Raining, most likely. Cooler though. [75F and another 0.56 inches after midnight]
Today is my first volunteer day of the year at the kids’ school. I’ll be leading the 4th grade “Hands On Science” enrichment classes. Then tomorrow, I’ll be volunteering as a helper to the 5th grade program. Neither of my kids is in 4th this year, so I’m practicing for next year 😉 and the year after that with 5th…
I edited the power point and added some slides explaining “science” and “scientists” and what they do. Toned down the Metric system cheerleading a bit too. After all, the number of countries that put a man on the moon and brought him home again, that use the metric system is still ZERO. The chinese found a puddle of goo and the indians discovered it’s harder than it looks, and neither was manned anyway…
Yeah I get it, we use metric in science. Mostly. 80-something percent of our kids use the metric system in their home countries and at home, so that makes it easier, I guess. Like soccer, demographics is destiny.
My ham radio lunch follows immediately after my volunteering, and is on the other side of town, so I hope it’s not to flooded.
Rained steadily til at least midnight, with the gauge showing 1.59 inches before I went to bed. One power blink, and the sound a transformer makes when it shorts, sort of a whooommmmff noise, and I was off to bed.
Hope the financial world holds it together a bit longer…
n
added- the flood control district sensors show more than 5 inches in the south east of town, Friendswood [some parts of Friendswood are showing 7,5 and 7.9 inches of rainfall in the last 24 hours] and Clearlake areas. They are at the outflow end of our bayou system. Currently the map is showing very little rain in the Northwest, the start of our bayou system. The channel map is showing the waterways in SW are coming up and are in “warning” status. At least they aren’t looking at the whole bayou system draining into them tonight, but only have to deal with mostly local rainfall. [Two of the monitored bayous are out of their banks this morning]
https://www.harriscountyfws.org/
77f now and headed to 99f this afternoon. No rain in the forecast for a few days.
Moved some boxes and bins around last night to stage them for the pre-move activity next week. Also wrapped 6 more paintings in bubble wrap for the pre-move. We must have 20 or more large prints and paintings we have collected in our decade abroad. I think we can get them all in the pre-move and clear out the stacks in the bedroom.
Imperial and variants of this is going to have the way of Reaumur, they had a temporary reprieve due technology, but, alas, temporary
cheers
I don’t think this is a Metric / Imperial issue but simply a transcription error. And what an error!! Luckily the US builder caught it before completion.
https://o.canada.com/news/spain-builds-submarine-70-tons-too-heavy?
fbclid=IwAR1D1Zrs_Xg0FCGsJR6SIXSQDc0oKlOQAEEJD6gB6uUXOrfWlJtjIeZSYuE
@Nick, your title for today has the wrong date for Wednesday, it is the 18th. No wonder you’re busy.
Everybody, this is a great cartoon truth by A.F. Branco:
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-a-safe-bet/
WRT metric system, I recall when NASA mandated it be used in a satellite for Venus orbiting and landing. Due a mistake in conversion, then it just smashed in.
Fortunately, on the launch vehicle projects to which I was assigned, we were allowed to use USCS mistake free. Yuup, our first stage fuel load specifications were just like buying gas, like 7,258 gallons from a typical fuel pump. First stage diameter of 8 ft. and second stage propellants driven by 4,000 psia He source.
Ain’t it the truth, Mr. DadCooks.
@Nick, your title for today has the wrong date for Wednesday, it is the 18th. No wonder you’re busy.
@Nick is testing our powers of observation !
“Imelda hammering the upper Texas coast, Houston mostly spared for now”
https://spacecityweather.com/imelda-hammering-the-upper-texas-coast-houston-mostly-spared-for-now/
I got about four inches of rain at my Sugar Land house yesterday. I am not sure what my Rosenberg house got. Some areas of Houston got hammered pretty hard:
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-weather/article/Flash-flood-threat-from-Imelda-continues-for-much-14448666.php
Swan Eaters: poor Jabberwocky !
https://www.gocomics.com/swan-eaters/2019/09/18
I on the other hand, hate rats. I’ve killed four roof rats in the house in the last six years.
Huh, I am surprised. Looks like California will be the first state to secede from the Union this time. I always thought it would be Texas. “Trump to bar California from setting vehicle emission rules: sources”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-emissions/trump-to-bar-california-from-setting-vehicle-emissions-rules-sources-idUSKBN1W224L
“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration will announce as early as Wednesday it is revoking California’s authority to set its own greenhouse gas and vehicle fuel efficiency standards and barring all states from setting such rules, two auto industry officials said on Tuesday.”
Dilbert: read the manual
https://dilbert.com/strip/2019-09-18
Why do user manuals exist ?
Freefall: the space ship refuses authority
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3400/fc03332.htm
So, wotcha going to do ? In actuality, this is a good thing because Florence is in charge.
BTW, welcome to the time when AI’s are independent and free thinking.
“Imelda shifting north, risk shifting east of Houston”
https://spacecityweather.com/imelda-shifting-north-risk-shifting-east-of-houston/
I am getting the feeling that Imelda may be hanging around for a few days, continuously blessing us with rain.
Huh, I am surprised. Looks like California will be the first state to secede from the Union this time. I always thought it would be Texas.
California isn’t going anywhere, but one can dream.
The state is way too dependent on the printing presses in the basement of the Eccles Building, especially to maintain the inflated real estate values and what stock valuations of what passes for “industry” in Silicon Valley these days.
@MrAtoz said:
And I am not so naive to not realize that standing out of sight behind Mr. Taxpayer there are a fair number of pseudo-Republicans with their hands’ in his back pockets.
Why do user manuals exist ?
For the clueless user to scribble notes on the cover of the unopened manual while the software’s creator with extreme patience and through gritted teeth explains yet again face-to-face what the software does, a waste of the software creator’s time which the software manual was supposed to make unnecessary.
The voice of experience speaking here.
Doing Physics While Black:
Ah, well. Physics is pretty much moribund nowadays, anyway. 🙁
Good catch on the date! I do that part manually, and I’m doing my main post at night before bed most nights. I put today’s date in automatically. The date in the URL is inserted by WP and is based on RBT’s setting of Eastern time for the blog. Because I write the post late, it is usually tomorrow as far as WP and the blog software are concerned. I picked that date format based on Bob’s and have regularized it and stuck with it (spacing, caps, style of abbreviations, etc.) Funny what a person will focus on to avoid actual writing…
Usually the post just jumps from my fingers to the page, but sometimes it’s like pulling teeth. I do get cutsie with the title more often than Bob did.
n
Well, I’m home from day one. We covered what a scientist is, who they are, what is science, and how do you do science. Then we measured length, learned about area, and volume, and a bit of density. Talked a tiny bit about metric and why we use it.
The organizer wasn’t there, I hadn’t seen the revised lab, and didn’t know what our goals were, so I winged it. Good thing I put my ppt on a thumb drive, and that the projector is modern enough that it will show pngs from a thumbdrive. Went well with the reduced time we have this year. Amazing that 4th graders don’t know how to use a ruler. But then some could correctly identify a graduated cylinder. Wide range of kids this year.
One hispanic granny and one dad to help today. That left us one volunteer short for most sessions. Some of the teachers jumped in to help. Some did not. Granny was engaged, and a good translator.
I enjoy leading the class a lot, but who knew that facing 15-20 kids could cause so much stress and fear sweat?
Tomorrow I’m just a helper in the 5th grade sessions. Should be interesting, as PETA has gotten involved and wants to block us from doing dissection. We’ll see what develops there. F’ing fundie zealots. Science is where we GET the civilization that allows stay at home moms to exist and prosper.
ffs.
n
@ayj, thanks for the reference to another failed thermometer guy! I’d never heard of him before.
One of the things I mention to the kids (in the sessions where we would have enough time) is that other weird measuring systems are still in use, like carat weight for diamonds, troy ounces for gold, etc. I should have mentioned bushels and barrels too. There are a lot of special or limited use systems. Long ton, short ton, metric ton, kiloton, knots, and I’ve got amusing stories about the difference in various ‘feet’ measures, particularly in land surveying (should I mention rods or chains?)
I tried to find the origin of the dram (as a mouthful) but can’t find anything authoritative… oh well, the google isn’t quite the panopticon.
n
One of the things I mention to the kids (in the sessions where we would have enough time) is that other weird measuring systems are still in use, like carat weight for diamonds, troy ounces for gold, etc. I should have mentioned bushels and barrels too. There are a lot of special or limited use systems. Long ton, short ton, metric ton, kiloton, knots, and I’ve got amusing stories about the difference in various ‘feet’ measures, particularly in land surveying (should I mention rods or chains?)
Nautical miles vs. standard miles. Celestial Nav could be a whole morning — ever wondered what that “figure 8” on the globe represents?
And IIRC, the Japanese have a traditional measurement system for construction.
One of the things I mention to the kids (in the sessions where we would have enough time) is that other weird measuring systems are still in use, like carat weight for diamonds, troy ounces for gold, etc. I should have mentioned bushels and barrels too. There are a lot of special or limited use systems. Long ton, short ton, metric ton, kiloton, knots, and I’ve got amusing stories about the difference in various ‘feet’ measures, particularly in land surveying (should I mention rods or chains?)
Nautical miles vs. standard miles.
And IIRC, the Japanese have a traditional measurement system for construction.
The English Imperial system versus the American system. The biggest difference is that an English Gallon is about 1.2 larger than a US Gallon.
https://gallonstoliters.com/
I’ve always been fascinated with English unit of weight stone. One stone is 14 pounds. So my 242 lbs is 17 stone (just round off the 0.28 stone for a nice round number).
https://www.metric-conversions.org/weight/stones-to-pounds.htm
And they still use stone for a person’s weight…
n
Roofing uses ‘squares’
Ties to ISIS and a Fukcing AIRCRAFT MECHANIC.
Verily the mind doth boggle.
n
Yes, I know China is big, but srsly? 150 THOUSAND new riot cops?
China orders 150,000 anti-riot officers near Hong Kong to get ready for action ahead of the country’s National Day in warning to anti-government protesters
Who can pull 150K cops out of their fourth point of contact?
n
Who can pull 150K cops out of their fourth point of contact?
My wife read James Garner’s autobiography recently. He was an Army Ranger during the Korean War when one million Chinese came across the border. He was the only man out of his 50 man unit to make it out alive. Recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Garner-Files-Memoir-Jon-Winokur/dp/145164261X/?tag=ttgnet-20
“Texas Lege Hearings on Gun Issues Have Begun, and We’re Showing up Strong!”
https://gunownersofamerica.cmail20.com/t/ViewEmail/i/BD552E6A1E101B752540EF23F30FEDED/BE1BCF0799C5BAA5025DA65DC0D0F53A
“The Texas House Committee on “Mass Violence Prevention and Community Safety” met for the first time Tuesday. Gun control was on the table, but our group was overwhelmingly in the majority as we filled the front rows of the hearing room. And the legislators noticed.”
We don’t need any new gun laws in Texas. This idea of only allowing gun transfers between friends and family without going through an FFL is a regulatory nightmare. After all, who is a friend ? So, if I let a guy next to me at the range use my gun, did we just commit a gun felony ?
Dan Patrick (our Lt. governor) is an idiot and hopes to ride this issue into the governors chair.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/dan-patrick-enemy-gun-control-nra/
Wow, Matagorda County (south of here next to Galveston County) has gotten 22 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. “Flash flood threat from Imelda continues for much of Houston”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-weather/article/Flash-flood-threat-from-Imelda-continues-for-much-14448666.php
“Joe Biden Promises to “Put 720 Million Women Back in the Workforce”
https://www.infowars.com/joe-biden-promises-to-put-720-million-women-back-in-the-workforce/
“Wait, what?”
Early dementia. Even 72 million does not make sense.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
well Nick, in the last years of high school we used Sears, or Sears Zemasnky, or Resnick Halliday, all of them had Celsius, Reaumur and the english invention to not use negative degrees on Winter, dont know why French used this, but you know.
Yes, I know, but Russians also reached Moon, Venus and Mars, and they used metric.
Some fun today yeap
Early dementia. Even 72 million does not make sense.
That guy was whacky and gaffe-prone going back to his first run at the Presidency in 1988. The point of the DLC, which eventually begat Clinton, was to avoid hot messes like Biden.
I still don’t believe the eventual nominee has announced yet.
The russians landed a man on the moon? I wasn’t even aware they circled it in a manned mission, but that could be because of my public school education…
No one has landed on Venus, even a probe as far as I know, and all the mars landers have been US vehicles… that I know of.
We didn’t spend much time on russia or her accomplishments, but I would think that as a space fan I’d be aware of them..
n
Rain started back up in earnest.
Joy.
n
The rain was awesome coming the 30 miles down 59 to the hospital tonight. We had a surprise birthday party for dad at the hospital. He was getting ready to leave mom when we showed up. Good times, all three sons showed up for them. Mom was in a wheelchair so we got to hang in the nurses lounge.
My middle brother said that Galveston has now gotten 30 inches of rain in the last 36 hours.
I thought Mariner went there (Venus), but didn’t actually land, being destroyed by design.
YouTube informs me that Vladimir Ilyushin beat Gagarin by a bit as the first man to orbit, but had the misfortune of crash landing in China, who didn’t return him for a considerable time.
The Soviet Union landed 10 probes as part of their Venera program. The also landed some probes on the moon and flew their version of the shuttle (once!) They also kept a space station in orbit for a while.
France has been launching satellites for a while now as well.
I don’t think the units of measurement are relevant.
When the legal standards of measurement here in Canada was changed to metric in 1976(?) one of the benefits was supposed to be that we would get standardized packaging. Fat chance. Procter and Gamble (to pick an example) doesn’t want to upset their customers by raising prices. They just make the packages smaller. Hence we end up with 12½ ounce cans or 373 ml cans. Recently 500 ml dairy products suddenly became 473 ml. Containers remain the same size, just a little more empty. The price did not go down.
Grocery stores show prices as price / 100 g. I’ve become adept at converting from Imperial (or US) measure to metric to compare prices. The HP15 calculator on my tablet helps.
I’m comfortable with weight, volume and temperature in either system but find myself thinking of Imperial measure rather than US. One Imperial quart is 40 ounces. One Imperial gallon is 4 Imperial quarts or 160 ounces. The Imperial and US ounce are almost the same if they are not the same. I’m not quite so comfortable with distance where I still think in Imperial units.
I don’t think the units in use determines quality or success. Competence has no dimensions.
The following would-be aphorism is inspired by Rolf’s comment but does not address units of measurement. In particular, it’s not meant as a refutation of or snipe at Rolf’s comment.
Competence is bounded. Incompetence knows no limits.
Last year when I first did the volunteering, the boosterism for use of the metric system was very annoying particularly because the points they used were not actually valid.
What makes it interesting is everything being derived from fundamentals of the universe (but they are not quite there, and some awkwardness is a result), the smaller number of base units, and the ease of converting from unit to unit.
I think in the US system, and can work in metric for “human sized” numbers. I lose the ability to know if a number is reasonable in metric. 9248mm on an architectural drawing is not a real number to me.
Also, metric is not universal, as most places still use traditional measures for some things.
The space related stuff was a tongue in cheek poke at metric boosterism, as in if it makes science so easy and is such a good system, why didn’t those who use it get there first?
n
jajajaj, Nick, I said reach, not a man reached, maybe my english
Human? we have 10 fingers, not 12, not 12 and
During the Great Recoinage of 1816, the mint was instructed to coin one troy pound (weighing 5760 grains or 373 g) of standard (0.925 fine) silver into 66 shillings, or its equivalent in other denominations. This set the weight of the shilling, and its subsequent decimal replacement 5 new pence coin, at 87.2727 grains or 5.655 grams from 1816 until 1990, when a new smaller 5p coin was introduced.
thats why you have 1 ,5 10 , sequence in US Dollars
but, this is becoming irrelevant due technology
@Nick
For the Soviet space program, look at the Luna moon probes, Lunokhod moon rovers, the previously mentioned Venera Venus probes, and the less than successful Mars (named Mars) probes.
.mg