Cop Car's Beat

Excerpts from recent Improbable Research postings

It took me a few years to retrain myself to leave one space following a period when inputting to a computer rather than two as we did in the old days when typing. At least one study shows that it, indeed, makes a difference to the reader.

Excerpt #1 - of interest to writers everywhere:

Ammo for Space Pedants: Are Two Spaces Better Than One?

April 28th, 2018

....

“The most recent edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) Manual states that two spaces should follow the punctuation at the end of a sentence. This is in contrast to the one-space requirement from previous editions. However, to date, there has been no empirical support for either convention. In the current study, participants performed (1) a typing task to assess spacing usage and (2) an eye-tracking experiment to assess the effect that punctuation spacing has on reading performance. Although comprehension was not affected by punctuation spacing, the eye movement record suggested that initial processing of the text was facilitated when periods were followed by two spaces, supporting the change made to the APA Manual.”

Elegant Friend and I were marveling, as we beheld a smoker the other day, that people continue to develop the vile habit.

Excerpt #2 - of interest to smokers and those who behold them:

Cigarettes That Are Visually Offputting (research study)

April 27th, 2018

A number of countries have passed laws which require cigarette manufacturers to show ‘denormalising’ images on their packaging. To take things a step further, why not make the cigarettes themselves more unappealing? This was the question tackled by a joint Australian – New Zealand research team in 2015.

A set of potentially unpleasant cigarette designs were experimentally tested – of which the most effectively off-putting was found to be this one :

“The stick featuring the ‘minutes of life lost’ graphic was markedly less appealing and less likely to be chosen than all other sticks tested. “

Friday and Saturday, while Hunky Husband was in Junction City KS teaching some advanced courses in disaster response, I scurried about, accomplishing things that I don't tackle when HH is at home. One such project was hanging a rather heavy mirror in my bedroom. The mirror had previously hung over the back of the bar in our previous home, in a "landscape orientation". In my bedroom, it was to hang in a "portrait orientation". That change meant that I needed to install a new hanging wire.

Fortunately, the mirror had originated as one of the two mirrors that hung over our two double dressers in our shared bedroom of that house; thus, the factory-installed support fittings had been installed to accommodate either orientation (on our dressers, no wires were used, but brackets and posts had attached the mirrors to the dressers.) I used "heavy duty" braided wire, strung through the hanging fittings such that the wire formed a continuous loop. Cutting either end of the wire to leave an excess inch, I wound the ends, around the wire to provide "locking" of the ends together, by friction. I did think about the sufficiency of friction to bear the load, but decided it would suffice.

Excerpt #3 - of interest to heavy picture/mirror hangers, or anyone who wears clothing made from fibers:

A physics discovery: Why Clothes Don’t Fall Apart

April 24th, 2018

....

In his celebrated Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences, Galileo identified a fascinating puzzle in the mechanics of ropes…. From a modern perspective, we would say that the mechanical integrity of ropes derives from frictional contacts between fibers, and Galileo’s rope problem is but one exemplar of a host of related frictional phenomena in fiber assemblies, of which perhaps the canonical case is the ‘staple’ yarn.

The problem of how staple yarns transmit tension is addressed within abstract models in which the Amontons–Coulomb friction laws yield a linear programing (LP) problem for the tensions in the fiber elements. We find there is a percolation transition such that above the percolation threshold the transmitted tension is in principle unbounded. We determine that the mean slack in the LP constraints is a suitable order parameter to characterize this supercritical state. We argue the mechanism is generic, and in practical terms, it corresponds to a switch from a ductile to a brittle failure mode accompanied by a significant increase in mechanical strength.

Product Recommendation - DoorScope

During my on-going effort to get "stuff" out of our house before I die, I ran across a promotional sheet concerning a DoorScope. It had been faxed to our builder on 8/1/1999 and is on photo sensitive paper that has faded to illegibility over the years. However, I could easily read the name of the hardware store that sent the fax (which store, unfortunately, went out of business about 10 years ago) and the name of the product. Why am I bothering to tell you this? Because, without fail, when a person first visits our house, they comment on what a neat peep hole we have in our front door. We have always been happy that our builder suggested this optical device.

In case anyone is interested, here's the scoop. (No, I have no way of making any money or gaining any benefit whatsoever from posting this information, nor should my posting be construed as having the approval of any person or organization.)

This (below) is what a person on our porch sees (camera flash was used):

This (below) is what we see as we approach the door from the inside (again, flash was used):

If one enlarges the above photo, one can see the scene that includes the house across the street.

This (below) is what we see, closer to the door (flash used):

I should mention that the scene that we see is mirror-imaged.

This is the link to the DoorScope website. The cosmetics of the optical device have evolved; but, they haven't messed with the optics.

ADDITION of 4/25/2018:

Because Stu asked a completely reasonable question about the installation, "Can the Person Outside See in , in any way?", I'll try to address his concern. The information provided by the company does not address the issue. As far as I have ever been able to demonstrate, the person outside sees nothing that would be helpful to him/her. From the outside I see two glass surfaces with undecipherable patterns of light and dark.

Photo 1: Sunny day, with vertical blinds covering the window openings inside the house, Hunky Husband standing at arm's length from the inside surface of the door - no flash used for photo - the upper prism surface seems to reflect an inverted image of the house across the street.

Photo 2: Sunny day, with vertical blinds behind Hunky Husband (who is standing at arm's length from the inside surface of the door) having been opened - no flash used for photo:

Photo 3: Sunny day, with blinds as in Photo 2, Hunky Husband covering the inside surface of the DoorScope with the palm of his hand - no flash used for photo:

Someone else may be able to deduce useful information from what they see; but, I cannot. I shall send Stu the photos by email so that he may view them at greater magnification.

 

Love it when a plan comes together

There was a bit of traffic congestion on our street at about 3:45pm, Wednesday, when the truck in which sod had been delivered to us blocked the school bus' progress (photo, below). Had the sod been delivered at the scheduled time, three hours earlier, such a problem would not have occurred.

The landscaping crew had been hard at work since Monday morning, preparing for the arrival of the sod. There were three areas of rework: 1) in front of the house, a foot or two of planting bed was removed in favor of grass, to allow Hunky Husband sufficient room between the ginkgo tree and the planting bed to pass his lawn mower; 2) between our house and Jason's/Tanya's house, the remainder of the shrubs/vines/irises was removed in favor of grass, to allow me to spend less time, effort, and expense in maintaining the area; and 3) in an arc edging the woods, fill dirt was brought in to replace what flooding had washed out (repeatedly, over the years), and grass was to be planted.

Landscaping crew in the front area - not all that much change to visual presentation:

Between the houses - last year before any work was done:

Between houses - this week, after the removal of all vegetation and during laying of the sod:

Between houses with all sod laid:

Actually, I liked the way the side yard (between houses) looked in the "before" photo; but, 1) there is now less fire hazard to our neighbor's home (and, thus, to ours) and 2) it will be so much easier for HH and me to care for grass than for the plantings. As octogenarians, we don't expect as much from ourselves.

Along the woods - last year, prior to any work:

Along the woods - after last summer's tree work and this week's filling and sodding:

There are only two more major projects that I expect to complete this year: 1) Re-tiling in HH's bathroom and 2) clean-drilling and plugging holes in the rough cedar siding (left when the old porch was torn out last summer) and painting the back (SE) and SW sides of the house. Everything else will just have to wait until next year!

My first skink

At first, when I lifted a concrete paver to be moved the other day, I thought I had uncovered a small snake, coiled underneath. However, it was shinier and fatter than a similarly-sized snake, and when it uncoiled it had four feet - and - a bright, iridescent blue tail. When working in the yard, I do not carry electronics with me; thus, I was unable to snap photos. These (below) will have to do. The photos are from Animal Spot.

Although it was my first such sighting, there was no doubt in my mind that the critter was a blue-tailed skink. I failed to note how many stripes it had, before it scurried off. It was gorgeous! (I did not grab it by the tail because I didn't want it to lose such a beautiful appendage.)

CORRECTION

Despite my certitude, a closer reading of the literature tells me that what I saw was NOT a blue-tailed skink but the much larger five-lined skink. I would guess that it was in the 8-inch-long range. Other than size, the photos of the two skinks look the same to me. So much for my being "doubt-less"!

Effects of the freeze

First, let me make it clear that it is not at all unusual to experience cold temperatures, in April, where we live. What was unusual, this year, was the warmth that preceded the cold and the depth of the cold: we reached a record-setting low (for the date) of 18 degrees Fahrenheit. The table, below, shows the history of temperatures experienced from the time at which the temperature had dropped to freezing on the evening of April 6th through the time at which the high temperature of the day was reached on the 7th.

Date	Time	Wind	Temp
(April)	(cdt)	(mph)	Air
(2018)
7	17:53	Calm	45
7	16:53	Vrbl 5	44
7	15:53	E 9	42
7	14:53	Vrbl 7	39
7	13:53	N 8 G 20	37
7	12:53	N 8	33
7	11:53	N 13 G 17	30
7	10:53	N 14	26
7	9:53	N 9	24
7	8:53	NE 13	19
7	7:53	N 16	19
7	6:53	N 12	19
7	5:53	N 13	18
7	4:53	N 14	18
7	3:53	N 15	19
7	2:53	N 13 G 23	19
7	1:53	N 17	19
7	0:53	N 16	19
6	23:53	N 23 G 28	21
6	22:53	N 17 G 25	25
6	21:53	N 25 G 31	27
6	20:53	N 18 G 30	27
6	19:53	N 20 G 36	32

Effects on Mechanical/Hydraulic parts

Yesterday afternoon, when the temperature had been above freezing for a few hours, I heard our sump pump activate in the basement - and activate - and activate. I checked out the windows and found puddles of water in the yard at the corner of the house where our backflow preventer assembly for the sprinkler system is located. Donning boots and work gloves, I ventured outside to check it out. Oh, yes, water was spewing up the side of the house.

I took off part of the insulating materials (an old rubber-backed drape and bags of cedar bark mulch) to expose the valve which was gushing pretty much as in the photo below - well, probably more. We have pretty good water pressure where we live. As you can understand, I was more interested in stopping the gusher from the pressure vacuum relief assembly [that's what "they" call it!] than in taking photos of it.

Hunky Husband takes care of worrying about anything having to do with the grass - including the sprinkler system. My only part in the process is to assure that, to the extent possible, the whole backflow preventer assembly is protected from freezing after the system is turned "on" in the spring and before it is winterized in the fall. Retreating to the house, I consulted Hunky Husband. Fortunately for me, HH knew that there was a valve to either side of the pressure vacuum relief assembly. (Truthfully, I had never before noticed.) Thus, I retrieved a pipe wrench and turned off the valve on the supply side of the pressure vacuum relief assembly. Whew! I was all wet and chilled, but the water was no longer gushing.

Did I feel like an idiot? You bet! Not only did I not know the valve configurations on the outside, but I have no idea how to turn off the water further up stream - and neither does HH. [Trust me on this: we shall learn! I think it is in a box burried in the front yard.]

I re-wrapped the whole assembly (photo, below) to face further instances of (hopefully, less severe) freezing. Oh, and did I tell you? We did not get to choose when the landscaping people turned on our system, this year. They (smartly, from their perspective) divided the city into sections and turned on all of the sprinkler systems within a given section during the same week. Our system was turned on at least two or three weeks ago. No better than could have we, did they foresee the deep dip in temperatures. They will be busy, now, repairing all of the damaged systems, I predict!

Effects on plants

As Bogie predicted, I see no apparent ill-effects from the cold on our own plants. All of the ornamental pear trees in the area were caused to turn from clouds of snowy white blossoms to clouds of mostly-brown blossoms; but, we have no such trees in our yard. Many of our neighbors have such trees and one shows the effects of the freeze in the background of the photo (below) of our own daffodils and narcissi.

Later addition: The redbud trees were frozen just as they were ready to burst into bloom; thus, I doubt that even one such tree in Derby actually blooms this year. Bummer!

The only plant that I really considered at risk was the new dogwood tree - not that I considered the tree to be in mortal peril, but I really wished to see it blossom this year, if possible. (Hey! How many more springs will I likely see?!!!!) Below are photos showing the tree as a whole and a close-up of some of its blossoms.

Before I quit: Below is a photo of some of the creeping phlox, that grew from the starts (from her own yard) that Bogie sent us several years ago. They've been blooming for about a month, now.

 I agree with Luther (or, whoever said it): "If I knew that tomorrow was the end of the world, I would plant an apple tree today!". I plant trees for tomorrow on the theory that someone will enjoy them.

Readying for freeze

As he was toddling off to bed, last night, Hunky Husband told me that "they" were saying that susceptible plants needed to be protected from freezing. Think I, "Now's a fine time to tell me - at 10 pm when it is dark." As I lay in bed this morning, I realized my error when the radio station gave the outside temperature as 47 degrees (F), and about 30 minutes later gave it as 46 degrees (F). They weren't worried about last night, but tonight! With the temperatures dropping and a forecast of rain/snow with temperatures down to 18 degrees (F), tonight, I decided I should get my butt in gear and do something about a few plants.

Well...I spent about an hour out there, then came in to thaw. Despite the heavy, leather work gloves I wore, the tips of my fingers are a tad sensitive. Working with cold, wet mulch in a sharp wind from the northeast had done that! However, I did what I could to protect a just-planted dogwood tree (that was already bursting into bloom) and a few tulips that I had transplanted as part of my preparations to have three areas of our yard re-worked and sodded, next Monday.

The story on the trees

You may recall that, during the past 24 months I've had 10-15 trees removed (or more). They were mostly elms, ashes, and hackberries - species that are overly abundant and not very desirable, to me. I wish to "renew" the woods and include a few more desirable species. A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by the nursery to look at trees to be planted in the woods. They didn't yet have the black walnut trees brought up from the tree farm, but I bought an umbrella catalpa and a dogwood. They were planted on Wednesday. Yesterday, I again stopped by the nursery to pick up a tiny black walnut start - and planted it.

Yes, there are about 5-10 huge, old black walnut trees on our property; but, as many times as I've tried, I've been unsuccessful at planting new ones. They do great, up in our yard or in our planting beds among the irises or bushes; but, when I put them in the woods, something always eats them. So far, the young (6-years old?) black walnut that I had our landscape people transplant from a planting bed to the woods is doing well; but, one young tree will not replace the old ones that are on their last years.

Visible from 40,000 feet

Neither of the trees that I had the landscape people transplant last year, a catalpa and a black walnut, has yet broken dormancy; thus, I feel they are safe from the temperature dip and did nothing for them. As to the umbrella catalpa that was planted this week: it too has yet to break dormancy. But, oh the poor dogwood.

The tip of the dogwood towers over me by about 4-6 feet. I hadn't realized it was that tall! Fortunately, when I took my wrapping supplies out to the tree, the supplies were in my garden cart - which has four wheels and will carry a big load; thus, I locked the two castered wheels and stepped up into the cart. It was much more stable than would have been a step ladder (I must remember that in the future!) I started by throwing an old cotton/wool flannel sheet over the tree, more-or-less securing it to the tree by wrapping masking tape around-and-around. Then, I threw/drew a yellow plastic bag over the sheet, wrapping masking tape around-and-around that. These processes did not completely enclose the canopy of the tree so I wrapped trash bags around the bottom part, again, securing with masking tape. Why masking tape? It has probably been kicking around for at least 20-30 years (last time I did any serious painting) so was expendable!

Next, I covered the "seams" with wide, clear-plastic shipping tape. When I came in to thaw, HH commented that my creation should be visible from 40,000 feet. I've no idea from whence came the yellow plastic bag, but it was in the cupboard, so I used it. Oh, BTW, I finished off three old rolls of masking tape and two old rolls of the clear-plastic shipping tape. Amazingly enough, I've never purchased shares in a tape-manufacturing company.

I do not normally put mulch up against a tree's trunk; but, under these circumstances, I did. Later, I can scoop the mulch back away from the trunk.

While we're here, I'll post a photo of the new umbrella catalpa - with mulch piled around it - then go back out to get some more yard work done before it's time to shower and pick up Elegant Friend with whom I'm to lunch.

P.S. When I started to go out to do more work, I listened to the howling wind - and - talked myself out of it. Elegant Friend and I, as always, had a great time though!

P.P.S. From Slashdot.com: Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, and a dark side, and it holds the universe together ... -- Carl Zwanzig

For Bogie's birthday

Happy Birthday, Bogie!

 

For you, a photo of a visitor to our feeders, this morning. He feeds on our peanuts, regularly. The female doesn't visit the feeder, but hangs out on the roof of the blue bird nesting box. Unfortunately, it looks like this will be the first year since we moved here that will not include blue birds nesting in our box. Don't know if something is wrong with the new box, the new location, or the slightly different orientation.

When I came upstairs, yesterday morning, it was 26 degrees F with light winds, cloudy. This morning, 59 degrees and winds 30-45 miles/hour, sunny. Winds are to gust to over 60 miles/hour, today, so I may not get much yard work done.

Hope your day goes well!

Small progress in quilting

Last November, I wrote of an ugly quilt on which I was working. The quilt, originally intended to be for my use when napping in my basement recliner became one for Hunky Husband to use when he naps in his bedroom recliner. Well...that quilt was finally finished in January and has been in use since then. HH tells me it is really warm (with a heavy flannel sheet for the backing, how could it not be?) No one but me cares; but, I removed all of the ties that I had installed to hold the layers together and did, indeed, quilt the layers together. The ties, in that case, served to keep the layers from shifting while I performed the machine quilting. The completed quilt is shown in the photo, below.

 

Some years ago (2006 or 2007?) I took Dudette and Bogie to the quilting supplies store that was about one mile from our house (it closed several years ago). There, they were to pick out fabrics and block designs for quilts that I promised to make them. Have I actually made the two quilts? Silly question. Of course I have not - yet! After finishing HH's ugly quilt, I dug out the design that Dudette had chosen (graphic, below).

 
The graphic is one I made using a quilting design software package that was current, at the time. I've not bought a new software package and it would be a challenge for me to run the old one in Windows 10. I actually made a multitude of layouts using the basic block, and the one shown is the one that Dudette favored. I no longer recall what layout was used on the sample quilt.

In going over it, I realized that the basic block from which the design is formed is a challenging one - one that needs finesse to make look right. I started researching on the internet to see what I could find. It took much time; but, I eventually was able to identify the block as "Mary's Triangle Square" or "Shaded Four Patch" or a few other such names.  This is the basic block, below, in someone else's color scheme.

From Triangle Tricks by Sally Schneider

See the problem? One cannot really sew the plain triangle to the complex triangle, singly. That involves sewing on the bias of the fabric, at a cut edge - which will promptly stretch along the line of stitching! Okay. Fortunately, if one is clever and understands geometry, one can figure out how to make two basic blocks at a time. In that case, one still stitches along the bias of the fabric; BUT, it is not along a cut edge. Since people were making these blocks since long before I took up quilting (2005 or 2006), they have come up with the math that allows making blocks of various sizes. Well, I don't consider myself to be math-challenged; but, it's always nice when someone else saves me the pencil lead to do the math for various sizes. I don't really want to go with the original block size.

Ah, yes, making blocks as large as one can means that fewer blocks need to be made; thus, I've been experimenting. The original pattern for Dudette's quilt (a sample made for a quilting class was hanging in the quilting supply store when we visited) calls for 48 blocks, each a 6-inch square. Yikes! By making each block a 12-inch square, I cut that to 12 blocks. Well...I made a couple of trial blocks, each a 12-inch square. It isn't all that attractive. Currently, I'm looking at making 36 blocks, each an 8-inch square. (I made the two 12-inch squares into a hot-plate holder.)

While we're on the subject, below is another quilt top design formed by the same basic block. The quilt instructions are in a book that I had found in the local library, and later, purchased: Quick Colorful Quilts, edited by Rosemary Wilkinson. The quilt is by Claire Higgott and she named it Moulin Rouge. The photographs in the book show the quilt, nicely, but it isn't spread out; thus, I am using the graphic that Ms Higgott included to show the block layout. Please note that Ms Higgott used 80 of the basic blocks. *Groaning*

Guilty pleasures #3 - More Pickles

It seems that Earl subscribes to the Cop Car theory of getting things done.

Pickles

Yesterday was a cold/windy/nasty day around here (trivial to Bogie who has really nasty weather at times - our low temperature was 26 degrees Fahrenheit), so I got nothing done in the yard work on which I started a week or so ago. The work comprises, mostly, moving concrete pavers around (for various reasons), pulling weeds, transplanting sedums, and pulling up the winter creeper vines that have invaded the woods and grasslands that are behind our planted lawn. Unfortunately, it turned out that although I follow the "It's a cinch by the inch" dictum by starting out slowly and increasing the work done each day, I had overdone the moving of concrete pavers on Saturday. My remaining one or two strands of bicep muscles in either arm were/are letting me know about it. Thus: If anyone has excess muscle fibers, please send them to me! My muscle fiber losses were exacerbated by the time I was down with a cold, doing nothing!

Today, we are supposed to be up to 50 degrees F, but with winds of 20-25 miles/hour. Much better for working in the yard - and - I'd better get back to it!