Tonight is the first night of Chanuka. That means it is the 25th of Kislev. (It is also the day our family traditionally celebrated my grandfather’s birthday- who only knew his birthday was on Chanuka.) The holiday of Chanuka is NOT the same as Christmas, even though the Christians adopted the 25th for their celebration.
When I was little, I used to watch the sea at night. It was convenient, since it was right there. I loved watching the waves, the moon reflecting off the water.
One of the first projects with which I was involved when I moved to Michigan in the early 70s was a water recycling system for the home. (Don’t worry- this had relevance to 3D printing, I promise!) We added a very powerful ultraviolet light (UV) light to disinfect the water. From that UV technology, the ability to “cure” ink on silver aluminum cans was derived. Which greatly increased the demand for – and technology around- UV curing.
Continue reading 3D Update, Part 4
Tonight is the first night of Chanuka. For those of you who follow the Gregorian calendar, you would say the holiday is arriving early. It won’t fall this ‘early’ again for some 80,000+ years. (Chanuka always falls on the 25th day of Kislev, though, in our calendar.)
Time. It’s important- mostly because of what we do with it. Or, what we don’t.
We used to tell time with sundials. Until we were able to develop sophisticated mechanical pieces that made our obsession with the time be possible, regardless of the weather. My religion uses the concept of hours- but those hours change in length as the day gets longer or shorter- since daylight is defined as containing 12 ‘hours’- and so is night-time.
Continue reading Baby, it’s dark outside!
I guess I should have known. But, not until I was 14, did I know this…
Back when I was young (you know, when Ben Franklin was flying his kite), chemical analysis used color testing to discern various components. And, while I had a full chemistry lab, I had stopped doing these kind of tests over the past 8 years. (My chemistry interests were more devoted to dialysis and hydroponics.) So, when I took chemistry in school, I asked the teacher what the various test colors were. Given the nature of who he was, Bob McManus (a great teacher) and who I was (a wise guy), he lied about the colors. And, I got half the unknowns wrong.
Maybe this is why we come up with our best ideas when we sleep? It seems that we are more creative when the lights are turned down low- very low.
Continue reading Really! Being kept in the dark may be useful!
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