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Loudspeakers/Speakers

If you ever watched movies of WW2, or for a few of you, lived in it. You may remember the record player, or phonograph, from that time period they have the cone on top. Or maybe you’ve seen the RCA dog thats looking at the phonograph curious and slightly bemused. This was the first form of personal amplification of noise. Today though we have a myriad of different devices that amplify noise, but they all have their basis in one tool, speakers.

Have you ever talked on the phone? Listened to music? watched TV or a movie with sound? If you have, you’ve used speakers. I’m not talking just about the big bulky type that shake a house, or the kind my high school friend spent 5 months and untold amount of dollars installing in his car. I’m talking about every speaker we have in the world. They are in churches to amplify church bells, in schools to allow for quick emergency communications, even some buildings have speakers in them just to cancel out white noise (the idea of which I find fascinating as its supposed to allow people to concentrate better).

*screeech* Please report to the principles office...*screech*

These loudspeakers were first invented in the late 1880’s (so… less than 150 years old), and they have changed and grown since. It is kind of impossible to me today to imagine the world without speakers. The elevator dings, crosswalk signs, and lecturerer amplification are so much a part of our everyday life that when they are gone something seems off. I noticed this when I was in Tajikistan and rode in perhaps the only elevator in the country and there was no noise when it went by floors. I didn’t know what was going on.

So today as you listen to your earphones, talk on the telephone, ride an elevator, listening to the blind crosswalk sound, hear church bells, or clock strikes take a minute and thank speakers. They do all this and more.

Thank you speakers.

Head Phones

I am a fan of music, and more recently podcasts. I could listen to both all day and be quiet happy. But I would feel horrible if I had my music playing at high volumes all the time for the whole world to see, because who knows, you might not like wait wait dont tell me or Stuff You Should Know. Thats why I am so thankful for earphones.

Remember the 80’s and early 90’s when boom boxes where the big thing? People who have them on public transit, or in parks, and be blasting them to high decibel. If you don’t remember them, you may remember all the signs on public transit that say, NO BOOM BOXES. or have pictures of boom boxes with an X through it.

But today we all run around with our iPods or Smartphones or CD players listening with head phones. We may have a lot more people plugged into their music/book/podcast worlds on mass transit, but it allows each of them their own space to relaxing going to or coming from work. All while allowing others to do the same.

So today as you go for a run or walk, if you listen to your iPod in your room, or your CD player on the Metro take a moment and thank headphones, allowing us to enjoy ourselves and not upset others.

Thank you headphones.

NOAA

Incase you’ve been living under a log or away from any form of news source for the last week, the east coast of the US is currently being hit by a hurricane. Well… kind of. Its prepared for the worst, even though the worst may not come to pass. But people might not know about this Hurricane at all without group of organizations that collectively are called NOAA or, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization.

Formed in 1970 from the combination of the National Weather Service, United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Bureau of Commercial Fisheries by Nixon. He stated it was to serve a grave national need, “…for better protection of life and property from natural hazards…for a better understanding of the total environment…[and] for exploration and development leading to the intelligent use of our marine resources…” NOAA has ships on both coasts that one can see, and once one sees one with its giant globe object on its top you are sure to remember them. It has buildings in Colorado and Montana (they have weather there too). But they routinely get in the news because of… extreme weather. Imagine Katrina without advanced warning. Imagine Florida without Hurricane warnings, or most of the US without blizzard warnings. A lot more people would be hurt, property damaged and we would lose lots of crops and thus be one hungry nation.

before NOAA, somethings got stuck.

Doppler Radar? They are the ones that collect the data from all over and help provide it to your friendly local news station and weatherman.

Tornado Warnings? They are a part of that as well.

These people help us stay safe from the extreme weather that we can forecast, and are actually testing new devices that might be more accurate at forecasting weather its going to rain 1 inch or 24 over the next two hours. And thats just a minor part of everything they do.

So today whether you are closing following the weather or wishing the writer of this blog well, take a minute and thank NOAA, they help us keep track of the weather, and therefore, help us keep ourselves safe.

THANK YOU NOAA!!!

The Smithsonian Institution

I have recently moved to DC (thus the absence of posting) and have being going to and fro about this lovely city. A few things have struck me, besides a book during the earthquake. But one thing thats amazing is the number of free museums. DC has a ton of them. They have a few paid museums, but for the most part the ones that people really get excited about are free. And all those museums are run, by the Smithsonian.

Now the Smithsonian isn’t just museums (though they do that quiet well), they are also one of the larger centers for research on a wide (and I mean really wide) variety of topics. They publish two magazines, the Smithsonian, and, Air and Space. They do amazing cultural fairs, make movies and cd’s of different songs and dances from around the world (I have a CD of Bahdakhshani music produced by the Smithsonian), and even more than that they work with Universities to help teach the next generation of scientists and researchers, and artists.

The Smithsonian wasn’t always around. But it all exists thanks to a man who never set foot on American soil. A man named James Smithson state that if his nephew should die without heirs, all of his estate would go to the US congress. In 1835 his nephew died without heirs and the equivalent of a little more than $10 million was given to the United States to build an “Establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men”.

There were probably hundreds of different ideas for what should be created. Some thought a government university, others a farm where we could test new ideas, still others a teachers training school, a national library, and a giant natural history museum. In 1846 a bill was finally adopted that ended up giving responsibility of interpreting and carrying out the legislation and Smithson’s mandate to the Smithsonian’s Secretary (or chief executive) and Board of Regents.

As the first museum aspect was being built it captured public imagination to such a degree that there exists the Smithsonian Polka. Today when people come to the DC they all think, OH I need to go to the Smithsonian. Usually thinking of Air and Space or US history. But in total there are 16 museums in DC. Thats a lot of stuff. My personal favorite now is the Portrait Gallery.

But no matter what the reason whether its the Museums or the music, the publications or the presentations today take a moment and thank the Smithsonian Institute. They do a lot for the world and Americans, and the least we can do is thank them.

THANK YOU SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE!

Postal Service

Guest blogger: Anne L.

No, not the band–although I have been enjoying their cover of Phil Collins’ Against All Odds this week.

I’m talking about the government organization that brings you your mail. This is one of the things that I learned to appreciate in Ukraine and for which I am still thankful every day. It blows my mind that a letter can be mailed on Monday from New York, arrive in Colorado on Tuesday, be returned to NYC on Wednesday, remailed to DC on Thursday, and arrive by Friday to my eager little hands. If I wanted a letter to go cross-country in Ukraine, it would take at least a month.

But aside from the expedience of the postal service, I am thankful for how helpful and friendly everyone is. This morning, I needed to send a rather large framed picture back to Colorado and felt pretty apprehensive about getting it taken care of before having to work at 11 am. Please keep in mind that my standards for going to the post office are still pretty Ukrainian; I was expecting lines of old ladies demanding their pension or trying to pay for the gas bill, as well as a surly postal worker who would be frustrated by the size and fragility of my package and skeptical of the legality of sending a letter in the same parcel. (This, by the way, happened to me so many times. I tried to send a card or letter along with a gift inside the same box and was consistently told that it was illegal.)

Anyway, upon arrival, I was instantly greeted by a very helpful person who recommended the correct envelope and bubble wrap. No one unpacked what I had just packed before their eyes to be sure there was no contraband paper in the package; they even let me close it on my own! There was no waiting for half an hour until all the correct stamps were glued onto the package. They even asked if what I was sending was fragile, and seemed like they were going to make a genuine effort to be careful.

 

 

While this may not sound out of the ordinary to most of you, it’s a reminder to me that things here are pretty easy. I’m lucky to know that and to know the alternative, if only because it makes me realize how great the system we’ve got is.

Thank you postal service.

Mail Carriers

I remember when I was younger I used to wish that I got mail. Getting letters seemed to be the coolest thing possible. As I got older and e-mails began to replace real live letters, I began getting things in the mail for real, some of which are quiet amazing (college acceptance letters, wedding invites, Peace Corps packets). But it wasn’t until my parents moved that I began to appreciate something, or really someone.

See my parents now live in a relatively difficult place to get to. So they have one mailman who walks up and down stairs and along the streets. He is extremely fit, and almost everyone (if not everyone) knows him. He is their personal mail man. And he never fails in his duties. To me, having a face to the guy who delivers the mail, has lead me to appreciate what he does even more than I did before.

First of all he always delivers mail, with the exceptions of holidays and certain days of the week. If he’s sick or on holiday its another guy, but for some reason its really noticeable to the people who live around my parents when this guy isn’t on duty. The weather, the fact that he has to walk up and down hills carrying a heavy load of mail, political squabbles, personal problems, no matter what else is going on he’s out there putting mail into people’s mailboxes.

Second, this actually could give someone lots of power. Mail is pretty private and sacrosanct in the US. You can find out a lot of information from just watching what mail goes to a person, and what goes out. And yet your mail carrier doesn’t share this information with the world, nor do they use it in some unseemly way (selling your information would be fairly easy, but I’ve never heard of this happening… ever)

Third, the guy is friendly. I’ve met more mail carriers since my parents have moved, and maybe its because they live in Northern California and its never too cold or too hot, but they are all really nice. Some are quiet, but most are friendly and more than willing to talk to anyone who asks them questions. They are helpful, and as one would suspect, extremely knowledgeable about the areas in which they work.

Its been said that the best functioning part of the US government is the US Postal Service. Whether thats true or not there is one group that makes that happens, the mail carriers. So today when you pick up your bills and magazines and love letter, take a moment and thank your mail carriers, they work hard every day so that you can share your good news.

Thank you mail carriers.

Road Maintenance Workers

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, road maintenance is what America great. Don’t get me wrong, there are other things, but once you’ve been on a road where you have to “drive like a snake” you begin to love Americas obsession with maintained thoroughfares. And it all comes down to the hard work of people who routinely work in an extremely dangerous environment, so that we can blithely go about our day, texting while driving.

I’ve read in more than a few books now, that the reason American democracy works so well is because we are able to hold our politicians accountable. If there is a pot hole and it doesn’t get fix, we fire that guy and get the next guy to fix it. In the end, its going to get fixed, because people want to keep their jobs. But the politician doesn’t go out there and fill in the pot hole (though that would be kind of awesome), he sends someone out there to do it.

When a giant snow storm (Snowmaggedon 2010) strikes these people put on their long johns and drive around salting roads and plowing roads so that people can get back to work, or allow parents not to go crazy with a bunch of kids in their house for 5 days. They fix dividers when there are accidents, clear roadways after mudslides, clear off fallen trees, and basically keep the buses, cars, bicycles, and those of us who walk out on the roads and not tripping every few feet.

But you might thing, ya well I paid for it. Thats true, but do you want get out of your car and pour the asphalt in August in Washington DC instead of going to work in your air conditioned building. People dont want to (I know I don’t want to, and I’ve done something similar in Alaska for a summer… not fun), and thats fine, but lets at least thank those that do it for us instead of getting angry at them, when all they do is help keep our roads in order.

So today whether you walk, drive, or take the bus, take a moment to look at the road you are driving on and thank Road Maintenance workers, without them your road wouldn’t be there, and it would be a tad difficult to get where you are going.

THANK YOU ROAD MAINTENANCE WORKERS!

Bus Drivers

I take public transportation every day. The bus I am on goes across most of the city I live in and probably sees a wide variety of people. Some good, some bad, some dealing with issues that they take out on others. But there is always one person on that bus who has to deal with everyone. The good, the bad, and those with issues. That person is the bus driver.

These people have been around for generations now too

Now to be sure bus drivers, and really all public transit drivers, fall into those three categories as well but someone deals with those people and still gets me to where I need to go (or close to it) for reasonably cheap, now that’s a person I will gladly tip my hat to. I don’t need a car, or a motorcycle, and when my two legs wont get me there fast enough I can take public transit.

Now you may not take public transit all the time, or even any time, but be thankful for this, think of all the people not driving their cars and causing even more traffic then already exists. Without public transit drivers, those people would be out on the street making you even ANGRIER on your way to work.

So today whether you are behind the wheel, on a train or taking a bus, take a minute and thank bus drivers (or metro drivers) because they help us get where we need to go, and also have to deal with upset people all day every day.

THANK YOU BUS DRIVERS!!

Garbage Men/Women

Ahhh Garbage. That stuff thats left over after we eat, clean, unpack, clear up our closets. Frankly we’ve had garbage since… well since before we were even recognizable as humans (apes have garbage). And since we started settling down into villages we’ve actually had a profession dedicated to the removal of garbage from our areas of living and moving them to places where that garbage is out of the way. Today there are archeologist who actually spend entire lives searching ancient garbage brought there by ancient garbage men. Sadly, those men weren’t respected then, and today not much as changed.

Ancient Egyptian Garbage, dug up from an ancient garbage dump.

Americans produce a lot of garbage. Europeans produce a lot of garbage, Indians, and I am sure Chinese, Egyptians, Brazilians, even Tahitians produce a lot of garbage too. But Americans produce more than anywhere else. So imagine with me a time when Garbage men went on strike. Not for a day or even a week, but a month maybe three months, what would happen?

People would start burning their trash in the streets, they might reuse more (part of the reduce-reuse-recycle cycle) but I doubt that. Really I imagine in the end a world with garbage piling up outside peoples houses, the stink coming up from the street and encircling the city like Pig Pens cloud in Charlie Brown.

Now isn’t it better to have garbage men come and collect your garbage instead? Still don’t believe me? Let me tell you that I’ve been in places where I burned my own trash (and almost poisoned myself one day doing so), places where all the trash was collected for buildings thrown into a pit in front of the buildings and then lit on fire. Been to places where trash cans were never emptied, where a clean street meant that at least the trash was swept to the side of the street. All because there were no garbage men.

We complain, rightly I feel, about how unclean our cities look sometimes, but we also have to take into account how much cleaner they are then they could be. So today as you through out your tea bag, or throw your junk mail into recycle, or as you walk that bag to the curb take a minute and thank garbage men. They help keep your home and your community clean, and they should be respected for that.

THANK YOU GARBAGE MEN/WOMEN!!