"I thought you said vision test. Let me take it again."

Today I had an epic adventure trying to get my Minnesota drivers license finally – a building source of stress over the last 6 months.

The Wisconsin ID I had since 2001, was set to expire on my birthday next week. Granted, I have known about this for years, but I only started looking into it a month ago – at which point I discovered I would need to take a written test since I am getting a MN ID for the first time. Two weeks ago I started looking to see if there were practice tests. The state didn’t seem to offer anything.. including a general list of laws. I did however find this site, which had a few freebie tests. In the mean time, my friend told me of the horrors he experienced trying to get his MN ID and offered up a couple examples of the harder questions. This got me really nervous since the free practice tests contained really obvious questions. As such, I bit the bullet and bought the 100 question test for $15 via that site. I took it a handful of times until I aced it. However, the questions from my friend still scared me since they were not covered in the practice tests.

Anywho, I decided that today after work I would hit the DMV and take the test. Before lunch, I was browsing the DMV site and discovered that I would need my birth certificate in addition to either my old ID or my social security card. For some reason, I thought I only needed my old ID and my SS card. So, I called my mom to see if she had it and ended up leaving a message. Yarg! So, I knew that I was born in St. Paul (store below) so I looked up how to get my Ramsey County birth certificate. As it turned out I could walk in and “take care of it”.

So I attempted to do all this on my lunch break. I zipped over to downtown St. Paul with Arika to the office I need to get my cert. Arika ran off to get some change for the meter. In the mean time, I filled out the fairly simple form and waited for my number to be called. In the mean time, my mom called back and said she had my original certificate. Based on the form, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to walk out of there with the certificate or if they were going to mail it to me. This made me worried since I wanted to take care of my ID this week at least.  So I told my mom, I might be driving there and back to pick it up depending on what the skinny was. Luckily, I got up to the counter and I was able to get my certificate… but not before running across the street to get cash since they only accepted checks and cash… I called my mom back and told her the news. I think she was sad that I wouldn’t be coming home. I guess that means I should try to get home soon…

Then it was off to the Midtown Market DMV (voted best DMV in the Twin Cities). After I picked a number, Arika and I anxiously waited in the lobby area listening to numbers being called off. I watched people in the testing area staring at the touch screen tests in utter frustration. I even saw a couple people telling answers to eachother…. nice… glad these people will be on the road eventualy… legally or not. I gawked at the colorful mix of people all bonded together in the utter frustrating of the entity that is the DMV. After catching a couple peculiar whiffs in the air and started getting overwhelmed by screaming unattended children, the DMV song from Primus popped into my head and wouldn’t stop. Haha.

My number was finally picked, and the guy at the counter took my old ID and my birth certificate and gave me another number “46″ without much explanation and said “good luck”.  I assumed that meant I had to go find the corresponding computer and take my test. I found computer 46 sandwiched between two other people who seemed like they had been sitting there for a while. I nervously stared at my screen touching it in random spots in hopes it would initiate the test. After a minute or so, the screen read “Welcome Blaine Garrett” … and it was on.

Long story short, I zipped through the test and got 2 wrong out of 34 – a passing score. Going into the test, I had no idea how long it would be so when the end came, I was a bit surprised. I guess I figured it would be longer since the two people sitting on either side of me were still taking it when I finished and continued to do so for at least another 15 minutes. Eeek. In the end, the test wasn’t very hard and I only tripped up on a few akwardly worded questions. I am really glad I studied however if for no other reason that it was a time saver.

So after a bit of paperwork and waiting around some more, a guy I could barely understand issued me my temporary papers, charged my credit card, and then half unexpectedly blinded me with a bright light (I guess he said photo – not eye test…). Arika and I grabed some celebratory Mexican mush piles at a stand in the Market and went home. In 3-6 weeks I will have my new ID and will officially be a MN resident! I guess in the end that wasn’t as much of a pain in the butt as it could have been, but I suuuure got really anxious about it over these last few busy months. I’m just glad it is over. A special thanks to Arika who has been my moral support through this and all the other stupid crap I get needlessly anxious about.

Some Primus for you. My day was sorta like this, but with less Bass.

Now, I figured I would mention why I have a Ramsey County birth certificate since this story came up the other day while camping with my brothers.  27 years ago next Wednesday, my mom had 6 weeks left of the pregnency left. However, I was getting tired of waiting around to be born and had shit to take care of. My mom went to the local hospital and they figured I was going to come out 6 weeks early. The airlifted her to the children’s hospital in St. Paul because they were worried I would be too premature and there would be complications. Once she was there, with little struggle, I popped out health as a baby born on schedule.  I’d like to say I was born with a paint brush in my hand, but really it was probably just a glob of slime. However, I did want to hurry up and get out so I could get going on stuff – perhaps more characteristic of me than my creative side. So either way, that is why I was born in St. Paul. Luckily, so too, because since I only discovered today that I needed it, I only had to drive 20 minutes to get my birth certificate rather than 2 hours!

This story came up over the weekend, becuse my mom told it to my sister in-law who has 6 weeks left of her pregnacy with her first child. Needless to say that caused her some worry. My mom seems to be good at telling temporally akward stories.

Slinky - Photo Credit woodleywonderworks via Flickr

Today’s interesting bit of the day is about resonant frequencies. In layman terms, something’s resonant frequency is the point at which, when you “vibrate” it, will “shake” more than at other points.

These “shakes” can be caused by wind, sound, earthquakes, or people dancing to House of Pain’s hit song “Jump Around“. The concept of resonance was discovered by Galileo in the early 17th century, but as a physical phenomenon, has been around since the beginning of time. Some historians suggest that resonant frequencies may have even  exploited by early civilizations in war fare. Lets ponder this a bit.

According to Wikipedia:

In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate at larger amplitude at some frequencies than at others. These are known as the system’s resonance frequencies (or resonant frequencies). At a resonant frequency the frequency of oscillation does not change with changing amplitude. Therefore, at these frequencies, even small periodic driving forces can produce large amplitude vibrations, because the system stores vibrational energy.

Firstly, some classic instances of resonant frequencies involve things collapsing. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse was an indent in 1940 (4 months after the bridge was built) where high winds caused the bridge the rock back and forth and ultimately collapse.  The wind caused the bridge to shake at its resonant frequency such that the road bed appeared rock back and forth like it was made out of rubber. The shaking was so consistent and prolonged that the bridge finally shook apart. The footage is surreal. This incident was studied heavily by civil engineers to build more wind resistant bridges. Bridges, such as the Mackinac Bridge connecting Upper and Lower Michigan, have sections of road bed that are simply steal grates to allow the wind to better pass through. While this prevents the bridge from shaking apart, it does create a scary view of the water hundreds of feet below if you look out the car window.

Wind is not the only thing that can destroy bridges using resonant frequencies- people can as well. An often told story introducing waves in highschool trigonometry is  of generals leading their soldiers to their death while marching in step across a bridge. The regularity of the marching shakes the bridge similarly to the wind in the Tacoma Bridge incident and causes its collapse. One such case was of the Broughton Bridge near Manchester England that collapsed in  1831 when troops marched in step over the bridge causing it to sway and rattle apart. Since then, troops simply walk across bridges rather than march. However, even in modern civil engineering, bridges have failed because of pedestrian traffic. One such case is the Millenium Bridge in London that received so much traffic when it opened that the bridge began to shake and had to be closed. The bridge was designed to support that much weight, but even though not marching, the vistors seemed to walk enough in step to hit the ressonant frequency of the bridge. This footage is scary as well. Perhaps this is a commentary on the “hive mentallity” of people or perhaps the state of civil engineering in the London. They do have their own Nursery Rhyme about it.

As we can see, resonant frequencies can be reached somewhat by accident. However, what if we wanted to utilize this on purpose.

Let us first look at the destructive aspects as well as everyone’s favorite physicist – Nikola Tesla. Tesla is credited for inventing the radio, alternating current electricity, improving many existing electrical devices and systems, and numerous other inventions. Tesla was a bit of an oddball and images of he with his various wireless electricity experiments are often the archetype of the  “mad scientist”. It didn’t help that he kept a lot of his ideas secret after a long life of Edison stealing them, lost patent claims, and the government supposedly trying to prevent enemy nations from getting to them first. One of his more interesting experiments  was the Tesla Oscillator, aka  “the earth quake machine”. Supposedly, Tesla invented a device that, when tuned to the resonant frequency of the object it was attached to, would cause the object to violently shake as if it was experiencing an earthquake. He even filed a patent for a similar device called the “Reciprocating Engine“. The famous tale is that “[he] established a laboratory on Houston Street in New York at 46 E. There, at one point while experimenting with mechanical oscillators, he allegedly generated a resonance of several buildings causing complaints to the police. As the speed grew he hit the resonance frequency of his own building and belatedly realizing the danger he was forced to apply a sledge hammer to terminate the experiment, just as the astonished police arrived.” (from Wikipedia). Based on some proposed designs, Mythbusters “debunked” the idea of the “Earthquake machine” in episode 60. However, to Tesla’s credit, the Mythbusters were able to shake a bridge (albeit not to pieces). Personally, I don’t know that a stunt guy and and a TV scientist can really produce conclusive evidence that debunks the claims of one of the greatest physicists of all time. Since the machine was destroyed and only the patent docs for a similar machine exist, perhaps we will never know if the earthquake machine lived up to its name.

That said, there are obvious military applications to being able to destory buildings and bridges using mechanical ressonance.  There are other types of ressonance that miliaries have been known to experiment-including acoustic ressonance. If you were ever in band, acoustic ressonance can easily be observed by notes being played that shake the response head of the snare drums causing the snares to bounce and make noise. This phenomnon has probably been observed for as long as horns and drums have been used near eachother, even though ancient people may have not understood ressonance. However, some theorize they did. It is thought that the story of the destruction of the Walls of Jericho from the Bible could have been caused by finding the walls’ ressonant frequency and playing that note on the horns of the invading Israelites. Gallilo gave the phenomon a name thousands of years later, but perhaps ancient people embraced ressonance.

Other military applications include producing “non-lethal” weapons that disable victims using sound. This site has a nice list of the effects of sound at various levels. At one frequency, your organs rupture. At another, your eyes start to malfunction (see ghosts?). At another, you lose your equilibrium. All are just a matter of frequency and amplitude, the fundamentals of any sound.

Another interesting resonance bit is the shattering of glasses using frequencies. This is often demonstrated when discussing resonance in Physics classes. Usually, however, this is demonstrated using speakers to produce a pure frequency (video). In a local 12th grade Physics class at the Minnehaha Acedemy,  professor Sam Terfa brought in a choir student who was able to do this with his voice alone. Epic.

Ressont frequencies are also the stuff of artists. Art metal group Sunn O))) dabbles in low frequency and ressonant music that reportedly knocked down ceiling tiles at their performance at the Walker Art Center. One of my old favorite art dork musical groups Merzbow also dabbles in ressonant frequencies which also caused me to stop listening to their music (long story). Personally, I am often reminded of band practice in the basement of my parents’ house where there was wood panelling. One of our bassplayer Josh’s favorite things to do was find the ressonant frequency of the wood panneling covering the basement walls and, to my parents dismay, play this note over and over ratting the house.

Anywho,  resonant frequencies can destroy bridges, shatter glasses, and sell records. Aren’t they great? Well, I hope you enjoyed this installment of interesting bit of the day. I have been compiling links for the last few weeks for this one. Please comment and let me know what you think of the series so far. I know it has not been daily, but I am trying.

Related Links

• A Short History of Sound Weapons pt 2 (Stalker)
• Millenium Bridge security camera video showing bridge trembling (Youtube)
• Millenium Bridge article (GoogleSightSeeing.com)
• Tacoma Narrows Collapse – News Reel Footage (Youtube)
• Walls of Jericho Collapse due to Mechanical Frequency (Squidoo)
• Shattering a Glass using speakers (Youtube)
• Shattering a Glass Using Voice Video (Science Friday)
• Sunn O)) Website (Idealogic)
• Merzbow (Wikipedia)
• A Short History of of Sound Weapons (via Stalker)

Photo Credit - belgianchocolate

Humans have grown used to a sense of exclusivity. Many of use believe we are the only intelligent life in the Universe. Most of us think we are at least the only intelligent life on Earth. However, intelligence comes in many forms and perhaps our own inability to see it is in fact a sign of our lack of intelligence.

At most we might give a pass to Great Apes. They are distant kin. They look like us. We’ve heard stories of their use of tools independent of humans, demonstrating the ability to plan ahead, and gorillas with IQs higher than most people who watch the MTV. Even monkeys, as I posted about before, figured out how to use other animals for transportation.

However, what about other animals? The inspiration for this post came from an article posted on Propeller.com today about Crows dropping stones in water vessels in order to raise the water level and ultimately eat something floating in it. The evidence suggest that Crows have the ability to plan and problem solve. Amazing, indeed.

A little googling revealed some other neat facts:

Dogs are believed to be better at reading human social behavior than our nearest primates relatives including language processing and interpreting hand gestures. The former article is especially interesting because it raises questions on what language truly is.

While not necessarily a sign of intelligence, many people’s belief that “homosexuality is a sin against nature”, might show our own unintelligent view of the animal kingdom.

Dolphins, which I assume most people think are somewhat intelligent, might be superior in intelligence to humans, depending on how you quantify it.

I’ll add a few more examples as I find them, but I intend not to make this list exhaustive. Do some research on your own. However, at least consider for a bit what “intelligence” means to you and where we fit in with a world of animals whose intelligence level approaches our own. Now, if my girlfriend’s dog were only smart enough to realize my roommate just put on a different hat when she barks at him like a stranger…

Related Links:

• Birds Tool Use Called “Amazing” via (Live Science)
• Birds Tool Use Called “Amazing” (via Propeller.com)
• Monkeys Ride Giant Rodents (via BlaineGarrett.com)
• Monkeys Ride Giant Rodents (via Youtube.com)
• Chimpanzees Learned Tool Use Long Ago Without Human Help via (Live Science)
• Stone Throwing Chimpanzees demonstrate Human-Like Behavior via LA times
• Dogs Get Gestures as Well as Humans via Discovery.com
• Dogs Understand Human Language via Wired.com
• Homosexual Behavior in Animals via Wikipedia

My girlfriend Arika is selling her old MacMini 64. Here are the specs.

• 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 Processor
• 256MB of DDR SDRAM (supports up to 1GB)
• 40GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
• Slot Loading Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
• ATI Radeon 9200 graphics card
• Built in 56k Modem and Ethernet
• One Firewire 400 and 2 USB 2.0 Ports
• Built in speakers and headphone jack
• Running Tiger

The same system with more RAM, is being sold here for almost $400. Arika is asking $200. If you are interested, reply in the comments or contact me through whatever channel.

As a reminder, the Mac Min doesn’t come with mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc. This would be ideal for anyone who needs to do testing on a Mac, needs to run some Mac apps, needs a portable computer, or is a KVM fan.

Everyone has multiple sides/interests, so I don’t think I am being elitist in saying this, but I always feel like I am part of multiple worlds as well. Anyone who knows me knows how schizophrenic my interests are.

An old acquaintance of mine with her PHD in physics and masters in Quantum Computing used to ironically joke how we were "nerds". My afterthought on this was that a "nerd" is merely someone who has a passion for something and engages that passions. As such, if you are not a "nerd", then what the hell are you doing with your life?

On that note, I guess I am a "podcast nerd" since the other night at Jobot’s JEMF party podcasting seemed like what most people wanted to talk about with me. I suppose that is a struggle with nerds as well – the terms by which you define yourself versus the terms that others define you. Interesting thought.

As an aside in the Correspondant’s dinner video, Obama gave the vulcan salute.
I found this pretty funny since Bill Shattner was on Conan the other night and couldn’t give the Vulcan salute. His excuse "I didn’t have to do that – that was Nemoy’s thing"

Related Links:
• Is Obama Our Geekiest President Ever @ Propeller (via Asylum)
• Shatner on Conan (via Hulu)

Arrington discusses here.

I apologize for the photos being blurry, but I refuse to use flash on the animals indoors. I think it is fairly inconciderate and right up there with pounding on the glass to get the animals to do something cute.

From the post by Jim Buckmaster CEO of  craigslist:

Two days ago you accused craigslist, and me personally, of engaging in criminal acts, reiterating your previous threat to file unwarranted and unconstitutional charges against us that are clearly barred by federal law. As you put it, “We have no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution.”

Craig goes on to point out that the combined posts for South Carolina in the “adult services” and “erotic services” category (all of which follow their TOS) total no more than 40 of the  334,180 for the state. I would argue that, at least percentage-wise, the City Pages enables more solicitation of sexual services in their classifieds ads – I mean, have you read some of those ads?

I wonder what the press is going to do with this. Meh.

As an update, when looking for a dominatrix picture to augment this post, i found an article about a man being convicted for making a 12 year old a dominatrix. What the hell is wrong with people? McMaster, go after these people harder and stop wasting time on Craig’s List litigation…