penn

Edmund Fitzgerald Day

In the middle of geology lecture, our professor stopped and said, "okay, everyone, why is today special? Why is it important?" We all scrambled for ideas. Veteran's Day isn't until tomorrow, and there's no other holiday around this time. It must be something somewhat geologically related, because why mention it in class otherwise? Finally, someone pulled out an iphone and found out: today is Edmund Fitzgerald Day. Thirty-five years ago today, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior during a November squall.

As I'm a big fan of Gordon Lightfoot, and as Lake Superior is one of my favorite places, I can't believe I didn't put it all together. I just listened to the song a few days ago! Wait, you haven't heard the song? Oh, you must!

There we go! Good, isn't it? I'm a fan. Great Lakes Brewing Company also makes an Edmund Fitzgerald Porter that I hear is delicious (apparently lots of people think so.

They're still not sure what sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald. Lots of ideas but no solid answer. There's still a small exhibit on the Edmund Fitzgerald in the maritime museum in Duluth (a great city, to be sure). Nice to have a few mysteries even in this day and age of major discovery, isn't it?

Guest post!

Go visit my friend Janet at Slice of Pink to read my guest post on finding stars in nature. Excuse the pun, but I am tickled pink to see my writing on someone else's blog. Janet, thanks for the awesome opportunity to share with your readers!

Earthquake

Great XKCD comic today! And it reminds me of another good story.

Years ago, I lived in Seattle. We actually went through several earthquakes while I was there. During one of them, only Josh (my younger brother) and I were home. We were watching TV; a Mariners game was on, and we caught pretty much every game in those days. Suddenly, Dave Niehaus and the other commentators started talking about shaking, and you could see people being surprised and the big concrete donut in the roof shaking at the Kingdome.

"Earthquake? What earthquake?" We looked at each other and realized it must be moving our way. We ran for the doorframes and hit them just in time to feel the waves roll right underneath us. It was a nice, gentle, long earthquake.

Before that, I'd never thought of the time it takes an earthquake to move through the earth. But move it did, and I will never forgot that lesson.

Fun with math

Today, I was working with a volunteer to collect sap on one of our motorized vehicles at work (yes, it's maple syrup time here in Minnesota!). We were chatting as we drove back to the building, and the topic of golf came up.

The volunteer was talking about the old golf course at the Minneapolis Airport. It's not there anymore; it was a victim of airport expansion. For some reason, he mentioned the par, and I asked what that term even meant. The course is par 3 for 18 holes, and he said "hmm, 3x18, that'd be 9x6 so 54 strokes for the entire course."

Uh, say what?

For some reason, I've never thought of simplifying math problems by factoring. But it's quite basic and a really nifty trick. See, 18 is really just 3x3x2. If you want to multiply 18 by 3, you're just doing 3x3x3x2. You can split that out as 3x3 by 3x2, or 9x6.

Fun times in math land!

Fingerprinted

Today, I went to my local law-enforcement establishment to get fingerprints. The state of Minnesota is very particular about who substitute teaches in their classrooms, so I'm in the process of getting a substitute teaching license. Fingerprints are just one part of that process.

Going in, I was worried about having inky fingers for the rest of the day. Turns out that ink is no longer part of the process! Instead, I spent about 10 minutes rolling my fingers around on special optical scanners. First, they did a whole-hand print of each of my hands. I got some water sprayed on my palms (being damp helps), spread it around, then rolled my hands across a clear acrylic tube with scanning stuff inside. Then, each finger was moistened with a damp paper towel, and I rolled the fingers across a flat scanning pad.

The process was actually quite interesting. In my case, I had to roll each finger three times across the pad. The machine then calculated how well my fingers scanned and accepted the best scan for each one. The speed, wetness of my finger, and amount of pressure applied all influenced how well I scanned. I was worried about being difficult (ideally, you'd only need one scan of each finger), but the lady doing the prints assured me it was fine. Her least favorite? Manual workers, like road crew or construction workers, because their fingers are often worn down or marred from the heavy work.

Now, just in case anything ever happens to me, there is a record of my fingerprints. Just one more step to being a cog in the machine, I suppose, but I don't feel too threatened by this recording of my individuality. Yes, it's now harder for me to disappear should I ever chose to. Somehow, though, I don't think this will be a problem.

Christmas, again!

Two new arrivals plus a long to-do list have me wondering just what I'll actually get done today. I feel like a kid in a candy store!

In the UPS delivery, I got two awesome arrivals:

Okay, maybe that's not enough for most of my blog audience. I got a new hard drive for my computer -- mine is on the fritz, and this one is so much larger -- and a baritone ukulele. The uke is a present from my awesome big brother, and he bought me one that has the same fingerings as a guitar so I can learn from guitar friends and switch if needed. My goal is to be a decently capable song leader, and this will certainly help.

I'm not even sure where to start. Tune the uke? Put in the new HD and get that process going? Hit the post office to pick up my other package? (Planet Earth and an art & exploration book). So many choices!

Something I would pay for

I've got a PO Box here at the local post office. Right now, it's the easiest and most dependable way to get mail. Plus, there's something fun about having a key to a little box that holds stuff for you.

The big downside to the PO Box is having to visit the office to check your mail. I'm a single gal, and I just don't get much mail. A few bills and the occasional letter or postcard from a friend are my main box occupants. A few years ago, the post office happened to be located right next to where I worked, so it was no problem to check my mail at the end of each workday. In my current town, I usually have to make a special effort to get my mail.

I'm waiting for a package from Amazon: a late Christmas present of Planet Earth for Matt and me to share. I've been watching the tracking on that package, and it was finally delivered today. It's really exciting to know that I will actually have something when I go to the post office. That also got me thinking: what if the post office had an online system where you could check to see if you have mail? Of course, it would be super complicated to tell you exactly what you have, but it would be nice to know that you have something. There could be a barcode on the inside of your PO Box, and the post office could scan it when they place mail inside. Then, I could log into a website or get an email alert that I have mail waiting for me (and, to be nice, hopefully the postal workers would only scan for actual mail and not for the ad inserts that they frequently place in my box).

Obviously, the system would cost a little more. But think of the utility! I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who would pay for such an exciting feature.

Fun Videos

Fun video to share with everyone! It's exercise + enjoyment, so it's double fun. It's also a good reminder to actively seek out stairs when possible. Yay for piano stairs

found at Get Fit Slowly

Also, a lovely cover of Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies" by Pomplamoose

via Kottke

Common Ground

Yesterday, I visited the hippy-fest known as the Common Ground Fair. Put on by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, the event was an organic food, gardening, and crafts extravaganza. There were also tents dedicated to folks arts (blacksmithing, spinning, and the like) and alternative energy.

I spent the vast majority of my time wandering the crafts and boogying down. See, they had my all-time favorite dancing there: contra dancing! I spent a solid two hours spinning, chaining, starring, and more. I really don't get enough contra in my life. If you've never heard of contra dancing before, think square dancing with a bit more folksiness and a bit less country. It's descended from English country dancing

Contra maddness!

This guy had a skirt made out of ties. How awesome?

Of all beautiful things

Of all the beautiful things in the world, I saw one of the more amazing tonight. I was leading my students (a group of 10 eighth graders) on an evening night hike. Having exhausted our planned activities for the forest, we ventured to the beach to watch some stars, enjoy the soothing sounds, and relax in the sand.

Then, we ventured into the wet sand exposed as waves rolled back from the shore. With care, due to the advancing tide, we played in the sand. And, there, we discovered something most amazing:

bioluminescent dinoflagellates

Okay, let's break the Latin down. Bio: living. Luminescent: lights up. Bioluminescent is specifically used to talk about organisms that make their own internal light. Dinos: whirling, flagellum: small whip. This beautiful, glowing light is made by a small, single-celled organism with two whip-like tails (flagella). Relatives of what we saw produce red tide, but this was just sheer beauty. As we dragged our fingers through the sand, the plankton glowed momentarily. In some areas, the concentration of dinoflagellates was so high that my fingers appeared to glow in the sand.

The beauty is simply indescribable. I am now motivated to swim amongst the bioluminescent plankton. What I saw was not nearly so bright, yet it was still amazing. For now, I am happy playing in the sand on my little piece of the coast of Maine.

PS Do yourself a favor and check out this google search for pictures of bioluminescent dinoflagellates. So beautiful!