October Fun

With Halloween coming up I thought I would practice my evil green eyed scary look.

What do you think? Are you scared yet?


We love birthdays.
Cake is my favorite.


Charlie is Jacks dog.
They enjoy nap time..

Our house is full of teenagers.
Chubbs and Charlie enjoy wrestling as much as Zachary and Jack. They make a lot of noise and I keep telling them to be quiet and quit before someone gets hurt. Watch the video and you will see what I mean.



Okay, now for the educational part of the blog.
Rocket Food
By Theodore Gray Posted 05.08.2006

Want to see a real sugar high? Launch a model rocket with Oreo cookies.

Food contains an amazing amount of energy. If you don't believe it, feed candy to some kids and watch them bounce off the walls. Of course, tot-baiting is only one way to turn food energy into noise and destruction.


A rocket speeds away, fueled by an oxidizer and Oreo cookie filling.

A king-size Snickers has 541 Calories. That's Calories with a capital "C," or 1,000 lowercase calories. A small-"c" calorie represents the energy required to heat one gram of water by one degree Celsius. So that Snickers could theoretically heat a gram of water 541,000 degrees or, more realistically, bring a gallon and a half of water from nearly freezing to nearly boiling.

The energy in food is typically released when, through a complex biochemical pathway, sugars, starches and fats react with oxygen from the lungs. It's a form of slow-motion burning that, thankfully, rarely involves fire.

But you can liberate the same amount of energy in much less time by mixing the Snickers with a more concentrated source of oxygen—say, the potent oxidizer potassium perchlorate. The result is basically rocket fuel. Ignited on an open fireproof table, it burns vigorously, consuming an entire candy bar in a few seconds with a rushing tower of fire. If you could bottle the energy of kids playing and turn it into a Molotov cocktail, this is what it would look like.

Of course, you can't actually fire a rocket with a Snickers bar; the nuts would clog the nozzle. Oreo cookie filling, however, works very nicely in standard model-rocket engines. (Caution: The Model Rocket Safety Code does not approve of filling rocket motors with highly reactive chlorate-Oreo mixtures.)

The thrust wasn't great, but my chlorate-Oreo rocket did get off the ground—not bad for a half-baked confection. Serious sugar hits like Pixy Stix and Gummi Bears give more power, but true "candy rockets" (yes, that really is a term used in model rocketry) are made with the hard stuff: pure sucrose (table sugar) or dextrose (processed starch). With food-grade potassium nitrate as the oxidizer, the result is high-power rocket fuel that you could feed to the kids—although I don't recommend it.

Sugar Rush – A rocket powered by sugar.



















Watch the video


Click here for more video of candy rockets taking to the sky.

Woof
Abby

Cats & Politicians

Pet Spa
I HAVE GOT TO GET ME ONE OF THESE!!!!
I would love to give some of the neighborhood cats a good cleaning. Click to play the video.


Crazy Suicide Cat
I always knew cats were sinister and evil. This is picture proof.


Politicians Move To The Middle – Please
This lady has it figured out. I like the way she thinks.

Woof

Abby

A Back To School Dog

Here is a little something to get you ready to go back to school. Kind of switch your mind back on and focus your perspective on life.

"An educated person is one who has learned that information almost always turns out to be at best incomplete and very often false, misleading, fictitious, mendacious - just dead wrong."
~~~Russell Baker

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't."
~~~Anatole France

"Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army."
~~~Edward Everett

"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."
~~~Will Durant

1964 modem demo
An awesome demo of an 'antique' acoustic modem from the 60s. This is one of the first prototype modems. See them use it with a modern day computer.




Oxygen
A 3D animation of some basic properties of oxygen presented in a funny way. Now this is the way to learn chemistry.




Ride in a U2 Spy Plane
I don’t care if you are not a pilot, this is a cool ride. All my pilot friends will get a charge out of this.

James May Rides In U2 Spy Plane - Watch more Funny Videos

Hope you have a great school year!

Woof

Abby

Dog Days of Summer – My Favorite!

Just Enjoying The Dog Days

The phrase Dog Days or "the dog days of summer", Latin: Caniculae, Caniculares dies, refers to the hottest, most sultry days of summer. In the northern hemisphere they usually fall between early July and early September. The actual dates vary greatly from region to region, depending on latitude and climate. Dog Days can also define a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by dull lack of progress.

The term "Dog Days" was used by the Greeks, as well as the ancient Romans after Sirius the "Dog Star", the brightest star in the heavens besides the Sun this time of year.

The ancients sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.

Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies.

In Ancient Rome, the Dog Days extended from July 24 through August 24. In many European cultures (German, French, Italian) this is still the period to be the time of the Dog Days.

For the ancient Egyptians, Sirius appeared just before the season of the Nile's flooding, so they used the star as a "watchdog" for that event. Since its rising also coincided with a time of extreme heat, the connection with hot, sultry weather was made for all time: "Dog Days bright and clear / indicate a happy year. / But when accompanied by rain, / for better times our hopes are vain."

In recent years, the phrase "Dog Days" or "Dog Days of Summer" have also found new meanings. The term has frequently been used in reference to the stock market. Typically, summer is a very slow time for the stock market, and additionally, poorly performing stocks with little future potential are frequently known as "dogs." If they really want to talk about a lazy stock they should call them “cats”

Many people believe the phrase is in reference to the conspicuous laziness of domesticated dogs during the hottest days of the summer. When speaking of "Dog Days" there seems to be a connotation of lying or "dogging" around, or being "dog tired" on these hot and humid days. Although these meanings have nothing to do with the original source of the phrase, they may have been attached to the phrase in recent years due to common usage or misunderstanding of the origin of the phrase.


One Car – One Owner – 540,000 Miles

This is an unusual love story involving an 89-year-old woman and her beloved Chariot. The two have been together for decades and traveled more than 540,000 miles across this nation's highways and side streets.



Train –vs- Tornado
Want to see a train take on a tornado? Click on the video and see who wins.

Train Versus Killer Tornado - Watch more Funny Videos

Woof

Abby