Archive for the ‘Geek’ Category

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 307

Monday, February 1st, 2021

Would you like to swing on a star? Carry moonbeams home in a jar?

How about just some plain old model rockets.

“Estes model rockets: a brief history”.

Bonus #1: “60 Foot Ultimate Matchbox Rocket”.

Haven’t had a chance to try this yet, but I plan to.

Bonus #2: “How To Make Sugar Rockets”. Specifically:

How to make hobby rocket “sugar motors” using sugar and kitty litter, that shoot up over 2,300 feet high, and cost less than $0.50 to make.

It seems like there are a lot of videos on the ‘Tube from folks trying to build their own liquid propellant engines, but I haven’t found one yet that goes from zero to complete working engine: it looks like many of them stalled out for one reason or another. If anybody knows of a good zero to finish liquid fueled rocket video (or series) please leave a comment here.

Bonus #3: One more, for Lawrence: Colin Furze demonstrates (with some help from his friends) “How to START a Pulse Jet”, like the old V-1 engine. The video doesn’t show how to actually build a pulse jet, but the comments link to some helpful resources on that subject.

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 306

Sunday, January 31st, 2021

Science Sunday!

I apologize for the crappy quality of this first video. But it is from 1967. I’m putting this here because it is something that I hope you will never ever see up close and personal, and this is the only video I know of.

“Burning and Extinguishing Characteristics of Plutonium Metal Fires”.

To steal a line from the late John Clark in Ignition! (affiliate link), “For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.”

Bonus #1: “Who Destroyed Three Mile Island?”. As I understand it, this is a presentation from the Lead Developer conference in Austin in 2018. “So like most things in Austin today, the problem with the microphone is South By’s fault.”

More to the point:

When something bad happens, it’s easy to just blame someone and move on. Taking the time to find the systemic causes, though, will not only help keep the problem from repeating, it will enable you to build the psychological safety necessary for your team to truly collaborate. Let’s let the story of Three Mile Island teach us how to make our teams stronger through systems thinking and just culture.

In addition to the science! part of it, I think there’s some good leadership stuff in here too.

(I have another video from Nickolas Means that I want to use in the near future: I didn’t use it today because it was closer to history than science. But sometime next week, probably…)

Bonus #2: Lasers! 8 o’clock! Day one!

“360 video tour of the world’s largest laser” from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Bonus #3: “The Riemann Hypothesis, Explained”.

Posted in Geek, History, Leadership | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 299

Sunday, January 24th, 2021

Science Sunday!

Today’s video goes out to Gregg “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” Easterbrook. From 2014, a talk in the Theodore von Kármán lecture series at JPL, on NASA’s planned Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM).

Spoiler: the project was cancelled in 2017.

I have a great idea for a TV series, if there was a network out there that actually did science stuff: “Cool But Cancelled”, a series devoted to all the awesome proposed space age projects that ended up getting cancelled in favor of various government boondoggles.

#TheFutureWeCouldHaveHad

Unrelated bonus: this is an old documentary from Oak Ridge (produced for the Atomic Energy Commission) about their experimental molten-salt reactor. I’m putting this here mostly because I like the idea of “molten salt”, and y’all know I’m a nuclear geek.

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 292

Sunday, January 17th, 2021

Science Sunday!

Whatever happened to chloroform? Well, turns out as an anesthetic it occasionally caused complications like death. And it may be a carcinogen.

It is classified as an extremely hazardous substance in the United States as defined in Section 302 of the U.S. Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (42 U.S.C. 11002), and is subject to strict reporting requirements by facilities that produce, store, or use it in significant quantities.

But why should we let that stop us?

Oh, yeah: it also decomposes into phosgene unless you stabilize it first. Which is a bit concerning…

Next: “I somehow convinced myself to order a full kilo instead.”

That’s a full kilo of…sodium cyanide.

“Does cyanide actually smell like almonds?”

This is right on the annoying border for me, so I won’t hold it against you if you skip the video and read the notes instead.

This one might be a little more interesting: the chemistry of arsenic, from the Periodic Videos folks.

As a side note to this, and because Lawrence and I have been talking about it, I went looking for videos on Shadows From the Walls of Death. I did find a few about the book (not death metal) but…they were all in foreign languages without subtitles.

Okay, just one more: “The Science Behind Shaped Charges”.

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Obit watch: January 14, 2021.

Thursday, January 14th, 2021

Siegfried Fischbacher, the “Siegfried” in “Siegfried and Roy”.

You may remember Roy Horn passed away in May of last year.

Mary Catherine Bateson, cultural anthropologist (and, for the record, daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson).

Posted in Geek, History, Magic, Obits | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 285

Sunday, January 10th, 2021

Science Sunday!

Today I thought we’d go back to maths.

Look Around you 1 – Maths from Joe Hathy on Vimeo.

(One of my cow-orkers sent me this video originally, without any context. I didn’t realize until I went looking for it again that instead of being a semi-contemporary parody of 1970s educational films, it was actually a post-2000 parody of 1970s educational films, and part of a series called “Look Around You“.)

(Give it time. It builds.)

“An Evening with Leonhard Euler”, a lecture by William Dunham. I loved Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics (affiliate link).

Short bonus, since the first video is long: from Numberphile, “e (Euler’s Number)”.

I kind of want to do some stuff with Newton, Gauss, Évariste Galois, and some other mathematicians. But I think next week I may do something with pi, and then something with i the following week.

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 278

Sunday, January 3rd, 2021

Science Sunday!

I’ve mentioned Theodore von Kármán in passing previously, but only in the context of his influence on other folks. He was a hugely important scientist in his own right, though: he did massively important work on fluid flow (including air flow) and turbulence, especially in the supersonic realm.

This is a lecture from 2012 about von Kármán’s life and work.

Bonus: A discussion with Roger Penrose on “What is time?”

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 271

Sunday, December 27th, 2020

Science Sunday!

Today, let there be light.

“Einstein on Light; Light on Einstein”, a lecture by Douglas Hofstadter at Uppsala University in 2017. This is about 52 minutes, with a short introduction.

Bonus #1: A bit shorter: Douglas Hofstadter at Stanford on “Trying to Muse Rationally About the Singularity Scenario”.

Bonus #2, which is also kind of a bookmark: Someone at MIT taught a course on Gödel, Escher, Bach, and the lectures are posted on the ‘Tube. Here’s the first one, which should enable you to find the rest of them.

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 264

Sunday, December 20th, 2020

Science Sunday!

Today’s video is another long one, but it is Sunday. This popped up in my recommendations totally at random.

“The American Rocketeer”, a documentary about the life of Frank Malina (born in Texas, mech engineering grad from Texas A&M).

Why is he significant? He was one of the pioneering figures in American rocket development: protege of Theodore von Kármán, one of the members of the “Suicide Squad” (other members included Jack Parsons and Qian Xuesen), second director of JPL, and artist.

Bonus: This is a lot shorter, and might be interesting to people who want to know a little more about Jack Parsons: “Jack Parsons: ‘Sex Magic’, Drugs, and Rocket Science”.

I’ve read Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons (affiliate link), but I’m thinking I need to look up some of the other books on the early days of JPL, rocketry, and the personalities involved. Thread Of The Silkworm might be a good start…

Posted in Books, Geek, History | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 259

Monday, December 14th, 2020

Promoted from a comment left by great and good FotB RoadRich, talking about bad public art:

All it evoked for me was ‘someone put up traffic signs and the dumbass forgot to add the letters.’ They have a DOT standard look to them.
…specifically Special Route Markers meant to be Guide signs (blue with white accents) in Chapter 7 of TxDOT’s Sign Guidelines and Applications Manual. Examples exist on page 7-14 (Special Route Marker), page 7-24 (indicating Emergency Services facilities), 7-46 (Historical Markers), and 7-51 to 7-52 (Rest Area).
If that hasn’t gotten you all excited about roadway signage you can also look up Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), currently in revision 2 of the 2009 edition. Ooo, page 301 embodies the spirit of ‘All General Service signs and supplemental sign panels shall have white letters, symbols, arrows, and borders on a blue background.’
I’m such fun at parties.

You know where I’m going with this, don’t you?

From the “Kentucky LTAP and Technology Transfer Program”, a webinar on the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

Bonus: Florida man, Florida man, flagging traffic when he can…

From the Florida DOT, “Flagging Procedures”.

Posted in Geek | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: December 13, 2020.

Sunday, December 13th, 2020

Oh, wow. I opened up a post so I could update some obits from the past couple of days, and the first thing I saw was: John le Carré. The current NYT obit is a preliminary one: they promise a longer one soon, and I may update with some personal thoughts when that posts.

In the meantime, Charley Pride.

A bridge-builder who broke into country music amid the racial unrest of the 1960s, Mr. Pride was one of the most successful singers ever to work in that largely white genre, placing 52 records in the country Top 10 from 1966 to 1987.
Singles like “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’” and “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone” — among his 29 recordings to reach No. 1 on the country chart — featuried a countrypolitan mix of traditional instrumentation and more uptown arrangements.
At RCA, the label for which he recorded for three decades, Mr. Pride was second only to Elvis Presley in record sales. In the process he emerged as an inspiration to generations of performers, from the Black country hitmaker Darius Rucker, formerly of the rock band Hootie and the Blowfish, to white inheritors like Alan Jackson, who included a version of “Kiss an Angel” on his 1999 album, “Under the Influence.”

…

Nevertheless, the dignity and grace with which Mr. Pride and his wife of 63 years, Rozene Pride, navigated their way through the white world of country music became a beacon to his fans and fellow performers.
“No person of color had ever done what he has done,” Mr. Rucker said in “Charley Pride: I’m Just Me,” a 2019 “American Masters” documentary on PBS.
Mr. Pride himself was more self-effacing in assessing his impact but nevertheless expressed some satisfaction in having a role in furthering integration. “We’re not colorblind yet,” he wrote in his autobiography, “but we’ve advanced a few paces along the path, and I like to think I’ve contributed something to that process.”.

NYT obit for Ben Bova.

Tommy Lister. Apparently, he was most famous as “Deebo” in “Friday” (which we watched last night: while he’s good in it, the movie itself is not good), but he had a long list of other credits.

Norman Abramson. You may never have heard of him, but he was one of the developers of ALOHAnet.

The wireless network in Hawaii, which began operating in 1971, was called ALOHAnet, embracing the Hawaiian salutation for greeting or parting. It was a smaller, wireless version of the better known ARPAnet, the precursor to the internet, which allowed researchers at universities to share a network and send messages over landlines. The ARPAnet was led by the Pentagon’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, which also funded the ALOHAnet.
“The early wireless work in Hawaii is vastly underappreciated,” said Marc Weber, an internet historian at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. “Every modern form of wireless data networking, from WiFi to your cellphone, goes back to the ALOHAnet.”

…

Some of the data-networking techniques developed by Professor Abramson and his Hawaii team proved valuable not only in wireless communications but also in wired networks. One heir to his work was Robert Metcalfe, who in 1973 was a young computer scientist working at Xerox PARC, a Silicon Valley research laboratory that had become a fount of personal computer innovations.
Mr. Metcalfe was working on how to enable personal computers to share data over wired office networks. He had read a 1970 paper, written by Professor Abramson, describing ALOHAnet’s method for transmitting and resending data over a network.
“Norm kindly invited me to spend a month with him at the University of Hawaii to study ALOHAnet,” Mr. Metcalfe recalled in an email.
Mr. Metcalfe and his colleagues at Xerox PARC adopted and tweaked the ALOHAnet technology in creating Ethernet office networking. Later, Mr. Metcalfe founded an Ethernet company, 3Com, which thrived as the personal computer industry grew.

I’ve been holding on to this one for a few days: William Aronwald. He was a prosecutor in the 1970s, working on organized crime cases around New York. He went into private practice later on. But that’s not the reason his obit is noteworthy.

On March 20, 1987, his father, George M. Aronwald, was shot and killed in a laundry in Queens. The senior Aronwald’s death was kind of a puzzle: he was 78, worked as a hearing officer for the Parking Violations Bureau, and shared an office listing with his son. Why would anyone want to kill him? Turns out…

…Mr. Cacace, acting on the orders of an imprisoned crime boss, Carmine Persico, had arranged to have William Aronwald killed, according to news accounts.
The reasons were vague — Mr. Persico was said to have thought Mr. Aronwald had “been disrespectful,” as one article put it. Mr. Aronwald later speculated that he had been targeted in retaliation for his testimony in one of the trials of the mobster John Gotti.
In any case, a prosecutor said later, the hit men, brothers named Vincent and Eddie Carini, were shown a piece of paper with only the name “Aronwald” on it. They killed the wrong Aronwald. And that wasn’t all, a 2003 article in The New York Times reported:
“After the botched assignment, Mr. Cacace had his hit men killed, prosecutors said. Then, they added, he had the hit men who had killed the hit men killed.”

“Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.”

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 258

Sunday, December 13th, 2020

Science Sunday!

I had a little trouble picking out today’s videos. There’s some good stuff related to Gödel, Escher, Bach and cognition that I might use in the future, but I didn’t want to go back to the Gödel well so soon.

I was hesitant to go back to Chris Bishop again again, but science should be fun. Unfortunately, the video I wanted to use, i couldn’t: YouTube has it age restricted due to content.

So I thought I’d go metal.

Okay, maybe that was a little too metal. Same org, “Metal Mayhem”, but with Andrew Szydlo. He’s got a neat sort of child-like enthusiasm, and he’s a little absent minded (or at least presents himself that way). This might captivate the kids, but might also annoy you.

Bonus: I know I’m using the same source twice, but this popped up as well, and I thought it was worth including: the presenter, Adam Kucharski, works at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and specializes in modelling infectious diseases.

“How Science is Taking the Luck out of Gambling.”

“…there are two large flaws with this lady’s strategy. The first is, it’s completely illegal. And the second is, it clearly doesn’t work.”

Posted in Geek, History, Wagers | Comments Closed

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