This morning I read an essay on Pharyngula by the popular blogger and prominent atheist PZ Myers. Someone sent him photos of a funny shaped rock and asked him for his interpretation. This reminded me of an episode that occurred to me some years ago.
First off, some background. Some years ago I interacted online with a man named Anton Wroblewski. At the time we were both interested in elements of the Bigfoot issue. Dr. Wroblewski is perhaps best known as the individual who analyzed the Skookum body impression as that of an elk. As you can see by his CV, he has a PhD in geology as well as masters in stratigraphy and vertebrate paleontology.
I finally met Dr. Wroblewski in March of 2010 when he visited Seattle.
It’s great to know people with genuine expertise, as you can ask them questions! Some years back I had been walking along Alki Beach here in Seattle. I started noticing funny shaped rocks, or perhaps teeth, in the sand. I picked a few up. Since my educational background is a BS in pharmacy, I really didn’t know what I was looking at. Were they rocks? Were they fossils? Were they eroded teeth? Why did they have little pits? I’ve always been a curious person so I decided to follow up on what I found. I sent Anton a photograph of the specimens. He thought they were intriguing, but wouldn’t speculate further without examining them. I packaged up the strange samples and sent them off. He examined them and suggested they were not fossilized shark teeth as I had fantasized, but simply funny looking eroded rocks. Well, no harm no foul.
I was appalled to see how differently PZ Myers chose to react to someone who sent him photos of a strange rock sample:
“He also sent me these photos in much higher resolution. Why? Because he’s an ignorant nudnik. These things look nothing like the brain of any creature that has ever existed, unless maybe it’s the lopsided lumpy non-functional excrescence found inside the crania of creationists.”
I’m sure that a celebrity such as Myers is often the target of cranks that send all sorts of things. Yet how do we know that this individual was an “ignorant nudnik” or a legitimately curious person?
It’s doubly disturbing to consider that Myers is an instructor at the university level. Does he behave like this to his students? There is already an enormous social pressure in classrooms against asking questions. No one wants to look foolish by asking a “dumb” question. You can see this social pressure in action when people add meta-data to their questions with the preface “this may be a dumb question but…”
There are excellent resources on the Internet for those without personal access to PhDs. One that comes to mind is AskMeFi or Ask Metafilter. One of the things that keeps a resource like that functioning is close moderation. Personal attacks like asserting the questioner is an “ignorant nudkik” are not tolerated. I’ve used AskMeFi to help me gather information about such strange things as “Mountain Marbles.” For those who are particularly wary of publicity, it’s possible to ask questions anonymously.
While it’s perfectly reasonable to dismiss those questions that are not asked in good faith, it’s unfortunate to see mockery and dismissal used by someone like Myers who should know better. Of all people, Myers should be well aware of how much pain and misery in the world is caused by ignorance. Inherent in asking a question, ANY question, is the admission of ignorance. When the very act of admission of ignorance is mocked, as Myers is doing, it creates a chilling effect for those who might wish to learn.
POSTSCRIPT:
While out exercising today, it occurred to me the individual who sent the photos may have not specifically ASKED Myers what the rocks were. Upon carefully re-reading the post, it appears that the individual concluded that the inorganic sample was “mineralized brain.” Heck, I can relate, I thought I might have found “fossilized shark teeth.” Without specific clarification, we can’t know what exactly the individual claimed.
From time to time I receive requests from sideshow performers for me to build them a pump for their own gavage acts. I am not in the business of manufacturing such devices. You will have to find a machinist to fabricate this for you, or else have the tools and skills to do it yourself. I can only describe what I did to build my own. I did not have a lathe, only a drill press. You will almost certainly have better results if you use a lathe instead of a drill press. The dimensions I am giving work for a particular sized barrel; I just happened to pick up an acrylic cylinder as scrap of this size. If you start with a different sized cylinder none of the following dimensions will work, and you will have to modify everything.
I built two pumps back in the early 1990s when I invented this stunt. One was stolen in Copenhagen, and the other remains with me. Both were essentially the same size. I started off with a clear acrylic cylinder 10” in length, 4.485” OD, and 3.975” ID. Clearly this is a 4” ID nominal tube. From there I used a drill press to machine an end cap, again out of clear acrylic, to seal one end. This was the most labor-intensive part of the fabrication, as I had to machine it to a few thousandths of an inch over the ID of the barrel. If you plan to do this yourself, you will need a reliable dial or digital caliper. The end cap on my unit was .675” thick, again made of clear acrylic. When your end cap almost fits into the barrel, use a heat gun to soften the end of the barrel. I chose not to use adhesives to secure the end cap into the barrel, but perhaps one could; I honestly don’t know what would work best. Both of my pumps held liquid under pressure for years with no leakage or malfunctions. You will notice the presence of “crazing” on the end of my barrel; this is a common phenomenon with all many plastics under stress. I suppose one could further secure the end cap with a metal band, or drill screws or pins into the plastic, but I didn’t need to.
From there a brass plumbing fitting was installed in the end cap. This was threaded with pipe thread, so you will need a pipe tap that corresponds to the threads on the fitting you are are using. The fitting needs to dimensionally match the tubing you will be using. Since I used tubing whose ID was 3/16” you will need to choose a metal fitting that will allow that size of tubing to slide over the hose barb. The tubing is elastic, and will expand a bit to fit over a hose barb. I sealed the junction of the threaded hose barb and the acrylic end cap with plumber’s epoxy on the outside of the unit. Black vinyl tape was wrapped around the junction of the hose barb and tubing to provide strain relief. If I were doing this today I would probably use silicone tape instead.
The plunger of the pump is a series of acrylic disks which hold the O-rings in place on a stainless steel rod. The opposite end of the rod is a plastic T-handle. There are two sizes of disks, which are sized to allow just a portion of the O-ring to be exposed to the inner surface of the pump. Again, the dimensions I’m providing are for a barrel whose nominal ID is 4”. The inner disk is 3.550” across and .229” thick. The thickness is nominally ¼”. The larger disk is 3.917” across and the same thickness. I started out using 4 O-rings, but later on found I could get by with just 3. For a 3 O-ring stack you will need 4 large disks and 3 small disks. I chose to tap the centers of these disks to match the threads on the stainless steel rod, which in this case was 3/8” coarse threads.
Believe it or not I was initially unable to find O-rings that fit this application! I fabricated my own using over-sized O-rings and Loctite Prism cyanoacrylate (superglue) #11. The ends must be diagonally tapered at the butt joint. I’m quite confident that anyone building a gavage pump in the 21st century should be able to find 4” OD O-rings commercially. Obviously the thickness of the O-rings needs to match the thickness of the plunger spacer disks. The ones I used were .240” thick.
The stainless steel rod I used was 14” by 3/8”. Both ends were tapped for 3/8” coarse threads. The plunger disk end was tapped 3” and the T-handle end was tapped 2 & ¼” or just a tad longer than the T-handle is thick. I ground a couple of flat spots on the rod to allow the rod to be chucked into a vice while I tapped the rod. This will also allow the use of a crescent wrench to hold the rod while assembling and disassembling the plunger handle. While I used galvanized washers, I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone building one today. I would stick with all stainless steel washers and nuts. On the plunger disk end I used an ordinary stainless steel nut in the middle, with nylon locking nuts at the end. If I was building this today, I would use nylon locking nuts at all four points; two on the plunger end and two on the T-handle end. Use a washer under all four nuts. Besides a crescent wrench, you will need a socket wrench to access and rotate the nut on the outside end of the T-handle.
The T-handle I used was also plastic, in this case a section of polyethylene whose dimensions are 6” by 1& ¾”. The center hole was counter sunk to allow the nuts and washers to fit inside elegantly and to prevent the center rod from biting into the flesh of the gavage assistant. In my case the countersink was a 1” wide bore.
The tubing I used was Tygon R-1000, 5/16” OD and 3/16” ID. The part number I used was AAU00012. As of this writing, this part number is still current. The tubing length I used was 7’. The end was tapered, and a series of cuts were made into the sides near the end to facilitate fluid flow. These cuts were made with a diagonal wire cutter.
I used PAM brand non-stick spray to lubricate the plunger when performing my act.
I was skeptical Jan Gregor was going to get us there on time. I heard his vintage alarm clock go off early in the morning; genuine brass bells and a clapper making the ringing noise. By then I saw sunlight coming through my window and thought we might be running late. The Google map directions said it would take an hour and 48 minutes to drive to the Leatherman factory in Portland, and I thought we should have given ourselves more time.
I had booked this tour about two months previously. Leatherman offered it only on Wednesdays, and the available openings closed up fast. Looking at this trip in another way, I’d been waiting for this moment for more than 20 years…
I discovered the Leatherman tool sometime in the late 1980’s. Back then I didn’t read any hype or promotion about the tool, I just bought it because it looked worthwhile. I quickly realized that this tool was a game changer, a tool so incredibly useful that I’ve carried incarnations daily on my belt ever since. The robust elegance of the tool was immediately obvious; it didn’t have twee little thingies like toothpicks that the Swiss Army knife did. I found myself using the needle nosed pliers much more than the knife. The way that the pliers folded into the handle was remarkable, it was robust as a tool yet it folded neatly and compactly into its own handle.
The first incarnation of the Leatherman tool was about 90% perfect. I can think of only three drawbacks. The most important was that the folding tools, especially the knife blade, did not lock into place. The second was that the edges of the handles were not rounded. Gripping the tool was a bit uncomfortable when the pliers were unfolded. The last issue was that the tool was just a tad too small. Over the years Leatherman corrected all these issues, and the current model I carry on my belt is the “Core.” The Core is a full-sized tool, slightly bigger than the original model. Its folding blades lock out, and the handle channel edges are rounded.
As Gregor and I drove towards Portland, I sipped coffee from his Thermos. I tried to mask the anxiety I was developing about being late. The e-mail from Leatherman said that if we weren’t there by 9:55 we were out of luck. Jan tried to reassure me; “this clock is 10 minutes fast, we should be there in plenty of time.” What if a semi truck jackknifed in the road? What if it was transporting watermelons that splattered everywhere? There were too many things that could go wrong; we should have left a half-hour earlier…
We dutifully followed the Google directions, and lo and behold we found the Leatherman plant on time! We actually arrived early, and decided to enjoy a couple of egg McMuffins at the nearby McDonalds. While most corporate tours end in the gift shop, this one started there as well. We looked at all the snazzy new models on display, as well as prototypes that Tim Leatherman created back in the 1970’s. Our tour guide Meei arrived, and we all put on wireless headsets in order to hear her voice over the din of the plant. We all put on protective eyeglasses as well. We entered the floor of the huge plant, which employs several hundred workers. The first stop was a large blanking machine, which punched out tool components from a strip of steel wound on a large roll. We were handed a rough blank and we passed it around. Not surprisingly, every blank that is punched out has a significant burr on one edge, which much be removed.
Then we were led to a polishing-deburring machine. This was a large vibratory tub that contained small ceramic cylinders. A gritty paste was added which we were told was silica. Hundreds of tool components were added, and a large cover was dropped over the vat so that blobs of paste wouldn’t escape. A magnet was later used to separate the blanks from the abrasive. Another station used glass impact bead to create a matte finish on some components.
Other stations along the tour featured both automated and hand-fed punches that folded the flat steel into channeled handles. Random pieces were pulled from the line to visually inspect for cracks that might result. Other blanks were cut by a high power laser beam. Surprising, we were able to watch the laser beam cutting the metal without needing darkened welding goggles. A laser beam was also used in another station to cut through the anodizing on tool handles to create custom engraving.
One station included workers that loaded rough pliers into a conveyer belt. The belt fed a robotic arm that quickly passed the pliers over a rotating abrasive belt. Watching the robot was mesmerizing.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the tools had to be assembled by hand. This was done in U-shaped work stations that allowed 4 or 5 workers at a time. Some handles were held in customized jigs while the fold-out tools and washers were aligned by a drift pin. Most Leatherman tools are held together by rivets, but some are joined by threaded fasteners. Thankfully Loctite is applied to the fastener threads during assembly! Years ago I had purchased various non-Leatherman multitools for comparison. One was a unit that used proprietary threaded fasteners. I happened to be in Europe when one of the threaded fasteners came apart, thus leaving me dead in the water. That episode put the kibosh on my celebration of multitool diversity…
About an hour after we started, our tour came to an end, back in the gift shop were we started. It was by far the most impressive corporate tour I’ve ever been on! I ended up buying a t-shirt and a small “Squirt ES4” which included useful wire stippers. No photographs were allowed of the shop floor, so I’m afraid I wasn’t able to illustrate this blog entry. Later on Jan took me to an excellent pie shop in Portland, and wondered aloud if Leatherman workers might assemble “Frankenstein” tools of their own design…
If you like machines, power tools, robots, steel, and live in the Pacific Northwest, I highly recommend taking this tour!
I moved into my house in Seattle way back in 1994. Back then my front lawn was a mess. It was full of overgrown grass, Himalayan blackberry, and all sorts of other weeds. It was so bad that I had a feral cat taking up De facto residence. Compounding the problem of getting rid of the grass and weeds was that my lawn was full of boulders! The root systems of some of the more tenacious plants would hide under the boulders, so even if I trimmed the plants, they would often grow back.
I decided to wage war on the boulders. I reasoned that I would need to address the most fundamental problem first before trying to get my lawn in order. My front lawn is bisected by a concrete stairway. The east section is smaller than the west section. All in all, I figured there must have been about twenty(!) boulders in my front lawn. I decided to break up the boulders in the east section first. Using just a sledge hammer, I would blast away at the big rocks, cracking off chunks until they were small enough to carry away. Here’s a photo of one of the boulders, with the sledge hammer included to provide a sense of scale:
This was much harder work than I expected, as I simply underestimated how hard the rock was. I don’t know a great deal about geology, but I was told that the big rocks commonly found in Seattle were basalt. One factor that began to concern me was that tiny chunks would blast off, and I was worried that a chip might scratch the paint from someone’s car. Eventually I managed to clear the boulders from the first section. It was terribly strenuous labor, and often made my back ache. I basically put this project on hold for about 8 years.
Eventually, I decided to attack the boulders on the other side of my yard, this time using a rented electric jackhammer. You would think this would work like a charm, but it did little or nothing. I began to take notice that I was certainly not the only homeowner that had big “ornamental” boulders in my front lawn. I began to wonder why. Eventually I found the answer in a somewhat surprising place, a book on Washington architecture.
Authored by Sally B. Woodbridge and Roger Montgomery and published by the University of Washington Press, it’s an excellent introduction to a large subject.
An amazing photo is found on page 100:
It’s a bit hard to see in this photo, but there is a pile of boulders at the base of this huge mound of soil. The explanatory text is brief, but answered the question I harbored all these years.
Regarding the Denny regrade, in which high pressure water jets were used to move huge masses of soil, the text on pages 100 and 101 reads:
“Denny Hill, one of the most important topographical features of early Seattle, comprised sixty-two city blocks. The top featured a famous hotel and the first city park. Under the direction of Seattle’s most renowned city engineer, R. H. Thomson, the hill was leveled in several places beginning in 1891. Sluiced down by the method of hydraulicking that Thomson observed in the California goldfields, the hill produced enough earth to fill the rest of the tidal flats and, at the same time, to furnish garden designers and nurseries with a long-lasting supply of boulders for retaining walls and rockeries.”
At some point I learned that the ancient Romans had excavated tunnels by heating rock faces with fires, then dousing the hot rock with cold water. This would cause the rock to shatter, and the rubble could be removed. I bought a propane tank and one of those “50,000 BTU” fire wands. Working with a partner, I would blast the rock with fire, then my partner would spray water from a hose onto the rock. Sometimes it would work, but mostly it didn’t. I would then resort to the sledge hammer, but even then I concluded that the “Roman method” didn’t work on these rocks.
I finally came upon a solution that worked. I had a DeWalt roto hammer, with a 5/8″ diameter bit that was quite long. I would drill three holes in a line as close together as I could. It just so happened that a wood-splitting wedge would just fit within that width. The wedge would have to knock out the walls between the bore holes, but that was no biggie when struck by the sledge hammer. Furthermore, this process didn’t create any tiny high velocity projectiles that might upset the neighbors. As hard as it was, the rock was no match for the simple power of the wedge. I remember one day in particular, I believe I broke either two or maybe even three boulders using this technique!
Of course, this generated a huge amount of waste rock. In fact it took two full sized pickup loads to transport it all away. I found a rock pile down in Skyway, south of Seattle, near some railroad tracks. I assume it was owned and used by the railroad for rail bed ballast. So I didn’t feel morally wrong about “dumping” my rocks there, and in fact I like to think I was actually helping add to the railroad’s supply!
With the boulders totally gone, it was an easy matter to get rid of the noxious weeds and vegetation, especially the Himalayan blackberry. My front lawn is still not finished, but at some point I think I’d like to terrace it, so I don’t have to mow a harshly curved surface.
Deep in my mind, I hold the thought that long after I’m gone, someone will decide to decorate the front lawn with beautiful basalt boulders…
In my entire lifetime I’ve been locked out of my house or vehicle fewer times than the fingers on one hand. I always keep my keys in a pouch in my front pants pocket. Even then, modern vehicles will automatically lock the door if the door is shut with the locking mechanism on.
Years ago, I drove a 1987 Dodge Daytona Pacifica. I was shocked to find out how easy it was to “slim jim” my way into the car, or most cars for that matter. At the time, I was particularly concerned about it being stolen, mostly because it was a relatively new car. I was good about always checking that I had my keys in my hand or pocket as I closed the door, but no one is perfect. I fabricated a very simple slim jim from a hacksaw blade and learned how to open my own car door. I hid it in the plastic bumper of my car.
I had to use it on one occasion, and a woman actually stopped and asked me what I was doing. Evidently she believed my true story that I locked my keys in the car, and she didn’t call the police. After I sold my Daytona, I owned a series of 1965 Fords, which required one to lock the door from the outside. In my opinion, this is the way that all cars should be built, but obviously my opinion carries no weight with automotive designers.
Several years ago I bought a 1977 Ford F-250. By 1977, Ford was making their vehicles in the new style, in which one is not required to lock the door from the outside. For a long time I rationalized that I simply wouldn’t need a slim jim or extra hidden key, as my discipline was so good. Well, no one is perfect, and eventually I screwed up. Thankfully it was when I arrived at work. This was when I was working in the maintenance department of a steel fabrication facility. This business employed a lot of ex-cons, and thankfully one of my co-workers was proficient with a slim jim. He opened the door of my truck and delivered my keys to me. I think he’d taken a couple of falls for burglary, but I never asked him. He was one of the nicer ex-cons I worked with…
I knew deep down that I would have to come to terms with the lockout issue, and I finally took care of it tonight. For years, I’ve kept useful tools in belt pouches. Here’s a photograph of the pouches on the left side of my belt:
On the far left is a leather pouch for the Core model full size Leatherman tool. In my opinion, the latest iterations of the Leatherman tool are some of the best designed hand tools ever created. On the far left is a pouch for a butane lighter. In the middle is a leather basketweave pouch intended for a mini-mag flashlight. I keep a mini-mag, but on my right side. Instead of a flashlight I keep a copper tube, which has a friction fit cap. I bought it years ago in the plumbing department of a hardware store. I believe it’s supposed to be used as a water hammer preventative. As it just so happens, the copper tube fits inside the flashlight holster just about perfectly:
Amazingly enough, I didn’t even have to cut the tube to length to allow it to fit inside the holster!
Until tonight, I’d been using the tube just to hold a ball point pen. But this was unnecessary, as the Carhartt jeans I wear have small side pockets that are perfect for pens. So tonight I finally got around to doing what I should have done years ago; put some extra keys in a belt pouch. I had to sand down a house door key and a door-ignition key so they would fit inside the tube. I cut a piece of plastic to act as median barrier so the keys wouldn’t rub against each other and rattle around in the copper tube. I made a lanyard loop out of 80 pound test braided Dacron fishing line:
Of course, this is all well and good for keys locked in a truck, but won’t save me if I run out of the house in my casual wear, which is usually a sweatshirt and Nylon running shorts. If a rabid raccoon got in my house I might just make a dash for the door, in which case I’m screwed!
|
|
