Field of Pipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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