Tennesse = Safe Driving?

Well, that is how the local media will be spinning it after Allstate's 5th Annual Best Drivers Report. The top ten:

1. Sioux Falls, S.D.
2. Fort Collins, Colo.
3. Chattanooga, Tenn. (21.4% better than the national average)
4. Cedar Rapids, Iowa
5. Knoxville, Tenn. (19% better than the national average)
6. Fort Wayne, Ind.
7. Lexington-Fayette, Ky.
8. Eugene, Ore.
9. Boise, Idaho
10. Colorado Springs, Colo

After driving here for five months I have to come to the conclusion that either (a) Tennesse drivers are less likely to get into accidents but not neccesarily due to safer driving* or (b) I really have no idea how bad the rest of the country drives.

Minneapolis and St. Paul come in at 39 (4.5% better than the national average) and 41 (3.6% better than the national average), respectively.

P.S. As I was looking for something regarding methodology on the study. The L.A. Times calls it an "in-depth analysis." Allstate says:

The Allstate Best Drivers Report is produced solely to boost the country’s discussion about safe driving and to increase awareness of the importance of being tolerant and attentive behind the wheel. The report is not used to determine auto insurance rates.

Uh huh. I am leaning towards option a above...

*E.g., safer driving conditions could be a factor.

"I'm Parked Somewhere Out Here..."

Words you *don't* want to hear as you are walking around the parking lot with boards on your shoulder for a customer.

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Sent from my phone, which has spordically working "A" & "B" keys. oh, no spellcheck which I have become quite acostemed to.

More Penelope

Guess this is mostly what I have pictures of on my phone.

Actually I have a couple more that are pretty good (not of the dogs!) but I need to blur out some identifing information.

Penelope Helping Katie Drive

Little too big? Maybe?

Work Responses to Photos

(In response to this post)

Ironman Coworker: "Thanks, I'm not invincible!" I need to tell her invincibility is a good thing.

President or Whatever*: "I'm going to start calling you Master Chief." I'm ok with that.

*I don't remember his actual title because the company where I work is owned by another company. It is unclear whether we are technically a division or a fully own subsidiary (separate company). Moreover, our parent company is owned by two other companies.

It's complicated.

Watching Bethel

This was rendered yesterday and slightly different from the rest, it goes at a slower speed. As I write I am working on what I hope are the final steps towards filtering out all of the night and weekend shots. I know I am making some progress at any rate.

Previous time lapses can be found here, the first post on the subject here. Links provided mostly because this post is aimed at a certain high level person at Bethel whom I hope is able to find some use of this.

As long as I am at that, I have to thank Dr. KT for pressing me to show this to others at Bethel, I know that at least one high level person found it very helpful.

I don't think I ever told the story of how I started this project and it is kind of funny. Basically, a little over a year ago, I was sitting in a classroom. Slightly better than the dungeons of the HC (a nasty set of classrooms at BU), but no windows and right next to the building you can see above. I could feel the tremblings of the bulldozers.

I knew that last time BU had setup a major building project (the new dorms) they had set up a webcam. I even know someone that found the IP address of the webcam and found that s/he could pan/zoom it via their browser, but I digress.

Wanting a "window" to the outside I searched for the new Commons project on Bethel's website and indeed found the webcam. At first I just watched it in class (meaning, for the first day or something like that.) I quickly realized that it would make a pretty cool time lapse. Where "pretty cool" means that I would get a kick out of it. I like doing time lapses and have set up a couple on my own for, well, fun.

That really was the whole point and genesis of this project -- it was fun and I could do it. Usefulness was never really considered (hence the thanks to Dr. KT). By today I am just short of collecting 400 days worth of photos. I grab them both hourly in one set and by the minute in another set. The set shown has always been the former. The latter is the one I am working on to "perfect."

Guess we'll see how that goes in the coming days. It takes a little bit of time to render these (viz., putting all the relevant pictures into a video) especially on a computer that is at least 8 years old.