The only rest a man gets from one labor

is in the immediate engagement of another.

I wish I could remember who said that.

Anyway, short post tonight, only because I said I would.

Pickle has been sick all week. When we took her to the doc in a box, they said, "Wait here." For like three hours. We still aren't sure what was wrong with her.

I am a big fan of pushing threatening asteroids out of the way. So is Rusty Schweickart. (Mozilla spell check suggested "Schwarzkopf" - what does that mean, I wonder?) Is there a better way to solve the rogue asteroid problem?

NASA Ames Research Center has posted new subsonic research opportunities. Read about it here. I am sure I'll participate in that at some point in my scholastic career.

Whoa - it's late. I need to get to bed because I have a calculus test that I'm mostly prepared for. Goodnight all.

Cheers,

-- Zach

Someday, we'll all be healthy at the

same time.

This is the random grab bag of stale updates, thrown together in a flash because I'm really busy. In no particular order:

- I got my first nibbles on the NASA project today. I'm so excited!
- I think I might be able to make it through physics alright.
- Stanley Fish is a hero of mine. He's talking about how the humanities don't translate directly into income. Since this is so, they are the first departments to get cut. In the would of business, this is the right proper thing to do. Professor Fish wishes it weren't so. (NY Times free login required)
- Space Ship Two has made her first glide flight. I'm really stoked about private space ventures. There's a sense of the gumption that NASA had in the 1950s throughout the new generation of space-farers. I just wish the craft were Alclad and Dayglo :-)
- NASA is considering a rocket powered Mars plane. I like the idea, but I think the implementation is a bit sketchy. My personal baby is a rotary winged very light weight craft.
- The Soviets never made it to the moon with people, but it wasn't for lack of trying. here here and here (the last one is Русский язык only, but Google translate is your friend.

That's all I have time for today. More on Wednesday.

Cheers,

-- Zach

The Preponderance of Cloth

Our family is a lot of things. Kinda big, kinda kooky, a little bit country, a little rock and roll. One thing that is very true about us is that we're always up for saving some money. It naturally follows then that we use cloth instead of disposable when it comes to diapers. We also use cloth baby wipes, dry most of our clothes in the sun, and use natural soapy stuff to clean the whole lot.

It is then easy to see how having a broken washing machine could throw a monkey wrench into the works.

Thankfully, we decided to get the extended warranty. Service calls are free until Smersh (the baby) is five. Even when the service call is to clean out the internal drain for the washer.

Woo-hoo! Clean, unsmelly laundry. Our Frigidaire is the best.

In other news, school proceeds apace. Well, mine does. Poor Pickle (the oldest) has been sick so much this month that she's missed four days now. I'm sure we'll get in some kind of trouble for that. Yet another reason why we're considering homeschooling. One of my to-dos for the week is to research ready-made homeschooling curricula. If push comes to shove and we end up pulling her out, I'd like to be ready already. Having something pre-made that will cover the requirements for Texas allows me to break everything down and administer the daily stuff. SWMBO can then simply do the daily task, or at least make sure it gets done.

Союз is away. What an awesome rocket. Interestingly, there isn't a direct translation of "rocket scientist" in Russian. I forget what they call smarty-parties like that, but calling them a rocket scientist sounds funny.

That's all I have time for today. Tune in next time for socks, destruction, and a new kitty(?).

Cheers,

-- Zach

Been a Minute.

I'd like to get back into this habit. Here I go!

Okay, so I'd been all ready to talk about the new FAA regulations regarding the 747-800 and the 787. Briefly, they (the FAA) wanted to mandate a 10 mile follow behind distance during landing, as well as increased follow behind distances during takeoff and at certain other flight times. I had wondered at the time whether there was a solution to the problem of the massive wake turbulence created by these monsters.

My thinking was influenced by the NOAA and their cloud seeding efforts. Would it be possible to try a similar thing with wingtip vorticies? Would it be desirable? I'm thinking here of a tool that would add energy to the wake, causing it to condense and "rain out" of the path of the airplane. What might the after effects be? And so on.

Of course, now the FAA claim that the guide was a plain old mistake, and that the follow behind distances would most likely not be so severe as had been thought. Apparently, the disruption that these new regulations would have caused would have been a very big problem for airlines and airports. The net result is that my idea's gone nowhere.

I still wonder if it's possible to essentially precipitate out wake turbulence. Thoughts?

Cheers,

-- Zach