Miscellaneous

 

Three "D" Printing

A strange shape described by mathematician Lord Kelvin in 1871 and predicted to behave unusually in a fluid has finally been fully studied in the real world thanks to 3D printing – and it seems Kelvin may have been wrong. The behaviour of the shape, called an isotropic helicoid, has been described in fluid dynamics textbooks, but it hadn’t been directly measured until now.

An isotropic helicoid must experience the same amount of drag from a fluid regardless of its orientation, like a sphere, but also rotate as it moves through the fluid. So if you dropped an isotropic helicoid into a tank of a viscous liquid, it should spin as it sinks, similar to the way a propeller turns.

Greg Voth at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and his colleagues 3D printed five different shapes that should be isotropic helicoids, each a little more than a centimetre across, and dropped them into a tank of silicone oil. They were unable to detect rotation in any of them, meaning the predictions for an isotropic helicoid may be wrong.

“You’ve got to guess that somebody else has tried this in 150 years – in Kelvin’s original paper, it even sounds like he tried it,” says Voth. “I suspect that people have tried to fabricate these particles, but they were limited by defects in the fabrication so they simply didn’t publish, so the hypothesis of this behaviour has stayed with us.”

Upon delving into the hydrodynamic effects in play, the researchers calculated that there was almost certainly a link, or coupling, between the movement and rotation of their particles, meaning they fulfilled Kelvin’s criteria. But this was far too small to have any detectable effect.

“The coupling is tiny, but it still exists,” says Voth. He and his team are now working on building an isotropic helicoid where that coupling could be measurable, which would finally vindicate Lord Kelvin’s idea.  READ MORE

Turtle and Baby Seal

 

Wild Trees

Why do trees grow so much better in the wild than in your yard?
Paul Cappiello
Many years ago when I was a University of Illinois grad student, a local resident wrote to the department’s Cooperative Extension office with a question. After a bit of a preamble, the question emerged ... “How long do I need to compost fresh cricket manure before using it to fertilize my plants?”

Well, those of us self-appointed to the horticultural glitterati had a good laugh. I mean I had completed a four-year college curriculum in horticulture and a whole year of grad school. These silly people and their silly questions. ... Obviously, the letter writer had spent too much time in the sun. Of course what she meant to ask about was chicken manure (not an uncommon organic fertilizer), not cricket manure. Who on earth would ever amass enough cricket manure to have to worry about composting it before using it as fertilizer?  READ MORE

Black Bears

 

French Press Coffee

I've used a French press to brew my morning coffee for years, mostly because it's inexpensive and easy, but also because I like a rich, viscous brew. When a friend bought me a pourover kit for my birthday a few years ago, I quickly embraced the meditative ritual of repeatedly saturating coffee grounds with hot water from that elegant, gooseneck kettle; plus, I liked the cleaner, brighter cup it yielded. Alas, life got in the way again, as it so often does, and I went back to setting and forgetting it with the ole French press.

Over time, I've unriddled a few secrets to a better French press brew. I always start with whole-bean coffee, which I coarsely grind. I like using filtered water, and I always steep the grounds for exactly five minutes.

Seeking some more professional tips, I called on Bailey Manson, innovation manager at Chicago-based Intelligentsia. I did so sheepishly, knowing that Manson is a pourover-coffee lifer who's dedicated his career to unearthing impeccably extracted brews. I also knew for those very reasons that there might be no one better to ask.  READ MORE

Dogs & Cats

 

Muscles

 

Mesmerizing

 

Morning Cooking

Since the weather in East TN has been fairly humid these last few days and it seems that this humidity is going to continue, I have taken the liberty to cook my future meals in the morning rather than in the afternoon or evening when the house has become overwhelmed by the outside heat.

My present concern is spoilage or waste pertaining to the vegetables that are growing in our garden and having to throw them away because we cannot eat them fast enough...  these veges are:

• cumcumbers
• squash
• zucchini
• pepper
• tomatoes

SO...  I have decided to make as much soup as I can from those ingredients that can be easily frozen in small plastic containers should I not be able to consume it all...  to eat at a later date...  and, the good news is that I have not had to freeze anything...  YET.

Cumcumber Soup

Dice the cucumbers into a cooking pot.  Pour in 2 cans of diced potatoes.  Roughly chop up 1-2 onions and put in pot.  Add a tablespoon or two of garlic.  Add a couple of tablespoons of Greek Plain Yogurt...  and, one box of frozen spinach & artichoke dip...  add coarse pepper and salt to one's individual taste.

Cook on normal heat until all ingredients are soft then using a submersible mixer, mix up the entire contents until it is almost as smooth as a baby's ass...  let cool and put into containers that go in the frig to eat over the next couple of days.

For me, I used about 4-5 cumcumbers (actually I lost count and I'm guessing).

I have 5 dinners ready to put into the microwave and eat over the next 5 days...  and, any longer than that is questionable...  especially if one grows tired of what one is easting.

My calorie intake for each meal is 170.

My calorie goal each day is 1,600 to 1,800

If one has 3 meals plus a couple of snacks, then that's about 400 to 450 calories per meal including the two snacks as one meal.

My morning coffee and capuccinno mix accounts for 250 calories each day...  so, now I need to look at my meals being right around 400 or less...

Capital Hill

 

Every Morning...

 Click link below image to watch video...

How to Entirely Empty Your Bowels Each Morning {1 Min Routine}

I'm Fine

 

Laugh Together

 

Tired as Usual

 

A Few GIF's

 

Unusual - Curious - Entertaining

 

Our Right To Repair

DURING AN OPEN commission meeting Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission voted unanimously to enforce laws around the Right to Repair, thereby ensuring that US consumers will be able to repair their own electronic and automotive devices.

The FTC’s endorsement of the rules is not a surprise outcome; the issue of Right to Repair has been a remarkably bipartisan one, and the FTC itself issued a lengthy report in May that blasted manufacturers for restricting repairs. But the 5 to 0 vote signals the commission’s commitment to enforce both federal antitrust laws and a key law around consumer warranties—the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act—when it comes to personal device repairs.

The vote, which was led by new FTC chair and known tech critic Lina Khan, also comes 12 days after President Joe Biden signed a broad executive order aimed at promoting competition in the US economy. The order addressed a wide range of industries, from banks to airlines to tech companies. But a portion of it encouraged the FTC, which operates as an independent agency, to create new rules that would prevent companies from restricting repair options for consumers.

“When you buy an expensive product, whether it's a half-a-million-dollar tractor or a thousand-dollar phone, you are in a very real sense under the power of the manufacturer,” says Tim Wu, special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy within the National Economic Council. “And when they have repair specifications that are unreasonable, there's not a lot you can do."

Wu added that Right to Repair has become a "visceral example" of the enormous imbalance between workers, consumers, small businesses, and larger entities.  READ MORE

Hang On Snoopy

Our Health

Top 10 Most Common Health Issues

Physical Activity and Nutrition
Overweight and Obesity
Tobacco
Substance Abuse
HIV/AIDS
Mental Health
Injury and Violence
Environmental Quality
Immunization
Access to Health Care

Physical Activity and Nutrition
Research indicates that staying physically active can help prevent or delay certain diseases, including some cancers, heart disease and diabetes, and also relieve depression and improve mood. Inactivity often accompanies advancing age, but it doesn't have to. Check with your local churches or synagogues, senior centers, and shopping malls for exercise and walking programs. Like exercise, your eating habits are often not good if you live and eat alone. It's important for successful aging to eat foods rich in nutrients and avoid the empty calories in candy and sweets.

Overweight and Obesity
Being overweight or obese increases your chances of dying from hypertension, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, respiratory problems, dyslipidemia and endometrial, breast, prostate, and colon cancers. In-depth guides and practical advice about obesity are available from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Tobacco
Tobacco is the single greatest preventable cause of illness and premature death in the U.S. Tobacco use is now called "Tobacco dependence disease." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that smokers who try to quit are more successful when they have the support of their physician.

Substance Abuse
Substance abuse usually means drugs and alcohol. These are two areas we don't often associate with seniors, but seniors, like young people, may self-medicate using legal and illegal drugs and alcohol, which can lead to serious health consequences. In addition, seniors may deliberately or unknowingly mix medications and use alcohol. Because of our stereotypes about senior citizens, many medical people fail to ask seniors about possible substance abuse.

HIV/AIDS
Between 11 and 15% of U.S. AIDS cases occur in seniors over age 50. Between 1991 and 1996, AIDS in adults over 50 rose more than twice as fast as in younger adults. Seniors are unlikely to use condoms, have immune systems that naturally weaken with age, and HIV symptoms (fatigue, weight loss, dementia, skin rashes, swollen lymph nodes) are similar to symptoms that can accompany old age. Again, stereotypes about aging in terms of sexual activity and drug use keep this problem largely unrecognized. That's why seniors are not well represented in research, clinical drug trials, prevention programs and efforts at intervention.

Mental Health
Dementia is not part of aging. Dementia can be caused by disease, reactions to medications, vision and hearing problems, infections, nutritional imbalances, diabetes, and renal failure. There are many forms of dementia (including Alzheimer's Disease) and some can be temporary. With accurate diagnosis comes management and help. The most common late-in-life mental health condition is depression. If left untreated, depression in the elderly can lead to suicide. Here's a surprising fact: The rate of suicide is higher for elderly white men than for any other age group, including adolescents.

Injury and Violence
Among seniors, falls are the leading cause of injuries, hospital admissions for trauma, and deaths due to injury. One in every three seniors (age 65 and older) will fall each year. Strategies to reduce injury include exercises to improve balance and strength and medication review. Home modifications can help reduce injury. Home security is needed to prevent intrusion. Home-based fire prevention devices should be in place and easy to use. People aged 65 and older are twice as likely to die in a home fire as the general population.

Environmental Quality
Even though pollution affects all of us, government studies have indicated that low-income, racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to live in areas where they face environmental risks. Compared to the general population, a higher proportion of elderly are living just over the poverty threshold.

Immunization
Influenza and pneumonia and are among the top 10 causes of death for older adults. Emphasis on Influenza vaccination for seniors has helped. Pneumonia remains one of the most serious infections, especially among women and the very old.

Access to Health Care
Seniors frequently don't monitor their health as seriously as they should. While a shortage of geriatricians has been noted nationwide, URMC has one of the largest groups of geriatricians and geriatric specialists of any medical community in the country. Your access to health care is as close as URMC, offering a menu of services at several hospital settings, including the VA Hospital in Canandaigua, in senior housing, and in your community.