Survey: the Cell vs. the Landline

I was reading the news and came across this article, Polls: Cell phone users prefer Obama, landline users like Romney.  Reading the typically rabid comments to the yahoo article, I could see that what is known to stats people is not known to the general public: Different demographics exist between cellular and landline phone users.  It shouldn't be a surprise that the type of phone surveyed should impact the results of the poll.

For more information, check out this publication, Assessing the Cell Phone Challenge on the Pew Research website.  Pew Research is one of the largest organizations who regularly samples Americans on a wide range of topics, so the differences between landline and cellular users is very relevant to their ability to do proper surveys.

Glory, an Interesting Start to a Day

I saw a circular rainbow on my recent early morning flight.  In the center was violet and then the rainbow colors spread out in a circular fashion following the light spectrum (violet, blue, green, yellow, and then red). Researching the phenomenom, I discovered that it's technically not a rainbow, but instead a glory.

There seems to be some debate over the exact nature of what causes the visible light to separate into the colors, but it seems clear that the sunlight interacts with water droplets in clouds and travels back. 

It was a particularly striking image when the plane began its descent.  The shadow of the plane fell in the circle of color, and as we moved, the distance to the clouds changed. While the glory size didn't change, the plane's shadow grew when the clouds were closer.  In fact, glory appears to be smaller, but that's due to optical processing.  When something is closer, it should be bigger, but the actual glory size doesn't change, so it's perceived to be smaller on the closer clouds.  This reference point effect is probably similar to why the moon appears larger on the horizon.

Putting aside causes and effects, I value the moment; seeing the image was new and completely unexpected.

You can read more and see images of Glories on Wikipedia.

Mid-May Update

I wanted to stop by and write. The process of recovery for my Mom has been very central and consuming in my life. I have time to blog, but my focus hasn't been the sharpest. I still want to develop the Locked In and Living blog, because I believe it's vital to have more information available to those affected by Locked In Syndrome.
More time will be opening soon, so I plan to be much more active in the near future.