I should not say “of summer” since it was finished long ago. But “of this year” or “of this season” just didn’t have the allure of “last summer”. Buddy went out this morning at 4 AM because I was up with a massive hot flash. It was 28° out and very frosty (still no snow!). He returned at 6am with this poor shrew. I know the photo is grotesque but the shrew enabled me to try out my newly discovered camera’s macro capabilities and they work very well as we can see.
So there was a poor cluster fly hanging and twirling and struggling on a thread of a spider web from the kitchen ceiling Friday night. I immediately got the camera and shot over 20 photos until I got some that worked (above).
I tried the red-eye affect on Mouse: no difference in the photos but I put my favorite one here just because it is a pretty picture. Mouse certainly looks fat here, and she feels fat. She is accepting the brush more often now and at times I feel she is seeking it out for relief from the mats that she always gets.
in order to use this article at school, I have copied it here..... photo by Mark GreenwaldThe Great Tile Debate
Metro, the subway system serving Washington, D.C., has a distinctive look. Underground stations resemble immense, minimalist concrete bunkers. The tiles covering the floors are six-sided—large, terra cotta hexagons. Now, the board in charge of Metro is debating whether to switch to square tiles, like those typically found in most other subway systems around the world.
From a mathematical perspective, both square and hexagonal tiles do the job of tiling the plane. As do tiles of many, many other geometric shapes. And the choices get even wider when you consider using several different tile shapes together. My own bathroom, for example, is tiled with octagons and squares.
So, the decision on which shape of tiles to use actually hinges on practical considerations. One of the problems with the Metro hexagons is that they get slippery when wet. But that's a function not of their shape but of their composition and glazing. Still, the companies that manufacture safer square tiles apparently don't do hexagons. And lopping off corners to turn squares into hexagons would be extremely costly and wasteful, a representative of one tile manufacturer told the board.
Then there's the problem of broken tiles and water leakage. Metro officials claim that floors with square tiles would be easier to maintain than those with hexagonal tiles. Fewer sides mean fewer joints, and fewer joints mean less water leakage.
That's an interesting claim. The most efficient way of partitioning the plane into units of equal area with the smallest possible total perimeter is a hexagonal (or honeycomb) grid—not a square grid. So, to minimize the amount of grout required to fill the joints between the tiles, a hexagonal tiling would be more economical than a square tiling, provided the hexagonal and square tiles each have the same area.
However, if the issue really concerns the number of points at which grout joints meet, then a hexagonal tiling is at a disadvantage.
There's also the task of laying the tiles, especially when they need to cover large areas. One Metro board member who had tiled two bathrooms and a foyer in his own home argued that, as a practical matter, square tiles are much easier to handle and place than hexagonal tiles. Indeed, complex tiling patterns can be expensive and time-consuming to install. But are tilings or regular hexagons really more difficult to work with than are tilings of squares?
In the end, the Metro board put off the decision for another day.
References:
Peterson, I. 1999. The honeycomb conjecture. Science News 156(July 24):60. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/7_24_99/bob2.htm.
Sun, L.H. 2006. Board of 2 minds about 6-sided tiles. Washington Post (Oct. 20).
To see the Metro tile recommendations, go to
http://content.wmata.com/board_gm/board_docs/101906_PlatformRehab2.pdf.. You can find an audio recording of the Metro Board Planning and Development Committee meeting on Oct. 19, 2006, at http://wmata.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2.
We left the hotel at 6:30 AM and thought we would grab a taxi. We got a limo instead (actually just a large black car) but the price was the same. We drove by Vermont Avenue and Martin Luther again.
We began walking, just as we did yesterday: I still don’t know which streets or direction. But we went past the old convention center site where the Cirque de Soleil had set up their beautiful tents for their shows. Then we walked under the Chinatown arch and found the National Portrait Gallery (free admission).
Photos of Hillary are in the entrance of Zed’s. The prices on the menus outside were very reasonable. We had a reasonable wait (no reservations) and had a great time learning how to eat with the sourdough steamed bread and no utensils. We shared a mishmash of different dishes between us, had some good conversation, paid the bill and walked all the way back to Dupont. The whole way! I certainly enjoy dining now: conversation, experimentation with food. No rushing in order to eat before my next class while I do many other things. Just talk and food.
For two whole days now, the kids have refused to walk with me but have been two blocks ahead of me. Very very irritating. I prefer Indian food, and while I am glad I experienced Ethiopian, I don’t like the bread and won’t seek it out again.
On Friday morning I got up early as I usually do. I spent an hour or more downstairs and outside with my Coke, cigarettes and new NCTM publication (it turns out that while Rosenstein at Rutgers told us all that it is not a back-to-basics manifesto it is a back-to-basics manifesto: I am to focus on division and fractions in my classes). I returned upstairs and took a shower.
Our tours were arranged by the office of Bernie Sanders. As we walked down to the White House Amy told me the rules for the tour: no cameras, no bags, no nothing. I protested and decided that I was not going to go on such a thing. It turns out that I have my obstinate side when it comes to these things. I would wait outside while she toured. It was becoming so burdensome to tour our nation's first house!
The Treasury Building
The Press Area on the White House Lawn (but when we saw it, it was on the opposite side of the White House).
When Amy joined me, we walked to the Bread Line for lunch. What a great place. My favorite part was the water: chilled with mint leaves, lemon and lime. It was wonderful. The sandwiches were great too, but I was so dry because of the heat and walking that the water was the best thing. The wind had picked up and kept blowing over things as we ate outside. But I was with Amy and couldn't be happier.
Now I know why business on Amtrak is disappearing. There is little separating them as a passenger train from a cattle car. We arrived in White River one hour before the train was to arrive. Amy argued with me about every single thing I was taking, especially the 2nd computer that I brought for her in case she wanted to play a game alone or play a networked game with me.
This photo of Mouse was taken with the iSight camera on my MacBook
"The higher the elevation, the more snow we're seeing, and it's wet, dense snow," Costello said. "With a lot of leaves still on the trees, that's a recipe for trouble. Slippery roads are also adding to the challenge as the crews move from one problem to the next."
Snowfalls ranged widely from a trace in valleys to more than 1 foot in higher elevations.
The National Weather Service in Burlington reported 16 inches of snow in Barton, 14 inches in East Brownington and in Underhill, 20 inches on Jay Peak, and only a trace in Montpelier.
State police reported dozens of accidents as many Vermonters got the season's first taste of winter driving.
More than 140 schools were closed Wednesday or planned to open later in the morning.
The snow was expected to continue throughout the morning until midday. The National Weather Service said a winter storm watch would continue until noon.
"We have a difficult clean-up ahead of us," Costello said. "Some of the damage is extensive." In New York, the weather problems started Tuesday afternoon in the Binghamton area, where snow caused dozens of vehicle crashes and knocked out power to a few dozen customers.
In Lake Placid, skiers celebrated the snowfall by skiing down Whiteface Mountain's Memorial Highway, which is closed to traffic for the winter.
Technorati tags: snow+storm Vermont Northeast+Kingdom
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