Stan, Day 2

35.6 µS/hr @ 8:10 am.

Correction: 86.4 µS/hr @ 2:23 pm. [1]

There’s definitely some variability to the readings due to experimental error.  The highest readings come when I press the device directly against his throat, which he does not like.

I get better cooperation if he’s eating while I take the readings.

He also does not like the sound the detector makes, so I’ve disabled it, but that removes some of the fun (for me) during the data collection.

If I had a bunch of these detectors and placed them in each room then we could track his movements around the house based on sound alone.  There are noticeable rises in detector activity when he merely enters the room.

[1] this is a lesson in experimental error.  Stan jumped up on my lap at an opportune moment and was willing to rub his face against the detector, leading to the highest score to-date.  Figuring out how to get consistent results is going to be a problem.

Stan’s Return, Day 1

We just got Stan home from the MSPCA hospital.  He’s been there for three weeks while his radioactivity levels fell from highly dangerous levels to merely regular dangerous.

Today’s highest reading: 41.7 µS/hr from the area around his throat.  That’s more than four thousand times higher than the typical background levels in my house.

Background

Stan was treated for an overactive thyroid.  The modern procedure is to inject the patient with a single dose of Iodine 131 to kill off the hyperactive cells.  The normal thyroid cells are generally unaffected because they’ve gone dormant and don’t take up any of the iodine.

For the first three weeks post-treatment Stan was kept at the facility for monitoring but, more importantly, because his pee and poop were strongly radioactive and cannot be disposed of with normal trash.  We would have had to hold onto it for 90+ days.

I’m planning on taking daily readings using my Better Geiger S1 scintillator until his levels drop to near-background levels, which are under 0.01 µS/hr in my house.

Sevierville, Tennessee

flowering tree
Taken along the Sevierville Greenway

Harder Than It Needed To Be

I think I’m not alone in disliking Google’s AI-generated results.

As tedium.co explains, it’s technically possible to remove the AI cruft just by adding a URL parameter to your search.  It’s not perfect.  As that page points out you’re getting a 2001 presentation of today’s SEO-addled search results, so the results aren’t the breath of fresh air you might be hoping for.  But they don’t have the AI summaries, and that’s a plus.

Sites like  udm14.com make a big show of adding the parameter and removing the AI stuff for you, but I don’t typically start at the front door of search engines.  I use address-bar searching like a civilized person.

Oddly, since they’re the FLOSS favorite, but maybe not-so-oddly since they’re still beholden to corporate interests, Firefox makes it easy to add commercial providers but doesn’t make it easy to add or edit custom providers.  Finding out how took me much longer than I’m happy about. I’m sharing here in hopes that it helps someone else.

The support forum leads the way, but here’s a summary:

  1. Go to about:config
  2. Create, or modify, the browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh setting as a boolean and set it to “true”.  It’s undocumented.Firefox about:config showing new parameter
  3. Click on the “hamburger” menu, click Settings, then go to Search
    firefox hamburger menu
  4. Under the “Search Shortcuts” section, you should have an “Add” button that wasn’t there before.  Click it.
  5. Fill in your “new” search provider, using the same term for Engine URL and Search Suggestion URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14 then save your changes.edit search engine example dialog
  6. Slide back up to the top of the page and set your “Default Search Engine” to your “new” provider.

That’s it!

Bird Among Bleachers

bird sitting among the bleachers
Birds were taking refuge from the rain in a quiet section

I took this at Jack’s graduation, which was held at a covered pavilion during a nor’easter.

A portion of the seating was on the windy side, so people were sitting away from it to avoid spray.  That gave a small number of birds a chance to come in and wait out the storm.

JACK’S GRADUATION

Jack is now the recipient of a Bachelors in Fine Arts, bestowed by one of the best schools in the country.  As his parents we cannot be more proud of him and his accomplishment.

Jack
I managed to catch Jack’s attention for a moment as the graduates milled around prior to the ceremony
a sea of mortar boards as the wearers watch the ceremony
Jack is featured among the sea of mortar boards
Jack's mortar board among a sea of mortar boards
Jack decorated his mortar board quite nicely. I’m a little surprised how many of his fellow art school students did not.

The ceremony was held at the Leader Bank Pavilion, a seaside open-air venue that, on any other day in May, would have been a gorgeous site.

This was not a typical day in May, however.

Air temperatures hovered around 45° F, winds from right off the ocean gusted over 45 mph, and nearly 2 inches of rain fell over the course of the ceremony.  A rare late-spring nor’easter was blowing through.  A permanent tent kept the rain off, but the open sides did little to block the weather otherwise.

rain outside the tent
The temperature hovered around 45F as a late-spring nor’easter blew through. On any typical late-May day this would have been a beautiful spot to hold a graduation, but even with the gloomy weather there was beauty.

Much of the out-of-town crowd shivered their way through the day and purchased ponchos and blankets.  Locals are generally made of firmer stuff, and most of us also saw the forecast and knew how to dress.  There were lots of winter clothes draped over the finery.

The graduates, however, were probably too excited to be cold.  If they weren’t comfortable, they didn’t show it.  Most gowns were puffed out as people wore jackets and sweaters underneath.  (except for one or two that clearly didn’t get the memo about the weather.)

The speeches were surprisingly good, and held the crowd’s attention despite our collective discomfort.  Megh and I agreed that it was one of the better graduation ceremonies that we’ve attended.

gaudy graduation garb
One of the graduates of the fashion program

The graduates looked fabulous, some more than others.

The attendees, however, generally looked a bit bedraggled after a long wait in the rain.

About that: we planned to arrive early, get decent parking so that Baba wouldn’t have to walk far, and stay as dry as possible.

task failed successfullyEveryone else had the same great idea.  Our idea exploded spectacularly in our face.

We were part of the first wave of people.  Two lines formed, one to each side of the gate.  One side (our side) crossed a bridge over the water; the other (longer) line snaked around the corner and a couple of blocks down.  The security check was a bottleneck.

Everyone was soaked upon entry.  Late arrivals really weren’t much worse off than early.

Baba and Bronwyn
I asked Megh to hold my camera for a moment, and she went and took one of the best photos of the day (in an artistic sense). Baba is taking in the ceremony while Bronwyn flashes a sardonic look at the camera.

After the ceremony we headed to the Black Rose for an early celebratory dinner, and enjoyed a stroll around Quincy Market as the rain abated.

QOTD

The saddest thing about having a great butt is that everyone can enjoy it except you.

— Bronwyn

Shower-thought about WALL-E

I was today years old when I figured out that WALL-E (2008) is just a re-telling of the movie Idiocracy (2006).

Don’t take this the wrong way.  I like both movies.  However, the parallels I see off the top of my head:

  • The world is a mess, literally and figuratively;
  • People are obsessed with low-grade entertainment and let their minds (and, in the case of WALL-E, their bodies) fall apart, while machines and automation have kept society from collapsing
  • Nobody knows how to get plants to grow;
  • Someone from the past holds the key to saving the world

There are probably more, this is all going from memory while I was in the shower this morning.