Storms and Rockets

StormWe run our son's Cub Scout Pack's rocket launch every year (although next year will be our last, as our youngest isn't so very young anymore). This year the event was a bit less organized than we would have liked.Normally, the night before launch is prep time. I get out the launchers and check everything with a voltmeter, recharge the marine battery...

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White is Green

In keeping with my Use Paper and Save Trees post, I came across this article today. It talks about how Obama's energy secretary, Steven Chu, wants to "paint the world white" to fight global warming. In fact he feels so strongly, he says "I think you should regulate." Does this make sense?At first glance, this is a stupid idea. The average albedo of the Earth is 0.367. Pavement has an albedo of 0.05 to 0.4, and gets lighter as it ages. So one might consider 0.1 a pessimistic average albedo for paving. Using all light colored paving (0.4, rather...

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Barack Obama on Parenthood

“I’ve got two daughters, 9 years old and 6 years old. I’m going to teach them first of all about values and morals but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”-Barack Obama, March 29, 2008"This isn't an obligation. "This is a privilege to be a father."-Barack Obama, June 19, 2...

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Science E-books Suck

Here's the much await next instalment of my comments on an article "6 Lessons One Campus Learned About E-Textbooks" by Jeff Young.First off, let's briefly go over the 6 lessons again: 1. E-book readers suck. 2. E-book readers are hard to use. 3. Professors wanted to be "on the bandwagon". 4. Batteries die. 5. Some subjects' E-books are worse than others. 6. E-books save trees.On to #5 "SOm subjects' E-books are worse than others". There are 3 big problems here:E-books are not "rich" enough. Number of pixelsE-book formats are (mostly)...

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Use Paper and Save Trees

I just read an article "6 Lessons One Campus Learned About E-Textbooks" by Jeff Young (AFAIK, no relation to Jeff Young), and had some thoughts about e-books to share.First off, let's briefly go over the 6 lessons:E-book readers suck.E-book readers are hard to use.Professors wanted to be "on the bandwagon".Batteries die.Some subjects' E-books are worse than others.E-books save trees.Now I am a techie kind of guy, and I wold love to have some sort of E-book, if they had even most of the benefits of a paper book, but sadly that is not the case. Here...

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Wave to ME!

Every once in a while a product comes out that makes me say "Dang! I wish I had thought of that!" This is the story of one such product. I was alerted by a friend who works for google to watch the wave developer preview. Sadly, I have a job and it's an hour and a half. So far I have been through about 1/2 of it and I am impressed. I should probably...

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Are Catholics catholic?

People ask if I'm conservative or liberal (in terms of my views and opinions). I reply that I am Catholic. Each person assumes something oddly different from that statement, and pretty much all are wrong. Some equate that with "conservative". Others think it means "republican". One friend was astonished to find that I was not a creationist. "But you...

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UP!

We took my sons and friends to see "UP" yesterday, in "Disney Digital 3D". Quite an enjoyable film, and fairly family friendly.[This is not spoilers, most of it is in the trailer for the film, so no worries] It is the story of an old man who wants to fulfill the dream he and his late wife had, of going to South America. He decides to do this by flying his house there. He winds up accidentally taking along a young boy who is a "Wilderness Explorer". They have an adventure in South America, and learn the value of family and relationships. Of course...

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Stem Cell News

"So we really ought to look into theories that don't work, and science that isn't science." -- Richard Feynman in Cargo Cult ScienceSeveral Stories have been in the news recently. On the adult stem cell side, we have Adult Bone Marrow Stem Cells Injected Into Skeletal Muscle Can Repair Heart Tissue. According to this article, injecting adult bone marrow stem cells into skeletal muscle can repair cardiac tissue, reversing heart failure. Adult stem cells have been used to repair heart tissue before, but this method is non-invasive, eliminating the...

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