geek – Page 55 – Geeky Girl Engineer

Geeky Girl Engineer’s Home DIY Tips for Morons

Posted on February 24, 2013 by geek

I have been renovating my current house for two years now, and I realized before I bought it that it had been built and originally owned by smart, caring home owners, but it was later owned and “renovated” by morons. Therefore, in order to help and possibly stop morons out there, I have decided to start a new, sporadically reoccurring series of posts called “Geeky Girl Engineer’s (GGE’s) Home DIY Tips for Morons.” First, a few disclaimers though as to why you should either ignore or not ignore anything I write.

I am not a licensed contractor of any type. I am also not a home renovation expert.
I however have owned and renovated three homes. Much of the work I did myself.
I am a licensed professional engineer (PE), but I am by no means selling or marketing my services as a PE. Also, I am an environmental engineer, so I am more knowledgable about wastewater and hazardous waste and not so much about structural engineering such as one needs when designing and sometimes renovating a house. I hired a licensed structural PE to help with a portion of my current house’s renovation because I demolished a structural wall.
As an engineer, I have been known at times, to adhere to the engineer’s adage which is:
1. If it doesn’t move and it’s supposed to, use WD-4.
2. If it moves and it’s not supposed to, use duct tape.
3. If those don’t work, use a hammer to bang the crap out of it. This may not solve the problem, but it will make you feel much better.
4. If all else fails, use C-4.

OK, I totally made up number 4. I have never actually worked with explosives, which is disappointing. Actually, that is not entirely true. I have used picric acid in a dilute solution before to measure creatinine in urine. However it was always in solution and kept in a plastic container and never at risk of exploding.
As a female, unlike some but not all males, I read the directions. I even read the directions when it is something from IKEA and the directions involve a strange cartoon man, and no matter how well you follow the directions, you always have leftover: three screws, four washers, two nuts, and five wooden dowels. No matter if the piece does not involve wood, there will still be wooden dowels included. Also, I now have a fine collection of Allen wrenches.
I know what I can and can’t do. I also know what I shouldn’t do. I know when to call in professionals. As a chemical engineer, I have the book knowledge to design a petroleum refinery, but I don’t have a clue how to change the oil in my car. I leave that to the professionals, who can also recycle the oil. I fully understand fluid dynamics, pipe sizing, friction factors, municipal waster and waster design, etc. However, I still use a professional plumber for tasks larger than changing o-rings or existing faucet heads, etc.
I am a natural blond.

So, while many might be able to learn something from this series of posts, before you attempt any type of home do-it-yourself (DIY) tasks, please try to figure out if you are in fact, a moron. Consider the follow questions:

Has anyone ever told you that you are a future Darwin award winner or that you almost won a Darwin award?
If you have an electric outlet with two holes, but your plug has three prongs, is your solution to cut the third prong off the plug?
Do you believe building codes are silly and not in the least useful?
Have you ever seen something you did or something very similar to something you did on There I Fixed It? Or are you confused as to why some things are on that site because they look perfectly fine to you?
Do you think that when a female is raped, her “body has a way to shut that whole thing down” to avoid getting pregnant?
Have you ever opened a box containing electronics or some other non-food item, found a little packet and thought “oh nice, it came with a snack,” only to be disappointed when it said “don’t eat”?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you might be a moron. If you are going to do anything more complicated than changing a light bulb in your home, you might want to consider calling in a professional. Actually, you may want to consider if you are even capable of changing a light bulb. After all, someone had to be the inspiration for all those “how many _____ does it take to change a light bulb” jokes. Please consider carefully. Your future self, and any future owners and occupants of your home will thank you for it.

There is the introduction. Stay tuned for tips based on the incredibly stupid things I have encountered in this house. Contact me if you have questions. Contact me if you have tips or photos of really stupid things done at your house that you would like to share with the morons out there as something not to do. I can promise that if you ask me a question, and I don’t know the answer, I will not make up an answer, but I may be able to refer you to some sites with actual valuable information.

Short Term Radon Test Results

Posted on February 22, 2013 by geek

Previously I wrote that I was testing my house for radon. I got the test results back this week, and the test results came back as an average radon level of 2.9 pCi/L. The good news is this is less than the 4 pCi/L action level. The bad news is this is still elevated above average house level of 1.3 pCi/L. This test involved collecting radon over four days. At work, I am currently working on a project that involves looking at the indoor air variability due to radon or volatile organic compounds intrusion from the soil and groundwater. Thus, I know better than most how variable indoor air concentrations can be. They can vary a lot. Therefore, before deciding what to do, I have considered the following items:

The test was done in winter under proper closed house conditions. Closed house conditions means keeping the doors and windows closed except for normal entering and exiting the house through the doors. This is not an issue in the winter because it is cold. This is also one of the reasons winter is one of the best time to perform the test, but it also means that the test will lead to higher results than if more open house conditions are maintained. When the weather is nice, I like to open the windows and doors, so that would generally mean at least during those times, the radon concentrations in my house should be much lower.
The test was performed over four days. As I stated, indoor air concentrations can vary a lot, and in terms of those fluctuations, four days is relatively short term. Even ignoring the seasonal effect of closed versus open house conditions, the long term average radon conditions could be much higher or lower than 2.9 pCi/L. The reasons are not fully understood, but exterior temperatures and precipitation can affect it. A long term test over several months or even better a year, will give a much better understanding of the average concentration. If the results had been 1.3 pCi/L or less, than given the conditions, I would probably not be at all worried that the long term concentrations would be higher.
The EPA recommends that the test be performed in lowest habitable portion of the house. As such, I placed the test in the guest room for that and other reasons stated previously. However, I am almost never in the guest room. I don’t have guests that often, and the door to that room remains shut most of the time. Thus the only air exchange in the room is via the ventilation ducts and a little underneath the door. Furthermore, my bedroom and all the common areas of the house (kitchen, living room, etc.) where I spend most of my time are upstairs and should have lower radon concentrations than the guest room. Therefore, even if the results from the guest room do accurately represent average radon concentrations, they are borderline for taking mitigation action and probably represent the highest levels in the house. While I don’t want to expose my guests to undue risks, especially since my guests are generally people I like or love, do I want to mitigate based on the results from this room?
Finally, I’m a scientist, and I believe in validation and replication. This was one test result, and home test kits are generally not considered the gold-standard of any type of test. There is no doubt at least of some amount of inaccuracy with it.

Therefore, I have decided to test the house again, but this time for a longer duration. I have also decided to run two tests simultaneously. I plan to place two testers in the house, one in the guest room again and one upstairs in my master bedroom. I have ordered a long term home test kit that can be used to test between 90 and 365 days. I plan to run the test over an entire year to get a much better indication of what the long term average radon concentrations are in the house. Also, by testing both the guest room and master bedroom, I can better understand what my average exposure is both in terms of the average annual concentration and in the rooms where I spend the vast majority of my time. I will also add that while the guest room is a guest room now, as it is bedroom, legally and real estate-wise speaking, and thus in the future it could be a normal bedroom if my life changes or if I sell the house. Therefore I still consider it important to know what the long term radon concentrations are.

Check back in a year, and I will let you know what happened and how I am proceeding.

Testing My House for Radon

Posted on February 16, 2013 by geek

I’m testing my house for radon, and you should also. Winter is the best time to test your house for radon, which is one of the reasons I am testing it now. What is radon, and why am I testing for it? Keep reading.

What is radon? It is an odorless, tasteless, invisible gas that also happens to be radioactive. It is produced naturally from the decay of uranium, which occurs naturally in soil across the United States, and other countries and continents. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has this neat map showing uranium soil concentrations across the US. Due to its radioactivity, radon is a carcinogen. In fact, it is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. Radon gas is pretty much everywhere, both outdoors and indoors. Like all carcinogens, there is no safe level of exposure. You can’t completely avoid exposure because it is naturally occurring, but it is best to avoid it if you know it is present.

The US EPA estimates that the average home has an indoor radon concentration of 1.3 pCi/L, this means pico Curies, a unit of radioactivity, per liter of air. If your indoor air is above 4 pCi/L, then they recommend you fix your home. I’ll get to what fixing your home means next. Finally if the indoor air concentration is between 2-4 pCi/L, then they recommend you consider fixing the house. It is in that range that the concentration starts to get high enough above background that you might want to take action.

What happens if the radon concentrations in your house are high? First, don’t panic, your house can be mitigated to reduce the radon concentrations. You can hire a professional to install a mitigation system in your house. A mitigation system can either prevent radon gas from entering the house, or it can remove it from the house once it gets in. For example, one type of system sucks or pulls gas from beneath the house and then pipes it safely above the house where it can disperse into the atmosphere. Mitigation systems can be very effective and will greatly reduce your risk of lung cancer due to radon exposure.

Is your house at risk? As shown in the USGS map, some areas have higher concentrations of uranium in the soil than others. Areas with higher soil uranium concentrations will generally lead to higher radon gas concentrations. Also, houses with a crawl space will generally have less radon infiltrating the house than houses built on a slab or with a basement. The crawl space can allow the radon to dissipate before rising into the house. Houses with cracks in their slab are more susceptible because the cracks serve as a pathway for the radon to rise into the house. Also, pipes and conduits such as for wires from the house to ground can also allow radon to enter if they are not properly sealed.

So how do you find out if elevated levels of radon exist in your house? It’s fairly easy. Many states regulate the testing of radon, so you may try contacting your state radon department if it has one. Most of the time, you can go to your local home improvement store and buy a test kit for about $20. That’s what I did. The test kit I bought included two little containers that detect radon. The test kit had certain specific directions for the test containers such as they needed to be at least three feet off the floor, at least three feet from an exterior wall, etc., and they needed to be open for four days. The test containers were supposed to be placed six inches from each other. I presume you get two that are supposed to be placed in the same location for replicability. So here are the high tech test kits.

Both radon detectors placed for testing

Yes that is a tape measure in the photo because it said to place them six inches apart, and I’m an engineer. Now be quiet. The detectors should be placed in one of the lowest habitable rooms of the house. My house is built into a hill such that the front door on the first floor is ground level, and the back door of the second floor is also ground level. I chose to place the detectors in the guest room, which is on the first floor and in the back exterior corner of the house. The back wall and 3/4 of the side wall of the guest room are underground exterior walls, and thus this room would be one of the most susceptible to radon infiltration from the ground. The room that serves as my office and workout room is next to the guest in the front exterior corner of the house. Two of its walls are also exterior, but only about 1/3 of its side wall is actually underground. However, there is a crack in the slab about two feet long in the office, so I considered whether the test kits should be placed in this room. [Due to the extensive renovation I’ve been doing on this house, I know where all the cracks and openings are.] That crack could serve as a major route for radon to enter the house. However, I ultimately decided that the guest room would be more susceptible to radon infiltration because of the amount it is underground.

After choosing in which room to place the detectors, I then found a good location that was far enough away from an exterior wall and above the floor. I then proceeded with the testing protocol. I unscrewed the containers and let them sit for four days. Whew, that was exhausting. I deserved a drink after initiating that test. Here is one of the detectors unscrewed. It’s quite simple looking.

Radon detector open to run test

After I let them sit for four days, I screwed the caps back on, filled out the form that came with them, and mailed them into the lab. It cost $30 to have them tested, so with the cost of the kit, the entire thing cost me $50. I consider $50 a small price to pay to make sure I am not unknowingly breathing in a carcinogen everyday. I’m currently waiting for the results from the lab, and I will update my blog when I get the results.

One final note, I said at the beginning of this post that winter is the best time to test for radon. The reason for this is winter tends to be the time that the radon concentrations in a house would be at the highest. When the weather is nice, people tend to open windows for ventilation instead of using the AC or heater, and people just tend to open doors more often to go outside for whatever reason. Thus in the winter, the house is more closed off, and radon concentrations can build up due to less exchange of the indoor air with the outdoor air. Where I used to live in south-eastern part of US, I probably had windows open more often in winter, as I constantly used the AC in the summer, so this might not hold true. That and the fact that indoor air concentrations can vary day to day, is why experts recommend that if you get high levels detected with a short term test, you consider doing a longer term test such as over several months, to determine what the longer term average is. The test kits do have false positives, especially at lower concentrations, so if you test your house, and it comes back high, once again, don’t panic. Test your house again, this time with a longer term test, and see what the longer term concentration is, and then determine if you need to take action. However, don’t remain ignorant about the risks. Test your house; it’s important and could save your life.

For more information:

Ai Weiwei: According To What?

Posted on February 6, 2013 by geek

This weekend I went to see the exhibit of Ai Weiwei’s work called “According to What?” that is currently at the Hirshhorn, part of the Smithsonian. Like I would imagine many people, I was somewhat familiar with him as a Chinese activist, but I had never actually seen any of his work. The exhibit features sculptures and photographs, but I found the sculptures to be the most interesting. I don’t presume to know almost anything about art, especially modern art. I like some things. I don’t like other things. I simply don’t get or understand many things. I am not sure I understand much of Ai Weiwei’s work, but much of it did make me think, which I think is part of what he wants.

Ai Weiwei’s Light Cube

Possibly the biggest sculpture at the exhibit is Light Cube. It is this huge cube with amber colored beads or crystals on the outside and lights inside. I really don’t know what it is supposed to represent, but it is really cool to look at.

Ai Weiwei’s Straight

Another large sculpture is Straight. It is made of 38 tons of rebar recovered from collapsed schools in Sichuan, China after the 2008 earthquake. The rebar was evidently carefully straightened after it was recovered. Straightening rebar is no easy feat. Photographs of the devastation are on a nearby wall. The sculpture certainly makes you think about the devastation of the earthquake. The way the rebar is placed makes me think of a fault line and topography, but I have no idea if, assuming that is what it is supposed to represent, it is an accurate representation of the Sichuan area. As an engineer, I love the use of rebar for art.

Ai Weiwei’s Bowl of Pearls

Bowl of Pearls is honestly one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. It is two huge bowls (as in about 3 feet in diameter) filled with freshwater pearls. It is absolutely gorgeous, and I have no idea what it means.

Ai Weiwei’s Bowl of Pearls, unclose view of pears.

The pearls are different shades and so pretty and luminous. Yes, I like pearls and shiny things. All I wanted to do was put my hands in there and run them through the pearls. It is like a giant zen sculpture or something.

Ai Weiwei’s Colored Vases

Colored Vases causes me torn emotions. I love the colors, and the vases are a lovely shape. I think the way the paint applied and allowed to run down causes a really nice effect. However, the vases are really old, from the Han Dynasty. Dipping these ancient vases in industrial paint strikes me as defacement. Evidently that is what he is trying to do. These are supposed to be a statement about the Chinese state. The vases are innocent victims in his political statement. I am very curious just how many Han Dynasty urns there are lying around that people can buy or just find. Can you just go buy one? How did he get a hold of so many of them?

Ai Weiwei’s Moon Chest

Moon Chest consists of several hollow wooden boxes lined up on a curve. Each box has four circular openings that are precisely cut so that they mimic the stages of a lunar eclipse.

Ai Weiwei’s Moon Chest, view of the aperture

The fun thing about this sculpture is that it turns almost everyone into a child. Almost everyone who walked by it and between the different boxes got up close and looked through the apertures and moved around to see how the view changes.

Ai Weiwei’s Divina Proportione and F Size

Divina Proportione and F Size are two giant, wooden buckyballs. I immediately thought of Buckminsterfullerene, but then again, I am a geeky engineer. I suppose the less geeky inclined might see soccer balls or geodesic domes. I have no idea how well they would roll, but yes, I would like to see them roll.

Ai Weiwei’s Forever

This is why China is having such horrible air pollution. People are having to take cars because Ai Weiwei has taken all the nice bicycles and used them for art. I was thoroughly impressed with how well he fit them together. Parts of the bicycles were cut off, and then they could be joined with bolts and nuts. The joints are really well done. Yes, clearly I am engineer as I was analyzing the construction method of this sculpture not what it means.

All of the above photos were taken by me. The Hirshhorn allowed non-flash photography for personal purposes. A few of my photos are slightly fuzzy because they were taken in low light without a flash and thus needed a longer shutter speed. I make no money off this blog, thus my understanding is this falls under personal use.

Biomarkers: What are they and why do we study them?

Posted on January 21, 2013 by geek

In my previous post, I stated that as part of the research of which I was involved, we took blood and urine samples from our subjects, i.e. the guys we were studying. These men are exposed to chemicals during the normal course of their workday. [I say men because the all the people in our study were men. We would have happily used women in our study, but the industry we were studying is dominated by male workers, and we did not find any females to participate or who even worked at that type of job.] While the men were exposed to numerous chemicals, we were interested in one specific chemical that is known to cause detrimental health effects. While the subject was working with this chemical, we had a personal air sampling device clipped to his clothing in the shoulder area. This gave us estimate of the amount of chemical that was in his breathing air space. It was important for us to measure the breathing air space to determine exposure because the worker was spraying this chemical, so the chemical concentration would not be uniform in the air around him. As an example, if you are standing in your house, you can presume the air around you is evenly mixed. However, if while standing there, you spray air freshener or something like that, then as you spray and right after you spray, there will be a very high concentration of the air freshener in front of the direction you sprayed it. There will be a lower, but still high concentration right behind the sprayer, presumably this would be where you are, as the spray mixes. The high concentration will quickly spread out, and the freshener will mix in the rest of the room. If the house’s ventilation system is operating at the time, the freshener will mix faster than if the ventilation is currently off. Thus, the air sample that was taken in the breathing air space gave us an estimate of what the worker would have breathed in had he not been wearing a respirator. All the workers wore respirators though. Some wore half-face filter type respirators (similar to what you buy at a hardware store), which generally reduce the chemical concentration in the air breathed in by a factor about ten or so, if they are worn properly. Some workers wore supplied-air respirators, like a firefighter only these were attached to a hose with an outside air supply. This type of respirators generally reduces the chemical concentration in air breathed in by a factor of 1000. Therefore, we got an estimate of what the worker was exposed to in the air but not of the amount that made it into the lungs.

After the subject worked with the chemical, we applied and quickly removed tape strips (medical tape) to his arms, wrists, hands, and neck to determine the amount of the chemical that made it onto his skin in those areas. The medical tape removed the very top layer of epidermis and any chemical that was in that layer. Basically it was like we applied and then removed a band-aid without the gauze section. Thus, the tape strip gave us an estimate of how much chemical made it on to his skin, but it couldn’t tell us how much of the chemical actually made it through the layers of the skin and into the blood stream. Previous research had indicated that it was possible for this chemical to be absorbed through the skin. Despite what some people might think, skin is not impervious to chemicals. If it was, the nicotine patch and the estrogen patch wouldn’t work.

To summarize, we could estimate what the worker was exposed to via inhalation and dermal exposure, but we didn’t know what he actually absorbed or what made it into his body. That is where biomarkers can be useful. Biomarkers are measurements of a chemical or some other tell-tale sign of exposure in some biological sample. They can be measured in the blood, urine, fecal matter, exhaled breath, and many other bodily fluids or materials. Some materials are used more frequently because they are a lot easier to get. It is much easier to get someone to agree to urinate in a cup then to let you do a spinal tap for spinal fluid. Which bodily material is used also depends on what the chemical of interest is. If you are looking for a volatile chemical, the exhaled breath might be used. To get the exhaled breath, the person simply exhales into a specially designed glass tube. Similarly, a suspected drunk driver who has just been pulled over by the police, may be asked to breath into a breathalyzer. The concentration of the alcohol, or chemical, in that air can then be measured. This is a biomarker. If the chemical or its metabolite is excreted quickly, then it would be more useful to study the urine than the blood because there would probably be higher concentrations in the urine than the blood. However, the concentration in the urine is generally more representative of short term exposure, while the blood is more representative of long-term exposure.

The metabolism of the chemical is very important because it indicates what chemical you are actually looking for in the body and also where to look for it. For example, when a person is exposed to lead, it does not change into another chemical because lead is an element. Thus, blood lead level is a biomarker used to indicate exposure to lead. A person’s intoxication level can be measured by exhaled breath as stated. A suspected intoxicated person can also have a blood sample withdrawn, and the amount of alcohol in the blood can be measured. It is called the blood alcohol content, and it a biomarker of alcohol exposure. The body metabolizes alcohol and uses it for fuel, so looking for it in the urine is not all that useful, or least not for the police. Alcohol in the urine is more indicative of consumption hours beforehand (i.e. it doesn’t tell the police how drunk the person is at that moment, crucial for legal reasons), and it is not completely accurate because the rate and amount that a person metabolizes alcohol differs from another person. Like alcohol, many other chemicals that people are exposed to, are metabolized or partially metabolized by the body. Unlike alcohol, if it is a chemical that the body does not need and can’t use for nutrition, then the body will generally try to get rid of it as quickly as possible, if it can. The chemical we were studying in our research was like this. The body has no use for it, so it is partially metabolized and excreted. Thus we looked for the metabolite, not the chemical itself, in the urine or blood. To what degree a chemical or metabolite can be found in the urine versus the blood versus some other bodily fluid or tissue depends on the physical and chemical properties of the chemical or its metabolite. The metabolism, storage, and excretion pathway in the body of different chemicals is the subject of fascinating research and possibly another blog post.

Shipping Human Specimens

Posted on January 16, 2013 by geek

This morning I read an article in the Chicago Sun-Times concerning 17 human heads that had been discovered at Chicago O’Hare Airport. The best part of the headline is that it said “no foul play suspected.” This article has now been updated to state that “‘They were properly preserved and tagged as human specimens,’ said Tony Brucci, chief investigator for the medical examiner’s office” and that according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “the specimens appear to be legitimate medical samples.” The original version of the article, which I can no longer find, did not have all these details. It just said 17 human heads had been discovered, transported to the medical examiner’s office, and no foul play was suspected. This of course, sent most people’s imaginations wild as to how 17 human heads could end up at an airport without foul play. Perhaps this is a new way to save on air fair, just send a head, not the whole body.

The shipment of human heads, legitimately or otherwise, made me think of my human specimen shipping adventures while in graduate school. The field work that my fellow graduate students and I performed included three one-month trips to Seattle. Everyday we would drive to a different location to sample at the type of workplace we were studying. Among the samples we collected were blood and urine. For the vast majority of blood analysis, including the ones we were doing, the blood has to be separated into the red blood cell fraction and plasma section before it can be frozen. We were actually isolating the white blood cells also. To separate blood into these fractions, the blood has to be separated within 24 hours of being drawn, in truth, the sooner the better. Therefore, every night after sampling, we would ship the samples overnight to the east coast where our university was located. This may surprise some people, but this is actually not that big of a deal. Another grad student and I became certified hazardous materials shippers to do everything properly. In the case of our biological samples, the blood and urine, they could be shipped as “exempt human specimens.” This is specific term for shipping that meant our samples were not infectious and only required certain precautions to ship. Unless a person has a urinary tract infection, urine is sterile. Blood of course can carry many infectious agents, but if a person can be reasonably believed to be healthy and free of a blood-borne infection, then the blood can also be assumed to be non-infectious, and the blood can be shipped as an exempt human specimen.

Therefore every night after sampling, we would put the blood and urine samples with ice packs in a styrofoam container that was within a cardboard box. The cardboard box was clearly labeled “EXEMPT HUMAN SPECIMENS” as per shipping rules. We would then ship via FedEx, or if we couldn’t make it to the FedEx drop off before the overnight cut off for east of the Rockies (FedEx had an hour later drop off for west of the Rockies, presumably those went to a different sorting center), then we would drive to SeaTac airport and ship via cargo on a passenger aircraft. Shipping cargo on a passenger aircraft was an adventure. This was post 9/11, and they had started to implement more security measures for cargo. I don’t fully know what the security measures were then or today, but let’s just say, I don’t have a lot of faith in the security of cargo. In any event, the first time I dropped a box off at the passenger airline, which I won’t be naming, after going through a whole lot of paperwork, the employee took the package which had already been sealed. He asked if he could open it to examine the contents for security reasons. As he had no gloves on, I said, of course you can examine it, but to avoid contamination of my samples and for your own safety, please put on latex or nitrile gloves. He stopped and stared at me and asked why. Another employee who was working on the paperwork stopped what he was doing, looked at the first employee, and then the second employee and I at about the same time, said because the package contains human specimens, as it states on the outside, and as all the paperwork states. The first employee then said “oh” and looked a little embarrassed and took the package to the back, hopefully to be x-rayed or something. I say hopefully because as someone who flies, I am hopeful but not confident all cargo gets x-rayed. The fact that the employee was going to open a package without reading or noticing the large letters on the outside that said “EXEMPT HUMAN SPECIMENS” made me rather wonder how much they check things they accept and how much their employees might endanger themselves by not paying attention. Things were much easier when we could make it to FedEx, and they ship thousands (millions?) of these types of packages everyday. [This is not a plug or advertisement for them.]

The packages’ return trip was also made me wonder how much people question or don’t question things. After our fellow grad students back at the lab had received a week’s worth of packages or so, they would put the thawed ice packs back in the styrofoam, close everything up, and ship them back to us via FedEx ground, so we could reuse the boxes. The first time they shipped boxes back, they didn’t bother to remove the taped labels that said “EXEMPT HUMAN SPECIMENS”. I thought I had told them to do this, or perhaps I just assumed they would. I don’t know if there is anything legally or technically wrong with shipping boxes labeled as exempt human specimens that don’t actually contain human specimens or anything else for that matter. However, as we were shipping them back via ground to save money, and it took five days to get from our university to Seattle, I would think it would be better to remove the labels so that no one at FedEx questioned why or what kind of specimens would not go bad over the course of five days. Because the label said “exempt”, it should not change the shipment method, but packages shouldn’t be labeled as something more dangerous than they are. There are some types of dangerous goods that can’t be shipped via ground because it takes too long or it would affect the route (think of all those freeways and roads that say “no hazardous cargo”). Conversely there are some dangerous goods that can’t go in an airplane. However, I guess I worry too much because the packages arrived at our hotel without any problems or questions from FedEx. I guess FedEx was not concerned with five day ground shipment of exempt human specimens, whatever they might be.

I’m not entirely sure what the hotel employees thought of us, but they must have wondered. We were there for an entire month, and the people at reception certainly knew me if only because we were rather unusual guests. We had a small freezer in our room to store our non-biological samples before shipping them back to the lab. We had stacks of empty boxes labeled “EXEMPT HUMAN SPECIMENS” and other boxes labeled for the chemicals we shipped. My room had boxes of urine and blood sample collection supplies. Another room had a bunch of charging personal air sample pumps and their calibration machine. No, we were not normal hotel guests. They knew me at reception because I was always picking up packages, including our returned “exempt human specimens” boxes. First time I came to pick up the returned packages, they had them stacked up in the front office. One employee timidly asked if I would mind telling him what was in the boxes. The boxes were about 18 inches wide by 12 inches deep by 18 inches or so. I explained that they were currently empty and what we were using them for. He started laughing and seemed relieved but almost disappointed. Evidently they had spent the day guessing what was in them. The winner had been human heads. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. However they didn’t call the police or kick us out of the hotel, so I guess they thought we and our credit cards were trustworthy enough that what we were shipping was legitimate and safe. Still, it makes me wonder how much people pay attention to things and question what they see.

New York’s High Line Park

Posted on January 6, 2013 by geek

New York is a city so dense that they actually created a park elevated above the street. The High Line is a park created on an abandon, historic freight rail line that is elevated above the streets of Manhattan’s west side. The elevated structure was threatened with demolition, but community residents formed the Friends of the High Line and successfully fought for its preservation and transformation into the lovely park it is today. The first part opened in 2009, and a second portion opened in 2011. They are currently working on transforming a third and final section. The entire length of the structure has a paved trail, and there are plants almost the entire length of the trail. There is also public art along the park. The designers did a nice job of preserving the structure and accentuating that the park is built on an historic rail line.

In many places the rail tracks were left in place, and plants were planted in and around them.

It has a lawn area.

It goes under buildings that straddle the old tracks. There is an amphitheater of sorts that allows you to view the street below.

There are seating areas all along the park. This area has some nice lounging chairs.

The lounging chairs are really cool. Some of them are on wheels that roll on the railroad track, although they were locked, so they can’t be moved by the general public.

The benches are nicely designed to look like they have just been lifted out of the ground material.

It even has a movie theater. There is a projector above the seating area on the left of this photo.

At one location, it has a great view of the Statue of Liberty.Zoomed-in photo.Cool street views.

There is public art along the park. This cool installation is on the side of a building and is called Broken Bridge II and is by El Anatsui.

Puck the cat: In memoriam

Posted on January 4, 2013 by geek

This morning I put my 17 year old cat to sleep. Several years ago he developed early kidney disease. It stabilized with a diet change, but then a year ago, he developed diabetes. I have been giving him insulin shots for a year now, but all of the sudden his kidneys started failing. He spent several days in the hospital last week and was doing better, but then he got worse again. He hasn’t been eating well and was getting weak. I didn’t want him to ever be in pain. A visit to the vet this morning made it clear that he did not have much time left. I didn’t want him to die alone or without me. I hope he knew how much I loved him and that I put him to sleep to make sure he had a peaceful, pain free death.

I adopted him and his littermate Ariel when they were kittens, and I was in graduate school pursuing my Master’s degree. I had just lost my first cat Bestoff (long story on the name), really the family cat, which I brought with me to graduate school. Bestoff was a tabby, and Puck and Ariel, both tabbies, reminded me of him. It was with Puck and Ariel that I started my tradition of naming my animals after Shakespeare characters. I wanted to name them names on a similar theme, so I finally decided on Puck and Ariel, two fairy or spirit Shakespeare characters. My sister suggested if I was going with Shakespeare, I should name them Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but I couldn’t imagine standing at my back door yelling “Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, dinner!”

Puck was my lap cat. He was a total cuddle bunny. He loved belly rubs, and he loved anyone who would pet him. Several years ago, he had pancreatitis and was in the hospital at North Carolina State Veterinary School for a week. They took wonderful care of him, and when I came to take him home, one of the vet techs admitted that they were kind of hoping that I would not come back for him. They wanted to keep him. Years ago, a friend of mine was pet sitting for me, and she said that she had walked by him laying on the back of the couch. He reached out his front paw, and with one claw grabbed her skirt until she came back and petted him.

Puck has lived with me in four homes, three states, four basset hounds (three adopted, one foster), and two other cats. He has been with me through a Master’s degree, three jobs, a Professional Engineer’s license, and a Doctor’s degree. He was always ready to be in my lap. He always welcomed basset hounds into the house because he found they made very fine pillows next to which or on top of which he could sleep. As a bonus, my lap or the basset hound was also a nice heating pad. He was a smart kitty. As long as I was with him, he was perfectly happy with whatever, including going to the vet in a bag on the bus. Please allow the indulgence of sharing a few photos of him.

He knew how to stay warm in the winter. He simply sat on top of the vent.

The lump in the covers next to him is actually Beatrice the cat under the covers.

Cuddling with Hamlet, my first basset hound.

Sleeping with Ferdinand and Thisbe, the basset hounds.

WIth Ferdinand

One more with Ferdinand, but this is more a tribute to the patience of Ferdinand. One of Puck’s hind feet is in Ferdinand’s ear and the other is in his eye.

With Ferdinand, right, and Horatio, upside down, my foster dog.

Are you noticing a theme with the photos? This photo with Horatio, the foster basset hound, was taken three days after Horatio moved in. Puck wastes no time making use of a basset hound as a pillow. Actually, I took this photo as Horatio was recovering from an adverse reaction to the ivermectin I had just given him. I covered him up in a blanket to keep him warm, and Puck came over to give him comfort.

Puck didn’t like my laptop so much, as that meant my lap was occupied, and I was not petting him. Here he lets me know what he thinks of that.

Sometimes both Ferdinand and Puck would try to push the laptop out of the way. Puck would generally just end up on top of Ferdinand.

I am going to miss my Pucky so much. He gave me so much comfort and love. He kept me warm on cold nights. He let me cry on him when I had to put Hamlet and Ariel to sleep. I know some people think cats are unaffectionate and aloof, and some are, but not Puck. He just wanted to cuddle. Ok, in his younger days, he liked to chase bugs. Perhaps a few squirrels. The squirrels were afraid of him.

Goodbye my Puck. Rest in peace my love.

Louisiana Welcome Station

Posted on January 4, 2013 by geek

My recent trip to Louisiana included stopping at the Louisiana welcome station on I-10 at the border with Texas. Like most parts of southern Louisiana, it sits near a swamp and wetlands. It has a nice little trail through part of this swamp, which if you have ever driven on I-10 is a welcome diversion. Below are some photos of my visit there.

Barataria Preserve

Posted on January 3, 2013 by geek

Barataria Preserve in southeastern Louisiana is part of Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve. It is a beautiful area that includes bayous, swamps, marshes, and forests. Below are some of my photos from a recent trip there.

Yellow rumped warbler