Highway 55 Pac Man 2.0

They said it wouldn’t last, but they were wrong. The Pac Man that had been spray-painted onto the pavement of Highway 55 in Buffalo, Minnesota, was fading, but he recently received a fresher, thicker coat of paint, seemingly making him a more permanent fixture on the road.

For the uninitiated, during the summer of 2006, the Minnesota Department of Transportation embarked on a $15,000 project to paint large white dots 225 feet apart in the middle of the lanes on a section of Highway 55 that has a high accident rate. The theory is that if every driver keeps two of these “Distance Dots” between themselves and the driver in front of them, there would be fewer incidents of tailgating and accidents, as this is how much distance you’re supposed to leave anyway. The project has apparently met with success in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Last December, on one wintery Minnesota night, someone braved the elements and the traffic to spray-paint a giant Pac Man onto the road, strategically placed so that it appeared he was simply gobbling up the long line of white dots stretching down the highway. Officials in the county had hoped that the addition would wash away with the winter snows, and indicated as such in a Star Tribune Article that is no longer in the archives. However, they were stymied on repeated occasions, as whenever Pac Man’s shape started to fade, inevitably it seemed some unseen hand would re-apply yellow paint in the middle of the night.

This spring, however, there has been a dramatic change.

Previously, the yellow paint had been opaque and was not quite thick enough to block out the blackness of the pavement beneath it. Now it appears that whomever is painting the popular video game character has gotten serious about his or her craft, as quite recently a fresh coat of bright yellow paint has been applied, far thicker and more defined than before. It would take some cash, serious scrubbing, and lane closures to remove Pac Man from the pavement at this point, in fact.

The painting adds a bit of amusement to that stretch of Highway 55, and brings attention to the tailgating project. The project here is still young, so there were no statistics for Minnesota’s project available at the time of this article, but according to one Pennsylvania statistic the program resulted in a 65% drop in tailgating accidents in those areas from November 2000 to March 2001 compared to the previous year.

This article can also be found at The Bloggernews Network.

A Matter of Definition

To give you a quick glimpse and brief idea about why I chose to name this blog Sense & Serendipity, I thought I would bring the specific words that make up the title in the spot-light. According to Mirriam-Webster's Dictionary:

sense (1)
Function: noun

1 : a meaning conveyed or intended
2 : conscious awareness or rationality -- usually used in plural
3 a : capacity for effective application of the powers of the mind as a basis for action or response : INTELLIGENCE b : sound mental capacity and understanding typically marked by shrewdness and practicality


sense (2)
Function: transitive verb

1 a : to perceive by the senses (hearing, sight, touch, taste, smell) b : to be or become conscious of
2 : to comprehend
3 : to detect automatically, especially in response to a physical stimulus such as light or movement


ser·en·dip·i·ty
Function: noun

: the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not originally sought for; also : an instance of this


The contents of this blog will hopefully reflect the attitude of these words.

Your Health & Personal Freedoms At Stake

Are you one of millions of Americans who take a multi-vitamin every day? Do you enjoy a V8 with your afternoon lunch? How about take a fish-oil supplement to keep your arteries in good working order? Believe it or not, you may not be able to do these things for you health in the future if proposed legislation is passed.

Docket No. 2006D-0480, which seeks to have all vitamins, supplements, natural remedies, garden herbs, even water in some cases, regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, would take all of the natural options you have regarding your health and put it all in the hands of the government. Chemical based, synthesized and lab-produced medicines will still be available to you over the counter. But naturally grown ginseng, gingko biloba, ginger root, and all other natural medicines will have to be purchased through your doctor.

Think this doesn’t apply to you? Don’t know what is likely to follow? Developments that could take place after this legislation is passed may make growing common garden herbs an arrestable offense, raw sprouts and other anti-cancer foods may be regulated as drugs, even bottled waters and teas, which could “treat” dehydration, could become a thing of the past. Suddenly herbal remedies and food flavorings, used for hundreds, maybe thousands of years by humans to season food and treat common ailments, will be regarded as illegal and may bring you jail time.

Not ridiculous enough? What about the fact that such innocuous items as dumbbells and weight machines, mainstays of fitness for decades, will need to pass individual inspection and receive a stamp of approval? Or perhaps FDA regulation of massage oils and handheld massagers? Even the heated stones massage therapists use to help relieve muscular tension will be regulated under this legislation.

Yes, this means they will actually look at a pile of rocks and determine whether or not they are medical devices.

Certainly the FDA has more important issues to be addressing than rosemary and thyme. Perhaps the Vioxx scandal isn’t keeping it busy enough? As of March 31, Merck knew of 27,250 lawsuits alleging 45,700 incidences of personal injury or loss due to Vioxx. How about the new scandal regarding Avandia and its 43% increase in heart attacks and possible 64% increase in cardiovascular death?

The FDA has a problem with herbal remedies, from which very, very, very few people have ever died, and yet approves chemical and synthetic drugs that categorically resulted in the deaths of thousands? The disconnect here is vast.

Please, contact your representatives and senators and let them know that Big Government is big enough, and certainly the FDA has more important issues with which to wrangle.

This article can also be viewed at the Bloggernews Network.

Stop FDA's plan to implement Docket No. 2006D-0480

Dear Friends,

I have just read and signed the petition: "Stop FDA's plan to implement Docket No. 2006D-0480"

Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. We are trying to reach 5,000,000 signatures - please sign here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/305121404

Once you have signed, you can help even more by asking your friends and family to sign as well.

I will also be writing an article regarding this issue shortly.

Thank you!