Thought I’d pass this one along. Over at Treehugger they have a post about the 1914 Galt gas-electric hybrid. That’s not a typo, 1914, 93 years ago. They claim 25 km/L and 30 km on battery power alone. This bets the 1923s Porche I read about a few years ago. Now does anybody doubt the power of Detroit and Big Oil for most of the 20th century?
Until I can convince her to use email, my Mother will continue to send me cards with a letter and several newspaper clippings that she thinks I might find interesting. It’s cute and the retrograde nature of the interaction adds to the experience. I’ve actually been thinking about switching back to handwritten letters, just because nobody seems to do it anymore.
In this batch of clippings Mom send me a joke. “Do you think that religious wars are fought to see who has the best imaginary friend?” Now that baby just opens all sorts of things up wide and I got to thinking too much again.
I was never in any version of the Boy Scouts. My memory of it is my mother asking me in primary school if I wanted to join up and answering her “No, it’s silly.” Maybe it was my eternal distain for all things conformist or the blatant slant of the whole organization. A few weeks ago I was introduced to a new scout organization by my friend Dan, The “Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique.” They state that members are:
So the general idea is to promote science literacy and have fun. Who can argue with that. Seeing that I followed or supported most of those claims and that it was just a cool group of people, I petitioned to become a member and got in!
In the spirit of this merry band I claim my badges earned thus far.
What was going to be one adventure changed into another. I became the dog handler for my friend’s wedding. The things I do for my friends.
As I have mentioned the town I live in (Richland, WA) is just south of where most (perhaps all) of the plutonium was produced in the US. There is a healthy obsession with atoms on the part of local businesses. But, I kind of weirds me out where I see Bohr atomic models on the side of a church. Below is on the front on the “Central United Protestant Church” on Stevens Ave. I take it that they are interdenominational, guess they couldn’t agree on what symbols to use. Maybe they’re supposed to be stars, but you’d think they could come up with another design. This may be the only use of the atom as a display of reverence for a god. Creepy.
The whole idea of calling a housing development or a subdivision a community has always be appalling to me. To me a community is something that grew over time and has a unique character to it. People move to that community because of the character. With a development you move because of location and the house. It all just seems so artificial when you stick a bunch of houses in the middle of a field (like they do back where I grew up in Lancaster, PA) on on the side of a hill or flood plan. I know people have to live somewhere and not everyone can live in existing housing, but there has to be a better solution. Developments force people to drive to get there basic necessities and interact with each other. Maybe I’m too much of a romantic when it comes to housing planing.
I went up Badger Mountain (some photos) this afternoon and found an entry marker that took the cake for any that I have seen. Now I’m not an expert on architecture, but when where the ranch-style home and Corinthian column contemporary? The only one that topped it was an entry to a trailer park in Williamsberg, MA. Two columns with lions on top. Maybe I’m missing something. I’ll let the pictures say the rest.
I don’t usually repeat post from other blogs or video blogs, but this one is just special, perhapes one of the funniest of the genera I have seen. Thank you to Rocketboom for this one. “Look Around You” is a BBC comedy set up like a 70s educational instructional film series. There are a few up on Google Video (for some reason the one on Germs doesn’t come up in the search). My favorite so far in entitled “The Brain.” Douglas would be proud!
There are all kinds of people everywhere. I like to pay attention to what is around me where I am living and characters seem to crop up all of the time.
This evening I was out running some errants, recycling, mail drop-off, and a run to Home Depot. On my way back home I was looking for the plastic recycling drop off that I thought was by the Uptown Shopping Center. I was running low on gas so I stop in the the Exxon, swiped my credit card and started to gas up. Well almost. I’m just about to put the nozzle in my tank and an older woman, probably in her 70s, walks over to me with a cigarette in her hand. Fortunately, it wasn’t lit (he you can never be sure). I was thinking she was going to ask me for a light and I was going to have to tell her that she had a death wish. Instead she tells me that the man over by the phone wanted her to dial a number on the pay phone for him. She obviously wasn’t comfortable with the situation as asked me if I would dial the number for the man.
I agree to do it, start filling my tank and walk over to the old man. First I though he didn’t have any change (I didn’t either). He had money, but said that he glaucoma had gotten so bad that he couldn’t see the number on the pay phone and made it a point to call his paraplegic (he might have said paralyzed, I forget) son every week. This is no loss for me or my time so I dial the number as he recites it and he just gets the money in the slot in time. The phone rings on the other end, I hand off the receiver, he thanks me and starts his conversation. Everything seemed normal to him and the woman had walked up the ally (well the space in between the gas station and the building next door) and lit up.
Yes, friends that was the most exciting thing happening in Richland, Washington at around 6:30 pm on a Sunday. Though, Home Depot was quite busy. Holiday shopping I guess. Humm, feels just like home.
Email to my boss:
I don’t know what state of mind I was in when I did my “screen edit” of the solid-phase chapter yesterday morning. What I gave you was crap. Clearly a part of my brain is turning to pate.
I’m doing third edit right now and hope to have a PDF to you in a few hours. I’m adding some numbering of reaction steps and editing some mistakes I’ve found in a few of the figures. What you will be getting will not be perfect, but will be much more intelligible.
Tyler
Reply:
I love pate/
Yes, my advisor does have a very good sense of humor
In the Spam folder on my gmail account google put in a receipt for a SPAM breakfast burritos. Odd. Sounded good though.
Upon refresh it was a Ginger SPAM salad. Didn’t sound as good.
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