Frank Marshall's Blog

License Plate Rules

2011-11-09T21:42:00.007-05:00

My home state of Maryland does not use the letters I, O, Q, and U on its standard issue passenger license plates. Presumably the I and O are not used to avoid confusion with the numbers 1 and 0, but I don't know why the Q and U are avoided. They do sound similar, but that is true of many of the letters that are used. Other states do not follow these rules. The data below shows which of these letters I have seen on non-vanity license plates from other states and gives some examples of plates using these letters. The standard format of the license plate is shown enclosed in parentheses where "d" stands for a digit (0-9) and L stands for a letter (A-Z). Examples are enclosed in double quotes.

Wikipedia has more information on standard issue license plates. Samples of current standard plates are available here, including Q's for CA, FL, GA, IN, IO, KS, ME, MI, MS, OH, OK, OR, RI, and TN; I's for GA, NE, and SC; and possibly an O for CT.

This site has some notes about invalid letters on standard issue passenger plates, including no I, O, Q, or U for Maryland; no O (or 666) for MS; no I, O, Q, or U for PA; and no I, O, or Q for VA.

Arkansas
While in Texas, I saw an Arkansas plate with an I.

California
(dLLLddd) All letters are used, but the I, O, and possibly Q are only found in the middle letter. The Q has an unusual shape. The first digit indicates the age of the plate (lower values are older).

"6RIT751", "3XOV871", "6SOX164"

Delaware
(dddddd) -- no letters.

Florida
Uses I, Q and U.

Georgia
(LLL dddd) Uses Q
"ARQ 4169"

Ohio
(LLL dddd) Uses I
"FIP 7374"

Kansas
(ddd LLL) Uses Q and U
"RQJ 882", "845 CUL"

Michigan
(dLL Ldd; LLL dddd) Uses Q and U, but not I or O. Does not use front plates.
"3KQ L39"

Ohio
(LLL dddd) Uses I and Q
"EIY 6441", "DEQ 7994"

Oregon
(ddd LLL) Uses Q.
"622 EVQ"

Nebraska
"SLI 061"

South Carolina
(LLL nnn) Uses I and Q

"GIQ 157"

Tennessee
(ddd - LLL) Uses Q.
"266-ZQM"

Texas
I spent four days in Austin and never saw an I, O, Q, or U.
Texas may be avoiding all vowels.

Virginia
(LLL-dddd)

"WLQ-804" is an old plate from 1989 that added new letters to expand available combinations

Seeding March Madness

2010-03-25T22:58:00.004-04:00

Each of the teams in the NCAA Men's Division I basketball tournament is seeded so that the best teams are likely to meet late in the tournament. In 1985 the number of teams was increased to 64, and a play-in game was added in 2001. There are 4 regions, and the strongest team in each region is given the 1 seed and the weakest the 16 seed. How well does the relative seeding of two teams predict the outcome of a game? It is well known that no 16 seed has ever defeated a 1 seed, but part of the attraction of the tournament is that the higher ranked teams do not always win. I have examined the results from the 2007 through (most of) the 2010 tournaments to learn the effectiveness of the seeding process. The first figure below plots the winning margin for the favored team versus the ratio of the seeds. For example, since in 2008 Kansas, a 1 seed, beat Davidson, a 10 seed, by 2 points, there is a point with an x-value of 10.0 (10/1) and a y-value of +2 (positive because the favored team won). I have ignored the 4 times when equally seeded team play, which can only happen when the regional winners play in the "Final Four". The plot shows that the favored team usually wins (about 75% of the time), and a linear trend line has a correlation coefficient of 0.30. But there is a wide range of winning margins -- typically about ± 20 points, and the range is roughly independent of the ratio of the seeds. This is why there are many upsets.

The second figure shows the distribution of winning margins after correcting for the trend line. The standard deviation of the distribution is 11.0 points, and by construction the histogram is centered near 0. The standard deviation without correcting for seeding is 131. points. Once the trend line exceeds 11.0 points (at a ratio of about 5.7), the favored team is very likely to win. In fact, there is only one example of such an upset in the above figure (9-seed Northern Iowa defeating the No. 1 seed Kansas in 2010). There may be factors other than seeding that correlate with the winning margin, but I have not investigated them.

Swift 5-Year Conference Celebration

2009-11-22T21:10:00.001-05:00

The Swift mission celebrated its 5th anniversary with a 3-day conference at the Pennsylvania State University. Since UVOT team had their own meeting prior to the conference, I spent the entire week in State College. This was an opportunity to sample the local restaurants including the Cozy Thai, the Indian Pavilion, the Golden Wok, Herwig's, and the Berkey Creamery. While returning from the Indian Pavilion, we passed the pig sculpture (photo below) celebrating the 100th year of State College. After the conference banquet Thursday night, many of us went to hear Maxwell Strait at the club Phyrst. The beer was cheap, the band was loud, the place was jumping, cigarettes were found in surprising locations, and the band did not quit until 2 a.m. Their lead guitar player resembled the PI of one of the Swift instruments. Attendance was down at the start of the Friday morning session.

The final day of the conference was exactly 5 years after the launch of Swift, and several cakes (left photo) celebrated the occasion. For some reason, everyone wanted a picture (right photo).

Elihu Boldt Memorial Symposium

2009-11-09T22:12:00.000-05:00

About 100 of Elihu Boldt's friends and colleagues gathered at the American Center for Physics in College Park, MD, on November 6, 2009, to celebrate his life and legacy. In addition to those of us from the X-ray Astrophysics Branch at GSFC (which Elihu founded), there were also friends from as far away as Italy and Mexico and several people who knew Elihu as a student at MIT. There were a series of short talks about the wide range of topics that Elihu worked on during his long career. I was honored to contribute a talk on Galactic Ridge X-ray Emission. Elihu first published a paper on the topic in 1969 and was still suggesting observations a couple of years ago. An agenda for the symposium and links to some of the talks are available here.

Mary Ann Mears Sculptures

2009-08-26T22:06:00.006-04:00

Mary Ann Mears is a sculptor who lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Many of her sculptures grace public areas such as bike paths in Maryland (where I first encountered them), but they are also found in other states and even in Japan. The sculptures are typically large, brightly colored abstract shapes made of aluminum or steel. The table below provides information about all the public sculptures that I know about. Unfortunately, there are rarely expository plaques with the sculptures. Another list of her sculptures can be found here. There is now an official Mary Ann Mears web site with an extensive list of her sculptures at public and private sites including the new Spun Grace at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore.

This interactive Google map gives accurate locations for those in Central Maryland that I have viewed.

Click on the photo links to see images of the sculptures.

Title / Installation Date	Location / (Marker on Google Map)	Links	Comments
Beacon 1 1985	Bethesda Metro Station plaza (A)	photo photo	A major work in the large plaza at the station entrance.
Gyre & Gimble	Imagination Stage 4908 Auburn Ave. Bethesda, MD (B)	photo close-up plaque	a whimsical collection of sculptures
Floating Garden Spring 2004	3003 Hospital Dr., Cheverly, MD (C)	information	inside Cheverly Health Services Building
Coloratura 2002	Southern Ave. Metro Station (D)	photo
Callooh Callay	Baltimore & Annapolis Rail Trail Glen Burnie, MD (E)	photo information	adjacent to bike path
Caracol 1984	Snowden Center Oakland Mills Road Columbia, MD (F)	photo information	An odd, out-of-the-way location.
Red Buoyant 1978	100 E. Pratt St. Baltimore, MD (across from Harbor Place) (G)	photo information	Duplicated in Kawasaki, Japan
Red Buoyant II June 1984	Nikko Hotel Kawasaki, Japan	photo information	An expression of friendship between Baltimore and Kawasaki
Boanerges 1978	Northeast Middle School Baltimore, MD
Brio 1979	Ft. Worthington Recreation Center Baltimore, MD	information
Ailes 1983	Notre Dame Prep School Towson, MD
?	White Marsh Mall
Esperance 1983	Conn. Dept. of Mental Retardation Norwalk, CT
Oasis Diffraction 1999	1219 Broad St. General Assembly Hall Durham, NC		a mobile inside the Hall
Sky Dancing 1994	Student Recreation Center UNC-Chapel Hill
Caged Heuristics 1997	Meyerhoff Gallery

Another Year of No Mercy

2009-08-14T20:25:00.024-04:00

The last regular game in 2009 for No Mercy, Building 2's coed team in the GSFC Slow-Pitch Softball Association, was Monday, August 10th. Once again the team avoided being "mercied" (the other team scoring 10 runs in one inning) for the whole year, although we did give up 7 runs in the first inning of the last game before coming back to make it a respectable 7 to 5 loss.

Surprisingly I played the whole year after sitting out 2008 with shoulder pain. Physical therapy followed by a steady regimen of exercises made throwing pain-free once again. As in 2007 and 2008, there was the traditional No Mercy cheer, and then a trip to Side Pockets to celebrate another season.

Two weeks later No Mercy played in the co-ed tournament with teams from both the Monday and Tuesday leagues. The games were shortened to 4 innings, and there were some minor rule changes to speed things up. We handily won the first game, but were shut out in the final games. Since our regular pitcher was unavailable, I pitched all 3 games. I set another personal record in the second game by giving up 3 home runs to the same batter. Two easily cleared the center field fence. On the second one, I gave the pitch the most arc ever, but he still crushed it. This adds to my other pitching "accomplishments": a 4-pitch inning and a full 7-inning game with no fielding chances. Sadly, it was the final game for our star "ringer", who is taking a post-doc position in Massachusetts. At least she went out with a bang -- a bases-loaded homer in the first game. We later gave her an appropriate send off.

Atholton High School Soccer

2008-09-14T17:38:00.008-04:00

My daughter is once again playing on Atholton High School's junior varsity soccer team. She played well (left photo) in the team's first three games and scored goals in each victory including a header against Howard High (right photo). The soccer program had its annual "play day" Saturday morning, Sept. 12th. Players from both the boys and girls teams, junior varsity and varsity (above photo), played 7 vs. 7 games all morning. Each team had players from all four school teams. There was a wide range of skills and sizes, but the ball was passed around to all the players, and a good time was had by all. At the end of the morning, the parents got to show their moves (at least what was left of them), and played the high school players to a nil all draw.

End of Softball

2008-08-07T21:59:00.008-04:00

The last game in 2008 for No Mercy, Building 2's coed team in the GSFC Slow-Pitch Softball Association, was Monday, August 4th. In some ways it was a disappointing year with many games missed due to rain, schedule byes and a forfeit. Because of a shoulder problem, I only played one game, and it seems unlikely that I will play next year. On the other hand the team did avoid being "mercied" (the other team scoring 10 runs in an inning) for the whole year, and new players were added to the roster. As in 2007, after the game we went to Side Pockets to celebrate another season.

Rafting Down the Lower New River

2008-07-14T22:18:00.021-04:00

On the weekend of July 12th, 2008, I went white-water rafting on the Lower New River near Fayetteville, WV. The trip was engineered by MD (initials only on this blog), who convinced 15 of her friends to join the expedition. She also set me up with three people who were leaving from Columbia and had room for an additional person (me) in their van. "Claire", our virtual navigator with the sultry British accent, guided us down I-95, around "Interstate four hundred and ninety five" and toward the far reaches of Va. We had a good time on the long ride, but for some reason the van liked stopping at every Sheetz convenience store along the way.

We used North American River Runners, Inc., for the trip, and everyone camped out at their headquarters in Hico, WV (Marker A on this interactive Google map). This was my kind of camping --perfect weather, drive right up to the camp site, hot water showers, and a restaurant. For only $10, they would even set up a 2-person tent for you. All it lacked was a liquor store. Fortunately others had anticipated this possibility and were quite generous with their provisions. We were entertained at night with shadow shows on the side of a tent featuring someone's toes.

The next morning we packed up, grabbed a helmet, paddle, and life jacket, and rode in a large bus (left photo) across the New River Gorge Bridge (Marker B) and down into the gorge to the river (I believe near Sewell -- Marker C). I believe the altitude is about 550 feet (old topo map). The area is part of the New River Gorge National River (map that identifies Class III (definition) and above rapids). There was a large crowd of rafters where we disembarked (right photo), but at about 10:15 am it was our turn to go. Ominously there were about a dozen buzzards watching us from a large tree on the other side of the river. Our group of 16 was in two large 8-person rafts (plus the guide) like the one in the foreground of the right photo. The raft that I was in also included the three people that I drove down with and MD. I think only MD had ever been rafting before, but fortunately the guide (the tall man with his back to the camera toward the left of the right photo) knew what he was doing and carefully explained what we should be doing. Each rafter sat on the edge of the raft with their feet wedged under one of the inflatable tubes running across the raft. This made it easy to paddle while still being well connected to the raft. The weather was pleasantly warm, and there were enough clouds to keep us from getting baked by the Sun. I took my (very) old digital camera along in a dry bag, but only risked taking pictures a few times on the river (when there were calm stretches). KJ brought a waterproof camera, and it had to be fished out of the river once by our guide.

The first large set of rapids (Upper Railroad?) was real exciting, and at one point most of the people on the right side of the raft were thrown over to the left side. At the time I was thinking that this could be a long trip, but looking back I suspect that we simply were not quite ready. After a while, it became a standard joke as we approached more rapids to tell people to stay on their own side of the raft. Before we entered a rapid the guide would always tell us which direction to swim if we fell off. Fortunately no one in our raft ever did, but we did see two people fall off rafts going through rapids, and one large raft flipped over. A guide also fell off.

The front car is the most exciting position when riding roller coasters, and the same is true for rafting. Instead I sat in the back left of the raft where no one could easily check how hard I was paddling. For some reason, the right side of our raft was by far the wetter -- only one big wave came over the left side of the raft. Surfing was an interesting, unexpected part of rafting. After going through a rapid, we would turn around and paddle back. There is a quasi-stable position just downstream of the rock that obstructed the flow of water.

About noon we stopped for lunch at the side of the river. The guides provided cold cuts for sandwiches, salads, and cookies. Lunch also provided the opportunity to take a few photos. It took two attempts to get the group photo to the right. In the first attempt, the person taking the photo thought that she took 3 pictures, but actually was not pressing the shutter button hard enough. Fortunately someone wanted to look at the pictures and discovered there weren't any. The right photo is actually the 6th pose, and people were beginning to act up.

Although the rapids provided the thrills during the trip, most of the time was spent just floating down the river. We really did not paddle that much. In several of the stretches between the rapids, we were encouraged to jump off and float down the river near the raft. It was great fun, and in a couple of places you could even float through wimpy rapids. The water was surprisingly warm, but still refreshing.

Toward the end of the trip, our guide suggested that someone "bull ride" the final set of rapids, and we volunteered MD. Holding a rope attached to the front of the raft and sitting precariously on the front (like the person in the right photo), she rode into the rapids. Fortunately she had the good sense to fall back into the raft instead of forward into the river.

Near the end of the trip we floated under the New River Gorge Bridge (HDR photo), which we had crossed several hours earlier. It is an amazing structure whether viewed from its deck or from the river 876 feet below (right photo). When finished in 1977, it was the longest steel arch bridge in the world, and it is still the second highest vehicular bridge. It is closed to traffic the third Saturday in October every year for the New River Gorge Bridge Day party. Last year 155,000 people showed up to watch BASE jumping (YouTube video) and rappelling down the bridge. For comparison, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Walk draws about 50,000 people.

Just downstream from the bridge, a large rock provided an opportunity to jump into the river. It seemed like a good idea in the raft, but not so smart from the top of the rock. Since there is no easy way back down the rock, in you go (right photo).

We left the river a bit downstream of the large rock and piled into another bus at about 2:30 pm. We had traveled about 6 miles on the river and dropped about 300 feet in altitude. With fortunate timing, it started raining very hard just as the bus headed up the side of the gorge and then back to the campground. After a quick change into dry clothes, we started the long trip back to Maryland.

Field of Sheets

2008-07-11T09:18:00.004-04:00

In honor of (energy) Independence Day, the citizens of Columbia, Maryland, decided to dry their sheets and blankets using solar energy on the shores of Lake Kittamaqundi near the Town Center.

Field of Pipes

2008-06-29T20:30:00.010-04:00

While riding past Howard Community College today, I saw an interesting collection of pipes (lower photo) in a pit next to a large building currently under construction. I later saw the sign (above photo) on the other side of the construction site announcing this as the Medical Pavilion at Howard County. The new building at the right of the photo is between HCC and Howard County General Hospital. The pit has been dug (the dirt is in the background), and the large plastic pipes nearly cover the exposed area. All the black pipes are connected on the right side. The yellow and black pipes are carefully aligned, but not yet connected (the merging of two photos creates what appears to be a bend in the pipes). The pipes have been partially covered with gravel, and the large pile of gravel toward the left of the photo suggests that the pipes will be completely covered with gravel later. The pipes are made in Winchester, Kentucky, by Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc., and shipped as half-cylinders so that they can be efficiently stacked.

When I returned two days later, the pipes were almost entirely covered. I now believe that this is an elaborate drainage system (e.g., a weeping tile as suggested by BP). There appears to be a storm drain in the far right corner of the field with a concrete silo leading down to the pipes.

Goodbye for a Year

2008-06-26T21:22:00.007-04:00

One of my co-workers will spend the next year at NASA HQ as a detailee -- essentially a temporary work assignment. To mark this occasion properly, the usual crowd took her to lunch at Sir Walter Raleigh and then shared a few drinks after work at Chevy's. In addition to those in the picture, at least six other people stopped by to wish her well.

Atholton High School Graduation 2008

2008-05-22T23:01:00.007-04:00

Atholton High School's 2008 Commencement was on May 22nd at Merriweather Post Pavilion (left photo). My son was one of about 300 students celebrating their graduation from high school by walking across the stage to be congratulated by Janet Siddiqui of the Howard County Board of Education and Atholton's principal Marcy Leonard (right photo). He not only got his diploma (lower left photo), but was recognized the previous day for his participation in First Robotics and the Atholton Robotics Club (lower right photo).

Atholton High School Botball 2008

2008-05-04T17:19:00.012-04:00

My son's high school, Atholton High, competed in the Greater D.C. Regional Botball Robot Tournament on May 3, 2008, at Ritchie Coliseum (left photo) on the U. of Maryland College Park Campus. There were about 50 teams -- mostly from high schools in the region, but also a few from middle schools and clubs. The goal was to build two robots (or in a few cases only one) from a kit of parts that would autonomously knock some pieces off the table and move other pieces to the desired part of the table (right photo). There was a story about a solar flare endangering the space station, and the robot has two minutes to deploy (knock off the table) the satellites (blue cups) and solar sails (little paper umbrellas), move the crew (orange poms) to the orange square, and the plants (green poms) to the green square. The robot can also connect the two modules (tables) by setting up the pathways between them (knock down the hinged pieces of wood). Before the match, the students set up the robots in the proper position, and then had nothing to do during the match except possibly catch a robot falling off the table. Turning on two light bulbs signaled the start of the game. (As a result no flash photography was allowed, which led to rather long exposures of about 1/15th of a second for my photos.) There were three seeding rounds in which only one team was on a table, and then double elimination rounds in which two teams competed in a head-to-head match. The first Atholton team (with mostly seniors) had a series of problems and lost their first two elimination matches (left photo). The second team (with mostly juniors) only built one robot, but it would consistently deploy all the satellites and solar sails and move all the crew and plants on their side of the table to safety (right photo). They won their first two elimination matches. The right photo below shows the board at the end of the second match. Note that there are no cups left on their (right) side of the table, and all the poms have been moved to the squares. They eventually finished 6th.

Swift Team Meeting

2008-02-07T23:20:00.006-05:00

Note: Location markers can be found on this interactive Google map.

The 2008 Swift Team Meeting was at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (Marker D) on February 4th and 5th, and it was followed by a UVOT team meeting the next day. This post chronicles my after-hour activities. I took a non-stop flight from BWI very early on Sunday, February 3rd, to allow some time for exploring the Las Vegas area. I had originally planned to leave a day earlier to spend a day in Zion National Park, but after monitoring the temperatures for a while, I decided that it was likely to be too cold to enjoy Zion. At check-in I managed to change my seat to a window seat in front of the wing, but it was cloudy almost all of the way to Las Vegas. The clouds finally lifted as we crossed Lake Mead, and there was a brilliant rainbow all the way into the Las Vegas Airport. The photo was taken about 10 miles NE of Hoover Dam looking NW (Marker A). Las Vegas was at the edge of a powerful storm crossing Utah that caused scattered showers in the area (snow on the local mountains) and high winds that closed the airport for a few hours after I landed.

It was Super Bowl Sunday, which is a big event in Las Vegas, but the Strip was pretty quiet as I drove up to the Treasure Island Casino to pick up tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Mystère show for Tuesday night. Conveniently, all the big casinos offer free self parking as an inducement for gambling. I had no interest in gambling, but I was eager to try the thrill rides atop the 1,149-foot Stratosphere Tower. A call to the hotel revealed that only one ride was operating, and worse, when I got there, all three rides were closed because of the wind. I then checked into the Alexis Park Resort Hotel (Marker C), which is located between the Strip and UNLV on Harmon Ave. With a few hours of daylight left, I headed toward Hoover Dam (Marker B) . Heightened security at the dam since 9/11 has reduced access, but I managed to park just across the dam on the Arizona side (left photo) and walk across the top of the dam back to the Nevada side. There is a large band of lightly colored material all around the edge of the lake (visible in the above photo of the rainbow) that is the result of decreased snow in the Upper Basin of the Colorado River. The water level has not been this low in 40 years. Downstream is the start of a spectacular bridge (right photo) over the Black Canyon section of the Colorado River that will be the key element of the Hoover Dam Bypass. The two pillars in the photo support the deck of the bridge, and the start of the long arch across the canyon is at the base of the pillars. When finished in 2010, the new $114-million bridge will be 2000 feet long and tower 900 feet over the Colorado River about 1600 feet south of the dam (picture). As dusk fell, I headed back to Las Vegas in time to watch the end of the Super Bowl in the sports betting arena at the opulent Bellagio Hotel. There were hundreds of people jammed into the large room with enormous monitors covering one wall and the lines on all sorts of exotic bets on the Super Bowl covering another wall. People were screaming during the final game-winning drive by the Giants, and the crowd went nuts when Plaxico Burress caught Eli Manning's pass in the end zone to win the game (YouTube video). The casinos lost $2.6M because too many Giant fans bet against the heavily favored Patriots. After the game I toured the luxurious hotel including its gorgeous (photo) Botanical Garden. I finished the evening by catching one of the free circus acts (a woman on a ring hanging from the ceiling) at Circus Circus and then a quick run to downtown Las Vegas for the Fremont Street Experience.

I made a second run at the Stratosphere Monday evening. A call to the hotel revealed that two rides were operating, but again when I got there all three were closed. Later that night I made it to the coaster at the New York New York Hotel about 30 minutes before it closed. Normally your ability to ride a coaster is limited by the long lines, but here the frequency was limited by the short lines because the coaster would not run until there were 10 riders. I quickly realized that skipping the first opportunity meant that I could have the coveted position in the front car on the next run. I didn't realize that the next ride would require a wait of about 30 minutes. I declined a rather personal offer from another rider to trade seats and enjoyed a good ride with a spectacular view of the Strip.

Tuesday night four of us went to see the 9:30 show of Mystère. We got there early enough to watch the goofy Sirens of TI pirate show outside the hotel (Marker E). Mystère (YouTube video) was wild and wonderful with all sorts of strange things happening in a beautiful setting. After the show we walked across the street to the luxurious Venetian Hotel to have a drink. We missed a chance to get into the Tao night club without waiting in line, but we enjoyed some refreshments outside the Tintoretto bakery (photo) on a faux Venetian street complete with a painted sky. We skipped the gondola rides, but it was a fitting end to a strange trip.

New Year's Eve Party

2008-01-04T22:09:00.000-05:00

We spent New Year's Eve hosting a party for our daughter and about 25 of her friends. Many of the girls showed up early to help prepare for the party and pose for the usual pictures.

Holiday Inflatables

2007-12-22T19:49:00.000-05:00

If it's December, it's time to fill our front yard with inflatables.

GRB 2007 Conference

2007-11-12T17:00:00.000-05:00

The GRB 2007 Conference was held at the Santa Fe Hilton (Marker A on this interactive Google map) in New Mexico from November 5^th through November 9^th. This page chronicles some of my after-hours activities.

Note -- click on the thumbnails below to see larger images.
Note -- markers below can be found on this interactive Google map.

Monday, November 5^th, 2007

I flew on United Airlines from BWI to Albuquerque with a change of planes in Denver. The leg from Denver to Albuquerque provided an opportunity to enjoy the wild landscape of Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico looking east from the airplane. Much of the flight path followed the Rio Grande River. Cripple Creek (above left photo; Marker G on Google map) was the site of a huge gold rush starting in 1891 that produced 700 tons of gold. The original mines are long since exhausted, but the open pit mine near the center of the photo has been operating since 1994. The Great Sand Dunes National Park (above, middle left photo; Marker B) includes the tallest (750') sand dunes in North America. They were formed from the sand left behind after Lake Alamosa either dried up or breached the southern end of the San Luis Valley and drained down the Rio Grande River. Prevailing winds push the sand to this corner of the valley. Ute Mountain (above, middle right photo; Marker C) (topo map) is an extinct volcano just south of the Colorado-New Mexico border that recently became protected public land. With an altitude of 10,093 feet, it towers over the surrounding area including the gorge cut in its western flank by the Rio Grande River. The final picture shows part of the enormous Black Mesa (above, right photo; Marker D) just north of Española, NM. The mesa extends off the picture for a total length of ~25 km. The top of the mesa has an altitude of ~6900' with a drop at the edge of ~1000' (topo map). The Rio Grande River is just beyond (east of) the mesa, and US Highway 285 follows the west side.

Food

Lunches at the hotel were included in the registration fee, but evenings provided opportunities to sample the interesting bars/restaurants in Santa Fe. After the welcoming reception on Monday, AF (an ex-local) lead about a dozen of us a few blocks south to (Marker E) the Cowgirl Hall of Fame BBQ and Western Grill. The friendly waitresses dressed as cowgirls, and the walls were covered with cowgirl photos. We did not sample the food, but there was a large selection of good, inexpensive beers. Tuesday I enjoyed Gabriel's, a good Mexican restaurant about 10 miles north of town (Marker F). On the way back, we make like astronomers, and drove a bit off the main highway to get a glimpse of Comet Holmes. The sky was very dark, but the comet was just a small fuzz ball. The conference banquet was Wednesday at the local Scottish Rite Masonic Center (left photo; Marker G), which is only a short walk from the hotel. Strangely, the currently very pink building seems to have been brown (Flickr photo) a couple of years ago. The center includes an ornate theater (center photo), and we were invited backstage to examine the fancy costumes (right photos). They must have very elaborate ceremonies in the theater. Finally on Thursday, a large group of us tried to have dinner at the Shed, but the wait was way too long. Instead we returned to Cowgirl, which managed to squeeze us in.

Halloween 2007

2007-10-31T22:11:00.000-04:00

Halloween remains a popular event in our neighborhood. Thomas the Tank Engine, a holdover from Twin Day at Atholton High School, was the popular costume.

People of the GSFC Village

2007-10-29T22:49:00.000-04:00

With their customary élan, the people of the ASD enthusiastically support the Director's new initiative to make GSFC a village.

Atholton Homecoming 2007

2007-10-17T15:15:00.000-04:00

Atholton High School lost its homecoming football game to Marriotts Ridge 12 to 7 even though our star running back K. Odocha ran for 204 yards on 27 carries and was featured in a nice article in the Washington Post two days later. My daughter was more interested in the parties associated with her first homecoming. They started with a pizza dinner at a friend's house, which began with a photo opportunity in which the party goers played the parts of celebrities and the parents played the paparazzi. The homecoming dance followed, and then there was a post-dance party in our basement for a few dozen teenagers. Since the girls had an early soccer game in Virginia the next day, the party was over around 1 am.

Daytime Iridium Flare

2007-09-30T19:41:00.000-04:00

Eleven denizens of GSFC's Building 2 gathered after work on September 27, 2007, to watch a flare from an Iridium satellite. The flares are caused by reflected sunlight, are predictable (using, for example, the web site Heavens Above), and for a few seconds are the brightest thing in the night sky except the Moon. Conditions were nearly ideal for a daytime flare -- a clear sky, a bright flare (-8 magnitude), and an elevation of 64°. Unfortunately, we discovered the flares are not as nearly impressive in daylight, even when the Sun is only 1° above the horizon. Only about half of the observers saw anything, and it was not very exciting for those of us who did.

Engagement Party

2007-09-22T12:38:00.000-04:00

I spent the weekend of September 8th, 2007, in Asheville to meet my brother's fiancee. He popped the question at a delightful dinner party at his home (above photo). Unfortunately his fiancee was not familiar with certain customs involving cakes and weddings, but she should get another chance. It was also an opportunity to look through his collection of family momentos including a black-and-white picture of me from 1954. There was also an extensive Marshall family tree going back to the 1700s that I had never seen. It included an uncle, who is still alive, that neither my brother or I had ever heard of. Ironically, he had been excluded from our part of the family because he married a foreigner.

Tulip Tree in Dorsey Search

2007-08-20T21:15:00.000-04:00

This tulip tree (more details about liriodendron tulipifera) in the Village of Dorsey Search must be one of the largest trees in Columbia, Maryland. Its circumference is 20 feet, and its height is about 175 feet. It is located just off the bicycle path about 150 feet NW of the intersection of Columbia Rd. and Ram's Horn Row. The insert in the lower right corner shows a typical leaf. Does anyone know of a bigger tree in Columbia?

AHS Girls Soccer Team Selection

2007-08-20T20:53:00.000-04:00

The final selection for the Atholton High School 2007 girls soccer team was posted at the entrance to the school at 8:30 pm, Friday, August 17th. A total of 40 girls were chosen out of about 70 who tried out. My daughter, who trained all summer to make the goal of 7:15 for the mile run, was extremely happy to make the cut. There was a lot of screaming, hugging, and cell phoning for the girls who made the team (above photo).

Backyard Visitor

2007-08-16T22:46:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning this bird of prey was scanning my back yard from atop my daughter's practice net for lacrosse. The bird is about 10" long not including its tail. The photo was taken from inside my house at a distance of about 30 feet. Does anyone know what kind of bird this is?

Thanks to everyone who suggested identifications. I now think that it is probably an immature (because of the yellow eye) Cooper's Hawk. A detailed description of its breeding behavior is available here. It preys on small birds and rodents, which are plentiful in the neighborhood. Hopefully there will be another sighting to check for the expected bands on its tail.

No Mercy 2007

2007-08-07T22:35:00.000-04:00

No Mercy, the co-ed team in the GSFC Slow-Pitch Softball Association that I play on, managed to live up to its ironic name for another season.

The end-of-year "tournament" on August 24th included both Monday night and Tuesday night co-ed teams. The games started early, and there were special rules to try to speed them up. No Mercy played as well as we had played all season, won our first two games (including a shutout win over the team that beat us 16-0 earlier in the year), and lost the third game in extra innings. We took another team photo (bottom left) to include several players not in the first team photo, and had three more celebrations of not being subjected to the "mercy" rule (bottom right).

Summer Intern at GSFC

2007-08-01T21:15:00.000-04:00

My son spent six weeks this summer as an intern in GSFC's High School Internship Program (HIP). He was one of 19 students selected (press release) to carry out research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics with guidance from a NASA mentor. He worked in a small team to design and implement software to control a robot. The eventual goal is to develop self-healing robots to explore the Moon or planets as part of the Autonomous NanoTechnology Swarm (ANTS) program. It was a great opportunity to apply some of what he had learned in school to a real project in a work environment. The photo shows some of the hardware used in the program. The specific task was to locate a magnet (the dark, oblong object on the white, circular platform) and rotate the struts in the photo so that the magnetometer (the object dangling from the joint of the struts) was directly above the magnet.

GSFC Science Building Ground Breaking

2007-07-19T22:04:00.000-04:00

The ground breaking ceremony for Goddard Space Flight Center's new Exploration Sciences Building was held Monday, July 16, 2007. When occupied in 2010, it will replace GSFC's decrepit Building 2, which includes my office. The ceremony (top photo) featured several NASA officials, including the Director of GSFC and the Deputy Administrator of NASA, and local dignitaries, such as the Majority Whip of the US House of Representatives, whose district includes GSFC, and the mayor of Greenbelt. After a few short speeches, it was shovels in the ground (photo). A reception (bottom photo) at GSFC's Visitors' Center followed, and the Director of GFSC's Sciences and Exploration Directorate entertained us (photo) with "Science on a Sphere", a new exhibit that uses four synchronized projectors to display animated data on a 6-foot white sphere suspended from the ceiling.

Slaughterhouse Five Book Cover

2007-07-19T21:54:00.000-04:00

Part of my son's final English assignment as a junior in high school, was to produce a cover for a novel of their choice. His design is considerably more interesting than the original cover of the novel by Kurt Vonnegut.

NASA Award for Swift Ground System

2007-07-19T21:36:00.000-04:00

The Ground System team for the Swift Observatory was recognized with a NASA Group Achievement Award (left photo) at the 2007 Agency Honor Awards Ceremony on May 14, 2007. I had the honor of accepting (right photo) the award from the Director and Deputy Director of Goddard Space Flight Center on behalf of the team.

WLMS Graduation

2007-06-23T20:27:00.000-04:00

My daughter just graduated from Wilde Lake Middle School, and the school had a "Farewell Ceremony" in the Atholton High School Auditorium on the evening of June 14^th. (Since Howard County public schools deem graduation to apply only to high school, this was not officially a graduation.) There were 200 "graduates", and they made it a loud, boisterous, happy affair. Most, especially the girls, dressed as if they were going to a prom. Outstanding performances were recognized including the ~8 students (all girls?) who made straight A's throughout middle school and a comparable number who had never missed a day of school. Each of the graduates walked across the stage and were handed their certificate. The students were instructed not to applaud, and they didn't. But they made every other kind of happy noise. It was really loud for the more popular students, but everyone got some noisy recognition.

After the ceremony about 8 of the students and their parents celebrated at the Rocky Run Tape & Grill in Columbia.

8th Annual Millet Seed Hill Wine Around

2007-06-10T21:31:00.000-04:00

"Blended flavors" was the theme of the 2007 Wine Around. Almost the entire cul-de-sac participated with a special visit from two former residents. The evening began (left photo) with sparkling wine from Spain, stops at two other homes before finishing at our home. At each home four families presented a blended wine with a complimenting food choice. We served (right photo) a 2004 Primus blend of Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot from Veramonte, Chile, with beef stew following an Argentinean recipe.

An impromptu tequila tasting on a neighbor's deck brought the evening to a close. We searched for answers to several difficult questions. Is tequilla añejo really better than tequilla reposado? Is that a worm? Do you have any pants on? It was time to say good night.

Green Card Celebration

2007-05-31T20:53:00.000-04:00

After six years of a bizarre, time-consuming, and expensive application process, a member of the RXTE team finally received his "green card" (officially a Permanent Resident Card, which is no longer green) from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly the INS). A surprise party was held in the Building 2 "dungeon" to celebrate this happy event. In addition to congratulations and best wishes, the guest of honor was presented with a "GO GREEN" cap. Fittingly two days earlier the Washington Post ran a front page story entitled "Immigration Agency Mired in Inefficiency."

Memorial Day Picnic

2007-05-31T20:32:00.000-04:00

As usual the neighborhood celebrated Memorial Day with a picnic on the traffic island of the cul-de-sac. Nearly everyone on the street participated with some additional guests for spice. A serious thunderstorm drove everyone inside, but hardly dampened spirits. Fortunately the rain stopped in time to enjoy the HSMs.

Her Majesty Visits GSFC

2007-05-08T23:53:00.000-04:00

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip graced GSFC with a visit today May 8th. The visit began at a control center in Building 13 (Marker B on this map) with a video conference with three astronauts on the Space Station (American Suni Williams and two Russians) with British-born astronaut Michael Foale standing next to the Queen acting as a go between. For some reason the Queen never directly addressed the astronauts on the Station. The Queen then left Building 13 and walked along Road No. 5 past thousands of star-struck GSFC employees to the official welcoming ceremony in the Building 8 Auditorium (Marker A). About 250 GSFC employees, including yours truly, were selected by lottery to attend. The ceremony began with dozens of children from the GSFC Child Development Center singing "It's A Small World". They looked very cute in their GCDC T-shirts. The youngsters were remarkably well behaved considering they had to sit quietly for more than an hour. The actual ceremony was rather brief. The high point was Sen. Mikulski and Rep. Hoyer giving the Queen a framed image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The Queen did not address the audience. On the way out NASA Administrator Mike Griffin described to the Queen the important features of the freshly mounted posters on the walls. Next stop was a tree planting ceremony at the GSFC Visitor Center (Marker C).

A highlight of the morning was watching the astronauts chat with each other on NASA TV before the Queen arrived. After a minute or so Michael Foale announced that he was going to say "over" when he was finished talking (because there was a delay of several seconds on the video link). The astronauts then proceeded to demonstrate their unfamiliarity with this standard protocol for the next 15 minutes. (Perhaps this is why the Queen never directly addressed the astronauts in the Space Station.) After a couple of minutes Foale said that it looked like the three astronauts could be in a 1-g environment here on Earth (ignoring Suni's hair) and asked them to do something to show that they were in space. Without any hesitation each of the three did a graceful somersault as if this were the most natural thing in the world. Suni is an interesting character -- she ran the Boston Marathon while on the Station. She was mostly on message, but also hinted that 5 months is a long time to be on the Station.

Journey to the Swift Science Team Meeting 2007

2007-05-05T22:08:00.000-04:00

The Swift Science Team meeting took place at Penn State U. on May 1st and 2nd; it was followed by a meeting of the UVOT instrument team the next day. I took advantage of the trip from GSFC on April 30 to bike on the Heritage Rail Trail County Park in York County, Pennsylvania. I started near Mile Post 18 (Marker A on this Google interactive map), and turned around at Hanover Junction (Marker C). The trail goes through the historic Howard Tunnel (Marker B; left photo), one of the oldest railroad tunnels in the country. There were some large bikes along the route (right photo). The warm and sunny day was just about perfect for biking.

I was going to stop at Maple Donuts in York, but decided that it was too far out of the way. Fortuitously there was a branch directly across the street (Marker D) from where I stopped for gas at Exit 34 on I-83. I was the only customer, but the staff was very friendly.

Harrisburg's Capital Area Greenbelt offers almost 20 miles of bike paths that circle the city. I rode along the Susquehanna River in River Front Park from near the Italian Lake Park (Marker F) to the I-83 bridge with a tour of City Island via the pedestrian only Walnut St. Bridge (Marker G; right photo). About two thirds of the width of the bridge is a metal grate, which is shunned by the pedestrians but not cyclists. If you look down while cycling, the grate mostly disappears and you seem to be floating over the river.

I returned to Harrisburg on the trip home, parked in the old Shipoke neighborhood (Marker H), and had a short evening bike ride. At night the Walnut St. Bridge is lit by hundreds of small lights.

Spring 2007

2007-04-21T17:32:00.000-04:00

Finally! After one of the coldest Aprils in memory, today is a sunny day with the temperature in the 70s. Time to dust off the bicycle and hit the road for the first time since a very warm weekend in early January. I did the standard trip around Wilde Lake (a shortened version of the route on this map). I only saw one other cyclist, but the signs of spring were everywhere. Jesse Wong's was closed for a private wedding party including pictures by Lake Kittamaqundi, and the outdoor seating at the Tomato Palace and Clyde's were nearly full.

RXTE Dinner at Mandalay

2007-04-20T21:41:00.000-04:00

On September 6, 2006, some of the staff of the RXTE Science Operations Center met for dinner at the Mandalay Restaurant and Cafe, a favorite local eatery in downtown Silver Spring. It had originally been located in College Park, but we are not easily deterred. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that our waitress was a graduate student in astronomy at the U. of Maryland.

RXTE GOF Dinner

2007-04-16T21:37:00.000-04:00

After the peer review of the 2007 RXTE observing proposals on April 10^th and 11^th at the Mt. Washington Conference Center in Baltimore, members of the RXTE Guest Observer Facility and friends relaxed at a nearby restaurant, the Brewer's Art. The restaurant, located in an impressive old townhouse in the Mt. Vernon section of Baltimore, has a large selection of beers, and delicious, beautifully presented food such as asparagus salad with goat cheese and salmon caviar. Several of us enjoyed a bottle of a Joel Gott Chardonnay from the Napa Valley. Main courses included Braised Rabbit, Roasted Airline Chicken, and Frogmore Stew. Somehow we found room for dessert.