Realm of the Wombat

When did Maine become a state?

We knew that Maine was originally part of Massachusetts at the inception of the United States, but couldn’t remember when it became a state of its own. I wondered if it became a state as part of a compromise to maintain the balance between free and slave states in the 1800’s, but couldn’t remember my US history notes. It turns out I was on the right track, as Maine (free) and Missouri (slave) were made states as part of the Compromise of 1820.

Why aren’t there any left-handed catchers?

Beaudry asked me if there were any left-handed catchers. I assumed incorrectly that there had to be. I know they are rare, but I figured there had to be one in MLB right now. Nope. The last southpaw behind the plate was in 1989. In fact, only one lefty has caught more than 1000 games (Jack Clements) and that was pre-1900, which was a crazy time for baseball.

The obvious question is why. The “Ask Yahoo!” response argued that a left-handed catcher would have a more difficult time throwing out runners at second base, because right-handed batters (the majority of hitters) would obstruct their motion. Additionally, it’s true that a lefty would have to pivot for a throw to third. Sabernomics estimates these effects are worth about 12 runs a season for equally effective catchers. Of course, the lefty has the advantage making plays at first, either on pick-off plays or bunts/dribblers in front of the plate. I would also argue that at higher levels of baseball, the ratio of left- to right-handed batters increases, tempering the throwing advantage to second base.

My opinion is that left-handed little leaguers are discouraged from playing catcher, partly for the above reasons (whether fairly or not), but also because left-handed catcher’s mitts are not provided to the teams. Little league coaches will use the talented lefties at pitcher, first, or outfield instead. I suppose some left-handed kids could buy their own mitts, but the number is low enough that the odds of one of these to reach the majors is extremely low. However, I don’t feel like there is a systematic reason why a catcher can’t be left handed (unlike a 2B, SS, or 3B).

Odie gave me The Power and the Glory with the bold preface, “It might be my favorite book,” surplanting Cannery Row. It’s pretty obvious why. Greene provides a compelling commentary on the difference between faith and religion. If there’s a parallel universe where I’m an English teacher assigning five-paragraph essays, I bet this book is on my reading list, and my assignment is “Discuss the whisky priest’s attitude toward religion (and subsequent actions) while in prison as compared to his time in the Lehrs’ village.” Another good one would be, “Why does the whisky priest spend so much time with the half-caste, whom he distrusts?” or even “Do you think the Catholic Church should have been so threatened by this book to ban it?” That’s another universe though.

We were driving into ‘Frisco (as the locals call it) last Friday, and they had the metering lights on at the Bay Bridge. I got to wondering about where this ingenious idea started. Wikipedia explains that Chicago first used a police officer to control entrance onto the Ike in 1963. Many cities (including Sydney!) now use the stoplight variety to control traffic flow. Caltrans estimates commuters save 20 minutes thanks to the metering lights at the Bay Bridge.

Five things I love:

1. People who aren’t hurting America (you know who you are)
2. Baseball
3. Wikipedia
4. My CD collection
5. Cereal

Five things I hate:

1. The sound of wiper blades on a not-wet-enough windshield
2. America’s fascination with SUV’s
3. No-talent celebrities (you know who you are)
4. That song from New Year’s Eve that nobody knows the words to
5. Losing

Jim Dandy and ‘Stache gave me a tip on this one in ‘Stache’s neighborhood. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a Daihatsu in person before, but it seems like the kind of car you would modify. Also, does ‘charade‘ seem like a good name for an automobile? With synonyms like ‘parody,’ ‘lampoon,’ ’spoof,’ ‘mockery,’ and (my personal favorite) ‘travesty,’ I just don’t think a Charade is what you want to be driving around town.

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Part of the reason Beaudry and I get along so well is that we think of sort of random questions at lunch and then try to figure out the answer before we google them back at the lab. Many of these have ended up on this very website in the Learning category. So it was a given that spending 12 hours in a car together on our way to Salt Lake City we were bound to come up with a couple dandies.

What’s a ‘palisade’?

Beaudry thought a palisade was a stake or something similar. I thought that was reasonable if ‘palisade’ was related to ‘paladin‘ and perhaps a ‘palisade’ was originally a spear-type weapon. Streiter suggested a cliff, which remided me of the Palisades in New Jersey, which look down on the Hudson River, so that made sense. It turns out we were pretty close to the mark, except for my ‘paladin’ reference.From dictionary.com:

palisade
noun
1. A fence of pales forming a defense barrier or fortification; One of the pales of such a fence.
2. palisades: A line of lofty steep cliffs, usually along a river.

How do you determine elevation?

The caveat to this question is to figure out elevation without a topographical map or sophisticated technology. I guessed that measuring atmospheric pressure would give you some information, but we wondered about pressure variations due to weather changes. Our other guess was trigonometry based, and Beaudry worked out a method based on the law of sines which seemed convincing and likely more accurate than the pressure approach. Here are a couple related techniques: Determining height of a tower, Determining the altitude of a kite.

It turns out that altitudes are generally measured by air pressure using an aneroid barometer [see also], which apparently corrects for weather variations.

How was Australia founded?

We knew that Australia was originally a prison colony of Britain. But how did that work? Did they set up a prison there and then need guards and staff? That seemed way too expensive, so they must have just arrived in Australia, tossed the prisoners onto the island, and sailed away. But doesn’t that seem expensive too, sailing all the way from northern Europe to the Oceania? Why wouldn’t they just execute these people and be done with it? Well, probably the Brits had a slightly higher respect for human life than we give them credit for, but mostly they wanted cheap labor to prepare the land for colonization. Here’s an article on the history of Australia and one on penal colonies in general.

What is this thing?

As we passed the Great Salt Lake on I-80, we saw this crazy, abandoned looking, Taj Mahal-esque building, which we dubbed the Taj MaSalt. We had to know what this thing was, so on one of our free afternoons, we drove back out to investigate. It turns out that the Mormons built the Saltair as a family resort/Coney Island of the west. It was popular for a time in the early 1900’s, burned down, was rebuilt, burned down, was rebuilt, was neglected, and now basically holds a gift shop and some pictures of its glory days.

This puzzle is based on a common situation from Let’s Make a Deal. The player is shown three closed doors; behind one is a car, and behind each of the other two is a goat. The player is allowed to open one door, and will win whatever is behind the door. However, after the player selects a door but before opening it, the game host opens another door revealing a goat. The host then offers the player an option to switch to the other closed door. Does switching improve the player’s chance of winning the car?

Beaudry and I have discussed this many times, and I think we finally sort of understand the answer. Here’s the explanation, thanks to Wikipedia, which has to be on the top 10 most useful websites.

Click on any image for enlargement

Back in May, Odie and I went out to Yosemite for a couple days. I had been there once before, but it was extremely hot and crowded, and we didn’t see much outside of the Valley. This was a chance to explore the park a bit futher. Odie had made up an extensive list of sites to see, so in order to get two full days in, we got out of Albany at 6:30am. A bag of Chex mix and three hours later, we entered the Park. We noted that to the east of Yosemite is Stanislaus National Forest. It’s like Yosemite is so beautiful, it needs a natural buffer from the outside world. I love it. After driving through the dense forest for 30 miles or so, the road starts down into the Valley. We stopped to take more pictures than necessary before realizing there was much more to see this day.

The general plan was to drive to as many sites as possible on the first day and hike Half Dome on the second day. Thus, our first destination was Glacier Point, so after we got all the way down into the Valley, we crossed the Merced River, and started up the mountain on the other side. Before the Valley passed out of view, we stopped at the popular tunnel overlook. Here I am in front of the Bride Veil Falls (right middle) and Half Dome in the distance.

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Here’s an album I meant to buy when it came out in 2002, but never got around to it, thus a perfect choice for New Music Friday. I didn’t even realize the Transplants were made up of Tim Armstrong of Rancid and Travis Barker of Blink 182, which is a good thing because I probably would have discarded anything associated with Blink 182. Fortunately, Armstrong and Rob Aston are running the show. Most people are probably familiar with “Diamonds and Guns” from its use in a shampoo commercial. The East Bay roots are clear on “Down in Oakland” and “Sad But True.” The Transplants cover a bit wider range than Rancid and are an excellent compliment to Armstrong’s main project.

Sleater-Kinney is an all-female trio from Olympia, WA, which has actually been around for 10 years now. Unfortunately I never happened across them until “Entertain” off The Woods received airplay this year. This, their seventh album, is essentially rock from top to bottom, only slowing down on “Modern Girl.” In addition to “Entertain,” “Rollercoaster” and the 11-minute monster “Let’s Call It Love” highlight this solid album.

It sounds like a great idea.

“I love Friday! I wish it could be Friday everyday!”

No you don’t. Because if everyday were Friday, then there would never be Saturday. That’s really what makes Friday great, the anticipation of Saturday. Friday is pretty good, but it’s co-dependent on Saturday. Friday is riding Saturday’s coat tails into the hearts of workers everywhere. Similarly, Sunday gets a bum rap because it’s followed by Monday. Sunday must be so jealous of Friday. I mean, let’s say you’re a day where everyone should be happy because they don’t have to work, but those same people love you less than a day when they do have to work. Yep, Sunday can’t be happy about this situation.

It was a tough decision on June 12. Foo Fighters vs. Coldplay. Both had new albums. I opted for the Dave Grohl’s electric/acoustic 2-disc set. Disc 1 of In Your Honor largely picks up where 2002’s One By One left off: powerful guitar and drums and Grohl’s gutteral vocals, well represented by the first single, “Best of You.” The acoustic version of “All My Life” seemed to garner significant attention and perhaps precipitated the 10 track unplugged second disc of In Your Honor. “Cold Day in the Sun” and a couple others are worthy of a listen, but I would rather Foo Fighters hold back the acoustic stuff as a change of pace and focus on the high-voltage rock.