Idiot who licked toilets test positive

Citizen Free Press ^ | March 23 2020 | Kane

[Rebelbase]

A kid who licked toilets as part of the #CoronaVirusChallenge says he's now in the hospital with coronavirus. @gayshawnmendes was also just suspended from twitter

[Tax-chick]

Good morning. We may be doing indoor things today. I heard rain overnight, and it’s pretty gray outside.

[ArGee]

Good morning. Happy Friday Eve!

Puppy made it through the night. She wants to know why we never told her about boiled chicken and rice before.

Her system seems to be mostly back to normal. So it was apparently just a passing thing.

[Monkey Face]

When we had beach property in WA, we had a lot of gray days, but they were good days, and the kids and the dog loved being there. Lots of indoor games were stored in the RV for just such days. Wish I was on the beach, now!

[Monkey Face]

Happy Friday Eve to you as well!!

It may have been anxiety, since it came on the heels of her vet’s visit. But its good to know that she’s on the mend. I’m in favor of happy endings!

Since its been so many years of not having a puppy, I had forgotten all about chicken and rice. Good choice!

[null and void]

*GROAN*

[null and void]

Seven O'clock in the morning and I'm riding the overnight train.
I've got ten tons of luggage but I left it behind when I came.
I look at my watch, says September seventeen.
We're riding past some place where I've never been.
and I'm waving through the window as we go.
Somebody says "Well, hey, what are you waving at?"
Well what have I got to lose?
Somebody might wave back...

Happy Birthday Vendome!

[null and void]

Apparently California’s second hand smoke has made it to Europe.

Judging by how many suburb lights I can see from the Hillside Hacienda, we’ve got about a mile’s visibility.

Much better than yesterday.

[null and void]

Just for fun.

I used to do PZT processing...

September 2020 Newsletter: Planet-Scale Processing of Silicates

In the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains, near Mammoth Lakes, California, is a geological phenomenon: a cliffside lined with thousands of 10-20 meter tall pillars of basalt. The organized rock columns are so incongruous with the surrounding high altitude pine forest that they seem supernatural. Shepherds who frequented the area in the 1800’s named it the “Devil’s Woodpile.” Today, it’s a popular park called the Devils Postpile National Monument.

To a MEMS engineer, this odd rock cliff bears a striking resemblance to

the columnar grains in thin film PZT or ZnO. What a mind bender to see

familiar shapes from SEM images towering overhead.

Like PZT or ZnO, a special set of environmental conditions created the Devils Postpile. It was not, however, the result of grain growth; instead, the Postpile formed from a pool of lava which then cracked into a network of polygons as it cooled. (More like misprocessed thick photoresist!)

A scale factor of 20 million: PZT with columnar grains (top)

compared to basalt columns (bottom).

Sources: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b16470, http://www.nps.gov/depo

On top of the Devils Postpile, one particular area has a smooth surface

which reveals the cross-sections of the polygonal columns, 50-100 cm in width. This most unusual stone patio was formed by the water, pressure, and motion of a passing Ice Age glacier, a massive-scale version of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). Basalt rock is primarily composed of SiO2 (45-52% by weight) and other metal oxides, such as TiO2, Al2O3 and MgO; all familiar MEMS materials, just in a much larger format.

Ancient CMP: cross-section of basalt columns, polished flat

by a glacier. Note the fine lines that were created by

grit trapped in the moving glacier.

[Monkey Face]

We have some smoke here, too, this morning. Some days we can see it, other days we can taste it, but most days, I just feel it and am very grateful for inhalers and coconut oil capsules, which help my lungs to get rid of the debris.

It makes me wonder if we’ll ever get back to “normal.”

I hate orange haze.

[Monkey Face]

I had no idea there were some of those here. (In the US of A.) I thought Ireland was the only place, but on checking, I see there are some in Turkey and in other places. Very interesting! Thanks, Nully!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt#Columnar_basalt

[null and void]

You never saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind?

[NicknamedBob]

"Note the fine lines that were created by grit trapped in the moving glacier."

Hard to get a glacier to wipe its feet before it strolls through your kitchen.

[ArGee]

SCORE!

[ArGee]

How are things, Nully? I haven’t heard from you in a while.

[null and void]

Mom comes back from her family visit tomorrow, haven’t quite finished all the things easier fix without help...

[ArGee]

The heat is on.

[Monkey Face]

Yes, and was bored out of my skull. But that wasn’t even a thought when I began to look for basalt formations.

But to fine tune that a little, I saw the Devil’s Tower several times as a kid, so the movie was a lot on the “meh” side. (Sorry. When you have things like that in your back yard, you tend to take them for granted.)

[ArGee]

I remember close encounters. That was back in the days when I would see a TV ad for an alien problem and be disappointed when it was about Mexican border crossers.

I remember thinking that SOMEBODY has to make an alien movie that’s any good.

That’s the trouble with decent science in a movie or TV show, it sucks all the fun out of it.

[ArGee]

I’m going to, just because I almost never get to any more.

[ArGee]

!