Working in Ottawa today --Sandlance, Chameleons and Mayors

Good morning folks,

I will be working in Ottawa today.

Have you ever thought about the benefits of your binocular vision, specifically in its ability to perceive distance to objects?    I apologize in advance to Derek, long time reader and one eyed.  Derek lost one eye while run-jumping over a fence with a pool cue to the sounds of his mother yelling, "don't run with a pool cue, you'll put someone's eye out!".  dark days man.

But what about having your eyes in a non-yoked together manner.  Like the Sandlance or the Chameleon you could have one eye scanning your surroundings looking for predator, wife or traffic cop while your other eye tracked some prey, go-go dancer or read your newspaper while driving.

Now I am sure that you are thinking, "but Uncle Daniel would the benefit be out weighed by the loss of depth perception?"

A very good question indeed, but worry not!  It turns out that creatures with independent moving eyes like the late Marty Feldman and the above mentioned Chameleons solved the problem the very same way.  They retain a parallax capacity by shifting the nodal point way forward of the axis of rotation of their eyes as well as maintaining a complete 360 degree visual memory and update it through subsequent optical input.  Cool.

So what does this have to do with Mayors?  Enter.. Mayor Rob Ford.  Now you may be thinking, "What the hell Bam Bam, haven't you already included Mayor Ford in you column 2 or 3 times?".   I would have to respond, yes.  But if I jump on the plane and draw a blank for a topic, I can always rest assured that Ford will have said or done something to provide ample fodder.

Bam Bam?  Yeah.  Rob from Leak Pro (fixes windshields and generic wind and rain leaks in vehicles --fixed my Jeep's windshield a few months ago, nice job btw) plays Racquetball some Wednesdays and some Sundays calls me Bam Bam in the court because of my wicked line drive return shot.  Has been known to cause opponents to hit the deck to avoid being decapitated by it.  Fun for all :)

Back to Ford.  He was recently photographed driving on the Gardiner Expressway while reading a newspaper.  He defended his actions explaining that he can simultaneously read and keep one eye on the road.

I figure he must be a lizard or a type of coral fish.

Have a good day, I'll keep an eye out for ya!