PIX: Practice
06:58 Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Current Wx: Temp: 51.12°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 3mph
Words: 627
I have an absurd number of images stored in iCloud, over 100,000. It's not a technical problem, I have plenty of storage, computers are (generally) fast enough to manage them. It's a human problem. What happens to them when I'm gone? Are any of them meaningful to the people I leave behind?
I think some of them will be, perhaps not many. Perhaps some people may find some of them worthwhile because they were meaningful to me.
In any event, it's been kind of on my mind for some time. This morning, as I was making breakfast, the thought occurred to me that it was a bit like climate change. The number of photos in "the cloud" was increasing seemingly without limit, and that I had to slow the rate of increase while simultaneously working to extract images from the cloud.
So, from time to time, though not often enough, when I'm bored, I'll sit on the couch with the M1 MBP and delete images. I've fund that it's helpful to confine my pool of candidates for deletion to a single lens, or a single camera. If I just draw from the entire library, there are a lot of context switches, for lack of a better term, that add some friction to the process. I shoot with a lot of cameras and a lot of lenses, sometimes several in a day. And, of course, most of those images are crap. (See: Sturgeon's Law.)
But it's interesting. I'll see an image that I know is a nothing image. But I'll also recall when I took it, and how amazed I was at how good it turned out. Not "good" in the sense that it was a beautiful or meaningful image, but that it was sharp, well exposed, in focus, with excellent color. It's still hard to delete those, and I delete far too few of them. But I'm getting better at it.
The problem is, I like taking pictures. So I see pictures a lot of the time when I'm out and about. Often, thankfully, I don't have a camera. I almost alway have the iPhone, but I don't experience photography with an iPhone like I do with a camera. Sometimes I'll use it, of course, and it can capture great images; but it's not the same experience for me. I should be grateful for that, I suppose.
Part of it has to do with the fact that I still experience some sense of wonder that I can even do this. Like shooting the moon. I've shot it a gazillion times. But sometimes I'll see it up there, and I'll just have to go get a camera and shoot it. Or someone else will post a pic, and then I have to do it too. This one's from about a week ago:
I mean, it's just ridiculous.
There were 21 images in the library from that effort. I just deleted all the ones except the one you (hopefully) see above. Was it the best? I don't know, they were all pretty damn good. I probably over-sharpened this one. Doesn't matter.
It's just that I'm still amazed at what we can do with cameras these days. Maybe it's not that way for people who grew up with good digital cameras, probably starting about twenty years ago.
I don't know. As problems go, I suppose this is the kind to have. I do know I need to start putting images in albums, and creating books and slideshows with them to share with people.
I was going to title this post Discipline, but I don't have discipline. All I have is practice.
✍️ Reply by emailAmerican Pekin
10:29 Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 51.13°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 66% Wind: 14.97mphWords: 32
Something I've never seen here before. This appears to be an American Pekin domestic duck, much larger than the mallard it's next to. Also seems to have something stuck in its bill.
✍️ Reply by emailBlack Bellied Whistling Ducks
Current Wx: Temp: 70.75°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 9.22mphWords: 105
Didn't make it into the preserve this morning, but I brought along the OM-1 on my walk hoping to see a bird or two. Got shut out on wading birds, saw a bunch of mockingbirds, but then I spotted a pair of whistling ducks headed my way. I got the camera up in time and managed to get them in the frame for a few shots.
I wasn't configured for birds in flight, but "you miss all the shots you never take." This cleaned up fairly well in Topaz SharpenAI.
I'll try and get into the preserve more often before the weather gets hot.
✍️ Reply by email"5 Physics Equations Everyone Should Know"
06:55 Sunday, 26 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 38.75°F Pressure: 1031hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 0mph
Words: 1187
I spotted this in Apple News+, but here's the web link. It's a no-value-added, kind of click-bait title for a low-value-added small attention sump. This would be one of those occasions when I'd welcome Apple "intelligence" to summarize the article so I could paste that in here so you wouldn't have to read it. What sucked me in were the click-bait keywords "everyone" and "should," paired with a topic I'm generally interested in, "physics." So, shame on me.
Anyway, in lieu of summarizing the article, here are the five equations the author believes "everyone should know."
Newton's Second Law
The wave equation
Maxwell's equation(s)
Schrödinger’s Equation
Einstein's Mass-Energy Equivalence
The article opens with:
All the tech we rely on, from cars to smartphones, was engineered using physics. You don’t need to know the science to use these things. But a well-rounded human should understand at least some of the key concepts—along with some music, art, history, and economics.
Really? No math? No biology? No ecology? Chemistry?
As I mentioned, it's a low-value, throw away piece of click-bait.
If there were five physics equations "everyone should know," I wouldn't pick these.
Here are my choices:
The first one, Newton's Second, is fine. F=ma (And you can't push a rope.) can get you pretty far in life.
For the second one, I'd pick the kinetic energy equation. KE=½mv^2.
Why is that important? That little exponential there. That "velocity squared" term. If there's one thing I wish everyone understood, it would be the mathematical concept of exponentials, because they pretty much define our experience of "reality," often to our surprise and regret.
In the case of kinetic energy, that's the amount of work that can be done by a body in motion, where by "work," I mean "damage."
So you buy your kid an e-bike. Before, they could peddle along at maybe 10 or 12 miles per hour. With their e-bike, they may be peddling along at two or three times that speed. Because of the exponential velocity term, when they inevitably crash their bodies will experience four to nine times as much damage and injury. How many parents have an intuitive understanding of that?
Likewise when you choose to drive your car at 45mph in a 30mph zone. If you glance at your phone and hit a light pole, or a kid, you're not going to do 50% more damage. You're going to do over 200% more damage! (225%, to be "exact.") How many drivers have an intuitive understanding of that?
The third one I'd choose is electrical, but not Maxwell's equations. P=VI, that is, power equals volts times amperage, usually measured in Watts. This can come in handy sometimes if you have a device that labels its power requirements in terms of volts and amps, you can figure out how much power it uses. If you have a clamp-on ammeter, you can measure current and determine power. (The meter might even tell you.)
I think people "should" have a general understanding of how much "power" or energy they're using. If you asked people, which uses more energy in a month, your house or your car? How many would have any idea? (The ones who have electric cars probably do. And it depends on the size of your house. A mansion versus an apartment, or an "average" house.)
For the fourth one, I kind of went back and forth between the Law of Mechanical Advantage, and the drag equation. I think the law of mechanical advantage is something most people kind of get or remember. They may have been introduced to simple machines in science class. But that'll be an important one to know when "the machine stops," and we're going to be relying on muscles for power.
But I'm going to settle on the drag equation, because it's another exponential that people don't appreciate.
D = 0.5 * Cd * A * ρ * V^2
where:
- D is the drag force,
- Cd is the drag coefficient (which varies depending on the shape of the object),
- A is the cross-sectional area of the object,
- ρ is the density of the fluid (air, in this case),
- V is the velocity of the object relative to the fluid.
Looks complicated, but don't worry about anything but our old friend v-squared there at the end.
When you're driving at a constant (highway) speed, the engine is delivering power to the wheels to overcome two forces, rolling resistance and aerodynamic drag. Drag varies as the square of the velocity (speed). So 80mph is 14% faster than 70mph. How much more drag is there at 80mph than at 70mph? It's not 14% more... It's 14%-squared more! 1.14^2=1.3. That's 30% more drag at 80mph than at 70mph, regardless of anything else you care to change, like the drag coefficient or the cross-sectional area of the vehicle.
So, if your fuel economy is 30mpg at 70mph, it's going to be 21mpg at 80mph! Your fuel economy doesn't vary linearly with your driving speed. It varies exponentially, once you get up to highway speeds. I don't think people appreciate that, even if they care about their fuel economy (or battery range).
ICE have a speed at which they're most efficient. Generally, this is lower than even legal highway speeds. So you're starting out with less thermodynamic efficiency at highway speeds, while simultaneously demanding exponentially more power. It's a double-whammy on fuel economy. At very low speeds, rolling resistance may a greater contributor to forces resisting the car's motion.
Finally, to slow down an ICE vehicle (not a hybrid with regenerative braking), you're converting motion (kinetic energy) into heat (thermal energy). I don't think many people appreciate this either. Some of that heat you extracted from your fuel, you must convert back into heat with your brakes.
Chemical energy=>heat energy=>kinetic energy=>heat energy. (If you're slowing down without using the brakes, you're relying on air resistance which is essentially transferring kinetic energy from the vehicle to the air, warming it. Regenerative braking captures some of that energy and stores it in a battery in a hybrid.)
The point is, if you care about fuel economy or energy efficiency, don't speed.
Finally, the last physics equation everyone should know is the Second Law of Thermodynamics:
S'-S>=0.
Entropy.
That is, "Things tend to go to shit. Inevitably."
Much of our lives, and the activity of our civilization is serving as Maxwell's little demons, trying to create, preserve or restore order. Rowing against the tide. The less effort we put into keeping things in order, the sooner they go to shit.
As we are witnessing.
I always have a little trepidation posting these kind of posts where there's math. It's been a long time since I've had to do this sort of thing "for real." It's possible I've screwed something up here, though I don't think so. Anyway, as always, I'm an authority on nothing. I make all this shit up. Do your own thinking.
✍️ Reply by emailNot So Bad
Current Wx: Temp: 9.91°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 4.43mphWords: 224
Just got back in from shoveling snow and spreading some salt. 10°F, but shoveling snow will still make you work up a sweat. My toes were still cold. Some fancy Sorel insulated boots and two pairs of alpaca socks and they're still cold. Had the kid come by and plow out the driveway. I went out to pay him, clear the porch and the garage door, get the snow off the Maverick (there was a lot of it), and put some salt down on the porch. Moved the Mav over to the plowed area, but probably didn't need to. I'd shoveled a lot of the snow out from around the front tires, and the part that piled up behind it from the plow. It backed right out. Pulled forward into the cleared area, making sure Mitzi has room to get the RAV4 out of the garage.
I'd say we only got about 8 inches of accumulation, higher and lower where the light winds made it drift. I could still make out the grass on much of the lawn. Looks like there's a rabbit under the shed, could see from the tracks where it goes under.
And of course, it's snowing again. Coming down pretty good too. I don't think we'll have to plow again, but who knows.
"It never snows here anymore."
Hysterical.
✍️ Reply by emailFurther to the Foregoing
08:49 Monday, 26 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 10.92°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 88% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 68
We never lost power. The fiber blipped for a few minutes, switched to iPhone hot spot and kept right on doom-scrolling. Basically just hunkered down and read and watched YouTube.
Started watching Steal on Prime last night. After we finish that, I'm going to cancel Prime because fuck Jeff Bezos. Apparently ICE uses AWS and Prime is platforming Mrs. Trump's vanity project and fuck that shit too.
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