Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Leftovers, Part 5

Three more photos from October and November that didn't seem to fit in with another theme.

First, the Miss Mae as seen from above on a warm, bright day. I remember warm days.



Sometimes I see barges with these poles in the water. I don't know why they're done that way, but I do see them now and then.


This one has a back story. On the first day of fifth grade, Adam's teacher wanted everyone to draw something about themselves. Adam filled this paper with the AEP logo, partly because AEP has some of his favorite towboats and partly because he got to steer an AEP boat back in May.




More to come, later.










Transport pollution

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is running a multi-day series on how pollution from coal-fired power plants and other sources crosses state lines and affects mortality rates. Two stories have Ohio River connections.

One leads with a personal anecdote and photo from Racine, Ohio, with two power plants in the background. Another focuses on Steubenville, Ohio, and its role in a study several decades ago that dealt with long-distance travel of airborne pollutants.

Lecture series, part 2

Adam and I went to the second installment of the "Dine and Discover" lecture series on the Ohio River last night. The speaker was Jeff Kovatch, a biology professor at Marshall University, who spoke on the scale of life in the river. We had to leave about halfway through Kovatch's talk, as Adam had a presentation to give at his Cub Scout meeting the same night.

Adam's presentation was on bridges. He made drawings of truss, suspension and cable stay bridges, explaining how each design works. He also showed a model he made of an arch bridge. He explained how some bridges have the arch under the deck and how some have it over.

He wanted me there in case he had problems, but he did a pretty good job on his own.