March 18, 2012

So I'm walking around the flea market with a magnet, looking for cookware..

I just ordered a new induction cooktop to replace my very old and pathetically inadequate two burner electric unit, of course all my old cookware is aluminum and not suitable for induction heating. It turns out that if a magnet will stick to a piece of cookware then it's good for an induction hob. My old resistance heating unit is so low powered that it takes approximately forever just to boil water which turns out to be very inefficient and heats up my tiny place too much in the summer. I really only use a single burner more than 90% of the time anyway and I found quite a good deal on a modern and much more powerful and efficient induction single hob.

Induction hobs don't get hot themselves, they heat the cooking utensil directly through electromagnetic induction, you can actually put a piece of paper between the cooktop and the utensil and fry bacon without burning the paper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_cooking



When I started looking at the price of specifically designed induction cookware I nearly passed out from sticker shock so it was off to one of my favorite places for bargains, the flea market.

My first magnetic cookware find at the flea market was a vintage enameled steel teakettle, I drink coffee when I'm out but I prefer hot tea at home so a teakettle is an essential for me. This kettle is unique, remarkably well made and I got it for only $3, I got a kick out of the design and I thought perhaps someone else would get a chuckle out of it too.



I also got a Nordicware Tender Cooker microwave pressure cooker in brand new shape for $5, now I can make those slow-cooker meals in a half hour instead of a half-day, saving both time and electricity..

Oh.. And Nordicware is made in the USA..

http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-Microwave-Tender-Cooker/dp/B0007LC55A

March 12, 2012

Create colored 3D models with nothing but your camera and an internet connection..

http://my3dscanner.com/

I've been needing 3D models for something I've been doing lately, all the solutions I've seen so far require a significant investment in hardware and/or software until I found My3DScanner, it's like magic and all you really need is a digital camera and an internet connection to get a both a point cloud and a triangle mesh of the object you want to model.

Here's a couple of images of a digital model of a small ivory statuette I have, I picked ivory because it's one of the more difficult surfaces to model due to its light color and specularly reflective nature.





Here's one actual photo I used for the digitizing process, it takes quite a few to do a good job on something like this..



And here's my setup, I made a random digital backdrop by printing out an image of digital noise on regular paper and gluing it to a sheet of particle board and several small pieces of the same that I can position behind the model as necessary. You can make a 3D model with My3DScanner without something like this but for the stuff I was trying to do it wasn't working very well.

The flashes are triggered by my on camera flash which I have turned down as far as it will go, the slave trigger for the left flash is on the board behind the setup held with green tape and the other flash triggers from the first one.. I let the light reflect off the ceiling for a relatively shadowless image.

March 5, 2012

Brilliant New Yorker Cover..

March 3, 2012

"I tell people don't kill all the liberals" -Limbaugh..

"I tell people don't kill all the liberals, leave enough around so we can have two on every campus; living fossils, so we will never forget what these people stood for." -Rush Limbaugh

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,163548,00.html#ixzz1o4iCiboO

March 3, 2012

Anyone else remember the 2008 Republican National Convention?

You know, the one where they put an unwed pregnant teenager and her boyfriend up on the stage and shone a spotlight on them?

March 2, 2012

I didn't know you could do *that* on a Gold Wing..

The scraping floorboards and whimpering tires only add to teh awsum..

I rode the Tail of the Dragon many years ago on a hot rodded RD350, I wouldn't have wanted to try and keep up with these guys.

March 2, 2012

How to hurt Rush, perspective from a radio insider.

Commenter Jager in post #97 lays it out..

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/03/02/the-tale-of-the-tape/#comments

As a retired radio group VP with years of station management on my resume, here is a better suggestion. Go after the local advertisers on his show. There are very few local advertising availabilities on Rush’s show and they sell at a premium. Monitor the Rush station, make a list of the local advertisers and do the following:

1. Call the advertiser, be polite.
2. Write a letter to the advertiser, be polite.
3. Copy the station and the FCC with the advertiser letter.
4. Politely call the General Manager of the station,tell the GM what you are doing and why, tell them you have contacted the advertiser and copied the FCC.
5. If the local advertiser uses an agency, contact the agency, as well.Just ask the local business, if they use an agency.

It won’t take many letters and phone calls to get their attention and remind the station that the letters need to be placed in the station’s public file. (the public file is an FCC requirement)

Local stations don’t get many local avails in Rush’s show and many pay a huge fee to Premire to run the show.If they start losing business because of that asshole, they will raise hell with Premire.

If KFI in LA got a hundred letters with follow up phone calls it would get their attention very quickly. The key is to put on the pressure through the local advertisers.

Rush isn’t going anywhere, he isn’t going to apologize. The local station will blink and get very nervous, very quickly.