Thursday, April 19, 2012

DC has its perks

Readers of this blog (if there are any left) shouldn't today's topic too surprising. I recently finished up my PhD and moved to the DC area. I miss NYC fiercely but my new digs do have their perks. For example:

Tuesday morning I managed to catch a glimpse of something that I've loved since I was a kid, the Space Shuttle. This is actually a photo from it's second pass by where I was watching as is the following shot.
While it was pretty great to see it as close as it was that second time, the first time was even better. For those of you who might be in NYC, try to be on a rooftop this Monday with your cameras out as the Enterprise is headed your way. For now, enjoy my favorite shot from the first flyby.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Scoop

New York Times, you've been scooped, by the Daily Universe, no less. Here it is folks, Mormon Hipsters.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

LCD Surgeon

I got the latest issue of NYU Med's News & Views and noticed something funny about the surgeon in this picture. I wonder if he's wearing that ironically?

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Science is cool

I know what you're thinking. I'm biased. Well, of course I am. But check out this story (link) and tell me that science isn't cool. I dare you.

Again, this one came to me from Cabeza, who always provides me with a bunch of great reading material.

Oh, and make sure you watch the video on that site if you can. That guy has the scientist look down pat.

Monday, October 03, 2011

This guy is awesome

Thanks to Cabeza for sending me this link. Guys like the one in this article are pretty damn awesome, if you ask me.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Comms

The biggest drawback of my particular field of science is that I'm constantly isolated. I'm not in a lab, I'm in a cube, and more often than not, I'm the only occupant of my group of cubes. It's great for getting work done, but I can go days at a time where the only person-to-person interaction I have is with the waitress at the Thai restaurant by my office. And I have to pay her for that. I should have gone in to used car sales.

Friday, September 09, 2011

Best Ripping Off of a Friend's Post

Before you read this, you should go over to Brigham's blog and read this, because I'm going to piggyback on his experience to share some of my experience at the fantastic Udvar-Hazy center in Virginia. If you've been following this blog, you'll notice that I've already shown you one of my favorite pics from my trip there. You'll also know that I'm an aviation nut. So, let me show you a few more.

So, first of all, they've got a Space Shuttle. I cannot tell you how excited that made me. I really could have just spent my whole time there, but there was too much to see, including this guy who decided to spacewalk in an Earth gravity environment. He's been up there for a while, and I don't think he'd going anywhere anytime soon.

This is one that I'd have missed if I hadn't taken the tour. So you know how the Air Force flies the president around in a plane but the Marines fly him around in a helicopter? I'd always wondered how that arrangement came about. Well, it's because of that helicopter in the middle. As it turns out, President Eisenhower was kind of an important guy when it comes to the history of presidential air travel. He ushered it in to the jet age (on a plane that I've been in many times). He was around when they first started using the call sign "Air Force Once" for presidential flights. And he was also approached by the Air Force about using this helicopter for shorter trips. He took a test flight and reported that the 5-seat helicopter was a bit too small for his needs (since the minimum complement of 1 pilot, 1 co-pilot, 1 secret service agent and 1 president only left 1 seat free). When the Marines heard the news, they approached the President with a "why don't you take a look at one of our Sikorskys" and the rest is history. The Marines simply had a bigger helicopter. Kind of funny how stuff like this works out.

One of Brigham's pics is of a big yellow and red Boeing plane. When I realized what this plane was, and that I'd been hearing stories about it (well, really only the one) my whole life, I got really excited. I could tell you the story, but you might as well hear it from the source, so check out this clip before you read on:


The story goes that Boeing sold a lot of 707s that day. This was the first commercial jet airliner and one of the best selling planes ever and ended up being a huge payoff for the Boeing company (who had basically bet the company on the success of this plane). Growing up as a kid in Seattle, it seemed impossible to meet someone who wasn't connected to Boeing in some way and without this plane the history of the region would be very different. So, I hope you understand why I geeked out when I saw the plane there.

There's so many other things to see at the Udvar-Hazy center, and maybe I'll put some more pics up later, but in the meantime, if you can go, you should go. Before I sign off, I'm going to rip off a bit of another one of Brigham's posts and show you one of my favorite pictures from Capitol Hill Books:


Real attention to detail at that store.