! Even if it can't be quickly done. The players should turn the other cheek, run from it, rise above it, take it like a man, not defend it like a pseudo macho man. Period.

Community Band

Here are a couple of shots of our Farmington Valley Band. It is sometimes a little bigger group than this, but is always quite the archetype spirited band. Sam, the director has saved hundreds of old arrangements from the old bands, some sounding like the old two step band 78's I have heard. I only wish I were a stronger player. There are many in the group with extraordinary ability. I love the band for this and other reasons, since I always have to stretch and play at the top end of my ability to keep up. I am not expert at all, but I am proud and glad that I can play most of the stuff along with, and say %90 of, for instance, a guy who was in a military band for 20 years, playing daily, now in several bands, some for pay, and plays daily.

The stories of the players in groups I have been in are interesting, and would be a subject for a book. (note to self) A couple of examples:

Chester plays the Euphonium. He is in his 80's and is quite deaf, and can see better now since his cataract fix last year. But what a fantastic sound on the horn! Three years ago I witnessed him get spontaneous applause after a soaring solo in a rehearsal of a 50 piece band - from the musicians! His tone and singing-like sound is truly a mystical thing. Unfortunately in that short period from then to now, he has slipped a bit, but still better than most. He was a butcher years ago, then continued his musical activities and played in most every band and some orchestras in the area for fourty years, actually making a living from music at some point. Now he is in the Farmington Valley Band.

Mark plays the clarinet. Mark can also play whatever instrument you would hand him - and very well, not just a tune or two. He also has a resonating wonderfully deep operatic quality speaking or singing voice that can get the attention of a hall without a microphone. I know he was a music major, studied voice and instruments, and I don't know why he didn't go professional. I plan to talk to him some time. I do know that it is perhaps harder for anyone to make a living in music today than ever before, especially classical. Mark can play a flurry from a classic, then switch and play a screaming jazzy solo from Woody Herman with class. Now he is in the Farmington Valley Band.

However, the band is a community band. It has had teens in the band, retirees, mediocre players, hobbyists as well as the superstars because it is designed to be for and of the public. As long as you can keep up, it seems to be ok. But this band has a reputation of an attitude and style of above average stuff. I'm lucky to be able to keep up so far.


Our concert at the Thomaston Opera House. What a great performance! We seem to rise to the occasion and play at our best on stage.


Dave and John, in front, are playing 1st (man are they good), I play 2nd, Ken and Alex are on 3rd trombone. Here I'm playing my same silver King Trombone that Dad bought for me in Jr. High!

anticryptography

Anticryptography is a new word for me, but it refers to those many times stupid iconographic signs that are supposed to tell us something where at first blush, a word or two would do. The idea of anticryptography is to assume no prior knowledge in communication, which means independent of ability to have language skill. (and some say a lack of common sense)
On the other hand, I guess I can see that Jane Doe would be more likely to understand (then ignore) this than a lengthy notice on the back of a Wall-Mart cart:



One of the first of these that I made fun of was when the on-off switches on computers started using | O for on and off - I guess digital for 1 and zero, but to me that takes more interpretation. Imagine, say a third world peasant would not know what "on-off" meant on his wireless computer (right), but he immediately might recognize the anticryptographic sign | O .


To take this one step further, the first Pioneer spacecraft that left the solar system had a plaque attached to an antenna as a message to . . . . well it had a message to be read by who or what-ever.
If you want to see what the imagery is supposed to mean to the aliens, check here..


This happened quite a few years ago, and today there would not be unreasonable criticism of things, or course ¦;¬), but at the time, some feminists complained that only the hand of the man was raised and not that of the woman. In response to this criticism, a similar image included on the Voyager Golden Record showed the woman with her hand raised.

O IM A GOOD OLD REBEL

The Civil War was not back that far. I am reminded that the Beebe house I live in was built in the 1830's. This Connecticut mill town here was going strong thirty years after that,during the Civil War, putting out woolen fabric for the Yankees, no doubt.

Elsewhere, just after the war, there were some gloomy ex-rebels who clung to the old southern cause that they fought so hard for. I scanned a reprint that I got from a Virginia friend, it is a true folk song that was sung by a weary rebel just after the war, not too happy about the USA.

Two tall tales of deception

Two different times I have discovered that small fibs can catch up to you years later.
Pictures set the stage:


The first tale happened years ago, when I was parts manager at Richmond Power Eqpt. and I had just come back from a business driving trip to the western part of Virginia. I was in my office showing some pictures of that to some people and a wise guy Tom W. came in uninvited and was sort of horning in on the conversation. He was always one of those guys who you respected, because he was a perfectionist and knew it, but was always imposing on others. Some had other three and four letter names for him. Always wanted to zing him some way.

Anyhow, I don't have the actual picture, but it looked very much like the barn pic above, taken in the same era and area, but it was of an old log house with a wisp of smoke from the chimney, a path and chickens and all that. I had seen this from the car and snapped, loving the country charm. I told Tom, much to the chuckles of everybody else, that this was where I lived, out in the country not far from Richmond, and that old lady in the shawl just visible in front, was my aged Mother, who lived with us. Tom left the room, but I thought he got the joke.

Fast forward about four years . . . one day for some reason or other, somebody mentioned in Tom's presence that all the houses in my subdivision looked similar, and Tom said he thought I lived in a log cabin. I laughed, then realized he had bought that fib and believed it all that time. I had zinged him without even knowing I had. Maybe you had to have been there.


Jenner Sky

Second joke-fib: This one is on Martha, which I told her probably back at Allegheny, I know it was before we were married, anyway. I looked up at the sky one afternoon and saw a pattern of ribbed clouds that some call a mackerel sky, sort of like the clip above, and since I have always tried the puns at any excuse, I told her that my family used to call it a "Jenner Sky". I was quite sure that she got the joke that it sounds like "generous guy" because I repeated it and laughed with her. I thought.

Well, years and years later, probably 20, we were out somewhere and she asked me if that looked like a Jenner Sky up there. I laughed, and after we both figured out that she had been fooled so many years, we laughed for about two days straight. Maybe you had to have been there.

Open minded science

You would think and hope that the scientific community really should be the most open minded about theories and changes in mega-trends and ideas due to the study of facts and opposing research. That may be true on the every day scientific method of research, but historically, scientists, notably in the medical arena, have fought stubbornly and non-scientifically against movements that go against their own ideas or methods. Objectivity seems to fade especially in major trends which they have invested time and personal effort, or is the established theory of the community.

I read about a Dr. Benjamin Rush in an old American Heritage magazine. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and was a prominent doctor and professor before 1800. He was the advocate of blood-letting, a mainstream idea, and internal cleansing for almost all illnesses. He stubbornly practiced these things, and scorned other classifications. He represented the mainstream for years, and then as more modern remedies replaced these methods, and evidence mounted, these new ideas were resisted, not studied and embraced as you would expect.

Well, resistant mentality is present in today's "global warming" scientific arena as well. Somehow the conclusions preceded the science, and honest studies of the data and computer models are impossible to decipher when the scientists involved will not acknowledge that there can be opposing ideas or flaws in the underlying assumptions. Like the blood-letters, they have so much personal intellectual capital invested in the conclusions and theories that they do not welcome new studies. They seem to circle the wagons and reject other possibilities out of hand.

There are fundamental reasons to be skeptical about the link between human activity and the potential catastrophic climate changes. I am a reader of CO2andClimate.org . They are NOT nay-sayers for global warming. They do present more sides of the scientific debate . They at least act as a calming factor to the "Chicken Littles" of the world who seem to be daily telling us the the global warming is about to kill us, and it is all our fault for using spray deodorant in the 80s.

Don't misinterpret my intent here. I know that man is polluting too much, needs to clean up his act, and there should be constant efforts to improve. It just must be acknowleged that there is not a way to prove these things as cause and effect globally without very controversial subjective interpretation of data that in some cases is not known, and can't be known.

For example, in this article, Ironies, they remind us that computer models and historical assumptions, not direct measurements from our past data.

"The 20th century indeed was warm. We know this to be so because temperatures could be measured using instruments designed for that purpose. What they indicate is that global temperature increased by about three-quarters of a degree Celsius. The question becomes: Was that rate of warming unusual in a longer-term context? We'll probably never be certain because there were no comparable instruments taking measurements in earlier centuries. Barring an unlikely discovery the Catholic Church operated a secret, well-calibrated global thermometric measurement network during the Crusades, for example, any comparison of contemporary measurements with those of the past will be, by definition, fraught with error."

Froggy the Gremlin

Twang your magic twanger froggy! . . . .

Hy ya Kids! Hy ya, hy ya, hy ya!



Somehow I ran intoMichelle's world, a wonderful nostalgic site for us folks who are, "older than dirt" as my son kindly said once.

I am amazed from the feedback comments, (or maybe not amazed) at the number of people who remember this strange piece of TV history, on Andy's Gang, and The Buster Brown show with Smiling Ed before that. I won't even go into the trivia that sprang from this culture, like Rama of the Jungle, and Midnite the Cat ("nice"), and the like, because you can browse the site for that, but it surely is among the fondest fifties memories for sure.

Probably my first introduction to the finest musical instument: The Jew's Harp.

"Smart Road" in Virginny

Something I learned about in VA after I left is an advanced outdoor "smart road" laboratory near Blacksburg. It is eventually going to go the whole 6 miles from Blacksburg to I-81, making a nifty bypass for travelers, and the professors and students of Va Tech as a side benefit. But it now extends just 2 miles, mainly the beautiful concrete and local "hokey stone" bridge in the picture below, looming like the jolly green giant over Wilson Creek. It has test road beds of different surface materials. The bridge's deck sits atop what is, in effect, a long, hollow box strung with power and communication lines. Access points through the deck allow researchers to place and read test equipment, collect data and observe traffic moving at highway speeds. From a control room they can blast snow or rain at will, vary the height and intensity of lighting, and will study all kinds of advances and inventions in roadway engineering.


It was proposed way back in the 80's, planned in the 90's, broke ground in 1997, phase 2 completed in 2002, Designed and implemented by Commonwealth of Va DOT and Virginia Tech, with federal grants, of course.

When going south on Rt I-81, say, from Roanoke down the "Valley" toward North Carolina, the terrain really changes for the better - rock faces and dramatic hills along the road - as it approaches the Christiansburg area, where you have to get off to wind your way over secondary roads to Blacksburg, so I am sure a bypass will be appreciated even if you have to be studied by pencil-necked grad students, transportation engineers, and cameras along the way.

Mozilla one more time

I am trying Mozilla FireFox So far, It's a possible winner (Update: It isn't winning. See comments.)
I have always been reluctant to relinquish the default browser to Mr. Gates, but it was increasingly a hassle to deal with the variations, especially after Netscape joined the AOL Time Warner gang, it made no sense to stand up to Microsoft to be loyal to AOL(?) That was not logical, Mr. Spock.

My very first graphical browser was Mosaic, that fit on one floppy. (eventually became IE) You had to manually build a text file associating viewers and utilities and bind it to the browser for it to work. I became a Netscape user along the way, trying anything that moved and was free, for dialup too. I have tried each variation of Mozilla, really like Opera, and some splinter things on the side, but eventually, like 97% of the market, avoided problems by using Internet Explorer.

But the problems were just hiding. Microsoft tries to seem in control by forcing sometimes daily "security upgrades" on us if you let them auto update. The mess was full of "back door leaks and vulnerabilities" And despite having the best antivirus protection and spywatch, ad-aware, pop-up blockers, a knowledge of how to set up a firewall and private IP, all that crap, I was still being bombarded with junk from the web. Just dealing with the software to block it makes me mad. I felt violated like the time some kid ripped down our Christmas lilies, and we couldn't find out who did it.

I know it is not really all Microsoft's fault. They are the target because of their ubiquitous operating system-browser combo. If another browser was out there and vulnerable, the hackers and the unscrupulous ad forces would fine tune it for them. To some extent MS has brought it on themselves because of their tight reliance on the OS, and disregard for the user. For instance, they still have mean spirited error message copy popping up blaming the user for errors that more likely are system or software glitches. A monopoly, however valid, does not have to please the customer, as they would if they had some competition.

Well, the last straw was my laptop, which has win 2000, was taken over by a nasty that they call a home page hijack. Every time you start IE it runs a script that changes some hidden files and makes scores of new entries in the registry changing the home page to a full page of ads and links to e-commerce sites. Of course there is no return address or company claiming responsibility for this, who you can contact to complain, it is all carefully anonymous. I immediately wonder how this could be profitable for them Who would go to these links and buy anything from someone who has rudely and probably illegally hijacked their system?

I was able to reverse engineer this thing and block it, however, each time IE starts, it still tries to take over, even though it fails. Why go through that hassle? Pop in Opera, no problemo Pedro!

Even though I liked Opera as a solution, many sites still appeared wrong in formatting, especially ones with Dynamic HTML, it even screwed up my own page, and not in a subtle way.

So far, Mozilla Firebox has been great. On install, it sucked in all the bookmarks, and even set up most of the plug-ins automatically. I'm sure I will find weaknesses, but so far,every difference I see is a benefit, it is the alternative that doesn't have the holes in it that MS does, and it seems to be fine otherwise.

Rural Virginia revisited

I got to thinking of offbeat places I discovered when I lived Virginia that probably would not appear in the travel guide. I kept thinking of "Swannanoa". There is a Swannanoa in North Carolina as well, quite a popular name around the Ashville area, and there probably was a connection to this lesser known spot through its original owner, but that is another story.

Swannanoa estate is just past the crest of Afton Mountain, the peak in the Blue Ridge/Skyline Drive (South/North) that the old route 250 and the interstate cross near Charlottesville / Waynesboro. (This is near the valley made famous by the "Waltons") You would hardly know it is there if someone didn't show you off the main drag. As my mind's eye remembers it, it is a sort of Romanesque, villa-esque type of place, solid stone all over the place, fairly formal looking, with a circular courtyard in back surrounded by capped columns. It was a little run down then, maybe overgrown. It was told to me that it was a mansion at one time, and was going to be made into a convention hall when redone or something, but that some relatives or owners did spend time there. I got this friendly but spooky feeling while there almost wanting to call the Ghostbusters.

I found the following on a website after some intense googling:

Swannanoa
Swannanoa "palace" was built about 1912 on top of Afton Mountain. The 52-room building was commissioned by James Dooley of "Maymont" in Richmond. The contractor was M.R. Ellis of Waynesboro. Virgil Moyer, Sr. of Waynesboro was the plumbing contractor. Swannanoa was built of Italian and Georgian marble in the Italian Renaissance style. After the Dooleys died in the 1920s, the estate was sold. Attempts were made to turn it into a country club. A golf course that still exists was built. President Coolidge and his wife visited Swannanoa during a Thanksgiving holiday. In 1949 Walter (1871-1963) and Lao Russell (1904-1988) leased the palace for the Walter Russell Foundation which in 1957 became the University of Science and Philosophy now located in Blacksburg. In 1998 Swannanoa was taken over by the Dulaneys who anticipate turning it into a facility for meetings and special events. Former visitors to Swannanoa also included Norman Vincent Peale and Gloria Swanson.

Rural Virginia

"Fragments from Floyd", is a site that I have visited from time to time,. This man Fred is a real naturalist, quite a writer, and his photographs are just wonderful. I won't use his pictures here since they are copyrighted, but I'm sure you will agree they are stunning. His ongoing intelligent and informed tales of events and activities in that part of the world are worth a browse.

It does bring back memories of some times I drove through that rural, no, let me say RURAL county in western Virginia The Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian trail go right down the side, and the miles and miles of forest and the magnificent valleys and streams are surely American treasures. Green, green, green, green.

In the '70s I drove my Honda 600 Coupe for Richmond Power to see dealers in that region. On one trip, I had driven to Floyd from Roanoke, and decided to go back to Richmond the hard way, across Floyd county, and up over the mountain, downshifting like the little car that could.

I moseyed through all these little dinky towns that looked like they were from some old album. I stopped for gas at an ancient station beside an unspoiled general store that was a gem, clomplete with old guys in the front playing checkers or something, most likely hiding white lightning in a jar under the counter.

I say that because on a similar trip during the prior winter, I had been offered a drink in Galax, Virginia, not in Floyd county, same hilly and forested rural area, but a little farther south-west (Galax is the site of an original Old Fiddler's Convention). This was in an auto and tractor repair place that I was setting up with Toro repair parts. I can still see this filthy black shop, some men in the back fixing something or other, but in the front was a little area with local characters sitting around a pot bellied stove, my client and friend Gene among them telling stale jokes, eating pretzels, and passing - I know you'll think I'm making this up - a mason jar with white lightning. Of course they expected me to tke a slug to be accepted, and it truly was terrible.

Put your lips together and just blow.

I never could whistle. I mean I always thought I was pretty much on tune, but there was a disconnect there, that sometimes I knew I was off, but couldn't correct it like I can on my trombone. If the note sounds a little flat, I just adjust the slide up a little. With my whistle, I don't seem to have that ability, even when I hear it. Even at that, I may be better than a whole lot of people, but still, not any quality to speak of.

Isn't it funny how specialized a skill it is, beyond just making the sounds. There is a windy or airy flaw that creeps into the amateur's pure sounds, and --- well I guess it's another one of those things that you know good whistling when you hear it. If I ever were suddenly, through a lightning bolt, be able to whistle, I would like it to sound like Elmo Tanner, who whistled the famous "Heartaches" with the Ted Weems orchestra. Here is a audio clip from 1938, and the lyrics below if you want to whistle or sing along.

Words & Music by John Klenner & Al Hoffman
Popularized by Ted Weems Orchestra,

G6________G_____F#7
Heart - aches, heart - aches,

G __________________F7____E7
My loving you meant only heart - aches.

Am_______D7________G/B___Em
Your kiss was such a sacred thing to me;

A7______________Cm______D7
I can't believe it's just a burn - ing mem - o - ry.


G6________F#7
Heart - aches, heart - aches --

G_____________G7__F#7__F7__E7
What does it matter how my heart breaks?

Am______Cm______G__G/F#__A7
I should be happy with some - one new,

__Am7___D7_Am7_D7_G
But my heart aches for you.

L'Attitude

My sister Leah has been a singer and a musical force as long as I can remember, and I knew her when I was only 10 ¦;¬) . It is no surprise that she is again associated with an exceptional singing group, L'Attitude My idea that key lines from songs can trigger a song in your mind is expanded further, just reading some titles in their repertoire:
If You Love Me
I've Got the World on a String
It's a Sin to Tell a Lie
St. Louis Blues
Something's Coming
As Long As I'm Singin'
I Wish I Had My Old Pal
When I'm Gone Medley
Sweet Adeline
I can't read most of those without humming along.

Computeracy: Computer illiteracy?

It still amazes me the fundamental ignorance of computers by some average people, even those who are using them daily, and are otherwise adept. This is not to knock ignorance, since I know I certainly am ignorant in so many fields. And it's not because I have knowledge of computers. It's just the way that it surfaces and the very basic confusion that puzzles me. Computers have been ubiquitous for some time now, and even though someone isn't comfortable with a computer, cultural literacy should at least bring the definition of basic concepts to peoples' attention. Why aren't the basics sticking?

The incident that got me thinking about this was a friend (intelligent, businessman, musician, educated, smart) wanted to hire me to help him with his computer, which he says is very slow in everything, and it used to be fast. A couple of questions led me to think it was a memory problem, and I ask him how much RAM he had. He said, "I don't know how much I have, but I know it is O.K. because when I show the little pie chart, I am only using a little sliver of the memory," Well, I knew right away of course he was looking at disk drive storage, not RAM, and I realized I was up against computeracy again.

This type of misunderstanding is not just not knowing what a certain component or term means, it goes to the fundamental way a computer works. If you don't know where your documents are stored, and that ram holds the volatile things, you might as well be using a typewriter.

I mean, when early in the 1900's, as the auto started to replace the horse and carriage, did people still call the steering wheel "the reins" and the accelerator the "buggy whip" for 20 years? And when they ran out of gas, did new users think the problem might be in the tires?

Of course things are getting better, People have their kids who can bring them up to speed, and maybe the knowledge base is better than I encounter. It was way back in 1990 that I first thought the tide had turned, when I was in a 7-11 and heard two truck drivers discussing their custom computers. After all, some have long thought that maybe computers should be made toaster-like, so people could just turn them on and use them without having to BE or know a geek. We certainly are not at that point yet.

APOD: 2004 July 17 - Transit of Venus Stereogram

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Every day a new image from NASA, and they are so varied, every time I go to look there is something totally unexpected. I appreciate this stereo pair of our old friend the transit of Venus. It appears in black and white, but somehow the 3d takes you there.

Credit: G. Schneider (Steward Obs.), J. Pasachoff (Williams College), TRACE Project, NASA


You gotta cross your eyes to see the effect above, since they arranged the images in right-left order. Actually this is usually easier, but below I have reversed them to see if it works better left-right.

Does this work?

I saw this ad for a light control in one of those mail-order catalogs. 
Now I am not a rocket scientist, but how does this thing work?
 

Let's see. . .
1. It is dark out and the bulb comes on.
2. Since the sensor is inches from the bulb, it will now think it is light, so the lamp will go off.  
3. Then since it is dark, the light will logically come on. . . .??? 
4. Since it is light, the lamp will turn off. . . .???

A '60s flashback to a Ray Stephens classic (non-PC).

Let me tell you 'bout Ahab the Arab
The sheik of the burning sand
He had em'ralds and rubies just a-dripping off of him
And a ring on every finger of his hand
He wore a big old turban wrapped around his head
And a scimitar by his side
And every evening about midnight
He'd jump on his camel named Clyde.

And ride through the night to the Sultan's tent where he would secretly meet up with Fatima of the seven veils, the swingingest number one dancer in the sultan's whole harem, 'cause like, him and her had a thing going. You know, they'd been carrying on for some time now behind the Sultan's back and you could hear him talk to his camel. As he rode out across the dunes, his voice would cut through the still night desert air and he'd say, (@#$^&$&%%&%&$##%%^^) which is Arabic for, "Woa babies". And Clyde would say, ("&^%&^%&^%&^%&^$). Well, he brought his camel to a screeching halt at the rear of Fatima's tent, jumped off Clyde, snook around the corner and into the tent he went. There he saw Fatima lying on a zebra skin rug, wearing rings on her fingers and bells on her toes and a bone in her nose, ho, ho.

There she was, friends and neighbors, lying there in all her radiant beauty, eating on a raisin and a grape and an apricot and a pomegranate and a bowl of chitterlings, two bananas, three hershey bars, and sipping an R-ER-C coke cola, listening to her transistor, watching the Grand Ole Opry and reading Mad Magazine while she sang, "Does your chewing gum lose its flavor?" And Ahab walked up to her and he said, (%*^*&*&^*&%**$##%*&*) which is Arabic for , "Let's twist again like we did last summer, babies." An she said "he he, Crazy baby." 'Round and around and around and around etc. And that's the story of Ahab, the Arab, the sheik of the burning sand.

Shriners Band Bus - Parade

I have enjoyed playing with the Hartford Shriners Band this year. They
are a basic, old-fashioned fun band, and the people are super friendly. We mostly
are too old to want to march, so we have this wonderful Band Bus for parades.

In the old days, only Shriners and Masons were allowed to play in Shriners
bands:


I am just an associate member. I guess as a subtle recruiting tool, and because
band memberships have declined over the years, (maybe losing out to driving
those crazy little cars) they have allowed outsiders to play in the band. I
know little about Masons or Shriners, but one thing that I really respect about
them is that they fanatically avoid direct recruitment of new members, they
want new people to see their good works and deeds, and ask to join on their
own will. I have the impression they want me to join, but unfortunately I don't
think that would ever work out. I can't rule it out, but I have been a non-joiner
and a loner too long to change, I fear.

I generally have a negative attitude to societies, fraternities, and exclusivity
that has been borne out my whole life. Starting with the "Order of the Arrow",
a quasi Boy Scouts fraternity with secret passwords and pseudo indian rituals,
that insulted me as a young scout by "tapping" me in two years after "Howie"
and others in our troup, only because of popularity, even though I was more
qualified, and more involved in scouting.

In college, I think 1964 was the height of the "Must be in a Fraternity to be worthy in the world" stupidity, and I saw good people unfairly treated as if they were scum because they, by the judgment of the already anointed "brothers",they were not good enough to be invited inside the group. My room mate was a very clever, unique, talented fellow, maybe too individualistic for the greeks. He was absolutely crushed by cruel rejection after three rounds of acceptance notes and interviews by a fraternity he thought was great. Luckily,even though rejected by the system myself, I had developed an independence that realized the folly of it all, and rejected one group that I could have joined, and didn't take it so personally. I recognized it for what it was. It was for insecure people to form an artificial way to feel wanted, at the expense of others. I'm not saying that is evil, some people need this; just not my way of doing things.

Well, the Masons and the shriners over the years claim not to be really a secret society, since memberships are public, activities are well publicized, and their outstanding charity, public help and philanthropy are so much a part of their public side as to make them a public group. However, the hazing and memorizing of all those 32 levels of pseudo-Islamic rituals, secret signs and all that put them into the secret society category, it seems to me. I have heard that these rituals are at least partially optional these days, because they were not finding young and new members who wanted to go through all that, but I really don't know. I have been reluctant to even ask about the details, because being an associate member seems the right place to be at the moment.

Astronomy Picture of the Day site

The images on this NASA site are spectacular, usually of newly produced images of asteroids with moons or sights from the "Space Ship One", or deep space shots. This one is retro-space, from 1972, when I was driving my Honda 600 Coupe on earth (see post below). The image and description follow:


Apollo 17's Lunar Rover
Credit: Apollo 17, NASA (Image scanned by Kipp Teague)
Explanation: In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours exploring the Moon's Taurus-Littrow valley while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead. Cernan and Schmitt were the last humans to walk or ride on the Moon - aided in their explorations by a Lunar Roving Vehicle. The skeletal-looking lunar rover was just over 10 feet long, 6 feet wide and easily carried astronauts, equipment, and rock samples in the Moon's low gravity (about 1/6 Earth's). In this picture, Cernan stands at the back of the rover which carried the two astronauts in lawn-chair style seats. An umbrella-shaped high gain antenna and TV camera are mounted in the front. Powered by four 1/4 horsepower electric motors, one for each wheel, this rover was driven a total of about 18 miles across the lunar surface. Its estimated top speed was a blazing 8 miles per hour.

Transit of Venus March, by John Philip Sousa

On Tuesday, June 8, 2004, the first "transit of Venus" since December 6, 1882 will take place. In just over six hours, between 1:13 A.M. EDT and 7:35 A.M. EDT, the disk of Venus will pass in front of the Sun perceived, by those who can see it, as little more than a black dot silhouetted against the Sun's bright glow.

The last time this happened, John Philp Sousa composed a March about the event. Here is the cover as originally published by J. W. Pepper, Philadelphia, 1896.



Quoting directly from a Library of Congress page, here are additional interesting facts:

John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) was very interested in the 1882 transit of Venus, as were millions of people of his day. However, he didn't write the "Transit of Venus March" to commemorate the transit itself, but to honor the great American physicist Prof. Joseph Henry, who had died on May 13, 1878. Henry, a rather obscure figure today, was quite famous in his own time. He had assisted Samuel Morse in the development of the telegraph, discovered several important principles of electricity, made significant progress in the development of electromagnets, and created the first electric motor. As a result of his scientific achievements, Henry was named as the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. In 1883, five years after Henry's death, and the year following the transit of Venus, the Smithsonian Institution asked Sousa to compose a processional for the occasion of the unveiling of a bronze statue of Henry in front of the Smithsonian.

Optical Illusion

This blog is usually pretty graphic and visually oriented, but I don't know if this will work for you or not, but I will try. I was in this new hallway in Rockville Hosp., where Martha's Mother had some therapy. Here is a pic of the hallway, and at the time of the optical illusion, I was down at the other end looking this way.


Well, the hospital wing is under construction, and I looked out the window to my right and saw what I thought was a plastic-wrapped pallet of chairs out there, waiting to be used.

But I realized it was a plastic pallet, precicely superimposed by the image of chairs inside to my left behind me in the hall. Maybe you had to be there.

Pink Dino Sighting

This is pretty funny. Sort of a "Diente de Tigre" type situation.

Inside an active volcanic crater on a remote island in New Zealand, Geologists put a remote camera to monitor the crater status. They posted this and several other webcams on this link. According to their site, "the New Zealand GeoNet Project provides real-time monitoring and data collection for rapid response and research into earthquake, volcano, landslide and tsunami hazards".

Out of the blue a pink dino appeared in one of the cameras. Some brave and sassy explorer stuck it there, apparently. They plan to leave it there to be destroyed by the hostile environment.

Honda 600 Coupe 1972

I was not going to dwell in my past in this log, but I came across these old pictures of my Honda 600 Coupe and I couldn't resist revisiting it, since people still don't understand how great the car was. Before the civic, Honda, still a motorcylce company only, imported two 600 models this size. One was a squared off sedan, and this coupe, in green or bright orange.

I paid $1795 plus tax! It had 4 wheel disk anti-lock brakes, (comment corrected me to say it had front disks and rear drums) Michelin tires, 50mpg, hatchback, 600cc, front wheel drive, 5 speed, bucket seats, and pretty spirited. The second picture shows it beside the gargantuan Dodge Polara we had at the time. I drove it all over the state of Virginia, had very few repairs for about three years.


It was designed as a "throw-away car", according to early automotive lore. The idea was that Honda thought America was ready for a car cheap enough to drive a few years, junk it, then get a new one.
But the government spoiled that by requiring safer bumpers, lights, etc. and after adding these improvements, they had to design it bigger, forcing them to abandon these in favor of the Civic models.

Martha and Honda overlooking the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Note the spiffy flag. We drove it through the first Lion country safari at Busch Gardens before they put in the monorail and a giraffe took a bite out of that flag. I kid you not.





Did I mention that is was a SMALL car? The maneuverability saved me one time when I veered out of line to avoid a 4 car queeze-play on a on-ramp to the interstate. I know larger vehicles have a safety advantage in a wreck, but I felt quite safe in this, I remember.