Category: Science

I made a thing!

Actually, I made two things:

The first is a quarter wave ground plane antenna for the 2m ham radio band.

It’s based on the instructions in this video by K7AGE

The second is a semi-portable PVC pole/stand to get the antenna about 8ft in the air.

My initial plan was to raise the antenna up 12ft, but my quick-and-dirty design made with lengths of ¾in PVC wasn’t stable enough to stand on its own. I have ideas for fixing that, but this shorter version worked well enough to participate in a ham net on a local repeater tonight.

I’m going to see if I can hit a couple of repeaters down in the Bay Area later this week using this set up.

W7RAB 73

Set set your stingers to "stun"

[Quote] WASHINGTON (AP) — Scorpions don’t bother to waste venom killing a victim if they don’t have to. Instead they use a prevenom that causes extreme pain, resorting to the deadlier version only when necessary, researchers have discovered. [Quote]

I still wouldn’t want to piss off a scorpion. Even if it isn’t likely to kill me with the first sting, it’s still gonna hurt like hell. (Which I guess is the point.)

Full article found here

Nifty Quantum Computing Experiment

Experiment points to new spin on storage

In an experiment that could bring the computing world closer to an advanced method of data storage, a team of scientists successfully reproduced an image that was digitally encoded and momentarily stored within a liquid crystal molecule.

Preview, Robert, Preview…

Edited on Dec 3rd 2002, 00:15 by Hooloovoo

A bit of color-theory, and an optical illusion:

http://www-bcs.mit.edu/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html

I got that link via email this morning, along witht he following message:

[Quote]
It really messes with your head, but Square A and Square B are on the exact same shade of gray. You can take it in to Photoshop like I did if you don’t believe it.
[Quote]

So I did, and they are. I love stuff like this. There’s also a link to a page explaining what your eye is doing to create the effect.

Update: There’s also some other neat links on this page (including that checkered shadow illusion)

Edited on Sep 30th 2002, 17:10 by Hooloovoo