Google Street View

Mike and I were cruising south on Route 206 when we saw something that looked like this:

This picture from Google Images.  It's an example of a car equipped for Street View. 

     "What's that?" I asked Mike.
     "It's a car taking pictures for Google," he answered, sounding completely sure of himself.
     It turns out that he wasn't completely sure, just almost sure.  When we got home we did a little googling and confirmed Mike's suspicions.
     Google Street View had modest beginnings in 2001.  Today, the United States, Canada, Australia, Western Europe, Argentina, and the Republic of South Africa are almost fully covered. Russia, Greenland, and most of South America are partially covered.  Only tourist attractions in China appear on Street View.  Most of Africa and the Middle East have no current or planned coverage.
     All good ideas have legal troubles along the way.  Street View has had to deal with privacy concerns.  Google blurs faces and license plates on their images, and they will blur houses if the owners request it.  Google cameras can "see" over fences, so Japan and Switzerland required Google to lower them.  An Edinburgh, Scotland business man heard that Google cameras would be rolling by, so he staged an attempted murder by standing over his friend with a pick ax.  He ended up making an apology to the police for wasting their time.  In 2011 Germany and India ended Street View's operations, mainly because of privacy issues.  Here are a couple of articles:

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View

     http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2217177/Google-Street-View--Please-dont-stand-middle-road-waiting-camera.html

     It seems that after, "Hey, what's that?" the question that follows is, "How can I get a job driving one of those cars?"  Google does not employ Street View drivers.  They use subcontractors, the main one being Immersive Media.  They only strategy for obtaining the job seems to be to apply to Immersive Media or other similar companies and hope for the best.  You'll only earn about $2500 per month, and it's a temporary job.  However, having Google Street View Driver on your resumé is going to impress your next employer a whole lot more that delivering for Domino's.

http://tek-bull.com/2012/02/how-to-get-hired-for-the-google-maps-street-view-car/

Replacing Damaged Vinyl Siding

     A couple of months ago, I was working in the front of the house, and I saw a blemish on the vinyl siding.  It was a Y-shaped crack caused by who knows what.  I slapped a piece of duct tape over the crack, painted the tape to match the siding color, and waited for cooler weather.  The weather hasn't gotten cooler, but with the recent long stretch of sunny days, I decided it was the time to learn how to repair siding.  As with every DIY project I do, it takes lots longer than those grinning experts on the YouTube videos say it will.  Lots, lots longer.

The first thing you need to do the job is to purchase a siding removal tool.  It costs about $7.00, and you get it at Lowe's or Home Depot.

Our broken siding was between two windows, so we had to remove the shutters.  Mike is demonstrating how to do this:  Work a sharpened putty knife under the head of the plastic shutter fastener.  Smack it with a hammer until the head breaks off.  Since shutter attachment is a little loose to allow for expansion and contraction of the vinyl material, it helps to have an assistant to hold the shutter firmly in place when trying to break off the head of the fastener. 

After the fastener heads are gone, pull the shutter off.  The back side is going to be loaded with old wasp nests and other insect crud.  The next thing you have to do is pull out the plastic posts.

You'll need pliers to grab the post and pry it out, but first place a board against the siding to protect it from being damaged by the pliers.  Pull out and roll down using the curvature of the pliers to remove the post.  If the post breaks, you'll have to drill out what remains with a 1/4 inch drill bit.  Here's a video:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QGT7l5ZmTgw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Go to the siding strip that is located above the damaged strip.  Starting at one of the ends, shove the tool up until it catches the upper strip.  I made four unsuccessful attempts to engage the upper strip, so I tried the other end.  I separated the strips and grabbed the upper strip on the first attempt this time.  Slide the tool along the strip, and the two pieces will unzip.  

Raise the upper strip.  It's easier if your helper holds the upper strip out of the way for you.  This is an example of poor nailing technique.  The nails should be centered in the slots, not up against the edge.  The nails should also be driven in leaving room for the strips to slid back and forth.  Imagine all your siding pieces as a sort of unit that floats on the surface of your house.  Draw a line along the top of the strip before you remove it.  The line serves as a guide when you insert the replacement strip.  Pull out the nails with a hammer or pry bar, and remove the damaged piece of siding.  We had some extra pieces of siding in the crawl space, so I cut a new piece from these left overs.  For this repair between two windows, I cut the new strip about 3/8 inch shorter than the space I needed to cover.  This allows for expansion and contraction of the vinyl during the hot and cold seasons.  I was able to reuse the nails.  I centered all my nails in the slots, so I had to make some new nail holes.  I squeezed caulk into the old holes to seal them.     

When the new piece is nailed into place, drop the upper strip down.  Insert the tool into the corner of the upper piece and pull down over the lower piece.  Run the tool along the seam pulling down and locking or zipping up the siding.  Here's a video:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4bh7tHkZBMs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

     You might think I would pat myself on the back at this point and have a nice, cold drink.  Not yet.  While doing the repair, I noticed that there was another piece of damaged siding higher up.  This wasn't a short easy run between windows.  It was a full 12 foot piece that was cut around the porch roof and the top of one of the windows.  After consulting YouTube and learning about J-channels, I decide I should try it.  Things went well until the end of the job.  I pressed against a piece of siding and heard a crack.  A staple that had not been nailed flat punched through another piece of siding when I pressed directly over it.  Oh well, by this time I was an expert.  
     Replacing three pieces of siding was enough for one day.  Washing and reattaching the shutters would wait until the next day.  Mike says I'm nuts, but I plugged up all the shutter attachment holes overnight because I was afraid bees or carpenter ants would crawl into our walls.    

New shutter fasteners look like this.  You can get them at Home Depot in colors to match most shutters.  They cost about $7.00 for 12 pieces - enough to hang a pair of shutters.  These fasteners are not reusable, so buy more than you need.  The barbed design means you can't remove it without destroying it, even if you tap it in just a little bit.

I pushed the fasteners part way through the shutters.  Then I matched the fasteners up to the holes in the house.  Finally, I tapped the fasteners in until they were almost tight.  I left  just a little bit of play in the way the shutters fit.  Be sure to mark the shutters when you take them down, so you put them back in their original positions.  Do this because the holes from window to window might not be exactly the same.    

Job done!

  

Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin

     Christ Church Cathedral, also known as The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, has a history beginning in 1030 A.D.  It started out as a Roman Catholic church, but today it represents the Church of Ireland denomination.  What is the Church of Ireland?  It is an Anglican church associated with the Church of England.  Within the church, some members are more Catholic-leaning and some are more Protestant-leaning, but overall the Church of Ireland is considered a Protestant denomination.
     The building is the oldest medieval cathedral in Dublin.  It started out as a wooden building, replaced by stone, expanded, and renovated over the years.

Interior of the Church
The church underwent extensive renovations during the Victorian era because it was in danger of collapsing.  Some say it was "Victorianized" too much, but a lot of examples of medieval building show through.   

This is the Portlester Chapel built in the mid 15th century.  It was unroofed in 1773.  The remaining structure was repaired in 1880.  Those slabs are the grave stones of people buried in the church.

The exterior is being spruced up now, so this is the only exterior shot I could get without scaffolding in it.

The is a 9th century grave stone thought to have supernatural powers.  Over the years, it was stolen many times, but it always managed to be returned to the church.  It was taken for the last time in 1826.  The robbers finally abandoned the stone when it became too heavy for the horses to carry.  Some people who found the discarded stone attempted to break it up, but they were unsuccessful.  The stone was set in its present location in 1860.  You are supposed to touch it for good fortune.  

Mike and I touched the stone together.

 

Guinness Storehouse

     The Guinness Storehouse offers a Guinness themed tourist experience.  It is located in a seven story building that used to be a fermentation plant.  When the plant was retired in 1988, the Guinness people decided to turn it into a visitor center.  The admission price is high, but we got a senior discount, and the price of admission included a pint of stout.
   

Arthur Guinness leased a vacant brewery in 1759 and started producing his libation.  He signed a 9,000 year lease for the price of  £45 per year.  The lease is embedded in the floor where the tour begins.  The lease is no longer valid because the company purchased the property outright many years ago.

This was a nice photo op.

The architecture is interesting.  Entry and ticket sales are on the ground floor.  The next floor contains the souvenir shop.  This is also where the lease-in-the-floor area serves as a starting off point for the self guided tours.  The next few floors explain the brewing process with pictures and videos.  They have also left some old equipment in the spaces.  After covering the brewing process, there is an area devoted to coopering or barrel making.  This was an important trade at one time, but now beer is stored and shipped in stainless steel.

Another floor features Guinness advertising campaigns.  The toucan became their advertising symbol in 1935 because, when it comes to Guinness, "toucan" be even better than one.
http://www.historyhouse.co.uk/articles/guinness_toucan.html

This kangaroo wouldn't give up the bottle of Guinness in her pouch.

My Favorite Ad Campaign
"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle."

Guinness' first advertising symbol was the harp.  They began using it in 1862 and registered it as a trade mark in 1875.   

You can learn to pull your pint of Guinness, but we bailed on that activity when we saw the long line of 20-something males waiting for tutelage.  Instead we went directly to the instructors who teach you how to drink (actually, more like fully appreciate) Guinness.    We got a shot glass sized sample.  We looked at it in a darkened room.  People call Guinness "the black stuff," but it is really ruby red.  The deep red color appears black under most lighting.  We examined the head, took a swig and let it wash over our tongues, swallowed, and exhaled.  I expected this dark brew to taste awful, but it wasn't too bad.  Now we were ready to claim our free pint.   

The top floor of the storehouse contains a glass walled bar with 360° views of Dublin.  The music was so loud it drove us out.  

We went instead to the cafeteria where we got our pint.  I ordered Irish beef stew to go with my beer.  Of course, Guinness is one of the ingredients in the stew.  The beef was tasty, but the "root vegetables" in the stew weren't to my liking.  Give me carrots and potatoes.  I got my potatoes mashed and dumped on top (and they were delicious).  I got half way through the Guinness and decided I would stick to lager. 

Dublin Do

     Remember Clonycaven Man from yesterday's blog entry?  It seems his hair style is popular again in Ireland.  It might be popular in the United States too, but I don't get out much in this country.  I noticed this updo on three of the flight attendants during our trip to the Emerald Isle. On our first visit to Grafton Street, someone paraded past with the hair style every two or three minutes  I dubbed it Dublin Do.

An Aer Lingus Flight Attendant Sorting the Do

The Do in Line at the ATM

In Front of  Brown Thomas Looking a Bit Vexed

Taking a Stroll with Friends

At the Airport Waiting for a Flight to the States

 

The National Museum of Ireland

     What can you do when the weather is so bad you wouldn't put a milk bottle out in it?  You can go to the museum.  I had two favorite displays at the National Museum of Ireland - the bog bodies (kind of gruesome) and the gold (I love shiny things).

The National Museum of Ireland
The museum is free (€5 donation suggested).

     We saw four bog bodies, but I photographed only two of them.  Peat bogs preserve flesh because of the high acid content of the water, low water temperature, and lack of oxygen.  These factors preserve the skin and organs, but dissolve the bones.  That's why these guys look like zombie handbags.  Read more about bog bodies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_body

This guy is from the Iron Age which makes him more than 2,000 years old.  He was the most intact.  He had smooth hands and clean, manicured fingernails, a sign of living a pampered life.  

This is Clonycaven Man.  His top half was found in a peat harvesting machine.  The whereabouts of his bottom half is unknown.  Some people believe he was a king who was ritually sacrificed.  Others believe he was a murder victim.  The most interesting thing about him is his hairstyle.  The front of his hairline was shaved short.  The rest of his hair was long and done up in a top knot.  He used hair gel made of plant oil and pine resin to hold the hair in place.  This hair gel would have been imported from France or Spain, so he must have been wealthy.

This is a reconstruction of Clonycaven Man with his unique hair style.  Since he was only about 5' 2" tall, he might have piled his hair high to gain some height.

Ireland has one of the largest collections of prehistoric gold in western Europe.  The things that look like cabinet pulls are dress fasteners.  I'm glad someone invented buttons and zippers.

These earrings date to 1200-1000 B.C.  Have styles really changed much?

These disks are ear spools.  The ear lobe was pieced and bigger and bigger spools were inserted until the earlobe was stretched to the desired size.  Kids who stretch out their earlobes these day probably don't realize this practice has been going on since 2,000 B.C.

This gold boat with seats, masts, and oars was probably a sacrifice to the gods.  It was tradition to throw things of value into the water to please the higher powers.  This was my favorite piece in the gold exhibit.  

Giant's Causeway

      The mythological explanation for the Giant's Causeway is that two giants, one living in Ireland and one living a short distance across the water in Scotland, built a road between their homes. They traveled back and forth for visits until something caused a huge argument.  They raged and hurled the stones from the road at each other until the road was just a pile of rubble.  The geological explanation for the rock pile is that it was caused by volcanic activity.  Molten lava was pushed up through the earth forming columns and the columns solidified.  The columns fractured horizontally and vertically into perfect stacks of uniform blocks.

Over the years they say quite a few of these rocks have been incorporated into the local homes.  Since 1986 UNESCO declared the area a World Heritage site.  No more rock collecting!

We decided we're too old to be climbing around on this.  Besides, it was raining which makes for slippery surfaces.

So Many Cobblestones

The rain stopped for a while, and Mike got some nice pictures of rainbows.

Mike got this panoramic shot on his way to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  He got within sight of the bride and decided not to cross it.  Use this link to see the bridge:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrick-a-Rede_Rope_Bridge

   

That's Dunluce Castle in the background.  "Game of Thrones" fans will recognize it as the House of Greyjoy.

 

Belfast, Northern Ireland - Black Taxi Tour

     We had two options in Belfast - visit the Titanic Museum or take the Black Taxi Tour.  We chose the taxi tour.  The tour takes visitors through the Catholic/Republican and Protestant/Loyalist neighborhoods of West Belfast which, to this day, are separated by a wall with gates that lock at 6:00 p.m. each evening.  We stopped to see the famous murals, visited the Clonard Martyrs Memorial Garden, and we signed the Peace Wall.

Our Driver and Guide Joe
During "The Troubles" between Republicans and Loyalists, riots and barricades were common.  Roads were often blocked and bus service was suspended.  Someone got the idea to go to London and buy some old black taxis.  Soon the taxis were driving down the side roads when the main roads were barricaded.  They drove over the rubble and down footpaths if necessary.   They were the public transit system when the regular system failed.   

Murals

Mural Dedicated to Bobby Sands Who Died in Prison While on a Hunger Strike

Rubber Bullet
This is an example of a rubber bullet shot at crowds during riots.  They were not supposed to be as lethal as regular bullets, but this missile looks like it could do a lot of damage.

Clonard Martyrs Memorial

The plaque contains names of those died during "The Troubles."  One section lists names of those affiliated with political organizations.  Another section lists the innocent bystanders who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is the wall between neighborhoods.  Some people have had to enclose their back yards with metal screening to keep out debris.

Signing the Peace Wall

You can sign walls and hope and pray that people eventually figure out how to get along.  Our guide told us that Catholics are taking a different approach.  They are investing in education.  They are using that education to obtain good jobs.  Education, money, position, power.  Sounds like a pretty smart plan to me.