IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

Fire Pits - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

As if all of the smoke from multitudes of wood stoves isn't enough of a neighborhood scourge, this message appeared on a neighborhood bulletin board today:

 

 

This is a very real danger indeed.

Just recently I myself saw big flames from a fire pit lighting up the window of a neighbor's home and thought that there was a house fire. It turned out to be a false alarm, but that fire was huge!!

Please don't underestimate what could happen or what might happen.

Water Ripples - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

We were sitting at a park bench at Old Westbury Gardens in Westbury, NY when we noticed the water surface of a nearby pond changing its appearance from time to time depending on the absence or the presence of a light breeze.

Ripples were sometimes seen traveling across the water surface and sometimes not depending on the highly variable velocity of a gentle wind.

On a grander scale not too long ago, we noticed ripples on the surface of the Connetquot River passing by Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Great River, NY.

We'd seen days with river breezes of high vigor and other days with almost total calm, but not both on any given day. While sitting on a park bench on the river bank, winds would remain energetic or calm for the whole time and the river water would be correspondingly "choppy" as above or quite calm.

What struck me about these two observations is that when surface waves of the water were prominent and moved quite visibly in one direction or another, the water itself was either physically stationary or it was moving quite slowly in one direction or the other as evidenced by floating leaves, twigs and the like all seeming to stay put or at least not moving in the same direction as those waves. 

Despite a visual first-impression, water movement did not correspond to wave movement. With these wave movements, what you seemed to see was not what you would actually get.

First impressions can be convincing, but sometimes as above, they can turn out to be in error.

Caveat observer.

Broadcast Band and Short Wave Radio - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Someone sent this e-mail after having taken a walk in Manhattan and having noticed something quite unusual in a store window display.

This old Philco radio, dating from the early 1950s would be my guess, receives standard AM broadcast band stations, but it also receives short wave radio signals.

There were AM/FM radios being sold when this radio was new such as shown below, but the short wave capability and the lack of FM reception make this Philco radio unique in my own experience.

Yes, I do know about the Zenith Trans-Oceanic radios.

There were lots of other curios of old electrical, electronic and other technology apparatus in store window displays along that street as well. It's as though some new kind of "radio row" has arisen without my awareness on West 16th Street.

Maybe I'll go take a look if the occasion arises.

The Lazarus Tree - Part Two - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

A few years ago, I wrote about a particular tree that had almost been destroyed, but which had recovered from its decimation spectacularly well. It's still there and it's quite sturdy.

Now please take a look at the comic "BC" by Mastroianni and Hart at: Lazarus Tree - Part Two

Metallic Star - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I found an article entitled "Bizarre, Metallic Star Spotted Hurtling Out of the Milky Way at 2 Million Miles an Hour".  Please see the following URL:

https://scitechdaily.com/bizarre-metallic-star-spotted-hurtling-out-of-the-milky-way-at-2-million-miles-an-hour/

That does indeed qualify as something scooting along at extreme speed, but that number prompted doing a little arithmetic.

This object is approximately 2000 light years away which on a galactic scale, makes it one of our galactic neighbors.

At two million miles per hour, it is travelling at well above this galaxy's escape velocity which means it's saying bye-bye to us. However, if we look at how long this object would take to traverse the equivalent of the distance from here to Alpha Centauri, our closest interstellar neighbor, that time comes out to be more than fourteen centuries.

In short, this metallic star may be "hurtling out of the Milky Way", but it is still going to be in the galactic neighborhood for a very long time, at least on a human time scale.

Fast is fast, yes, but the galaxy and the observable universe are BIG!!

Red-X - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Many arriving e-mails have been created by their senders with picture images that fail to appear when I open the messages. Instead of an intended image, there will be a small white box with a red "X" in the center and no image.

An e-mail arrived today which was apparently sent with two images in it, not just one, and something new occurred. One image was visible but the other image was red-X'ed as follows:

I've never seen an e-mail before where both conditions applied. It's always been that either I could see everything or I could see nothing.

The questions at hand are:

1)  Why are images ever blocked at all?

2)  What is the remedy to avoid image blocking altogether?

Still More of Noticing Things - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Perhaps relevant to vaccine refusers:

 

A novel approach to traffic control:

 

An opportunistic bird's choice of a nesting site:

 

This pretty much speaks for itself:

 

A conflict of interest:

 

A marketing strategy (Never mind the missing apostrophe.):

 

A nearby placard identified this as a Sea Urchin. It's slightly asymmetrical, but very beautiful.

Clark Garden and A C-17 - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

On September 19th, we were visiting Clark Garden in Albertson, NY on Long Island. All kinds of jetliners were passing overhead on their way to landing at Kennedy Airport, one after the other after the other and so on in a seemingly endless succession. There was a lot of noise.

Suddenly, one plane came into view that was utterly unlike any of the others. As it flew past, I realized that it was a C-17 aircraft. There is a video on YouTube at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeehqODI2Os

which between the 30:46 and the 32:22 time markers, I think depicts that very same aircraft.

No silver colored hull for this thing! When I first saw it, it looked like some kind of black monster coming right for us out of nowhere. It gave me a little insight as to what it might feel like to see what you think is a UFO.

It was identifiable though.

Blue Zone Restricted Parking, Part 2 - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Some while ago, we took a look at parking spaces designated as being for permit holders only, parking stalls which I called "blue zone". Please see: Blue Zone Restricted Parking

As discussed above, the status of a blue zone parking stall isn't always all that obvious but this next example brings that uncertainty to a new level. (Move over, Mr. Heisenberg.)

Here, the posted sign and the white painted lines seem to contradict each other. However, it would seem that the safest assumption is that the parking stall is blue zone restricted.

You can't get a parking ticket for being parked there without a permit if you simply aren't parked there at all.

 

An Epileptic Seizure - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

This incident described below took place more than forty years ago but the memory of it still feels fresh.

Although I have met several persons who had a history of epileptic seizures, I once saw such an event actually take place. It was in a factory workplace environment. 

I didn't know the victim but he appeared to be a young man, in his early twenties I would say, who had collapsed to the floor and was writhing with the spasms.

Another employee who also happened to be a volunteer fireman in his local community had taken over the situation and did everything right. He had cleared the area of every chair, of every stool, of several tables and of various rather large items of hardware while standing as close to the victim as he could get while talking continuously to him, repeatedly calling him by his first name.

He absolutely did NOT try to put anything between the victim's teeth. If you have ever heard that "old wives' tale", forget it!! There is a much greater chance of causing injury that way than preventing it.

The seizures lasted for about twenty minutes by which time medical assistance had arrived.

When this fellow had first applied for employment, he did not disclose that he had an epileptic history. Because he had concealed that, he was given work assignments where a seizure could have placed him in physical danger and/or could have placed someone else in physical danger.

Imagine standing on a step ladder while holding something and having a seizure occur. A fall under that circumstance could easily be fatal.

It's an old adage, but:  Honesty is the best policy.