30.Nov.2006
Silence
My relative silence over the last couple of months is due to my thesis. I am up to my neck in it now, and will probably continue to be until late January. So wish me well, and don't expect much from me till then.
For now, a little wisdom that I picked up from my friend Kerry: do the dishes before going to bed, because the joy of not doing them at night does not outweigh the annoyance of dealing with them in the morning. We do not always follow this advice, but we try.
08.Oct.2006
Noise
We have a noisy neighbor, a single mom who never developed an "indoors voice" and whose 2 year old son is learning the same behavior from her. Furthermore, he must be constantly getting into things he shouldn't, because she shrieks his name all day long. The sounds find their way through their door into the open, concrete stairwell, where they reverberate and penetrate our door and my consciousness. A couple of weeks ago two new instruments joined the orchestra and I had to go to BKD's office for a few days in order to work in peace. The flat below us was being renovated (I think they were installing a whole new heating system, which required drilling through stone and brick) and the road in front of our building was being resurfaced. No earplugs exist that could have allowed me to ingore all of this, and I simply had to get out.
There are social issues (the emotional damage the kid no doubt is experiencing) and technical issues (why does sound travel so easily in a building with 300mm solid walls?) that I won't address here. However, I am now well aware of how noise pollution could affect one's mental and physical health, an issue covered by the Guardian in its 27 September article, "Sound the Alarm".
Coincidentally, the 15 September broadcast of Science Friday included a segment about noise and how it affects us [MP3]. Of interest to me was a discussion about how white and pink noise can not only block out ambient sounds but also help one feel energized and focused.
It is not easy to find a free MP3 of white or pink noise. But a search led me to Steve Moshier's Pink Noise Digital Waveform Generator Program, which does just what it says on the label. I downloaded and expanded the zipped file, ran the executable "pink_1.exe", and opened the resulting 12MB WAV audio file in Audacity. I cropped the part of the audio file that I wanted (which sounds much like a running water tap) and looped it to about 20 minutes long, then exported it as an MP3. Kablam! My very own pink noise loop for my very own headphones.
Sometimes pink noise can get a bit boring, though. Luckily there is the 9 Beet Stretch, a continuously looping audio stream of Beethoven's 9th Symphony that has been stretched to 24 hours long and pitch-corrected. There is no way to download an audio file of this (it would be a pretty big file), but I recorded about half an hour of the stream with Audacity and created an MP3 that I can play on repeat in the iPod. I find the 9 Beet Stretch to be very relaxing and helpful for concentration. Give it a try.
I have read that some people like to listen to the BBC Shipping Forecast (here's a direct link to the RealAudio stream) for relaxation. I like it, but it's a little short and I think a continuous loop would get annoying after a while.
Wee Boats
Take a good, hard look at these model boats (click the images for a larger version).
Alright, they aren't models. These are my first attempts at fake tilt-shift photography. There are thousands of examples (not mine) on Flickr. My un-altered photos can be found here: photo one from Mallaig, Scotland, and photo two from Ardvasar, Isle of Skye, Scotland.
Electronic Voting
Some of this is old news, but with the coming election it is quite prescient. I won't make a lot of commentary here, but rather point you towards some links about the Diebold electronic voting machines for you to draw your own conclusions.
- Researchers find (more) severe flaws in Diebold voting machines
- "Hotel Minibar" Keys Open Diebold Voting Machines
- Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine from the Princeton Center for IT Policy
- Diebold Election Systems Response to the Princeton University AccuVote-TS Analysis [PDF]
- Science Friday from 22 September 2006, including a segment on voting machine security [MP3]
- 21 September 2006 Washington Post: Ehrlich Wants Paper Ballots For Nov. Vote
- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: Will The Next Election Be Hacked?
15.Sep.2006
Some free association about things that roll
Lately I have been experiencing an irrational desire to someday have a fixie. Well, not just to have a fixie, but to build a fixie. What is the allure? Is it the danger? The trendiness? The potential improvement in strength and skill? Maybe. But I think mostly it's the simple beauty of a bike with no shifters or brakes. Okay, maybe one brake. Brakes or not, I will probably not ride like a New York City bike courier. (The original version of the video is longer and the music is annoyingly cliché. I find the new edit both sublime and disturbing.)
Speaking of simple drivetrains, the Quad Electric Drive Mini is an important step in simplifying and improving hybrid electric cars. Each wheel is driven by its own electric motor, which also serves as a regenerative brake (though I find their claim that the regenerative braking "recovers almost all energy" a bit dubious). It is different from most hybrids on the market: it can operate as an electric car only, or it has a trunk-mounted generator driven by an internal combustion engine (ICE) for charging the battery. According to Treehugger, the generator runs even when you're not using the car. Or, you can plug the car into the grid to recharge. The max range is just under 1000 miles, and fuel economy is about 66 miles per US gallon. Not bad for a car that goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour in about 4 seconds. But it doesn't sound like a Ferrari.*
Is the BBC bad for your health?
A recent BBC News headline reads, "Wearing helmets 'more dangerous'". The article is about a study conducted by Dr. Ian Walker, in which he measured the space that overtaking drivers gave him while he rode with and without a helmet. He found that drivers passed an average of 8.5 cm closer to him when he had the helmet on—and he was hit twice. I think this is a valuable and interesting study, but is wearing a helmet really more dangerous? For that to be the case, the majority of bicycle accidents would have to be caused by cars passing too close to cyclists. However, according to NHTSA, 8.6% of accidents were of this nature. Of those, 23% were because the motorist misjudged the passing distance. These statistics appear to refer only to car-bike collisions, not all bike accidents. Another study (Adult Bicyclists in the United States – Characteristics and Riding Experience in 1996, by William E. Moritz, Ph.D.) indicates that 59% of serious bike crashes are falls, while only 11% involve moving motor vehicles. A very quick and dirty conclusion is that 8.6% of 11%—about 1%—of serious bike crashes are caused by cars hitting cyclists in an overtake situation.
I have only had 2 serious wrecks on a bike during my adult life, and both of them were self-inflicted. I was glad I had a helmet on. A good friend of mine was sent arse-over-teakettle when a pedestrian stepped in front of him on his bike, and the helmet he wore surely saved his life (but not a month of his memory). I think you'd have to be crazy not to wear a helmet while riding in dangerous conditions. To be fair to Dr. Walker (who seems to be someone I'd like), he is not advocating that anyone stop wearing helmets: this was a psychology experiment. I should also acknowledge that his study took place in Britain, while the accident statistics I cited are from the US.
The pint glass collection grows
Since my last update, in which I discussed the meaning of the numbers on British pint glasses, I decided to start a collection. There is no need to pocket beery glasses after a night at the pub; I just occasionally stop in charity shop where there is usually one or two that someone else took home from the pub. My goal is to have a respectable and eclectic set of glasses of different shapes and with unique numbers. In the photo above, from left to right, are a conical glass, a "nonic" glass, a tulip glass, and a dimple mug. Each one of these has a different number. I was chuffed to find a nonic glass with a number 3, the number for Edinburgh.
This is just speculation, but I think the name "nonic" might derive from "no nick", because the bulge would keep the rims of multiple nonic glasses from hitting and getting nicked. The bulge also prevents the glasses from getting stuck when several are stacked together. Alternatively, nonic could mean that it's harder to nick—as in steal—the glasses, but I don't know how. Or there could be some mysterious connection with ninth-order iterations. Alright, I'm a freak.
Babs goes to Brisbane
Barbara Haddrill and I have an odd connection: I knew her when she worked at CAT, where my course is taught, and her sister works with BKD. Now she is on a land and sea journey to Australia so she can be the bridesmaid in her best friend's wedding. She's taking the surface route to minimize the greenhouse gas emissions caused by her transport. Read about her journey on her blog, Babs to Brisbane (and back). Her story has also been picked up by the media, such as The Independent, The Guardian, the BBC, The New Zealand Herald, and UPI. She was less glowingly written about by some sour grape at The Guardian and Flight, an airline industry news site.
Now, if only we could convince everyone who's coming to our wedding to take a boat across the Atlantic.
Billy Clown, international criminal
I recently gave permission to an Israeli web site to use my Billy Clown baloney photo for a food article. The problem is that the article is in Hebrew, and I can't translate it. The author could only give me a brief summary in English, and they describe Billy Clown as an "atrocity". Oh my, what have I done? Bear in mind that Billy Clown is 80% pork. Well, if any of my bilingual readers can translate the article for me, I'd appreciate it.
31.Jul.2006
Numbers on Pint Glasses
When you buy a pint of beer in one of the seemingly infinite pubs in Britain, your glass will have a mark on the side that says something like "One Pint" with a crown and a number below. Sitting in the pub I have often wondered to myself what the number means, as it never seems to correspond to volume or shape. For some odd reason I have never remembered to look it up when I got home. Until now.
I am not the only person who has wondered about this, so finding out the answer was easy. It's really not very mysterious: the number on the glass indicates the location of the weights and measures authority that inspected and verified that it does indeed hold a proper pint. The glass in the picture above was inspected in Derbyshire. In some cases the number refers to a manufacturer that has achieved "approved verifier" status, such as 2043.
Long before I moved to the UK I was aware of the legend of the British pint, and heard stories about how Brits would become quite upset if served a pint not filled properly. (By the way, the British pint is 20 fluid ounces or 568 milliliters, much more satisfying than its 16oz or 473mL American cousin. In both cases the pint is 1/8 of a gallon, but the US gallon is based on the old British wine gallon at 231 cubic inches, while the British standard gallon was established later and based upon the volume of 10 pounds of distilled water, or 277 cubic inches. I was amazed by the seemingly stellar fuel economy of the cars in the UK, which is cited in miles per gallon. They're pretty good, but not that good.) Despite strict trade laws and lengendary persnickety-ness, you might be surprised to learn that 8 out of 10 pints served are not full. However, in my experience I feel as though I've had fairly good luck.
Yet Another Reason why Iron Maiden is Awesome
I was stunned this weekend when I read that Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden, is also a commercial pilot. He recently flew a 757 to Cyprus to pick up 200 British evacuees from Lebanon and return them to London. Bruce even has his own show on the Discovery Channel, Flying Heavy Metal. Incidentally, the guy who introduced me to Iron Maiden in high school later became a commercial pilot. \m/_ _\m/
Meat Caaaaaaaake!
I promise I won't bore you with every detail of our wedding preparations as they happen, but I thought I would share my preference for the cake. Meat Cake!
11.Jun.2006
She said yes
On Friday I asked BKD to marry me, and she said yes. I am over the moon and I think she is too. No date yet, maybe next Spring. Yes, we're going to try to do it here in Scotland: she wants to get married in a castle and I want to wear a kilt. And of course we'd like to have a ceilidh. We'll see … as the Brits say, watch this space.
Midnight Train to Georgia
Or, more realistically, the direct Delta flight from Edinburgh to Atlanta. BKD has accepted her dream job in Athens, Georgia, and we're moving there in fall 2007. Yep, it's a long way out, and it's weird knowing where we'll be in a year and a half or so.
Did I really say I'd never live in The South? Heck, I was just kidding. Athens is really a nice little city. The music scene is pretty famous, what with Athens being the site of origin for R.E.M. and the B-52's, among others. I am told that every resident eventually joins or forms at least one band, so I am looking forward to playing bass in a band that plays punk-bluegrass versions of Warren Zevon songs. Or something.
The food is great, they've got a pub that serves Belhaven, and we both love grits, of which there are plenty. There's a vibrant bicycling scene, and a good selection of green organizations.
We love it here in Edinburgh, but of course we're pretty excited to move to Athens and have a house, a dog, EnergyStar-rated appliances, and all that jazz. I'm not excited to have a car, though; I want an Xtracycle.
24.May.2006
Roland was a warrior from the Land of the Midnight Sun
For no reason whatsoever, here is a list of the best 5 songs ever done by Warren Zevon.
- Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
- Boom Boom Mancini
- Disorder in the House
- Desperadoes under the Eaves
- The Factory
If you have never listened to Warren Zevon, you're missing out. (Though, chances are you've heard 'Werewolves of London' at some point during the last twenty-odd years. This song didn't make the list because it's too obvious.) Not all of his songs are good—'The Envoy' and 'Leave My Monkey Alone' are notable clunkers—but the ones listed here I think are truly great.
I had the good fortune of growing up across the lake from WIZN, which at the time made a habit of playing artists such as Zevon and Frank Zappa when other stations wouldn't. Imagine my surprise, later in life, to meet people who'd never heard 'Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner'! That's as sad as never having eaten raw cookie dough, or something.
If you only get one Warren Zevon CD, make it 'A Quiet Normal Life (Best Of...)' from 1986. If you get two, pick up 'The Wind' from 2003. That album made me cry the first time I heard it: recorded just before his death from lung cancer, his wavering voice is haunting.
I greatly enjoyed walking through London last December and stumbling across Lee Ho Fook's restaurant in Soho, recalling the opening lyrics to 'Werewolves of London':
I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand,
Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain.
He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook's,
Going to get a big dish of beef chow mein.
Ahhwooooo… Werewolves of London, Ahwooooo!
Ahhwooooo… Werewolves of London, Ahwooooo!
Thesis
In other news, my thesis proposal (pdf) was approved on Friday, which means I can go ahead with the work. The final result is due by the end of January 2007.
10.May.2006
Sproing!
The blossoms have exploded in the Meadows. Today was gorgeous and the grass was littered with pasty white Scots trying to soak up some sun. Speaking of sun, it's in our bedroom way too early these days. And we're getting direct sunlight coming through the north-facing windows of our flat around 18:30. People were playing cricket, football, ultimate frisbee, and rugby in the Meadows at 20:30 last night.
17.Apr.2006
Briefly
I have about 30 seconds between bouts of travel to put together a wee update. I'd tell you about our recent trip to the States but I can't for reasons of national security. Well, not really.
This weekend a group of us rented a cottage in the west of Scotland. During a day trip to Oban, we visited the distillery of the same name. Having visited the Edradour distillery earlier this year, I can now say that I have been to the two smallest whisky distilleries in Scotland.
Addenda
It seems that what I recently referred to as "egg in a basket" is actually a widespread phenomenon with a murky background. My dad checked in to tell me that the Green Acres Diner in Peru, New York serves this dish as an "eye wink". John from Athens, Georgia says that his mom used to make it for him when he was a kid in Oklahoma; he couldn't remember the name exactly, but it was something like "sunshine in a window". There is more discussion here.
Of course there is nothing new on the Web, and my post about abandoned bikes is no exception. Mark over at Potkettleblack sent me a link to a Russian site full of messed up bikes. And the very same John from Athens, Georgia told me about John Glassie's photobook, Bicycles Locked to Poles. Here are some pictures from the book.
01.Apr.2006
Brilliant Brekkies
There is plenty of discussion about the recent film "V for Vendetta", with its imagery of fascism, terrorism, and anarchism, and its apparent parallels to current American and British politics. I went to see it at the matinee; it was pretty good for a zip-bam-crash comic book adaptation. However, the best thing I took away from the movie was a breakfast recipe.
One might be led to believe from the film that Egg in a Basket is a British concoction, but one source says it is a Canadian recipe. Regardless of the origin, it is ingeniously delicious.
Here is how I make it. Melt some butter in a pan, and cut a hole in a piece of bread (the shape of the hole is unimportant). Put the bread in the molten butter. Some suggest frying both sides of the bread first, but I like to just put it in, flip it once to butter both sides, and then proceed to the next step. Crack an egg into the bread hole (the "basket"). I find that covering the pan and setting it to very low heat works very well to cook the egg without burning the bread. When the egg is cooked to your liking (I like it runny), then serve it. No cutlery required! The bottom of the bread should be nice and crusty, and the top should still be able to soak up the runny yolk.
Enjoy!
21.Feb.2006
More Dead Bikes
These photos are an addendum to my post about abandoned bicycles. The first one could have been there for decades. The second one was there for a couple of weeks before it disappeared—I missed my chance to nick the brakes before the bike vanished. The left chainstay was bent, rendering the frame useless. The third photo shows the progressive decay of the the bike across the street from our flat.
Thesis Topics
It is time for me to start putting together an idea for a thesis to cap off the master's degree I'm pursuing (I must make a formal proposal in April). My interests—and the topics covered by the course—are broad enough that I have not immediately latched onto an idea. While I am inclined to tackle a question related to buildings, I have a seed of an idea that deals with biomass. I would strongly prefer to cover a topic that is relevant in the United States but could easily be studied from the UK.
Perhaps I will create a thesis topic development page. Until then, if you have a burning question related to renewable energy, energy efficiency, "green" building, etc., and it could be answered with a 15,000 to 20,000 word thesis, by all means send it to me.
25.Jan.2006
Kettles Revisited
My piece on electric kettles was missing some data and contained some incorrect assumptions. I have recently modified it to take into account the significant thermodynamic losses associated with generating electricity.
Burns Night
January 25 is the day that Scots (and wannabes) all around the world celebrate the birthday of Robert Burns. This usually involves a Burns supper, which always involves haggis and whisky. I got to experience a hell of a Burns supper last Saturday while I was still at school, so tonight BKD and I had a nice, subdued Burns supper for two. I read the Address to a Haggis, and when I got to "An' cut you up wi' ready slicht / Trenching your gushing entrails bricht" she rent our veggie haggis in two with the knife. Some enjoy their bashed neeps and champit tatties (turnips and mashed potatoes) separately, but I prefer to prepare them together, as suggested by the BBC.
We experienced a little confusion while shopping for neeps; we weren't sure whether they were turnips or parsnips. It turns out they're turnips, which are also known as "swedes" here. If you try making neeps and tatties at home, make sure you know what you're buying, as there is some confusion over regional names for turnips.
15.Jan.2006
Moral dilemma: abandoned bicycles
There are abandoned bicycles all over Edinburgh. In fact, there is a bike (first photo) that has been locked to the fence across from our building ever since we moved in September. During that time it has never apparently been moved, and certainly not ridden on that flat tire. After New Year's Eve the front wheel was off and leaning against the wall, and two days later it was gone. The bike is still there, but I worry about it.
I walk and ride all over Edinburgh, and as you might guess I have an eye for bicycles. I usually notice the unique ones: the ones, like mine, which someone pieced together to make a loveable misfit all their own. But I also notice bikes that have been in the same spot for a while, and I watch with horror as they slowly disintegrate.
I think the process usually starts with an act of vandalism. I have seen many otherwise fine bicycles with one or both of the wheels turned into a taco by the boot of some drunken yob. Later, the seat might go missing. Eventually the brakes will come off, the cranks, the handlebars—until there is nothing but a grimy frame locked to a pipe. It breaks my heart.
The two bikes in the second photo have been there for months. The strange thing is that the bike in the foreground is being eaten alive, but the other one is only suffering from a chewed seat and bent handlebars. And the chain by which it is secured could be cut with a Leatherman tool. Why is it still there?
There must be countless reasons why a bike is abandoned. It's wrecked and considered a lost cause. The owner died/moved/graduated/got amnesia. They lost the key to the lock. It's funny, but I usually don't care so much about the owner as I do about the bike. (The exception is when I see a decent bike that has been vandalized, in which case I am enraged on the owner's behalf.)
Despite never personally being a victim of bike theft, I hold the draconian belief that bicycle thieves should be castrated. Seriously. Give me the rubber band and the loppers, I'll do it. Bike thieves should not reproduce. (Call me sexist but I always assume bike thieves are guys.) I cannot explain the reason why I am so emotional about bike theft, but there are few other things that drive me to violent thoughts.
Which leads me to my dilemma: is it right to take a bike that has seemingly been left to die? What if I just want the brake levers? Surely it can't be wrong to bring the bike to the local bicycle recycling project?
So far I have not invested in a set of bolt cutters.