Beautiful Day

Busting blue skies, kids in shorts, more runners than dogs.
 #LateDecember #SouthEnd

Open Source Wrench

Did you read that NASA emailed the space station a wrench? Of course not an actual wrench, but the instructions for a 3D printer to make a wrench. More marketing than actual utility, but still it was an interesting proof of concept. When the hardware store is not around the corner, a 3D printer is a nice option.

Here is Commander Barry Wilmore with the resulting wrench.

Well the good guys at NASA uploaded the instructions for the wrench for the world to have on their website. I downloaded and printed the same wrench. It took about an hour to print, and is more like a Fisher Price object than a NASA object. Here is my printer printing a clone of the wrench.

Before leaving the bay, I measured the drain holes of my sailboat with a micrometer, then when back in Boston printed a couple of drains, and recently Francois installed them for me. Thanks Francois! 

Since it seems to fit, I have uploaded the instructions to a web site where other owners of my same sailboat can download the same drain.

Hey Hey Hey

Merry Christmas !

Note to self: Two fried chickens provides ample left overs.
#SmallKitchensRule

Nemo Cocktail

2 parts bourbon
1 part limoncello
Splash of soda water
Thanks Al for the glasses and decanter!

BBBB

Bologna, Brie, Butter, Bread

Seeing the Invisible

As humans we only see a small sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum. I am not sure of the evolutionary advantage of this, perhaps too much information would confuse us.Below is a chart showing the known spectrum and what we see.

Just past the visible light region is the Infrared spectrum. Most of the thermal energy radiated by objects near room temperature is in the infrared spectrum. 

Fortunately we can detect infrared and map the heat to colors so that it appears we can see infrared. Economics has brought the price of these cameras down to close to dirt cheap, and now can be found as attachments for you smart phone.

I am a sucker for solutions looking for problems, so I snatched an early release model from Seek Thermal

There of course is an associated app with the camera that does all sorts of interesting stuff.

Here is a picture of an intersection by the big Church down the street. Ok the resolution is not that great, but you can clearly see the outline of a Van and the camera has detected the hottest spot at 194 degrees near the engine. The coolest spot in the image is the street at 48 degrees. Orange is hotter than blue. So you can also see the heat escaping from the windows the church.

Here is the outside of our building with the screen split, left half normal, right half thermal. Again the warmest spot is the windows in the basement.

Here are the thermal footprints on the floor left after walking in my sock feet. Thank goodness Cindy cannot see in the infrared, my visible smudges are bad enough.

So where are we going with all these solutions to non existent problems, not a clue, but it does stir the imagination of the possible.

Thanks for Wikipedia for the first image and some of the wording on the spectrum.

Ain't your mommas biscuits and gravy

Eggs and salmon

Bam

Schnitzel for Breakfast

Yes sir

What says Merry Christmas more then homemade Limoncello and a 3-D printed label?

Sunset @4:11

Head on a platter?

Cafeteria Lunch

Venison stew, herbed polenta, baked apple

Public Garden never sweeter

The Taj's 2014 gingerbread creation 🎄

Plate 1 of n

For large n.
European breakfast at its best.

Speedo Santa Run

Charity run. 500 runners each raising no less than $400 each, brrrr