Odd Lots
- Carol and I are now home from Chicago, still bumping into walls but doing better. If you haven’t heard from me in a couple of weeks that’s why.
- Chicago burned on October 8, 1871. The cow did it, right? Well, there were a lot of other serious fires around the American midwest that same night. Tucking my ears into my tinfoil hat here: What if a cluster of biggish small meteorites hit the country that night, sparking fires wherever they fell? The more Russian dashcam videos I see, the less outrageous I think the idea is. (Thanks to Michele Marek for the link.)
- And for people who say that the Russians seem to attract meteorites, look at this. I’d say The Curse of the Splat People has been laid upon northern new Mexico.
- Why am I so fascinated by the Neanderthals? Aside from the fact that I may well have a Neanderthal-ish skull and ribcage, it’s hard to beat our big-brained, musclebound brothers for idea triggers. I had never considered Taki’s startling question: Would they vote Republican? Or would they just tear your arm off for asking? (Thanks to Bruce Baker for the link.)
- Search Google Patents for Edward F. Marwick, and you will find 205 different patents filed by my very own late high school physics teacher. He told us about a few of them (like this one) in 1969. We thought he was kidding. The man was a damned good physics teacher, and he thought big.
- Bill Beaty posted a comment on Contra for my September 7, 2011 entry describing a very simple solid-state equivalent using an MPF102 and a 9V battery. A full description is on his site, and it’s worth seeing if you have an unscratched itch for a half-hour project.
- I think I aggregated the Steampunk Workshop before, but it’s worth mentioning again. Beautiful stuff, startling craftsmanship. Like this Mac Mini mod. Wow. (Thanks to Bill Cherepy for pointing it out.)
- Carol and I had to cancel our entry of Dash and Jack in the big Rocky Mountain Cluster dog show for obvious reasons, but one of our Bichon Club members posted a wonderful video of her seven-year-old son Adam showing their puppy, Ruby. Ruby and Adam got a blue ribbon. The kid is amazing. Sheesh, when I was that age I was still throwing mushrooms at my sister at the dinner table.
- I guess this was inevitable, at least in Washington State and/or Colorado. I suppose the research is useful. (Thanks to Frank Glover for the link.)
Posted in: Odd Lots.
Tagged: astronomy · dogs · steampunk · weirdness
"
[…] circuit came to me from Bill Beaty, who posted a comment with the link to my February 18, 2013 Odd Lots entry. It consists of an MPF102 JFET, a generic red LED, and a 9V battery plus its associated connector. […]
Your high school teacher’s brilliance, undimmed by my trashy treatment of the concept (“crashportation”).
http://acuriousguy.blogspot.jp/2016/04/op-ed-better-solution-to-get-rid-of-all.html
Just thought you might want to know that his lunatic legacy lives.
I do, as do a lot of my high school buddies, most of whom knew him. And thanks. That’s a fascinating article, and I’ll aggregate it in my next Odd Lots. It would help if you could tell me the connection to Mr. Marwick. I haven’t looked at all of his patents in detail. Did he patent crashing obsolete ICBMs on the moon? Or? I think I missed that one.
No, I don’t think the patent says that. https://www.google.co.jp/patents/EP0158821A1
Also, I’m proposing something cruder. A containing chamber may be unnecessary, since it looks like the slower, higher-angle impacts actually tend to concentrate the original fragments in the center of the crater. That said, a lava tube skylight could be a way to contain the fragments even more compactly.