The Bionic Boardwalk Pitch

www.hearingaidtv.com

This is one of the reasons I like the boardwalk sales pitchLee Majors is selling a new rechargeable hearing aid through direct marketing.  I saw the commercial last night.  Now, I don’t need a hearing aid… yet, but I was transfixed by the commercial.  The Six Million Dollar Man was my favorite show for a long time when I was a kid.  I had the lunch box and action doll, complete with small choking hazards :)

I don’t know why Lee Majors is selling hearing aids, perhaps he just wants to get some exposure for the 6 million dollar man franchise.  Perhaps he needs the money.  If that’s the case, then I wish him well.  He’s mostly been doing cameos and TV specials lately, but he has a couple movies coming out next year.  He’s one of those actors that I root for because of a part he played 30 years ago :)

Good Luck and Godspeed Steve Austin, and Billy Mays

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Alicia and Dustin

Saturday, I took pictures of Alicia and Dustin’s wedding.  They make a great couple.  Dustin is deploying in a bit, so they only had 6 weeks or so to plan it.  It went very well.

My pictures feel a little cliche, I didn’t get any pictures that really stand out to me.  Maybe I’m just being too critical.  I was happy with the pictures I got with the 90mm and sb-600 flash.  The flash had enough power to shoot from a distance.  Before, I’ve had to get really close with the 17-35mm.  With the 90, I could stay on the edge aisles and take pictures without interfering with the ceremony.

Flickr Photo Set

Lollypop Lost Signal

Lollypop’s internet connection was down when I got there, so I couldn’t take pictures today.  The intake and inventory system is hosted, so I couldn’t run the cats without pictures report.  Oh, well, Amber and I walked around for a while before heading out.

Purricles… that cracked me up :)   Those are signature bricks on the walk outside the shelter.  I can’t believe I never saw this one before, it’s right next to the front door.  If Amber hadn’t stopped to sniff the roses (well, pee on the roses, actually) I would have missed it again.  We found a couple friendly horses, had a nice chat with a lady and her Doberman/Shepard, then headed over to Best Buy to fruitlessly search for computer software.  I did the “I’m looking for something” 360’s in each aisle, but no help.  I went to the “help” desk, but he sent me to the shelf that had windows… not windows software.  Sigh.  Lowe’s was much better, I only had to do 2 360’s before someone came up to help

The Wedding Photographer

I’ve taken pictures at two weddings so far.  After each one, I’ve told myself that I wouldn’t do it again.  It’s not that I really dislike taking wedding pictures, but I feel like I’m skating on thin ice.  I’ve heard so many stories of photographers who get raked over the coals for missing something or not getting the right shots.  Even the mild criticism I’ve gotten at the two weddings has cut deep, more because I take it to heart than any ill will on their part.  “I didn’t think much of your photographer when I first saw him, but the pictures turned out great.”(Bride’s father)  “You took too many pictures, the flash was going off in my eyes all the time.” (Bride’s father)

See?  Not too scathing as far as criticism goes.  Somehow, I’ve talked myself into two more weddings this summer.  A friend asks and I can’t say no.  I have a wedding next week, and one in September.  Is this how people back into careers?

2009 ESL Rochester Air Show

Getting to the Air Show was a little challenging, they closed the main streets near the show, so I had to park and take a shuttle.  It was worth the waiting because the second plane was an A-10 Warthog, one of my favorite planes.  It’s built around an 8 barrel Gatling gun that fires 12″ inch long depleted uranium shells.  It’s the durability of this airframe that I like more than the firepower, though.  the pilot is encased in a titanium “bathtub” to protect him/her from all but direct fire.  Also, the engines are deigned to fall off the airframe if they receive too much damage.  That lets the pilot get home, even if the plane sustains massive damage.

F-15 Strike Eagle

Acrobatic Airplanes

It was a fun show.  There were only 5 planes in the show, but they were interesting planes with expert pilots.  The planes are very quiet when they’re coming towards you and very loud when they’re going away.  I felt buffeted by sound as the F-15 blasted away from the crowd on afterburners.  Then he dropped down to the deck before going straight up into a Cirrus cloud.  Getting that high in a commercial airliner takes several minutes… this guy did it in about 15 seconds.   Cool.

http://www.rochesterairshow.com/

My Flickr Set

Happy Memorial Day

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Plate Tectonics

Wikipedia Entry

Think of the earth as an egg.  The yoke is the metallic core.  Here, the temperature is high enough that iron should be in a liquid state.  Gravity compresses the iron to the point that it re solidifies.  Surrounding the core is the mantle, an area of liquid metals that swirls around creating the Earth’s magnetic field.  That’s the white of the egg.  Surrounding everything is a thin shell.  that is like the crust of the Earth, where we all live.  Proportionally, the Earth’s crust is no thicker than the shell of an egg.

As the mantle flows around, it affects the crust above it in several ways.  The shell is cracked into slabs that float above the mantle like leaves in a pond.  When the slabs collide, one has to go under the other.  This process creates mountains, rift valleys, even whole islands.

I’m sure you’ve seen the way that south America and Africa seem to be two puzzle pieces that lock together.  250 Million years ago, they were locked together in one large continent called Pangaea.  Since then, the plates under the continents have moved away from each other at about the same speed that fingernails grow.

It wasn’t until the 1960’s that the largest formations between the plates could be seen.  The Atlantic Ocean is bisected by a massive crack as the European and North American plates move away from each other.  Parts of the mantle are exposed to the bottom of the ocean and solidify into new ridges.  We didn’t know about the mid ocean ridge until US Navy sonar mapped the bottom after world war 2.

Plate Tectonics is the force that allows heavy metals from the interior of the planet to come to the surface.  It also recycles elements as the crust reenters the mantle and melts.  You could say that the Earth “Breathes” as the crust moves.

Hubble Repair Mission

Interactive NASA website for sts-125 mission to Hubble

I’ve always wanted to get a telescope that I could take pictures through.  Unfortunately, money and interest have not intersected properly yet.  So, I have to picture space vicariously through telescopes like Hubble.

Hubble telescope home page

NASA Hubble Image Gallery

Hubble gets amazing pictures… they changed the world.  Hubble carries on in the imagination like Apollo 8’s Earthrise picture.  I can remember the impact that Hubble’s pictures first had on me, because I feel the same way every time I see them.  I mean, that’s a picture of an explosion bigger than our whole solar system.  Cool!

The Science Channel is documenting the last planned servicing mission to Hubble.  In 5-10 years, when Hubble needs another tuneup, it will be guided into the ocean instead.  An ungraceful end for a marvelous instrument.  Hubble is the flagship telescope for the golden age of astronomy.  We’re learning more about the Universe, at a faster rate, than any other time in our history.

I saw a shuttle launch “Live” for the first time in a long time, too.  Nowadays, DVRing counts as live, right?  A million miles away from wheeling a grainy TV into a 6th grade classroom to watch the first launch.  Just like today’s telescopes are very different from Hubble’s generation.  Today’s telescopes cost less than a Hubble Service mission.  instead of focusing so closely on a multi function telescope, several single purpose telescopes will replace it in orbit.  It may herald the end of the Golden Age.  Hubble is franchising the imagination business :)

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/hubble_servicing/

Oatka Creek

I have about as much control when I hear of a sure thing fishing spot as Yukon Cornelius.  A guy at work told me about a stretch of Oatka creek that gets stocked with yearling and 2 year old trout every spring.  So, My friend and I set out early one morning to check it out.  We fished the stream for about 4 hours, didn’t catch a thing.

Monday, I go back into the office, ready to confront the guy for sending me to a dead spot.  His desktop image was 15 trout in a baking dish.  He an two others caught their limit that same morning… and were heading back home after just an hour.  Turns out, the good spot is a couple miles further upstream than the spot I tried.

This afternoon, Amber and I went looking for that section of the stream.  We found it pretty easily, even the gun club that my friend at work talked of.  Three of them were drinking beers across the stream on the club’s porch when I got to the big pool.  I tried a bunch of different lures, from spinners to spoons to jigs, but didn’t catch a thing.  Oh well, it was a fun hike.  I took my disappointment out on the dog, mocking her mercilessly for being afraid of a woodpecker.

The Homopolar Motor

Wikipedia Entry

I ran across this motor design over at Make Magazine.  Most motors suround a core with tightly wound wires to create rotation.  Maxwell’s Motor only requires a couple parts.  A rare earth magnet, a shaft, a battery, and a wire.