Table Top Testing Astrolabe 2.0

My first attempt at crafting an astrolabe was all about creating a paper mockup of a traditional device. For 2.0, I focused on functionality. Here's what I arrived at:

I started with templates from the Astrolabe Project. Instead of making the one double sided device, I opted to laminate two separate pages. And rather than use a traditional rule, I made use of a piece of heavy duty-fishing line. The line, when held taught, is far easier to measure with than the crude rules I previously made.

By removing the rules, specifically the alidade, I removed the ability for the astrolabe to serve as its own inclinometer. I made up for this by hacking together a separate inclinometer out of $0.50 protractor, a straw and more fishing line. I was inspired by tutorials like this one.

While primitive, this device does a far better job of measuring elevation than my first astrolabe did.

But enough talk; how does the new device perform? To determine this, I came up with a five question quiz. Below are my answers, and authoritative ones from timeanddate.com.

Question	Astrolabe's Answer	TimeAndDate.com's Answer	Error
When does the Sun rise on January 18th?	7:15 AM	7:24 AM	9 minutes
How long is the day on August 4th?	14 hours	14 hours, 1 minute	1 minute
When does twilight begin on October 11th?	7:20 PM	7:01 PM	19 minutes
What's the maximum angle of elevation the sun will reach on March 20th?	53°	51.3°	2°
At what time of day is the Sun due West on February 9th?	Never. Sun sets at 255°	Never. Sun sets at 252°	3°

As you can see, I got off to a slow start by missing sunset by 9 minutes. And the twilight answer is off too, though in hindsight I think this was a bad question. The astrolabe has a single dashed line that represents twilight, but timeanddate.com has 3 different twilight values. So I'm not even sure what I'm measuring there.

The other measurements, to me, are impressive. I predicted a random day's length to 1 minute, a maximum sun elevation to 2 degrees and a sunset to 3 degrees.

This is only a few of the types of questions the astrolabe can answer. There are variations on these solar questions that involve predicting direction, elevation, time and date from known variables. And then there are questions involving stars that I didn't even begin to explore. The same can be said about the scales to measure height and distance of objects.

In short, it's truly remarkable how much value you can get out of two sheets of paper and some string.

Next up are a battery of field tests. I'm curious if the device's usability and accuracy holds up once I've left the cocoon of my kitchen. And from there, I hope to answer the ultimate question: is this device a practical tool, or just an impressive historic footnote?

A Camellia with a Secret and Woolly Mammoth Ghosts | Story Hunting at the National Arboretum

Yesterday we took a stroll through the National Arboretum, one of our favorite green spaces in the area. Not only did we enjoy perfect weather, see some pretty flowering things and get pics of bees at work, we got to experience two botanical wonders first hand.

I give you Lu Shan Snow, or as he (or she?) was originally known: Plant Introduction #162475:

While Lu appears to me as a fine botanical specimen, what really made Lu shine was a hidden super power that lay dormant for nearly 30 years. Here's the story:

Fifty years ago, Camellia seeds designated only as plant introduction (PI) number 162475 traveled from China to make their American debut at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

The seeds were started in a greenhouse. But the resulting small trees had simple, white flowers and weren't as exciting as their showy, colorful cousins, Camellias sasanquas. So poor little PI 162475 was planted on a lower, less-traveled path, surrounded by the other trees.

The unremarkable camellia was soon forgotten.

But 30 years later, severe winter storms killed the neighboring C. sasanquas. In all, the harsh winters of 1977 to 1979 annihilated more than 950 camellias in the arboretum's Asian garden.

When the stately C. sasanquas lining the lower path were killed, PI 162475 was revealed. Not only did it survive, but it graced the garden with snow-white blooms in the following years. Later, this plain but strong-willed survivor would become the ancestor of a colorful, new cold-hardy camellia dynasty.

Remarkable!

The second plant to catch my eye didn't have a fancy plaque or backstory. In fact, it was well camouflaged as a nebish, leafless, tree. I approached it because it looked so plain, I figured nobody else had shown it any love recently. When I got close to the trunk, it revealed and oddity: massive thorns. Check them out:

Ouch. I took a picture of the tree's attached metal tag and promised I'd look it up when I got home.

A quick Google Search explained that the Gleditsia triacanthos I found was more commonly known as a honeylocust. The tree's remarkable story revealed itself when I posed the question: what's up with its massive thorns? The answer: to keep wooly mamoth's at bay. As odd as this explanation sounds, it has science to back it up:

Consider the fruit of the Osage-orange, named after the Osage Indians associated with its range. In the fall, Osage-orange trees hang heavy with bright green, bumpy spheres the size of softballs, full of seeds and an unpalatable milky latex. They soon fall to the ground, where they rot, unused, unless a child decides to test their ballistic properties.

Trees that make such fleshy fruits do so to entice animals to eat them, along with the seeds they contain. The seeds pass through the animal and are deposited, with natural fertilizer, away from the shade and roots of the parent tree where they are more likely to germinate. But no native animal eats Osage-orange fruits. So, what are they for? The same question could be asked of the large seed pods of the honeylocust and the Kentucky coffeetree.
...
In the case of Cassia grandis, Janzen and Martin figured that the foot-long woody seed pods were eaten for their sweet pulp by giant ground sloths and elephant-like gomphotheres. These multi-ton animals had such big gullets that they didn’t need to chew a lot, so most of the seeds passed through the animals unharmed and ready to propagate more Cassia grandis trees. However, the gomphotheres and giant groundsloths disappeared about 13,000 years ago, toward the end of the last Ice Age of the Pleistocene.

Gomphotheres and ground-sloths? The Ice Age? What, you may be wondering, do they have to do with Osage-oranges, honeylocusts, and coffeetrees today?

In terms of evolutionary time, the difference between 13,000 years ago and now is like the difference between Friday, December 31, 1999 and Saturday, January 1, 2000. We may assign those two days to different centuries or millennia, but they are still part of the same week. Likewise, all the animals and plants of 13,000 years ago belong just as much in the present. In fact, they still live in the present, with just one major exception: most of the big and fierce animals are now gone. This happened just a couple thousand years before we invented agriculture and planted the seeds of civilization. Woolly mammoths actually survived on some Arctic islands until after the Egyptian pyramids were built!
...
Now when you see an Osage-orange, coffeetree, or honeylocust, you might sense the ghosts of megafauna munching on treats made just for them. (You may even see tropical ghosts in your local grocery store hungrily eyeing the avocados and papayas.) But you can also conjure megafaunal ghosts by considering the weapons designed by trees to discourage or slow their big mouths from eating the foliage.

Osage-orange, mesquite, and hawthorn all bear stiff thorns, spaced too widely apart to do much good against narrow deer muzzles, but they would be unavoidably painful in the wide mouths of groundsloths and mastodons. Wild honeylocusts have vicious, trident-like thorns several inches long covering the lower trunk and branches.

So there you have: the honeylocust is ready to defend itself against a multi-ton animal that no longer exists. Amazing.

And such is the joy of the Arboretum: it's equal parts hiking and picnic destination as well as holder of remarkable sights and stories. Come for the former, and search for the latter.

Lessons From the Lulav and Etrog Bundle: Be Like the Willow

Every year I hold the Lulav and Etrog bundle  and marvel at the lessons they can teach. This year's insight started ruminating months back when I watched this video. The video concerns the plainest member of the Lulav and Etrog team: the willow branches.

In the past, I hadn't given the willow much thought. They lack the exotic splendor of the other species and always seem to dry out or decay first. Even the Rabbis gave the willow a bit of a hard time, noting it has no taste and no smell, and represents those without virtue in the community. It's not all bad news for the willow, however, as it is used on Hoshana Rabba for one of our most fascianting and fun traditions.

My fresh appreciation for the willow comes in response to this question: how do you grow a willow tree? The answer, which I wouldn't believe unless I'd seen it in video, is: (1) you take a willow stick, (2) plop one end in wet mud, and (3) there is no third step.

Perhaps this is common knowledge, and I'm showing my botanical ignorance here. But I find it remarkable that you grow a willow tree the same way a 5 year thinks you grow a willow tree; by jamming one of the tree's sticks in dirt.

I marvel just how resilient and robust this makes the willow. They need so little to grow.

And that's my insight this year, made all the more meaningful by the current Covid-19 crisis.

This past weekend, I celebrated Simchat Torah over Zoom. I belted out hakafot and toasted l'chaim to little boxes on my monitor. It was surreal and far from the ideal, but I made it work.

In short, I channeled the spirit of the willow tree: asking for little, and trying like mad to grow no matter the circumstances!

Review: What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance

I finished Carolyn Forché's What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance a couple of weeks ago and I'm still processing what I heard. Here's what I've sorted out so far.

First, it's a remarkable book about remarkable people engaging in a remarkable exercise. One part of the team is Forché, a poet with the perfect mix of curiosity, naivete, resilience and taste for adventure. The other player is Leonel Gómez, a peace activist that's equal parts professor, philosopher, profit, statesmen and James Bond.

Gómez appears to want, as the title of the book suggests, a witness to the events unfolding in late 1970's and early 1980's in El Salvador. He's not after a journalist to chronicle the world as he sees it. He's after an individual he can give a sort of Master Class on El Salvador to. From its poorest villages, to its most opulent homes. From the heart wrenching clinics and prisons to the sanitized US Embassy. From the depravity of death squads to the natural beauty of the land. The person Gómez seeks would have to have incredible patience, trust and fortitude to be able to process this experience. Gómez finds just the right pupil in Forché.

Forché for her part is willing to put up with Gómez's non-traditional teaching methods. At first she finds herself in merely uncomfortable circumstances, the likes of which would send the majority of us running home. But it's not long before her role as witness takes on significant danger. She's operating in a country that regularly finds its population tortured and murdered for reasons that are often a mystery. She's playing with the most dangerous kind of fire. Yet she perseveres.

I really enjoyed the way Forché has written her memoir. She delivers her story as it unfolded to her, often in a cloud of missing information. As a reader, I frequently wondered the significance of various actions or statements, yet no explanation is given. I believe that's because she didn't, or perhaps even now, doesn't know these answers herself. This lack of verbosity helps underscore Gómez's methods and we appreciate just how clever and risky his undertaking was.

I'm also struck by the horror of Salvadoran history. As an American, the conflicts we've fought on our own soil have been reduced to nearly black and white affairs. It was the colonists vs the British or North vs. South. But in El Salvador, the situation was far more complex. The Government was clearly responsible for human rights violations. But in many cases, the guerrillas were no better. The US backed the government, often making things worse. What is clear is that the people are the ones who suffered, often in unspeakable ways.

And somehow Lionel Gómez managed to navigate this hornet's nest to advocate for peace. In part, he did this by stoking the confusion around his own allegiances. Did he support the government? Maybe. Was he CIA? Maybe. Was he friendly to the guerrillas? Maybe. This campaign of misdirection didn't just let him pursue peace, it kept him alive day to day.

While Forché's book is powerful, perhaps intentionally I'm left with an awful lot questions about the Salvadoran Civil War. Yet, what the book lacks in historic details it more than makes up for in chronicling a most remarkable friendship and endeavor.

The Case For Narcan | Part 2: The How

In my last post I talked about why you should carry Narcan. In this post, I'm going to talk a bit about how I do it.

First off, I updated the first aid cheat sheet that is accessible on my phone's home screen to include instructions for dealing with an opioid overdose.

• Check responsiveness: try verbal, sternum rub, ear pinch
• If unresponsive, call 911, retrieve AED
• If possible opioid overdose:
  • Open airway: Tilt the casualty's head gently and lift the chin up with 2 fingers. Pinch the person's nose
  • Give 2 breaths
  • Give Narcan: insert into nostril until finger touches base of nose. Press plunger.
  • Give rescue breaths for 3 minutes
• Check breathing
• If breathing: maintain airway
• If not breathing:
  • 30 compressions (2 hands for adult, 1 for child, 2 fingers for baby)
  • Open airway: Tilt the casualty's head gently and lift the chin up with 2 fingers. Pinch the person's nose
  • Give 2 breaths
• Utilize AED as soon as available
• Recovery Position
  • Kneel beside victim
  • Place victim's closest arm above the head, and furthest arm across the chest
  • Bend the victim's nearest leg at the knee
  • Place your hand under the hollow of the victim's neck to stablize the head
  • Roll the patient towards you so the head rests on the extended arm and the face is facing slightly downward
  • Bend both legs at the knees to stabilize victim

Next, I updated the first aid gear I carry in my man-bag. It's now split into three parts:

On the left, you have the bleeding kit. It contains a SWAT-T tourniquet, gloves and a 1 meter square sheet of orange parachute material. The fabric is intended as a signal panel, though it can be used as an improvised triangular bandage.

There's a bit of controversy around the SWAT-T tourniquet as it's not TCCC approved, is hard to self deploy and arguably requires more dexterity in general to deploy than a windlass tourniquet. On the other hand, the wide nature of the SWAT-T means that it's effective, it works reliably well on children and even dogs and is effective with minimal training. It's also a multi-purpose item and stores smaller than the CAT tourniquet that is the gold standard in the military. For now, I'll stick with the SWAT-T.

The general purpose kit in the middle contains varieties of tape, band-aids, medications and a few odds and ends like ear plugs and floss.

Finally, there is the unresponsive kit which contain gloves, a face shield, Narcan and a quick reference card.

The setup fits into three small plastic bags, each of which can be accessed individually for a slightly faster response.

While I hope the above is useful, I also wouldn't over think it. Dropping a dose of Narcan in your purse, backpack or briefcase and keeping one in your medicine cabinate is doing a significant community sevice. The opioid epidemic is heartbreaking, but you can be part of the solution. E-mail narcan@alringtonva.us to learn how you can get trained and armed with this life saving drug.

The Case For Narcan | Part 1: The Why

Shira and I recently took Narcan training from Arlington County and I came away educated and impressed.

On one hand, you have opioids. They're relatively cheap, addictive and scarily easy to overdose on. A quantity of fentanyl weighing a fraction of a grain of rice can kill you. According to the CDC, drug overdose is the leading cause of injury-related death in the United States. This graph speaks volumes on the explosive nature of the opioid crisis:

On the other hand, you have Narcan. A cheap, safe and extremely effective antidote to opioid overdoses. We were trained in the nasal spray variety and it couldn't be simpler to deploy. Spritz the dose up the nose of the victim, and if he/she is having an opioid overdose then the medication will help revive them. If they aren't having an overdose, no harm is done. You can't abuse or harm someone with Narcan. We were told that Narcan is so safe that Arlington County EMS uses it diagnostically. If they find an unresponsive individual, they'll first give them Narcan to see if that revives them.

Because of the low-risk, high-value nature of Narcan, I think it falls into the same category as the Heimlich Maneuver, CPR and tourniquet usage. These are life saving skills which are attainable by the public, and critically time sensitive that they can't wait on EMS. These are the skills we should all learn.

If you live in Arlington County, you don't even need to attend a training class to get Narcan. Mail narcan@arlingtonva.us to learn more. If you live in Virginia, there's a standing order that allows anyone to walk into a pharmacy and purchase Narcan. You need a prescription, but effectively one has been setup by the commonwealth.

The opioid epidemic is a complex and heartbreaking problem. But you can be part of the solution: get Narcan training, carry it and tell others about it. When we do this as a community, lives will be saved.

Up next: how I'm carrying Narcan.

A New Year's Wish | Animated Gif Edition

L'Shanah Tovah! Happy New Year!

This year we celebrated Rosh Hashanah with a new cinnamon and raisin challah recipe. It was outstanding. Here's Shira braiding one of the loaves:

On Rosh Hashanah we traditionally eat round challahs. Of course, there are many reasons given for this. Here's one that resonates with me:

The round challahs have no end, symbolizing (and actualizing) our wish for a year in which life and blessings continue without end.
—Rabbi Moshe Sofer in Torat Moshe, Mahadura Revia, Rosh Hashanah, p. 129.

Looking at the Shira's handiwork gave me fresh appreciation for this idea. Shira's loaf of bread ends up round, but it doesn't start that way. It's four lengths of dough that have been cleverly weaved together to make a round, beautiful challah.

And that's my wish for you in this new year. Not that you strive to have some impossibly perfect year. Rather, I hope you're blessed with the opportunity to weave together the ups and downs the year throws at you to make something truly beautiful.

Review: A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent

After listing to two very intense books I wanted something lighter. Browsing Sci-Fi options at our library turned up what seemed like a winner: A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan.

Quickly, I found myself enjoying Brennan's faux-memoir. The premise and story-line held my attention, and the notion of being immersed in an enchanted land where dragons were a thing was just the break from reality I needed. Sure, I don't usually read about dukes and earls, but even I could get onboard with a little victorian'esque adventuring.

The book adds depth by showing the obstacles Lady Trent navigates as she tries to be more than the prim and proper head of household society says she must be. I could see reading this book with kids and using her challenges as a jumping off point to understand a host of issues where society has boxed people in.

One device I had to smile at was how Brennan puts a series of summary statements at the beginning of each chapter. These seem out of place, but were reminiscent of Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World published in the late 1890's. My guess is that chapter summaries were a thing back then, and as a nod to completeness Brennan follows suite.

I also appreciate how A Natural History of Dragons manages to put science front and center even while covering a topic that's complete fiction. It underscores what science truly is: the search for truth through observation. It's tempting to think of science as the stuff of textbooks, when in reality it's far more active and far reaching. Again, there's depth here that's elegantly packaged as entertainment.

My comments on A Natural History of Dragons should end here. It was a fun and thought provoking book, what else is there to say? But one of Brennan's choices has left me with an additional heap of questions.

Recall that A Natural History appears to take place in an alternate, but familiar universe. The places, seasons and months for example were all, to my ear, made up. So when we learn that locals of Vystrana are "Temple Worshipers" who celebrate the "Feast of Reception" I didn't give it much thought. Buddhist, Jews, Mormons and Mayans to name a few could all be classified as temple worshipers so it seemed an appropriately vague religious description.

Fast forward a couple chapters and things get interesting. The townspeople are convinced that Lady Trent and her band of explorers have brought evil spirits into town. We know this because they form a mob and descend on the group armed with--get this--graggers. OK, so townsfolk using a primitive noisemaker to stamp out evil spirits seems reasonable, but groggers? Then Lady Trent informs us that she'd only ever seen graggers used during the Tale of the casting of lots.

Hold up. Groggers? Lots? She's clearly talking about Purim, which is Hebrew for lot. From then on, I realized that the religion of Vystrana isn't some made-up invention; it's Judaism. Mikva, mechitza and shiva, to name just a few concepts are all mentioned. We get a glimpse inside the local temple and find a stone alter, the sort precisely prescribed in the Torah. And we learn that there's a ner tamid, the same light that every synagogue today has that remains lit at all times. And the Feast of the Reception? To my ear, that sounded originally like a Christian holiday. But in hindsight, Brennan is clearly referring to Shavuot: the holiday Jews celebrate as when we received the Torah. How do I know this? Because Jews today, and as did the people of Vystrani the book tell us, stay up all night before the holiday studying.

So what's going on here? Am I getting a glimpse into a trick fantasy writer's use? Need a religion, grab one that most of your readers don't know about it and pass it off as invented. Or maybe Brennan is Jewish or has a biblical studies background and wanted to embellish A Natural History with this knoweledge. There's even the slight possibility that Brennan is making fun of Jews, after all her biblical Judaism is the religion of choice for a group superstitious country bumpkins. Though I think I'm being too harsh with that suggestion. There's just too many references to Jewish concepts for this to be a coincidence.

It turns out, it's most certainly not a coincidence. First, my thanks go out to the Velveteen Rabbi who had observations similar to mine. She picked up on another dimension I hadn't fully appreciated. She suggests that both the Vystrani and Lady Trent's homeland both practice Judaism, it's just that the Vystrani practice the sacrificial kind while Lady Trent and her neighbros follow the study-based variety Jews practice today. I'd seen hints to this, but didn't make the full connection. More importantly, the Velveteen Rabbi pointed me to this post from Brennan herself where she explains her decision to use Judaism as the religion of of choice in the story.

But when I came back to the project several years later, I found myself looking at that word and frowning. There’s a Middle Eastern analogue in the setting, too, so I’d been pondering what sort of religious history the region should have, and then out of nowhere I asked myself: why make the dominant “European” religion pseudo-Christianity? Why not pseudo-Judaism instead?

The anthropologist in me immediately started raising a cautionary hand. Cultural elements aren’t modular; you can’t just plug them in wherever you like without affecting other things. Then again, it isn’t like I was trying to plug in Hinduism or Shinto; Christianity and Judaism have much more in common with one another. The bigger issue, I realized, was that I didn’t really have a model for Judaism in the role I envisioned. The rabbinic form of the religion was not, until the modern establishment of Israel, a dominant and state-backed faith; it’s deeply shaped by the Jewish diaspora and the persecution that brought. There was a state version of the religion, but that was localized and ended two thousand years ago, with the destruction of the Second Temple. It never covered an entire continent, nor did it deal with the social and technological changes of the intervening history.

Thinking about those two forms called up echoes of the Protestant/Catholic divide in my mind. The bigger issue, I realized, was that I didn’t really have a model for Judaism in the role I envisioned. The rabbinic form of the religion was not, until the modern establishment of Israel, a dominant and state-backed faith; it’s deeply shaped by the Jewish diaspora and the persecution that brought. There was a state version of the religion, but that was localized and ended two thousand years ago, with the destruction of the Second Temple. It never covered an entire continent, nor did it deal with the social and technological changes of the intervening history. ...

What if I incorporated both versions of Judaism into my setting? One would be Temple-based, a centralized faith taking its lead from a high priest back in the original homeland. The other would be modeled on rabbinic Judaism, with many teachers and sects in different places. Fantasy tends to have only One True Version of any given religion, so I really liked the idea of mixing things up a bit. I consulted a friend who studies Judaism and worked out the “evolution” of both forms, adapting them to the context of my world, and went back to work on the story, which had suddenly come to life in new ways.

You’ll never see the word “Judaism” in the novel, of course, nor any other widely recognizable terminology associated with it (e.g. “rabbi”). Since what’s in my story is based on Judaism, rather than being the religion itself, I decided to take the same approach to my word choice. There are magisters instead of rabbis, assembly-houses instead of synagogues, the Feast of the Reception rather than Shavuot. But readers familiar with the subject will notice that “synagogue” comes from the Greek word for “assembly,” and Shavuot commemorates the day God gave the Torah to the people of Israel: I’m still talking about the same things, just in a slightly altered guise. There are other details along the way, drawn from both forms of Judaism, sometimes tweaked to a bit of an angle, which make it clear what I’m talking about, even if it never gets a familiar name.

And some readers, at least, are noticing. I knew it would fly under the radar of many people; if you’re not personally conversant with Judaism, it can be easy to overlook the hints. (Many of them are things I wouldn’t have noticed, before I began researching this for the book.) But I’ve seen reviews and gotten e-mails that mention this thread, and every one of them makes me happy.

Wow. Her selection of Judiasm was the opposite of the short-cut I naively suggested above. The thought experiment that she's done to imagine a Victorian world where both Rabbinic and Priestly Jews co-exist is remarkable and inspired. And she did all this to add detail that most of her readers wouldn't detect. Brennan is taking her world-building to the next level with this sort of nuance, and as a Jew I can't help but marvel at here dedication and creativity.

Hiking, History and a Heck of a good Time | Adventures in Hemlock Overlook Regional Park

This past weekend I was itching to go hiking with my nephew and his parents, but I tried to be temper my expectations. We were trying to coordinate an outing with two families and two babies. Figuring out a location and time that worked for everyone was going to be the major accomplishment, the actual terrain we hiked was going to have to be secondary. Heck, I would have been happy hiking through the mall.

After some discussion we decided to hike Union Mill / Bull Run Occoquan Trail which is found within Hemlock Overlook Regional Park. It was marked as an easy, 3.6 mile hike.

It took us about 45 minutes to get to the trailhead, and by 8am a good chunk of the parking area was full. I started to worry that the area would be overwhelmed by crowds. Within a few minutes of hiking, I forgot all about my concerns and the joy of being on a hike with those I love took over.

The trail started off as a delightful woodsy affair that felt like a proper backcountry experience. Just as I was fully appreciating the forest trail we found ourselves at the edge of Bull Run, a picturesque river (or, well, run as they are called in this area). From there, the trail continued along the water for a little over a mile. The scenery was perfect, and my brother I agreed that this would be a top notch place to fish.

Along the river we passed a graffiti covered block house which turned out to be the remnants of an early hydroelectric plant. Nearby, though we didn't see them, may have been some ruins of the civil war era Orange & Alexandria Railroad. This railroad is the source of the "Union Mill" part of our trail's name. Despite what the name suggests, Union Mills, as it was known back in the day, wasn't a famous mill. It was the name of an influential Civil War railroad station that was coveted by both Union and Confederate armies. Railroads were critical infrastructure during the Civil War, but they were also easy targets for raiders. Rather than defend every mile of track, the Union army adopted a strategy of becoming experts in quickly repairing them. Union Mills became the poster child for this effort:

As the war got underway, it became clear to President Lincoln and his advisors that it was going to be impossible to guard long stretches of track against attack by Confederate raiders. If the rail lines could not be protected from damage, they would have to be repaired and returned to service in the shortest time possible. In April 1862, Herman Haupt, a railroad construction genius who had a reputation for getting things done, was called to Washington by the Lincoln administration and asked to fix the vexing problem. Haupt was appointed to the position of Chief of Construction and Transportation of the newly established U.S. Military Railroad (USMR), an organization responsible for all railroad operations on captured Confederate tracks.

As Haupt went to work, it was at places such as Union Mills that his highly organized and specialized repair crews honed their skills as they struggled to keep the Orange and Alexandria line functioning. The rapid repair procedures Haupt developed to replace bridges, track and just about everything else involved in keeping a railroad operating allowed the USMR to keep vital rail supply lines functioning.

The USMR established a base of operations at Union Mills. It was a facility to service equipment and store replacement parts for railroad rolling stock, water tanks, prefabricated bridges, ties and rails. The knowledge USMR crews gained in Northern Virginia proved to be an invaluable logistical asset to Lincoln's war effort. As new techniques were developed and tested, the information was passed along to the other locations where the USMR operated trains. During the later years of the war, Gen. Sherman's Union army drove into Georgia utilizing a sophisticated rail supply network that could be repaired almost as fast as Rebel raiders could wreck it.

Along with getting an up close view of history, the trail gave me the opportunity identify two new wild edibles. Thanks to Plant Snap, I was able to recognize spotted wintergreen and autumn olive. Now that I know what I'm looking for, I'm excited to go back and nosh on some samples.

If that all weren't enough, the hike also gave us a taste of the Bull Run Occoquan trail. We did a short segment of it; the full trail is 17.4 miles. I've already started nagging Shira about doing the whole thing.

Both babies enjoyed the outing. Each found himself being carried on the back of a parent, and dozed their way through the experience. Talk about living the good life!

When we finished the hike, we found a parking area full, with cars hovering waiting for spots to open. But here's the mystery: we saw just a few families on our hike. Where were all these people in the parking lot going?

I had planned for a fun day with my nephew, but got so much more. What a treat! If you're looking for a family friendly hike, Union Mill / Bull Run Occoquan Trail is an absolute winner. Just plan to start the day early!

Lions and Tigers and People, Oh My!

Here are a few pics from our recent trip to the National Zoo. As you can see below, the lions and tigers were the most photogenic animals of the day.

Our 7 month old was mostly unmoved by the experience. He enjoyed the atmosphere I'm sure, but he's too young to appreciate what the fuss is all about.

This was the most crowded place we've been in months. Masks were mandatory and most people took this and the social distancing rules seriously. Overall we felt comfortable and it was a real treat to do something almost normal.

Gotcha of the Day: Fixing My S10+'s Horrendous Call Quality

The upgrade from my Galaxy S9+ to a Galaxy S10+ has been a mainly pleasent one. It's not the revolutionary jump in tech that marked past cell phone purchases, but it's certainly a nice upgrade. There was one glaring exception: the phone's call quality was horrendous to the point of being unusable.

I noticed the issue a couple days into owning the S10+. I'd take a phone call, and before I knew it, the party on the other end would announce that they lost me. I'd scramble to a different part of the house hoping to find better signal. The call might recover, but would quickly stall again. Before I knew it, I was doing my best can you hear me now? impression and cursing my new phone.

One work-around was to place my phone in just the right spot on my desk and use a Bluetooth headset. It seemed that moving the device, just a few feet in one direction, was enough to interrupt the call.

Not sure what else to do I called Samsung's tech support line. As if to underscore the issue, I initially called from my S10+, which due to the above issue, meant that the tech couldn't hear me. I called back from a landline and plead my case.

The first response from the support person was to mention that calling issues were the domain of my provider (T-mobile). I expected this disclaimer, but knew it was a cop-out. I explained that for years I'd had quality service in our home and that my last phone, a Galaxy S9+, worked fine. The agent gave no indication that he was moved by my speech.

Sticking to his script, the agent started to suggest things I could try. The first suggestion he arrived at that applied to me was to "Reset network settings." At first I protested: but it's a new phone, what is there to reset? I then realized that arguing was no use, so I asked how I could do this.

He explained: go to Settings » General » Reset » Reset network settings.

Huh, I didn't know 'network resetting' was a thing.

I followed his instructions, responding yes that I was OK with losing my network config and then rebooted the phone.

I then had the tech call me on the phone, eager to show him that his reset and reboot didn't fix the problem. Except, it did. He called back and conversation went off without a hitch. I wandered the house and he could hear me. Try as I might, I couldn't get the call to break up.

This happened a few days ago, and since then, the call quality has been back to normal. Making phone calls Just Works again.

Score one for Samsung Tech Support. I'm impressed!