On Funerals

My dad's sister (Aunt Nell) passed away last week, so I was in Ohio for the past few days to attend the funeral. It was a nice ceremony. I haven't seen my cousins in quite a while, so it was nice to catch up a little. As Dad and I drove from the funeral home to the cemetery, we formed the typical funeral procession with flags on our cars, and I mentioned to my Dad that I don't remember seeing anything like this around Wauconda in the last few years. I don't know if I just have happened to miss them or if it is not an Illinois custom.  As we drove along on a fairly large highway, cars we passed pulled over to the side of the road in recognition of the funeral procession. I don't know if the next generation of drivers would know that is the proper protocol. We did not have a police car leading us as is sometimes the case when the procession stays in town. Just the hearse in the front. But people knew to pull over. Funeral processions don't tend to obey traffic lights or stop signs. Everyone just keeps moving so that you stay together. The main rule, I think, is don't cut into the procession. I assume the pulling over is out of respect for the deceased. Not too far from Aunt Nell and Uncle Clint's spot is my Mom's gravestone, so Dad and I spent a little time there before heading back to the church for a luncheon. The women of the church put together a nice lunch for everyone. It gives everybody a chance to talk together. A good chance to remember Aunt Nell , who was 91 years old, a former librarian and bookmobile driver, and who helped move our meager possessions to Illinois when Ann and I first moved here in 1973 for our first teaching jobs, fresh out of college.  Rest in Peace, Aunt Nell.

What is the Most Dangerous Game?

Definitely, Grizzly Boom Tennis.

 From the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.     

Seems in keeping with the trivial pursuit question I got wrong.   

The question was "What is the fastest mammal?"  I answered, "A cow dropped from a helicopter." For some reason, that was counted as wrong. I just don't get it.  

Japan Earthquake Animation

 From Google Earth Maps, a very intense animation of the earthquakes (decidedly plural) near Japan over the period of March 9th to March 14th. Each second of the video is about one hour of real time. Each dot is a separate earthquake showing the magnitude. The big one is at about 1:15 on the video. It's much easier to view if you put it in full screen mode using the button in the lower right corner just to the right of the YOUTUBE symbol. If you click the button again when the video is all over (it's a little under 3 minutes), you will go back to the normal screen.

The lull right before the big one hits is spooky. It's like the earth is resting up for a few hours before starting up again. How could you build anything that would survive the earthquake sequence that you just watched in the video? It may be because I'm a math guy and used to viewing the world in charts and graphs, but to me this video is scarier and sadder than any live video I have seen yet. The music doesn't help either. It just lends a relentless quality to the video that is very depressing. The earth just seems really angry. I get the same feeling I got during the last few minutes of War Games when the computer tried out all the scenarios.

According to the AP:

 Last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan has actually moved the island closer to the United States and shifted the planet's axis. The quake caused a rift 15 miles below the sea floor that stretched 186 miles long and 93 miles wide. The areas closest to the epicenter of the quake jumped a full 13 feet closer to the United States, geophysicist Ross Stein at the United States Geological Survey told The New York Times. The west side of the island did not move much at all, so the country of Japan got wider.

The 8.9 magnitude quake was caused when the Pacific tectonic plate dove under the North American plate, which shifted Eastern Japan towards North America by about 13 feet. The quake also shifted the earth's axis by 6.5 inches, shortened the day by 1.6 microseconds, and sank Japan downward by about two feet. As Japan's eastern coastline sunk, the tsunami's waves rolled in. Why did the quake shorten the day? The earth's mass shifted towards the center, spurring the planet to spin a bit faster. 

This is not just another earthquake. Japan is about as well prepared for earthquakes as you can be. Twenty percent of the most powerful earthquakes occur around Japan. They are in a constant state of preparation. Nothing prepares you, however, from the destruction of the fifth most powerful earthquake ever recorded. 

In case you wanted to help out, Google has a crisis response center here with links to many organizations like UNICEF, and Red Cross. 

Mathematics You Can Use!

In honor of PI DAY, (3/14) we bring you some mathematics you can use.

Every year at Christmas, we struggle with how much to spend on each person and not set our credit cards on fire.  Luckily there is a mathematical way to figure this out that is fairly easy to do. You might want to use a calculator to help you crunch the numbers, but here we go.  The first thing you need to do is list every person you are going to buy a gift for. In my fictional example I have 11 people I am buying gifts for:

Wife

Mom

Dad

Sister

Sister's Significant Other

Aunt

Uncle

Grandfather

Friend 1

Friend 2

Friend 3

Friend 4

Next assign each person a number from 1 to 10 that corresponds to how important a gift is for them. You can use numbers more than once and you don't have to use each number from 1 to 10. 

So:

10 Wife

 8  Mom

 8  Dad

 7 Sister

 6 Sister's Significant Other

 3 Aunt

 3 Uncle

 7 Grandfather

 3  Friend 1

 2  Friend 2

 1  Friend 3

 2  Friend 4

Don't judge me, these people are fictitious. Now add up all the numbers you just assigned. In my example, that totals 60.  Next divide the total budget you want to spend for these gifts by the number you just got. Your calculator might come in handy here.  I have $800 to spend for gifts, so I divide this by 60 (my total from the list above). This number, $13.33, is my unit gift cost. Friend number 3, then would get a gift worth about $13. For everyone else, I multiply their number by $13.33 to get their gift amount. For your sister, that would be $13.33 times 7, which is about $93. Your wife would get a gift worth about  $133.30.  If I use these values, my total gift giving would be about $800.  Ta da!  My gift giving is set and I haven't broken the bank. Isn't math wonderful? 

Finally, in honor of Pi Day, one of my favorite math jokes,

What did zero say to eight?  Hey, nice belt.

Technology in Action

When my son Mike was at DePaul getting his degree in Geography, he took classes to be certified in GIS technology.  At first I thought he was talking about GPS, the maps people, which seemed to me to have something to do with Geography. I am still living in the sixties when studying geography in grade school meant coloring maps of Europe.  Nowadays, geography is a whole lot more and Mike would (patiently) explain what it was he was studying. 

Esri is a company that a geography major might work for. In their words,

"Geography connects our many cultures and societies and influences our way of life. Esri is built on the philosophy that a geographic approach to problem solving ensures better communication and collaboration.

Geographic information system (GIS) technology leverages this geographic insight to address social, economic, business, and environmental concerns at local, regional, national, and global scales."

They have offices all over the world, including a satellite office in Chicago. Their corporate headquarters are in Redlands, California.  At their website, they have an interactive map (shown below) that I think gives some idea of what geography is about today. 

If you click on the map, it will take you to a map of Japan that allows you to see the destruction that took place there. Each of the orange dots is an earthquake. When you click on an orange dot, it tells you where, when and the magnitude of the tremor, for example,

Earthquake: near the east coast of Honshu,  Japan

Type:

Web LinkPhotoVideoNotes

URL:

Description:

Keywords:

Category:

Affected PeopleAffected InfrastructureGeneral Information

Other (Explain):

Magnitude: 5.0

Date and time: 2011-3-12 20:8:25 UTC

If you connect to a blue dot with an exclamation point in it, you get some related information:

Description: Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant. On March 13, the IAEA reported that the first (i.e., lowest) state of emergency was declared. Later on March 13, the IAEA reported that radioactivity levels returned to normal levels.

Each dot is geographically accurate, so you get a feel where the worst things happened.

 But one of the most interesting things is that if you click on one of the red/white you tube logos, you get a video shot by someone at that location. It takes a few seconds for the video to pop up, so be patient.  With the prevalence of cell phones in Japan, many people shot videos of what was happening to them. These are some of the same videos that popped up on the news, but there are a lot more here.

If you zoom in on the map, you get more detail of what is going on. 

From Esri:

"The goal of this web site is to disseminate information widely, inform the general public of the worst hit areas, and facilitate recovery planning. Map layers are being added over time as more data becomes available."

Pretty amazing. Thanks, geographers.

Go, Bulls! (Again)

I have had a lot of references to the Bulls in the last few days, but it really has been a magical season so far.  With their win tonight and Boston's loss to the sixers, the Bulls are half a game out of the top seed in the Eastern Conference. In the preseason predictions, most people had the Bulls finishing fourth in the East, well behind Boston, Miami, and Orlando. And I'm sure if you had told people how many games Boozer and Noah would miss, the prediction would have been lower. The success this year is especially amazing because of those injuries. Night after night, however, three things have been pretty consistent: Derrick Rose has come to play, the defensive schemes of Tom Thibodeau have been right on the money, and the bench has done a great job.  

In the list of best point guards, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Steve Nash, and Chauncey Biliups were named by the NBA general managers at the start of the season. Biliups was listed on 3.6% of the ballots. So less than 3.6% of the GMs picked Rose as the best point guard in the NBA. Not real surprising, but I think he would probably score higher if the poll were taken now.  As Stacy King says (a lot), "He really is special."

The defense is probably what makes the season so much fun to follow, because defense is a TEAM game.  The players buy into the idea of defense, which is not universally true in the NBA. And the players seem to understand how to play "help" defense. When a switch occurs, most of the time, players are back on their own man before anything bad has happened. That requires effort and basketball intelligence. And the poster child for that is Luol Deng. He is often the second highest scorer on the team, but he works really hard on defense. I especially enjoy seeing Kyle Korver, who is not known for his defensive abilities, running around out there, working hard to defend. That is what Tibs has done as a coach. Players understand that they have to defend if they want to stay on the court (with the possible exception of Boozer, who just doesn't seem to understand how to defend other than by hacking). 

Finally, the bench has been a lot of fun to watch. Taj Gibson, Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, and Omer Asik are some of my favorite players. They take the minutes they are given and play hard. And lately, they have been doing a larger part of the scoring. Against the Bobcats the other night, the bench scored 51 of the teams 101 points. That's exceptional. And it means more time on the bench for Deng and Rose, who need some rest as we head towards the playoffs. The last few games they have gotten fewer minutes than their average. Now if we could just get the crowd to stop screaming for Scalabrine in the last two minutes of the game.

Tomorrow night, during an extended halftime of the Bulls  - Jazz game at the United Center, the Bulls 20th anniversary of their first championship will be celebrated. Several of the key players will be on hand for the celebration, including Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan, and Horace Grant.If the Bulls win, it will be the perfect night: dinner at Wishbone, best halftime show (although the quick change artists are a pretty cool halftime show, too), an evening with Nate and Dana (we'll be thinking of you, Tammy and Mike), and the Bulls tied for first in the East at the end of the game.  I am really looking forward to watching from section 324.   Look for us on TV. 

Odds and Ends

1.  The shuttle Discovery landed safely today, the end of a very successful mission.  In case you forgot about the space shuttle, here is another picture of it on the launch pad, courtesy of the website

Cuter in Bunny Ears

" This closes a chapter in NASA technology, allowing the scientists to move on to their next challenge: producing bunny ears that won't burn up in the atmosphere." A seriously disturbed website. 

2.  Da Bulls won again today 101 - 84 against the Charlotte Hornets Bobcats with chief Bobcat MJ watching courtside. High scorer for the game (tied with D Rose) was Kyle Korver, most recently of the New Orleans Utah Jazz, on 7 of 10 shooting. Joakim had 13 rebounds and 12 points, but the exit of Carlos Boozer with a knee injury in the fourth quarter after suffering a flagrant foul is a big concern. The Bulls have won 11 of their last 13 games. With Boston's loss to the San Diego Los Angeles Clippers, the Bulls pull within one and a half games of the top seed in the East. By the way, for you history buffs, the first coach of the Bulls could have been Ray Meyer, the long-time De Paul head coach. He was offered the job and turned it down. Johnny "Red" Kerr ended up as the first Bulls coach in 1966.

3.  Yesterday's Sporcle had a very nice contest on "Fictional Cats by Picture" here.  Got 20 out of 25, but had no idea what the name of the Pokemon cat (-like thing) was.  If you are not wasting large amounts of time playing Sporcle, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? As one of the commenters stated, "Heavens to Murgatroyd! That was a fun quiz, even." (I can't believe that was one of the ones I missed.) But, no Thundercats. Although the boys will be happy to know that one of the Aristocats shows up.  That would be high on Nate's Top Ten Movie List, I think. I would know for sure if I had Nate's Movie List in front of me. Which brings us to .....

4.  What is the hold-up on the Top Ten Movie Lists, people? Some people have done a great job, including two of my colleagues from my former workplace, who gave up valuable time during 3rd hour playing Sporcle working with students to do their lists. Plus the left coast contingent is in and done.  So where's Nate and Dana and Ann and Randi and Steve and Dan and Swanee and Sean and Melody and Mary and Dave and Patrick and Brittany and Jonathan and Jamie and Bill and everybody else.  Chop! Chop! folks, time's awasting. When you get them finished, send them here.  Mike and I are ready to move on to the next list: top 5 places we would like to visit. Or maybe children's books. Or superheroes. Whatever, let's go! And don't try to con me with "I'm busy." Don't forget - I know you, so you're not gonna get me to believe that one. Except maybe Mary during Show season. But she's got spring break coming up and besides, making the list is a great relaxer after you have worked awhile. It's therapeutic. Just thinking about it makes me want to take a nap. Wait a second, just thinking about anything makes me want to take a nap. I'm just saying.

St. Marys Under Water

Our home town in Ohio was in flood stage last week. The pictures below came from some of Ann's relatives through her sister Randi.  Luckily Ann's parents' house and my dad's house were far enough away from the St. Marys River that they didn't have any serious problems.

This is the city office building. It sits right next to the Miami and Erie Canal. The trees in front are part of Memorial Park.  The area at the far right of the picture is what you see in the second picture.

If you were standing right in front of the city office building and looked to the right you would see this (when it wasn't flooded). The canal boat is there for historical purposes. When I was a kid, this building was the library. When I was in high school (1960's , pre-internet), I spent a lot of time at the library. Coincidentally, my future wife did too. I'm pretty sure we spent all that time doing our homework.

This is the football field at the old high school.  There was a new high school built outside of town two years ago. We would have been given extra sprints if it was this muddy, on the premise that since we couldn't run as fast as usual, we needed to do more of them.  The fact that your shoes weighed five pounds each didn't matter. And you'd better not bring any of that dirt into the locker room!

The St. Marys Trading Post is across from the old high school. We walked across the street from the school to eat lunch there many days when it was the Murphy's five and dime. Now it sells all sorts of antiques and crafty things. Upstairs, my kids used to go look for Star Wars figures to buy when they were visiting Grandpa and Grandma. Their Uncle Steve worked there for a while with a fellow model railroad enthusiast.

Just south of this intersection is where my Dad grew up in St. Marys in the twenties on the family farm.

Things seem to be in pretty good shape now, but for a while there Rte 66 headed south past the Goodyear factory was flooded and you couldn't get to New Bremen to go to the Dairy Queen. Not a good couple of days for my Dad (who is 89), who claims that he goes to the YMCA in New Bremen first to exercise and stops at the DQ for lunch on his way home.  Sure, Dad.