Had never heard of them, until today:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disclosing_tablets
Saturday, May 07, 2016
Sacramento <> Ocean City, Maryland Highway Signs
Motorists traveling on 50 East in Sacramento may be familiar with this perfectly normal-looking mileage sign — on first glance, it’s like every other mileage sign along California highways listing the cities you’ll be passing with the number of miles to go.
But on second glance, this sign gives pause — Placerville is about an hour away, and South Lake Tahoe double that, depending on traffic. But why does far-off Ocean City, Maryland merit a mention?
The simple fact is that US 50 paves 3,000-plus miles from Ocean City, Maryland to Sacramento, California, but there’s more to the story.
In the 1980s John R. Cropper, Jr. worked as the head of statewide highway maintenance for Caltrans. Cropper, now 92, was the man who instigated the sign listing Ocean City, MD as 3073 down the road.
“Years ago, I was back in Ocean City, and they had a sign that said, ‘Sacramento California so many thousand miles’ so I thought, ‘well, that’s a pretty good idea, we should reciprocate,’ so we did," Cropper says.
And that was that. Cropper says he didn’t have to get approval from anyone; he had the clout to make it happen, but he was met with some resistance.
“I can remember I got a lot of static from Caltrans people because I had been conducting a campaign to get rid of unnecessary signs — and this really was an unnecessary sign,” says Cropper with a wink. “It didn’t mean anything to anybody except people who had some connection — anyway, it’s still there as far as I know.”
The original sign Caltrans put up indicating the terminus of Highway 50. Wikimedia / Creative Commons
Cropper knew that sign maintenance was expensive. This sign ended up costing the state quite a bit of money because it kept getting stolen.
According to a 2002 article in the Sacramento Bee, the sign was stolen twice, once in 1999 and then again two years later. Caltrans redesigned the sign to include the distances to Placerville and South Lake Tahoe, making it bigger and harder to throw in the back of a truck. But when the new sign went up there was a problem with the mileage. Instead of 3,073 miles to Ocean City, the sign incorrectly read 3,037. Caltrans noticed the error and placed a cover over the last two numbers correcting the mistake.
The Bee article reported that it would have taken two to three months and more than $1,000 to replace the whole sign; the patch solution cost $10.
But let’s go back to Cropper’s original motivation for sign on US 50. Where did the “Sacramento, California” sign in Ocean City, Maryland come from?
On the other side of the continent, we found David Buck, a spokesperson for the Maryland State Highway Administration. Buck’s father, Ed Buck, was a Maryland highway engineer in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. It was his idea to mark the eastern end of Highway 50 in Ocean City.
The terminus of Highway 50 in Ocean City Maryland. Wikimedia / Creative Commons
“Highway signs obviously are very regulated, in terms of what you can put up there. So when you put something up that’s a little different, or a little unusual like this, people take notice,” says the younger Buck.
One of the people who took notice turned out to be the right person who could approve a reciprocal sign in Sacramento. David says Maryland officials did reach out to Sacramento about doing a sign of their own, but it never went anywhere — until Cropper saw the Sacramento sign himself.
“I think it’s neat that my father was part of something that lasted that long," Buck says. "It’s interesting and unique — it’s not standard.”
Link:
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2016/05/06/two-coasts,-two-cities,-two-signs-the-story-behind-the-ocean-city-md-3073-sign/
But on second glance, this sign gives pause — Placerville is about an hour away, and South Lake Tahoe double that, depending on traffic. But why does far-off Ocean City, Maryland merit a mention?
The simple fact is that US 50 paves 3,000-plus miles from Ocean City, Maryland to Sacramento, California, but there’s more to the story.
In the 1980s John R. Cropper, Jr. worked as the head of statewide highway maintenance for Caltrans. Cropper, now 92, was the man who instigated the sign listing Ocean City, MD as 3073 down the road.
“Years ago, I was back in Ocean City, and they had a sign that said, ‘Sacramento California so many thousand miles’ so I thought, ‘well, that’s a pretty good idea, we should reciprocate,’ so we did," Cropper says.
And that was that. Cropper says he didn’t have to get approval from anyone; he had the clout to make it happen, but he was met with some resistance.
“I can remember I got a lot of static from Caltrans people because I had been conducting a campaign to get rid of unnecessary signs — and this really was an unnecessary sign,” says Cropper with a wink. “It didn’t mean anything to anybody except people who had some connection — anyway, it’s still there as far as I know.”
The original sign Caltrans put up indicating the terminus of Highway 50. Wikimedia / Creative Commons
Cropper knew that sign maintenance was expensive. This sign ended up costing the state quite a bit of money because it kept getting stolen.
According to a 2002 article in the Sacramento Bee, the sign was stolen twice, once in 1999 and then again two years later. Caltrans redesigned the sign to include the distances to Placerville and South Lake Tahoe, making it bigger and harder to throw in the back of a truck. But when the new sign went up there was a problem with the mileage. Instead of 3,073 miles to Ocean City, the sign incorrectly read 3,037. Caltrans noticed the error and placed a cover over the last two numbers correcting the mistake.
The Bee article reported that it would have taken two to three months and more than $1,000 to replace the whole sign; the patch solution cost $10.
But let’s go back to Cropper’s original motivation for sign on US 50. Where did the “Sacramento, California” sign in Ocean City, Maryland come from?
On the other side of the continent, we found David Buck, a spokesperson for the Maryland State Highway Administration. Buck’s father, Ed Buck, was a Maryland highway engineer in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. It was his idea to mark the eastern end of Highway 50 in Ocean City.
The terminus of Highway 50 in Ocean City Maryland. Wikimedia / Creative Commons
“Highway signs obviously are very regulated, in terms of what you can put up there. So when you put something up that’s a little different, or a little unusual like this, people take notice,” says the younger Buck.
One of the people who took notice turned out to be the right person who could approve a reciprocal sign in Sacramento. David says Maryland officials did reach out to Sacramento about doing a sign of their own, but it never went anywhere — until Cropper saw the Sacramento sign himself.
“I think it’s neat that my father was part of something that lasted that long," Buck says. "It’s interesting and unique — it’s not standard.”
Link:
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2016/05/06/two-coasts,-two-cities,-two-signs-the-story-behind-the-ocean-city-md-3073-sign/
Rainy Saturday
Balcony, rain, cats, post-coffee Saturday; if I crane my neck I can see the Pacific Ocean. This is all right.
Banner-towing fixed-wing airplane sign:
HUGE SALE AT ARROW SURF SHOP NOW ! !
http://www.arrowsurfshop.com/
We passed this surf shop earlier, as we went to Jamba Juice, to buy a small Pomegranate Paradise, to soothe Dawn's throat.
Banner-towing fixed-wing airplane sign:
HUGE SALE AT ARROW SURF SHOP NOW ! !
http://www.arrowsurfshop.com/
We passed this surf shop earlier, as we went to Jamba Juice, to buy a small Pomegranate Paradise, to soothe Dawn's throat.
Tuesday, May 03, 2016
Grateful Dead - Notes of a first-time listener of the live shows
Listening to Grateful Dead, live, for the first time, really, via the amazing Archive.org resource.
Today, 1989 concerts, from Rich Stadium and Greek Amphitheater.
Live at Rich Stadium on 1989-07-04
https://archive.org/details/gd89-07-04.aud.wiley.9045.sbeok.shnf
"No our love will not fade away" -- a chant to bring the band back, for an encore.
1989-08-19: Greek Theatre, U. Of California
https://archive.org/details/gd89-08-19.sbd.5213.sbeok.shnf
Can't say I'm a big fan, but am finding the rambling live music infectious. Will try to record thoughts as they seem noteworthy.
Today, 1989 concerts, from Rich Stadium and Greek Amphitheater.
Live at Rich Stadium on 1989-07-04
https://archive.org/details/gd89-07-04.aud.wiley.9045.sbeok.shnf
"No our love will not fade away" -- a chant to bring the band back, for an encore.
1989-08-19: Greek Theatre, U. Of California
https://archive.org/details/gd89-08-19.sbd.5213.sbeok.shnf
Can't say I'm a big fan, but am finding the rambling live music infectious. Will try to record thoughts as they seem noteworthy.
Sunday, May 01, 2016
Sundown
Second floor, University of California, Santa Cruz McHenry Library, watching the sun set, streaming through redwood tree branches and through multi-story library windows, listening to Grateful Dead, Live at Winterland Arena, on 1977-06-09.
65 F, 29.91 in pressure, clear sky, dew point 49 F, humidity 55%, wind from NNW at 4.2mph, sunset at 7:57 p.m. PDT.
65 F, 29.91 in pressure, clear sky, dew point 49 F, humidity 55%, wind from NNW at 4.2mph, sunset at 7:57 p.m. PDT.
Noh Masks, at California State University, Sacramento University Library Gallery
The California State University, Sacramento University Library Gallery currently features an exhibit, "Traditions Transfigured Noh Masks of Bidou Yamaguchi", February 11, 2016 - May 21, 2016.
http://www.al.csus.edu/sota/ulg/
"The human face and its expressive potential have inspired artists around the world for millennia. Arguably, Japan’s Noh theater provides an unparalleled domain for exploring emotion and representing the human countenance. Today, Noh continues to inspire a dynamic dialogue between artists from Asia and the west. Expanding on this rich vein, Traditions Transfigured features contemporary works by Bidou Yamaguchi (b. 1970, Fukuoka, Japan). These masks apply the forms, techniques, transformative spirit, and mysterious elegance of Noh masks to iconic female portraits from the European art historical canon, and to Kabuki actor prints by Sharaku, Japan’s enigmatic 18th century portrait master.
Like a human face, the work of Bidou Yamaguchi opens itself to many angles of interpretation. The product of a Noh mask carver who also creates modern sculpture in the form of masks, Bidou’s art speaks to issues such as cultural identity, gender, portraiture, performance, representation, and appropriation, as well as the roles of beauty and craft in contemporary art.
Our fundamental premise is that Bidou’s art is informed by the world of Noh, and, in turn, offers insight into this diversely creative realm of theater and image making. We stress the productive links between Bidou’s roles as a “traditional” artisan who works to reproduce old masks and a contemporary artist who makes new objects. We treat these fresh creations as “masks,” although they were not commissioned for use in Noh plays. In fact, the oblique orientation of the eyes in most of these portraits differentiates them from Noh masks. Despite these differences, our approach imagines these works as potential characters in future dramas.
In the world of Noh, Bidou’s work challenges the conventions of Noh masks and, by extension, might stimulate new types of Noh plays. More expansively, Bidou’s art suggests ways of deploying the aesthetic strategies and ontological assumptions of Noh. This is not simply another strategy for “modernizing within tradition” in Japan, or a new manifestation of Japanese cultural uniqueness with universal application. Bidou’s work is not aimed at any totalizing theory about contemporary art practice, and certainly the artist has produced no manifesto to such an end.
Instead, his art seems focused on a particular task. Bidou’s masks are a kind of intercession on behalf of half-human, half-artistic spirits. His works are transfigurations that bring about reincarnations into a transformed body (keshin) that is the true body (hontai) for figures like Lisa Gherardini who have become so well known as images (the Mona Lisa) that they all but cease to exist as humans. This act is analogous to the procedure of intercession or recuperation in the texts of Noh plays. However, unlike Noh plays, where this literary rebirth recuperates the socially unacceptable acts and desires of women and other marginalized figures, Bidou gives a new body—literally, a face with the potential of speaking—to persons who have been turned into “ghosts” by mechanical reproduction, popular appropriation, and, perhaps, a deeper unwillingness to comprehend the humanity of people removed from us in time and place.
Bidou’s art constructs a three-dimensional face for these rhetorical ghosts, and thus brings about an altered understanding of these persons who have become so familiar as images they are almost invisible as the vestiges of souls. Although his art is rooted in a Buddhist worldview, it resonates with the Christian idea of transfiguration as a change in form or appearance that parallels a spiritual change, and it signals the exultant moment when the human meets the divine so that the temporal becomes the eternal.
By transfiguring both European and Japanese artistic traditions, Bidou Yamaguchi’s work merges past and present. More importantly, it allows contemporary audiences to uncover deeper dimensions of their own humanity. By imagining ourselves wearing different faces, we can forge deeper spiritual connections with each other.
Kendall H. Brown, PhD
Guest Curator
Donaldson Torit, at University of California, Santa Cruz
Saw a Donaldson Torit product, at University of California, Santa Cruz, near the E2 building, of the School of Engineering.
Looked like a collector, of some sort.
Looked like a collector, of some sort.
Monday, April 25, 2016
Integrated Control Corp. Kitchen Minder Series Quality Grade Display
Saw an Integrated Control Corp. "Kitchen Minder Series" Quality Grade display, at the CSUS Burger King:
At the time, it read, "D+". Curious about what that reflects...service response time (?)
http://www.goicc.com/kmhelp.html
At the time, it read, "D+". Curious about what that reflects...service response time (?)
http://www.goicc.com/kmhelp.html
Radio Songs
Listened to KPFA 94.1 FM, out of Berkeley, California, who featured University of Wisconsin, Madison professor Ramzi Fawaz:
"How has the figure of the comic book superhero played into left-wing political projects and aspirations? In his new book, Ramzi Fawaz argues that the reinvention of the American superhero was a response to, and a factor in, the rise of radical political sensibilities and movements in the 1960s and beyond."
Link: https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-april-25-2016/
Listened to the first part while driving through the Bay Area, then switched to online streaming, for the remainder.
"How has the figure of the comic book superhero played into left-wing political projects and aspirations? In his new book, Ramzi Fawaz argues that the reinvention of the American superhero was a response to, and a factor in, the rise of radical political sensibilities and movements in the 1960s and beyond."
Link: https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-april-25-2016/
Listened to the first part while driving through the Bay Area, then switched to online streaming, for the remainder.
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
UC Santa Cruz McHenry Library - 2nd Floor Touch Screen Display
The UC Santa Cruz McHenry Library has a large touch display on the 2nd floor, near the main entrance.
It appears they partnered with vendor Four Winds Interactive, to provide the display hardware and software:
http://www.fourwindsinteractive.com/
Staff write:
It appears they partnered with vendor Four Winds Interactive, to provide the display hardware and software:
http://www.fourwindsinteractive.com/
Staff write:
"The FourWinds system was installed in the spring of 2012. The screens are 46" NEC / Canvys V462's w/3M Dispersive Signal Technology (DST) Touch Screen overlays. Screen content is driven by Medius FWP61-BSW microcomputers running Windows 7. The interface is proprietary software owned by FourWinds."Links:
- NEC V-Series V462 displays
- Namely: V462; V462-AVT; V462-AVT-R; V462-R; V462-TM; and V462-TM-R
- Since replaced by V463 displays
- Canvys seems to represent the name of the Visual Technical Solutions division, of Richardson Electronics, Ltd., which may represent the provider of the 3M Dispersive Signal Technology (DST) Touch Screen overlay technology, to NEC (?)
- Four Winds Interactive NUC (Next Unit of Computing) media player, model FWP61-BSW
- It seems Now Micro may provide the FWP61-BSW
- Seems Four Winds Interactive rebadge a Now Micro Medius Dynamic Digital Signage Solutions media player
- Now Micro may, in turn, simply rebadge the Intel NUC, for Four Winds Interactive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Unit_of_Computing
The Science of Making Friends
An article about making friends, as adults:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-science-of-making-friends-1460992572
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-science-of-making-friends-1460992572
Monday, April 18, 2016
Superfeet Copper
Replacing stock insoles with size E, of the following:
https://www.superfeet.com/en-us/copper
Tried on just about every style, at REI. They all felt similar, but these have a memory foam top layer, so giving it a try.
https://www.superfeet.com/en-us/copper
Tried on just about every style, at REI. They all felt similar, but these have a memory foam top layer, so giving it a try.
Robert L. Canson - First African-American Police Officer, City of Sacramento
Sign reads:
In Memory Of
Robert L. Canson
1918 - 2001
Beloved Peace Officer and Friend
First African-American Police Officer
City of Sacramento
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Radio Songs - Instrumental Surf Music
Kevin has identified Surf Music, specifically, instrumental surf. So good!
Heard on KDVS 90.3 FM out of Davis, CA on Friday, April 15:
Heard on KDVS 90.3 FM out of Davis, CA on Friday, April 15:
- Show Sub Zero, "Exploring classic and modern instrumental surf music and other styles. The music is so cool it's sub zero."
Note: this answers a question, for me, about what style of music this represents, first recognized while watching The Red Elvises, which Wikipedia repots as performing, "funk rock, surf, rockabilly, reggae, folk rock, disco and traditional Russian styles of music...Their music filled the soundtrack of Lance Mungia's independent film released in 1998, Six-String Samurai, a film in which they also had small roles and screen credits."
Can't wait to learn more/listen more.
FasTrak First Use: Antioch Bridge
Used it first during a north-bound crossing of Antioch Bridge, on Monday, April 4, at noon. Worked great.
Note: had planned to use it while crossing the Benicia–Martinez Bridge, but missed my turn and ended up crossing at the Antioch Bridge.
Note: had planned to use it while crossing the Benicia–Martinez Bridge, but missed my turn and ended up crossing at the Antioch Bridge.
Cliff Swallows Have Returned To Santa Cruz
 |
| Note: not sure if this represents the species we see here, in Santa Cruz, or not |
"Petrochelidon is a genus of birds known as cliff-nesting swallows. The genus includes all of the five species of birds commonly called cliff swallow...."Noticed them this weekend, for the first time this year. They speedily swoop by, circle, dive, ascend. Maybe 12-24 in sight, at any one time? They seem to individually fly, not flock. One web site describes their song: "guttural grating sounds and squeaks" which sounds unpleasant, but seems just fine, to me. Our cats seem to find it all very entertaining.
The birds return annually to nest, then return to South America, to over-winter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrochelidon
http://www.nativeanimalrescue.org/the-amazing-swallow/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_of_Santa_Cruz_County,_California
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