We'uns not goin tuh Collug

Gloucester officials were pleased that more students took the SAT tests this year, and the scores increased slightly. (About 35% of the senior class took the tests this year compared to 30% last year.)

Average scores rose this year by 15 points in the math section to 503; 12 points in the verbal section to 516; and six points in the writing section to 487, Belvin said.

The average U.S. student's scores were 515 in math, 502 in verbal and 494 in writing. The average Virginia student's scores were 511 in math, 511 in verbal and 498 in writing.

So, last year the math score was 488, the verbal 504, and the writing 481. Combined math/verbal scores were 992 last year, and are 1019 this year.

At William and Mary the range of SAT scores that would put you in the middle 50% of incoming freshmen is 1270 to 1430. So, with a score of 1019 you are well down in the bottom 25%.

At the University of Virginia the average composite score is 1325.

At Christopher Newport University the average is lower; around 1152 two years ago.

So what is presumably our top 35% of students gets scores that on average put them in the bottom 20% of kids going to college at the better local schools. They might fare better at CNU.

That's not to say some of the kids didn't get great scores, but then what does that say about the others?

My school? Mines? The middle 50% currently ranges from 1170 to 1340. That's kind of embarrassing.

The price of (heating) oil - 2007 edition

Last year I was worried about the pre-buy contract I was being offered for heating oil by my supplier. I can get it at a fixed price if I pay in advance on whatever amount I want to buy.

This year the price was $2.599 per gallon. I bought 750 gallons, the same as last year, figuring the price had to go up to $3 a gallon later on.

Today I bought gas at $2.589, the lowest price I've seen in many months. I'm starting to wonder "did I guess right, or do I lose this year?"

This year, amazingly enough, the price is the same. They say I used 766 gallons last year, so I'm tempted to bet low and go with 750 gallons for the third year in a row ($1950). (There's no thought in my mind saying "what if the prices drop?")

However, you get a 5 cent discount if you order 800 gallons or more. If I went for that, I'd pay $2040. $90 more for an additional 50 gallons. Hmmm, I'd use it up eventually.

What happens if you don't pre-buy? Well, you can still sign up for their "even payment program", where they estimate the price, and your usage, for you and send you monthly bills where they try to smooth it out. You pay the current market price, but with a cap of $2.85. That could add hundreds to my bill. I think not.

Wind Power Article "Translation"

Der Speigel has an on-line article about problems with wind turbines. I thought the funny bit was this. I'm sure the original German article doesn't use quite this, um, colloquialism.

Indeed, with thousands of mishaps, breakdowns and accidents having been reported in recent years, the difficulties seem to be mounting. Gearboxes hiding inside the casings perched on top of the towering masts have short shelf lives, often crapping out before even five years is up.

I don't think I've ever seen that used in a news report before. Certainly not outside of a quote.

Another beautiful day

Yes, the sun is shining and the birds are singing. Umm, singing silently. Oh, wait...they're panting. It's 93 degrees out right now, with a heat index of 105. My lawn needs mowed so bad, but no way am I going out there to do it.

The Constitution - For Sale

Do you suppose these guys get a lot of business this way? Selling an MS-Word document of the Constitution.

[The full Constitution, in both hypertext and word-processor formats, can be purchased and downloaded for individual local use from the LII. For details click here.]

If so, please give me about 15 minutes, and I'll sell you a copy for half the price.

The Power of GIS

I read Lou Minatti's blog every day, and he posted a photo over there that I've seen before. It appears to be a newspaper photo from the Roanoke Times of a smoking woman standing in her front yard pondering what the sound of jackhammers will do to her unborn child. (Get it? Smoking. Pregnant. Sound of jackhammers is worse.) I agree with Lou that the caption could have been Photoshopped.

I don't think it's a faked photo though. In fact using the truly awsome power of GIS here at the Virginia DOT, I've even tracked down the exact location the photo was taken. Take a look at Lou's original blog entry. Compare that to my photo. (Click to make the photo bigger.) The hydrant. The house of the left side of the street. The Hardees down the block.

The woman was standing right behind the stone wall of the house on the corner on the right. Corner of Bullitt Ave & 8th St E, Roanoke, VA. Latitude 37.267867N, Longitude 79.93010W.

Google Earth - Turned 180 degrees

I've enjoyed scanning areas around the planet on Google Earth. The new version (4.2.0180.1134 (beta)) gives you something more.

When you select "View Sky" it lets you do the same sort of zoom and pan on astronomical images, mostly from the Hubble telescope. (Click on the photo shown here.)

There is also a feature that puts the planets in motion, allowing you to watch how they will move over the next three months.

I've only started exploring, and I'm in severe danger of wasting many, many hours on this.

Spider Season

This is the time of year that you find yourself blundering through huge orb spider webs strung up in the darnedest places. Between trees. From my car to the carport. Wherever.

Actually, it's kind of creepy. When I remember, I try to stick one hand out in front when wandering "between" things when I can't see too well. Like when going to the compost pile after sundown.

Each year though, these guys take up residence in our vegetable garden. Argiope aurantia. They're kind of hard to miss, being bright yellow and three inches long. The webs are usually a couple of feet across.

Global Warming - A Small Correction

We keep hearing about how every recent year is the warmest ever. NASA has just released revised temperature figures. The warmest year on record is no longer 1988 (it's #2). The warmest year is 1935. The "dust bowl", remember? The #3 year is 1921. #4 is 2006!! But #5 is 1931.

Now, this graph, for the U.S. alone, may not mean much. Or it may. How do you decide? The trend is "up", but with all of 125 years of data how useful is that?

More Heat

At 8 am the temperature was 85.6 degress with a dew point of 77.6 degrees. That makes it a heat index of 97 degrees. This doesn't look like a good day.

More Copper Theft

This time at William and Mary. -

A few weeks after $7,500 in copper gutters were swiped from buildings at the College and William and Mary, thieves have struck again.

Two more copper thefts have been reported on the campus - with $2,000 in copper downspouts missing from the Dillard complex on Ironbound Road on July 28, and $250 in copper stolen from the machine shop in Small Hall on July 30, college spokeswoman Suzanne Seurattan said.

On Thursday, four 8-foot-long downspouts were taken off of Seasons restaurant near the intersection of Jamestown Road and Route 199, James City County police spokesman Mike Spearman said.

This weather is nasty

It's 9:50 EDT in Gloucester Point, and it's 86 degrees out with 73% humidity. That's a heat index of 96.

Tis the Season...

...for picking blueberries. We've already frozen about 1 1/2 gallons of them, there's another quart in the refrigerator, and I don't know how many more still on the bushes. Problem is, it's nearly 80 degrees at sunrise, so picking isn't too fun.

Darwin Takes a Vacation

Oh, well. Better luck next time.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis

No, not the bridge collapse.

Today the Astronomer-in-Training passed her PhD oral exams. So, it's off to do her dissertation project. Well, that and finishing her written exams.

In the meantime my big project is to try to finish paying off her BS degree before she gets the PhD.

Denver Light Rail

They whine when you don't build it, and then whine when you do.

...the preferred route under consideration now would use Union Pacific or Burlington Northern railroad tracks.

That brought a storm of criticism from residents such as one woman who predicted that middle-class residents will flee their neighborhoods, leaving behind crime-ridden slums instead.

Uh, so the people living in the trailer parks next to the railroad tracks are afraid this will hurt the quality of the neighborhood?

Outside the meeting, Olsen, a real estate appraiser, said she voted to fund FasTracks, thinking that it would simply run parallel to Interstate 25, just as it does in the south metro area.

That's true, but she has it backwards. In the south end of the city the highway was built next to the railroad tracks, not the other way around. In the north end...well nobody lived there when they built the highway so they just aimed for Cheyenne and started pushing dirt.

Anyway, she thought they'd build along the highway. That makes sense. Build the light rail in the one area that is already built up densely. Traffic-wise, that makes good sense. Cost wise it doesn't. How many businesses and homes would have to be torn down to build it in that case versus building on a 100-year old railroad right-of-way? You'd think a real estate appraiser could understand that.

Abusive Driver Fees

They were trying to raise road funds here by instituting "abusive driver fees" for habitual offenders. A judge struck them down.
A Henrico County general district judge ruled this morning that the state's new "civil remedial fees" are unconstitutional.

The state will appeal Judge Archie Yeatts' ruling to Circuit Court.
A lot of the arguments against these were that it wasn't fair to the poor schlub that got a ticket to have to also pay these fees. So, what was this particular case about?

The defendant, Anthony Price, had pleaded no contest to driving with a suspended license for the fifth time.

Ah, how about we skip the fine, and move straight to jail time?

MYOB

There is a private group out of Colorado that is working with Amtrak to revive luxury rail service. Travel now and get a bonus.

Amtrak is trying to gin up new business by offering $100 in free alcohol to customers on some overnight trains.

The national passenger rail company is making the unusual offer to promote a new high-end service being offered on a trial basis for certain sleeper car trips.

Members of Amtrak's guest rewards program—the railroad equivalent of frequent fliers—can get a $100 per person credit for alcohol between November and January.

But someone has to be a spoilsport.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving questioned whether $100 in free alcohol was too much.

"This sounds like a lot of credit toward possible overindulging," said MADD spokeswoman Misty Moyse.

Uh, I thought the point was, they aren't driving. In fact some of these trips take three days. That's still several drinks per day though. The only response I can think to make to that is - mind your own business B-.