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Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
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10:58 am - Moon Dust is actually hippie shavings from Burning Man
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The New York Times is doing a bunch of stuff on the moon today, here's my favorite article of the bunch:
Vocal Minority Insists It Was All Smoke and Mirrors
Mr. Sibrel, who sells his films online, has hounded Apollo astronauts with a Bible, insisting that they swear on camera they had walked on the Moon. He so annoyed Buzz Aldrin in 2002 — ambushing him with his Bible and calling him “a coward, and a liar, and a thief” — that Mr. Aldrin punched Mr. Sibrel in the face. Law enforcement officials refused to file charges against Mr. Aldrin, the second man on the Moon.
If it was all a hoax, man did we find some cool rocks somewhere ;)
Conference proceedings: Toxicological Effects of Lunar Soil
http://machineslikeus.com/news/nasas-dirty-secret-moon-dust
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Also (thanks, Badger!), this site (sponored by the JFK Presidential Library) is doing a real-time rebroadcast of the Apollo 11 mission from launch to landing for the 40 year anniversary: http://wechoosethemoon.org/
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| Monday, July 13th, 2009
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9:56 am
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| Thursday, July 9th, 2009
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8:48 am - Ireland, part 1: the Irish car insurance scam
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Almost done sorting pics, but I thought I'd lead off with this:
I reserved a car through Expedia on Thrifty for 85 euro (55 euro a week, 35 euro in taxes and fees). After a marathon series of air trips, I turned up at the Dublin Airport thrifty counter and handed over my paperwork, license, and credit card. The attendant typed in 90% of my info, and said, "You will have to buy this mandatory insurance. It will be 265 euro". I said, in the same detached tone of voice I always use, "no, waive the insurance". Here's where the script started to differ.
"No sir, you have to have insurance on Irish roads. You must buy this. It's 265 euros." I don't think so. I began to argue that both my home auto insurance -and- my credit card offer rental car insurance. He said, "I'll need a signed, notarized letter from your auto insurance, and your credit card doesn't say "Global Mastercard" or "Global American Express", so we won't accept it. I can call your bank and see if they'll fax over proof that you'll be covered by them if you want".
I said, "Ok, Call them." He poked on the computer for a while, and then said, "I can offer you the insurance on a smaller car for 225 euro." There it is. Evidence of the scam. First, I was already renting the smallest car. Second, whenever they start to lower "mandatory" fees, you're getting taken for a ride. He was a persistent little bugger, though, and refused to call my bank to get this settled. I'm not paying 3X my quoted price, and being tired and jet lagged makes me -less- likely to capitulate, not more. Finally, after it looked like a total impasse, I walked over to Hertz.
Hertz rented me a car on the spot, let me waive the insurance, for 125 euro. $55 or so more for the week than I expected to spend, but not $300 more.
I've spent the last couple of days reading all the fine print I can find and sending nasty letters to Expedia and Thrifty. No replies yet, and no fine print anywhere in my reservations (and believe me, I've read a _lot_ of fine print) that mentions mandatory insurance -or- that only certain credit cards are honored. Some complaint sites indicate that in Canada, Turkey, Ireland, and a couple of other places, Thrifty claimed to only accept "Gold" branded Mastercards (not Visa), but nothing about only accepting cards with the word "Global" on them.
You have been warned. Did any of the rest of the OTP crowd get hit with this same scam?
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
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2:26 pm
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| Sunday, July 5th, 2009
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11:30 pm - Home safe
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We're just back home, after a very long day in the air. Blackwater Castle and its proprietors, Patrick and Sheila, were amazing. Last night we drove north from Castletownroche, and took in a traditional music pub crawl in Kilkenny before finding a hotel in Dublin (allowing us to sleep in, not drive from 5 or 6AM). The first flight home started something like 18 hours ago.
The trip was amazing, our people are amazing too. Apparently my motorcycle and our strawberries did not survive our absence. More on all that later. I'm off to bed.
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| Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
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1:55 am
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We can't see the ocean from our 4th floor walk-up room in the middle of Dublin. With the noise of the people and the traffic (and the Guinness truck across the street noisily unloading dozens of kegs into the Othello and O'Sheas) you'd hardly know there was ocean... except for the gulls. No pigeons here, the winged vermin are sparse but white seagulls call out from the occasional rooftop or alleyway, hinting at the Irish Sea just over the next set of high rises, or the one after that, or the one after that...
J and I followed two actors around the river bars and Trinity last night, as they performed bits of Godot, letters from Oscar Wilde in Denver, Plunketts's "The Risen People" (he could tell the difference between a Catholic and a Protestant from 200 yards, and changed his begging songs accordingly), recitations of poetry by Behan, all while being introduced to pubs they wrote or drank or got kicked out of. It's a fine introduction to Dublin, though the jet lag had me switch to halfs pretty early in the evening. This morning, after a proper fry-up breakfast (beans, Irish bacon, sausages, egg and toast) we're going to Trinity to see the Book of Kells, then see if we can leisurely find our way towards Cork and Blackwater.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, June 28th, 2009
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12:55 pm - Dublin bound
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We were cleaning and packing for Ireland last night, so I rented "Waking Ned Divine" from blockbuster and got a touch of Irish music and humour into the evening. I think J was a little traumatized by the weather in the film, California girl that she is, but we both laughed through the whole thing.
We're spending tomorrow night just north of the river from Trinity College, Dublin, then driving south to Blackwater Castle in Castletownroche, county Cork. We'll be meeting somewhere north of 20 of the Raleigh crowd for invasion of Celtic lands, castle siege activities, and hopefully somewhere in there a whiskey distillery tour followed by cuban cigars on the castle lawn while discussing any number of the normal 4th of July weekend subjects (religion, sex, power, humour, family, video games, anything goes)
No clue if I'll have internet or want to use it, but if so, photos to follow!
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, June 22nd, 2009
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4:27 pm
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1:57 pm - L.A. downtown clubbing
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The Crocker Club in L.A. is kind of a one-hit wonder. Cleverly named (and ably mixed) cocktails, including j's ginger, lychee, Vodka and Elderflower liquour drink in a martini glass with a hibiscus flower floated on top. "Ooh cool, they built a club inside a bank vault"... but after staring at the vault door and the grey-and-steel decor for a few minutes, listening to a fair-to-middling DJ (Oh, and the acoustics inside a bank vault? Yeah, kinda guessed that one, didn't ya)... we abandoned the Crocker.
We headed past the Edison, which I highly, highly recommend, but had a line until tuesday (seriously, I think some of those people are still in line) and carried on to Redwood. Redwood is a pirate- and nautical-themed bar that used to (according to J's stepdad) not be. The renovation is kind of cool- kitsch without being too over the top, pirate flags on one ceiling, semaphore flags on another, captains-quarters chandeliers on a third. Really interesting use of nautical decor in some spots (no, really, I'm not being hipster-ironic), and the best part- a punk rock band in the front with a lead singer who sounded like Joan Jett at 19. I think they were called "The Headliners", although the bartender might have been telling us they were the headliners.
Earlier in the weekend I took a walk with J's stepdad and Zoe the family dog in the woods above the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Even though it was drizzling the whole time, the area is really pretty, and JPL is a -huge- complex. Were I to move south, I'd definitely try to hit them up for some contract work.
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Hmm. We leave for Ireland this weekend. Maybe I should think about nailing down travel plans. Or packing. Naaah.
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
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3:21 pm - Wind Tunnels
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They had an open house at the wind tunnel complex this morning, so I spent a little time wandering through the largest wind tunnel in the world- large enough to fit a full size Boeing 737. You probably wouldn't get a lot of good data off a 737, because the walls would be close enough to affect your readings, but you could put it in there.
Standing inside a building whose air intake is a vertical football field is marvelous. The building, which is a big squared loop with 6 X 16 Megawatt(!!!) fans in the middle of one side, is made of welded steel in astonishing quantities. The reason for a 10-story tall steel tunnel is because when they turn on the fans, they generate a 280 mph wind. The pressure in the tunnel drops with the flow, threatening to implode the building. Also, in the early days, pieces of poorly designed aircraft would fly off and go careening around the loop. At one point in the 1960s, a helicopter rotor blade went through the 6 inch steel, through the control room, narrowly missing several observers, through the floor, severing electrical cables, and embedded itself in one of the control computers. The only injury was from a worker who got brained by a severed fluorescent light tube that fell on him. Our guide said the NASA administrator used to get really annoyed when pieces of aircraft would pierce the roof and land on the lawn of the admin building a hundred meters away.
They're currently doing a lot of testing on new helicopter rotor designs, although the guide didn't elaborate on the subject. The tunnel is in operation around 4 of every 6 weeks doing a combination of aeronautical, space, and miscellaneous testing (things like America's Cup keels, efficient truck cab design, parachutes drogues and airfoils, and some black ops he wouldn't talk about).
A substantial percentage of the aeromechanical and aero/astro engineers working at the wind tunnel were young women (well over half the people I saw there), and the next highest percentage of people was older (nearing retirement age) men. No comment, just an interesting observation. Maybe NASA is adjusting its hiring to replace the retirees, or maybe summer is here already and the interns have arrived.
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| Monday, June 15th, 2009
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11:01 am - This weekend: Northern California Pirate Festival
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http://www.norcalpiratefestival.com/
This weekend is the 3rd annual Northern California Pirate Festival. Admission is free, and there will be a ships-to-shore cannon battle (BYOB- bring your own blunderbuss), cruises on the Gaslight, pirate-y music, after-parties in downtown Vallejo and such. Last year the cannon battle rocked, and the various pirate camps and vendors were campy and vendor-y. Also, the music (Seadogs, the Pirates Charles, the Roving Tars, Queen Anne's Revenge) made me want to set to sea at once.
It will be at the Vallejo waterfront, directions here: http://www.norcalpiratefestival.com/directions.htm
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, June 12th, 2009
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11:41 am - Vocabulary
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| Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
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2:58 pm - Misc
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3Qd has listed the semifinalists for their Contest for the best science journal articles of 2009". Sorry ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) devilfish, I didn't see this in time to submit my favorites from your blog. Among the entries (click the link above to see them):
* The ecological disaster that is dolphin-safe tuna
* The ocean's big pHat problem
* Passerine birds fight dirty, a la Velociraptor
* The physics of high heels
That last one is sort of fluffy, and hard to figure out who the intended audience is, but has a fun title.
Vegas was very fun, particularly Penn & Teller and the Atomic Testing Museum. When I catch up on my lost sleep from the weekend, I may expound on one or both of these things, but the short review is: See them. Also, catching up with my aunt by the wave beach at Mandalay Bay because she happened to be passing through the same day was pretty cool.
This weekend J and I are going to CalShakes to see their Romeo and Juliet. If anybody wants to come to an amazing outdoor theatre company in Orinda Friday, let me know. Also, Writers With Drinks on Saturday!
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
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10:25 am - Beer and a curry: health food!
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| Friday, May 29th, 2009
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10:03 am - Badda Boom! (or how to design a space program with input from 4 year olds)
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Ok, so here's the thing, right? There's a possibility that when the moon formed, or broke off from the earth, or whatever happened, there was water on it. But, no atmosphere, so the water boiled off. But what if, deep in the craters at the poles, which have never seen sunshine, there's still some ice left from billions of years ago?
Cool, huh? If there were water on the moon, we could make a moon base, and not have to take all our water (which is damn heavy) up with us.
So how do we find out?
We'll launch a satellite full of sensors, and when it's on the way to the moon we'll turn it around so the booster rocket goes first. We'll let the booster rocket get waaaay out in front, and then SMASH!!! it into a crater on the pole! The rocket will kick up a huge plume of dirt, and hopefully some ice, too. Then our satellite will fly into the plume and look for water really quickly and report back really quickly because it can't slow down or turn in time so 5 minutes later it's going to SMASH!!! into the crater too!
No really, it'll be awesome!
http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/
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ETA: !!! the director of the program wrote and performed a kenny loggins-esque rock song about his mission, and it's actually kind of catchy. There's a music video link at the bottom right of the lcross.arc.nasa.gov page.
faster faster, hands in the air
we're going to crash
searching for the answers like galileo
through his looking glass
thirst for reason
a dreamer's eyes we gaze into,
a sense of purpose known by few,
like finding water on the moon...
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, May 28th, 2009
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11:30 am - Unintended consequences,
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, and what's the word for things that make you laugh and hurt at the same time
I don't know whether to laugh or shake my head at this one. I mentioned I got an unexpectedly bad reaction from a charitable donation that should have been made anonymously. Well, I found out yesterday there was way more to the story.
( Cut because not everybody slows down to stare at a train wreck )
Think of the good you could accomplish if, through the force of another's irrational hatred of you, you could band their friends and fans to flood charities and altruistic causes with cold hard cash. It ain't much, but unbeknownst to me the charity got triple my money's worth.
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(26 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
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11:32 pm - Near term plans
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Coming up in the next few weekends-
- burny_md and seerofkell visit this weekend, no doubt we'll hit up some very fine restaurants!
- the Maker Faire is happening this weekend
- Boys' weekend in Vegas on the 6th (comment or contact me privately if you want details)
- Romeo and Juliet at CalShakes on the 12th
- Our housewarming on Saturday the 13th, e-vites to follow. Hopefully the place will be ready by then.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, May 22nd, 2009
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12:26 pm - Weekend Part 2 - Bay to Breakers
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The other major event of last weekend was Bay to Breakers, the annual 7.5 mile run across San Francisco. Steve and I ran it three years ago, when I feel I was in much better shape.
The race this year was a little less fun, because they cracked down on the nudity and the beer-keg carrying floats. Also, the floats that were there were held to the end after all the runners had gone, so we didn't have the amusement of catching up to a platform of half-naked disney princesses being pulled by half-naked (the wrong half!) 7 dwarves, or pirates battling ninjas being pulled by monkeys. We did see the Salmon, who run the race backwards shouting "Spawn" all the way. I'm hoping they go back to interspersing the floats among the runners next year.
Hopefully walkinthewilds will post his pictures- the number of people on the course is staggering.
You can't really run it.. it's more like jog a bit, dodge some people, jog a bit more, dodge some more people.... I only trained for a couple of weeks beforehand (mostly because of illness), and my first two days of training I could only run for 10 minutes, then walk for 1, then run 10, etc. I only got up to being able to run non-stop for about 3 miles on the friday before the race. But I looked up our comparative times, and Steve and I did much better this year:
l_stboy - 2006- bib 32232; 13,210th place, time 1:53:39
- 2009- bib 26031; 10,174th place, time 1:34:40
walkinthewilds- 2006- bib 13966; 13,214th place, time 1:53:42
- 2009- bib 13754; 10,128th place, time 1:34:26
There are some race photos at http://www.sportphoto.com/Event.aspx?EventID=70 if you put in bib number 26031. I still need to look through them and decide if I should get any.
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
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10:50 am - Weekend Part 1 - The Flaming Sword of Awesome
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On Saturday, walkinthewilds helped me start my backyard propane fire pit project. I'm hoping to end up with a backyard copper bowl filled with lava rocks or aquarium glass through which flaming propane bubbles up to keep us warm on those chilly Northern California nights when you want to sit out back with a drink and some friends but still be warm. But, first steps first- creating the flaming sword of awesome:
( Click for more and a link to the photo set )
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, May 18th, 2009
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11:31 am - fun article from Esquire
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& 