Month: January 2006

The mission of mnartists.org is to improve the lives of Minnesota artists and provide access to and engagement with Minnesota’s arts culture.

To many people growing up in the central USA during this time period, Central States Wrestling, the “All Star Wrestling” TV program, and the many stars who were fixtures in the Central States have acheived a larger than life status and are fondly remembered. Ahh, the memories…

I get to Germany, and decide to go buy me a mountain bike, since I love to ride bikes. I visit my local bike shop, where the gruff but lovable Herr Wagner sells me a Specialized HardRock. He begins to screw a bicycle bell onto the handlebar.

“Oh, I won’t be needing that,” I told him.

“Yes, you will.”

The Meaning of Bicycle Bells is a fun story. I also like the rest of Andrew Hammel’s German Joys, including America-Bashing and Comparing Societies.

Astronomy buffs who jumped at the chance to use their home computers in the SETI@home search for intelligent life in the universe will soon be able to join an Internet-based search for dust grains originating from stars millions of light years away.

In a new project called Stardust@home, University of California, Berkeley, researchers will invite Internet users to help them search for a few dozen submicroscopic grains of interstellar dust captured by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft ~.

Oh, I’m Milburn Drysdale, president of the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills. My car is waiting to take you and your family to your new home.

His car, a 1962 Chrysler Imperial.

Implosionworld.com, LLC was established as an independent corporation in October 1999, and premiered in grand style with the world’s first real-time webcast of a building implosion project, live from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From there, new site-related ideas and expansion projects literally flowed like tumbling debris (sorry), and included every type of web technology available: Streaming video, flash animation, more live webcasts – including links to other media outlets who were catching up – and several other forms of visual technology.

Implosion toy.

Bakelite is a sort of plastic material which was invented by the Belgian Leo Beakeland (1863 – 1944).

IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE that one can combine two unlikely substances like carbolic acid and formaldehyde to produce a beautiful and versatile substance such as phenolic resin or “Bakelite,” a revolutionary, non-flammable, early plastic. “The material of a thousand uses,” as it was called, made a splash in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.

The Rice-Kellogg paper of 1925 was important in disseminating research on loudspeaker design. It resulted in the production of a loudspeaker design that drove most others out of the market within a few years. It published an amplifier design that was important in boosting the power transmitted to loudspeakers. In 1926, the commercial version was sold as the Radiola Model 104 loudspeaker with a 1-watt power amp. The power of this amp, and the extra terminals on the back of the Model 104 allowed attachment of a radio receiver, the Radiola 28.

“This combination of the Radiola 28 and the Radiola Loudspeaker 104 thus made available for the first time a complete batteryless radio receiver that could be operated like any other electrical appliance, merely by ‘plugging it in.’

The radio became a very important part of the daily life in the US during the 1930s. The radio was already very popular during the 1920s, but it became more popular during the 1930s. The radio became a real part of the US national culture. In 1930 about 12 million US households owned a radio, that number increased to 28 million radios in 1939.
~
In the case of the radio, bakelite and catalin were seen as a good substitution for wood. Wood was often used by the wealthy part of American society. But the imitation of wood by bakelite was almost perfect. The best thing of all was that a bakelite and catalin radio was much cheaper than a radio with a wooden cabinet. Mostly during the depression of the 1930s, bakelite and catalin material made it possible for everyone to buy a radio for just $10,– instead of $ 90,– or so for a radio with a wooden cabinet. On the other hand bakelite and catilin were and are very strong, durable, gloomy and attractive material for designers. But what made bakelite and catilin, as kinds of plastic material, very attractive?

The attractive side to these materials, bakelite (in powder form) and catalin (in fluid form), was the fact that it could be moulded.

A broken wrist is amongst the most common of injuries treated by orthopaedic surgeons. The majority of these fractures occur at the distal end of the radius. This is the portion of the bone where it widens and is usually softer and more fragile than the shaft of the bone.

01/11/06 Update: Marlene’s Wrist
02/06/06 Update: Marlene’s Cast

Assume for a moment that wood had never existed… plenty of stone, metal, glass… everything… but no wood. Suddenly out of the research laboratories comes an amazing new product. It is available in unimaginable quantities. The supply renews itself… if not abused, a never-ending supply. ~

Wouldn’t that be the most remarkable discovery?

Our most fabulous natural resource is often taken for granted. Without trees (wood), life as we know it would not be possible.

It is as difficult to adequately describe the natural beauty and character of wood as it is to describe an original painting or other work of art. In fact, this is more than a passing comparison. A tree and a painting are both originals, and each is the only one of its kind.

1898 – The R.S. Bacon Veneer Co. was founded By Robert S. Bacon in 1898 in Chicago Illinois.
1918 – In 1918 the plant and offices were moved to 4702 Augusta Boulevard ~.
1921 – Robert Bacon sold the company in 1921 to Robert Scott who held it until his death in 1928.
1928 – Joseph F. Mertes, bought Bacon Veneer.
1930 – The 1930’s saw Bacon Veneer grow considerably.
1937 – In 1937 George Wilhelm joined Bacon Veneer ~.
1957 – By 1957 Bacon produced 15,000 square feet of paneling per day and employed 125 people.
1963 – George Wilhelm and four partners bought Bacon Veneer from Joseph F. Mertes.
1965 – In 1965 operations for Bacon Veneer were moved to Dubuque Iowa.
1969 – In 1969 Jim McCracken joined the sales team of Bacon Veneer ~.
1981 – In 1981 a warehouse was bought in Grundy Center, Iowa
1984 – In 1984 all production was moved to that location.
1985 – In 1985 George Wilhelm made his nephew Jim McCracken the President of Bacon Veneer.
1986 – Offices and a showroom were opened in New York in 1986 and the facility in Grundy Center continues to grow ~.

Bacon Veneer Company is committed to the sustainability of the World’s Forests.

Grundy Center also makes quality food products, like Richelieu’s Western Dressing – and I think possibly this stuff from Norwesco.

The Java Tutorial – Third Edition

Are you new to the Java programming language? This book is for you!
~
We’ve added questions and exercises to help you practice what you learn. To help beginners avoid many common mistakes, an entire chapter is devoted to programming problems and their solutions. Convenient summaries at the end of each section are also new to this edition.

I like this book a lot. The “Getting Started” trail steps you through the basics in a very complete, yet easy to understand fashion.

The Java Language Specification, Third Edition

Written by the inventors of the technology, The Java Language Specification, Third Edition is the definitive technical reference for the Java programming language. If you want to know the precise meaning of the language’s constructs, this is the source for you.

Introduction to Programming Using Java – Version 4.1

“INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING USING JAVA” is a free, on-line textbook. It is suitable for use in an introductory programming course and for people who are trying to learn programming on their own. There is probably enough material for a full year College programming course. There are no prerequisites beyond a general familiarity with the ideas of computers and programs.

The previous versions of this book used Java 1.1. For a long time, I was reluctant to move to Java 2 because it has been much less widely supported and because most of the new features don’t represent new programming concepts.

Java 1.1 Unleashed

Our goal in this edition of Java 1.1 Unleashed is to explore the Java technology from a variety of angles so that you can see the bigger picture of what Java has to offer as a Web technology.

Ok, version 1.1 hasn’t been around for a while, but Java 1.1 Unleashed does a good job of covering the fundamentals.

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