Monday, November 23, 2009
Your TV may be making those blue eyes brown
Tom Angleberger
The New River Valley-based reporter answers your questions Mondays in his column, What's on Your Mind?
Recent columns
Q: All of a sudden, the people on Channel 10 have brown eyes. Did WSLS make all its employees wear brown contact lenses?
-- Dale Grant, Roanoke
A: I'm afraid your question has completely mystified WSLS, the NBC affiliate based in Roanoke.
"No anchors or reporters have changed their eye color," News Director Melissa Preas told me, noting that the station itself had addressed this subject on the air. "I'm not really sure why anyone would think all of our anchors and reporters all of a sudden have the same eye color, or changed their eye color. Particularly if you watch in HD."
Someone suggested to me that WSLS might have done something that resulted in the appearance of an eye color switch. But Preas specifically ruled out any type of lighting change and couldn't think of anything else.
This leaves me to suspect your TV. Did you happen to get a new TV about the time you noticed the eyes? If not, maybe it's time to shop around. Or at least take a close look at WSLS on your neighbor's set.
Q: I'm a little curious about the small solar-panel looking things that are aimed down at the road on a few of VDOT's traffic camera poles. Any ideas what those are?
-- Don Kurt, Pulaski County
A: Small solar-panel looking things seem to be taking over the world. Allowing various instruments to operate without all the hassle of hooking into a power line, they have opened up all sorts of possibilities for the Virginia Department of Transportation and others.
VDOT, however, isn't exactly sure what sort of device you're describing.
One device that is solar-powered -- but is not mounted on a pole -- is the traffic counter.
"We have about 50 continuous traffic counters throughout our region," explained VDOT spokesman Jason Bond. "These devices include detection loops in the pavement and a modem that communicates the counts via phone."
These traffic counters aren't cheap: They cost about $20,000 each. (Yes, $20,000 times 50 equals a million bucks.) But VDOT gets valuable data that can be used when planning new projects.
Since those projects cost many millions, it makes sense to get good data before pouring concrete.
If you'd like to get a look at the data yourself, visit: www.virginiadot.org/info/ct-TrafficCounts.asp. You might learn, for instance, that an average of 40,000 vehicles traveled on Hershberger Road near Valley View Mall every day during 2008.
While I was working on this question, I happened to notice a small solar-panel looking thing along U.S. 11 near Shawsville.
I asked Bond about it, but he told me it wasn't VDOT's. He referred me to Bob Fronk, Montgomery County's Public Service Authority director.
Fronk explained that they use solar power to help run a remote control valve system for a water tank in that area.
Grammar Grumblings
Jean Quible of Blacksburg wrote in to grumble about a newspaper headline: "Shouldn't 'Restoring a historic site' be 'Restoring an historic site?' "
Actually, no.
" 'A historic site' is quite acceptable," ruled our Grammar Guru, Virgil Cook, "although you sometimes see 'an historic.' "
"The issue is whether the 'h' is silent," he explained. If the 'h' is silent, it gets "an." If it's not, it gets "a."
The odd thing about the prevalence of "an historic," is that no one ever says "an history book" or "an historian." I don't see why putting an "ic" on the end should change the article you need up front.
Got a question? Got an answer? Call Tom Angleberger at 777-6476 or send an e-mail to woym@roanoke.com. Don't forget to provide your full name, its proper spelling and your hometown. Look for Tom Angleberger's column on Mondays.
