3:00 snapshot #753

[urbpan]

One of the responsibilities of my job is to treat all of the storm drains and catch basins with mosquito larvicide (a synthetic hormone that prevents mosquito larvae from growing up into bloodsucking disease spreading adults). Every year I have to find them all, every year I surely miss some, and every year I find some new ones. Last year I got a copy of a blueprint for the zoo, so that I could create a map of the storm drains. But the blueprint is huge and unwieldy--how can I make it portable. I remembered back when I published a comic book, and I haunted reprographic places; they made blueprint-sized copies on giant machines at some of them, but they were very expensive. They basically used a big camera to take a picture...oh, right.

I realized that technology has changed in the past 18 years, and that I actually had the means to do the same thing, right there in my office. I took a series of photos with my digital camera, uploaded them and printed them. The quality isn't great, and I'll need to take some detail shots of areas of the zoo where the drains are densely packed, but I can't believe it took me so long to figure it out.

Comments

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Neat!

btw- larvicide doesn't affect the other insects around the place, I hope!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

It affects any other aquatic larvae in the catch basins--probably chironomid midges, for example. As it is an anthropogenic ecosystem I'm not too worried about it, although there is some concern about whether it might have some affect on marine organisms when the stormwater reaches the ocean.

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Arrgh. Probably would affect crustacean larval development, for sure...

[shellynoir.livejournal.com]

There are lots of articles from a couple of years ago about the lobster populations being decimated due to increased West Nile Virus spraying...

Altocid and Methoprene

[shellynoir.livejournal.com]

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/well-have-the-lobster-hold-the-larvicide

Re: Altocid and Methoprene

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's the stuff.

[calypso72]

Do you have a smartphone? On my iPhone I have downloaded a GPS app that lets me mark waypoints. You could mark the points you need to monitor so you could easily return to them when needed.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Alas, no Smartphone. How precise are the waypoints? Last time I used a handheld GPS, it was only accurate to like 60 feet or something.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

garmin gps 60csx is supposed accurate to about 3 meters with relatively clear skies. at least mine is. has a better antenna than most.

i wonder if you couldn't create waypoints for all the spots you need, and check them off as you go, and then look for ones you missed. plus it gives you that 100% done feeling.

and now i'm humming the larva song from Flushed Away...

#

[calypso72]

Yeah, that's probably about the accuracy with the iPhone as well. Good enough to get you in the vicinity (i.e. for geocaches) but then you need some more hints to get to the final point.