Tuesday, April 20, 2010

110/365 - Sculpture

An abstract sculpture.
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A sculpture -- actually, the sculpture -- on the Michigan Tech campus. It's in front of our Humanities and Fine Arts building, the Walker Center. I have no clue who the artist is, or even the name of the piece. It is not even written on a plaque.

Monday, April 19, 2010

109/365 - Secret Sharing

A clipped pile of papers with numbers on them.
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A pile of points, for use in the Cryptography class which I'm teaching tomorrow. We're discussing Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme -- a semi-magical method of sharing a secret among several people, so that a certain number have to get together to figure out what the secret is.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

108/365 - Wire and Shaft

Barbed wire spiraling into the frame.
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I have an unusual ability -- a strange knack for finding abandoned mines. Sometimes I'll literally walk into the woods at random, and come across ruins or a shaft. Of course, up here, that's not so hard -- if rock poked its head above the dirt, someone probably sunk a shaft on it!

This bit of barbed wire has fallen around one such shaft. The lines in the background are old rails welded together across the cement mouth of this vertical shaft. I'm not sure exactly what this was, except that it's almost certainly associated with the Adventure Consolidated mine. It was on top of a beautiful rocky bluff which I thought I'd check out, on my way home from Madison.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

107/365 - On the edge!

Me, enjoying the view while sitting on a steep cliff edge.
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This weekend, I visited the lovely Sarah down in Madison. We took a day trip to Devil's Lake State Park, which is a beautiful park build around a lake surrounded by steep, rocky cliffs.

We stopped many times to enjoy the views of the lake. While I didn't officially TAKE this photo (since I'm in it and all), I did help Sarah compose it with my camera, and I posed. So, I'm using it!

Also, I wasn't nearly as close to the edge as it looks. Sarah composed VERY cleverly.

Friday, April 16, 2010

106/365 - Recycle

Blue and yellow stone recycling bins.
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Remember everyone -- recycle! If you didn't, we wouldn't have lovely blue and yellow bins like these.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

105/365 - Boiler Alley

A brick doorway looking down a long corridor.
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Here's the last photo in this mini-series from the Quincy #5 Boiler House. This doorway enters the main boiler house, allowing access behind the large brick boiler supports. The boilers would have vented into pipes along this corridor, which collected together and exited into the old smokestack outside.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

104/365 - Boiler Foundations

Curved cement foundations in a decaying building.
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Here's the next photo in my series documenting this lovely old boiler house: this photo comes to you from next door to yesterday's photo -- an addition to the old Quincy #5 Boiler House. These were foundations for a horizontal boiler, which provided steam for the nearby steam hoist.

You can also see the end of a railroad spur with allowed the Quincy & Torch Lake Railroad to drop off coal, showing through the window. On the left is an old cart which has been left to rot in these ruins.