Still Looking, Birds, Flowers, Socks

Steve Fossett hits are down to 82,000 (they were uploading them by the tens of thousands last night as I was viewing them) and falling even as I type.

I did the math (5280 feet per mile divided by image width of 278 feet, squared) and figured out that there were about 361 images per square mile. So I set one square mile as my goal last night.

On one of the boards I read, people were posting stuff like, "Can't computers search those images?" and "I'm not a search-and-rescue expert, so it's a waste of time for me to look at them."

Computers currently suck at evaluating visual data. They can't tell a shadow from a fencepost. If you can see, you are an expert in using your eyes. The majority of these images can be accurately described as "lots and lots of @#$%& landscape".

So you only flag an image if you see something weird. Desert with lots of vegetation dots, nahhhh. Section of road with lane markings visible, prolly not. Regular scatter of humans-made-this bits, flag it. Someone who is a SAR expert will look at it.

From what I read, they've found seven crash sites so far, including three that were not previously located.

Less grim stuff

I've been seeing female ruby-throated hummingbirds and juvenile males since I put up my hummingbird feeder, but now I am finally seeing some adult males.

I didn't get a shot with the light on his throat making it red, but that black-looking area under his chin says this one is a male.

Hummingbirds will nectar at the morning glory flowers, and very funny they look, too. Some of them don't deign to stick their bill in through the front, but just slash through the side of the flower to get at the nectar.

Speaking of flowers, here's a large one.

My husband bought and planted moonflower seeds several years ago. This one has suffered from some kind of beetle eating all its leaves in the spring and the hot dry summer.

They're a night-blooming flower that closes after one night. I don't know what comes to them at night, but they have a sweet, slightly lemon-y or iris-y fragrance. (And yes, I think they are the flower Georgia O'Keefe painted.)

Oh, look! Knitting!
We spent a good chunk of Sunday at my husband's National Guard / Family Readiness Group picnic.

They had face-painting (camo face paint) and games for the kids, a dunk tank for the officers, the first sergeant, and platoon sergeants, and lots and lots of food.

I took socks to work on and finally finished the heel turn on the socks I'm knitting out of the Online Supersocke Highland 838 yarn I bought at Knitters' Mercantile when we went to Origins back in July.

Yeah, my feet really are that big. Geez. That's why I knit the heel on more than 50% of the stitches.

And that weird buckle under my arch by the light green stripe wasn't the sock sagging -- my heel pad was pushed up by the yarn winder I rested my foot on and did that.

I love this sock yarn and I'm really happy with the way the sock feet fit my feet. Now I have to decide on a ribbing. Will it be some variation of spiral ribbing again?

I don't know. Probably. The big thing I like about spiral ribbing is that since it bumps over after X rows, I don't have to count up 49 rows to see which sock to knit on.