Peeling a Banana...the SpaceX way

Fact of life #119: sometimes work is a drag, and sometimes it leaves you with a bunch of leftover liquid nitrogen from a cryo test.

Superman or not, this person is my hero.

From my weekend at Claremont, I saw this on a door.:

New (Used) Car!

Please meet the H.M.S. Posthumous (it needs a little work):
Yes, sadly this is a downgrade from the H.M.S. Haggis, the best car ever made.

Trunk limit switch.

Radiator fan controller

Radio
Tape deck (pre scalpel)

Reverse engineered!

Trunk disassembled exposing trunk mechanism, hydraulic, pneumatic, and fiber optic (?!) system.

Achy, breaky, (leaky) rear view mirror.


Lost a rubber bumper thingy from the trunk while putting it back together. Shuffled off to the hardware store. Now my car is part toilet parts. :-(

Radio, post-hack. Huzzah! I think the dealer wanted $300 for the ipod kit.

Throttle by wire!

More photos to follow.

Floating

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Flying back to LA.

Cruising at 35,000 ft, we saw the sunrise before anyone else.

The pilot banked right and the wing outside my window dipped dramatically into the clouds below.

Blindingly bright, white, pillow-y clouds as far as the eyes could see. Every detail cast deep shadows into the layers.

Every dance this weekend was beautiful. I was floating, long before I got on the plane.

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"Chivalry died with feminism"

I overheard this from an underclassman at the robotics team that I mentor at the local high school. Now I consider myself a feminist and I agree that the special treatment that comes from treating women as the fragile, fairer sex is sexism, so why did this bother me so much?

I think it's the implied notion that the demand for rights and the desire to be treated with respect should be mutually exclusive. That demanding to be respected should be an excuse that someone can use to be rude--not cool. You're just rude - no excuses. Being courteous and nice to people - male or female - should just be something you do - because you are nice. And it should have nothing to do with feminism.

And of course, the fact that this notion has enough of a place in our culture that our kids are in on it...

Reason #452 that LA is an alien planet

Car chase was going on the street outside our house. Police cars and helicopters overhead. People are lining up on the street in hopes of catching a glimpse. Whaaaaat? This entire city is one big movie premiere.

Old Photo Sunday

Back in twain, back in the old undergrad days, my impression of a sketchy grad student. Oh, how little did I know: