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Bananas are so tasty. From the time during my sophomore year when a group of friends and I decided to all eat bananas together at dinner to test a (weak) hypothesis that bananas cause weird dreams, I’ve seen them as one of the more interesting of fruits. So it follows that I jumped on the new book, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel. It’s a little discomfiting to read about how the banana companies began by ruthlessly ruling Latin American countries, murdering their citizens and leaders and taking over large tracts of land in order to make the banana profitable to sell to Americans for less than an apple. Luckily, the companies are not nearly so ruthless anymore, but the damage is done. More interesting to me than this part of bananas history, though, is the fact that we don’t eat the bananas our grandparents ate. In fact, through the 1950s, Americans ate a BETTER banana: the “Big Mike” or Gros Michel. This banana, by commercial standards, was bigger, sweeter, creamier, kept better, traveled better, and was so well-loved that yes, you WERE in danger of slipping on errant banana peels in big cities in the 1920s and 1930s.

However, bananas are not an evolutionarily favored plant, for all their benefits. They are clones – which explains the lack of any seeds, and the remarkable uniformity of the ones you see at the grocery store. But in the past, and now again, it means bananas fall easily to any fungus, disease, mite or bacteria that successfully attack a single plant of a banana cultivar. In the 1950s, Big Mike bananas started disappearing due to a fungus traveling easily between plantations. Big Mike bananas are not extinct, but they don’t work in big plantations anymore. How frustrating, then, that our bananas today aren’t as good as back in your grandma’s day. I’m tempted to ask someone of the era what exactly these dream bananas were like…but to be realistic, if someone asked you forty years from your last one what was so great about Pink Lady apples, could you really pin it down?

In the 1950s, the banana companies were forced to realize that they needed a banana replacement for the Big Mike, and they scornfully switched to the “inferior” Cavendish banana you see now. It is more fickle in travel, smaller, less creamy, and generally considered a weak replacement (though consumers, apparently, didn’t mind or didn’t notice the difference slicing it into their cereal). But the Cavendish, as I write, is being attacked by a stronger strain of the same fungus that destroyed most of the Big Mike bananas. And we’re no better at solving the problem. Clones just don’t have the genetic strength of other breeding methods. The best hope currently for keeping our Banana Foster recipes for the next couple generations is to employ transgenic methods to produce a third commercial banana. Wild bananas generally aren’t very appealing, even if hardy, and most bananas eaten by the non-Western World are starchier, closer to a plantain (how many of us would switch happily to a plantain on your peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich?). And regular cross-breeding is next to impossible with seedless fruit. It’ll take a lot of trial plants to find something that we picky consumers barely notice is not a Cavendish, but doesn’t die from fungus or the other diseases currently decimating the crops.

Anyway, it was a really good book. If you don’t feel like reading it, you might want to instead check out the NPR Fresh Air interview the author did, complete with singing a banana jingle and a thoughtful explanation why transgenic bananas aren’t worrisome. The author had many opportunities to try bananas you’ll never see in the US, and confidently picks a favorite: the Lacatan. He claims it is sweet and extra creamy, and is beloved by the locals who have access to it. Again, no fair. I am being told that one of my favorite fruits isn’t even the best of it’s kind, with the two better varieties either gone from the market or only sold in and near the Phillipines. I’ll need to find someone to smuggle a Lacatan to me at some point, so I can tell kids years from now how amazing yet another banana they’ll probably never eat was.

It’s weird to find a comic artist (author?) with such a similar sense of humor to me and Sam.

I advise you to check out his other work, found here. Also check out his group, “Bears in Ill-Fitting Hats”.

The lack of posts recently is because of traveling. Pictures will go up in the gallery soon, but for the time being, there are other things to tell.

Since the move, we are subleasing in a rather large apartment building, living 7 blocks from the downtown area. This is really great for walking down to restaurants, bars, groceries, etc. In fact, I’ve found a website that identifies exactly what it is I like about the places I choose to live. It’s called walkscore, and you put in your address to get a rating between 0 and 100 (with 100 being a good thing) of how closely you live to various services. It then produces a map and a list of the nearest grocery, movie theatre, hardware store, bar, dry cleaners, you get the idea. Our current score is 88, and our last place was an 82. Aaaaahhh. Quantifying what were previously unquantifiable qualities is very satisfying for engineers…

However, that’s irrelevant to this story. In our building of about 30 units, there is an open area linking the hall to the laundry room and leasing office. It’s where the mailboxes are, and there’s a bulletin board, useful things like that. The weird part is the “free” bookshelf. A bookshelf in one corner accumulates and dissipates….stuff. Sure, there are lots of very dated books and magazines that seem to stay on the shelf, but we’ve seen lamps, TVs, houseplants, what I assume are doctoral theses, and other bookshelves come and go. Sam grinningly brought home one day one of those plastic sheets that magnify whatever is behind it. (One guess as to the first thing he, and probably any boy, wanted to magnify). I topped that by bringing home a gauzy, pink curtain with screen-printed trees on it in various shades of pink.

But the truly WEIRD item found in the pile sat there for close to a week before finding an anonymous new home. A cabbage. A cabbage bigger than the average adult human head. It was bagged in a plastic grocery sack, unassumingly sitting there. Who buys a cabbage and sadly, finds that it does not meet their needs, leaving it instead in the building-wide free pile? And even more strange, who decides, “AH-HA!! Exactly what I wanted! A giant cabbage! ‘Ask, and ye shall receive!’” I just wish I could find out about the adventures this cabbage embarked upon, and am a little sad I never will.

Sometimes, when days are cold, and nights are long, people have to pamper themselves.

Take a moment for yourself, and relax.

Some people wrap themselves in a warm blanket, hold a cup of steaming hot cocoa with both hands and relax with a good book propped upon their knee. Others put on a favored movie or record, and allow themselves to take a luxurious nap. Bubble baths and aromatherapy candles may also be included.

I’ve got a new guilty pleasure, one I’ve enjoyed a few times, and will likely become a habit of mine.

I find a quiet place, settle myself down, put on a pair of headphones, blast the glitchiest drum and bass and breakbeats I can get my hands on, and read The Economist. Lately I’ve been happy listening to The Freestylers (particularly their live albums, like Fabric Live 19), and Pendulum’s album True Colours or Live on Breezeblock. But I’ve recently gotten back into some of the new releases by Bassnectar which are incredibly good. His beats are raw, the bass is grinding and the limited vocals are radically leftist. Lorin AKA Bassnectar is from Santa Cruz, CA, which is great, because I fondly remember hearing him spin early on at Moontribe beach parties. These days he’s a very accomplished producer, and is touring like crazy. I chatted with him briefly after his set here in St. Louis a few days ago, and he was a real pleasure. He obviously loves what he does and has a great time doing it. His sets reflect his energy, and are always special.

But remember, this isn’t just an opportunity to bang some beats, its about the reading material too. The Economist is one of my new favorite news rags. It’s a weekly news publication, but is very unique. Nearly every article is written in an editorial fashion, and they don’t hesitate to make value judgments or criticisms. However, they are never unfair, and seem to make a legitimate attempt to have their facts straight. The thing I like about it is the fact that they make their personal and editorial biases clear, and are consistent with them. I believe that all news sources are highly biased, and I become very wary when a news source claims to be “fair and balanced” (a favored phrase by Fox News, which is not fair or balanced). Usually this just means that they are making an attempt to disguise their bias, or mislead you into thinking a certain way.

I think the Economist is actually pretty fair, and well balanced. But not in the smarmy, way, but the real way. Their coverage of international politics is better than any other major news outlet, and their UK base and international editorial departments mean you get real coverage about things happening in “poor” countries that are often ignored by mainstream media.

It’s not a perfect news magazine, but it is significantly better than most, as far as I can tell, and I enjoy reading it. The material is quite heady, and even their advertisements are fun. Instead of shampoo ads, there are job advertisements for things like CFO of the State Bank of Pakistan. Maybe I should apply.

Plus, it makes me feel smart. I’m reminded of the Simpson’s quote when Homer is on an airplane and manages to get into first class, he finds an Economist and says, “Look at meee. I’m reading the Economist! Did you know that Indonesia is at a crossroads?” Apparently intentionally, the next issue of the Economist had an article entitled, “Investing in Indonesia, at a crossroads”.

I’ve recently gotten two more websites up and running. One is a small placeholder website for our St. Louis based fire performance group, Pandora’s Matchbox. We spin poi and staff, do fire eating, fire breathing, fire devil sticks, rope darts, fire painting, etc. We even have flame throwers! Fun stuff! We get hired around St. Louis for parties, events, art galleries, stuff like that. The webpage is just meant to be a way for people to get in touch with us if necessary.

The other webpage is the store. A few of us in Pandora’s Matchbox make our own gear, and are now selling it. The storefront is still in progress, most products still need images, etc. However, it is up and running, and you can, in fact, buy our gear online. The shop has been cleverly named Pandora’s Toolbox. Cute, huh?

And as long as I’m plugging stuff, I’m doing a little work with my friend’s new business, Sunflower Solar. My friend Will has been working up to this for a while, and it is really starting to take off. They do solar power installations around Colorado, mostly around Boulder. They have focused on simple, easy to implement systems that qualify for the maximum rebates from the local energy company, XCel, and the maximum tax credits for renewable power. That means they do grid-tie systems, that don’t use batteries. They install panels on the roof, an inverter that converts DC to AC in the house, and then they back-feed that into your existing breaker panel. During the day, your house makes more power than it uses, and the electric meter spins backwards. At night, or when it’s cloudy, your house uses more power than it makes, and your electric meter spins forwards. At the end of the month, either you owe a little to the power company, or, if your meter ended up farther back than it started, they owe you a little, and will actually cut you a check. Cool, huh? The process is called net-metering, and is available in about 30 states.

Will and his team have been installing like crazy, and are quite busy, so I’m doing some basic engineering work for them, preparing diagrams for building permits, etc. It’s a neat process, and I’m glad his business is doing well.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I trust only one news source. The Onion. Yes, it claims to be satire, but I think it is being operated by a secret band of psychic journalists who receive visions of future news in their dreams. Much of it is crap, but some of it is right on the money.

In February of 2004 they ran the following article from Gillette’s CEO: Fuck Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades

One year and five months later, boring old CNN reports the following: Gillette Unveils 5-bladed Razor With Two Lubricating Strips

The Onion editors are psychic I tell you. From now on, no news besides The Onion!

My friend Erica has sent me the most delightful link. It is a webcam, like many others. It refreshes every minute or so, and displays an image. Of course, instead of an image of some office, or a fat guy on his computer, or some sort of pre-recorded softcore pornography, it shows something you actually want to see.

Snow monkeys!

Yes, those delightful little apes that live in the mountains of Japan, enduring long winters by swimming about in the natural hot springs. They are very clever little beasts, even going so far as to bring tubers into the hottest parts of the pools to cook them. After a few hours, they retrieve the tubers, and enjoy their boiled potatoes in the same way we would, except without silverware or napkins or anything.

The image is also very high quality, with a true SVGA size, and a good crisp camera, this is no Logitech crapola.

The monkeys aren’t always visible, but at night (which is daytime in Japan) you can often see monkeys sitting around lounging in the hot spring, with excited tourists peering at them from the bank. Earlier today the camera was off kilter for a few frames before being righted, which leads me to believe that a monkey threw a tuber at it.

Enjoy the Snow Monkey Webcam!

Fungus is great stuff. No seriously, it is! The largest living organisms on Earth are actually giant fungal bodies. One of the largest is a member of the species Armillaria ostoyae, or the “honey mushroom”. It lives in the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon, and covers 2200 acres of land, buried about 3 feet under the surface.

The complex mycelial network is a cohesive living organism, even sharing and transporting fluids across itself. It feeds by using tentacles called rhizomorphs to attack the roots of trees, stealing moisture and nutrients. This particular specimen is probably around 2600 years old, though could be as old as 7200 years.

Several large fungi of the genus Armillaria have been found, though the one in Malheur National Forest is the largest currently identified fungus. Research suggests that this is actually quite probable, and that we probably haven’t found the largest fungi of them all.

Most research surrounding the large fungi isn’t concerned with how large it is, but with how to determine that it is a single individual. Unlike an animal, there is no ‘skin’ to tell you how to differentiate between individuals. The researchers now attempt to use genetic matching to positively identify different areas of the fungus as genetically identical, and use other techniques to determine if the fungus is sharing nutrients and fluids with other parts of itself, things that would clearly show that it is a single organism, and not just a random network of tissue.

In any case, it is quite amazing that such things exist. If you were to walk through the forest in the early fall, you might find little patches of honey mushrooms (which are quite edible and delicious). As scattered and individual as they would seem, they are only the tip of the mighty fungal iceberg living beneath the soil. Most fungi are this way in some part. The mushroom you see is only the final fruiting result of a potentially very large organism living deep underground.

I, for one, welcome our new fungal overlords.

For more fungal reading:

• Tom Volk’s Fungus of the Month – Excellent fungal reading! September’s fungus of the month was the appetizing, Russula emetica, AKA, the ‘vomiting Russula’. What will October’s fungus of the month be? Well, you’ll just have to check and see!
• Fungi Perfecti – The company operated by Paul Stamets, a researcher doing excellent work in the field of toxic spill cleanup using fungus (such as the lowly oyster mushroom!). Excellent source of mushroom kits for indoor or outdoor culture, and lots of good books and information.

• More to come (make suggestions)!

I’ve been a part of a project for a while now that has gotten to the point where I feel the need to make a more public note about it.

The project is called Couch Surfing and it is a website that connects people who want to travel with people who have a couch for them to sleep on. Through the website’s contacts, you find people in the area you are going, ask them if they would share their couch, and then go there and sleep on their couch. Unlike a hotel room, staying with a local gives you the real experience of an area. They can suggest things to do around town, places to eat (the good hole in the wall places that you’d never find as a regular tourist), etc. Plus, its free!

In return, can choose to offer your couch up for travellers. There is no pressure to offer your couch, and you are free to politely deny couch surfing requests for any reason, but once people have had a chance to enjoy meeting someone new and being shown around their town, they usually seek to offer the same experience to someone else.

The network is built from the ground up, and only recently has begun allowing in ‘new’ members. Prior to that, membership was by referal only, you could only join if you were vouched for by an existing member. Hence, the core membership is very strongly tied, and there is a good system for identifying friendships, leaving feedback and referrals, and they even offer an optional verification system that uses your credit card information to verify that you are telling the truth about your address and name. They also have a vouching system that retains the tight-knit feel of the original network. The creator of the site was the first person to have the ability to vouch for others, but anyone he vouched for could begin to vouch as well. The idea is, if you stay with someone who has been vouched for, they will vouch for you (assuming the experience was good, of course), and if you are vouched for, and someone stays with you, you can vouch for them. Thus an internal network is created that connects everyone’s good experiences. Between all that, the process has become very safe, and reinforces my thought that 99.999% of all people on the internet are good, fun people just like you, and just because you meet someone online, doesn’t mean they are a wacko. In fact, if you meet them on a site like Couch Surfing then they are pretty interesting folk who you’d like to meet.

If anyone reading this signs up, feel free to message me, and if I know you, I’ll leave a referral. And maybe I’ll stay on your couch!

I’ve got a few links I’d like to highlight for people who are into tinkering and mechanical stuff. If you are a tinkering hobbyist you know how frustrating it can be to find exactly what you need, except the store that sells it has a 1000$ minimum order, or the part is only available in 10,000 unit pallets. Thats fine if you are a big company, not so useful for individuals. So here are a few links to places that have good stuff at reasonable prices, and no or low minimum order requirements.

• Small Parts – This shop bills itself as “the hardware store for researchers and developers,” which is an accurate description. They sell everything from nuts and bolts (made out of boring old steel, or fun things like stainless, titanium or nylon), to various types of tubing and raw metals, to tools like pana-vices and tweezers of all types. Basically they offer all the high precision, odd material stuff you won’t find at a regular hardware store. No minimum order!
• eMachineShop – This online machine shop has their own CAD software (Windows only, unfortunately) that allows you to design a part (or import an already designed part in DXF format, a popular cross software CAD format), and then submit it to their server, and have it machined for you in whatever quantity you desire. You choose the materials, finishes, packaging and everything else, the program’s intelligent software calculates the cost and lead time for your project, and then bills your credit card when you submit the order. The process if very fast, and reasonably priced. Cost for one-offs is pretty high, but the price drops dramatically at more than 10 units, which is still a decent number for the serious hobbyist. The software is a basic but very flexible CAD program, and its ability to import DXF files means that if you are already familiar with SolidWorks or AutoCAD or something, you can continue to use it, and just export files to the eMachineShop software. The intelligent software is great for people who have never done machining before, as it will check your design for you and make suggestions for easier or cheaper machining, or let you know if you part is impossible to machine. No minimum order, but the price breaks are dramatic if you buy more than one item.
• ExpressPCB – In the same vein as eMachineShop, ExpressPCB is a company that offers free software that allows you to design a schematic and a printed circuit board for your electronics project, and then, from within the program, get an automated price quote, and make your purchase. The whole process if very fast due to the complete automation of the system. Prices are reasonable, and they offer good deals on ‘mini boards’, which are 2.5” X 3.8” boards, three for 51$, which is a good package for hobbyists for whom exact size is not very important. They do one, two, three and four layer boards with screen printing, plated through holes, and other professional features. I’ve seen boards they have produced, and they are always top quality at a reasonable price, and fast turn around. The free software (again, Windows only, boo) is good CAD software for doing schematic drawing and PCB design (I use it for my designs even when I’m not using their service), and the software imports and exports a few common formats, so you aren’t locked into their software forever. No minimum order, but again, prices decrease fast the more you buy.
• American Science and Surplus – No hobbyist link list would be complete without the bestest surplus dealer ever. American Science and Surplus (or ASS, as I like to call it), buys up large quantities of everything from motors, to lenses, to lab materials to household items to toys to god knows what else. Their website is pretty well layed out, and the descriptions of the items are classic. You can actually entertain youself for hours by reading their clever descriptions of items, humorous titles, and hilarious self deprecation. Clearly they understand their audience. Shipping is fast, products are cheap, and while much of it is low quality surplus, they always reflect that fairly in the price. And if you are looking for something special like microscopes or tools, they sometimes have amazing deals on quality equipment. ASS does have a modest 10$ minimum order, but you should have no trouble reaching this value with all their cool stuff.
• Harbor Freight Tools – Harbor Freight Tools is a tool company that sells hardware and tools, like drill presses, pneumatic equipment, circular saws, and the like. Most of it is cheap Chinese made stuff, but again, the quality is fairly reflected in the price. For someone who isn’t going to use their drill press every day, it doesn’t make sense to buy a 400$ awesome press. I got a drill press for 40$ that is great for the price, and an amazing value. It might not hold up to daily use in a professional shop, but my biweekly drilling doesn’t slow it down at all, since 40$ was all I could afford, its better than no drill press! If you need a specialty tool for occasional use, you can probably get a great price on it from Harbor Freight. No minimum order, but watch out for high shipping costs due to heavy tools. Check to see if they have a retail shop in your area! Note, if you see a great sale price on the website, print the page out and take it with you to the retail shop, sometimes the shops don’t have the most recent pricing on their items, but they will honor the pricing on the webpage as long as you bring in the printout! I bought a 40 foot silver tarp there and I saved over 60$ because I brought in the webpage printout, they had no knowledge of the low sale price in the retail shop, but the did honor the webpage price.
• All Electronics – If you need a special electronic component it makes sense to go to a shop like Mouser or DigiKey but if you just need some LEDs, or cheap pots, or sockets or something, a surplus electronics outlet makes more sense. Why pay 5$ each for a pot that matches all your exact specs when you could pay 1.25$ for a pot that is basically what you need. They don’t have everything, but they have a lot of stuff, so before you go to a fancier electronics outlet, check out All Electronics, and see if they have what you need, or something close enough, at a much lower price. They also have good prices on PCB etching supplies if you make your own boards and need raw ferric chloride or cheap copper clad boards. No minimum order!
• Online Metals – Online Metals is a shop that sells raw metal products, such as sheet, tube, rod, etc. They have a wide range of materials, good prices, and their website calculates price for cut-to-size and cut-to-length items. No more waiting three days to hear back on your cut to size price quote, the webpage does it automatically. If you need a certain length of rod, or size of sheet, their prices are very reasonable, and they have no minimum order. They sell some of the same stuff as Small Parts, listed above, but the fact that you don’t need a special price quote for cut items means if you are just buying raw materials, you’ll get faster turn around from Online Metals. They also have a good website with excellent information, as well as the ability to display sizes in gauge, inches or millimeters depending on your needs.
• Online Plumbing Supply – Sometimes you just need some big copper fittings, or weird valves, or something else that your local Home Despot doesn’t carry. So where do you go for strange plumbing supplies? Online Plumbing Supply, of course. They have very low prices, tons of stuff, a decent website, and good information about their products. This is a good place to go for all those strange little fittings you might need. No minimum order.

• eBay.com – Yes, eBay. You can find people selling all sorts of horrible crap all over the place, but amongst the plush dolls, the collectible beer cans and the kangaroo scrotums, you can find some good deals on materials or tools. Make sure you know what you are getting, and understand that used items may be damaged, and new items may be surplus from weird places, and not work exactly like you expect. Check the seller’s feedback carefully, and if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. Someone might be trying to screw you, so be careful. Also, read descriptions very carefully, and make sure you understand their payment options and shipping costs (sometimes a cheap item may have very high shipping and handling!), and if something about the deal looks fishy, pass it up. There is no such thing as a once-in-a-lifetime deal on eBay, if something is up this week, it will be up again next week. With all these warnings though, know that with care, you can find some interesting and useful items. In recent days I bought new brake pads for my scooter, a surplus vertical deflection amplifier plugin for my Tektronix oscilloscope (at about .03% of its MSRP), and a big handful of PIC microcontrollers, all at very low prices. I’ve only been screwed once on eBay, and it was for an 11$ auto manual, so I don’t feel so bad about it.

  Well, I hope this helps some of you tinkerers, and if anyone else has a supplier they think would go well in this list, let me know, and I’ll put it up!

Most of you probably know all about the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers that are currently working on their missions on Mars. Spirit landed just over two weeks ago, and its twin, Opportunity will be landing tonight, 10:05pm CST, on the opposite side of Mars. These rovers have been given lots of attention, and are very cool projects. But one hope I have is that once people see how cool these rover missions are, they might be interested to learn more about some of the other missions currently going on. So here are a few suggested links to missions you might find interesting.

• Stardust – Stardust is a robotic spacecraft launched on Feb. 7th, 1999 with the mission of collecting material from a comet, by actually flying directly through its tail, and then return to Earth for collection, allowing us to see first hand what comets are made of. On Jan. 2nd 2004, it made a huge milestone by actually flying past Comet Wild 2, approaching to less than 150 miles from the comet. The craft was heavily battered from the dense cloud of gas, dust and ice surrounding the comet, but it made it through without damage. This short flyby video is not to be missed! In a little over 700 days, Stardust will make its way back to Earth, to return the comet and interplanetary dust samples that it has collected.
• Cassini-Huygens – The Cassini-Huygens project is one of the most ambitious interplanetary missions ever launched. Its mission is to explore Saturn and its largest moon, Titan. Of all the places in the solar system that may harbor life, or conditions appropriate for it, Titan is among the most likely. In fact, many scientists hold higher hopes for Titan containing life than Mars. It contains large amounts of frozen water, and its atmosphere is thick and rich with organic compounds. The Cassini robotic satellite will study Saturn, its rings and its 30 known moons, while the Huygens probe will be sent to the surface of Titan to study its composition, and search for signs of life. This mission encompasses some of the most advanced instrumentation available, and the Huygens probe, once deployed, will be the most distant man-made object to land on a celestial body. In about 6 months, Cassini-Huygens will reach Saturn, and about this time next year, the Huygens probe will begin its decent to the surface of Titan.

• SOHO – The SOHO (SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory) project is a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA to survey and study the most awesome source of energy we rely upon every day, the sun. The SOHO spacecraft was launched in 1995, and has seen nearly 3000 days of operation. The mission timeline has been extended several times, and is now set to stay active until at least 2007. SOHO has been a spectacular success, and its wide array of instrumenation is all fully functional after many years of service. If you are curious about the current solar weather, from the SOHO Homepage you can see current images of the sun, videos of recent solar activity, and an update on the solar wind speeds. At the moment solar winds are moving at a brisk 447 kilometers per second. Make sure to check out the Hotshots section of the gallery for some amazing and colorful videos of solar flares in action, including the recent solar activity from late October/early November 2003. SOHO is proof that cooperation between space agencies works!

  This is just a tiny sampling of what is going on in the world of space exploration. For more, check out the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Missions page and the main NASA Missions page. As a final editorial, I’d like to note that George W. Bush’s vision for renewed space exploration is admirable, but may not be the best method for moving forward. He proposes a series of rapid movements to finish the International Space Station and prepare a base on the moon to use for a departure point for extended manned space missions, including manned missions to Mars. While this is all well and good, he proposes a total of 12 billion dollars be moved toward this goal, but only 1 billion of this will be new money. The other 11 billion will be pulled from other parts of NASA’s budget. Manned space exploration is important, but many feel that we might set ourselves too far back if we sacrifice some of our less glamorous yet highly valuable projects in favor of a manned mission. Perhaps, with time, people will begin to see more of what our space programs around the world are doing, and will be able to justify increased budgets to support both popular manned missions, as well as the valuable scientific research performed by inexpensive and durable robotic spacecraft.

  P.S. If anyone else has a favorite mission they want me to put up here, leave a comment with some info about the mission!

Today, the day is saved by: Aluminum Oxide! Aluminum oxide is one of the hardest materials out there, only slightly softer than diamond. It is produced naturally when aluminum is exposed to air. If you have anything aluminum, it is actually coated with a thin layer of Aluminum oxide. This thin layer, being very strong and chemical resistant, prevents the layers beneath it from becoming oxidized, which is why aluminum doesn’t deteriorate from oxidation like steel or iron does.

If you have anything that is aluminum, but seems to have a transparent coloring over it, such as a flashlight, paintball gun, or something of that nature, then you probably have anodized aluminum. Anodizing is a process by which aluminum is put in a bath of acid, and then a current is passed through the aluminum, and into the bath. This current flow causes rapid oxidation of the surface of the aluminum, and produces a very thick and strong layer of aluminum oxide, similar to the coating that forms in open air, but much thicker and stronger. This coating is porous at first, meaning the material can be placed in a bath of dye immediately after being anodized. The dye soaks into the pores, and then with the application of heat, the pores close up, sealing the color in. Anodizing is a very cool process, and is a great way to put a durable and attractive coating onto aluminum.

Aluminum oxide is also used in sandpaper and other abrasive substances. Small particles of Aluminum oxide retain their sharp edges (due to its extreme hardness), and is an excellent abrasive. I’m using sheets of sandpaper to sand the exhaust pipe on my scooter. St. Louis weather has caused much corrosion of the pipe, and a deterioration of its protective clear coat. Basically, it was looking like crap. I’ve been attacking the pipe all day with various grades of sandpaper, and using various tools, including my dremel, an abrasive disk sander attachment for my cordless drill, and a drum sander attachment for the drill. The pipe has lots of curves and small parts that are difficult to sand, so this has been slow going. All I can say is, thank goodness its only a 50cc! If this pipe were much bigger, I’d be pretty frustrated. However, I’m nearing completion. Once I’ve given it a final sanding, I’ll be applying a high temperature coating to the pipe, to protect it from the heat of the engine, as well as the destructive effects of road grime. It should look pretty snazzy when its done.

The reason I’m here writing this instead of finishing up, is because I’m waiting for the battery on my cordless drill to charge up. This is one downside of a cordless drill. 90% of all my drilling needs are over with in just a few minutes. Maybe I need to punch a hole in a piece of plastic, or put a few screws into a doorknob or something. Cordless is perfect for that, because it is easy to move around, quick to bust out, and the duration of the project means charging isn’t an issue. However, sanding is a continuous drain. The drill must run at full speed constantly while sanding, instead of just running intermittently. This has caused the battery to die, putting my project on hold for the moment. The dremel is corded of course, but it is only useful for the small areas and tight curves, which are already done. What is left is an overall sanding with 120 grit, then a polish with 400 grit on a few more visible areas. Then it is painting time.

On the topic of abrasion, I’m going to leave you with this bit of helpful information. If you are in the Kent or London areas of the UK, then there is a new hero in town to help you out. He is known only as Angle Grinder Man. His mission is to help people who’s cars have been wheel clamped (AKA, the boot). He appears on the scene in the dead of night wearing a blue unitard, gold underpants, gold boots, gold gloves, and a gold mask. In his hands he carries his only weapon, a shiny, gold, gas powered, full sized, abrasive disk cutter, AKA, an Angle Grinder. With this great tool, he quickly and efficiently cuts the wheel clamp off, setting the driver free. Then he nods his head, and disappears into the night. The police have been tracking him, but have not yet been able to catch this Robin Hood to the down-trodden motorist. Bless you, Angle Grinder Man, champion of the petroleum chariots, and of abrasives in general!

Yesterday the sun released yet another incredibly powerful solar flare, perhaps the largest on record. This flare was not directed straight toward Earth, but we will likely see some glancing effects from the gas ejected at the moment of the flare.

Solar flares are ranked by number, and most of the flares we have seen over the past few weeks have all been X class, meaning they are ‘severe’ flares. The number after the X indicates the strength. The series of flares began with some X4s, and then culminated last week with an X17 and an X10 in succession. The X17 on Oct. 28th was the third largest on record. But yesterday’s flare, currently classified as an X17.4, was much stronger. The X-ray radiation emitted by the flare saturated the sensors on the GOES satellite, so the final classification has not yet been determined, but it will likely be raised to above X20, making it the strongest recorded solar flare. This has been a week to remember for high solar activity.

For some great pictures and movies of the flare, and more information, check out the SOHO Hotshots entry for this flare.

Nothing quite like solar storms of this magnitude to make Earth weather seem rather paltry.

Two days ago our sun released the 3rd largest recorded solar flare ever. The flare was accompanied by a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) consisting of about 10 billion tons of ionized gas. The gas is streaming towards us now at about 1250 miles per second.

This image was taken by the SOHO Satellite (The SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory). Each frame is spaced by about 30 minutes, and shows a ‘halo’ type effect as the flare spreads out and heads directly toward SOHO, and the Earth. The specks seen on the image are interference caused by protons striking the surface of the detector. The large dot in the center is called an occulting disk, and it allows us to get a view of the behavior around the sun, without being blinded by the light and energy from the sun itself. Shortly after taking these images, SOHO had to be placed in a safe-mode to prevent damage from the radiation. For more images and videos of the flare, check out the hot shots page for this flare at SOHO.

What I really want you to take away from all this is the fact that solar flares of this magnitude are some of the largest and most awesome eruptions of energy that we will ever experience. Space is full of things like this, but rarely do those things actually affect our lives. Solar flares, and the associated ejection of mass, can disrupt communication and power grids, damage satellites, and create powerful and beautiful Aurora Borealis’s, like this one caught in the Colorado sky, one of the first signs of the flare’s effects here on Earth.

The sun is a violent and terrific thing, bursting with energy. If it weren’t for our powerful magnetic field, we would have never had the chance to evolve, let alone stand outside and enjoy its magnificence. Next time you are outside, think briefly about how much energy it would take to get 10 billion tons of gas moving 1250 miles per second. Then realize that its only another day in the life of a medium sized star.

Links to information about the recent solar activity:

• NASA – Tuesday/Wednesday Solar Punch
• Giant Sunspot Groups 10484 and 10486 – Two huge sunspot groups currently visible on the surface of the sun (don’t stare at the sun though! If you want to see, use some techniques found here for protecting your eyes while viewing the sun.). These sunspots are the source of the current flare and CME activity, and are each about the size of Jupiter.

• SOHO Hot Shot: X17.2 Flare – This is NOT to be missed! Check out more images and MPEG videos of the flare in action, including close-ups of the Sun’s surface.

I just got back from spending 20 hours at the Science Center. Yes. 20 straight hours. A few of those in the middle were actually sleep, but it was on a couch, and I was poised to get up if something went wrong. I had been charged with 72 girl scouts, and the responsibility of keeping them fed, safe, entertained, and educated for an over-night slumber party in the science center event. They had some adult chaperones too, but I was the main man, actually, after about 11pm when the other camp staff went home, I was the only man in the building, even the security for the night was all female. We gave demos, had activities, explored the galleries, ate pizza, and generally had a good time. All the while I put up with a constant swarm of girls all over shouting, “Show us another experiment, Sam!! Sam, we want to build a geodesic dome!! You aren’t gross like other boys, you are funny!!” You can imagine it now. We taught them about geodesic domes, boiling liquids, different gasses, chromatography, and I taught a few girls how to cross only one eye at a time. Cool, huh?

Things began very poorly, because the event was planned by someone who quit a month ago, and no one had taken responsibility for it. So at the last minute my boss and I realized no one had taken any responsibility for things, and that if no one did anything, the event would be utter chaos. So he stepped up to the plate and took over, and I offered assistance, and took over once he left in the afternoon. Everything was done last minute, and I was quite frazzled by about 9pm, since I had already been there for 8 hours setting stuff up non-stop, with hours to go before lights-out. However, with the help of the good camp staff, understanding security guards (who had to bring in overnight staff last minute), the food service staff who were sent orders last minute and other generally under-appreciated people who actually do the grunt work and keep things running when management drops the ball, we pulled everything off, and the kids had a great time. By about 10:30pm, I was feeling like things were finally under control, and I was able to calm my nerves a bit. After getting everyone to bed and settled in the galleries around midnight, I caught a couple hours of sleep on a couch, then woke up, got stuff ready for the next morning, and led the troupes to breakfast, the Planetarium, and through the sign-out stuff. Then all the day staff came in and I wished them good luck, and bid them adieu. Now I’m totally strung out, and about to catch a little more sleep.

However, before I go, I leave you with these two links, the first being via Billy and the second via Johnny Fantastic.

• What do today’s kids think of yesterday’s games? One of my early crowning achievements was beating Donkey Kong Jr. on the 8-bit Nintendo (brand new at the time), using only my right hand (because I had broken my left). Yes, I operated the entire controller by sitting it on the ground and using my hand like a spider over it, and I was so proud. But now, today’s kids look upon our 80’s games with derision. A very funny article.

• A very sad comic...