- Cell Phone Astronomy!
Laura and I have an ongoing concern (fancy name for a company) called Bubba's Bits. Our first product, picoSky, is now available for sale and we have had several customers from around the world! I believe we are the first company to offer a commercial astronomy product for cell phones.
Check out our corporations website at http://www.BubbasBits.com/
- Single Bubble Sonoluminescence
UPDATE: I still haven't gotten this to work yet, but that might be because I haven't tried too hard lately.
I've been working on this project off and on (more off than on) for the last 4 years now! Essentially what single bubble sonoluminescence is, is creating a flash of blue light from sound energy that is compressing a bubble of air inside a sphere of water. The light flashes at the same frequency as the sound energy, so to the human eye it looks like a constant blue light. Something pretty wild is happening here. I have all of the equipment for the experiment, I just need to get it to work. I might be using the wrong kind of inductors, so that's what I'm going to fix next.
Sonoluminescence Overview and Future Applications
- Furnish my new home!
UPDATE: Our home is all furnished now.
Laura and I are working with a landscaping design and build company in order to get our front, back and side yards to be lower maintenance and to actually look nice. Our plan is to turn the backyard into a native forest, where we can enjoy the birds and the privacy. I'll take some before and after photos and post them here.
- Math Math Math
Mathematics is not a book confined within a cover and bound between brazen clasps, whose contents it needs only patience to ransack; it is not a mine, whose treasures may take long to reduce into possession, but which fill only a limited number of veins and lodes; it is not a soil, whose fertility can be exhausted by the yield of successive harvests; it is not a continent or an ocean, whose area can be mapped out and its contour defined: it is limitless as that space which it finds too narrow for its aspirations; its possibilities are as infinite as the worlds which are forever crowding in and multiplying upon the astronomer’s gaze.
James Joseph Sylvester (1814-97), English mathematician, poet. Commemoration Day Address, 1877, at Johns Hopkins University.In an ongoing attempt to continue to put myself to sleep at night, I end up reading some interesting things about mathematics! One of my favorite topics is computational geometry. One day I hope to write a comprehensive educational computer program that students can use to have hands on experience with the basics.
UPDATE: I've been mulling over the issues of algebra education on the computer for a couple of years now. Lately I've been writing essays and design specifications for some ideas I've had. I hope to post a web page this summer to show some of the progress I've made. Maybe in a few more years I'll have a product!
Landscaping!
- Gardening
I'm having a blast taking care of my herb garden! The little plot of land that it is in didn't look like it had been used in over a decade, so I had to bring it back to life. Laura and I have used our fresh herbs in spaghetti sauce, stews, and various other yummies! Here's a list of the herbs I'm currently growing:
 Basil | Lavender |
| Bay | Marjoram |
| Caraway | Oregano |
| Cilantro | Rosemary |
| Fennel | Sage |
| Garlic Chives | Thyme |
