My Best Question

I have been putting together a few multiple-choice questions for the purpose of updating a set of practice exams I created as part of a preparation course for electricians wishing to take the master electrician licensing exam here in Montana.

Writing multiple-choice questions is far more difficult than I ever imagined.

Fashioning the question and the correct answer is a cinch.  Supplying three distractors (incorrect answers) is often extremely difficult.  The problem is making sure the distractors seem plausible.  I have struggled, literally, for hours with some questions.

I believe I finally drafted the perfect question. 

Here, then, my beautiful question:

1.      In a capacitive circuit, as frequency is increased, the current will __________.

a.      ____ increase

b.      ____ decrease

c.       ____ remain the same

d.      ____ transform into a delicious chocolate treat

—Mitchell Hegman

NOTE: For those of you outside my field, the correct answer is “increase.”

Make in China

For the last hundred-thousand years (give or take), I have been diligent in my efforts to purchase products made in the USA.  It’s my thing.  Obviously, I am not always successful.

Recently, I placed an online order for a pair of emergency “space” blankets.  I want to toss the blankets into the glove box of my car in case I get stuck in some ungodly winter place.

The blankets arrived the other day.   They turned out to be a miss for me relative to place of manufacture.  Says right on the front of the package “MAKE IN CHINA.”  I find myself wondering if the manufacturer intended to print “MAKED IN CHINA.”

 

—Mitchell Hegman

6PPD (A Story of Death)

What if I told you the simple act of you driving down the road is killing coho salmon?   No, you are not running them over.  The emissions from your car are not harming them.  Extracting oil from sea shelves is not harming them.

It is you tires.

Your tires.  My tires.  Nearly everyone’s tires, are causing massive coho salmon die-off events.  These mortality events have been occurring for many years on the West Coast.  Sometimes, as many as 90% of the salmon returning to spawn in the waterways have perished.

Researchers at Washington State University first noted two details associated with these high mortality presentations.  First, they occurred following heavy rains.  Secondly, mortality rates were significantly higher near roadways.

The researchers, according to an article written by Drew Kann for CNN, think they may have found the killing agent.

"We believe that 6PPD-quinone is the primary causal toxicant for these observations of coho salmon mortality in the field," said Ed Kolodziej, the lead investigator for this study. "It's exciting to start to understand what is happening because that starts to allow us to manage these problems more effectively."

The chemical antioxidant known as 6PPD, used in tires to make them last longer.

As we drive down the road, our tires breakdown, shedding bits of microplastics on roads, the 6PPD in them reacts with ozone to become a different chemical -- a previously unreported byproduct called 6PPD-quinone, scientists say.

Runoff from heavy rains carry the chemical to the waterways.

This chemical is toxic to coho salmon.

Hard as it was determining the cause of the salmon mortality, finding ways to stop the cycle may prove more difficult.

—Mitchell Hegman

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/03/us/microplastics-tire-rubber-chemicals-killing-coho-salmon-scn/index.html

Photo: NOAA

Dumb State Laws

Listed below are a few of the more dubious laws adopted by various states.  I find myself wondering less about the laws than I wonder about what events prompted them to be drafted.

Here, then, a few odd laws:

Arkansas:  It’s strictly prohibited to pronounce “Arkansas” incorrectly.

Colorado: One may not mutilate a rock in a state park.

Connecticut: It's illegal for a barber to hum a tune while cutting your hair.

Florida: Having sexual relations with a porcupine is illegal.

Kentucky: One may not dye a duckling blue and offer it for sale unless more than six are for sale at once.

North Dakota: One may be jailed for wearing a hat while dancing, or even for wearing a hat to a function where dancing is taking place.

Rhode Island:  No person may bite off another’s limbs.

Vermont: Women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth.

Wisconsin: Margarine may not be substituted for butter in restaurants unless it is requested by the customer.

—Mitchell Hegman

Source: https://www.police1.com

A Conversation with My Cat

I have lived with cats for something near 33 years at this point.  In more recent years, I have taken up one of their habits: the catnap thing.

A good habit, that.

At the same time, I am trying to get my cat to stop freaking out and bolting off to hide when the UPS truck arrives with stuff from Amazon.

“Dude,” I told my cat the other day, “the UPS guy is here at least twice a week.  You know the sound of his van.  He even brings your food now.  And has he ever busted into the house to chase you down?”

I stared at my cat.

My cat stared back at me.

“No, Splash, he has never busted in the house to get you.”

That same night, I had a dream in which I bumped into an elk that could speak English.  Probably, I should quit talking to my cat.

—Mitchell Hegman

We’ve Got This

Desiree and I are working together on the final paperwork to secure a visa for her so she can travel here to the United States.  At the very tail of this paperwork torrent is a series of security questions.  I am going to call the questions “interesting” because I am feeling generous at the moment.

So, here we go with a few answers:

• No, she does not plan on trafficking underage children.
• Nope, not going to be working as a prostitute.
• Will not practice dentistry or work as a doctor without a license.
• Has not committed any war crimes.

I think we are good here.  Now, let’s bring my girl home.

—Mitchell Hegman

Deer Hunts Man

I have never been deer hunting in the Czech Republic.   As of today, I intend to strike deer hunting there from my bucket list.

Red stag deer in the Czech Republic are too savage for my taste.

A few days ago, police in the South Bohemian Region were contacted by a hunter who lost his rifle to a deer while hunting near the village of Horni Plana.   A stag deer had mowed him down where he stood and pranced off with his rifle in its antlers.

Apparently, a dog with other members in the hunter’s party spooked the deer, which barreled straightaway toward the hunter.  The deer's antlers ripped the man's sleeve and snagged his rifle, which had been slung over his left hand at the time.   

“The deer escaped the hunter with a weapon,” police said in a statement.

—Mitchell Hegman

Source: UPI, https://www.ctvnews