Strange Times, Mental Challenges, and Staying Fit

 Another uncharacteristic philosophical post...

I don't really know how to go about writing this.  It's a little awkward blogging about current events and my own feelings about them, but here goes anyway.  

We are living through some strange and discomforting times - certainly like nothing I've ever experienced.  A new virus that apparently escaped from a laboratory is stalking and killing the elderly and immune-compromised, and randomly killing even healthy people.  Other people have decided that somehow it's now OK to throw Molotov cocktails at police.  An acrimonious presidential election is about to take place, with no way to ensure that ballots are honestly counted.  Whomever is declared the winner, the outcome will no doubt be bitterly contested - legally and in the streets.  It's entirely possible that armed skirmishes will take place either before or following the election. 

Someone is having a bad day at work...

Have a look at this incident.  I don't like to name facilities, but I am familiar with this one.  It's a General Electric 4x2 power station - Two power blocks, each consisting of 2 gas turbines and boilers creating steam for a single steam turbine.

Public Service Announcement: YouTube to mp3 converter!

I was recently informed of a very handy website that will take a YouTube video and make a compressed audio .mp3 file from it.  This is super cool, because there are a lot of songs on YouTube.  I suppose you could listen to a recorded interview too, but that's not my thing.  Anyway, here is the converter web address.  Just copy/paste the URL of the YouTube video you want an audio file made of and it will offer up the .mp3 for you to download.   

EDIT:  Thanks to a comment, I have another link to a converter service.  This one is called YouConvert.  I haven't tried it yet, but have no reason to believe it isn't as good or better than the one I mentioned above.

Now for some cool new tunes...

I probably should have known about the Dixie Dregs long ago - I'm not sure why I never knew about them until now.  They are an instrumental early 80's-presents Jazz/Rock Fusion band, and they were the group that brought legendary guitarist Steve Morse to fame.  They have some really amazing and complex arrangements.  I recently bought three of their albums and ripped them to mp3. Very cool music!

Next up, the Pogues.  These guys are funny, silly, and different.  To be honest, I can hardly understand the vocalist - he might as well be singing in another language.

And Eleuvietie, a bit of Celtic Death-Metal to brighten your day. Abba meets Riverdance meets Gojira.

Speaking of Gojira, they have a cool new tune out - Another world.  Cool guitar work, and phenomenal drums fills!

A ground-breaking album in its day:  Dave Brubeck - Time Out.  It has some really neat time signatures.

Macro Effects of Nuclear Scattering

Warning!  Nerd Post!

This is another long nerdy post about nuclear stuff - the one I've been warning about.  I broke it down into a few different parts to try and keep it sensible.

Part 1. Nuclear fission:  How and where the energy is released, in its various forms.

Here is what happens at the subatomic level when the nucleus of an atom splits, or undergoes nuclear fission.  This event releases a phenomenal amount of energy, and where this energy ends up being deposited (or lost) is interesting.

New Project: Homemade Voigt Pipes

I've had this project in mind for at least a year, and now it's finally begun!  I'm pretty excited to see how this one turns out.

The project is to build a set of Voigt Pipe speakers, and to see for myself if they are as awesome as they are supposed to be - as in audiophile level amazing.  Fortunately the project isn't terribly expensive - it's mostly time and labor.  Unfortunately, I don't have much time to perform the labor :)

NOTE:  Links to updates 

 UPDATE 1: Panels are cut - Screw ups and hole cutters. 

UPDATE 2: More screw ups, but the cabinets are assembled.

So what is a Voigt pipe?  It's a unique speaker cabinet design that is intended to reduce/eliminate reflected sound waves from inside the cabinet.  To better understand what's going on inside a speaker cabinet, let's discuss speaker cabinet design a little bit.

Battleshort - A brief discussion

Battleshort: A condition in which some military equipment can be placed so that it does not shut down when circumstances would be damaging to the equipment or personnel.

In practice, Battleshort defeats safety interlocks that might keep a combat unit from completing a mission, particularly when taking heavy damage.

Below: A redneck version of Battleshort, in a civilian electrical circuit. The screwdriver should not blow under high current like a fuse would.

Unscheduled Repairs

Note:  This is not the post I've been working on.  Someday I intend to get that post finished.

Still here

Been working on a post, and hosted several different house guests this summer.  Hopefully I'll get something up before the weekend is over.

EDIT: Nope, not happening... it's long-winded and taking a bit of research.

Meanwhile here is a cool science kit from the 1950's.  Get your child interested in nuclear physics, engineering or cancer!  It would be awesome to have one of these right now!

Also this:

Submarines in Idaho?

For years there has been a rumor that the US Navy has a secretive submarine base where they test submarines at a land-locked lake in Idaho.  Is this true?  Yes, sort of.

USS Houston SSN-713

Before reading this post, please watch this video clip from the movie "The Naked Gun".  In the video clip, OJ Simpson has just announced that he's a cop and that everyone in the room is under arrest.  Hilarity ensues.

I suggested watching this video before proceeding with the post, because I was reminded of this scene while reading about the early years of USS Houston, SSN-713.  This post might come across as a little harsh, but it's not intended that way.  It's actually very instructive as to how a momentary lapse of attention or judgement can put the entire ship at risk.