If you haven’t heard of Ken Nordine’s Word Jazz, you have missed out. Perhaps your local public radio plays his work. No such luck where I live. Wow of Now.
Bickering
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Sunday Link-O-Rama
Wallstats.com has an excellent graphic display of the 2009 US federal budget. It is worth a look. The graphic also displays the variances for the 2009 fiscal year. It is useful for finding out what was padded and what was shaved.
What in the hell is going on at Blacklight Power? How does this stuff work? Does it actually work?
Jim Kunstler is not persuaded that the economic crisis has bottomed out. Bob Reich suggests that if they’re too big to fail, then they are just too big. Alan Greenspan found a flaw.
Aye laddie, the pipes. Here is a link to a mass bagpiping in Estes Park in 2006. Th’ Gaussling was actually in attendance that day: I’m the guy in the green shirt across the field. 700 Bagpipers in Calgary. Red Hot Chili Pipers. Edinburgh Military Tatoo.
Then there is Everlasting Blort. What else can I say?
Atomic Testing Museum
Th’ Gaussling took a quick trip to the Atomic Testing Museum this week. It is located on Flamingo Rd a few blocks east of the Las Vegas strip. Before entering I was dubious, wrongly thinking that it would be a thin gruel of well worn nuke photos and a few trinkets. I was wrong.
The museum is meant to chronicle the activity of the Nevada Test Site just a few miles to the north. There are numerous video units showing various shots.
They have a substantial collection of diverse equipment used in nuclear weapons testing as well as models of a few actual nuclear weapons, notably the Davy Crockett miniature nuclear bomb. There is very little in the way of bomb design detail, but there is considerable detail in regard to radiation sampling from the burst, drilling equipment, dosimeters, GM counters, a mushroom-cloud sampling rocket, slide rules, nuclear rocket motors, down-hole test rigs, etc.
The museum has a modest theater with special sound and wind effects to simulate being in close proximity of a test shot. They do a decent job. If the wind was hot, though, it would be more realistic. But in general, the application of museum science is well done.
If you are in the Las Vegas area, I would recommend a visit. The nuclear legacy is a part of our national history. The Nuclear Genie is out of the bottle, but the people who write policies and devise programs need pushback from an educated populace in regard to the stewardship of the nuclear inventory and its expanded use.
Spandex- Chemistry’s Gift to Mankind.
A trip to Las Vegas serves to remind one of the very important contribution that chemistry has made to the well being of mankind. I’m not talking about pharmaceuticals or some such pedestrian material. I refer to the marvel of Spandex/Lycra. This form fitting wonder fiber continues to serve our collective betterment. It makes me proud (*sniff*) to be in this field of chemistry where our labors can make such a difference. God Bless this Land, this America!
Mole Day in the USA
Happy Mole Day greetings from Th’ Gaussling! I’m presently in Las Vegas to serve as Parade Marshal for the Mole Day Extravaganza on Las Vegas Blvd. I’ll be riding in the honorary parade marshals car behind the Radio City Rockettes and the MIT chemistry faculty as we make our way through the ticker tape and the cheering throngs. The parade starts at 6:02 this evening and will progress to the wee hours.
NEP on Dust Explosion Hazards
Earlier in 2008 OSHA issued directive CPL-00-008, Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program. This program is meant to induce industry to develop a greater awareness of dust explosion hazards via the threat of greater scrutiny by OSHA inspectors.
Dust explosion hazards have been poorly appreciated by plant operators in a wide range of industries. The recent explosion at Imperial Sugar in Port Wentworth, GA, on February 7, 2008, has helped to raise awareness both from regulators and plant operators. Part of the problem has to do with a poor understanding of the explosibility of dusts generally, and with the lack of data on the explosibility of a great many common products in particular. Safety consultants I know have been busy with clients from the sugar refining field. It caught their attention.
On the Road
Th’ Gaussling is on the road again this week somewhere in fabulous Las Vegas just off the strip. What a strange place this is. Underneath the friendly veneer everyone is mad as a hatter- jabbering, drooling wacko. Chronic exposure to the chiming drone of slot machines and the “Thunder from Down Under” puts the brain into a continuous limbic overload.
Field Phrenology Notebook. While waiting in line for some cheap fast food at el Pollo Loco here in Vegas, I had the opportunity to study the skull of the fellow ahead of me. The fellow was sporting a bristling soul patch under his bottom lip as the only bit of hair on his head. When I queued behind him, he was already in the middle of a tiff with the manager. He was waving his arms up and down (el Pollo Loco) and making a show of his contempt by constantly shifting his weight from one leg to another. To his credit he never uttered a rude word. Though it was dark outside, he was wearing wrap around sunglasses clamped to his shiny head.
The back of his head was notable by the pronounced eccentricity of the occipital region of his skull. On the back he had a 1 inch diameter, hemispheric, protuberance that obviously posed a hazard for the daily whole-head shaving ritual. Because this guy was skinny, he didn’t have that horizontal rear mustache of fuzz that occurs when the skin folds prevent the razor from covering all of the scalp.
Finally, the man was released from his agony with a $26 refund and stomped out. We were all relieved and went about our business.
Nuclear Reactor Demonstrator Applet
Here is a link to a cute little nuclear reactor applet. And here is reactor simulator demo download. The demo is free but the actual product is $10.
Back to the Desert
A.I. Meyers Symposium, 2008
A symposium in honor of the late Professor Albert I. Meyers is being held at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins on Friday, 24 October, 2008, in the late afternoon and all day Saturday, 25 October, 2008. The symposium speakers are Clayton Heathcock, Peter Beak, Daniel Comins, Kyoshi Tomioka, Daniel Romo, Victor Snieckus, Jeff Seeman, and Paul Reider. I look forward to attending.
Lamentations on Chemistry 