Category Archives: Science/Engineering

Spa in the Clouds

Posted on October 5, 2014 | 2 comments

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Emirates Airline’s shower-spa. Imagine that at eight miles high.

“We understand that air travel can be tiring, especially during long flights. That’s why we included two onboard Shower Spas as part of the First Class experience on the Emirates A380. From the state-of-the-art shower system to the classic walnut and marble design to fine linens, the Shower Spas were conceived with your pleasure and convenience in mind.”

A far cry from the usual cattle-car experience. The 21st century is redeeming itself.

Via Dallas Morning News

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Posted in Science/Engineering

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Tentative smiles at the cancer center

Posted on September 29, 2014 | 4 comments

Tentative smiles, that is, among the patients. The staff smiles until you wonder if their faces will crack open and their mouths fill with blood. We primary care-givers also smile tentatively, keying on our patients.

I’m a primary care-giver now that Mrs. Charm has been diagnosed with Stage III Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, DLBCL. Tentatively. Still awaiting results of this morning’s bone-marrow biopsy and this week’s PET scan to make sure it isn’t some other type of lymphoma. The lymphoma part is definite.

Infusion port to be installed in her upper chest soon for the chemo to begin (tentatively) week of Oct. 6. Drill thereafter is one six-hour day of infusion of R-CHOP (unlovely acronym) followed by three weeks of recovery.

Then another six hours of toxic infusions and so on for (ideally) about six months. Otherwise Mrs. C will not be among the 55-70 percent for whom R-CHOP works (for at least two years, hopefully longer) and then it will be on to the radiation and, probably even more tentative smiles as the burning further diminishes her health.

There’s little joy in Mudville, i.e. Rancho Roly Poly, these days. Mr. Boy (a new high school freshman) and I are hanging (appropriate word) in there. Tentatively.

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Posted in Cancer, Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering

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Bush did it: Fake but accurate

Posted on September 25, 2014 | 1 comment

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (whose updating of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos—including a shamelessly inaccurate plug for global warming—was so bad I stopped watching it after two episodes) is an atheist who apparently likes to make up fake quotes about believers, particularly former president Bush II.

Now Wikipedia is covering for Tyson: “Despite the fact that no evidence exists that Bush ever said ‘Our God is the God who named the stars’ shortly after 9/11 as a way of segregating Christians and Jews from Muslims, under no circumstances will Wikipedia allow that site to note that Tyson’s fabricated quote is obviously fake and non-existent.”

I still like Wikipedia as a resource, if not the bearer of absolute truth. Even the Encyclopedia Britannica has its quirks. Nor should Tyson, the latest black darling of the New York Progressives, be held to an absolute standard—although he is supposed to be a scientist before he’s a politico and he’s now failed that standard twice that I know of.

But trotting out the tired Bush and Christianity bashing in the same breath, apparently to show his fans he’s a doctrinaire Democrat, is twice too much for me.

Tyson, get thee behind me!

Via The Federalist.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obsessions, Science/Engineering, The Culture, The War

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Cool, wet summer equals hottest August ever?

Posted on September 21, 2014 | Comments Off on Cool, wet summer equals hottest August ever?

NOAA and NASA say yes. NASA satellite data says no, the peak was actually in 1998. The agencies are part of you-know-who’s administration. The satellite data isn’t political. Not yet, anyhow. Adds so-called “flat-earther” Dr. Roy Spencer:

“The fortuitous revelation of record warm sea surface temperatures in August, only days before Climate Summit 2014, begs the question — why? Why were SSTs so warm? (Not “Why announce it just before Leonardo DiCaprio’s coronation?”)” The timing is obvious.

The Dictator’s Club (aka the UN), hosting Obozo’s climate summit on Tuesday (which will excuse our soon-to-be record-setting, further economy-killing electricity hikes), appointed the Hollyweird actor as its climate spokesfolk. Isn’t that special? And the federal lying, backing a president who can’t ever seem to tell, much less reveal, the truth, is no surprise. Adds Steve Goddard:

“Contrary to the spectacular ‘hottest August ever’ lies being propagated by NASA GISS and NOAA ahead of Obama’s climate conference – August was the coldest in five years and the second coldest in 10 years, according to far more accurate NASA satellite data.” It was, indeed, an unusually cool summer and a very wet August here in Central Texas.

Quick, one of you Democrat bureaucrats round up a tech to rejigger the sat sensors. The boss ain’t gonna like being contradicted by science.

UPDATE:  All those federal lies have produced a following, of course. The usual crowd of Marxists and assorted loons. DiCaprio wasn’t pleased when PJTV asked about his carbon footprint from his multiple private yachts and jets. He scurried away without answering.

Of course. He and Al Bore want the rest of us to do without electricity and cars while their lives stay the same. It therefore should be no surprise that the climate warriors also were as trash-can challenged as any other group of adolescents. 

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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, The Economy, Weather/Climate

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Apple Watch

Posted on September 10, 2014 | Comments Off on Apple Watch

The new “giant” iPhone6 (5.5-inch diagonal screen) is cool, but it’s the watch I’d consider. Looks much prettier than anything Dick Tracey would have been caught dead with, but if it does the same (or similar) job, who could complain?

“Apple’s smartwatch is pretty cool and runs differently than its competitors. The digital crown control (a dial like you’d find on a traditional watch) is smart, and maneuvers such as navigating to apps on the watch and changing the color of watch face a snap. Apple Watch has a touchscreen, but you don’t need it for a lot of things.”

I saw another brand on the AC repairman the other day at the rancho. He said it helped him stay in touch with the office without continually having to retrieve the smart phone from his pocket.

I leave my phone in the car anyhow so the watch might not be that useful to me. No office to report to for us recovering journalists. Now if Mr. B. (who said he’d never heard of Dick Tracey) wants one for his birthday round about Valentine’s (despite the fact it would be harder to text with it), we’ll know for sure.

Via Instapundit.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Science/Engineering, The Culture

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The climate change that isn’t

Posted on September 8, 2014 | 2 comments

Global Warming (TM) a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party, is now officially nevermind.

“The climate-research establishment has finally admitted openly what skeptic scientists have been saying for nearly a decade: Global warming has stopped since shortly before this century began.”

As for the refurbished moniker, Climate Change, it’s been downsized, too.

“…the climate-research establishment…have made their predicament worse by implying that man-made climate change is so slow and tentative that it can be easily overwhelmed by natural variation in temperature—a possibility that they had previously all but ruled out.”

So, tell us again, Barry, why do us flat-earthers have to give up cheap coal-fired electricity so your EPA can declare carbon dioxide a pollutant? The science obviously isn’t settled.

Via WSJ.

UPDATE:  Even the first species said to be extinct because of GW/CC isn’t really, after all.

MORE:  Meanwhile, guess who hasn’t gotten the message?

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Posted in Obamalot, Obsessions, Science/Engineering, The Economy, Weather/Climate

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Those stolen airliners

Posted on September 5, 2014 | 3 comments

Eleven airliners stolen from Libya’s international airport in Tripoli by Islamist militias are supposed to be our worry of the month—for next week’s 13th anniversary of you know what.

Except, as I recall, it took many months to train the eight pilots who suicided on 9/11 in New York, D.C. and Pennsylvania and all of them had advanced college degrees. I doubt these raggedy militias have eight baggage handlers willing to kill themselves. But time will tell, of course.

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Posted in Obsessions, Science/Engineering, The War

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