What's an "Astrolabe"?
ET LLC's company logo is an Astrolabe (with wings). What's an Astrolabe you ask? Why the wings?
An Astrolabe is a very ancient astronomical computer for solving problems (relating to time & position of the Sun and stars in the sky). Developed before the Sextant, a typical old astrolabe was made of brass and about 6 inches in diameter. Whereas a compass tells you where you are going (determines direction), an astrolabe solves problems related to time and position ... where you are AT. The astrolabe allows a great many "astronomical" problems to be solved in a very visual way. The typical astrolabe was not a navigational instrument. The instrument was used as a basic astronomy education tool. Astrolabe collections are on display at the Nat'l Museum of American History division of the Smithsonian Institute (Washington DC) and Harvard University (Cambridge, MA). The largest collection on public display at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, UK. A Personal Astrolabe is in regular use by hikers to find the amount of daylight remaining, sailors to find navigational stars, architects to determine shadow positions and astronomers to plan observations. It is also used at several innovative colleges and universities as an aid in teaching basic positional astronomy.
Wings take you places you can't normally get to (at least us humans), like out of a deep canyon-unscalable walls ...over and across barriers. For those people with less than full mobility or visual concerns, what they cannot accomplish independently, assistive technology (developing at an ever increasing rate) is becoming available. People with disabilities sometimes face what seems like astronomical problems when they try to travel, use hotels etc.
ET wishes to educate travel industry vendors/suppliers & Pwd alike, e.g. what Pwd awareness means in implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act and for Pwds what tools, devices, they have available to use when traveling. If you are LOST, a satellite or cell phone coverage based device with GPS can inform/educate others where you are, what sort of help you need, and leaves a trail so you may learn how to get back ...at another time of course, not when you're lost!
The astrolabe was the most popular astronomical instrument until about 1650, when it was replaced by more specialized and accurate instruments. ET LLC seeks out and researches more specialized assistive technology for specific needs: power wheelchair users, the blind, manual wheelchair users, communication devices (satellite and/or cell phone casings) manageable by those with fine motor skill or visual difficulties, even electric bikes. ET realizes that many individuals cannot make it to the latest trade show, cannot keep up on emerging technology. We aim to be your legs, eyes and ears and endeavor to bring that information back to your home in a condensed format via the Internet. We also seek out the expertise of our panel of Pwd advisors from across the USA who we have try the products themselves and provide feedback that we will pass along to you. ET hopes to help you "navigate" and map your course through the assistive technology highways & back-country. ET doesn't do extensive production testing ...we leave that up to the inventors, manufacturers, travel services providers. We do endeavor to meet with inventors, manufacturers, company executives & customer support personnel to understand their products, services and how they maintain relationships with the consumers in their markets. We also visit with hotel management to offer suggestions for enhancing the comfort and ease of Pwd travelers. [To learn more about Astrolabes please visit www.astrolabes.org our cited reference source]
Why do you have a Frog on your website?
Engineered Travel LLC researches assistive technology for easier and safer travels. The structure of frog's feet and legs varies greatly among species depending on where they live (in the trees, on the ground, in water). Frog's must be able to move quickly through their environment, to catch food and escape predators, and numerous adaptations help them do so. Many have webbed toes, the degree to which their toes are webbed is directly proportional to the amount of time their species lives in the water. Frog's feet and legs are biologically engineered to move them as they travel their environments. Human engineering, with assistive technology helps "people" navigate their environments, especially when leaving their familiar home turf, say for traveling.
Arboreal (tree) frogs have "toe pads" to help grip vertical surfaces. These pads, located on the ends of the toes, do not work by suction. Rather the surface of the pad consists of interlocking cells, with a small gap between adjacent cells. When the frog applies pressure to the toe pads, the interlocking cells grip irregularities on the substrate. The small gaps between the cells drain away all but a thin layer of moisture on the pad, and maintain a grip through capillarity. This allows the frog to grip smooth surfaces. In many tree frogs, a small structure in each toe increases the surface area touching the substrate. Since hopping through trees can be dangerous, many tree frogs have hips that allow both hopping and walking.
The habitat of frogs extends almost worldwide. The greatest diversity occurs in tropical areas but some inhabit arid areas such as deserts and rely on specific adaptations to survive or a cold environment where they bury themselves in the ground during winter when much of their body freezes. Furthermore ...Many environmental scientists believe that frogs are excellent biological indicators of broader ecosystems health. ET also believes in "Green" (building, recyling, preserving some of our most delicate natural resources). Many viewers see such a colorful frog in print and immediately think of some tropical location they have never visited.
Glad you noticed our frog, thanks for asking. For more information about frog engineering you can visit www.wikipedia.org (our cited reference source)
Is a Frog your company logo?
No, this great little eye catcher is not our company logo. But most people know what a frog is and have seen one. This colorful frog is coming out of the TV right at you. ET LLC hopes to encourage you to get out of your house and go travel. We're a sort of "Thinking Out of the Box" company. We're keeping the frog but added our official company logo to our website starting 2008. If you look at our website header you will see what appears to be ripples emanating out from the frog as he leaves his box. ET spreads travel safety and pwd awareness information which we hope will have that same ripple effect, reaching many and improving their lives.
Our official logo is an Astrolabe (with wings). It is indicative of our mission and reflective of the human engineering that goes into products & services we research. Those products and services we hope will help you to navigate and manage your travels more easily and safely.
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