Friday, January 05, 2007

New Link

I'm going to offically add Hankspot to my blogroll to the right. Not a lot of posts/week ( a plus in my book), many of them interesting. I agree with some, disagree with others. If you enjoy some of these posts, you may enjoy some of his.

Hank's another CoH person who (I think) spends more time in game than out. Well known on the server, he's a decent guy (even if his style is very different than mine). He's had some interesting and amusing battles with some individuals in the Goon Squad.

As some of you know, my son Geoff has been underwriting my Something Awful membership for years now, making me a crypto-goon. I have not yet had the time, energy or inclination to purposely team with the Goons, but in the whole they've been decent players individually.

And yes, I know the Terrible Secret of Space!

Blue Origin

The future made a special guest appearence this week!

Neat!

Spiders! On Drugs!

Remember, this was done for Science!

Science!

A Rare Tale of Integrity and Engineering

I ran across this the other day while looking for something else. It's a true story of an architect, his building and a surprising lack of ass-covering.

Engineers really do think different. Almost makes me wish I had had the kind of mind it takes to study it.

It also makes me wonder if the novelity is due to the rarity.

In May 1978, while working on another project, LeMessurier discovered that bolts had been used to join the diagonal braces to the columns of the Citicorp tower (by then completed and occupied). This surprised him because he had originally specified that the joints should be welded (a proper weld between two metal pieces is usually stronger than the individual metal pieces). However, when he checked into the matter, he found that the contractor had proposed the change to bolts to make construction easier and less expensive, and that, after carrying out some calculations to ensure that the bolts were strong enough, LeMessurier's chief engineer had approved the change. This was all proper practice, and so LeMessurier did not think any more of the issue at the time.
Approximately a month later, LeMessurier received a phone call from a student working on a senior-year project. To this day he does not know who the student was, but the student said, in effect: "Sir, can I bother you for a minute? I know you are a very busy man but my professor thinks you should have put the columns on the corners to better resist the loads which occur due to wind blowing on the tower."


The rest of the story

Thursday, January 04, 2007

I Really and Truely Did This

Here

Although I didn't know the term "Turning Machine". I had worked out a secret code for sending messages on candy-button paper when I was 6, with the "clever" notion that you could eat the message afterward or, better yet, eat some of the reamining buttons and send a reply.

My scheme crashed directly into reality when the first person I gave my siliva-covered, half-eaten strip of candy to (my uncle as I recall), looked disgusted and threw it away.

Slight Atheism Debate

Here with Dr. Nick

Nick and I politely take the field, politely click lances, politely return to our camps and each declare to our followers that we were the victors!

With no mention of Santa Claus or the FSM.

Not quite the gusto of a debate with TJIC, but I am also spared the usual tjicistan personal attacks and verbal diarrhea, so I think it's more interesting.

My respect for Nick over TJIC continues to accelerate.

Vanguard League Website

I did manage to build a website for my SG last month, and to my utter and complete surprise I find it not only being used, but it has an active Forum.

Check it out when you have a chance. The Trading cards are also my work. There should be more of them as more members send me their pics.

BTW, the Vanguard League is now in second place as a hero group on our server (Victory) and in 5th place over all. :)

Zune!

Hee hee

Longish Hiatus Over

I should be back to bloggin more regularly now. I picked up a nasty, nasty bout of the flu in London and have been down with that and the usual Holiday stuff since.
Actually, I have a back log of stuff to post, so there might be a surge before we resume normal operations.