It’s a girl! Meet Meagan Elizabeth

May 28, 2003 on 12:31 pm | In Misc | 3 Comments

Sarah, our neice Heather, and I just returned from another ultrasound. This one was special as she is 19 weeks, and we could clearly see that there is no penis.

So we’re having a girl. Her (current) name is Meagan Elizabeth Garza. We previously had decided on Amber Laurel, but Sarah began to literally cry about it despite my insistence that we had decided on a name. We both like the name, so until the next time our upcoming baby girl is Meagan Elizabeth. We’re all happy about this news.

Continue reading It’s a girl! Meet Meagan Elizabeth…

Einstein Archives Online

May 21, 2003 on 12:52 am | In Ad Rem | 3 Comments

In 1891 Albert Einstein began his studies on mathematics in Munich. His family moved to Milan, but he could not be torn away from his studies. He failed once for an entrance examination to Eidgen

The weblogging experience

May 17, 2003 on 11:03 pm | In Misc | Comments Off

NYTimes has posted a thought provoking article on the weblog experience known as blogging. The author touches on the phenomenon of ordinary people turning into reporters, reporting on the details of their own lives, and how it affects their friends, family, and job. I personally have already run into trouble commenting with sarcasm on a friend’s weblog. I honestly don’t think badly about the corporation for which I work, so I’m not worried about commenting on them. My wife even mentioned once that when she read the post the day before we were married it made her cry (in a good way). This article covers some much more unfortunate stories.

“While personal blogs have been around for years, their proliferation has caused a wrinkle in the social fabric among people in their teens, 20’s and early 30’s. Inundated with bloggers, they are finding that every clique now has its own Matt Drudge, someone capable of instantly turning details of their lives into saucy Internet fare.”

“”It’s like all your friends are reporters now,” said Douglas Rushkoff, a blogger and author of “Media Virus” and other books about the impact of technology on society.”

One woman even lost her job as a result of her exaggerated entries relating to her job and coworkers.

“When her bosses were alerted that Ms. Armstrong was writing about her office life, they fired her, she said. She is now much more careful about what she publishes in her blog, and she had a word of caution for bloggers who write furtively about others. “If you’re publishing under your own name, they’ll find out,” she said. “I was extremely na

The Macintosh is dying

May 16, 2003 on 11:50 pm | In Misc | 1 Comment

In competition between computer-related products there is little room for shades of gray. You’ll have a group who truly believes one product is the ultimate culmination of genius and design, and the competition is scum from the deepest sewers. The opposing group who believe the other product is God’s gift to electronics will also believe the competition is not worthy of inclusion in a Packard Bell. In mindless competition there is little room for reason and logic. This holds true for Intel and AMD, Windows and Linux, ATI and nVidia, and of course PC vs Macintosh. It is always worth noting one side turning on its own and admitting the truth.

MacNET has announced it will no longer support Apple’s endeavors, despite possible loss of readership and profits. They will continue to review products made by 3rd parties which happen to be Mac compatible, but they now believe Apple is doomed to failure.

“You

Elevator etiquette

May 14, 2003 on 8:21 pm | In Misc | 11 Comments

When you’re waiting on a first floor elevator please stand to the side, look in, and then when it is empty you may advance. I’ve gotten into the habit of walking out and literally pushing people out of the way if they are trying to rush into a full elevator. I know when you’re going to work you’re not likely in the happiest mood, and very self-absorbed, but be a little more courteous please.

Does anyone have any comments? Also, where do you stand in an elevator? I’ve read several articles on the psychology of this. I usually stand in the middle back if I’m alone, or next to the buttons if it is full. I do not look down; I look around the elevator at everyone. Most people face the wall at the front and/or look down.

Hydrogenated oils as bad as cholesterol

May 12, 2003 on 11:41 pm | In Ad Rem | 10 Comments

From what I’ve read lately there is a menace as bad as cholesterol in clogging your arteries. They’re known as trans fats, and the FDA is soon requiring warning labels specific to them. You can read about this fully at bantransfats. I didn’t realize until recently that Oreos are made filled with these trans fats. Supposedly this makes them one of the worst foods for you, as such hydrogenated oils can cause serious health problems with excessive intake. The site suggests a ban on the cookie, and while I love Oreos, I’m all for it. Below are a few bits of information from their site.

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently taken the position that

Mercury passing in front of the sun

May 8, 2003 on 6:36 pm | In Ad Rem | 3 Comments

Today’s APOD is a great example of how various objects in the solar system scale to one another. Most everyone has seen the elementary school planetary models of foam balls. To get such a model to scale would not be possible, so you must of course suspend your disbelief. How large is our star really? This shows Mercury passing in front of the sun. It may be hard to spot Mercury, it is the tiny dot. Mercury is that small in comparison to the sun, even at a distance of almost 58 million kilometers. Sunspots are another great way to determine that a star is unbelievably large. Here you can see a sunspot over 30 times the diameter of the earth and it appears as a spec on the surface of our local star.

Mysteries and miracles of Kevlar

May 6, 2003 on 4:30 am | In Ad Rem | 9 Comments

A British Marine Commando, Eric Walderman, was shot in the head four times and all bullets were halted by his Kevlar helmet. He was serving in Iraq and was shot at Umm Qasr. He’s uninjured and still serving with the Alpha Company.

The facts on Kevlar:

  • Kevlar was developed and manufactured by US firm DuPont in the mid-1960s.
  • Kevlar is a long chain-like molecule known as a polymer, which consists of repeating units called monomers.
  • Helmets made of Kevlar are 25%-40% more resistant to projectiles than their steel predecessors of equal weight.
  • A Kevlar fiber is an array of molecules oriented parallel to each other like a package of uncooked spaghetti. This orderly, untangled arrangement of molecules is described as a crystalline structure. Crystallinity is obtained by a manufacturing process known as spinning, which involves extruding the molten polymer solution through small holes. The crystallinity of the Kevlar polymer strands contributes significantly to Kevlar’s unique strength and rigidity.
  • Underwater, Kevlar is 20 times stronger than steel.
  • Kevlar is a polyaromatic amide. That is, it contains aromatic and amide groups. Other polymers with a high breaking strength often contain one or both of these molecular groups.
  • The individual polymer strands of Kevlar are held together by hydrogen bonds that form between the polar amide groups on adjacent chains.
  • The aromatic components of Kevlar polymers have a radial (spoke-like) orientation, which gives a high degree of symmetry and regularity to the internal structure of the fibers. This crystalline-like regularity is the largest contributing factor in the strength of Kevlar. Only with bright synchrotron radiation could the secret strength of Kevlar be revealed.
  • Kevlar military helmets replaced the “steel pot” helmet in the late 1970s.
  • Kevlar body vests and helmets have saved the lives of more than 2,700 police and prison officers in the US alone, its manufacturers claim - and they have their own Kevlar Survivors Club.
  • Stressed fiber optics can greatly degrade performance. Braided Kevlar is often used to surround fiber optics to ensure the tensile strength of the cable.

    • Light ~ young and old

    May 4, 2003 on 11:57 pm | In Ad Rem | 1 Comment

    In past articles I’ve discussed the progression of fusion as a star gets larger, and directed you to a wonderful site which visually explains hydrogen to helium fusion. To go into more detail we’ll discuss the speed of light, and the distances between objects on galactic scale. This will open up for future discussion on distances between galaxies and red shift.

    At its speed, 100% of light’s energy is being put into the first, second and third dimensions. The fourth dimension, time, has no remaining energy, and so the actual photon of light does not pass through time, only space. To the outside observer light travels at 299,792,458 meters (186,000 miles) per second.

    The measurement of a light-year is for distance. To be even more specific it is the distance light travels in a year. That is 229,792,458 meters by 31,536,000 seconds, or over 7 quadrillion meters. It takes light approximately 8 seconds to reach us once it leaves the sun. The distance from the sun to the earth is 149,600,000 kilometers average, 1 AU, or 8 light-seconds. The distance from the sun to Pluto is 5,913,520,000 kilometers average, 39.5 AU, or 5 light-minutes. Our nearest star is 4.3 light-years away. Our galaxy is approximately 100,000 light-years in diameter. Our nearest large galaxy, Andromeda (M31), is 2.9 million light-years away. I’ll talk about its double nucleus at another time.

    Light has to travel a long way in this Universe. Sometimes it even loses the battle. At the extreme distances between galaxies the expansion of the universe is evident. As the actual fabric of space is accelerating outwards it is actually possible for the rate to exceed light’s capability to overcome it. There are many galaxies receding at well over the speed of light. Once a galaxy reaches this point, in relation to us, we can no longer receive updates on what is happening in said galaxy. It will appear frozen in time before it fades from view.

    To come back to our solar system, and specifically the structure of the sun, I’ll discuss the rate at which light can escape the sun. In matter on earth you have lots of space involved. There is a great distance between atoms in your body. The great pressures involved in the core of a star compress the hydrogen to where the atoms bump into each other rapidly and fuse into helium. At this density exiting photons easily hit hydrogen nuclei, which absorb the photon, and send it back out in a completely random direction. This “random walk” can easily make the progression out of the star take 40,000 years. While the light you see may be that old, it still takes only 8 minutes to reach us, so we still see the sun as it was 8 minutes ago. With all this going on the photon hasn’t aged at all.

    Open forum

    May 3, 2003 on 2:58 pm | In Forum | 18 Comments

    This is an open discussion. Feel free to chat or talk about anything. Long-term discussions are welcome.

    Where do you stand scientifically?

    May 2, 2003 on 7:22 am | In Ad Rem | 1 Comment

    I’ve mentioned before in the article U.S. belief in pseudoscience is up that 70% of American adults do not understand the scientific process. If you’re interested in testing where you stand, for the purpose of improving yourself, check out these periodic table quizes.

    I just went through one of the top level quizes, and I didn’t recognize a great deal of the names involved. This isn’t to say that you don’t understand the theories themselves. I plan to spend the next few weeks taking these and studying my results.