Blackberry REACT October 2009 NewsletterQuick ClicksTwo die driving across flooded roadsThe floods in the Southeast have drowned five people as I write this, and two of the drownings were people whose cars were swept away. Do not try to drive across a flooded road. Alleged road sign in Nairobi(But it may be an urban legend) Free energySomeone has figured out how to use the RF output of a nearby TV transmission antenna to power his outdoor thermometer and a calculator. Yeah, it’s small steps, but just think of all the RF that’s floating around in the Bay Area going to waste. Fabric satellite antennaSomeone has incorporated a satellite antenna in to a flexible patch you can sew on your shirt. I have no idea why this is better than having the antenna on your phone or GPS, but the geeks are happy. Halloween skeletons from PVCMake your yard scary for Halloween by putting dinosaur skeletons in your yard. Humor takes a beatingThe University of Florida has instructions for its students on hurricane survival, and they also (briefly) had a page of instructions on how to survive attacks by “flesh-eating, apparently life-impaired individuals.” Unfortunately, someone decided humor is out of place in a university. “Base Load” PowerThis is an interesting article about power and its distribution. Electricity is always on – that’s base load. Most of our electricity is generated by burning coal – that required billions of dollars of investment in trains – about 2 a day to deliver coal to the power plants. Renewable power is at the billions of dollars of investment stage or it will fail to be come the always on “base load.” Instead of money for trains to bring coal, the money is to provide storage for electricity generated by wind or sun so that electricity is still there when it isn’t windy or sunny. Storm shelterSome guy in Texas bought the ground containing an Atlas launch facility and put his house down there. This article is more interesting than most house design articles because it has pictures of the Atlas rockets, diagrams of the launch control center, and the like, all from the Fifties. His home is safe from tornados and lightning strikes, and it’s remarkably well-lighted considering how deep in the ground it is. We all know how ugly the Citroen isThe guy who designed the Citroen also designed a “high definition” TV set back in the days when TVs were thought of as sets. Hi Def was 819 lines instead of the standard 441. The video at the bottom of the article is key. The pan around a room with sets from the Forties through current is a hoot, as we look at the horrible designs from the Sixties, compared to the French Hi Def TV. French design is, in my very humble opinion, the worst in the world. What it’s like to be buried in an avalancheSome guy had a camera on his helmet when he was buried under an avalanche. My lesson? You make funny noises when you think you’re going to die. They get even funnier when you find out you’re going to live. Yet another reason not to drive on a flooded roadYou can’t see the holes in the road. Google Street View could be an interesting job sometimesAlthough it’s probably not interesting very often. Lost art of cable lacingIn her presentation at the October meeting, Louise mentioned that fire artists at Burning Man had skills and knowledge which exist nowhere else. Make Magazine has an article on the opposite: skills which used to be common but which are disappearing in modern times. One of the lost arts is cable lacing. When I was a kid and you went into the attic of homes, the wires ran in the open on ceramic insulators, and the insulation on the electric wires was a woven fabric, often worn. Installers would lace the cables together to make handling a long run easier and to keep things more or less tidy. Here are some photographs of a vacuum tube Tesla coil. More photographs here. EventsNomination of officers in November; election in December UpdatesJunior Diabetes Walk went off without problems ProgramsNomination of officers |