Materia.com
May 31, 2008
Materials science was, hands-down, my favorite series of classes in college. Had nothing to do with the materials professor (who told me the only reason females (generally less than 5 percent of the class) attended was to “husband hunt,” and he was NOT joking), or because I’m particularly attracted to suspending 5-ton blocks of concrete on stainless steel wire above a bunch of innocent civilians.
Nope. I loved that class because it opened up whole new ideas: Eutectics. Crystallization. The difference between crystalline and amorphous solids. Liquidus and solidus. I’d always loved big chunks of stuff, and this class gave me a peek into why. And I still pay as much (or more) attention to the materials used in a project as to the project, even now.
So…there’s an organization in the Netherlands dedicated to connecting designers and architects with amazing new materials, and they run a website called Materia. It’s a fascinating place even if you don’t spec architectural materials for a living. (And if you’re a glassist, use their very nice search engine (Material Explorer) to look for types/textures of glass (you’ll need to register first). Fun stuff will result.)
Wong Kee BBQ Dim Sum Restaurant
May 29, 2008
- Local site (review)
- Location: Downtown/Chinatown (Pearl)
- Price to fill up two people for dinner: About $30
The signs outside (and in) said “Best dim sum in Portland.” The waitress, however, seemed puzzled. “You want dim sum?”
Yes, we said firmly. Dim sum.
She shook her head, went back to the kitchen (which, for some reason, was loaded with boxes of Smart Start cereal), and came back pushing a metal cart filled with little metal cans.
“Here’s the dim sum,” she shrugged, “You pick what you want. Ten minutes to cook it.” We smiled yes at some cans, no at others, asked her to add an order of Chinese broccoli, steamed, and she pushed off to the back to cook it. As she did, an older gentleman in t-shirt and apron popped out, hands on hips, looked at us, and shook his head sadly.
I got the feeling we were committing the dim sum gaffe of the century but had no idea why. [Read more]
Heat-seeking missile of the furry variety
May 28, 2008
So I get home tonight and run to check on my venting kiln–it’s the mold moisture release phase of the cycle–and close everything up for the duration. Thanks to traffic jams I’m very, very late, so the kiln is up to 1300F instead of where it should be. The inside ends of the firebricks propping up the kiln lid are cherry red, and I’m spilling heat everywhere but where it should be. Drat.
I hurry over and nearly fall over Rajah, my fat little Abyssinian cat. He’s smack dab in front of the kiln opening, sleeping soundly in the hellish hot airflow, furry red belly aligned with the kiln lid.
Disappointed?
May 27, 2008
And I thought the British were the masters of understatement. They ain’t got NUTHIN on the Canadians, apparently.
Here’s a story about poor Fournier, the skydiver who’s trying to break the freefall record. He planned to send himself aloft on a helium balloon, break off at 130,000 feet and freefall down. Just for reference, that’s about 24.6 miles high. Airliners generally cruise between 6-7 miles (30,000-42,000 feet).
The balloons cost a couple hundred grand apiece, and Fournier had already destroyed two in previous attempts. He’d moved his 20-year project to Saskatchewan because authorities in France forbade it as too dangerous, and as he had run out of money, this was his last chance.
So, new venue, new balloon, new weather delays but Fournier finally gets the A-OK to take off this morning. He inflates the balloon, and it takes off without him.
Poof. Gone. And that’s it. End of story.
The Canadian AP story said “Fournier appeared disappointed…”
I’ll bet.
Army of weekend daddies
May 26, 2008
“Excuse me,” said the man beside the dairy case, politely, “But can you help me?”
I’d watched his son zooming around on rollerball sneakers earlier, swooshing in circles around my cart until his father brought him to heel. The son, about 7, had grinned at me sheepishly, “Sorry,” and hurried back to where his father stood, frowning at a list scrawled on the back of an envelope. I’d smiled and moved on to the tuna pouches.
Milk was the last thing on my list and I’d found the man and his son again, staring earnestly through the glass, checking his list, scrutinizing the cartons. My selection was in that case, so I waited patiently for them to make their choice and move on.
You mean this little box runs the network?
May 26, 2008
Then there was the time, at my first tech journalist job, when the entire network crashed right before deadline. Just died. –snick–
Pandemonium, everyone running around screaming (especially the ad sales people, whose commissions depended on the info in the servers), and the managing editor bravely dragging out the hot wax and paper for some old-fashioned newspaper-style layout.
Our parent company had wisely decided that onsite technical support for our publication was unnecessary when there was a perfectly good IT department about 500 miles away. They promised to hop a plane and be down the next morning, which was ‘way too late.
Since I ran the reviews lab, the publisher asked if I could “fix it.” Not having network admin privileges, I doubted it, but I headed down to the server room to take a look… [Read more]
evilmadscientist
May 22, 2008
evilmadscientist is a wicked-cool website. In some well-illustrated posts, these guys have:
- Demonstrated what spiders have in common with lotuses (loti?)
- Developed Peggy, a greyscale pegboard
- Invented CandyFAB, a 3D printing system with a sweet tooth (literally)
- Made a robot out of a kid’s toothbrush
- Showed how two forks, a little electricity and some LEDs can not only cook your hot dog but also make it glow in the dark
Definitely joining my top 20 site lists.
Recastery mastery
May 22, 2008
Between dayjob, GAS volunteer stuff, photography, doing this get-a-life thing and the sudden discovery that yardwork cannot be indefinitely postponed (if computers and DVD players have pause buttons, why not weeds?), it’s a wonder I can even dust glass, let alone make any.
No time for whining. I’ve got an impressively long list of glasswork and heartwork to do, fast. First, I’ve got to repair the consequences of my garage demo:
Before you tell your brawny relatives that it’s OK to sledgehammer the old cabinets off the wall, check to see if there’s anything on the OTHER side of the wall that you might not want falling down, such as heavy glass color samples. They landed–crrrrunch–on two pieces of an Emergents tryptich that I’d promised for a June exhibit and therefore must be recast, fast.
Then, I’ve promised a bunch of glasswork to folks in Mt. Hood for their June glass month, got sundry repairs and finish work to manage on a couple other castings, mountings to attach, all that. No mystery about what I’ll be doing over the holiday.
It would be AWFULLY nice if I could just move onto the next three pate de verre pieces that are nagging my brain into insanity. But this recastery stuff is part of my resolution to maturely suck it up and get some of the unfinished stuff out of the glassroom.
–sigh–
Posting blog comments
May 21, 2008
Toni Johnson kindly pointed out that this blog’s comment posting was all screwed up. She was told to login before she could comment, and when she tried, WordPress flipped her back to where she started.
Not very friendly, that.
I dove into the settings and futzed around a bit until she could comment. Whew.
So just FYI, if you’ve tried to post a comment and had trouble, please try again. If you still have trouble, let me know.
Thanks!
IRS: 1, Airlines: -23
May 19, 2008
The US public now thinks more of the IRS than they do of airlines, according to Reuter’s report of a University of Michigan airline satisfaction survey.
Even worse, the airline’s satisfaction ratings may be inflated, since the poll was completed before all the flight cancellations in April. The airlines’ industry lobby apparently wasn’t surprised at the results, but blames the government.
Given that my last two flights had all the ambiance of a Greyhound bus (with about half the timeliness and 4x the price), I can’t argue with the ratings. Guess this will be a good summer to stay put.