Following on from last year’s entry, here is this year’s office pumpkin carving contest.
Following on from last year’s entry, here is this year’s office pumpkin carving contest.
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Category: Fun
Things that make me chuckle.
Chemical-Free
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Now that I’ve got some free time, I may as well get this blog posting again. Let’s start back off with something light.
I ran across an amusing article in Nature Chemistry recently entitled “A comprehensive overview of chemical-free consumer products”. Here’s what it says:
Reindeer
This guy was waiting for me at Denver Airport last year. I wonder if he’ll be back this year?
This guy was waiting for me at Denver Airport last year. I wonder if he’ll be back this year?
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Pumpkin
It’s still Halloween on this coast (for a few more minutes, at least), so here’s my entry in the office pumpkin carving contest. Oh dear…
It’s still Halloween on this coast (for a few more minutes, at least), so here’s my entry in the office pumpkin carving contest. Oh dear…
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Your horoscope
A non-zodaic-specific horoscope for you today (courtesy of Andy Zaltzman):
With the moon once again aligned with bits of the sky and the sun pointing outwards, with Jupiter in one of its gassy phases, you could be set to drink a cup of tea or other liquid at some point next week, while someone you know fails to tell you about something they didn’t think was really worth bothering you with. Be careful not to eat poisonous berries or jump into a crocodile pit at your local zoo – with Pluto still further away than Mars, and Saturn as big as it normally is, that will only end badly.
Logo
Solid Brass (somewhat) recently played as part of a high school concert – good way to get our name out there, and nice outreach to students. The director asked me to send him some copy to put into the program. I sent him back a bulleted list of all the things he might want to include. The concert day comes, and I get a look at the program…
Continue reading “Logo”
Loudspeaker Design
I’ll often come across new acoustical inventions that will “change the world,” and usually these claims have next to no basis in reality (I will save the “cone of silence” for a future post – it’s a running gag in our office). There is some misunderstanding (if I’m being generous) or blatant misrepresentation of what’s actually going on and what is actually possible.
The Acoustical Society of America publishes quick reviews of recent acoustical patents. I saw this one for a novel loudspeaker design and literally burst out laughing.
This loudspeaker design is a good example of wishful wizardry in full bloom… [At] low frequencies, the speakers are driven “push-pull,” allowing the back chamber volume to be reduced to almost nothing. Of course, the resulting low frequency output is also reduced to almost nothing. That side effect is not mentioned in the patent.
Disturbing Laughter
This little gem comes from a 1967 governmental document on noise control. I feel that the author’s bias may have been peeking through a bit here…
“…children’s laughter or other equally disturbing noises.”
