Dulles mobile lounges circa 1970

Sharing because I need to show friends this on Google Reader. Dulles used to have its mobile lounges serve the plane directly.



















Source: Wells,T.W. and Young, S. B. Airport Planning & Management. Fifth Edition. 2004.

Bengali Haircut

Recently was reminded about the haircuts I got in Bangladesh, and how they came with a complimentary head rub. Searched youtube for a video of a Bengali haircut/head rub and found this video from across the northern border in Guwahati. 30 seconds in the barber starts his work.

Drive the coastline

An idea for a roadtrip:

Drive the perimeter of the United States, following the coastline to every extent possible. Take every road that borders the beach. (e.g. A1A in St. Augustine) Enter every subdivision if there is a full loop possible. No tracing back over on one way streets necessary.

I'm not sure if I'm more interested in driving it or just knowing now long this would be. It would be hard to map out on Google Maps. I'd have to drag a route onto every possible coastal street. Maybe someone who knew how to program could write a script to tell Google Maps to follow every street closest to the ocean.

Maybe make it easier, only take the closest state route to the ocean. With a day of work, I could probably could do that on my own with Google Maps.

Below is a sample of what I'm talking about. Here in a short stretch of coastline near Awendaw, South Carolina, I have found the route which follows the coastline to the extent possible.



















Actually, there could be an easier way to do this without a computer script. One could take several samples of coastline followed like seen above, and then compare it to how long it would take to cover the same distance along the coastline on a nearby highway. By comparing the two, we could have a factor of the difference. In this case, the route that follows local roads close to the coastline is 12.4 miles long (above) and the one using a highway but covering the same space is 6.8 miles long (below).
























The factor between them is 1.82. By sampling many portions of coastline around the country, and finding the difference between the nearest highway route and the coastline route, we could create an average factor for the country. Then, one would only need to find the closest highway route around the nation's perimeter, and factor it up to see how long a route along the coastline would take.

An even easier approximation would be just to see how long the interstate route is, and use the same factoring process described above. It would be faster, although less accurate.

Is this easier than a computer script? I don't know. I'm not a computer scientist. For me this would be easier. I like factors. It would be cool to do.

Nails jump on you

When it's time to clip your fingernails, you don't get any notice. One morning you wake up, and all of a sudden your nails have grown to a length that they are bothersome. Never have I thought, "Wow, my nails might have to be cut tomorrow, or two days from now." They always all of a sudden just need it, like a trigger is switched in my body. Why is the difference between too long and just fine such a thin line?

They are not like other periodic grooming needs. When I need a haircut, I usually look at myself one to two weeks ahead of time ahead a time and realize I'm going to need a haircut coming up soon. When I need to shave my beard, I notice it begins to itch ever so slowly.

Is it that nails being too long is just too frustrating to deal with, while a slightly shaggy beard or lengthy hair are bearable?

Equivalent Signs

Have spent a lot of time on I-40 the last six years. Always love the sign in Wilmington, NC that tells how far it is to Barstow, CA, the western termination point of I-40. Went to Google StreetView to see if they have an equivalent sign in Barstow, and they did. Also found out that you can't see the sign in the Wilmington StreetView because Google only drove one side of the highway. Had to find a picture of it elsewhere.

Good thing the distances are the same. Cool to see the different surround landscape.

The NC State Wolfline IS a wolf!

A friend of mine recently shared this post with me, about how people spot animal shapes in geographic features. Examples include a T-rex head when combining South America and Africa and finding animal shapes in London's Underground maps. It spurred me to finally write up this post.

My college roommate pointed out to me once that the map of the NC State bus system, the Wolfline, looks peculiarly like the head of a wolf. Coincidence? Check it out below: ears, jaw, perfect head shape. Also, we've remarked many times before how clever it is that the night service of the Wolfline is called the Werewolf.