Curiosity is looking closely at some peculiar Martian rocks...

Curiosity is looking closely at some peculiar Martian rocks...  It's nice to see it back at work, after being offline for a few weeks while engineers troubleshot the intermittent short circuit that was plaguing the rover...

The hardest part of a penis transplant?

The hardest part of a penis transplant?  Finding a willing donor.  The donor is dead, mind you, just like with most other transplants...

Day of the Grizzly...

Day of the Grizzly...  The cyclone dust collector version, that is.  I received the feet, and yesterday I mounted them (the yellow disks visible on the bottom of the stand).  That meant I was ready to raise the (roughly 300 pound) beast from it's previous position on its side to the upright position you see in the photo at right (click to embiggen).  But how does an aging geek lift 300 pounds nine feet into the air, by himself?

With his tractor, of course :)  I tied a wooden beam to the motor and impeller assembly (the green bit near the very top).  I drove my tractor into the woodshop, then used the forklift on the loader to raise it up, driving forward very slowly at the same time to make the fork traverse an arc.  It worked surprisingly well, and not much in the way of muscles were required.

Once I had it standing upright, I attached the final bits: the HEPA filter (the big cylinder on the right), the hoses and muffler (above the HEPA filter), and the short piece of hose attaching the chip and sawdust barrel (cylinder on wheels below the cyclone cone), and then I was done.  Next step for the beast is to get power wired for it, find a way to lash it to the wall without making the entire wall vibrate, and then get the ducting up to connect it to the various machines.  I've discovered that the lead time for the ducting is several weeks, so that's not going to happen instantly...

Visualizations of pi...

Visualizations of pi...  Some of these are quite beautiful; all are interesting...