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Katydids, a tiger and criminals

James Lileks always likes to say you never hear the last one. Well, we’re still a good way from this year’s last katydid, and they didn’t mind pointing that out tonight.

If you click on those little play buttons you can hear how the microphone of an iPhone is not very good at capturing this sort of sound. Which is where we are with technology now. It does this thing, and allows me to use this particular tool to create and ship something to another place. And we don’t think it does it especially well.

Two cool cycling stories: UCI Women Get Upgraded to WorldTour Status for 2016:

Starting in 2016, there will be no more UCI Women’s World Cup. Instead, the women will be one step closer to parity with the men after introduction of the UCI Women’s WorldTour.

The idea began to take shape after a summit in December 2014, and the final product will launch at the beginning of the 2016 season.

Women were previously only granted 10 days of racing in the World Cup series, in which their events often lacked the media attention and social media buzz seen during the men’s events. Now, racers will have potentially 30 days of racing available in the WorldTour, which will include stage races instead of simply one-day events.

About time. Let’s get them on TV so I can watch them go, too.

My favorite pro cyclist is Taylor Phinney. He’s been recouping from a horrible leg injury, now back in just his second race in more than a year. And today he did this:

Ridiculous headline: An actual tiger gets loose in Packard Plant in Detroit. A photographer was permitted to use the old facility, but didn’t mention the tiger. And then the animal got loose. Because that’s the sort of thing that one can expect in Detroit, I guess. Though, to be sure, this seems more like a piece of a southern conversation:

“I got a call from a friend who asked me to help them get this tiger out of a staircase,” said Andy Didorosi, 28, of Detroit. “He asked me if I had a leafblower, and I said I had a weedwhacker, so he told me to bring that. … I stopped what I was doing, grabbed my tools and hopped in my truck, because, you know, tiger.

A story to restore your faith in the human spirit: ‘I was asleep but I heard you’: Newlyweds get second chance after traumatic brain injury:

Anna blinked back tears now and gripped Jeremy’s hand as she recalled one of the lowest points of her life.

“I’d always heard about people who were on their deathbeds and holding on, waiting for someone to tell them it’s OK to go. I thought maybe that’s what he was doing,” said Anna.

“I went in to his room and told him, ‘Jeremy I love you so much and I’m so proud of you and you’ve worked so hard. I know you’re tired and it’s OK if you want to let go and want to go home. I’ll be so jealous of you because you’ll be walking the streets of gold with Jesus, but I will be OK here because I have friends and family to look after me.'”

She kissed his forehead and left, expecting that to be their last conversation.

The next day, he began to improve.

His recovery is a modern medical miracle. A friend of mine knows that couple and had a lot to say about them both. It is a charming story.

A story that requires justice: Police recover Tuskegee Airman’s stolen car in St. Louis:

St. Louis police officers found a 93-year-old Tuskegee Airman’s stolen car Tuesday afternoon behind a vacant home a few blocks from where it was taken, according to police sources.

[…]

The man lost his money, then the car, in separate crimes involving at least three men Sunday morning, police said.

The victim appeared to be in good health Tuesday but told a reporter he didn’t want publicity because it would only cause more harm. He said he just wanted to get his car back.

Victimizing an elderly individual is particularly egregious. Let alone a man who was a war hero, a man who had to fight his country to fight for his country. There should be a specialized investigation unit that takes on such cases, a TV-style

Time to build up the distances. So I had a 2,000 yard swim and a four mile run this evening. It all felt nice and slow and easy. So, really, I was moving as fast as I could.

Monday / photo / Samford — Comments Off
17
Aug 15

Back to school

Back to campus for the first day of another fall term. It rained a lot and there was no parking. There is a video circulating among the campus set of the president ferrying people to their buildings in a golf cart. Did that happen at your university? The president of the institution was out this morning in a slicker and a baseball cap, driving people to and fro.

It took me 34 minutes to park this morning, and it seemed like most everyone had a similar tale, but at least the good folks in the administration building know what is going on on their campus.

First class today, I’m teaching a social media practices class this fall. I’m excited to see what becomes of it.

After class the rain had moved off and the sun appeared. I saw this on one of the bike racks:

I moved my car closer, because, according to the collection of emails, that’s going to be the game of the first week back in classes. This is the largest student body Samford has ever had, some construction is wrapping up here and there and heavy equipment is using some parking. They’re going to invent a new parking lot from thin air soon.

I think that’s because the folks with the truly impressive titles were out shuttling students and faculty this morning. They know. They know, they understand and they’re eager to make this work.

Great place to be.

Went to the big blue box store tonight. I got excited when I saw this:

And then you tilt it over, pick it up, read the label and look inside. There’s no Play-Doh inside. A terrific con. Buy this bucket and the few bits of plastic inside. Play-Doh not included.

adventures / friends / photo / weekend — Comments Off
16
Aug 15

Catching up

We went to a wedding last night. A dear friend, a sister that should be. We’ve known each other for 12 years and she’s just about the sweetest, nicest, hardest working person you could ever hope to meet. I’d go on and on. She’d hate that. Anyway, Elisabeth and Chris said things in front of people and signed documents and now it is official.

They’re a sweet couple and they had a lovely wedding and a terrific reception.

Everyone just went on and on about it, as they do. And we all enjoyed meeting the people that helped shape the people we were there to celebrate. It was pretty much what these things should be. And delicious food. Also, there were rubber duckies:

Here’s the shirt from yesterday’s race. Awesome design, very yellow.

friends / memories / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
13
Aug 15

Folded re-discovery

I was looking for my other microphone, my Sennheiser classic, which meant I had to go through this box in that closet and then another box and so on.

What? You don’t have more than microphone at home? The Sennheiser records a better sound than my newer, cheaper microphones.

Anyway, just before I found it I ran across my origami collection in a box of desk supplies. Kelly made these for me years ago. (There’s no medium she can’t conquer, it seems.)

I had always intended to use them here, actually, but as an under construction place holder. I just never really built a site so intense as to make use of them in that way. So I put them in my homemade diffuser box that I’ve been tinkering with recently. It isn’t perfect, but it does help make a neat picture. These are with my phone, even:

adventures / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
12
Aug 15

This nickel doesn’t bend

Easily the best picture I’ll take this week:

Of course it is only Wednesday, but what am I going to do to top that?

You should see the version The Black Cat photobombed. It is a near-perfect head merger.

Tonight I did the thing where you accidentally turn Siri on. Since the device was patiently waiting I gave it a few queries. (Still doesn’t know who John Shaft is.) And then I asked this question. A machine has never made me feel bad for it before:

But, man, I want to go buy my phone some cookies. And introduce it to my old iPod.

I had to pull out a few things from the office closet tonight — an old mixing board, some cables and such. While searching for a particular microphone — What? You don’t have more than one microphone in your home? — I ran across some old coins. I don’t collect coins, but I have a wheat penny and a 1940s mercury dime and a silver dollar from my birth year. Together, I learned tonight, those are worth about $6.51. So there goes that retirement plan. This guy doesn’t add anything to that fund:

Numismatists would turn their nose up at my buffalo nickel. Too much wear. That’s why this coin was on the way out after its 25-year run. The production problems meant almost all of the coins that went into circulation got heavy wear. And, of course, But I say that’s what makes this coin works. We’ll never know how old that coin is. Ever. And, after a certain age (It is from somewhere between 1913 and 1938) isn’t that what we all want?

Also, the buffalo nickel doesn’t do yoga. I read the Wikipedia pages of all three men — a Cheyenne, a Kiowa and an Oglala Lakota — believed to be part of the composite character. Not a single one of them could pull of an arm-balancing split.