The Red Brick Times

  Sunday, November 30, 2003

Welcome to snowcrystals.com! This site is all about snow crystals and snowflakes -- what they are, where they come from, and just how these remarkably complex and beautiful structures are created, quite literally, out of thin air.

At this Caltech-sponsored site, there is a guide to snowflakes, designer snowflakes, and snowflake physics in addition.

Beyond skiing, snowboarding, and ice skating.... Here are some unique projects you can do with ice and snow. You might try growing your own snowflake crystals, or photographing snowflakes in the wild. Or perhaps you'd like to try your hand at creating these mysterious ice spikes right in your own freezer.

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  Monday, November 24, 2003

Oh! By the way - the web site for Straight From the Hearth has surfaced. Right now, it is in a "free parking" area provided by the domain name registry company, but we are working to get the initial site developed. Digital camera and cookie pictures are the next thing, so people can drool over what they see. Watch this space!

Posted 12:49 PM by Andy (0) comments

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Starting back today. Wandering willy-nilly northward toward the cold clammy calumny of Cleveland climes. I think I wanna move South for the winter. No more show snoveling. No more slippie sliders. No more spread salt. No more slush in shoes. Live in car. Wash at Wal Mart restrooms. Handle pans. Joy! Rapture!

Posted 12:43 PM by Andy (0) comments

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  Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Road out of traffic jam must be paved with cash
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Would you be willing to pay a few cents more for a gallon of gas if you knew the proceeds would be used to unsnarl Atlanta traffic?

The region's transportation aspirations plan, the wish list of all the projects that planners believe would improve mobility by that year, carries a price tag of $74 billion.

Privatization of transportation projects may be a partial solution, with more toll roads and toll lanes likely in Atlanta's transportation future.

That has been a big part of the answer in Florida, said Tom Barry, retired secretary of the Florida DOT. The Sunshine State raises more than $500 million a year in tolls. In addition, its gas tax is roughly twice as high as Georgia's.

This article, by Joey Ledford of the Atlanta Journal Constitution on 11/16/2003.

The traffic is hideous, nasty, nauseating, not that good. Coming into Atlanta on I75 during Monday rush hour (5PM), the Northbound traffic was 6-lanes wide, stopped cold or moving at about 10 mph, for at least 5 miles. I took the West bypass and was only stuck in jams two or three times where intersecting roads met the highway during the 23 miles it took to loop around and rejoin I75 on the South of Atlanta. Longer trip, shorter time. And when I crossed the border from Georgia to Florida, the price of 87-octane jumped from $1.35 per gallon to $1.49. That's the "answer" in Florida to traffic and road repair noted above. Now, if the auto manufacturers ignore their customers and actually bring out small cars that get 60 mpg (like Insight, Hybrid Civic, Prius, Hybrid Corolla), the governments will scream louder because gas tax revenue has fallen off by 30% to 50% for passenger vehicles. Then - of course! higher taxes!

Posted 1:41 PM by Andy (0) comments

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  Friday, November 14, 2003

State regulations are in place to control and prevent the spread of a number of invasive species and plant diseases to protect the health of Ohio’s plants and prevent massive economic losses to the nursery, timber, and tourism industries and the communities they serve.

The state is authorized by Ohio Revised Code Section 927.71 to issue a quarantine on the movement of all ash trees and timber in a given area. This action can be taken for the state of Ohio and certain counties, townships, and areas will be identified as regulated zones.

The Emerald Ash Borer has been known to exist in North America (Michigan and Ontario) for about the last five years, where it has killed millions of ash trees. It was found in Ohio for the first time in February near Whitehouse in Lucas County. No new signs of Emerald Ash Borer have been identified since more than 8,000 ash trees were cut, chipped, and destroyed to eradicate the pest from the area.

There are about 3.8 billion ash trees growing in Ohio, according to a 1991 forest survey. While ash trees are found in every Ohio county, most are found in the elm/ash/red maple forest that covers more than 850,000 acres in northern Ohio. (Ohio Department of Natural Resources)

The Emerald Ash Borer belongs to a group of insects known as metallic wood-boring beetles. Adults are dark metallic green in color, 1/2 inch in length and 1/16 inch wide, and are present only from mid May until late July. Larvae are creamy white in color.

Affected trees show symptoms of infestation – die-back on the upper third of the tree, D-shaped exit holes in the bark where adults emerge, vertical splits in the bark, and distinct serpentine-shaped tunnels beneath the bark in the cambium, where larvae effectively cut off food and water to the tree, starving it to death. The borer is known to affect white, black, and green ash trees and some varieties of horticultural ash. Some healthy, non-stressed trees can fight off the pest, but Emerald Ash Borer infestations are fatal in most cases.

Ash wood is used for all traditional applications of hardwood from flooring and cabinets to baseball bats.

The nursery and horticulture industries, and the wood, paper, and furniture manufacturing industries contribute a combined $12.6 billion to the state’s economy. (Source: Dr. Tom Sporleder, OSU, 1999 OHFoods Model)

A viable portion of the market for ash in Ohio is centered around the tool handle market. Ohio has two major tool handle plants: Ames/True Temper (Dexter City, Noble County) and Crook Miller Co. (Hicksville, Defiance County). The Crook Miller Co. gets approximately 25 percent of its ash from Ohio.

Ohio has approximately 2.1 billion board feet (the usable lumber within a log) of standing ash timber (between 11 and 29 inches in diameter) that is worth almost $1 billion at the sawmill. (USDA Forest Service).

All per the Ohio Department of Agriculture. So don't move firewood between different forested areas. This can spread the borer.

Posted 10:19 AM by Andy (0) comments

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Going to, Hudson City, Hudson City here I come. They got some crazy women there and I'm a-gonna go see one. Leaving Saturday afternoon for the long drive south (my feathers are molting) to visit with Alex and Tommy for a few days. Then back for the great gabbling gobble gala and gastronomic galimatias galantine gorge, followed by the terrible tertiary turkey tetrazinni tryst, totalling to tumescent taut turgid tonnage turmoil. Ta-ta.

Posted 9:29 AM by Andy (0) comments

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  Wednesday, November 05, 2003

Take an IQ Test:

1. Which one of the five choices makes the best comparison? LIVED is to DEVIL as 6323 is to:
2336
6232
3236
3326
6332

2. Which one of these five is least like the other four?
Mule
Kangaroo
Cow
Deer
Donkey

3. Which number should come next? 144 121 100 81 64 ?
17
19
36
49
50

4. Even the most ___________ rose has thorns.
Ugly
Weathered
Lonely
Noxious
Tempting

5. HAND is to Glove as HEAD is to
Hair
Hat
Neck
Earring
Hairpin

6. (buncha graphic shapes - does not copy - sorry)

7. John likes 400 but not 300; he likes 100 but not 99; he likes 2500 but not 2400. Which does he like?
900
1000
1100
1200

8. A fallacious argument is:
Disturbing
Valid
False
Necessary

9. If you rearrange the letters "ANLDEGN," you would have the name of a(n):
Ocean
Country
State
City
Animal

10. NASA received three messages in a strange language from a distant planet. The scientists studied the messages and found that "Necor Buldon Slock" means "Danger Rocket Explosion" and "Edwan Mynor Necor" means "Danger Spaceship Fire" and "Buldon Gimilzor Gondor" means "Bad Gas Explosion". What does "Slock" mean?
Danger
Explosion
Nothing
Rocket
Gas

11. If some Wicks are Slicks, and some Slicks are Snicks, then some Wicks are definitely Snicks. The statement is:
True
False
Neither

12. Ann is taller than Jill, and Kelly is shorter than Ann. Which of the following statements would be most accurate?
Kelly is taller than Jill
Kelly is shorter than Jill
Kelly is as tall as Jill
It's impossible to tell

13. A boy is 4 years old and his sister is three times as old as he is. When the boy is 12 years old, how old will his sister be?
16
20
24
28
32

14. Assume that these two statements are true: All brown-haired men have bad tempers. Larry is a brown-haired man. The statement Larry has a bad temper is:
True
False
Unable to determine

15. Two girls caught 25 frogs. Lisa caught four times as many as Jen did. How many frogs did Jen catch?
4
5
8
10
15

16. Inept is the opposite of:
Fit
Deep
Skillful
Sad
Happy

17. A car traveled 28 miles in 30 minutes. How many miles per hour was it traveling?
28
36
56
58
62

18. If all Zips are Zoodles, and all Zoodles are Zonkers, then all Zips are definitely Zonkers.
The above sentence is logically:
True
False
Neither

19. Sue is both the 50th best and the 50th worst student at her school. How many students attend her school?
50
75
99
100
101

20. In a race from point X to point Y and back, Jack averages 30 miles per hour to point Y and 10 miles per hour back to point X. Sandy averages 20 miles per hour in both directions. Between Jack and Sandy, who finished first?
Jack
Sandy
They tie
Neither
Impossible to tell

Posted 9:23 PM by Andy (0) comments

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Thanksgiving did not originate with the Pilgrims -- it was an ancient historical custom they would have been familiar with from England. What the Pilgrims were celebrating was really not a "thanksgiving," an occasion for religious piety and solemnity, but more of a harvest festival full of "revelry, sports, and feast."

Although the only two contemporary accounts of that first Thanksgiving mention "fowl" and "wild Turkies," the animal we call a turkey was most likely not one of the items on the menu. Those words probably refer to geese, ducks, and pheasants (such as guinea fowl), not the wild North American turkey.

Pumpkin pie would have been absent as well, since the Pilgrims had no supply of flour. (They could have made something like a pudding from boiled pumpkin sweetened with honey or syrup, however.)

Because of a poor harvest the next year (and an influx of settlers in subsequent years), the pilgrims never celebrated another Thanksgiving.

Reported at snopes dot com Urban Legends Thanksgiving.

Posted 9:18 PM by Andy (0) comments

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