Unless you have been living under a rock … a rock without internet, cell phone, TV, cable, satellite or radio access … you know that Apple announced the Apple WATCH today. What you may not have seen are the videos. WATCH is a thing of beauty which mere words cannot do justice.
Clicking the image below (or the link below it) will take you to the official Apple site. WATCH the videos
http://www.apple.com/watch/films/
iWANT
I like this one too 🙂
Recently, we here at BWG have inadvertently relegated our Ardbeg consumption to their special annual releases (you can read all our Ardbeg reviews here) and seem to have overlooked some of their more regularly available stuff. That has been a mistake… Ardbeg Uigeadail’s nose is like an enchanted forest of flavors. It starts off with a beautifully complex blend of earth, oak, moss, wild blackberries and raspberries and Ardbeg’s typical, ever present, but not overpowering peat smoke. The palate is a fresh, hand-picked bouquet strewn over smoked wood chips. A few drops of water open up the fruity and floral notes, while adding a creamy texture to this smokey mountain of flavors. The finish is smooth and warm with some sharp cracked peppercorn and fading peat smoke. Uigeadail is beautifully complex and balanced. For BWG it’s by far Ardbeg’s best regular offering. Available in store and online at Gates Circle Liquor for $106
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This just appeared in my reader … My favorite distiller …
Bruichladdich, one of BWG’s favorite Scottish distillers recently discontinued their “Laddie 10” flagship bottling and replaced it with The Classic Laddie Scottish Barley. We loved the Laddie 10 (you can read that review here), so we were not happy to learn of its departure – however, we were equally as excited to sample its replacement. This unpeated Bruichladdich pours a deep honey gold, a few shades darker than its predecessor. The nose is classic Bruichladdich, salty and floral with a caramel, banana sweetness. The palate is clean and balanced, with sea salt caramel taffy and a lavender bouquet. It has a nice oily mouth feel which leads into thoroughly warming finish that lasts a good while. A touch of water broadens the palate with more floral notes, while maintaining its salty-sweet bite. There is no age statement on this Laddie bottling and the abv. has been punched up to…
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Yet another example of strong powerful women
Yesterday’s Google News search on Apple had a Barron’s article on Apple’s suppliers. Apparently you can read the whole article through the Google link, but a direct link asks you to subscribe. Go figure.
The basis of the article is that these stocks could get pummeled if Apple disappoints on September 9. That may or may not come to pass, bit if you want to invest in companies riding Apple’s coat tails consider these:
GTAT – GT Advanced Technologies
Manufacturer of Transparent Aluminum
SWKS – Skyworks Solutions
Wireless handset chip supplier
INVN – InvenSense
Motion processing, MEMS gyroscope, and motion processing technologies for consumer electronics
RFMD – RF Micro Devices
Manufacturer of RF (Radio Frequency) integrated circuits
AVGO – Avago Technologies
Provides an extensive range of analog, mixed-signal and optoelectronic components
OVTI – OmniVision Technologies
Manufacturer of proprietary image sensing and state-of-the-art CMOS process technologies
STM– STMicroelectronics
Produces a diverse range of devices, ranging from single transistors to microprocessors
NXPI – NXP Semiconductors
Creating solutions that enable secure connections for a smarter world
MU – Micron Technology
Best known for producing many forms of semiconductor devices including DRAM, SDRAM, flash memory, and SSDs.
The article also referenced the WordPress site RE/CODE as a source.
~~August 31, 2014~~
Women are the warriors our times call for
“As it appears in ….. “
https://www.facebook.com/AaronPaquetteArt
https://www.facebook.com/AaronPaquetteArt?fref=photo
Some people make the mistake of thinking women are only gatherers … gardeners … that they can only dig and pick and cultivate and hide.
I tell you that women are the strongest, smartest and most dangerous hunters the world has ever seen. Individually, they may be physically overpowered, but in planning, in vision, in purpose and explosive action, they can’t be beat. Any honest man will admit there is nothing that fills them with awe so much as their partner when she has made up her mind.
She has become an unstoppable, indomitable will. If it’s against him, he’d better start running!
There’s a narrative that women are weak, that they’re vulnerable, that they are somehow less intelligent or capable than a man. Well, they said that about serfs, about slaves, about people…
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Via Twitter
I was fortunate to travel to Norway (Stavanger) on business several times in the early 2000s. It is an extremely beautiful country. I wish I could afford to live there. I was also fortunate to know a native Norwegian whom I had previously worked with in the States. He was kind enough to take me on a day trip to the Norwegian country side. I was amazed that most of the back roads are effectively one lane wide, as can be seen in the video.
See also SUPERCHARGER
… on MARS
The Register has an excellent review of Randall Munroe’s new book, What if?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/30/what_if_review_randall_munroe/
Read it ! …
Then buy the book
http://store.xkcd.com/pages/if-you-re-looking-for-the-what-if-book
Based on a true story …
Commando commando
The man is a commando
No underwear at his command
D’oh!
Monday’s XKCD (above) made me go find the original theme song on YouTube (top).
In the late 80′ – early 90s TMNT were all the rage. The boys were little and between Christmas and birthdays we acquired every form of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle paraphernalia know to man. You name it we had it: action figures, weapons, vehicles, home-made VHS recordings of the TV shows, comic books (new and old). The show was on every afternoon after school around dinner time and I watched many an episode with the boys. We also saw the first several movies. The theme song was unquestionably catchy, humor childish but not always so, the plots predictable. But heck, I enjoyed it as much as the boys did.
It was a classic.
Nineteen Seventy-One, the year I graduated from high school. Badfinger is riding high in the charts. Heir apparent to the Beatles, backed by George Harrison, published by the Beatles’ Apple Corps (no relation to Apple Computer, but that is another story), with a number of hits already playing. No Matter What, Come and Get It, and Day After Day had been or were playing regularly on AM radio. Come and Get It debuted in the 1970 Peter Seller / Ringo Starr movie The Magic Christian.
Today’s cat pix
Luna
Pickles and Hillary
The interwebs are all atwitter at the alien thigh bone found on Mars by the Curiosity rover. I’m sure this is old news by now.
More likely than not it is actually a volcanic bomb formed as molten rock thrown from one of the Martian volcanoes or impact craters cooled while flying through the air.
One wishes they would send Curiosity over to run an analysis on it. If it had the chemical composition of Martian rock, one could more forcefully argue against it being a fossil.
Via USA Today and YouTube
The SpaceX three engine F9R development rocket exploded during a test today at the McGregor, Texas test facility.
In a post on Twitter, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said: “Three engine F9R Dev1 vehicle auto-terminated during test flight. No injuries or near injuries. Rockets are tricky”
Related
This pretty well sums it up.
This video predates Dragon V2, but the basic concepts remain the same.
Crew capability was the very reason SpaceX was founded, so we will do whatever it takes to make this happen. – Elon Musk
Related:
My latest impulse buy …
Extremely Smooth. Once you understand how Dos Maderas P.X. 5+5 is aged, you’ll have a full appreciations of it’s deep mahogany color, a reddish brown hue like brilliant sapphire. The heavier caramel rum aromas are lifted by sweet traces of sherry …
Read the full review at Rum Gallery. Seriously, if you like rum and haven’t tried Dos Maderas P.X. 5+5, go read the review now.
Not bad for an un-educated impulse buy. Definitely in the same league as Ron Zacapa Centenario 23. I suck as a reviewer, but I know what it like. This is sweet, delicious goodness. It is like fine double casked scotch made from sugar. Mmmmm …
En Español (mostly)
Num, num, nummmmmmm …
It’s the first five metres that count …
Heinlein is one of my favorite Sci-Fi authors.
When I was in high school you couldn’t get past the nerd clubhouse front door unless you were familiar with Robert A. Heinlein. You didn’t necessarily had to have read his books, but you needed to be familiar with the guy. About a month ago at work some guys were discussing the various merits and demerits of the Paul Verhoeven movie version of Starship Troopers, and I added my two cents that no matter what you felt about the movie that the book was great. One of the guys seated there, who was a pretty big sci-fi fan, replied that he didn’t even know it was a book.
So how did one of the most thought provoking controversial and exciting books in the science fiction universe get downgraded to a shower scene? Well let’s start with the man himself Robert A. Heinlein.
Heinlein’s early life could be summed up in…
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Boeing’s answer to the SpaceX Dragon V2 (although technically unveiled first).
The next space race will be commercial.
In case you have never seen this …
To those of you who read A Brief History of Mars … did you catch the Easter Eggs?
Every Martian knows the names of the Mars Seven (the first humans on Mars):
Mission Commander Sarah Radstrom,
Pilot Maggie Trznadel,
Crew Chief Hillary Edmundson,
First Science Officer Lenny Yomin,
Environmental Officer Rolf Redan,
Flight Engineer Nole Moschatus,
Timmy Enelpozo de Agua.
Hint: Titles and names. Titles and names.
Bark, bark, bark … What is it Lassie? Ovibos moschatus?
I know that some of you only read the text and never watch the embedded videos … you know who you are. But seriously, you need to watch the embedded video in A Brief History of Mars.
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
• • •
In the distant past, a forgotten shepherd stares up at the sky, studying the bright red dot that drifts night to night among the background of stars.
MaW3
Do I look like a gamer? Look here. (Don’t answer that)
Ok, so I suck at First Person Shooters. Number 2 son calls me “the turret”.
But I do like head-to-head Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games. My friend and I used to enjoy playing each other on Command and Conquer Red Alert for iPad. That is, until we discovered MaW3. Without a doubt the best military RTS game, bar none, is Machines at War 3 by ISOTOPE 244.
Available for iOS, Mac, and Windows on the iPhone and iPad App Store, Mac App Store, Steam, and directly from ISOTOPE 244.
I can’t say enough positive about this game. Don’t take my word for it. Read the review links at ISOTOPE 244. This is one amazing and phenomenal game. James Bryant has accomplished a tour de force. It is elegant, masterful, and flawless. It even plays well on a iPhone 5s.
If you like the RTS genre, please – please, check out MaW3.
And now back to skirmish mode … (Roger that Sir! Reinforcements, we need reinforcements. A ha ha ha ha, taste my laser! Oh the humanity.)
Yet More Transparent Aluminum News
From last year …
I’m surprised that Apple doesn’t just buy them outright and be done with it.
Transparent Aluminum
I first told you about Transparent Aluminum* here.
I have talked about it several times since.
GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has the technology to make thin, very thin sheets of it.
Apple has a large plant in Arizona where GTAT is making Transparent Aluminum for them by the ton (literally).
Last February 2014
* in case you have forgotten transparent aluminum is sapphire, Al2O3
The creation of the Apollo AL7 Pressure Garment is one of the great American stories of the past forty-plus years. […] NASA turned the creation of the spacesuit into a competition (largely dominated by military contractors)—and it was assumed a military contractor would win the day.
Instead, pitted against the military-industrial complex, Playtex created the 21-layer spacesuit, each layer distinct yet interrelated in function to the rest of the whole—a masterly combination of elegance, complexity, and form. […] Traditional engineering firms could not figure out how to meet all the mission requirements and create a functioning suit that would keep the Apollo astronauts alive. The seamstresses at Playtex, with their years of experience fashioning girdles and bras, could, and did.
It was the same materials. It was bras in space. It was literally the same materials that were used in the bra-making process. The straps from bras were reused to hold the thing into shape and the Nylon fabric that a bra-cup is made of was used to give strength to the Latex so that it didn’t expand under air pressure. Then the Latex itself was the same, as they say it started out as exactly the same Latex as went into the girdles […]
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962, speaking to incoming freshman students at Rice University, Houston, Texas
Wow how time flies
I had intended to reblog this back on July 8, but it completely slipped mind.
Oh well, happy belated anniversary to me!
Welcome to Contrafactual – “that which is not true, but might be under certain conditions”.
Thanks for stopping by. Things will become clearer in the days to come.
cb
… call 303-499-7111
(Inspired by Jim Stafford)
SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage
Following last week’s successful launch of six ORBCOMM satellites, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage reentered Earth’s atmosphere and soft landed in the Atlantic Ocean. This test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able to consistently reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity.
After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position. The water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but we received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing on a future flight. Going forward, we are taking steps to minimize the build up of ice and spots on the camera housing in order to gather improved video on future launches.
At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment. However, our next couple launches are for very high velocity geostationary satellite missions, which don’t allow enough residual propellant for landing. In the longer term, missions like that will fly on Falcon Heavy, but until then Falcon 9 will need to fly in expendable mode.
We will attempt our next water landing on flight 13 of Falcon 9, but with a low probability of success. Flights 14 and 15 will attempt to land on a solid surface with an improved probability of success.
This message was sent from SpaceX to […]. It was sent from: […], SpaceX, 1 Rocket Road, Hawthorne, CA 90250. For more information on SpaceX, please visit http://www.spacex.com
“I was the second man to set foot on the Moon, Neil before me.”
Via The Register
Today is the 45th anniversary of those historic second foot steps.
Interested in the history of space travel?
Tired of the same old tunes, news, or talk radio during your drive time commute?
Want to expand your knowledge of the most exciting (and fearful) decades in the history of humanity?
Then the Space Rocket History podcasts are for you.
I discovered them on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app. I listen to Mike’s 20 minute podcasts to and from work. I thought that I knew all there was to know about the early history of space flight – boy was I ever wrong. Mike has done his research. Of course Mike has the advantage of having access to post-Soviet information that I never had as a kid growing up.
As you can see the iTunes reviews are 5 stars! I am one of those 5-star reviewers.
Related posts
A follow-up to my post Tranparent Aluminum Arrives
Not to be confused with Cowboy Bebop
Found on Facebook …
So, yesterday I was using my work expenses app to submit some expenses, as one does. And I’m trying to take a picture of a receipt, but it’s blurry. So I start tapping on the receipt to get it to focus, but nothing is happening. And that’s when I realize …. I should probably be tapping on the picture of the receipt on my screen instead of the physical receipt on my desk.
This is one of the YouTube videos linked to by my Brunton Hydrogen Reactor post. I thought it was worth posting separately.
You must watch it.
It’s a HYDROGEN REACTOR … c’mon!
In case you missed my link in https://contrafactual.com/2014/07/13/brunton-hydrogen-reactor
Totally Sci-Fi. The Brunton Hydrogen Reactor is my latest gadget, and it is really cool.
The Hydrogen Reactor is a reactor that converts hydrogen and air into electricity and vapor. It’s all a bit hocus pocus, and since I’m not a scientist, I really can’t explain it in bigger detail.
In the package you get a reactor and 2 hydrogen cores. Each hydrogen core contains 4.500 mah which is equivalent to 3 iPhone charges. I’ve researched this fact very carefully, because some sites claim it to be 9.000 mah. My phone and Brunton tells them wrong. The core is made of solid metal that binds the molecules. It’s NOT nuclear, so there is nothing to be afraid of.
You screw the core in, hear a funny little *puff*, wait for the blue light, and then you connect your device. It’s quit easy and straight forward. You can boost the output if you…
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This high-science device combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity on-the-move and under any condition. Simply lock the Hydrocore fuel into the Hydrogen Reactor™ to power USB devices like smartphones, tablet computers, UV water purifiers, rechargeable lights, portable game consoles, GPS transceivers and more.
Remember when fuel cells cost millions of dollars, could only be afforded by NASA, and were powered by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that was known to explode? Of course not, you weren’t born yet. Well maybe you were since the Space Shuttle used them.
Contrafactual 