Posted By RichC on May 29, 2008
My son graduates high school on Saturday so we are busy prepping for open house and family. The raccoon is gone, one “dead” smelly baby has been dug out of the insulation in the garage and another was treed last night by Tootsie (probably will try and reenter the house again? All in all I think we are ready and the weather Friday night’s open house looks good.
Posted By RichC on May 28, 2008
Earthrace, an attempt to round the world in record time on biodiesel fuel, is halfway across the Pacific Ocean and is now 700 or so miles west of Majuro in the Marshall Islands. They arrived on one engine and departed 4 hours later back on two.
After leaving San Diego the crew and ‘unique’ boat made a quick stop in Hawaii to exchange crew, pick up food and refuel, but a couple days out experienced a high pressure injector line leak which sprayed a mist of biodiesel fuel throughout the engine room. The engine was shut down and speeds reduced to 15 knots as there were no spare parts onboard for this particular leaking pipe. There was talk of making repairs with JB Weld, but injection pressures for this high tech Cummins diesel are 35,000 psi — that’s asking a lot from epoxy!
Nevertheless, the weather was good and the crew continued to the Marshall Islands at half speed where the ground crew was to come up with the new part. According to Pete Bethune, the ground crew has come together and is working well since some difficult times in Panama. Thankfully for the Earthrace adventure this uncelebrated groundcrew group has reconnected and were also able to come up with the correct parts and repair the engine quickly. Although Capt. Bethune would have preferred an under two hour stop as they did in Hawaii, he “reckon it’s a fair trade” to be back on two engines in only 4 hours. Next stop … Palau.
Posted By RichC on May 27, 2008
Another year … and another family has figured out how to get into our house — an animal family that is. We’ve had birds in the attic and raccoons once before, but this guy has been a bit more challenging to trap. I’ve moved my live trap in different places around the roof line (where I’ve seen this guy/gal walking) and around the attic trusses where he/she has torn the soffits off for entry and damaged a piece of heating/air-conditioning flex ducting. I put the boxed in trap so that there was no escape where the soffit, but no ‘coon.’
Recently I forced him/her into the attic space over the garage and then closed off the entry. I then opened the crawl through door and at night the ‘bandit’ dropped out and onto the floor — a 12 foot drop. Unbeknown to this little ‘nasty’ raccoon, our dog, an Australian Blue Heeler named Tootsie, sleeps in the garage … and oh what a commotion we had last night! Eventually Tootsie drove the raccoon up on top of some storage shelves and there it sits … now what??? (BTW … our dog does like to hunt and bring home prizes)
Posted By RichC on May 26, 2008
Although I’m not rewriting my Memorial Day post (frustrated that it has been lost after I posted Sunday night — grrr), I will include the 11 minute clip from CBS telling the history of Arlington Memorial Cemetery. On Monday, President Bush paid tribute to America’s service personnel who died in service to their country at this hallowed cemetery. “It is a solemn reminder of the cost of freedom that the number of headstones in a place such as this grows with every new Memorial Day,” said President Bush. “In a world where freedom is constantly under attack and in a world where our security is challenged, the joys of liberty are often purchased by the sacrifices of those who serve a cause greater than themselves.”
* * * Wait a few seconds for the archive to pull up the video * * *
Posted By RichC on May 24, 2008
The son of the legendary Evil Knievel, age 46 successfully jumped 200 feet on his Honda motorcycle, but didn’t break his own record of 228 feet. If he had jumped 199 feet, he might have landed dangerously on the safety deck and bounced off the bike according to reporters at the event. About 40,000 spectators appeared to watch the stunt at the Kings Island parking lot in Mason, Ohio … just north of Cincinnati.
Posted By RichC on May 23, 2008
This past weekend my son and I went to freshman orientation at the University of Akron in preparation for his fall semester. The The full day started at 7:45 and ended at 4:30, but the time was well spent in that he’s registered for fall classes and nearly ready to start … and high school isn’t even over yet! (although today is the last day of classes for seniors and graduation in a week)
Since I’m somewhat familiar with the Akron and the university, I took advantage of the day to check in with clients and even delivered a project while the incoming freshman (and many parents) were learning about the school.
I did walk and drive around campus in order to take a few photos; one of the newest projects is the “on campus” football stadium … see hole in the ground photo in this pop-up slide show of my photos.. A few other unique buildings at the University of Akron is the Goodyear Polymer Building which is notable from most off campus skyline views of the City of Akron. It combines a bit of Akron history as “The Rubber Capital of the World” with what the city is now known for … “City of Invention” and the “National Inventors Hall of Fame.” As ranking go, the Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering program at Akron is 2nd only to the prestigious MIT program, quite a feather in the university’s cap.
Taylor will be majoring in Geography and Planning … at least to start. I don’t envy being a college freshman nowadays, especially from the perspective of choosing a career path, but this degree puts him in classes which play to his strengths and interests and I do have a couple contact that could give him internship opportunities. Perhaps he will have the chance to schedule in some history classes which interest him too, although I wonder if a history minor would even be worthwhile?
Posted By RichC on May 22, 2008
The price of oil hit a record high above $135 a barrel this Thursday morning which is more than twice what it cost a year ago. According to press reports, latest surge was driven by data showing that supplies of crude in the US had fallen by 5.4 million barrels. “US light, sweet crude for July delivery reached $135.09,” in May 2007 it was priced at about $65. Gasoline moved up yet again in my area about 20 more cents to just under $4.00/gallon — with this much money being siphoned out of consumers pockets, it has got to make an impact on discretionary spending?
Posted By RichC on May 21, 2008
The U.S. Department of Energy‘s FuelEconomy website has updated numbers posted for the ‘soon to be released’ (summer 2008) Volkswagen Jetta and Sportswagen TDI clean diesels. The new fuel use numbers show miles per gallon economy for the six-speed manual version at 30 city, 41 highway and at 34 combined. The DSG automatic transmission are nearly as efficient at just a single MPG lower for each number. As the acronym often states … YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), but I suspect that many TDI buyers will comfortably see better economy from these new TDIs. (drivers of the test vehicles have noted 50 mpg on highway loops)
Posted By RichC on May 21, 2008
Its not working all that well for me just yet, but I like the simplicity of the “mashing” with Twitter and FuelFrog. Three guys who call themselves SecondPixel, David Rasch, Brandon Milford and Alan Cox founded the company to create, yet powerful web applications. Fuelfrog is one which helps track and graph fuel usage with an SMS messaging capable cell phone and there website. What you do is to enter the miles you traveled on your last tank, the price you paid, and how many gallons you added to your car. FuelFrog compiles the information and the trends about your gas mileage and the amount you spend.
With FuelFrog you can —
* Quickly add info to your account after filling up.
* View trends for the amount you spend on gas.
* See how gas prices change in your city over time.
* Gain insight into how your car’s gas mileage changes.
Use Twitter or the web interface to enter the data —
* Enter your Twitter Username on the Settings page of FuelFrog
* Enter your fuel data (miles, price, gallons–MPG) — Example: @fuelfrog 342 3.239 10.293
This would be perfect for a ‘certain’ technology loving person and their new “Smart Car.” (hint, hint)
😉
