Flow chart - diagrams

click on image to get it into a larger format to see the whole thing ... sorry I can't get it differently...

Problem solving flow chart - now this is my humor of the month:

































Circuit diagram:
































the holy water is my favorite part

incompetent self analysis

From 'The Agnostic's Dilemma' (NYTimes):
When people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.

the article also cites:
Justin Kruger and David Dunning, “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties of Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-assessments,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999, vol. 77, no. 6, pp. 1121-1134
these authors have several related articles

almost there

It's 9:26 p.m. CST
I am sitting in my lab listening to William Billings' music and some chronic buzzing that is coming from the larger of the two annoying air pumps.
I am on my last set of data. After this, I retreat to my desk and try to export the data into some coherent form.
Then another couple of hours before I can depart.
The light rail runs at 12:22 and 1:22.
Catching the 12:11 in front of Coffmann will get me to the Metrodome just in time to watch the 12:22 depart.
Last night, after discovering this amazing fact, I sat on the chilly platform and read Dr.Pete's NIOSH grant, which included the sentence:
This device, shown in Fig. 4, has just recently been completed and one member of my research team is working to evaluate its performance.
[translation: Elizabeth is sitting in the lab tonight listening to loud 18th century choral music and air pumps so that I can sit on her committee and approve her thesis so she gets out of my hair and takes the evil aerosol curse with her.]

I really want to be home and not here.
After tonight, though, there won't be any more data collection for a while. Thank God.

just another day

On April 16th I wrote:
I'm sitting in my lab again. I'm on the 3rd set of data for the week - running a bit behind. One of the other students needs my equipment next week. This is rather beneficial for me. I have a pile of data and haven't really had a chance to sit down and analyze it. What does it look like? Am I getting the "right" (read: expected) values? Are the graphs going to be the odd-ball looking things I got with the first part of the experiments?

I need to make a plan to get The Rest of The Data after I get the equipment back.

I'm waiting to hear from the IH conference organizers. I submitted an abstract for a poster; if it gets accepted, I'll be going to the conference. I'm not sure, but it will hopefully get subsidized from one of the department's grants. Well, that means that I need to have the data completely collected and analyzed and put into a poster. Which isn't going to happen the night before the conference.

On May 4th, I am writing:
I'm sitting in my lab again. I'm still trying to get my experiment working. No clue what happened ... but there's no joy in Mudville tonight (or yesterday; or Friday).

Too many particles. Let's check the laboratory room air to see what we have. Wow - look! The room air has fewer particles than my experiment. Which should have none.

I heard from the IH conference organizers. My abstract got accepted. I'm getting subsidized by my program, have the reservations & am looking to see if any other (female) IH needs a place to stay, since I'm willing to share the hotel room that I'm not paying for.

I still, however, need to have the data completely collected and analyzed and put into a poster. Which isn't going to happen the night before the conference. Nor is it going to happen tonight.

.

Laugh? Cry?

Today at the University of Minnesota Industrial Hygiene lab
we return to the on-going saga of our grad student's valiant efforts to get data.
We open on the scene of her meeting with her research adviser,
Dr.Pete:

meet with Pete - ok
missing peak in last experiment - just what we wanted
annoying peak at 0.7 still there - hmmm
check out experimental set up - looks ok
find wiggly thing that's not supposed to be wiggly - hmmm
find leak - good
correct leak
annoying peak at 0.7 gone - great
set up power source - good
turn power source on
power source "on" light lights up - yea!
power source makes the right ticking noises - good
fiddle with voltage regulator - looks right
loud pop - huh?
flash of white light at ammeter scale - wow, pretty lights
no more voltage
no more joy

Pete & I looked at each other and sighed ...


I'm now experiencing the joys of trying to get someone at the U's electronics shop to come fix my power source.

Maybe I'll go mattress shopping today. If it was an hour earlier, I might have called Mr.Gopher and suggested doing lunch.

I have nothing else to do in the lab until the power source gets fixed ...

I might as well laugh - it doesn't make my nose run afterwards.
.

I have data!

I have data!

It isn't what I expected. Nor what I want.

There's something wrong; hopefully with my set-up, and not experimental design. Like leaks into the instrument (please,please,please).

But ... what the hell?! ... I have data!!

My new co-worker, Ms.Ireland, has a very independent, motivated spouse. He wrote (his idea) to the manufacturer of our brand-new instrument. (btw, did I mention I get to use the brand-new whiz-bang instrument, and not the one connected to the 25-year old computer with 1992 software that doesn't work??). He asked if they had web-based tutorials, or a "Gizmo for Dummies", since his wife was working at "some laboratory" at the U.

The manufacturer wrote back: "Is she working for Dr. R's group? We just sold him one of those." uhhh. yes. So, they're coming out tomorrow afternoon to spend an hour with Ms.Ireland & me. Thankfully, I have data (perhaps even more thankfully data that isn't what I expected) to at least base our questions on.

Of course, considering how much we paid them for the thing (waaaaaay more than my car), and they're over in St. Paul ... I think the least customer service could do is drive 25 min. westward to our labs. :-)

I have data!!!

Micro-squash

What to do when you realize the pan with the acorn squash halves won't fit in the oven along with the ham ...? One, if one is over 35, likely looks at the microwave oven and thinks "appliance only valued for heating left-overs or defrosting frozen peas in 2.5 min."

Cut acorn squash in half
remove seeds
place squash half in a bowl.
Cover.
Microwave on high (for an 800 W oven) for 3 min.
Wait 5 min.
Microwave on high for 3 min.
Remove.
Add pinch of rosemary.
Add pat of butter.
Re-cover.
Repeat for the other half.

Let it sit covered until dinner. Serve as a half to each adult, if it's going to be a larg(er) part of the meal.

Or, just divvy it up as desired. Can slice the half into slices, like a melon, and serve that way.
Or, scoop it out of the shell, try to remove some of the rosemary. Serve like mashed potatoes (made with a masher, not a food processor).

Cheers & Merry Christmas from the Minnesota branch of the Tobias Family.

The Powers of Peat

I want to make a psalter. I started ruminating on this quite a few years ago B.C. (Before Children.) I had been doing medieval calligraphy for quite a few years and wanted to branch out into a medieval, yet more personal, effort. Psalters - a collection of the psalms - were one of the few types of books which were common in the Middle Ages. Yes, this would be if you were wealthy to start off with. There are some doozies out there. The stupendously wealthy would have them custom made, in lieu of a Mazeratti to show off wealth. One of the most spectacular examples is from Jean Duc de Berry. I used to have a copy of excerpts. It is the most impressive example of late medieval illumination I've ever seen. The calligraphy I posted a few days ago was based upon this.

There are extant examples dating back to the 7th Century (in Ireland) from across Europe. The earlier stuff - Merovingian, Carolingian & early Irish - are really appealing to me. Convenient, since they are light on the illumination. A companion skill I never developed much beyond a rudimentary level. I worked with several skilled illuminators, so I didn't see any point in pursuing something I didn't really care for.

A couple years ago, a bulldozer operator in the middle of Ireland discovered a psalter while excavating peat in a bog. It is estimated to be from ~750 AD, apparently based upon the one visible page. As the director of the National Museum in Ireland stated, it is utterly astonishing that this thing managed to survive 1000 years or more. I can't wait to see what it looks like. The museum has a page about it here.

It's intriguing the limitations they have for conservation & restoration:
can't freeze it, or it will destroy the parchment;
can't use bio-cides or it will ruin the paints or inks;
don't want too much oxygen or it will actually start decomposing ...

The problem is that, having sat in a peat bog for 1000 years, the book is rather ... well .. rather wet. How to dry it out without destroying it? There will likely be quite a few dissertations addressing the many facets of this.

This link goes to a page, at the bottom of which is a .pdf file providing a summary of the conservation project. As both a scientist and an avid interest in the specific type of object, I was utterly enchanted. p. 9 has a before / after photograph of one of the first pages they've treated. Holy cow!

This is just soooooooooo coooooolll

[def.] Knowledge

Additional research based knowledge of the costs imposed on people ....ref.1

I cannot imagine a chemist or physicist (or industrial hygienist) writing this sentence. How does one make any claim to anything in a scientific peer-reviewed journal if it isn't researched based? I suppose the assumption excludes personal opinions and the editorial section.

I've seen this several times in this course's readings. It's even defined somewhere in the text. It's the social science method to claim scientific validity for a subject most physical scientists don't think is science.

(ref.1) Warner, et. al. 1995. Criteria for determining an optimal cigarette tax: the economist's perspective. Tobacco Control, 4, 380-386.