JOURNAL ARCHIVE: 03/30/07 3:08 AM
A very detailed dream about being on a Luge course at an Olympic competition. I can remember that I made two timed runs through the course. I can remember very clearly the first part of the course going down a large hill and going very fast. But the weird part is that I was going backwards and that I had to make a 90-degree turn about half-way through the course, which was very tricky. There was a wall there at the turn that I would have hit if I hadn't got it right. I can remember making course adjustment to my sled as I was traveling backwards and approaching the turn that would be to my left as my back was to it and it was a turn that I couldn't even actually see. I can remember that my time was in the range of 13-something, which I guess means the course took me over 13 minutes. I had no idea if that was good enough time to earn a gold medal. Then I was back at the course start I guess to make a third run. But I didn't see any point to it so I went into some kind of nearby building to return my sled. But at that point, my sled was some kind of copper-colored rocket. There were three people in the room and one was
when we lived in that rented house on Dequincy in De Queen.
announcing my name over the PA but she kept getting my middle name wrong. First she called me Kerry Abner Burgess and then she called me Kerry Charlie Burgess, and she was saying something else but I think at the end, she just like the mike open and wasn't saying anything. I was at the start of the Luge course while she was talking and I was configuring my sled but now it included a chair from a kitchen table. It seemed that the chair would drag behind me on ropes. Instead of having the chair with its back flat to the ice while the legs were horizontal to the ice, the back of the chair was vertical to the ice while the legs were horizontal to the ice. Throughtout the dream, I have the indescribable sense of the blue sky, which I can almost visualize and which I could seen parts of the horizon of the sky and their is some indescribable notion connected to that visualization about jet aircraft.
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 30 March 2007 excerpt ends]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa
Mesa
A mesa (Spanish and Portuguese for "table") is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape.
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: Posted by H.V.O.M at 7:40 PM Saturday, May 28, 2011
Vantage
In the recent hour I started to wonder about the interstate highway number for the town of George in Washington State. Although I have driven an automobile through that area several times in interstate highway I-90 I had no idea what was even the range of numbers for that interstate exit. I started to wonder if the interstate exit number was "13-something."
I looked it up on the map and it is not "13-something" and is instead exit 149. So I started to wonder if there was anything at the "13-something" mileposts and there it was. The interstate highway I-90 exit 136 is for Vantage Washington. This is the point where the Vantage Bridge crosses off the Columbia River. And then when you are driving on the interstate towards the town of George which isn't very far away, you cross the river and then you make an almost ninety turn to the north.
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 28 May 2011 excerpt ends]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power
Solar power
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaics convert light into electric current using the photoelectric effect.
Photovoltaic power systems
Main article: Photovoltaic system
Solar cells produce direct current (DC) power, which fluctuates with the intensity of the irradiated light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens
Fresnel lens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.
Description
The Fresnel lens reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional spherical lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections known as "Fresnel zones". In theory there are infinitely many such zones.
Perhaps the most widespread use of Fresnel lenses, for a time, occurred in automobile headlamps, where they can shape the roughly parallel beam from the parabolic reflector to meet requirements for dipped and main-beam patterns, often both in the same headlamp unit (such as the European H4 design). For reasons of cost, weight, and impact resistance, newer cars have dispensed with glass Fresnel lenses, using multifaceted reflectors with plain polycarbonate lenses. However, Fresnel lenses continue in wide used in automobile tail, marker, and backup lights.
Aircraft carriers and naval air stations typically use Fresnel lenses in their optical landing systems. The "meatball" light aids the pilot in maintaining proper glide slope for the landing. In the center are amber and red lights composed of Fresnel lenses. Although the lights are always on, the angle of the lens from the pilot's point of view determines the color and position of the visible light. If the lights appear above the green horizontal bar, the pilot is too high. If it is below, the pilot is too low, and if the lights are red, the pilot is very low.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_landing_system
Optical landing system
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An optical landing system (OLS) (nicknamed "meatball" or simply, "Ball") is used to give glidepath information to pilots in the terminal phase of landing on an aircraft carrier. From the beginning of aircraft landing on ships in the 1920s to the introduction of OLSs, pilots relied solely on their visual perception of the landing area and the aid of the Landing Signal Officer (LSO in the US Navy, or "batsman" in the Commonwealth navies). LSOs used colored flags, cloth paddles and lighted wands.
Components
An optical landing system has several related components: the lights used to give visual cues to approaching aircraft, the light control system, and the mounting system.
Lights
At least three sets of lights, regardless of the actual technology are used:
Datum lights — a horizontal row of green lamps used to give the pilot a reference against which he may judge his position relative to the glide slope.
Ball (or “meatball”; also known as "the source") — indicates the relative position of the aircraft with reference to glide slope. If the aircraft is high, the ball will be above the datum lights; if the aircraft is low, the ball will be similarly below the datums. The further the aircraft is from the glide slope, the further the ball will be above or below the datum lights. If the aircraft gets dangerously low, the ball appears red. If the aircraft gets too high, the ball appears to go off the top.
Wave-off lights — red flashing lamps which, when lit, indicate that the pilot must add full power and go around — a mandatory command.
