IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

Evaporator Rafts and Wildfires - Dick LaRosa

There are wildfires raging in the Big Sur area of California, fed by dried-out vegetation. I believe solar-heated evaporator rafts in San Francisco Bay could supply humidity to the air that is drawn into the bay area and pulled southeastward along the San Joaquin valley to replace air that rises from the desert areas in the south. I know how to make the rafts out of wood panels, painted black, that float just below the water surface, so that the absorbed solar energy heats only a small volume of water to a temperature high enough to achieve a useful evaporation rate. Because of the summertime temperature inversion over the bay area, there seems to be little chance of the rafts producing rain, but they will add to the humidity. My ideas and calculations are scattered and in disarray, but one thing is certain: there is too much water in the ocean and not enough fresh water where we need it.

One excuse for my disorganization is that I have been looking all over the world for evaporator raft applications. There are many applications for rafts in fresh water bodies, such as Lake Chelan in Washington State and the Twisp and Methow rivers. The Southwest Monsoon is now in progress over India. The past two years, it was disappointing, and reservoir levels are dangerously low. Evaporator rafts in the Arabian Sea would have to be surrounded with floating breakwaters. There are huge swells adding to the wave heights during the monsoon season. Rafts would have to be installed during calmer times to be ready for the monsoon season. It might be possible to install rafts in Indian reservoirs to better distribute the water when there is an adequate supply. Newsday reports the weather in foreign capitals for the previous day. Thunderstorms are frequently shown for New Delhi, so maybe they will have a good summer. More detailed reports on the Internet show good rainfall. I have not found a summary of reservoir levels yet.

Recent reports of satellite measurements show that water is being stored on land in aquifers and surface water bodies. I have to look up the references to see where this might be. Certainly not in California.

Invention or Discovery - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

There is a dispute about whether mathematics is an invention or a discovery. Partisans of each side are quite strident about their own correctness but I tend to hold that mathematics is a discovery and that our annotation for mathematics is merely an invention.

Astronomers point their technological goodies heavenward and report back to us about all kinds of phenomena taking place billions of light years away. Of course, what they're seeing actually took place billions of years ago. We must duly note that all of those events have mathematical properties which were undiscovered but never the less functioning way over there and way back then with no need for human awareness.  

But, hey! We have stuff like that right here on Mother Earth. Consider these two geometrical patterns:  

These two patterns are the only possible arrangements of identical shapes, the regular hexagon and the square, that can be constructed such that 1) there are no gaps between the identical areas, 2) extracting any area element, rotating it and reinserting it has no effect on the pattern and 3) there is no visible difference in orientation between any two areas. (Arrayed triangles would have two distinctly different orientations.)

These mathematical facts stand all on their own. They have existed since at least the creation of the universe itself and have lasted all this time, utterly indifferent to our powers of discovery.

However, we have made these discoveries and have invented more than one representation for them. We can describe the angles formed by the line segments in terms of degrees or in terms of radians. Which description we select at any given time changes absolutely nothing. We merely have a choice between two inventions entirely of our own making.

There are two parakeets (called Chad and Jeremy) presently doing loop-the-loops around my desk and over my head. I am quite certain that those two avian minds are incapable of understanding the above discussion. That mathematics exists, but it lies outside of their intellectual realms.

However, they would certainly be affected if they encountered any tile walls that had been constructed using the above facts because there would be no interstices for them to fly through. They would make a mathematical discovery which would be very much a part of their world, but they would not create any inventions.

By the same token, are we humans limited in the same way that my parakeets are limited to only a certain level of discovery? Is there any mathematics waiting out there that lies beyond our human capacity for discovery and therefore beyond our human range of invention?

That's a sobering thought, isn't it.

My Grandma's Wrath - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

There is an expression that goes "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." but I have some personal evidence to the contrary of that.

Somebody recently sent me a Yiddish glossary of terms. I spent quite a bit of time looking at it and catching sight of this expression and then that one from way back in my younger days and then I happened to find this term:

chaleria  --- an evil woman, probably derived from cholera.  Pronounced with the "h" not "ch" sound;  as, hal'air'ia.

When I was twelve years old, I was having a mid-day discussion with my grandmother about comedians. I happened to mention Red Skelton and I said that he was "hilarious" whereupon my grandmother flew into a rage and let me have it with both proverbial barrels!!

The rest of that afternoon, I was in really hot soup!! It took my aunt quite a while when she finally came home later in the day to calm Grandma down and to explain the linguistic booby trap to which the two of us had fallen prey.

I had no idea at all about that Yiddish word but as my mother later explained to me, it is really, really nasty and maybe it shouldn't even be published here in this blog essay even though this rendition is bowdlerized.

Still, to fully understand the story, the word has to be presented. 

I was never quite sure if Grandma fully understood what had happened or not, but at least she stopped scolding me even though we did have a vaguely tense evening ahead.

Yes, eventually she forgave and forgot.

Unknown Rose - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

A few months ago, I noticed the sign on the left below in the rose arbor at Old Westbury Gardens. I thought this must be for the Amnesia Rose, but just look at the right to see what had come into bloom at that spot by July 2nd.

We don't know what it was called when it was first introduced, we don't know when it was first introduced, we don't know who did the introducing, but the result is still with us.

I just thought we should notice

Advertising Icons - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Sometimes I think we need to pause and reflect on what sorts of symbols are being very effectively aimed our way with the goal of  influencing our thoughts and behaviors. Of course, attaining that sort of influence is the primary purpose of advertising.

The unsettling concept is, how close does this come to being thought control?

Sit back, relax and try to remember these animated/cartoon advertising characters:

Speedy Alka-Seltzer, Mr. Clean, The Jolly Green Giant, The Keebler Elf, The Trix Rabbit, Tony The Tiger, Bucky Beaver, Bert and Harry Piel, The Pillsbury Doughboy, The Energizer Bunny, Charlie The Tuna, Captain Crunch, Big Boy, Joe The Camel, The Geico Gecko, The Little Howard Label, The Michelin Man and Peter Pain.

Did any of those names sound familiar or evoke any mental images?

Now try to remember these live-actor advertising characters:

Katy Winters, Mr. Whipple, Josephine The Plumber, The Pilgrim (as played by the late Jack Gilford), Mother Nature, The Professional Dishwasher and Colonel Sanders.

Same question: Can you see these people in your mind's eye?

Now think about these animal characters: Morris The Cat and The Taco Bell Chihuahua.

I'm sure there must be plenty more that have long since escaped my memory, but each and every one of them in their respective times immediately brought our attention to some particular product or service with the message "You want this!".

At this date, I can't be one hundred percent sure of what product(s) and/or what service(s) each and every one of them were touting, but each and every one of them became a cultural icon for quite a substantial period of time because each and every one of them invoked the power of association to great effect.

Personally, I find it just a little bit scary that some of them still do.

Hebrew Lettering and Musical Notation - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

A question I've wondered about is how musical notation can be made to gibe with Hebrew lettering.

In this little snippet (Yes, I can sing it.), the Hebrew words are transliterated into English. When this is done, the English words (or the French, or the German, or the Italian, etc. words too) and the musical notes are synchronized in going from left to right.

In Hebrew writing however, the lettering goes from right to left. How then does musical notation get altered to match that lettering or how does that lettering get altered to match the musical notation or do they even get matched at all?

So far as I've looked around the Internet about this, I haven't found an answer.

Does someone know?

A Felled Tree - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Just as a cautionary note, that seemingly strong and healthy tree standing near your house might not be so strong and healthy as you think. Please take a look at this one:

This tree was recently cut down at Bayard Cutting Arboretum. The leftover brush and other debris had been removed, but the main wood was still there when I took these pictures.

Just look at that internal decay!!

This tree looked alright to my layman's eye before it was cut down, but clearly it was NOT okay. This kind of thing can happen for a variety of reasons I think, but one of them is insect infestation as in borers and Asian longhorned beetles.

Take a very close look at that big tree of yours and if you see any holes in the trunk, get a tree service in to assess what you've got and if necessary, to take the tree down before it takes itself down, maybe during the next big storm.

Adobe Seeks Parental Control - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I am often amazed when sellers of commonly used software will introduce new products such as "Adobe Document Cloud" which I just discovered today, and how they simultaneously manage to get me enraged at them.

I am using 32-bit Windows Vista on this PC along with Adobe Reader X.

In discovering their new product, I also discovered that the Adobe X reader should now be updated to Adobe Reader DC, but when I tried to do that, this is what I came across:

Older and newer versions of Windows are shown as being supported, but there is no apparent support for the version of Windows Vista that I'm using. Despite Vista's flaws, 32-bit Vista serves my needs because it supports legacy software that will simply not run on 64-bit Vista nor on any later version of Windows and I do not choose to abandon what I have.

When I couldn't make use of the above, I went directly to the Adobe website to learn how to upgrade my reader where I came upon this next presentation.

Adobe will not even allow my entry to their website unless I provide them with the personal information of my date of birth. Unless I provide that, my access is denied.

Not only is it improper for Adobe to demand this piece of my personal information, I very deeply resent the idea that they will decide what content I will be allowed to see based on their opinion of what is "age appropriate".

It is none of Adobe's business whether I am 21 or 91 years old. My parents exerted their control over me when I was a child, but I do not accept that Adobe's desire to exert parental control over me now is in any way warranted or justified.

As a result, I did not do the upgrade. Instead, I still have Adobe Reader X on this PC and as to the new "Adobe Document Cloud", my hostility toward that new product is now absolute, no matter what supposedly wonderful things it might offer.

They can keep it.