SpaceX Falcon Heavy Boosters Return Safely Simultaneously

When I was a kid, I remember sitting in front of the 25 inch tube TV in my parents' living room watching Apollo space capsules splashing down in the ocean and US Navy divers jumping out of helicopters in wet suits to attach lifting cables to the outside of the floating capsules.  It had always fascinated me, and I've seen Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo re-entry capsules in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry, in Washington DC at the Smithsonian, at the San Diego Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park.  Those capsules exited the atmosphere, and returned, carrying live astronauts, and surviving re-entry through he atmosphere, and the heat and pressure scars on the surface of the capsules was always jaw dropping to me as a kid, as a teen, and as a young adult that we, as puny humans, could design and build and launch something that was so tough it could survive re-entry and return the astronauts back to terra ferma safely.

Then today, South African immigrant Elon Musk's company SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy as a test flight for future Mars missions, making it the largest rocket (3 million pounds) launched since Apollo moon missions more than 40 years ago.  Yes, SpaceX has launched and recovered boosters before. Sometimes on remote controlled barges, sometimes on land. But they had not done a double booster return yet, and watching today's double simultaneous landing was... amazing... jaw dropping... awe-inspiring... remarkable.  See here:


Sure, the rocket's  "payload" was Elon's personal Tesla Roadster convertible, being driven by a mannequin in a space suit, and outfitted with 3 cameras that have been giving fantastic views of the car and the Earth as it heads into orbit around the Sun and a rendezvous with Mars in about 6 months... and that's cute, and stylish, and amusing, and FAR BETTER than launching a dummy payload of bricks or steel or something really boring (but safe).  Elon had given the launch a '50 to 66% chance of success', setting realistic expectations.  The boosters came back safely, and beautifully.  The main core malfunctioned after separating from the payload at MACH 15, and did not make it to the remote controlled barge in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as planned... but 2 out of 3 safe returns for usable rockets is not bad. And I anticipate, it will only get better with more practice.

Going into space is hard.  It's not easy nor simple, and few nations have done it successfully.  Fewer companies have done is successfully, and Only One has returned two booster rockets, simultaneously, to a precise launch pad, without using heat sheilds, the ocean, US Navy divers, or parachutes... very impressive indeed!

North San Diego County is on Fire

North San Diego County is on Fire this evening.  Fallbrook (the Lilac fire) went from 10 acres to 2000 acres in 2 hours, and is now approaching 3000 acres, with 0% containment.

The photo above I took from the hill over our neighborhood looking north.  We are about 15 miles South of the current wild fires.  About 20 buildings have been destroyed, with more on the way.  As I drove home from the elbow doctor this evening (my final visit!  hooray!) I took the picture below on the I-5 North that as moving at < < less than 5 mph.   The smoke is being blown by Santa Anna winds from East to West, out over the ocean, where it is joining with a Tijuana wild fire that has burnt 200 acres of rural vegetation.

I'll be preparing an evacuation kit this evening that contains
- clothing
- laundry detergent & fabric softener sheets
- bottled water
- snacks
- freeze dried camping food
- medical kit
- self protection, for security, against miscreants
- two 5 gallon gas cans (which I'll fill at Costco tomorrow morning)
- cat food, litter, litter box, cat food & water dishes, cat carrier
- wine
- nuts
- dried fruit
- in-house fresh fruit
- microwave pop corn
- basic cooking utensils, frying pans, slow cooker
- cell phone chargers & Mac chargers
- whiskey & whisky
- Rxs & Rx refills
- warm clothing, jackets, sweaters, hiking boots
- emergency crank radio
- batteries
- dish soap
- flash lights
- garbage bags
- tarps
- camping knives
- axe & saw
- basic hand tools
- extension cords
- rope
- family documents
- credit cards

Now it is time to eat...  and then pack.  Hopefully, it'll all just be proactive and un-necessary; il faut voir.

Humming Bird Happy Hour Bouncer

6 Hummingbirds drinking together in my yard (1 mature Anna's, 2 juvenile Rufous, and 3 Anna's females)

30 minutes before sunset this evening, I sat down in my backyard to enjoy watching hummingbird happy hour.  Hummingbird happy hour is the bet time of the day to observe hummingbirds in a group setting.  The dimming of the sun's natural day light, combined with the abundant availability of established food (11 nectar feeders around the yard) and the inevitability of the arrival of total darkness, draw all the neighborhood hummingbirds together for one long, deep drink of high energy sugar water before the long night's embrace.  The diminished light makes the Brilliant plumage that the dominant males of all hummingbird species develop look much less spectacular, mottled, dull, which puts ALL the hummers -  the dominant males, the fearful juveniles who sport just a goatee, the confident mature females (who are the same size as the mature males, but look they a lot like juveniles) and the immature new fledglings - on nearly equal footing.

Mature Rufous Male Hummingbird

I've enjoyed dozens of hummingbird happy hours here in California.  In Arizona, I saw 2 Anna's hummingbirds at a feeder, once.  Here in California, I've relished dozens of twilights that included a dozen or more birds all sharing resources, before going into their semi-catatonic sleep for the night high up on a secluded branch that's strong enough to barely hold their own weight (less than 21 grams, in most cases).  Tonight was the First time that I observed a vociferous, possessive, pugnacious male Rufous dominant male who continued to chase all other thirsty birds from the 2 feeders right outside the living room window.  One of the 2 feeders is a 4 holed solar PV lit feeder without any perches, so the birds have to hover as they drink.  Six feet away is 10 holed feeder that has a circumferential perch where I've counted as many as 9 hummingbirds drinking at one time (but I've not been able to take a picture of them in this way, yet), sharing resources, peacefully, and making me a very happy & satisfied human that I could create such an environment where I could 'bring the hummingbird community together', and be lucky enough to see them sharing.

A yellow jacket trying to get into one of the 10-holed feeders

Generally, the 2 feeders outside of Dr Desert Flower's office's window in the front yard are dominated by Rufous hummingbird males.  They hang out in the palm trees looming above, or in the oleander bushes a few feet away, or on the top of a skyward pointing succulent frond, observing the 2 front yard feeders, chasing away any other bird who comes to drink, With The Exception of mature females who the males are trying to woo, court, convince, and then with whom they want to copulate for all of 2 seconds while in free-fall from 200 feet in the air.  So Much testosterone and energy goes into the male hummingbird's daily routine, to bully away, ward-off, intimidate all other males and all other species, and try to romance only the mature females of their own species... it makes the plumage and prancing and jousting of a male peacock look blasé in comparison.  The Rufous males don't normally intrude into the back yard... or so I thought.

This evening, I listened to a proud dominant male Rufous sit up in my neighbor's tree above my backyard, chirp and whistle, claiming his dominance over 3 feeders that could be seen from that high vantage point.  I watched as this proud dominant male Rufous would swoop in, and chase away single birds, groups of females who were sharing the feeder, any creature who came near to the fears he now claimed.  This was ruining my happy hour observations.  Twice, I got up from my chair, glass of wine in hand, and stood near to the feeders.  The mature female visitors, who have been around the block and understand better how the world works, did Not see me as a threat, and they drank nearby, almost within arm's reach.  They were wary of the large hairless ape drinking from a wine glass, and they would have flown away if I had made sudden movements, but the pugnacious Rufous male would still come swooping in, Past My Head, and scare them all off.  This could not stand.  No little Rufous male is going to ruin my evening.

2 hummingbirds enjoying the feeder under my suppressing cover-fire

I thought quickly... how could I ward off this mis-guided cretin who never learned how to share, or get along with any other birds?  I remembered a recent Luther episode where a killer wielded a large orange squirt gun full of acid and blinded witnesses around London.  I recalled I had a large un-used squirt bottle in my laundry room that I'd not filled with anything, and ran into the house to fill it with water (no, not acid...  I am not a monster).  I'd used squirt guns to dissuade naughty house cats in the past, before I realized I'd become intensely allergic to them.  I hurriedly rushed back outside to sit with my wine glass and squirt bottle.  My wait didn't take long.

The dominant male Rufous swooped down almost immediately to ward off a dominant male Anna's and an Anna's female, in the dwindling twilight.  His angle of attack took him around the back of the feeder where I did not have a direct line-of-sight, but after he ran off the two other birds, he tried to get a drink from his coveted feeders.  My aim was exact, and the first squirt of water sent the Rufous off the feeder and back up into his tree observation post.  Two more female hummers came in to drink, and as the male Rufous dove down from the tree, I blocked his descent with a barrage of squirts that the gave him pause, and he perched in the jasmine about 8 feet behind the feeders.  More females arrived, and joined their sisters drinking.  5 visible birds at the feeder... but the Rufous male couldn't contain himself, he tried to drive them off.  I sent a salvo of 5 or 6 squirts that sent him into retreat.  2 of the drinking females rose off the feeder to note what was going on, But Then Resettled onto the feeder to resume drinking!  A dominant male Anna's, the NBA players of the hummingbird world due to the fact that they are generally 20% larger than any other hummingbird, settled down at the 10 holed feeder along with the bevy of females and juveniles.  "Hello ladies!" was the look in his little black eye, as he figured he'd hit the happy hour jackpot.  But it was short lived.

A fully mature, dominant Rufous male, perched outside my office, who thinks he "owns" the feeder there.

A moment later, the stubborn Rufous male Again dove at the feeder.  All the birds scattered, and I zeroed in on the bright white collar the mature Rufous male wore and hit him at least once, got close 2 or 3 times, and he fled again.  3 of the 5 females Returned and resumed drinking, under my cover fire.  The Rufous took up station back in his high tree branch, and I aimed upwards towards the little miscreant, arching far over the top of the feeders where the girls were enjoying happy hour, and the mature Rufous found this rebuff to be "too much" and flew elsewhere.  Finally, success!

So if you're a female hummingbird, regardless of species, you're more than welcome to come drink in my yard at hummingbird happy hour.  If you're an Anna's, Blackchinned, or Costa's mature male or a Rufous juvenile, and you know some boundaries and how to act publicly and behave at happy hour, you're also welcome to enjoy delicious high energy, fresh nectar in my yard.  However, if you're a trouble maker, you will be ejected, and refused re-entry into my yard's airspace.  If you persist, you'll be targeted with squirted tap water, which will make flight more difficult, frustrate your petty attempts to monopolize the abundant nectar in the feeders.  The unexpected wetting at dusk, combined with being chased away form the public feeders, may make it more difficult for you to remain warm over-night, but having a warmer, more friendly demeanor will be in your favor going-forward (over-come your instinctual programming, little punk!)  ... or just stick to the front yard, where the Rufous battles are pretty much perpetual.  The backyard feeders have a happy hour bouncer, who is more than 4000 times your mass, and who enjoys having a peaceful, sharing, community atmosphere at dusk.

Anatomy of a Volvo Headlight Assembly

Last month I was driving to Pep Boys in Encinitas, when all-of-a-sudden, my Volvo C70 dashboard told me that one of my head lights was out.  I'd never had a car tell me, as the driver, that the head lamp was burnt out.  Convenient and serendipitous that it happened on the way to the auto parts store.

I purchased (2) replacement lamps, figuring that if one burnt out, the 2nd one would likely burn out sometime within the next year, and headed home to figure out how to change it.  Volvo was Way Ahead of me, and had already designed in an extremely simple & straight-forward mechanism "designed for maintenance".  Unlike most engineers, I took out the instruction manual (age has proven to refer to the directions first, before breaking something additional in ignorance) and found that Volvo had implemented a 3 sided alignment pin that was a small aluminum spike.  Withdraw the spike, and viola, the entire head lamp assembly easily slid forward to allow bulb replacement.



On Hondas, Chevrolets, Infiniti, Fords and Mazdas, I've struggled and strained to get head light bulbs out of blind or hidden assemblies, by feel.  With the Volvo C70, it was incredibly simple.  So simple in fact, that when I had to return to Pep Boys (because they sold me the wrong model head lamp the first time... from a counter person who didn't understand the specificity of exact part numbers... but the manager corrected the error on my return) ... I was able to replace the head lamp In The Parking Lot, easily.


I was very impressed.  If only all car makers and all consumer goods manufacturers had thought this through as thoroughly as Volvo has done... servicing their products when parts need to be replaced would be So Much easier!  Now.. if the same care could have been applied to the location of the oil filter... instead of being buried behind the engine and above the hot exhaust manifold, then That would have been awesome!

Lint Police

If you don't keep your dryer's lint screen clean, your clothes will take longer to dry, your dryer will use more energy to dry the same amount of clothes, and you could eventually cause a fire as the lint builds up not just on the filter screen but further upstream as small particulate builds up on heating elements (gas or electric) and could readily combust.

I clean out the dryer screen every time I run a load of clothes through the machine.  I used to try and use my finger tips, but I keep my finger nails consistently short to avoid scratching myself when I get itchy from time to time, so "scraping" the lint off the screen is not so effective with just my fingers.  A few weeks ago, I started using the old spent dryer sheet to peel off the lint.  It works remarkably well.  I wanted to share this little life-hack with everyone else.  The used dryer sheet is 99.9% worthless, as it has already given up its fabric softener to the previous load, and it is just taking up space (albeit a minuscule space) in the dried load.  Fish it out of the load, use it to grab the lint's edge and peel it off the screen, easy, peezy.

And if you go camping frequently, and have trouble starting camp fires, save the lint to start fires, rapidly.  I've saved several lunch bags worth of it, to keep in my "WTSHTF" kit, if I ever need it.

You're welcome  = )

Natural Coconut Simplicity

Many of my close friends and family know that for the last year+ I have been grappling with extremely dry skin that was flaking off in ridiculous amounts, leaving a "trail of Joe" in rooms, in cars, on chairs, on couches, just about everywhere I'd go.  While my loved ones would tell me not to worry about it, and that it "wasn't that bad", leaving a cloud of (what I thought was) dead skin anywhere that I stayed for any length of time, it was hard to not get very grossed out by the flaking and "snow" my arms and back and face were shedding, constantly.  A close look in the mirror, and all I could see was hundreds of "hang nails" all over my fore-head, cheeks, ears, earlobes, chin, neck and arms.  "How can any human shed so much skin?" - I'd ask myself, frequently.

Turns out, it wasn't skin, for the most part at least.  It was dried moisturizer that had gone from liquid to solid and then was being shed by my skin as it tried to breathe beneath the rapidly drying hypoallergenic coating.  My dermatologist had recommended I use Vanicream lotion, so I did, by the tub - $16 a tub, about once a week - a white paste that was rather oily and sticky.  Vanicream makes a "Lite" lotion, in a pump bottle, that is less thick, less oily, and leaves less residue.  Only thing is... the flaking persisted.  And the flaking was still gross.

Concentrated Epsom Salt baths (3 lbs in about10 inches of water), every 3 or 4 days, soaking for 30 minutes in the luke-warm water (not warm, just tepid, so as not to aggrevate my skin further) helped to ex-foliate and "slough off" the flakes.  And the 30 minute soaks were / are a nice form of meditation to slow heart rate, breathing, and lower blood pressure.  So it had secondary health benefits as well...  but there had to be a better way.

Turns out, my mother-in-law had a better solution all along.  Coconut Oil.  She'd been trying it for some time and kept telling Dr Desert Flower I should use it for my flaking.  On Monday, I switched over from slathering myself in Vanicream, to dipping my fingers into the Trader Joe's virgin, organic, $5 a jar coconut oil, pulling out the hard white paste which instantly begins to melt with body temperature, and put it on my face and arms.  Fantastic!  It feels soothing.  It smells awesome.  It is completely natural.  It calms urticaria (welted up, hives).  It doesn't stain clothing.  And it doesn't generate even 1/10th as much flaking.  Yes, some skin still sloughs off, in a very small amount.  The Vanicream cream was horribly flake causing.  The Vanicream lite, about 1/2 or 1/3rd as much "white snow" generating.  The coconut oil...  less than 10% as much as the Vanicream lite.

Look at the ingredients...  and then work backwards as to what is causing the white flaking.  It's not dead skin.  It's dried lotion... as I was going through crazy amounts of moisturizer every day.  And the Vanicream required re-application several times an hour.  That's several times an hour in my office.  Several times an hour while driving for 3 days to South Carolina.  Several times an hour while flying back from South Carolina to California.  Now, I am applying a very small amount of pure coconut oil to my face and arms about once every 3 or 4 hours.  I have the pleasant fragrance of coconut instead of the medicinal scent of moisturizer (even though it is all hypoallergenic) wafting up to my nostrils.  The coconut oil doesn't seem to block my pores so my face doesn't over-heat and dry out as it did with the moisturizer.  The coconut oil also has antibacterial properties that have helped my irritated, red, dry, cracked eye lids to heal up and stop being so unpleasant.  The coconut oil leaves no paste or dried residue on the skin, that would (inevitably) cause more itching, which would then (in turn) cause more redness, more scratching, more release of histamines and a continuation of the vicious & destructive cycle.

Additionally, the Saturated Fatty Acids (SFAs) that make up 85% of the coconut oil are far better for humans than the poly-unsaturated-fatty-acids that are in some nuts and margarine and most cooking oils.  Not only will I continue applying it to my skin, but I will be cooking with it, and ingesting it as well.

Natural remedies, when proven over centuries, and when not allergic, are typically far better than industrialized, artificial, expensive, patented and mass-marketed commercial solutions.  Stevia is FAR BETTER for humans than Nutrasweet, Sweet-n-low, Equal, or the laboratory created "Truvia" which is really just a pointless recreation of what already grows naturally, stevia rebaudiana.  Coconut oil, I now see the same way.  Far better than aisles and aisles of moisturizers and creams that Target and the local pharmacies all carry.  And much cheaper, much more pleasant, less annoying.

One of my favorite Coconut References...  from Zombieland...   "It's not the taste, it's the consistency!"

Prime Your Pump

Google blogger, for iphones, is not a very good ap.   I tried to upload this while sitting int he back yard, eating almonds, and sipping wine with my wife.  Obviously, it didn't work well.

I came home from a 9 day trip (driving the Mazda to South Carolina to give to Nathan Jr, and then a week of work) to find my back yard fountain non-functional.  Added water to it, no go.  Tripped GFI and reset, no go.  Cleaned the bowl, didn't do it.  I could hear the pump trying to run (click, click, click) but nothing was coming out.  So I thought "what would Bernoulli do?"  I took off the 90 degree spigot off the output, put my lips around the tube, and blew in.  GURGLE GURGLE GURGLE could be heard...  removed my lips...  and Gush!  The water began to flow!  The pump needed to be primed.  Sure, it required mouthwash afterwards, but to got the pump running.  = )

When the licensed electricians I hired installed the GFI properly (pulling new wire, clearing out the conduit under the cement, and sealing it at both ends) and the pump first started running, a LARGE wolf spider came crawling out of the pump output tube (larger than a car key spider) whose body had been blocking the tube...  so I wanted to make sure she had not come back to inhabit the water supply tube   = P  .. No arachnids were harmed in the priming of this fountain pump.

Volvo XC70 Phasers, Photon Torpedos & Tractor Beam

Recently, DDF and I upgraded our 2007 Mazda 6 station wagon to a newer, more modern model.
There was nothing "wrong" with the Mazda 6.  I'd been running full synthetic Castrol oil in it since we bought it with just 50 miles on it.  Regular filter changes, routine inspections, 2 sets of rear brake pads and one set of front pads, and 4 Yokohama tires (the front 2 which wore out faster than the back two when I fell behind on rotations).  It made it to 81 thousand miles without any major (or minor) problems, driving around Arizona, and then to California, and back to Arizona again for a Mardi Gras trip 2 years ago.  It's been a good car, and I will be driving it to our son Nathan Jr's home later this year.

When we got the XC70 home, DDF asked me "what are those things on the windshield?" (pictured above, onto which the rear view mirror was mounted).  I looked at them, and replied "Oh, those are the photo torpedoes, the phasers, and the tractor beam."

Pedestrian Sensor Array, blocking engine cooling air-flow

You see, this Volvo is covered in sensors.  Blind spot sensors, pedestrian sensors, back-up sensors, collision avoidance sensors, a 10,000 image library of "similar images" that the on-board computer tries to compare on-coming obstacles to and determine if it is a threat (person, raccoon, bike, bridge abutment...) or if it is benign (sign post not on a collision course, rock on the side of the road, turtle that has crossed the street, etc...).

This vehicle has more I/O than the first two projects that I ever designed and built back at Michelin Tire in the 80s, combined.  It is a technologically advanced machine, modern, and very impressive to the engineer within me.  And it cost substantially less than Mercedes, Audi, Cadillac, Porche, Land Rover, or BMW.  There's ultrasonic sensors for the curb sensors, digital imaging cameras and range finders for the collision avoidance and image libraries, and at highway speeds, the ultrasonics kick up their range to double as blind-spot vehicle detectors All Around the vehicle.

There's front bumper, rear bumper, left and right front quarter panel near the fog lights, left and right rear quarter panel near the tail pipes, rear camera, front camera, rain sensors for automatic wipers, And all the collision avoidance.  THere's almost so much technology that is Could lull the driver asleep or enable distracted driving, but so far I am enjoying the sensor feedback and driver-interaction.  There are options to turn off the sensor arrays while driving, but I've not found them overly intrusive or annoying yet, so I keep them on.

The XC70 has the same engine as DDF's C70, turbo-charged inline 5 cylinder, 2.5 liter, 250 HP, 266 ft-lbs, dipsticks included. Volvo (along with Audi & BMW) is moving away from dipsticks to this ridiculous "computer controlled maintenance schedule" that is supposed to tell the driver when to add & change oil.  No thanks, I'd Much Rather do it the old-fashioned, more accurate, and less-dealer-interactive way that has worked for over 100 years, with a dipstick and rag.  The 4 cylinder 2 liter engine was fancier, had no dipstick, but was not available on the AWD model, so that's not what we bought.

And, since it's a Station Wagon, and not a SUV [superfluous un-useful vehicle] it fits in my cramped, Tetris-like, barely a 2-car garage.





Sadly, it has Pirellis...  but those will get replaced with Michelins once they quickly wear out. At 235/50 R18s they are the LARGEST tires I've ever had on any vehicle I've owned in my life... but I am secure in my masculinity and have no need to put on Huge, over-sized tires or desire to "sit up higher than everyone else" on the road as apparently so many Umerikuns are afflicted with such a height
jealousy disorder.

I would have been happy buying another Mazda, had they not stopped making station wagons in 2007 for the American market.  I test drove a Toyota Venza, but it was huge, bulky, low tech, unimpressive.  I was interested in an Acura Station Wagon, but Honda decided in 2012 to stop making Acura wagons... and all the used ones I saw were unusually high mileage vehicles, so I passed.

I could not buy an Audi or VW since they falsified their emissions and have a corporate culture of dishonesty.  Looked at the Porche SUVs and laughed at the +$60K price tags. No thanks. (and they're part of the VW corporate culture).  Buick makes no station wagons, just SUVs.  Cadillac stopped making wagons in 2014.  Mercedes wagons are famously prone to chronic mechanical and electronic defects & operability issues.  BMW stopped making a 5 series more than 5 years ago in a wagon, and the 3 series was just too small.  Ford's Flex was far too boxy and far too expensive for what was included when compared to the Volvo.  Mazda's CX-5 sat up too high, never would have fit in my garage, and was too small for what we needed it to do.  I Really Wanted a V70 (we had one back in 2000, and it was a very good car), but Volvo only sells them in Europe, and I was not going to wait 10 to 14 months to have one shipped over, modified to meet California emissions, and then have the Only 2017 V70 in California where I could never find a part for it.   Europe and Australia get all the good wagons.

So with El Niño upon us, combined with the fact that Northern San Diego County is remarkably hilly, an AWD vehicle was not a hard choice to make.  And if we ever drive it to the mountains or off-road, the AWD and 18 inch wheels will give us clearance and traction advantages as well.

The mirrors turn in when I lock it, which is one of the coolest features... no more wondering "did I lock it, or did I forget?".  All 4 windows roll down, and go back up, All The Way, with a single touch - as every car should but most American cars don't.  There's handy grocery bag pop-up holder walls and straps in the cargo area, seat position and mirror position memory tied to his & her keys, blue tooth, USB ports, 12V charging, a large center counsel digital display... it is the fanciest & most advanced vehicle I've ever owned.  And it will likely be the last internal combustion engine car I ever own as well, as a Tesla or other electric vehicle will probably be the next car we get in 2 or 3 presidential election cycles from now.  
This was the sunset that I witnessed the first time I made a blue-tooth call from my phone, through the car, to my parents, while parked next to the PCH, US Route 101, watching the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.  The call came right after I enabled the Sirius Radio, and personalized the dash board display.  

It was almost 80F here today, with a gentle breeze.   Yeah... life doesn't suck here in Southern California.  You should come visit.

Science The Sh*t Out Of It!!

I saw The Martian last week by myself, and then I saw it again with DDF last Sunday.  It takes a very good movie for me to see twice in the theater (The Road, No Country For Old Men, The Hurt Locker, in recent memory... yes, it was lonely living and working in Phoenix).

The Martian is one of those movies that is really truly worth seeing.  I was skeptical going into it, but that skepticism was quickly dashed by excellent science, excellent acting, excellent screen writing, fastidious attention to detail, technical accuracy, and a high value placed upon tenacity, intelligence, survival of the human spirit, grace under pressure, and fantastic movie making.  Even Neil De Grasse Tyson, the "rock star of science" liked it, and he pans / criticizes many science based movies.

The Hermes... next to the ISS currently orbiting the Earth, the longest serving Space Craft in the world.

I liked it the first time, and loved it by the end of the first watching.  By the end of the second watching I have this advisory for parents:
- If you are a parent of a 11 to 17 year old who has show ANY interest in Science or Engineering as a possible vocation, TAKE THEM!!!!  It is better than Apollo 13 was at it's time.  It is realistic, it is brutal (at times), it is heart warming and inspiring.
- If you are a parent of a younger child who cusses like a sailor, or if you, yourself, use "shit", "fuck" and "dick" around the house in front of the children (instead of the anatomically correct "penis" as DDF and I always did when our son was a very little boy a 1/4 of a century ago), then taking them won't be a big surprise.  The word "fuck" is used twice, shouted (appropriately) and then again later.  The word "shit" is used to describe both feces and as an expletive twice & twice as an expletive (2+2 times each, for a total of four times).  And the phrase "dick punch" is introduced by a dismayed Matt Damon upon hearing bad news.  For the record, I don't believe our son ever used the word "dick punch" until perhaps he went to college...  at least he never used it around us.

"According to my alma mater, the University of Chicago, once you grow crops somewhere, you've officially colonized it"

This is a movie for engineers, scientists, mathematicians, program managers who give a damn about the people in their programs and not just profits, botanists, computer scientists, chemists, astrophysicists, fans of the JPL, alumni of the University Chicago, people who believe NASA is not a government boondoggle and that is has INTRINSIC value to all of mankind, fans of international scientific collaborations, thinking humans, explorers, intelligent people, and people who like to see good motion pictures.  It's a story about problem solving, tenacity, valuing intelligence & human life over ideology or politics, and coming together as a species to root for the under-dog.  (as a life long Cubs fan...  I know how that feels).

Excellent quotes that stuck with me:
"I'm going to have to science the shit out of this"
"According to my alma mater, the University of Chicago, they said that once you've planted and harvested crops somewhere, you've officially colonized it...  so I guess, I've colonies Mars"
"Commander Lewis, you have horrible taste in music"
"Rich Purnell is a steely eyed missile man"
"Martinez, no barrel rolls"
"Physicists don't use the word 'fast' when describing someone's velocity"
"You solve one problem, you DO THE MATH, and then if you get it right, you get to solve another problem, and another problem, and then you get to stay alive and come come"

Sean Bean gets to play a role where he neither dies, nor is he a flawed asshole who you want to hate... hooray for Sean Bean as flight director Mitch Henderson!!!

I WISH there had been a movie like this for me, when I was in middle school and High School... instead of just Apocalypse Now, The China Syndrome,  Star Wars and An Office And A Gentleman...  that helped me to form an opinion and vision of what I wanted to do with my life, and who I DID NOT want to be (go into the military, and have Lewis Gusset Jr make my life hell...  oh heck no!!)

Can Powdered Sugar Be Substituted for Granular Sugar?

Can Powdered Sugar Be Substituted for Granular Sugar?

Absolutely.  But it is not a 1:1 ratio.  I had assumed that powdered sugar would be "more dense" or more concentrated, since the grains are smaller, pulverized, powdered, with "less air" between grains of sugar.  I was completely wrong.  Powdered sugar is "fluffed" with air, and corn starch is added so it won't clump.  The correct ratio is 1.75 to 1... so 1.75 cups of powdered sugar = 1 cup of granular sugar.  I mention all of this not because I eat sugar...  I avoid the stuff like poison.  But I do go through alot of it making sugar water for the hummingbirds who believe they own my yard - about a gallon a week.  Powdered sugar SHOULD NOT be used for hummingbird food.

Taken today, out of my office window, before I went on a 2 hour mountain bike ride, (yeah, it doesn't suck to live here)

Hummingbird food is best made with NO RED DYE - the red dye is toxic, and in there for humans.  Hummingbirds only go to the feeder with a hole in it, not the red one.  The multiple brown and clear feeders around my yard attest to that.  DON'T use red dyed hummingbird sugar crystals.  I actually poured my last red dyed nectar down the drain in Orange County when I found out about it, rather than poison the little creatures.

The correct (and simple) way to make hummingbird food is to mix a 1:4 ratio solution.  1 part sugar for 4 parts water.  I use ordinary tap water - no softened water (the birds don't need to salt), not reverse osmosis (RO) or demineralized (demin) water, neither of which I have since I don't live in a laboratory or a power plant. And I mix 2 pints of very warm water with 1/2 a cup a sugar (remember: 2 cups  =  1 pint, 2 pints = 1 quart, 4 quarts = 1 gallon... only in the US and Myanmar...  everywhere else they're on liters).

I ran out of sugar today, making my last batch.  I was Just About to use the copious amounts of powdered sugar Dr Desert Flower has in the pantry, when I read from reputable sources (here and here) that "that's bad" (as Mr Mackey would say).

Whoop Whoop! New Pressure Regulator

As an engineer, I've designed, installed, and changed out pneumatic pressure regulators, hydraulic pressure regulators, and variable digital regulators, as well as check valves, flow dividers, flow regulators, gate valves, needle valves, ball valves, sweated fittings, threaded fittings, and welded fittings.  I had never before changed out a residential home's main pressure regulator.

A residential home is supposed to run from 30 to 70 psi for incoming water pressure.  Over 70 psi there could be more leaks, possible ruptures, and other problems inside of a home.  About a month ago, our house began going "Whoooop!" every time the water was turned off.  Flush a toilet, and after the tank filled, "Whoooop!".  Turn off the sink, "Whooop".  Everytime the dish washer or washing machine filled, "Whoooop!".  So when we got our kitchen sink replaced recently with a nice Hansgrohe I asked the plumber to check the incoming pressure.  It was 90 psi, creeping up to 100 psi.

I needed a 70XL pressure regulator, which Home Depot had for $70.  It fit beautifully into place as a retro fit for the existing failing regulator.  All I needed was a pair of ginormous (larger than 1.5 inches) channel locks, and 20 minutes.  You can do it too.  Read the label on the failing regulator, and get yourself a replacement in-kind.  Don't re-use the old seals, and buy an unmolested package that has not been opened-and-returned, so it has all the required replacement hardware.

If Your Patio Umbrella Breaks...

If the string that lifts your patio umbrella breaks, sure you can spend $100 or $200 or even $300 to get a new umbrella.  But if you've bought a good one (as we did out 4th year in Phoenix, after the brutal Sonoran sun disintegrated our old South Carolina umbrella), and the material is still good, then it is easy to fix.

1 - conduit clamp, $1.50, Home Depot
1 - thumb screw, Ace Hardware, $3.50
1- wing nut, Ace Hardware, 15 cents

For $5.15 I saved our umbrella.  Sure, it doesn't have a "handy crank mechanism" to open and close it, and it requires 5 or 6 lbs of upwardly thrust force to push it up, but it works just fine.  I recycled the existing white plastic sleeve bushing that used to be inside the crank driven lower housing that used to raise and lower the umbrella before the internal string broke, and it makes for a nice friction surface.

Just gotta watch out for the spiders (or bats, as in my friend Ryan's case back in Snellville GA) that may have made the collapsed umbrella their home before opening... but that is the case regardless of if there's a working crank to open it or not.

OC Lifeguard Dispatch

If you see some brain dead tweens repeatedly trying to throw trash from the South end of Strand Beach, into The Headlands Nature Preserve - like say water bottles full of sand - and the bottles keep bouncing off the cliff face but the determined & testosterone driven "hey watch this!" moronic tweens keep trying, call the OC Lifeguard Dispatch number:

1-949-276-5050

And the dispatcher will send over a friendly life guard if one is available to talk with the tweens, and keep them busy until the Orange County Sheriff can arrive and write them (and their parents) a ticket.  Littering in the Headlands, or trespassing off path are violations that carry heavy fines ($1000) and are ticketed by the OC Sheriff.

I was having a very enjoyable beach walk on Monday afternoon when I finished work, that was rudely interrupted by three 12 or 13 year olds in wet suits, rolled down to their wastes, at the SOuth end of Strand Beach in Dana Point, each trying to "out do" the other kid in throwing trash up the cliff and into the cliff top bushes - the same bushes where I've seen active hummingbird nests and swarms of hatchling rufous hummingbirds.  Idiots.  I looked for a parent sitting beside 3 surf boards or body boards, but found none.  I photographed my Anna's Hummingbird buddy guarding his territory on the Strand 'zig zag' and then headed back up Strand Beach towards Salt Creek, where I found 2 life guards and they gave me the dispatch number.

Did I ever do stupid things as a teenager? (like throw grapes from one moving car on I-94 towards another car, to see if we could get them in our friend's mouth, as two cars drove along at 55 mph next to each other)  Yes, I did.  Did I get caught doing it, surrounded by 4 Indiana state trooper squad cars and pulled over, given a warning, and sent on our merry way to the beach?  Yes, I did.  Did I expect a bevy of angry truckers to report a 1970s Honda CVCC and a 1980 Volvo V70 wagon slowing down two lanes of evening rush hour traffic to be upset enough to call in the smokies en masse?  No, but I learned from that experience.  If you're going to do dumb things, don't do them where they affect or inconvenience other people, and don't break any laws while doing so.

The Headlands Cliff is over 100 feet tall (morons not pictured, to the left)

These kids and tourists who defile the beaches with litter and graffiti and lower my quality of life are unpleasant.  I will do my part, as a grumpy old man of Orange County, to try and positively influence their behavior whenever possible, just as my personal anti graffiti campaign in Western Phoenix was very successful during my 5 years there.

On a positive side, I ddi see one older woman in her late 50s or early 60s walking along the beach where waves' edge met sand, picking up arm loads of trash.  Bottles, caps, empty bags... she had her hands (and one arm) full of retrieved trash, and that helped to restore my faith in my fellow citizenry.  If I had any pockets into which I could have put my camera and car key, I would have picked up trash with her - next time I will take a trash bag with me and collect along the way, enjoying both the beauty of the beach and enhancing it with fastidious attention to detail (which I am prone to do, by my nature).

[one of the reasons for posting this OC Dispatch number is so that I can remember it, even when I am without a cell phone, in the future]

Dryer Duct Squeezing

Our new home has a built-in geometric challenge, that we did not notice when we put an offer down on it, had it inspected, closed, and then moved in last month.  We call this challenge "the laundry canyon". You see, the house was built long before front loading washer & driers were common-place consumer appliances.  30 years ago, most houses (if they had built in laundry rooms) had top loading washers and driers.

We figured out Just How Tight the appliances barely fit in the allotted space, when the movers tried to wedge the appliances into their spaces, last, after all the other household goods were unloaded and put into the house.  Front loading washers and driers are deeper than their top loading counter parts.  The additional depth means they "stick out" farther, and in sticking out they block the door to the garage.

As an engineer, I knew that 'proper ventilation' of the exhaust duct is essential.  Decrease or "neck down" the duct cross section, and you're wasting energy, taking longer to dry your clothes, and damaging the dryer over-all.  I knew there were dryer duct conversion kits commercially available, but of course they are Very Slow moving inventory, so retail stores don't carry them.  Lowes online, and Home Depot online did have them.  I wanted to get a reel lawn mower  - human powered instead of gasoline powered - and if I bought both together there would be free shipping, so I got the 28 inch "Spacer Saver Aluminum Duct" Model #UD38S, SKU 202449700 from Home Depot online for $20  (along with an awesome Fiskars Stay Sharp 18 inch push reel lawn mower, but more on that later).  A week later, it arrived.

I had to climb Over the dryer, and lower myself down behind it.  Installed the duct, piped it to the flex tube on the wall, and climb back out, but it saved me 2 critical inches of door clearance, so that the door  to the garage can now open nearly 100% - vs the previous 75% swing prior to installation of the duct.

It was high quality, sturdy gauge aluminum construction.  Well tolerances, easy to install.  I am a happy consumer.

Dr Desert Flower: Home Electronics Specialist

When we moved from Arizona to California on a "corporate move", the packers took all the TV and stereo wires, put them in a big dish pack box, and DUMPED them in a Huge Pile in our living room when we got to California.  I said "you're going to plug all those  back in..  right?"  and the United Van Lines movers said "no, that's not our job".  It was disappointing and aggravating.  When a "corporate minder" called to see how the move was going, I unloaded on her, saying how upset I was that I'd have to waste an entire day untangling the wires, and then figuring out where the heck they all re-connected to which device.  "I can send someone to hook it up, professionally" the minder quickly stated "included in the price of the move" - "certainly, can they come today?" "This afternoon, after 2pm". "Great!"  

A few hours later, a professional electronics installer arrived.  He was an ex-Direct TV installer, ex-Time Warner cable installer, part-time DJ who was very perfectionistic.  He wire tied all the cables, hiding them from site with cable ties, and made "just the right length" connections.  My stereo system had never been so expertly installed.

Then we moved ourselves from the rental house to the bought house, in October.  Non-corporate.  We're paying for it directly out of our pockets, not a corporate move.  So I took pictures of the connections, to remind me what was connected where.  And then I intended to reverse engineer from the photos, and re-establish the connections once we were in the new house.

One thing lead to another, and I put "functioning stereo" low down on my list of things to do at move-in, after "get garage clean enough to park cars in it" and "adjust sprinklers so that they do not soak the entire pool deck and furniture rendering pool deck uselessly wet" and "unpack my office so that I can work the next Monday morning" (we moved on a Friday).  

Dr Desert Flower Really does not like to work around the house in silence.  She craves, she needs, a musical soundtrack to keep her moving, make her feet want to dance, liven the mood.  So while I was occupied elsewhere doing many other things, she took the pictures here, and single-handedly re-connected the entire stereo system herself.  This was no small task, in that the home we bought has "surround sound" in the walls of the family room, and speakers attached to the outside walls pointing at the pool.  She got it all to work, using just her wits, patience and these photos, and saved me a good 4 to 6 hours of my day, with lots and lots of frustration in trying to do it myself.  I did not know my wife had it in her to be so adept at electronic connections, but I am happy to see she could and she did.  I am a lucky man.

I've Stopped Poisoning My Hummingbirds

As anyone who has visited JustJoeP in the past knows, I am a big fan of hummingbirds.  We had them in Phoenix.  We have even more species and individual humming birds who visit out yard here in Southern California.  I've doubled the number of feeders, and have enjoyed many a moment watching these tiny aerobatic creatures drinking just a few feet away from me.  Some would say I post so much stuff about hummingbirds sometimes that it is aggravating (but it's my blog, and I'll post what I want to).

So when I was in Target back in August, and I saw lots and lots of hummingbird food on clearance, I snatched it up.  I had been looking for a refillable hummingbird bottle to keep in the fridge, so that I would not have to waste a partial batch when refilling the feeders, and I was out of the dry crystals.  I bought a box of the concentrated bags, a large plastic container of premixed, and a moderately sized container of concentrate, thinking "this will last me about a month, at the rate we're burning through it currently".  Then I started to read about red dye toxicity, and some friends of DDF and I have a child who had been suffering from severe allergies until red dye was removed from their son's diet, and viola, he improved immensely.

Being the engineer husband of a human geneticist, I've learned to trust peer reviewed scientific literature.  NCBI is my portal into the world of scientific studies that are sometimes so complicated that it takes me 2 or 3 re-reads to understand what the paper is trying to say.  So before I dove into NCBI, I checked Cornell University's hummingbird page.  Cornell has a wealth of bird knowledge online, including graphic descriptions of many species, bird call wav files, and other ornithological reference material.  Cornell said (politically correctly) "Never add red food color to sugar water, and never use commercial mixes that have red dyes. Nectar in flowers is clear, and red food coloring may be harmful for hummingbirds."

hmmmm...  "Never".  Ok.  I began to suspect there's a reason to dig deeper.   So I began googling.

The hummingbird food manufacturers (like Perky Pet) have an all-out media blitz to say that there's 'no scientific proof that red dye hurts hummingbirds' ... and legally, they're correct.  No researcher has taken the time to do a longitudinal study on the 1-to-5 year lives of hummingbirds who consume a diet high in red dyed human-provided nectar, vs hummingbirds who drink only from flowers to get their carbohydrates.  First of all, it would be very difficult to do, and secondly, there's large corporate interests (Perky Pet / Woodstream, et al) who do not want bird enthusiasts simply making their own inexpensive sugar water (1/4 cup of sugar to one cup of water) when they could be buying it from a corporation.

An example of the "friendly reply" you get from Perky Pet's ROn O'Kane is here (link):
http://www.hummingbirds.net/dye.html
The editorial response to the PP reply is somewhat emotional...  logical and factual, yes, but also a little emotional, so I looked up more studies and factual websites, here (Wild Birds Unlimited), here (gentle world), here (National Geo), and here (snopes).  The more I looked, the more saddened I became... it was becoming increasingly obvious that I was not helping my little feathered friends by providing them with needlessly red dyed nectar, and I was probably poisoning them.  NCBI drove the final nails into red dye's coffin:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6636206

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6314928

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6132603

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22996819

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22482698

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20667460

Yes, those were rats or flies, and yes, the they were fed enormous amounts (up to 10% of their total diet) of synthetic red dyes, and they suffered from all sorts of metabolic and reproductive issues... but the "natural red dyes" like carmine are also used by the little creatures who make it to ward off predators and make themselves distasteful to predators.  So why lace it into hummingbird nectar when the hummingbirds don't need it, are not attracted to the nectar (they're drinking from the red "blossom", not the bottle with red in it that the humans fill), and other creatures (rats and humans) tend to not do so well when they ingest large quantities of the stuff?

With a heavy heart, I threw out all my hummingbird food, and poured the liquid down the drain.   I will use the empty containers (well washed out) to store refrigerated batches for short amounts of time between refills of homemade nectar.  But I will no longer be buying corporately made hummingbird food.  Instead I will be making my own.  Per Cornell University:  1/4 of a cup of sugar to one cup of water. No red dye.

My apologies to all the Rufous, Anna's, Costa's, Black Chinned, Allen's, Broad Tailed, and Lucifer hummingbirds whose tiny families I may have adversely affected in the past.  In the new house where we are moving next week, there are a wide variety of flowering plants, and a 6-blossom hummingbird feeder in the yard, to which my six other four-blossom feeders will be added.  Only clear sugar water will be used, going forward.  No more amaranth or carmine, or their synthetic variants.

Arizona Natural Hazards

Last Friday I was listening to KJZZ online, and saw a link to this at the bottom of the screen.  Very interesting stuff, if you are a property owner in Arizona.  It lists all the fault lines, active seismic zones, potential fire prone areas, flood plains (all of Phoenix), and major earth quakes.  It also shows a little bit of Southern California as well.  Very useful stuff.   I don't know if any other states have done this, but kudos to Arizona for publishing it along with FEMA.

http://data.azgs.az.gov/hazard-viewer/   (you may have to REFRESH this a 2nd time to get it to show on your computer)

Raise Your Bike Seat!

So I go one a 5 hour, intense bike ride today, in Orange County.  I visit Aliso Summit, Aliso Creek Regional Park, Niguel Regional Park, and get home 5 hours later.   4 hours into the intense ride, I experience INTENSE quadriceps cramps for the first time in my life.  But it is NOT all 4 quads on each leg, it is just the inner two nearest to the groin, and the outer two, near the IT bands.

I call my son, who rides bike Every Day of His Life, and ask him "if my seat is not high enough, could this cause my outer quads to cramp?"  "Yes Dad, your inner two quads are the strongest ones, your leg should be straight or nearly straight on the down stroke of each pedal."  Well...  my leg was at most about 165 degrees out of 180 on each down stroke, and I had just finished riding nearly 7 miles on a dirt road that was covered in recently shredded "bamboo like" vegetation that Orange County is trying to eradicate from the Aliso Creek river bed.  My pedaling was "at best" about 80% efficient, with 20% being wasted on spinning my back tire in the shredded plant matter.  In my entire life, I've Never experienced dehabilitating quad cramps that LOCKED UP my legs like I did today after getting off the shredded path.   My bike seat is NOW raised to the point where my leg is about 178 degrees straight on a down stroke (about 2 inches higher than it was, the previous 4.5 hours).

Lots or dark rum,a potassium pill, and an hour of hot tub soaking later, I am cramp free and feeling much better, thank you  =)

The Crazy Busy Apple Store On A Sunday

So Dr Desert Flower needed to return some things to several of the Mission Viejo mall stores, I signed up for a Apple "Open Training" class, so I could work / blog / email in the mall with the free Wifi and not have to hang around various retail Service counters waiting for her.  The Apple store is normally pretty busy, but on a Sunday, it is more akin to Bedlam... or the week-before- Christmas-busyness, compared to the much more tranquil atmosphere during the weekday afternoons.

Now, if I wanted to have total serenity, I guess I could go down to the Windows store, where there are very few customers, tons of employees standing around with not much to do...  but I don't think they'd welcome my AirBook in there with open arms.

The Giant butcher-block-like training tables have equally massive & solid legs on the ends.  While this makes for excellent stability, it also blocks off the end of the table so that only 4 people can crowd around it, instead of 5 using the table more effectively. But it still works pretty well.

I took this photo as I arrived with my Sony camera.  I plopped the card into the USB reader, copied it to my "pics" folder, and then tried to find it with my Google Blogger.  No can do.   Google Blogger doesn't like it.  But if I "open with" Firefox, copy the address, and then cut-and-paste that address into the Blogger "Choose files" then it finds it.

I Just now showed this conundrum to "Shannon" our friendly trainer,and she pointed out the hand Mac feature inside of Finder that lets one sort by date created, date modified, name, kind, application, etc... which is Much More handy than the old PC way of "open in Firefox" or "open in IE8" or wherever, and cut-and-psate.   This picture was 'hiding in plain sight' in the middle of the pack, sorted alphabetically until I toggled the sort-by display setting.

Learn something new everyday.  =)