Nerdy stuff - Triodes

I wandered away from my usual topics recently.  Those topics normally tend to be either home-related, or oddball stuff that I find interesting.  I may bounce back and forth on topics for a while - having recently developed a split personality, between tech and Covid-19.

Today though, I'm going to talk about triodes and amplifiers

Navigating through a dark time

James Stockdale, on his 7 years as a POW of North Vietnam, in the "Hanoi Hilton".

Q: "Who didn't make it out?"

A: "Oh, that's easy.  The optimists"

Q: "The optimists?  I don't understand."

 A: "The optimists.  Oh, they were the ones who said, "We're going to be out by Christmas."  And Christmas would come and Christmas would go.  Then they'd say "We're going to be out by Easter." And Easter would come and Easter would go.  And then Thanksgiving and then it would be Christmas again.  And they died of a broken heart"

Back to normal programming for this post

I have more to say about the pandemic response from both the media and the authorities, the loss of life, and the wobbly economy.  That will be a longer and more thoughtful post, and it will have to wait for a bit.

Long Philosophical Post

This is not my normal type of post.  I try to avoid social or political commentary, but I think unusual times deserve unusual responses.  As I write this post, we are at the beginning of a global pandemic that's keeping most of the world under a no-travel advisory, or "lock-down".

Below:  Playing chess with Death during the Black Plague - a scene from "The Seventh Seal"

New family member

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted a...

Corona Virus - A Public Service Announcement

Apparently we have passed a time in this country where the US government is willing to give its citizens some straight talk about a public health issue.

For those who haven't seen what straight talk from the government looks like, or no longer remember, watch the video below.  Back then they understood that propaganda/spin wasn't going to fix an infectious outbreak.  In the video below, the US Surgeon General , C. Everett Koop, explains HIV/AIDS to the US on national TV.

Modern Infotainment provides either scaremongering, or viewing this viral pandemic through the lens of politics or economics.  This is not useful framing for Covid-19, which is a public health issue.  Infectious diseases don't care about politics or economies, nor about your wealth or your place in the hierarchy of human civilization.  So give that crap up for now, and try to make yourself safe.

I'd like to share a quick 15 minute video, where an expert in contagious diseases shares his thoughts with a guy who asks (mostly) decent questions.  Please watch and learn.  I guess this is the modern equivalent of the US Surgeon General going on TV. 

 

It's pathetic that Americans should have to scour the internet to locate a video on their own to gather decent information on what might prove to be a world-altering event.  It's more pathetic that it's a private citizen that has to provide the forum for this information.  

Asteroid Detection

It is widely believed that a large asteroid collision was responsible for the event that caused dinosaurs to suddenly go extinct after ruling the planet for millions of years.  They were not capable of foreseeing the event, but humans are.  So we spend time, effort, and money scanning the sky for these dangerous objects.

Even so, recently an asteroid exploded in an air-burst above the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia.  The asteroid wasn't detected until it slammed into the atmosphere at a speed of tens of kilometers/second.

I recently watched this fascinating video about the tremendous difficulty of detecting earth-crossing asteroids, and thought I'd share it.

My package from Thailand arrived...

...a few days ago.  No, it's nothing illicit.

Career Autobiography - Part 6: Later Submarine Years - Experience and Supervision

Part 5 is here:

Open-Source Nuclear Power Plant Plans

I just stumbled across this.  Plans for your own 100 MW(e) Nuclear Power Plant!  How cool is that!

Download the .pdf and get going!  Just kidding.  The permitting would be a nightmare, even for a table-top power plant like this one.