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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”:http://www.smallparts.com – 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”:http://www.emachineshop.com – 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”:http://www.expresspcb.com – 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$, which is a good package for hobbyists for whom exact size is not very important. They do one, two, three and four layer boards with screen printing, plated through holes, and other professional features. I’ve seen boards they have produced, and they are always top quality at a reasonable price, and fast turn around. The free software (again, Windows only, boo) is good CAD software for doing schematic drawing and PCB design (I use it for my designs even when I’m not using their service), and the software imports and exports a few common formats, so you aren’t locked into their software forever. No minimum order, but again, prices decrease fast the more you buy.
* “American Science and Surplus”:http://www.sciplus.com – No hobbyist link list would be complete without the bestest surplus dealer ever. American Science and Surplus (or ASS, as I like to call it), buys up large quantities of everything from motors, to lenses, to lab materials to household items to toys to god knows what else. Their website is pretty well layed out, and the descriptions of the items are classic. You can actually entertain youself for hours by reading their clever descriptions of items, humorous titles, and hilarious self deprecation. Clearly they understand their audience. Shipping is fast, products are cheap, and while much of it is low quality surplus, they always reflect that fairly in the price. And if you are looking for something special like microscopes or tools, they sometimes have amazing deals on quality equipment. ASS does have a modest 10$ minimum order, but you should have no trouble reaching this value with all their cool stuff.
* “Harbor Freight Tools”:http://www.harborfreight.com – 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”:http://www.allelectronics.com – If you need a special electronic component it makes sense to go to a shop like “Mouser”:http://www.mouser.com or “DigiKey”:http://www.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”:http://www.onlinemetals.com – 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”:http://plumbingsupply.com/ – 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”:http://www.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”:http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html 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”:http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/ – 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”:http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/images/w2_flyby1.gif 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”:http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm – 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”:http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/ – The SOHO (SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory) project is a joint mission between the “European Space Agency”:http://www.esa.int and “NASA”:http://www.nasa.gov 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”:http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/ 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”:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/ and the main “NASA Missions page”:http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/index.html. 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”:http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/index.html 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”:http://www.anglegrinderman.co.uk/. 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”:http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2003_11_04/ 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”:http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/mission/ (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”:http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2003_10_28/ 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”:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031030.html, 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”:http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/10.28Flare.html
* “Giant Sunspot Groups 10484 and 10486″:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031027.html – 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”:http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/TotalityCh11.html#Intro.). These sunspots are the source of the current flare and CME(Coronal Mass Ejection) activity, and are each about the size of Jupiter.
* “SOHO Hot Shot: X17.2 Flare”:http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2003_10_28/ – 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”:http://www.billyk.com/mt/archives/2003_10.html and the second via “Johnny Fantastic”:http://www.radioactiveantimatter.com/blog/archives/000133.html.

* What do today’s kids think of “yesterday’s games”:http://www.egmmag.com/article2/0,4364,1338730,00.asp? 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”:http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=10172003…

Do you know what you are talking about? Do you know what anyone else is talking about? Critical thinking is the art of determining what it is people are talking about, how to let others know exactly what you are talking about, and how to avoid deception and illogical arguments.

This online course, called “Mission: Critical”:http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/itl/graphics/main.html at “San Jose State University”:http://www.sjsu.edu is a great start to learning how statements are formed, and how arguments are built.

Lets be clear on one thing. You are being lied to every day. You are lied to in the newspaper, on the TV, by your politicians, and by people you see on the street. Some are doing it intentionally, and others unintentionally. A clear understanding of how to parse an argument can give you a good idea of when you are being manipulated, and when someone feeds you a line of bullshit.

Johnny F. and Jasper B. reminded me of a good example in “this post”:http://www.radioactiveantimatter.com/blog/archives/000081.html which is also where I got the critical thinking course link.

Bush has frequently used the term “Al Qaeda-type fighters” to describe combatants in Iraq. Why does he use this term, and what does he mean? If you’d like to see how often this term gets used just try this little “Google search”:http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&edition=us&q=%22al+qaeda+type%22&btnG=Search+News.

As noted in Jasper’s post, the Washington Post reported that 69% of Americans polled believe that Saddam Hussein had some roll in the 9/11 attacks against the US (see “Jasper’s post”:http://www.radioactiveantimatter.com/blog/archives/000081.html for a discussion of why that statistic probably isn’t particularly representative of actual sentiment). Why do so many people believe that, despite a complete lack of evidence to support such a claim?

One reason might be that the term “Al Qaeda-type fighter” _implies_ that the fighters are somehow connected to the Al Qaeda organization. However, if you parse the statement, its really just saying that the fighters bear some similarity to members of the Al Qaeda, which can be as vague as noting that these Iraqi fighters, like Al Qaeda fighters, are angry, dark skinned, and armed. A claim that there were a lot of “Viet Cong-like fighters” in Iraq would likely be just as accurate, though the implication would be confusing. Why would Bush compare these fighters to the Al Qaeda, if not to make people think there was some sort of connection? Its not a very effective way to actually describe the fighters, but it is a great way to lie, without actually making a false statement.

You can get away with a LOT of deception by using a little implication and associative logic (which is not particularly logical). This process has been honed to a fine art by politicians and the media, many of whom probably do it without even thinking.

So arm yourself with a little critical thought, and even if you think you know it, go skim through the “online course”:http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/itl/graphics/main.html as a refresher, its helpful. Now is a good time to be vigilant about what people are telling you, and how you interpret their statements.

*UPDATE:* Check out this article, titled “Understanding Iraq’s Resistance”:http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0910/p11s01-coop.html in the “Christian Science Monitor”:http://www.csmonitor.com. I don’t normally read things like the Christian Science Monitor (in fact, I typically avoid them), but this article caught my attention. It is a very realistic and informative treatment of what sorts of people are resisting US forces in Iraq, and why it is misleading and inaccurate to describe them all as “Al Qaeda-type fighters.” Here is a quote from the article I find to be pertinent:

bq. Although some, if not most, of these fighters sympathize with Al Qaeda, they cannot all be lumped together as President Bush has done, calling them “Al Qaeda-type fighters.” … Defining everything broadly as a “terrorist” threat won’t resolve the underlying problem in Iraq – which is the lack of legitimacy of the US military presence in the eyes of Iraqis. Nor will it prepare the American public for a prolonged and costly struggle in Iraq.

Thanks to my Mother, I have to offer for you a link to a wonderful description of why email disclaimers are totally stupid.

I’m sure you’ve seen the type, something to the effect of “This email is intended only for the addressee shown. Any action taken by persons not among the intended recipients is strictly prohibited. This email does not represent official policy or statement by the sending organization. Blah blah blah blah blah.”

“Stupid Email Disclaimers”:http://www.goldmark.org/jeff/stupid-disclaimers/ is well written, with some legal backup, as well as examples of various types of problems associated with disclaimers, and examples of various disclaimers themselves.

These statements are not only _completely unenforcable_, they actually leave you open to legal problems, and can cause you big trouble if people take the disclaimer too literally. What they boil down to is pompous legal fluff meant to scare people into submission, rather than anything based on substance or real laws. Don’t bother using them.

Ok, I don’t get it. Search engines just don’t seem to work well with this site, because clearly I should not show up on THIS search, and certainly not as the first result! Anyone who’s seen me in person can vouch for the smallness of my breasts.

Update: Damn, it seems Google has the same problem… I guess it makes sense because the AOL search claims to be ‘enhanced by Google.’ I can’t wait until Google reindexes this site, and starts sending even more Sam’s breast searchers streaming in once it sees this post. Oh well, whatever brings in the readers.

I worked both Saturday and Sunday, so I didn’t have much in the way of weekend excitement. However, on Saturday night we were able to get “Billy”:http://www.billyk.com and “Karen”:http://www.billyk.com/karen/ to come with us to see “The Eye”:http://us.imdb.com/Title?0325655, which is a good psychological thriller made in Thailand. The movie is about a woman who gets a corneal transplant, and then begins to see things that aren’t there. She has to unravel the secrets of the donor before she goes insane. Its pretty scary, though not very gory. If you liked “The Sixth Sense”:http://us.imdb.com/Title?0167404 then you’ll probably like The Eye. Be forewarned, it is subtitled in English, and it may be hard to read the subtitles while you are clenching your eyes closed out of fear.

After exiting the movie, we decided that a beer was in order. Instead of the ‘usual suspects’ we decided to walk over to Brandt’s market and buy two of the strangest beers we could find. We ended up with a Lindeman’s Cassic, which is a form of lambic, a beer style fermented not only with yeast, but with numerous forms of wild bacteria, and flavored with fruit. The style is very strange, and only loosely considered beer. If you gave one to your average Bud drinker, they’d probably spit it out in shock. We only got about halfway through the bottle before deciding to save the rest for another time. The other beer was a Delirium Tremens, a Belgian strong ale. It was very strong, and came in a wine-sized bottle. The ale was very good however, and we’ll probably try some of Delirium’s other offerings. The bottle was very unique as well, it was white with black spots, and adorned with images of pink elephants and dancing crocodiles. Very strange offering from a brewery that has been around since 1654.

Billy, Karen, Madalene and I ended the night by playing Taboo, which is a pretty fun game. I’m not normally into games, but Taboo moves quickly enough that it keeps me interested.

Water is pretty amazing stuff. It is the source of all known life, and essential to our existence. Water, because of its unique chemical structure, possesses numerous properties that are quite unique, and all contribute to its ability to support life. It is properties like these that lead us to believe that there is a high probability that any other life in the universe would be based around water.

One of water’s more unique properties is a very high boiling point, and a high vapor pressure. This prevents water from evaporating easily, letting us stay liquid at a large range of temperatures. Also, the high energy required to reach vapor pressure means that when evaporation occurs, it cools us down quite a bit, which becomes a valuable tool for maintaining our temperature.

Water also has a very high heat capacity, much higher than most other liquids. This lets water absorb a lot of energy while only increasing its temperature by a small amount. This lets water act as a heat sink, keeping us a constant temperature. This fact also means that the ocean has very little temperature change around the world. This lets the ocean act as a giant heat sink, keeping temperatures mild. If it weren’t for the ocean, the arctic would be much colder than it is today, and the equator would be incredibly hot. We can thank the ocean for keeping temperatures within a livable band throughout most of the planet.

Water’s uncanny property of expanding when freezing is also unique. Water reaches a maximum density at about 4 degrees C. Below and above that, it expands. When most liquids freeze, the entire substance reaches the freezing point, then as the stuff on the top, exposed to air, begins to freeze, it falls to the bottom. Soon the entire container is frozen. Water on the other hand, due to this property of having a max density at higher than its freezing point, forms layers. The surface freezes first, and then stays floating. This insulates the lower layers, which get warmer as you go down. If it weren’t for this, fish would not survive winters in ponds, microbes could not survive under the ice of antarctica, and life probably would not have had an opportunity to develop.

Water exists in numerous different phases, and has no less than 5 different liquid forms, and over 14 different solid forms. Its unique V shaped molecules have high levels of hydrogen bonding, meaning they can produce a dizzying array of crystalline structures, and can wedge itself into nearly any molecule to dissolve it. Proteins could not form the numerous different three dimensional shapes that they form in our bodies to perform their duties if it weren’t for water’s unique ability to become part of the structure. If it weren’t for water’s incredible ability to dissolve nearly any ionic compound, we wouldn’t have a mechanism for all the ion transfer reactions that support our cellular processes.

I could sit here and talk about the greatness of water all day, but why don’t you read for yourself! People have known it since the very beginning, and with each scientific discovery we only come closer to the inevitable conclusion. In the deepest reaches of the ocean, and buried far underground, life lives without oxygen, and without the light and heat of the sun, existing on minerals, methane and geothermal heat. It has even been theorized that life could exist without carbon. But nowhere does life go on without water. Water is life.

* “Water structure and behavior”:http://www.sbu.ac.uk/water/index.html – Very detailed explanations of water’s properties, including an interesting and detailed look at thirty-eight anomalous properties of water.
* “The Floating Island”:http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/7/floatingisland.php – An interesting article about “Pykrete,” a substance formed from wood pulp and ice, that was investigated for use as a ship building material during WWII. Water’s unique properties would have made for some very interesting ships, had the plan come to fruition.
* “Unfreezable Water”:http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/unfreezable.html – A short essay about some conditions where water might not freeze, including supercooling, hydration, and solutes.

This is a ‘living entry’ that will be updated as I get new and interesting links!

As you all know, the French are a bunch of whining cowards who betrayed the US recently in our fight for Freedom. That is why the House of Representatives had to rename the French Fries and French Toast to Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast.

In the spirit of telling the French just how much we hate them now because they decided to oppose the Machine of War, er, the Machine of Freedom, we have to expel everything French from the US. Starting with the Statue of Liberty! Yes, the very hallowed statue was actually given to the United States by France! Lets send it back to them, letting them know that we don’t like them any more.

Thankfully, an action group called “Send Back Liberty”:http://www.sendbackliberty.us/whoarewe.php has already started to help us convince our leaders to remove the statue, and replace it with a statue of Ronald Regan, the greatest US President ever.

A few interesting notes for people.. Everyone should check out AudioScrobbler which is a university project run loose. Its goal is to gather information about what people are listening to, in order to make recommendations on what kind of music you might like based on your tastes. Unlike previous services like CDNow that recommend based on what people buy, Audioscrobbler recommends based on what people actually listen to. It currently exists as a plugin for Winamp2, though it does work with Winamp 3 via the Winamp 2x Plugin Manager, (search for it on the Winamp Components page). The plugin manager can offer some difficulties, so check out this SixDifferentWays post about Audioscrobbler that identifies a fix for some of the installation problems you might run into trying to use it with Winamp3. However, it does work! It also exists as an experimental plugin for XMMS, and more players are in the works (hopefully iTunes and Audion support will come eventually).

You simply create an account on the site, install the plugin, and go! Once the database has enough info about your listening choices, it begins to make recommendations to you via the home page. If you’d like to see my current listening choices and suggestions, check out my personal stats on Audioscrobbler.com! It’s a little sparse at the moment because I just joined, but as time goes, it will fill out nicely!

I had something else to talk about, but I’m tired, so I’m going to bed!

UPDATE: I bounced an email to the guy at Audioscrobbler asking for more info on the implementation. Assuming its not too complex (I don’t think it is) then there is a good chance I’ll be able to put out an iTunes plugin for this (armed with all my new found Cocoa skills, waiting for a chance to prove themselves). Stay tuned.

In Kansas City, MO, a young man certainly has a good chance of becoming one. Joe R. Thompson, 18, was catapulted 25 feet into the air during an auto accident, but managed to grab onto overhead power lines and dangle there for 20 minutes until rescue crews could get him down. Amazing. I would have loved to see that happen. Of course, this kid is now officially a Bad Ass Motherfucker, and can lord that over all his friends.

How NOT to Talk is a great little article describing some of the most common forms of ‘conversational cheap shots’ that many people use when debating. I shamefully admit to having used some of these tactics in the past, but I make a conscious effort not to, something many people cannot say for themselves. Most of these have formal logic analogs, but the ones he focuses on are the ones most commonly used in day to day speech, along with very realistic examples. I swear I’ve heard most of these examples come out of my ex-boss’s mouth at one point or another…

The intent of detailing and naming these insidious tactics is so that the reader may AVOID USING THEM, to quickly recognize if someone else is using them, and for fun. There is much humor in the way people (consciously or unconsciously) conversationally cheat.

It is hoped that exposing these tactics will help muzzle the growing abuse in our conversational landscape. Give copies to both perpetrators and victims (only NOT for profit use).

So take a good read, and be a little better prepared when someone tries to trip you up in conversation.