For your consideration: a new SI unit

OK, let’s say I weigh 220 lbs.  I don’t, but it makes the calculations easier.  Engineers are kinda like physics students sometimes.  Let’s further assume that my mean body density is equal to that of water - again, an approximation. If I thus weigh 100 kg then I have a total volume of 100 liters, or about 0.1 cubic meter, or about 100,000 cc’s of pure, unadulterated Rob.  And some butter.  Now, let’s go a bit off-track.
About how much volume does my pinky finger occupy?

Wow, it just got quiet in here.

Well, I’m comfortable with the approximation that my right pinky finger is about 1 square centimeter in cross-section and about six centimeters long, totaling about six cubic centimeters. It’s not the size that matters, anyway. Trust me.  So, anyway, I have a total body volume of 100,000 cc’s and a right pinky finger of 6 cubic centimeters’ displacement. That pinky finger occupies, therefore, approximately 1 / 16,666th of my total volume.  If one were to say that I had a certain amount of something (virility, intelligence, charisma, etc) in my pinky, it would be implied that my entire body carried about 16,667 times that much of that stuff (e.g., butter). Hm.

Now, let’s go one step further down the path of ridiculosity.  What if we needed a standard unit of mojo?  We would logically equate it to the amount of mojo in a normal human male, similar to the way in which a unit of power is referred to as “horsepower (hp)” and is intended to be on the order of the amount of power that could be generated by the average horse, presumably so as to give the average cultured gentleman a way to innately understand that amount of power in a way that the dry sobriquet “watts (w)” does not convey; after all, who knows how well the esteemed James Watt after whom the aforementioned unit is named could deliver the goods in terms of pulling plows, hauling cotton, or accelerating one’s own bulk around an oval track whilst carrying (CARRYING!) a human rider?  Certainly not I.  So, let us assume that the average human male has about one such unit of mojo.  What shall we name it?  The “dude (du)”?  Tigger, please. No, like the Tesla, you name it after he who is most closely associated with the referenced unit - Austin Powers.  I hereby respectfully submit that the unit of “mojo” should henceforth be known as the “Austin (Au)”.

It is clear that inasmuch as Austin Powers has as much mojo in his little finger as the average man ‘as in his entire body, we can also say quite accurately that the “Austin” is the amount of mojo in Austin Powers’ pinky finger.  This gives us a very accurate standard reference, much as time is referenced to wavelengths of light (or vice versa) and {insert standard political jab here} (or Vice President - har, har, har!)

Note also that it can be predicted that the total amount of Austin Powers’ mojó is about 16,667 kAu, but actual field experiments continue to return exact measurements of 16,969 kAu.  Yeah, baby!

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Wardenclyffe to be sold, again. Huh?

Wardenclyffe, in case anyone is wondering, is the tower/facility that Nikolai Tesla had constructed as his laboratory and to explore his theories about radio, electromagnetic waves, and wireless power transmission.  Construction was halted when his main financier, J.P. Morgan, famously asked (paraphrased) how giving away power was going to make him any money.  The facility was never completed, and was foreclosed upon in 1915.  It was used to make photographic paper from the 40’s through 1992, and now is available to anyone with about $1.6 in spare change.

What I find fascinating is the verbage Tesla used when describing the amazing benefits that his technology would make available.  Check it: “As soon as completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind. More important than all of this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction.” (Wikipedia)

Wow.  That all sounds familiar.  Of course, in 1908 that was pure science fiction.  Now it sounds boringly common.

So where did Tesla get all of this?  Dude invented AC power, the synchronous motor, radio, the ‘AND’ gate, and SO much more.  He was an early experimenter with X rays. He accurately predicted the uses to which his technologies would be put, VERY accurately.  Prescient? Or…

Well, if I’ve ever heard of ANYONE who might reasonably be expected to be a time traveler, who else would it be?  Perhaps Leo da Vinci, or Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss… but my money is on Tesla.  Folks, he knew how to do things that no one else did - technologically, he was decades ahead of everyone else, in multiple fields. He made outlandish predictions of how things would work, and was often correct.  What if, when he faced Morgan and was denied the opportunity to build his global power distribution system, he was carrying the certain knowledge that this would be done in the future and WOULD work - wouldn’t he just realize that he was facing ignorance born of the times he lived in, and just walk away?  That’s exactly what I hear happened.

Yeah, OK, I’m starting to sound a bit Spider Robinson here, but the theory does have a certain internal consistency. I think I’d go crazy if I were trapped in 1900, too.

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Pretty flowers

and a big lens to snare them with.  Har har har! {evil laugh}

I love lens extension tubes.  You lose long distance focus, but the things you can do close up, whew!  I took that photo with my Nikon D40, using my Nikon E-series 70-210 Macro and about 2″ of extension.  It gets closer, actually.

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Y’all be cool…

… my mom’s just registered on this site!  Shhhh!

Violet had a GREAT Fourth of July weekend.  First Grammy and Pappy in town for a few days.  Then Grandmama and Boompa showed up, and Violet got a birthday cake and presents with Grammy, Pappy, Grandmama, and Boompa all there and singing.  What a lucky girl!  She got to spend entire days with Grandmama and Boompa while Mommy and Daddy went to work, too.

A happy girl and her female ancestors.

She blew ‘em out, too!

Then Grandmama played dolls with Violet.  What a great visit!

Then Mommy, Daddy, Grandmama, Boompa, and Violet all went to Disney.  I’ve already posted pics from that trip further down the page.

Sure was nice having my Mom and Jon down for a visit.  Didn’t seem at all like the same Mama I saw in Penna last September.  Back then, I wouldn’t have dreamed that we’d be able to spend the whole day walking around the Magic Kingdom together.  I will treasure that day forever, and I expect Violet will as well.

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Yay! A milestone!

My 150th site member just registered!  I am now HUGE!

Of course, that 150th member was a ‘bot.  Just here to spam my comments section.  Not enough clever enough to get past the email response.  Actual users accounts? Eight.  Eight WONDERFUL, clever people.  Number of useless spambot attempters? 140.  (Laurie, the other two are me and my admin account.)

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The funnest place on Earth

Well, that’s what I told Violet, anyway.  It’s where Cinderella’s castle is.  Cinderella lives there, Belle lives there, Aurora lives there, Tinkerbell lives there, and Ariel lives there.  Must be a pretty special place!

We took Violet for her first visit to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.  She had a great time.  I had a great lens. :-D

You can find this pic and more from the Disney trip, including a set of Violet with (other) Princesses at my gallery.

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“Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet…”

Odd what I find visually interesting, isn’t it?

The photos of Siddhary washing all the B__bie-style dolls was almost too creepy to consider posting.  Perhaps after I review them again I shall find one too compelling to ignore.

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Just to keep it alive…

… here’s a nice shot of my Violet and Trey’s Evie.

We might have been playing peek-a-boo, although I’m fairly certain I was holding a camera in at least one hand at the time…

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The spambots are getting better

The made-up names are getting more realistic, and they’re even using the same name more than once - as if a real person was trying to register and not succeeding.  Wretchedly clever ‘bots!

If a real person were trying to register and failing, that person should be sending me an email wondering why their confirmation email never went through.  The answer, of course, would be because the ISP that you so innocently chose is actually a massive spambot portal and there’s all KINDS of blocked IP address action going on.

Until further notice, new registrations with bounced confirmation emails to addresses ending in @gmail.com and @mail.ru will be deleted as soon as noticed.  If you have such and do want to register so as to be able to comment (seems unlikely, but I’m game), you’ll need to email me first.  Sorry.

On the upside, I fixed my MacBook Pro’s fan problem last night.  Not sure how permanent the fix will be, but it’s spinning silently right now.  Thanks, IntarWebs!

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My new outgoing answering machine message

Disclaimer:  My official position is that telemarketing sucks, that I will never under any circumstances do any business with a telemarketer, I object to their entire business model, and that goes for anyone under any circumstances.  I have no sympathy for the peons doing the work, they could always work at McDonald’s.

The text of my new message:

“Thanks for calling Olsen Telemarketer Training Services.

Our research has shown that even as the number of telemarketing calls reaches an all-time high, the quality of those calls has reached an all-time low!

And in this economy, you can’t afford to work unless you can be the very best!

Our services are very reasonable; $60 an hour works out to just ONE DOLLAR per minute!

To continue, all you need is your name, your company name, your company billing address, and either a purchase order # or your credit card number.

And there are no forms to fill out!  Simply stay on the line to agree to our very reasonable rates!”

Not that I expect anyone to actually pony up for the services, but I’m willing if they’re paying!  Otherwise, it’s a great way to derail the conversation and take control of it, thereby wasting their time as much as they’re wasting mine.

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