Friday, June 13, 2008
I'm drivin' heah!
J and I went on a tour of Timken at Clemson's new joint venture, ICAR. First a huge thanks to Ron and Timken for allowing us to come take a look at their operation. There were around 25-30 people who showed up for the tour and were instructed to bring a racecar or unique car if they had one for a group picture. The Focus with her dented hood didn't quite make the cut. A supercharged/turbocharged Honda hatchback, 2 Lotus Elise and a Daytona Coupe were among my favorites who showed up. As the Roush built V8 powered Daytona Coupe left, it scared the crap out of J and I. The straight pipes with side exhausts were LOUD! We were also standing right next to them.
Timken is a "white collar" machining facility as described by our wonderful tour guide whose name I didn't catch. Basically it's a two story building with a plethora of engineers, math aficionados and managers upstairs who sit around and think up new bearing designs. They send those designs downstairs, get a few made and test it to see if they revolutionized bearing design or if the crack monkey is back in action and they should try again. They also have many rooms for testing all the spinning parts of an engine. They might get a design from an automobile manufacturer, or a part, and they will test it for them and send the results back.
Huge pieces of machinery that start with a spool of smooth metal and then form that into a bearing abounded. The engine testing lab was loud. They were testing the bearings around the camshafts as they spin. They use electric motors to turn all these machines instead of gas, but it's still loud. We were not allowed in the metrology lab, where they super accurately measure their parts, but it looked really neat. We walked around and I kept wondering if they hired any chemists or materials scientists. I found him! We walked past one lab which had an instrument which said spectraflame, which I can only assume was an AAS, or atomic absorption spectrometer, where the lone chemist hung out all day surrounded by engineers. I imagine any chemistry related question gets posed to him or her, whether they like it or not. J wondered how many women Timken employs. Very good question.
Then we had a lecture on sound and sound control. It drug on a bit but was also informative. The SCCA, sports car club of america, has set that no racecar can be louder than 103 decibels, but there are a few ways to beat the system, or at least use the system to your advantage.
Since I picked up J from work and she didn't want to follow me home in Tercel, we drove home together and I drove her to work this morning. It was fairly trafficky but not too bad. (I guess congested would be a better word there) There was a Jeep Cherokee left lane hogging because he felt his 72 in a 60 was fast enough to warrant it. The 4 or 5 cars backed up behind him seemed to disagree. Our exit was coming up so I accelerated into the middle lane just as the Lincoln Towncar in the middle lane was moving into the right lane, so I kept my foot in it and planned to accelerate past that car to get to my exit. Whilst this occurred, the Cherokee left lane hog encountered yet another left lane hog who was going even slower than him; a red Civic if you're curious. Cherokee sees the Towncar move over and without signaling, starts to pull into the middle lane; the only problem with that being there is an accelerating black Focus that is already plugging the hole left by the Towncar. A simple honk of my horn avoids the impending accident and I pull into the left hand lane and exit. The Cherokee does the same after I get out of the way and proceeds to get very close to the back of my car. Even when we turn onto the surface street and I slow down to the very slow 35 (especially after hitting 80ish on the freeway) with a gentle cajoling from J, he stays behind me. The speed limit goes back up to 45, still there. I move to the left lane to ready us for our turn and he stays in his lane but doesn't pass. I don't look over as he drives by but he does drive by on his way to work instead of doing something crazy like following me to work for a discussion. The strangest part is that he was a school resource officer with "Police" and lightpod on his Cherokee. When he exited with me I was mildly concerned that he would pull me over but seeing as how we were both in the wrong for speeding and he was clearly slower traffic not staying to the right and changing lanes without signaling, I wasn't too worried. So to that officer, sorry it went down like that and no hard feelings.
If I post this weekend it will entail my trip to Drift Atlanta back in May with some pics that are up on my Flickr account if you want to get a preview and check those out.
Timken is a "white collar" machining facility as described by our wonderful tour guide whose name I didn't catch. Basically it's a two story building with a plethora of engineers, math aficionados and managers upstairs who sit around and think up new bearing designs. They send those designs downstairs, get a few made and test it to see if they revolutionized bearing design or if the crack monkey is back in action and they should try again. They also have many rooms for testing all the spinning parts of an engine. They might get a design from an automobile manufacturer, or a part, and they will test it for them and send the results back.
Huge pieces of machinery that start with a spool of smooth metal and then form that into a bearing abounded. The engine testing lab was loud. They were testing the bearings around the camshafts as they spin. They use electric motors to turn all these machines instead of gas, but it's still loud. We were not allowed in the metrology lab, where they super accurately measure their parts, but it looked really neat. We walked around and I kept wondering if they hired any chemists or materials scientists. I found him! We walked past one lab which had an instrument which said spectraflame, which I can only assume was an AAS, or atomic absorption spectrometer, where the lone chemist hung out all day surrounded by engineers. I imagine any chemistry related question gets posed to him or her, whether they like it or not. J wondered how many women Timken employs. Very good question.
Then we had a lecture on sound and sound control. It drug on a bit but was also informative. The SCCA, sports car club of america, has set that no racecar can be louder than 103 decibels, but there are a few ways to beat the system, or at least use the system to your advantage.
Since I picked up J from work and she didn't want to follow me home in Tercel, we drove home together and I drove her to work this morning. It was fairly trafficky but not too bad. (I guess congested would be a better word there) There was a Jeep Cherokee left lane hogging because he felt his 72 in a 60 was fast enough to warrant it. The 4 or 5 cars backed up behind him seemed to disagree. Our exit was coming up so I accelerated into the middle lane just as the Lincoln Towncar in the middle lane was moving into the right lane, so I kept my foot in it and planned to accelerate past that car to get to my exit. Whilst this occurred, the Cherokee left lane hog encountered yet another left lane hog who was going even slower than him; a red Civic if you're curious. Cherokee sees the Towncar move over and without signaling, starts to pull into the middle lane; the only problem with that being there is an accelerating black Focus that is already plugging the hole left by the Towncar. A simple honk of my horn avoids the impending accident and I pull into the left hand lane and exit. The Cherokee does the same after I get out of the way and proceeds to get very close to the back of my car. Even when we turn onto the surface street and I slow down to the very slow 35 (especially after hitting 80ish on the freeway) with a gentle cajoling from J, he stays behind me. The speed limit goes back up to 45, still there. I move to the left lane to ready us for our turn and he stays in his lane but doesn't pass. I don't look over as he drives by but he does drive by on his way to work instead of doing something crazy like following me to work for a discussion. The strangest part is that he was a school resource officer with "Police" and lightpod on his Cherokee. When he exited with me I was mildly concerned that he would pull me over but seeing as how we were both in the wrong for speeding and he was clearly slower traffic not staying to the right and changing lanes without signaling, I wasn't too worried. So to that officer, sorry it went down like that and no hard feelings.
If I post this weekend it will entail my trip to Drift Atlanta back in May with some pics that are up on my Flickr account if you want to get a preview and check those out.
Labels: chemistry, driving record, Focus, police, racing, Tercel
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Why must Wednesday have a hump?
A friend from high school tracked me down on Facebook and I also became friends with my high school math teacher who now lives somewhere in GA, both from my time in this country. So more bonus points to Facebook for helping us all stalk people from our past. As a side note, he lives in Westbury which is east of Brooklyn on Long Island, so he might get a visitor at some point in his future. Yes, I'm still jealous of those who get the amazing opportunity to live in and around the Big Apple. My current reasons have been the World Science Festival and Come Out & Play 2008. Both great community activities that are both educational and fun and encourage people to be out and about.
Writing the dissertation is still coming along but not as fast as I'd like.
J and I have planted a garden again this year, squash, tomato, sweet basil, sage, thyme and some donated Ivy from Drs. Protege and Acura who we still have yet to hear from since they moved to "Don't Mess With" Texas.
For lunch today, Clemson invites us to have pizza with the president, so free lunch of what will most likely be Papa John's pizza and a chance to chat with Pres. and Mrs. Barker. What that means to me is I didn't have to pack a lunch and if I have anything to discuss with Barker, I can do that today. I don't think he can give me a PhD now, so I don't have much to speak with him about.
I'm still having trouble not finishing sentences with prepositions because I'm not really trying to stop and bad habits are hard to break.
I walked to school today. Walked right past gas being sold for $3.89/gallon which is cheap compared to the rest of the country but I paid $3.79/gallon and used exactly none of that to get to work. Hooray! I'm saving money and the planet! (Hahahaha! Whenever I hear someone pat themselves on the back like that I always think about South Park's smug cloud episode) Yes, I missed the CATbus and that's why I walked to school. I always underestimate how long it takes to walk from our house to the bus stop. I'll catch it one day. Luckily it wasn't too hot today, I think the high is supposed to be in the upper 80s, as opposed to upper 90s like it was Mon. and Tues.
Also a huge thanks to REI and its' convertible Sahara pants. The REI near downtown ATL (1 of 4! and AL nor SC still have one!) gladly traded me $28 for a pair of those pants and they came in handy today. My legs were a bit steamy after the short hike over the fence and through the neighboring Tom Winkopp student housing complex and once I realized that I missed the bus (cue the hit 1992 song by everyone's favorite Kriss Kross) and I knew a 30 minute walk was ahead of me, I promptly converted my pants into shorts! Hooray! My extra white legs appreciated the extra air they received from the conversion and now that I'm at work and cooled off, I can convert them back into OSHA approved lab ready long pants. Thanks REI and chemistry for giving us synthetic fabric!
Writing the dissertation is still coming along but not as fast as I'd like.
J and I have planted a garden again this year, squash, tomato, sweet basil, sage, thyme and some donated Ivy from Drs. Protege and Acura who we still have yet to hear from since they moved to "Don't Mess With" Texas.
For lunch today, Clemson invites us to have pizza with the president, so free lunch of what will most likely be Papa John's pizza and a chance to chat with Pres. and Mrs. Barker. What that means to me is I didn't have to pack a lunch and if I have anything to discuss with Barker, I can do that today. I don't think he can give me a PhD now, so I don't have much to speak with him about.
I'm still having trouble not finishing sentences with prepositions because I'm not really trying to stop and bad habits are hard to break.
I walked to school today. Walked right past gas being sold for $3.89/gallon which is cheap compared to the rest of the country but I paid $3.79/gallon and used exactly none of that to get to work. Hooray! I'm saving money and the planet! (Hahahaha! Whenever I hear someone pat themselves on the back like that I always think about South Park's smug cloud episode) Yes, I missed the CATbus and that's why I walked to school. I always underestimate how long it takes to walk from our house to the bus stop. I'll catch it one day. Luckily it wasn't too hot today, I think the high is supposed to be in the upper 80s, as opposed to upper 90s like it was Mon. and Tues.
Also a huge thanks to REI and its' convertible Sahara pants. The REI near downtown ATL (1 of 4! and AL nor SC still have one!) gladly traded me $28 for a pair of those pants and they came in handy today. My legs were a bit steamy after the short hike over the fence and through the neighboring Tom Winkopp student housing complex and once I realized that I missed the bus (cue the hit 1992 song by everyone's favorite Kriss Kross) and I knew a 30 minute walk was ahead of me, I promptly converted my pants into shorts! Hooray! My extra white legs appreciated the extra air they received from the conversion and now that I'm at work and cooled off, I can convert them back into OSHA approved lab ready long pants. Thanks REI and chemistry for giving us synthetic fabric!
Labels: Acura, CATbus, chemistry, Protege, REI, review
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Thank you Technology!
Due to advances in technology, the smoke detector near the elevator was able to contact the fire department and tell them that there was a fire on the 4th floor of Hunter Laboratories (the Chemistry Dept.). From the time the call was received it took them 20 minutes to get here and get the fire under control. Nice work Clemson University Fire Department!
The cause was a solvent still (used to "dry", or remove water, a solvent). In this case it was an isopropanol still that went dry and the drying agent, CS2 carbon disulfide, went up in flames. The fire was contained to that lab and there was some standing water in other labs, but that's no big deal at all. Our lab floods a bit at least once a month. Yes we've called maintenance and they've been up here at least 7 times and still can't figure out what's going on.
Our lab was completely safe and unharmed but if we hadn't had the fancy fire alarm system, this fire which started at 9 pm on Friday, would've been decidedly worse. So huge accolades to Technology.
Today is the department picnic. What it means for us is we get some free booze and dinner and it's also our first real opportunity to meet the new grad students (first years) and get to know them and recruit them to join our group. We're at a healthy 4 students, 3 of which are grad students and the other guy just graduated and is post doc-ing. So we need some new blood in the group. So far my plan is to take a few of our crystals and actually show the newbies what we do, which is more than other groups can really do. You just can't be obnoxious about it because that's what a few of the faculty do and they don't wear it well. We have projects, we have money, we just need another set of hands or two and some sharp minds and we'll be set for a few more years.
I just set up an awesome weekend for J and I. It's my birthday present to myself and J a little too. We're going up to Charlotte Sat. morning, going shopping (J needs a dress for a wedding and some bachelorette party in Miami clothes, oh sorry "needs" these clothes), then checking into the hotel, doing dinner somewhere, resting a bit and then at midnight I will be going to the 2nd 12 hours of the Central Carolina Region's 24 Hour autocross. It's from noon Sat. to noon Sun. I did all 24 last year and from midnight to noon, there aren't too many people up and about so you can drive and drive and drive until you can't keep your eyes open anymore. So I imagine I'll be content about 6 or 7 am, go back to J, sleep, eat lunch and then go to Body Worlds! I've wanted to see this exhibit for a few years now and finally get the chance. I don't think they allow cameras but I'll be sure and recap the entire crazy weekend.
Have a good Tuesday!
The cause was a solvent still (used to "dry", or remove water, a solvent). In this case it was an isopropanol still that went dry and the drying agent, CS2 carbon disulfide, went up in flames. The fire was contained to that lab and there was some standing water in other labs, but that's no big deal at all. Our lab floods a bit at least once a month. Yes we've called maintenance and they've been up here at least 7 times and still can't figure out what's going on.
Our lab was completely safe and unharmed but if we hadn't had the fancy fire alarm system, this fire which started at 9 pm on Friday, would've been decidedly worse. So huge accolades to Technology.
Today is the department picnic. What it means for us is we get some free booze and dinner and it's also our first real opportunity to meet the new grad students (first years) and get to know them and recruit them to join our group. We're at a healthy 4 students, 3 of which are grad students and the other guy just graduated and is post doc-ing. So we need some new blood in the group. So far my plan is to take a few of our crystals and actually show the newbies what we do, which is more than other groups can really do. You just can't be obnoxious about it because that's what a few of the faculty do and they don't wear it well. We have projects, we have money, we just need another set of hands or two and some sharp minds and we'll be set for a few more years.
I just set up an awesome weekend for J and I. It's my birthday present to myself and J a little too. We're going up to Charlotte Sat. morning, going shopping (J needs a dress for a wedding and some bachelorette party in Miami clothes, oh sorry "needs" these clothes), then checking into the hotel, doing dinner somewhere, resting a bit and then at midnight I will be going to the 2nd 12 hours of the Central Carolina Region's 24 Hour autocross. It's from noon Sat. to noon Sun. I did all 24 last year and from midnight to noon, there aren't too many people up and about so you can drive and drive and drive until you can't keep your eyes open anymore. So I imagine I'll be content about 6 or 7 am, go back to J, sleep, eat lunch and then go to Body Worlds! I've wanted to see this exhibit for a few years now and finally get the chance. I don't think they allow cameras but I'll be sure and recap the entire crazy weekend.
Have a good Tuesday!
Labels: autocross, Charlotte, chemistry, fire, weekend
Monday, August 27, 2007
DANGER!
We, the Clemson Chemistry Department, had a small fire over the weekend. Luckily the smoke detector near the elevator smelled smoke and called the fire department so the adjacent labs were saved.
More details later. No one was harmed. Lots of lab equipment was harmed by smoke, water or fire.
More details later. No one was harmed. Lots of lab equipment was harmed by smoke, water or fire.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Sacre bleu!
Zat eez one fast traen! - my apologies to the French for trying to recreate their accent in written form. But that is what you sound like. Did you know that each language has its own take on what other languages sound like? Chinese to us sounds different from Chinese to a Hispanic. I can only imagine what English sounds like to Chinese people.
The actual point of that article is that France got one of their TGV trains up to 357.2 mph or 574.8 kph, setting a land speed record for conventional rail trains. The train was outfitted with larger wheels, which would increase the work they do by covering more track with each rotation, and a super beefy 25,000 horsepower engine. That's like a train being pulled by 192 Ford Foci (plural of Focus)! That would be a sight. They also increased the voltage from the overhead cable from 25,000 to 31,000 Volts.
Sorry this blog is getting a little rundown and there are some cobwebs building up in the corners, but I'm focusing on work right now. Until someone hires me to blog, or be a rally driver or even a combination of rally driver and rally blog creator, which incindentally would cost no more than $125,000 for an initial investment, and would be less each subsequent year and be great marketing for your company or product, I have to focus on my self-chosen career of becoming a chemist. Technically I am a chemist but I only have a B.S. after my name right now which doesn't mean much to other chemists.
Thanks for continually stopping by and get ready for some interesting stories, updates, "blast from the past" posts, and maybe even a new template!?!?!?!
The actual point of that article is that France got one of their TGV trains up to 357.2 mph or 574.8 kph, setting a land speed record for conventional rail trains. The train was outfitted with larger wheels, which would increase the work they do by covering more track with each rotation, and a super beefy 25,000 horsepower engine. That's like a train being pulled by 192 Ford Foci (plural of Focus)! That would be a sight. They also increased the voltage from the overhead cable from 25,000 to 31,000 Volts.
Sorry this blog is getting a little rundown and there are some cobwebs building up in the corners, but I'm focusing on work right now. Until someone hires me to blog, or be a rally driver or even a combination of rally driver and rally blog creator, which incindentally would cost no more than $125,000 for an initial investment, and would be less each subsequent year and be great marketing for your company or product, I have to focus on my self-chosen career of becoming a chemist. Technically I am a chemist but I only have a B.S. after my name right now which doesn't mean much to other chemists.
Thanks for continually stopping by and get ready for some interesting stories, updates, "blast from the past" posts, and maybe even a new template!?!?!?!
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