Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Geocaching!

Well, I have a new GPS, a Garmin eTrex Vista C. So, of course, once I get a new toy, I have to play with it!
Yesterday, I went out Geocaching with Katie's brother, Matt. Matt is now known in the geocaching community as Myers7, and I'm petmar. We attempted 5 caches, and found 3.
The other fun thing to do with a GPS is, of course, track stuff. I found a wonderful utility called GPS Babel that allows me to download waypoints, tracks, and routes, as well as convert various forms of location file. Below is a view of our finds from yesterday in Google Earth:

Profile for petmar

Friday, February 16, 2007

Thanks Again...

Thanks to Erica Henderson, I now have a great new header image on this blog!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

My Talk

A week ago, I did a talk for the TAS Journal Club on "The transition from galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays" by Todor Stanev.
Here's the link to my presentation:
http://physics.ramapo.edu/~petmar/CRTalk.mov

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

On Various Forms of Craziness

So, now I have three blogs chugging along:
This one, "The Inventive Tinkerer" (IT), which is my personal blog, and a roll call of my creations.
"The Informed Physics Student" (TIPS), which is a bunch of advice to science undergrads and other students.
And...
"Tales from the Lab" (TFTL), which is a chronicle of amusing anecdotes from the labs I work/have worked in.

Super Science Saturday!

Yes, that's right! It's March 3rd this year, and you can find all the info you want here.
The Ramapo College physics department will be bringing resources to bear on this one. So far we have planned:
- an egg drop class (how to keep eggs from breaking in a 30 ft. fall)
- a ray optics sandbox and wave tank
- a trebuchet for watermelons
and best of all...
- a 20 ft.-long kid-lifting lever
And to think... the chemists think they can out-do us. Feh!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

A Quiz!

Your Geek Profile:

Academic Geekiness: Highest
Music Geekiness: Highest
General Geekiness: High
Internet Geekiness: High
SciFi Geekiness: High
Gamer Geekiness: Moderate
Fashion Geekiness: Low
Geekiness in Love: Low
Movie Geekiness: Low

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Chili and Cake

So today was a marathon culinary event. All of the pictures (and movies) can be found in this directory. I made my chili, and then brought it to the Wyckoff Reformed Church chili cookoff. I won a bottle of wine. (Yay? I don't drink...)
So, then I came home, and my mom had made another cake. So... that needed decorating. Take a look at the aforementioned photos, and the flyover, complete with theme music.

Friday, February 02, 2007

It's Coming... It's Coming... It's Coming...

Sunday will be Super Bowl Sunday... and to commemorate this fact, I purchased the world's strangest bundt pan. Yes, you read that right. My mom and I were at Chef Central when I saw it. Spurred by my mom's statement that my girlfriend's father would love a cake like that, I knew what I had to do. The result...

And the view from the blimp...

Let me know what you think. It's scheduled for delivery at 8.00a tomorrow.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Looking at things Cockeyed

I just was over at cockeyed.com, and wound up writing the following letter:
Rob,
I was just reading your page about the crosswalk button sign that you made up, and I remembered something that I'd seen here (Yes, Walter Lewin is the man.) The effect is the same thing as a "halo" or "glory" generated by water droplets, so if you can simulate that, you can get reflective paint. Simple solution: wait until your latex paint is just tacky then throw sandblasting sand (little glass spheres) at it. Dry, and coat with a clear urethane coating. Viola! A wonderful reflective sign... and all for the cost of some sandblasting sand and urethane (which I'm certain you can find somewhere for less-than-cheap).
Best of luck in pulling off some awesome warning signs with this!

Regards,
Pete

Hope someone can use this advice... eventually.

And eventually I'll put up pics. In the meantime, look at Lewin's end-of-term video about rainbows. It's amazing!

Monday, January 22, 2007

Sucralose

The "Truth" about Splenda
The Truth about Splenda
What's the difference? Well, the top site is run by and industry group that could use some... help getting consumer letters straightened out before becoming liable for their content. The second one is a pretty trusty wikipedia article. My contribution to the former? This:
"First of all, good work with creating this website. As a scientist myself, I usually require proof to regard something as true. This website gives a goodly bit of proof. Further information on splenda and sucralose at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose, which is where I found a link to this site.
Another thing that I must do as a scientist is to educate. First of all, yes, sucralose contains three atoms of chlorine, but remember that regular table salt is half chlorine, and you can't live without it. The thing is that the chlorine in sucralose is bonded covalently rather than ionically (therefore more strongly). This means that it's not able to get into your body as the dissolved chlorine ions that we all need to survive. Furthermore, since sucralose is a different molecular "shape" than sucrose, or any other sugar, not only does your tongue sense certain resonances which make it percieve it as sweeter than sucrose, but sucralose cannot be absorbed or processed as sugar can. This means that the various bacteria in your digestive system, not to mention the filtering tissues of your liver and kidneys, will be overworked to try to deal with this unfamiliar contaminant.
Remember also that anything that your body is unfamiliar with which has some effect on it is classed as a toxin, and that a certain sub-class of toxins which don't kill you in small doses are referred to as drugs.
So, what have we learned? From many sources, we find that sucralose can build up in the body due to inefficient removal from the bloodstream. We already know that many other artificial sweeteners have detrimental effects, yet are still on the market: aspartame contributes to brain tumors and lesions and lymphoma, and can break down into such toxins as formaldehyde (now considered to dangerous to even be used as it once was, in embalming); acelsulfame potassium is a known carcinogen; cyclamates cause bladder cancer, as does sodium saccharine, and the other saccharides.
However, consider also that bleached sugars contain trace amounts of sucralose due to the processing methods used in their manufacture.
Overall, sucralose may be the best of the horrible options which are artificial sweeteners, but personally, due if nothing else to the disgusting aftertaste, I'll stick with honey, maple syrup, and brown or unbleached sugars, thank you."

Oh, and what is "Chorine"?

Thursday, January 18, 2007

ROV

Well, it turns out that northern NJ and southern NY have a heck of a bunch of flooded abandoned iron mines. I want to know what's down there, but I don't feel like taking a confined space SCUBA course to do it. So, I've recruited a team, and we're going to build an ROV to see what's down there. More on the design as it comes together.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Clock


I made a clock! Apparently A. C. Moore carries clock hands and slate rounds. So, with drill and masonry bits in hand, I took the old clock movement and made something new. Now I can chalk up my own times!

Dinner

Dinner:

Caesar Salad



Roasted Stuffed Tomatoes

- 1 pint baby bella mushrooms

- 1 pint white mushrooms

- 3 cloves garlic

- 3 small onions

- 4 sun-dried tomatoes

- 4 large beefsteak tomatoes

- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

- 3/4 cups water

- 2 tsp. olive oil

- 1 cup grated mozzarella

- 1/2 cup bread crumbs

Dry mushrooms in broiler. Chop mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes into a bowl with the vinegar and water. Mush together by hand. Put some of the liquid from this into a small frying pan and add the garlic, onions, and olive oil. Sauté. Pour contents of pan into bowl, along with bread crumbs. Load contents of bowl into a food processor, usually in two batches: one will be chopped, the other puree. In the meantime, cut the tops off of the beefsteak tomatoes and empty them. Salt them, and them place on a grate over the kitchen sink to drain for 15 mins. After this, stuff the tomatoes, and place them in the oven at 450°F for 4-7 mins. When removed, they should not be wilting. Remove and top with mozzarella.



Tuna Steaks

- 3.5 lbs. Tuna loin

- 1 cup sesame seeds

- 1/2 bottle natural soy sauce

- 1 cup maple syrup

- 2 sun-dried tomatoes

Roast about 2 tablespoons of the sesame seeds in a frying pan. Chop the sun-dried In a large tupperware or other plastic sealable container, combine these with the maple syrup and soy sauce. Marinate tuna for 2-3 hours, and then broil for about 5 mins per side. Reduce marinade to a sauce for dipping.



Saturday, January 06, 2007

New Blog

Check out my new daily over at The Informed Physics Student.
I've always said that there should be a manual for handling academia, so I'm putting one together, one day at a time.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

MIT researchers explore method of transferring electricity wirelessly - Wikinews

This is truly news. I've read a lot of Tesla's works, and as soon as I had the time and money, I wanted to try this myself. His ideas were and are revolutionary, and if the MIT folks get this right... well, let's just say, "Hold on to your butts. This is gonna be a ride."

Read more at en.wikinews.org/wiki/MI...

Friday, December 22, 2006

Becoming a Citizen of the Web

It looks as though, due to classes, my geek factor has been suffering of late. I didn't even know what digg or del.icio.us were for until today. Took a look, and man, no wonder they're being used so much. Between these two pages, flickr, skype, slashdot, and facebook, you've got all you ever need for news and to stay connected. Truly, one seems unable to be a "citizen" of the web without having at least a blog and an account on all of these (or similar alternate) services.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Finals

My mom brought me home a sandwich. When she asked me how it was, I responded, "You don't want to ask me anything right now. I'll respond by giving an answer in cartesian coordinates of where it's triggering taste buds on my tongue."
Yesterday I turned a Zip drive into a speaker. Details later.
This week:
Monday: GRE (680V/680M Yay!)
Tuesday: Mathematical Methods in Physics in-class final and Johnny Moseley at Campmor
Wednesday: Work, climbing, and take-home finals in Advanced Mechanics and Electrodynamics (Electricity and Magnetism or E&M to the uninitiated)
Thursday: Differential Equations paper due and in-class final, and Katie comes home!

Who said being a Physics major couldn't be fun?

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

A December Repreive

Okay, so this blogging has not been going well.
But in the meantime:
- I've managed to become a member of NJSAR
- I've written a few short story bits
- I've run two hiking trips, one an overnighter with stargazing
- I've made the lab at school a little bit less of a mess
- I've applied to grad school (WE ARE... PENN STATE!)
- \lim_{t\rightarrow\infty}{(knowledge(LaTeX))}>>0
(If you can read that last line, you're almost as much of a geek as I am.)
- I've rapelled/abseiled
- I've made a good sized stack of lumber
- I've written yet another publishable paper and done a talk: presentation [PDF]
In short, I've kept myself busy, and even if I didn't build something physical and new every single day, the spirit of that commitment has been kept up.
By the by, I also discovered Piled Higher and Deeper. Read it.

And finally, I got my first issue of Make magazine.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Mission Failure

Well, it seems as though I've failed rather miserably in keeping this blog up to date. However, I'll just put in that I've got a number of projects going on now:
-Optical Logic Gates
-SAR Balloon
-SAR Relay
-SAR APRS
-SAR probability mapping
-Biofuels
-Morse Code-to-Speech for the Disabled
Plus which I've just completed my semester at school, and my Wilderness First Aid course for NJSAR.
Oh, yeah, and I'm finishing my music minor with "The History of Rock and Roll" at school this June.
I'll update as I can, hopefully including some pics from the lab.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Birthday



Yesterday we had a decidedly distracted evening, as Digital Electronics turned into Projectile Motion 101. At the same time I introduced the class to a magnetic velocity multiplier (see movie above), and Dave Russell, our professor, showed us all a vacuum cannon that he'd built to use at the high school he teaches at.
And then there was today, my birthday. A lot of talking on the phone to the Katie was involved, both yesterday and today, and for that I say, "Yay!"
My best present by far was the blackboard, pictured above. As you can tell, I went right to it, working out part of the math for the magnetic velocity multiplier I mentioned before. I find it very interesting that you have to prep the board by rubbing it with chalk and then erasing it so that the first marks on it will not be indellible. I must research that further.