S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 7

Umbrellas

Where I grew up in Idaho it rarely rained. And when it did, it didn't last long. There was very little reason to be outside in the rain. You'd just wait until it stopped raining.
Now snow was another matter. We lived at about 5,000 feet elevation and it snowed all winter starting about the end of October well into April. 
But, anyway, you had no need for an umbrella.
Then I moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington (Go Dawgs!). And you had to walk between classes in the incessant rain. And walking to the bus stop. And waiting for the bus. And walking from the bus stop to where you lived. You needed an umbrella or you got soaked. 
These days a lot of Seattle and environ natives don't bother with umbrellas. They just dress for wet weather. But that didn't seem to be the case when I lived there in the early 1980s.
And I literally had to ask someone where to buy an umbrella. They looked at me as if I were nuts. Like, how could I not know that. 
So I bought an umbrella at Sears.
When I went back to college in the early 90s, I don't remember people, including me, using umbrellas. 
I still have an umbrella, even though I live now where we get 8 inches of rain a year. But I use it if I go to the West/wet side of the state.
Do you own/use an umbrella. Why or why not? Let me know in the comments below.

Counting

About four years ago I posted on this very blog that I can't count more than four things in one glance and without going "one, two, three, four, five..."

And I wonder about other people, do they have similar problems?

Then I read about the the Piraha Tribe of the Amazon. They have three numbers: one, two, and many.

So anything bigger than two is just "many." Which would, I think, make a civilization very difficult. 

They apparently don't have zero either.  But that's okay, neither did the Egyptians, the Romans, and the medieval Europeans until they learned it from the Muslims. 

Anyway, I felt a little better about my difficulty counting because Pirahas have similar problems. Here's about 200 people who don't even know "four" exists.

Do you have trouble counting quickly numbers that are too big? How many can you count at a quick glance? Let me know in the comments below.

Reoccurring Dreams

I find it interesting that I keep having this reoccurring dream.

It goes something like this: in order to earn my college degree I have to pass a certain math class. But I don't know or understand the math. In some dreams I'm faced with the test and I completely do not understand it. (At least I'm not naked.) 

Then I'll wake up and be relieved, knowing that I have my degree (since 1994) and I don't have to take any math classes again. 

I have taken a lot of math classes in college: a year of calculus and one class of deferential equations. I took a fluid dynamics class that had me doing differential equations in my sleep, literally. Don't ask me to do differential equations now, though.

But I still have this dream/nightmare. It's almost as bad as the dreams I have about being back in the corporate world.

Do you have reoccurring dreams? Do they upset you? Let me know in the comments below.

I Don't Watch Reality Shows

Welcome to August!
I have never watched reality and talent contest shows. Unless you count Jeopardy as a reality show. I have watched some clips, such as this one because I thought the woman had amazing talent. Oh, and this one, because the woman's story was so uplifting yet tragic (watch to the end).

But I've never watched The Bachelor or The Bachelorette or Survivor or... pretty much anything else.  Haven't watched The Voice or American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance.

Why? Mostly because I don't care. I don't want to see people humiliate themselves on television, I guess. 

When I was a kid, there was a show called The Gong Show. It featured people trying to win... pretty much nothing if I remember correctly. Some of the acts were pretty good. Some were just awful (and would get the eponymous gong). People would do horrible things just to be on TV. And I guess that soured me on the whole reality show craze. And, in a lot of cases, they are manipulating people to get ratings. Reminds me of this clip from The Simpsons.

How do you feel about reality show and talent contest shows? Let me know in the comments below.

The above photo is being used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act: fair usage.

Lily's Eyes

LilyAbout four years ago I wrote a blog post about eyes. And I said sometimes I can see through sideways our cat Lily's cornea. And I wished I could catch that on camera.

I recently took a picture of Lily where that is true... a little. It wasn't my intention to take such a picture. I just took one for Caturday on social media. 

Later I was looking at the picture close up, and I noticed in her right eye, I could see through the cornea. Not a lot, but some. Here's a closeup of that eye:

Isn't that cool? You can see the right side of her eye from the left. You can also see the reflection of the window she's looking out.

Have you seen that before on a cat. I think human corneas are too flat to do that.

Let me know in the comments below.

Trailers and Previews

I was watching Shōgun on FX, DVR'ing it and then watching it at my convenience. FX is part of the Fox networks of channels (now owned by Disney) so Shōgun ads were shown on lots of channels, not just FX. And when an ad would come on, I'd mute the TV and put my hand up so I couldn't see it. I didn't want any spoilers.

By the way, Shōgun was excellent and, as far as I know, is available to stream on Hulu. I could have done without the one scene in the first episode that graphically shows one of my nightmare ways of dying. I found it quite disturbing.

So, I thought I'd do a blog post about how much I hate (and yet, love) movie trailers and previews. But I already did. That was almost ten years ago. Yes, this blog has been around that long. In fact, the first post on this blog was September 19, 2012.

So now I've not blogged about trailers and previews. What should I do now?

I guess I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Let me know what you think about trailers and previews in the comments below.

Rx

Eye of HorusThe other day I was looking at one of my prescriptions (my inhaler for my COPD), and I noticed it had written on it "Rx only." Which I knew meant "prescription only." 

I've probably seen that Rx thing all my life and knew since I was a kid that it meant "prescription." But on that day, I thought, "Why does 'Rx' mean 'prescription'?" I'd literally never thought about. But prescription doesn't start with "r" and has no "x" in it. Why?

Well, Google to the rescue....

Sort of. When I googled "Rx" I got a lot of sponsored links to places wanting to sell me prescription medicine. But I finally found the answer.

One source claims it goes back to the Egyptian Eye of Horus, "a powerful symbol associated with protection and healing was used in medicinal and protective contexts."

In Latin, the word for "take" is "recipe" (that's interesting in of itself). As in "take this stuff to feel better." The word "recipe" was shortened to "Rx." Which makes a lot more sense than shortening prescription to "Rx." 

In medieval times, the "Rx" was stylized as we still see it today:

What do you think of "Rx" meaning prescription? Does it make sense now? Let me know in the comments below.

Check Your Tire Pressure!

Happy Independence Day! Which just happens to fall on the fourth of July.
My wife got a new car. It's a PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) which is great for her because she normally just drives around town but occasionally goes farther. She can run on electricity in town but has a gas engine if she needs to go farther than the battery can take her.
The car comes with an app for her phone and she was showing me stuff in the app and I noticed the tire pressures were over 50 psi. I wondered if that could be correct. Maybe hybrids have higher tire pressure to reduce rolling resistance. But, no. She checked the sticker on the driver-side door frame, and the correct pressures were 32 in front, 35 in back. 

I don't know if it came from the factory at 50 psi (I doubt it) or the dealership did that (probably). But that was ridiculous. (Some mechanics will fill the tire to its maximum pressure, not to the correct pressure.)

Correct tire pressure will give you longer tire life, better handling, and better gas mileage.So the first thing we did the next morning was set the tire pressures at the right level.

Listen folks: set your tire pressure. Buy a good tire pressure gauge and use it:

1) at least once a month

2) after getting any tire work done (new tires, rotation, etc.)

3) apparently now, after buying a new car. Or at least new to you car.

4) after getting maintenance done by anyone. Anyone.

Check tire pressures in the morning before you drive the car at whatever the ambient temperature is. Try to do it in the shade so heat from the sun isn't warming up the tires. If your tire pressure is high, let some air out. If it's low, unless you have a source of compressed air at your house, you'll need to go somewhere to get air. This will skew your readings but it's better than nothing.

Here is more information about tire pressure.

But please, check your tire pressure.

AI Girlfriends

The other day I heard on the news that someone is predicting that AI girlfriends are going to be a billion dollar industry. So I googled the story and found it. And in the article it says a man is spending $10,000 a month ($120,000 a year) on his AI girlfriend. And he loves doing it. 

I remember in the 2001 movie A. I. Artificial Intelligence that a man killed his wife for having an affair with a male sexbot. But if you add AI girlfriend (or boyfriend) to a realistic robot... that's what you have.

The AI girlfriend ads I have seen on Facebook have slowed lately. Maybe they got as many suckers as the algorithm could handle.

So you could have a perfect girlfriend that never ages, never gets fat, never gets sick, never gets pregnant, and never nags or argues. And never divorces you and take half your assets. If you tire of her, you can just trade her in for a new model, sort of like a car.

And we thought the US was having fertility problems now! Once again, Futurama predicts the future.

I kind of see the appeal of an AI girlfriend but I think (at least. until sexbots are perfected), you'd miss the touch of human flesh. 

What do you think of AI girlfriends? The future of mankind or will they just appeal to some people? Let me know in the comments below.

Summer Solstice

Today is the Summer Solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere). It'll happen at 20:51 UTC (1:51 PM PST or 4:51 PM EST). 

But what is a "solstice"? Well, "sol" is Latin for the sun. The actual name of the sun is "Sol." "Stice" come from Latin to make stand, or stop. So it means "sun stopping." The same root, by the way, is used in armistice. That is, arms (weapons) standing.

The summer solstice is when the sun stops moving north. It halts its northern progress at the Tropic of Cancer. On the Summer Solstice it is directly overhead of the Tropic of Cancer. This is partially how Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the Earth in 240 BC with surprising accuracy.

This Summer Solstice is the earliest in 228 years. And over the next 72 years, the solstice will get progressively earlier every four years. This happens not because of some cosmological reason, but how we humans measure time. Our calendar does not exactly line up with astronomical events. 

Read more in depth about it here.

Some people call the Summer Solstice "the longest day." This is not exactly accurate. The day is still (pretty close to) 24 hours long. What it is is that, in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the day with the most hours of daylight. How much daylight depends on your latitude. The farther north you are, the more daylight you will have. If you are at or above the Arctic Circle, you'll have at least one day where the sun never sets. 

Some people ascribe special meaning to the solstice. But it really means nothing more than the tilt of the Earth's axis causing the seasons. On the summer solstice, the axis is leaning toward the sun at the north (and away at the south). 

Do you have any plans for the summer solstice? Let me know in the comments below.