Category: science and tech

SpaceX Success!

My old photography sidekick, Bill W., captured this image of tonight’s SpaceX launch of the Falcon 9 rocket and deployment of the Argentine SAMOCOM 1A satellite. Many in California could view the event as the rocket and payload were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California (bringing back special memories, as I worked there on assignment for a few months in 1965-66 and witnessed many AFWTR — Air Force Western Test Range — night-time rocket test launches).

Follow this link to see what an NBC meterologist saw in LA.

The video below from SpaceX documents more fully the event, including the return landing of the 15-story-tall first stage of the Falcon rocket back at Vandenberg. First ever land-based landing for SpaceX. This video, IMHO, is well worth watching in its ~37-minute entirety.

Eighteen Years Ago Today: ME

I was wearing this cap today when a Safeway clerk, obviously a Windows geek and computer history buff,  recognized it and offered his admiration and congratulations.  This was a promotional bit of garb distributed by Microsoft to celebrate its release on September 13, 2000, of Windows Millennium Edition (aka Windows ME).  It came into my possession by dint of my association with my ISP (Internet Service Provider) then-employer who was a certified Microsoft distributor.  Windows ME was the last of the purely DOS-based iterations of the Windows operating system, probably the least successful and certainly the least long-lived, soon succeeded by Windows XP.    But the exceptional quality of this headgear has led to its long life and continued use by yours truly.   eof

rDay One Thousand One Hundred Thirty-Seven: Artificer Forge

Yesterday, season opener for the Downtown Farmers Market in WaWaWA.  About two or three times larger than similar events in LaG City.  Not a broad range of produce (yet, I’d guess), but lots of plants and other growables, wine tastings, jewelry and other artisan creations, and made-on-the-spot food (mostly south-of-the-border kind of stuff).  But one unusual exhibit/booth caught my eye: Artificer Forge.  Here a young man displayed his blacksmithing artistry, with a live forge, anvil, smoke and fire.  He started with a blank length of metal, then proceeded, step-by-step, to fashion it into a stylized bottle cap opener.  At every stage, he explained the physics and chemistry involved, along with his actions to transform the blank into a special object.  He plunged the metal bar into the fiery coals, then pounded and shaped it at the anvil, one bit at a time.  After each step, he held the changing object in his hands, walking around the the edge of the crowd to show his progress up close.  In about twenty minutes, he had transformed the blank bar into a functional object d’art.  Some pics of the process:

You can see more of Benjamin’s work at the Artificer Forge website’s gallery.  I was especially taken by his wall-mounted wine racks, one of which is is shown below:

Vine Wine Bottle Rack by Artificer Forge