Vacuum

Saul Bass posters and designs for Anatomy of a Murder

I just had a chance to check out the Criterion Collection version of Anatomy of a Murder from the Ann Arbor District Library. It has a full DVD of features including a short with a look at the title sequences from Saul Bass. 

Google's doodle of the day today is a homage to Saul Bass, and I found this extensive collection of title sequence graphics, lobby cards, and posters from the film collected by Christian Annyas from Jennifer, Saul Bass’ daughter. One sample will suffice to illustrate, but Annyas notes that the actual collection has a lot of variety:

Posters, inserts, billboards, at least eight different ads, stationery, an album cover, a title sequence, and everything is different! 
I don’t see any studio doing that today. 

Anatomy of a Murder was filmed on location in Marquette County, Michigan.

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For 906 day, some photos of Marquette, MI from Shorpy

906 day (September 6) celebrates the area code of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. First I've heard of this holiday, but I heartily approve.

In honor of this day a couple of nice photos of Marquette, MI came via Shorpy. The photos of the harbor and ore docks, Front Street, and a panorama of downtown Marquette date from 1908 and 1909 and are from glass negatives from the Detroit Publishing Company.

A detail below shows the Hotel Janzen, with a train's smoke just to the left of it and a piece of City Hall at the far left.

July 2012 West Shore Pipeline spill leads to Upper Peninsula energy emergency

The West Shore Pipeline carries refined fuels from refineries near the southern end of Lake Michigan north to Green Bay, and from there fuel is carried by truck to the Upper Peninsula.

A spill on this pipeline near Milwaukee led to it being shut down for a time this week, and even though the pipeline is back in operation, the effects linger in the form of a fuel shortage in the UP. Prices have gone up because distributors need to make an extra long run from Milwaukee to get their supplies.

In response to this, Michigan's Governor Snyder has declared a fuel emergency for the UP. From TV6 in Marquette:

The executive order makes drivers of gasoline trucks exempt from weekly hours of service restrictions to make sure demand is met.  The order remains in effect until it is rescinded or until August 7 at 11:59 p.m., whichever comes first.  Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker also declared an energy emergency on Saturday.

As noted in the comments on the TV6 story:

Wow, I think for the first time ever there was a real reason for a spike in gas prices in the UP.

It's always good to know the maps of key infrastructure so you can see after the fact how systems are interdependent. 

UPDATE July 26, 2012: The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that wells in the area of the pipeline spill have been contaminated. Story:

Private wells at three rural homes north of Western Ave. in the Town of Jackson are contaminated with gasoline that spilled out of a break discovered last week in a regional pipeline, a spokesman for West Shore Pipe Line Co. said Wednesday.

Benzene levels in water from the wells exceed the federal safe drinking water standard of 5 parts per billion, and those families will be provided bottled water. Benzene is known to cause cancer.

 

The searchers all say they'd've made Whitefish Bay if they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.

Whitefish Bay is a bay at the eastern end of Lake Superior.

On Weather Underground, the local weather for Whitefish Bay is LS 321.

Map from NOAA, showing how 15 miles could mean the different between heavy winds and relative calm.

Happy St Urho's Day 2011!

On this day, St. Urho drove the grasshoppers out of Finland and by doing so saved the Finnish grape crop. More from SaintUrho.com and from the 1800+ fans of the St Urho page on Facebook.

Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen!

Traditionally: wear purple, celebrate by drinking wine.

As it turns out, Urho didn't complete his task, and a 2009 book Suomen heinäsirkat ja hepokatit ("The Grasshoppers and Crickets of Finland") describes the species of orthoptera found in Finland. The web site includes several sound samples, so if you always wanted your phone's ring tone to sound like a Finnish grasshopper, here's your chance.

More photos on Flickr: Grasshoppers and crickets, Finland, by Dr Sami Karjalainen. 

My career in food service

As published in the Association for Computing Machinery's Risks Digest, v4 n30, 1986:

 Fast-Food Computing

<Edward_Vielmetti@um.cc.umich.edu>

Tue, 16 Dec 86 16:15:04 EST

I must have been in the cycle early for McDonald's 
fast-food intelligent man-machine systems, according to 
Guthery's law:
   >     In an evolving man-machine system, the man will get
   >     dumber faster than the machine gets smarter.

McDonald's fast food computers (i.e., cash registers) 
collect all sorts of data on the individual employee at 
the counter and on all counter sales as a whole.  They also 
do not have a <no sale> key that opens up the cash
register, probably to prevent theft.  That made it real hard to fix a
mistake without calling a manager to get a key to open the drawer.

Solution?  Well, the people I worked with at McD's had been 
around thesystem long enough to figure out how to get around 
it.  Without getting into too many details of why things were 
as they were, the easiest way to open the drawer without a 
manager was to ring up a sale that gave away a 
tub of barbecue sauce for McNuggets and nothing else.  
   (Hit <promo> <barbecue> <promo> <total> .)
Of course, that messed up the daily statistics some.

Edward Vielmetti, Ex-McDonalds employee, Computing Center 
Microgroup, U. Mich.

 

Great Lakes wave forecast: 20+ foot waves on Lake Superior on Wednesday, October 27

The Great Lakes Coastal Forecasting System has recent history, current conditions, and near term forecasts for wind, waves and temperatures across the Great Lakes.  There's a windstorm coming which is predicted to create serious waves; look at the 24+ foot predictions on Lake Superior near where the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in 1975.

Miner's Revenge - bicycle race in Greenland, MI in an underground copper mine

Here's a novel reuse of an old copper mine - the Miner's Revenge bicycle race is using a 1/3 mile long section of the mine no longer in active use as a part of the race course.  Bring your own lights - it's dark in there.


The race is July 11-12, 2009, with free on-site camping for racers and a bonfire the night before. Greenland is near Ontonagon; the mine is owned by the Adventure Mining Company which also does walking tours as well as other more extreme mining adventures that involve rappelling down a mine shaft.

Trenary Outhouse Races 2009 - "Haul Your Arse to the Sweetest 16th Ever" - Feb 28, 2009

In Trenary, MI each year, when it's cold and snowy, they hold a race to see who can push an outhouse on skis (suitably decorated) the fastest down Main Street.

The official web site has many more details.

Past year's coverage:

2008: Trenary Outhouse Classic - Races show Yooper spirit from the Mining Journal's Winter Visitor's Guide has an interview with athlete Tom Felty

Tom said he built the outhouse in his yard back home and described it as a “conversation piece.”
Some of the outhouses built by competitors over the years were simple, stripped-down units built solely for the race. Others were quite elaborate and could be used for their original purpose.
“There ain’t nothing like this in Indy,” Tom Feltny said. “It’s something different. The first year I was here for it, I didn’t race. The next year I decided I better do it.”

Northern Michigan University's Military Science Department ROTC unit participated:

NMU ROTC participated in the 15th Annual Trenary Outhouse Race this Sat. 24 Feb. Members from the Wildcat Battalion had to created a wooden outhouse to compete in this local event. Their creation won first place in the design category. However, like the Jamacian Bobsled Team in the 1988 Winter Olympics, they sadly did not place as well as they planned or hoped in the actual race.

You do have to see it for yourself.

Rio Tinto "Eagle" sulfide mine project delayed due to market conditions (Forbes via AP)

as seen in Forbes

Poor markets delay construction of Michigan mine

By JOHN FLESHER , 02.12.09, 05:25 PM EST

Construction of a proposed nickel and copper mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is being delayed because of poor market conditions, its parent company said Thursday.

But project manager Jon Cherry said the announcement by London-based Rio Tinto Group (nyse: RTP - news - people ) does not mean the Kennecott Eagle mine is off the table. Planning and preparations are continuing with the expectation that it eventually will be built, he said.

Rio Tinto is having other issues, mostly resulting from the same market forces that substantially cut the demand for their metals.  From Reuters:

By Raji Menon

LONDON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Major investors in Rio Tinto (RIO.L: Quote, Profile, Research) (RIO.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) have poured scorn on efforts by the mining group to provide explanations of plans to raise $19.5 billion from state-owned Chinalco, shareholder sources said on Monday.

Over the weekend Rio Tinto held meetings with its largest investors to try to win support for the deal. Investors have complained that the deal ignores pre-emption rights, which should give right of first refusal to existing shareholders in any fund-raising. [ID:nSYD436504]

and Forbes again:

Options Drying Up For Rio Tinto

Tina Wang, 02.16.09, 05:10 AM EST

Angry investors may prefer stake sales or BHP Billiton to the Chinalco deal, but they may not be as lucrative.

Major shareholders of Rio Tinto are up in arms over the mining giant's proposed $19.5 billion deal with the Aluminum Corp. of China. But for all the discontent, Rio's other options to pay down its massive debt -- a rights issue or counterbids by BHP Billiton -- would likely raise much less than what the state-owned Chinese producer is putting up.

If you're following mines and mining, one good ongoing source is the Ore And More Top Ten, a daily 10 article clipping feed from Benjamin Cox, Chief Executive Officer of Roche Bay, an iron ore mining company which owns mining leases in Nunavut, Canada.