cub scouts

Doug gave a talk to his nephew's cub scout pack about what he did in his lab.

They were dazzled by his "smart-ness".

tesla died here

That's right, we stumbled upon the place where Tesla kicked it...

glasses for the masses

At the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, they've opened a huge exhibit on glass. How it's made, how it's used, and what makes it such a cool substance.



Among the displays, there is one all about Doug's project, NuSTAR. Inside the case you can see the superthin glass we use to make x-ray telescope optics. The spindle on the right is made from dozens of layers of glass, stacked atop each other. The NuSTAR optics are actually much larger and nearly 200 layers of glass.





Here is an oven with a sheet within, before it is slumped into the mandril. After it's finished forming, Doug's new laser scanner will determine whether the glass will be good enough for mounting into the telescope.

so we can all rest easy tonight

In Doug's pondering's of halloween costumes, he came up with the idea of being the crosswalk signal -- wearing all black and outlining himself in white lights. Then he goes, "It'd be cool if I could flip a switch and then have a ———— appear."

Doug thinks it is an orange hand.
Beka thinks it is a red hand.

So being reasonable individuals, we asked our friends and family. We emailed. Beka posted on Facebook. We even asked 2 people on the street (Ok, Ok, it wasn't two strangers on the street, we already knew Alison and Brian).

So here go some answers:

We asked people from across the nation this question in a way that did not suggest a color to respond with. This resulted in answers we were not intending like, amber, blue, and "any color".
Two people followed their answer with, I hope you're right Beka! comments (Although Doug exaggerates this number).
But apparently a good issue as only two people did not respond and there were some detailed comments:

"Personally I don't care what color they are...they just don't give old farts like me enough time to putter across before they stick that damn hand up there...then I don't know if I should go back where I came from or just hall ass to the other side. Sheesh...control-freak nazi bastards!"

"We could go with the existential argument that color only exists because we say it does."

Oh wait, those are both Beka's mother — who never responded with a color...

"the answer is clearly orange. It is not red. Because it is a Stop signal, I think many of us would automatically think that it's red. However, red is wrong"

"when this email came through, I scanned it quick and saw the words "domestic dispute", "white person" and "color" and started to panic, thinking this was going to be some kind of racial thing."

Also brought up was the question of how fast one was traveling, the fact that the town where they resided just got a first traffic light in recent past, and the use of the proper Crayola definitions.

Doug looked it up on the DOT website. Apparently the DOT says it is orange. Doug took this as a victory, however, Beka thinks perception is still a stronger indicator.

9 people said red (plus two who followed their comment with, "but it should be red")
6 people said orange
6 said red-orange
1 said amber, and
2 fall in the any/other category

Beka thinks this speaks for itself.

you will listen to my science!

"When you open a bottle of beer, the moisture inside the pocket of air condenses instantaneously, forming a cloud."

density

Beka: Look at that cat. He takes up most of the couch.
Doug: That's a good 32 inches.

Doug: Let's figure out his density!

And then Pushkin woke up and quickly vacated the premises.

what do all of these thing have in common??

This guy's job right here!

two times a year...

...the sun will rise and fall exactly down the streets of Manhattan

July 12 is one of those days...