Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday! (on Friday)

I had a topic already in mind yesterday, but the worky people needed me more than the Notifiblog did. So, today let's look at How Corrective Lenses Work! Thanks to www.howstuffworks.com, we can do just that...

(from HSW.com) "When you look at something, three things must happen:

• The image must be reduced in size to fit onto the retina.
• The scattered light must come together -- that is, it must focus -- at the surface of the retina.
• The image must be curved to match the curve of the retina."

(from HSW.com) "The strength of a lens is determined by the lens material and the angle of the curve that is ground into the lens. Lens strength is expressed as diopters (D), which indicates how much the light is bent. The higher the diopter, the stronger the lens. Also, a plus (+) or minus (-) sign before the diopter strength indicates the type of lens.

"Plus and minus lenses can be combined, with the total lens type being the algebraic sum of the two." There are 12 standard steps to grinding most lens blanks into the correct shape to correct vision. There is so much good information that won't fit here, so I strongly recommend reading the article at least from page 6!

Benjamin Franklin is credited with inventing the bifocal corrective lens, but who came up with the idea of putting a curved piece of glass to the eye to improve vision? Sadly, that name is lost to history. However, the first person to copy this invention and share it with the world is believed to be Giordano's colleague Friar Alessandro della Spina of Pisa (d. 1313). (Sorry, no Wikipedia page exists for him, yet.) He began making eyeglasses in Italy around 1286 CE.

Everyone in my family--even the ones to whom I'm not biologically related-- wears glasses or contact lenses. I'm next. At least I understand what I'm getting when I get glasses. (I'm probably not a contact lenses person, but who knows, eh!)

Notifiblog: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

I read public domain literature on my Kindle. The current classic book is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. I'm nearly 70% through the book, so if there are any spoilers to be divulged, you won't get them from me. I've never even seen a movie about it.
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers was published in 1870. (from Wikipedia) "It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus, as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax. The original edition had no illustrations; the first illustrated edition was published by Hetzel with illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou."

The descriptions Jules Verne wrote makes the story terribly slow--but also terribly believable in places! I admit to skimming over some of the more tedious details. But maybe the coordinates of longitudes and latitudes often cited in the text may be of interest to people who navigate the seas themselves.

The story has been depicted in at least six films -- Disney's 1954 film was the third one and the first with sound! (from Wikipedia) "One of the inaugural rides at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom was called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage and was based on the Disney movie."

One last thing: the journey is 20,000 leagues. That's a measure of distance, not a measure of depth. Didn't know that 'til I started reading and did a little (very little) research!

Notifiblog: How Does Pixar Do That?!?

In the interest of transparency, I will tell you now that I am in love with Pixar movies, and it's not just because I'm in love with a second (?) cousin of the guy who runs the creativity piece of the joint. Sadly, those Lasseters are not in contact with my Lasseters, so I have to do this research the same as anyone else: Google and Wikipedia, mostly.
In just about every Pixar movie is a little rubber ball with a big, red star on it. It's an homage to the film that won John Lasseter his first Academy Award nomination, Luxo Jr.

I know it would be fab to be able to talk with the man who creates characters and animations that convey deep stories, even without words. But it would be enough for me to learn how they render that little rubber ball with a big, red star on it!

Pixar's latest short, which has been released with Monsters University, is another work of wordless brilliance, The Blue Umbrella. This short employs the latest technology in the realm of photorealism. And the detail!! Note the sign outside "The Parapluie Café." Parapluie is French for umbrella. ADORBZ!

It's just not enough for me to hear, "They use special CGI software." I want to know HOW THEY DO THAT! Please.

Notifiblog: How to Navigate a Grocery Store the Zombie Way

​What is it about going out to acquire food in an American urban setting that turns us against one another? Just about every time we go to the local grocery store, I find myself having to navigate carefully around the wheeled vehicles of doom. Aka, shopping carts or shopping trolleys.

I have found that the most aggravating part of shopping in our local supermarkets is not the waiting in line, nor the struggling for items placed on shelves so high only professional basketball players can reach them. It's those infernal shopping carts.

Actually, it's the people maneuvering them. It's like the cart is an instrument that automatically allows them to walk in a straight line without any thought of consequences to others' bodies or toes. Almost as bad as people are with baby strollers. You've seen it; you know what I mean.

So, I have learned to blend in with them. I walk slowly and steadily, rarely averting the cart or my eyes, muttering under my breath, "Braaaaaiiiins! Or Tuna. Tuna is fine." (quoting one of my all-time favorite LOLCats)

Try it! If nothing else, it's fun to see little kids react.

Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday! (on Friday!)

Yesterday, I was swamped and stumped. Couldn't settle on a topic for HSWThursday. I think I found something to remedy this situation: tetrachromacy!

Tetrachromacy is the ability to see colors using four types of cone cells in the eye. Most humans are trichromats.

We learn about three primary colors and their amazing combination qualities when we are very young. The fourth cone a tetrachromat human possesses is believed to lie between the red and green cones. (from Wikipedia) "One study suggested that 2–3% of the world's women might have the kind of fourth cone that lies between the standard red and green cones, giving, theoretically, a significant increase in color differentiation. Another study suggests that as many as 50% of women and 8% of men may have four photopigments and corresponding increased chromatic discrimination in comparison to trichromats."

(from Wikipedia) "In June 2012, after 20 years of study of women with four cones (non-functional tetrachromats), neuroscientist Dr. Gabriele Jordan identified a woman (subject cDa29) who was able to detect a greater variety of colors than trichromatic ones corresponding with a functional tetrachromats (or true tetrachromats)."

Can you imagine how she sees the world around her? Of course, it's normal to her. Makes one wonder if there are other functional tetrachromats amongst us who have no idea they have such an ability! What would we call those colors?

Notifiblog: Forecasting - It's not just for meterorologists!

​One of the duties of project management in my company is to provide a monthly forecast of expected expenditures as each project matures. Forecast is so much nicer a term than well-educated guess.

Simply put, (from Wikipedia): "Forecasting is the process of making statements about events whose actual outcomes (typically) have not yet been observed." Couldn't have said it better myself!

Here in the Pacific Northwest, meteorologists are celebrities. We enjoy an overall mild climate, but we still like to think we know what to expect from our often grey skies. It's not enough to look outside a window!

The Canadian band, The Guess Who, would never have reached such popularity if they had called themselves "The Forecast Who." I'm convinced.

So what kind of day will we have today? I forecast a good one!

Notifiblog: Small, Medium, and Large

Today I'm attending a (free!) webinar put on by Rally TeamStart​ about Agile Estimation.

Comparison sizing, a part of project estimating, inspired today's topic!  But you know I don't usually stick to the predictable.

Small:  There is a journal of nanoscience called "Small." (from Wikipedia) "Small publishes research in science and technology on the micro- and nanoscales in the form of Communications, Reviews, Concepts, Highlights, Essays, and Full Papers."

Medium:  Medium isn't just a size!  (from Wikipedia) "In astronomy, the interstellar medium (or ISM) is the matter that exists in the space between the star systems in a galaxy."

Large:  "Large" is a word that combines nicely with the word "dieffeomorphism," which, of course, is why I selected this particular article from the Large (disambiguation) list.  (from Wikipedia) "In mathematics and theoretical physics, a large diffeomorphism is a diffeomorphism that cannot be continuously connected to the identity diffeomorphism (because it is topologically non-trivial)."

I hope you had as much fun considering Small, Medium, and Large outside soft drink cups and t-shirts as I did!

Notifiblog: New Red Cross Certification!

I am proud to report that as of this past Saturday, I have received Red Cross training in performing CPR using the latest guidelines, using an AED, and bits and pieces of what to do for situations that may require first aid.​

CPR has changed since I learned it in high school.  It's much easier, and you do provide a couple of "rescue breaths" between each cycle of 30 chest compressions.  Learn it for yourself!  There's a reason I don't list all of the changes here!  Learn more about the training mannequin here.

AEDs are SO COOL. Our instructor said they were designed by third graders, and if you see one in action (training mode is preferable, of course), you'll see why I almost believe him.  The machine tells you exactly what to do in an authoritative, male voice.  (The two I've heard had male voices.) (The ones my company owns have the voice of Peter Thomas on them.) (I'm such a nerd, I recognized his voice!)

First aid...it's mostly about common sense.  One does need to get permission from a conscious person to perform any act of rescue, but even if the victim refuses, we learned it's a good idea at least to follow the person until some kind of help can arrive.  And if you're unsure of ANYTHING, you call 9-1-1 (in North America).  Oh, and there are some nice stories about little kids who save people using the Heimlich maneuver, which they learned from watching Sesame Street.

Our instructor was a soft-spoken (had to really listen!) retired fire fighter.  He was able to tell us when the actors in the Red Cross training video were performing steps incorrectly.  Hey...they're volunteers, too.  I strongly recommend taking a few hours out of your busy life to take a course and be considered certified for two years.  Just because you know what to do, you are not required to do it.  Nor can you be sued for trying in good faith.

Okay, ONE MORE little tidbit.  Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted a few days ago, pointing out that in all the sci-fi shows, it's always a female voice that counts down to total destruction.

Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!

I couldn't find an article on my true curiosity this week: how automatic faucets work.  We have some in my office building, and I wonder why they hesitate to work when I put my hand under them, and then why they run automatically when no one is even near them.

Instead, let's look at How Ballpoint Pens Work!​

(From the article) "A ballpoint pen is a pen that uses a small rotating ball made of brass, steel or tungsten carbide to disperse ink as you write. It is very different than its pen predecessors -- the reed pen, quill pen, metal nib pen, and fountain pen (see A Brief History of Writing Instruments for details)."

Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro and his chemist brother, Georg, patented the first commercial "Biro pens" in June 1943.  They were inspired by the problem of fountain pens' flooding whenever they were subjected to airplane rides--which happened often as WWII progressed.

"The ball is kept in place -- between the ink reservoir and the paper -- by a socket; and while it is in tight, it still has enough room to roll around as you write. As the pen moves across the paper, the ball turns and gravity forces the ink down the reservoir and onto the ball, where it is transferred onto the paper. It's this rolling mechanism that allows the ink to flow onto the top of the ball and roll onto the paper you're writing on, while at the same time sealing the ink from the air so it does not dry in the reservoir."

We take the humble ballpoint pen for granted!  If you visit the BicWorld home page, you can opt to learn about the different pens that are sold in tropical climates from the ones sold in cooler climates. Keeping in mind that Bic is a French company, you can get the BIC Cristal(r) for Her in Europe only. Or on Amazon.com. (Check the reviews if you've never seen them before!)

Notifiblog: Gaffes, Mistakes, and Blunders

Yesterday, I learned quite by accident that it is VICIOUSLY easy to delete files in an application we use at my place of work,  Rally.  I also learned that one can recover a parent-type file, but its connection to its children is severed.  I singlehandedly broke the connection of one little, tiny parent object and its SIXTY-EIGHT children.

Happily, the data was there, but I needed to call in the pros in our help desk world to address the reconnection.  It was a mistake, but it was also a good learning experience.  And a marvelous topic for a Wednesday Notifiblog post.

According to this Wikipedia article, "The word error entails different meanings and usages relative to how it is conceptually applied. The concrete meaning of the Latin word "error" is "wandering" or "straying". Unlike an illusion, an error or a mistake can sometimes be dispelled through knowledge (knowing that one is looking at a mirage and not at real water does not make the mirage disappear)."

Let's face it: some linguistic errors are downright funny.  Cases in point:  Malapropisms, Mondegreens, and Eggcorns.

Other errors can be good.  In philately or numismatics, errors can be quite lucrative for the collecting crowd.
Most importantly, when we make a mistake, the best course of action is to try to correct it, if possible, and then to learn from it...and maybe avoid doing it again.

Notifiblog: Maurice Sendak

Yesterday would have been Maurice Sendak's 85th birthday.  I'm not so sure he would have cared, particularly.  When I saw an interview with him a few months before he died, he seemed rather like my father: everything that works hurts, and he was (understandably) grumpy about it.  But I did so enjoy his books and his illustrations.

It wouldn't be right not to start with "In The Night Kitchen" (1970).  It's a book.  It's a little boy's dream-world romp through a sometimes-scary kitchen.  The book has been banned and "helpfully" re-illustrated (some copies show a diaper drawn on the kid!).  Get over it: it's art, not lewdity.

I think the most famous of Maurice Sendak's works is "Where the Wild Things Are" (1963).  Despite the book's huge popularity, especially with children, he refused to write a sequel.  Good for him, I say!  "(F)our months before his death, he told comedian Stephen Colbert that one would be "the most boring idea imaginable." (Quoted from Wikipedia.)

Every kid in my family gets--whenever and however we can find one--a Nutshell Library (1962).  The four-book collection comes as a boxed set, and each volume is custom-sized for little hands to hold.  The titles are:

Alligators All Around:  An Alphabet
One Was Johnny:  A Counting Book
Chicken Soup with Rice:  A Book of Months
Pierre:  A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue

We had a treasure.  We loved him and then we had to give him back.  We can enjoy that he was here.

Bonus:  The little white dog in many of Maurice's illustrations was a tribute to his little best friend, Jennie, who was a Sealyham Terrier.

Notifiblog: Ouch. Ouch.

My favorite very-obscure-line from the film, "Benny & Joon" is, "Ouch.  Ouch."  It's so relevant to my souvenir of a very sunny weekend.

We were in our friends' beautiful backyard, enjoying good conversation, and I was crocheting.  We lost track of the time.​  No excuses.

Except maybe that while my nationality is AmeriCanadian, my place of birth, upbringing, and current dwelling is unmistakeably the most glorious Portlandia.  We are among the worst in the world at dressing for and preparing for the sudden arrival of warm, clear days.

For now, we must deal with the mild(?!?) fatigue and slather on aloe vera gel.

Will we EVER learn?

Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!

The topic of hydraulic lifting devices has been hovering in my head for a couple of weeks.  Yesterday, a terrible accident with a hydraulic lifting device took the life of a 19-year-old kid.  Maybe we can learn SOMETHING from the tragedy.

For this week's topic, I'm using the www.howstuffworks.com article, How Hydraulic Machines Work.​
In short, "The basic idea behind any hydraulic system is very simple: Force that is applied at one point is transmitted to another point using an incompressible fluid. The fluid is almost always an oil of some sort. The force is almost always multiplied in the process."

I have grown up and still live in logging country.  Hydraulic log splitters are probably as common as chainsaws out here.

The tools used to rescue people from terrible accidents are also hydraulic machines.  Until recently, I didn't realize that "Jaws of Life" is actually a brand of hydraulic tools.  "The Jaws of Life is actually a brand of tools that is trademarked by the Hurst Jaws of Life company, but the name is often used when talking about other brands of rescue systems. The term "Jaws of Life" refers to several types of piston-rod hydraulic tools known as cutters, spreaders and rams, which are used to pry open vehicles involved in accidents when a victim may be trapped." http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/accidents-hazardous-conditions/jaws-life.htm

Sadly, the kid who was killed by hydraulics couldn't be rescued by using hydraulics.  My sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Notifiblog: Happy National Running Day (US)!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013 is National Running Day. Sadly, the official site, www.runningday.org appears to be down as of this writing.

How does one celebrate NRD?  I wondered the very same!  I thought if I'd only known, I would have sent cards, bought and wrapped presents, put a tree in my living room...oh, wait, that's a different holiday.
I'll visit the easier ones from this article about ten ways to celebrate NRD.  I'm out of shape enough.

Get new shoes.  Yes, that's actually a tip!  If ever there were practically a mandate to go shoe shopping, this is it!  Oh, RUNNING shoes?

Think about potato chips.​  Now this one I can do:  ease tension in your arms while running by...pretending to hold a potato chip in each hand!?!  Pretending?!?

Eat dessert.  Ha!  "The average women can burn 345 calories in just 30 minutes of running."  Whew!  That's harder than I thought.  I was thinking more of spending that 30 minutes eating dessert.

Maybe running is your sport.  For me, I'm more a walking-tai chi-jazz dancing type.  ENJOY, all the same!

Notifiblog: Another One About Exercise-Inspiring Music

I don't fall back on this topic TOO often, I hope.  But there's so much good music out there, I want to listen to (almost) all of it!  If you know me, you know my tastes go global.

Today's three walk-inspiring tunes​ are:

Inspired from Red and Blue by Globe (my fave J-Pop band).  It has a nice, easygoing pace.  I like to do fast walking, so I go about two steps per beat on this one.

Last Friday Night (TGIF) by Katy Perry.  Cute and not written for women my age. So what, eh?  Reminds me of all the bad choices I didn't make when I was a teenage nerd.

Third one is a tie today: Minnie the Moocher by Cab Calloway and Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) written by Louis Prima, performed by The Benny Goodman Orchestra.  Did your parents give you the old line, "You think YOUR generation invented that?!"?  Minnie the Moocher has some very direct drug references that remind me, no, in fact my generation didn't invent everything.  We just made it so you can order it while you're wearing only your underwear.

Keep on walking!

PEDOMETER APP TEST UPDATE:  The Accupedo (free version!) pedometer app did NOT drain my whole iPhone battery (though I did bring my charger today so I can also play with the cute little kitty app I downloaded).  The clock automatically resets at midnight--and it kept yesterday's step count in the history, so I could record yesterday's steps accurately today.

Notifiblog: Let's Walk!

Today begins the "Summer Games" challenge at work.  It's a fun, slightly competitive way to raise one's awareness of the benefits of walking.  For a few weeks each year, we form teams of 10-12 coworkers, give our teams fun names based on a theme (this year's theme is "Monopoly"), and do our best to wear pedometers and pile on the steps!

I've broken the little plastic belt clips on so many pedometers, this year I'm trying an iPhone App called "Accupedo."  (I'm using the "free" version.) Thus far, I'm pretty pleased with it:  I can put my phone in "standby" mode and it continues to work in the background.  The only thing I haven't tested so far is battery use.  Tomorrow I must remember to bring my charging cord.

A nice little summary on WiseGeek.org explains how a pedometer works.

Do you like music to encourage you?  I do. 128 bpm apparently is best for running or dancing.  I see "walking playlists" available at 120-135 bpm.  Happily, you can buy whole playlists people have assembled--or listen to them on music apps like Spotify or Pandora.  An app called Jog.fm seems to have playlists specialized for walking, running, and cycling.

So...LET'S WALK!