Being American - United States American, that is... Having "no accented speech" I always thought that the Brits and Ausies sounded so smart... Here is one time that accent was really smart... (...I found this stuff in my LEAN Energy Sobe... ...which I needed because I was "bugged" awake at 3:22 am. I never did find the little beast...)
From Wikipedia:
"Sucralose was discovered in 1976 by scientists from Tate & Lyle, working with researchers Leslie Hough and Shashikant Phadnis at Queen Elizabeth College (now part of King's College London).[4] On a late-summer day, Phadnis was told to test the powder. Phadnis thought that Hough asked him to taste it, so he did.[4] He found the compound to be exceptionally sweet, as sucralose is 600 times as sweet as sucrose."
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Light Boxes for the birds...
It's not what you think.
At least I don't think it's what you think. I think.
I had a problem. The chickens' water kept freezing - pretty much in minutes. I looked at the local farm stores for water-warming devices of all kinds, some of which were a perfect match for the water can that I have, but the average dog dish starts between $25 and $30, while the ones for the poultry can be up to $70. I had exactly $7.00 cash.
I had read about a possible solution. I may have created a much larger problem. But some rigorous testing should "prove" it out... ...at least the fire hazard part. A standard incandescent light bulb gives off a bit of heat - due to inefficincies - so the hope is that a small enclosure (with ventilation) will contain enough of the heat to keep a water can ice free.
It features vent holes on the sides - top and bottom to allow convection to do the venting work. The top cover is vented to hopefully allow access of warm air to the watering can. The holes in the top are strategically located to prevent water spillage on the fixture (which is in turn mounted to the juction box).
I plan to install a 100W incandescent and plug it in for about a week - if we are lucky, then we will get some nifty pictures of a bunch of charcoal, a puddles of metal and a porcelain bulb fixture... ...this will be a long way away from anything important like chicken or people houses.
If it goes a little better, then I will put in a 40W bulb for use on those single digit nights in the chicken house.
At least I don't think it's what you think. I think.
I had a problem. The chickens' water kept freezing - pretty much in minutes. I looked at the local farm stores for water-warming devices of all kinds, some of which were a perfect match for the water can that I have, but the average dog dish starts between $25 and $30, while the ones for the poultry can be up to $70. I had exactly $7.00 cash.
I had read about a possible solution. I may have created a much larger problem. But some rigorous testing should "prove" it out... ...at least the fire hazard part. A standard incandescent light bulb gives off a bit of heat - due to inefficincies - so the hope is that a small enclosure (with ventilation) will contain enough of the heat to keep a water can ice free.
Porcelain base: less than $3
Junction Box (is that what you call that?): 54 cents
Wire Nuts - assorted: $1.74
Old, short (repaired), extension cord; and leftover 3/4" sheathing: Priceless
(I save way too much stuff - but every now and then it pays off.)
I plan to install a 100W incandescent and plug it in for about a week - if we are lucky, then we will get some nifty pictures of a bunch of charcoal, a puddles of metal and a porcelain bulb fixture... ...this will be a long way away from anything important like chicken or people houses.
If it goes a little better, then I will put in a 40W bulb for use on those single digit nights in the chicken house.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
My Charm and Wit and Other Useless Information - 7 on Wednesday?
1) I awoke this morning with an unusually vibrant bit of energy, so I stoked the fire and went back to bed. When I next awoke, I went out to warm the car and thought how nice 10 degrees felt - after days of single digits.
2) During the ride in to work I admired the ice-covered river, trying to compare the advance of the white ice against my memories of it yesterday, last winter... ...somewhere in there I stumbled across memory lane. While I kept the car on the road, my mind took a route that I usually reserve for "another time". Any other time, but the present - you know those times when you wish you could travel back in time and slap yourself silly before you did or said something really dumb?
So, I realized that I am a Repeat Idiot, a "victim" of "recurring stupidity" and vowed to share this to warn everyone that I know... ...to warn them of my frequent social ineptitude and periodic mindlessness. But then, mostly they alreay know that.
3) Who invented the word, Wednesday? How did they know how to spell it?
4) My brother stopped in yesterday and I got to take a break for a vist while he ate his lunch! It's rare to get to do those kinds of things, so I hope maybe more often sometime...
5) My other brother, Daryll, called this afternoon and gave out a "DEBT FREE!!!" yell!!! How awesome is that? Do you know what that feels like? It really is great, and after this last round of medical bills, it I am charged up to feel the yell again... Congratulations, man!- (His real name isn't usually Daryll though...)
6) Progress rolling into view is a wonderful thing, whether it's progress on debt or the accomplishment of a goal in a long project... I like to recommend completing a small something to get D-O-N-E, then work on something a little bigger - It works as well in diets as budgets as it does in other long-term things. Something about it gives a little encouragement... ...maybe this can actually be done. I think it's why God made DAYS a 24 hr. period - we get a new morning all fresh like dew with His lovingkindness and grace.
7) It turns out that the density altitude at 2,500 ft. Above Sea Level and 15 degrees Farenheit is about the same density as Sea Level at 59 degrees... (...this is sort of useful for aircraft testing when you don't want to go all the way to the coast yet.)
7.5) I am really getting excited about Christmas. No other time of year holds as much meaning for me. I love the anticipation of family gatherings, warm houses and smiles, wafting smells of dinner rolls and pies and tossing little nieces and nephews and daughers around the living room like little giggling rag dolls. My wife is probably rolling her eyes about now - I have lost more than one pair of slacks to holey knees... "How do you DO this to all your nice pants?!!"
2) During the ride in to work I admired the ice-covered river, trying to compare the advance of the white ice against my memories of it yesterday, last winter... ...somewhere in there I stumbled across memory lane. While I kept the car on the road, my mind took a route that I usually reserve for "another time". Any other time, but the present - you know those times when you wish you could travel back in time and slap yourself silly before you did or said something really dumb?
So, I realized that I am a Repeat Idiot, a "victim" of "recurring stupidity" and vowed to share this to warn everyone that I know... ...to warn them of my frequent social ineptitude and periodic mindlessness. But then, mostly they alreay know that.
3) Who invented the word, Wednesday? How did they know how to spell it?
4) My brother stopped in yesterday and I got to take a break for a vist while he ate his lunch! It's rare to get to do those kinds of things, so I hope maybe more often sometime...
5) My other brother, Daryll, called this afternoon and gave out a "DEBT FREE!!!" yell!!! How awesome is that? Do you know what that feels like? It really is great, and after this last round of medical bills, it I am charged up to feel the yell again... Congratulations, man!- (His real name isn't usually Daryll though...)
6) Progress rolling into view is a wonderful thing, whether it's progress on debt or the accomplishment of a goal in a long project... I like to recommend completing a small something to get D-O-N-E, then work on something a little bigger - It works as well in diets as budgets as it does in other long-term things. Something about it gives a little encouragement... ...maybe this can actually be done. I think it's why God made DAYS a 24 hr. period - we get a new morning all fresh like dew with His lovingkindness and grace.
7) It turns out that the density altitude at 2,500 ft. Above Sea Level and 15 degrees Farenheit is about the same density as Sea Level at 59 degrees... (...this is sort of useful for aircraft testing when you don't want to go all the way to the coast yet.)
7.5) I am really getting excited about Christmas. No other time of year holds as much meaning for me. I love the anticipation of family gatherings, warm houses and smiles, wafting smells of dinner rolls and pies and tossing little nieces and nephews and daughers around the living room like little giggling rag dolls. My wife is probably rolling her eyes about now - I have lost more than one pair of slacks to holey knees... "How do you DO this to all your nice pants?!!"
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Thinking Out Loud...
One of the reasons that I love my job is the thinking environment that we honor and foster - to a point. I mean, we do discuss a range of topics that are not all work-related. You could put it in the Proverbs category of "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."
The results of this open discussion are that sometimes my mind gets changed by another's perspective. It results in better products and often, better individuals...
So, I have some open ended questions... ...I still have my persuasions, inclinations, intuitions too. But I wonder about a couple of things...
1) Carbon Emmisions, Carbon Footprints and "Global Warming"... I don't pretend to give any credibility to much of the crowd's hype on this. However...
I recently purchased a "dinosaur" book. This book, along with all but a tiny few exceptions, explains the existence and habits of these amazing lizards through the lens of evolution, which makes it hard to know where to stop and start believing. I take the liberty of calling them lizards only because the very difinition of Dinosaur is "great lizard". It turns out that there are a lot of fossils that were not great lizards - and were not included in this huge book. Just a leafy perusal of this coffee table tome will leave you wondering at the massive quantities and sizes of "successful" species that once roamed the earth. Add to that the vast amount of other, non-dino flora and fauna and the mass of life is staggering.
In the Great Flood all that life-tissue was buried, crushed, heated, decomposed, mineralized, fossilized or petrified and that carbon was rather suddenly removed from the "carbon cycle". We have been digging and pumping and refining it from coal or crude or other into useful sources of energy and thus, we now suffer a daily assault on our sanity regarding our "carbon footprint".
Neverminding the frauds and the greedy shamen that profit from the fear-mongering about it, is there any truth to it? You can see where I am going with this - I think it is a fair question. There is no doubt, some element of truth in the most believable lies, is there not?
I wondered about this, so I consulted Google... ...and it turns out that my suspicions (based on the chemistry classes we took in highschool) were correct. The mass of carbon on Earth is the same today as it was yesterday - unless it is shot into space. That is, the carbon that makes up the tissues of life, that takes on its many forms is not in a state of greater quantity than before - instead, it is just in a different form. So, what was once in the ground as fertilizer, or CO2 that was exhaled from some animal becomes the source of existence for a tree. That is the "natural" part anyway...
The "unnatural" part of the "carbon cycle" is the removal of crude and coal, etc. from the ground to burn, which adds more CO and CO2 to the air. But is it really that unnatural? After all, it was all on the Earth at some point in time... ...If it indeed causes "Global Warming", is it really catastrophic on all accounts?
It also opens up a world of questions about Ice Ages after the Flood. There are conflicting ideas about how the atmosphere works too - Most today say that CO2 in the atmosphere causes higher tempuratures due to an insulating effect. I suppose that may be right.
I remember that they use to monger fear in us from "Nuclear Winter" too. So, on the one hand they say heat is retained, at other times, heat is reflected back to space and we are kept cooler. (There are many examples of the latter with volcanic erruptions... ...some of which resulted in years of continental drought.) Could particulate polution then serve a purpose as well?
What about Polar Bears? What about penguins? Well, if you are an evolutionary advocate, then you would fear the extinction of these species - and logically, you should be looking for new mutations to emerge as well - but we don't hear that last one much.
I just wonder... ...it would seem that with more CO2 the flora would be more prolific and help the balance. I don't know how the oceans work here - just that massive amount of carbon are stored there as well... ...as a "steward" I believe I should ask these questions - even if I am dubious of the scandal it has become.
I just have this nagging feeling that there is an answer in the balances of the Earth's systems. No computer can model it - yet. No scientist has been able to wrap his mind around it all - solar cycles, water cycles, current cycles, wind cycles, carbon cycles, vegetation cycles, and the Earth's orit (proximity to the sun) and unicycles. sorry.
I seriously want to understand this. I think that the complexity and the resiliance is awesome.
and I wonder if anyone is working on a synthetic photosynthesis yet? It seems to me that if we could be half as efficient at making energy as any common lilly, then we would have a lot of energy answers... ...I can see someone sending me a link to some You Tube video now... ...it will probably turn out that I can make one of those to run my car or some such thing... I always think of these things AFTER someone else figured it out. Ugh.
Post Edit: +5 minutes... LOL - I should search stuff before I post... ..but this is surprisingly recent... ..huge in my book, but still not big enough to power anything we could use.
Photosynthesis in a lab...
The results of this open discussion are that sometimes my mind gets changed by another's perspective. It results in better products and often, better individuals...
So, I have some open ended questions... ...I still have my persuasions, inclinations, intuitions too. But I wonder about a couple of things...
1) Carbon Emmisions, Carbon Footprints and "Global Warming"... I don't pretend to give any credibility to much of the crowd's hype on this. However...
I recently purchased a "dinosaur" book. This book, along with all but a tiny few exceptions, explains the existence and habits of these amazing lizards through the lens of evolution, which makes it hard to know where to stop and start believing. I take the liberty of calling them lizards only because the very difinition of Dinosaur is "great lizard". It turns out that there are a lot of fossils that were not great lizards - and were not included in this huge book. Just a leafy perusal of this coffee table tome will leave you wondering at the massive quantities and sizes of "successful" species that once roamed the earth. Add to that the vast amount of other, non-dino flora and fauna and the mass of life is staggering.
In the Great Flood all that life-tissue was buried, crushed, heated, decomposed, mineralized, fossilized or petrified and that carbon was rather suddenly removed from the "carbon cycle". We have been digging and pumping and refining it from coal or crude or other into useful sources of energy and thus, we now suffer a daily assault on our sanity regarding our "carbon footprint".
Neverminding the frauds and the greedy shamen that profit from the fear-mongering about it, is there any truth to it? You can see where I am going with this - I think it is a fair question. There is no doubt, some element of truth in the most believable lies, is there not?
I wondered about this, so I consulted Google... ...and it turns out that my suspicions (based on the chemistry classes we took in highschool) were correct. The mass of carbon on Earth is the same today as it was yesterday - unless it is shot into space. That is, the carbon that makes up the tissues of life, that takes on its many forms is not in a state of greater quantity than before - instead, it is just in a different form. So, what was once in the ground as fertilizer, or CO2 that was exhaled from some animal becomes the source of existence for a tree. That is the "natural" part anyway...
The "unnatural" part of the "carbon cycle" is the removal of crude and coal, etc. from the ground to burn, which adds more CO and CO2 to the air. But is it really that unnatural? After all, it was all on the Earth at some point in time... ...If it indeed causes "Global Warming", is it really catastrophic on all accounts?
It also opens up a world of questions about Ice Ages after the Flood. There are conflicting ideas about how the atmosphere works too - Most today say that CO2 in the atmosphere causes higher tempuratures due to an insulating effect. I suppose that may be right.
I remember that they use to monger fear in us from "Nuclear Winter" too. So, on the one hand they say heat is retained, at other times, heat is reflected back to space and we are kept cooler. (There are many examples of the latter with volcanic erruptions... ...some of which resulted in years of continental drought.) Could particulate polution then serve a purpose as well?
What about Polar Bears? What about penguins? Well, if you are an evolutionary advocate, then you would fear the extinction of these species - and logically, you should be looking for new mutations to emerge as well - but we don't hear that last one much.
I just wonder... ...it would seem that with more CO2 the flora would be more prolific and help the balance. I don't know how the oceans work here - just that massive amount of carbon are stored there as well... ...as a "steward" I believe I should ask these questions - even if I am dubious of the scandal it has become.
I just have this nagging feeling that there is an answer in the balances of the Earth's systems. No computer can model it - yet. No scientist has been able to wrap his mind around it all - solar cycles, water cycles, current cycles, wind cycles, carbon cycles, vegetation cycles, and the Earth's orit (proximity to the sun) and unicycles. sorry.
I seriously want to understand this. I think that the complexity and the resiliance is awesome.
and I wonder if anyone is working on a synthetic photosynthesis yet? It seems to me that if we could be half as efficient at making energy as any common lilly, then we would have a lot of energy answers... ...I can see someone sending me a link to some You Tube video now... ...it will probably turn out that I can make one of those to run my car or some such thing... I always think of these things AFTER someone else figured it out. Ugh.
Post Edit: +5 minutes... LOL - I should search stuff before I post... ..but this is surprisingly recent... ..huge in my book, but still not big enough to power anything we could use.
Photosynthesis in a lab...
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
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