Category: Miscellaneous

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A Night on Bald Mountain

Posted on By Tom 2 Comments on A Night on Bald Mountain
Miscellaneous, Photography, Science

Bald Rock Sunrise-016

For my birthday this year I decided to take a vacation day from work. Most people would take this as an opportunity to sleep in. I’ve always been of the mind that if I have a day off, I really don’t want to waste any of it, and usually would like to get an early start.

This year I got an earlier start than usual. This night is the peak of the Geminid meteor shower. My plan was to head up to Bald Rock in the South Carolina foothills and watch the meteors, then catch the morning sun rising over the Piedmont. I had my bike all set up with everything I could find on Bike Hint. I was hoping to replicate this photo…

Piedmont Sunrise 1 Cropped

…which was taken in January of 2007.

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Soma Madness

Posted on By Tom No Comments on Soma Madness
Entertainment, Miscellaneous

Soma Puzzle

In 1933 Danish mathematician Piet Hein proposed a three dimensional variation on the tangram puzzle. The puzzle consists of seven polycubes in different configurations that can be put together to form a 3X3 cube.


Soma Puzzle

Hein called his puzzle a Soma Cube, the name purportedly taken from a Sanskrit word for “diversity.” The cube puzzle was popular in Scandinavia, but it wasn’t until Parker Brothers licensed the puzzle in 1969. It remained popular for a decade until it’s popularity was supplanted by another upstart cube puzzle.

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How Many Greenvilles?

Posted on By Tom 8 Comments on How Many Greenvilles?
Geocaching and Maps, Miscellaneous

Greenville_Sanborn_Map_Cover

Perhaps it was the fact that I’ve crossed several state lines recently. More likely it was because I’ve spent several late nights wide awake and coughing. Being sick can make you think weird things, but for some reason the following aphorism popped into my head…

There is a town called “Greenville” in every state. However, Tennessee is the only only one that spells it as “Greeneville.”

I don’t even remember where I heard that the first time. My first intent was to take this at face value and create a Google Earth KML file showing the location of each town called Greenville. (Did I mention that I’ve been sick lately?) That turned into a challenge to test the validity of this statement, and learn a bit more about Greenville, where ever it might be found.

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Back to School 2012

Posted on By Tom 2 Comments on Back to School 2012
EdTech, Miscellaneous

Aviary google-com Picture 1

And so it begins again. Students return on Monday. Our teachers were back last Monday. The summer is over and we’re getting back to the business of educating kids.

Not that summer has been a vacation for me. I’ve long ago left the cycle of having summers off. In fact, summer is typically my busiest time as we try to do upgrades on our systems. This summer was particularly busy because we tried to change/upgrade just about every technology system we have. It’s been a crazy time with late evenings, working on days that I would normally have off, and trying to conduct a three ring circus of vendors working on frantic deadlines to get everything ready before August 15.

Here’s a list of our projects this summer…

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Social Marketing Gone Awry

Posted on By Tom 3 Comments on Social Marketing Gone Awry
Miscellaneous

Screen Shot 2012-06-18 at 2.17.15 PM

So, Shell Oil decided that they would embark on a new marketing campaign to promote drilling in the Arctic. They took help from a conglomerate of social media marketing companies, which also included the Marketing Heaven. The campaign, entitled “Let’s Go”, let’s users create their own marketing slogans using a series of photo templates.

We at Shell want everyone to feel as “pumped” as we do about freeing much-needed Arctic resources. After all, the Arctic is the common heritage of all humanity, and what we do there matters to everyone.

That’s why Shell is inviting you to create your very own Let’s Go! ad for our Arctic campaign. We’ll feature it on our website, and you can show all your Facebook friends how pumped you are to seize the day’s opportunities too. The best submissions will win exciting prizes—including an all-expenses-paid trip to see the Kulluk in action!

Screen Shot 2012-06-18 at 2.18.20 PM

What could possibly go wrong?

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