How Cold Is It?

The New England landscape wears winter white, the latest layered look fashioned from a few recent storms ....

 But all anyone can talk about these days is the cold.

Brrrrrrrrrr! 

How cold is it?

The monitor which monitors the backyard reads 6.1 with the latest wind gust of 7.6 mph.

The thermometer on the west side of the house reads 3.9, but it's always 2 degrees warmer than the thermometer on the north side, which alas isn't functioning.

The south side gauge, which reads zero degrees, is unreliable as soon as it hits the sun, which will be soon.

So averaging these numbers out we get 3.3. We might subtract a few degrees for wind chill, since the backyard weather station thingie is spinning enthusiastically.

Iris (my phone) just chimed in with her report: 4 degrees F., sunny, with a wind chill of -12.

(Barometric pressure is 30.26 in.Hg.)

Ya think our focus on weather here is a teeeensy bit obsessive? Me neither.

Basically the majority of the country is experiencing this very same ultra-cold spell, the second in our short new year. This time we can blame an oscillating polar jet stream, according to one local meteorologist.

So how cold is it really?


It's so cold the GPS lady's teeth chatter when I start her up.

It's so cold the barks of the neighborhood dogs freeze in mid-glottis.

It's so cold the cardinals and robins called a truce in their turf war out back.

It's so cold that by the time I get dressed to go outside, I have to pee again.

It's so cold communication outdoors consists mostly of frozen looks, icy stares and chilly receptions.

It's so cold I can't fire up the fireplace. That's because a fire will keep the back zone just warm enough to keep the heat from coming on, which freezes the pipes at the opposite end of the house.

It's so cold I had to make a mask out of birch bark from the tree in the front lawn like Jim Sturgess and Ed Harris did in the movie 'The Way Back'  except they were escaping from a Siberian gulag and I was getting the mail.

It's so cold my timbers are shivering and my computer froze.

Pass it along and remember, It's all (c)opyrighted(c)2014(c)(c)

On the 3D Printed Bandwagon

In answer to your many questions (Ok, two), we recently visited the MakerBot store in Boston.

We have a history with 3D printing since the Rocket Scientist was part of a 3D printing research project 15 years ago -- before he was a rocket scientist. So when I learned MakerBot was opening a retail store in Boston, naturally I wasted no time jumping into long johns and dragging my posse down Newbury St. to check it out.

Inside, several MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D machines were set up scanning and printing small souvenirs, some of which demonstrated 3D's ability to use different compounds and make already-assembled parts. For example, one machine was printing a plastic, four-inch-high figurine with limbs articulated by ball-and-socket joints; another was making parts for an artificial hand.

MakerBot printer, left. MakerBot employee, right. Big plastic jaw with big sharp teeth, center.

Spools of colored filament, upper right. We bought some ornaments.

Yes, Virginia, there is a 3D printed Santa Claus who travels by 3D printed jet engine.

A close-up of 2014's Must-have hood ornament.

3D printed ornaments hanging in the store windows.

Looking down Newbury St.

One of the cleverest products offered by the company is its academy classes on designing, programming, and printing your very own original creations. It holds sessions for adults and kids. MakerBot will also print your standard STL files.

The store also features a special booth with a MakerBot 3D Desktop Digitizer Scanner and chair for you to sit in. For $25 it will scan you and produce a bust in your image. Alas, none of us were brave enough to try that out.




Whew! As I was writing these last graphs I had flashbacks to when I was a technical editor writing software and hardware brochures with words like 'features' and 'ability,' and how I was always dodging bulleted lists of what the product 'lets you do.'

Look, this post is not supposed to be a commercial for MakerBot. I'm just saying if you are visiting

                 * Boston

                 * New York, or

                 * Greenwich, Conn.,

I recommend MakerBot as a fun place to visit.



MakerBot has been running a holiday sale, discounting printers and scanners by as much as 25 percent. The sale ends today, but you may still be able to negotiate price.

In fact, a good opening tactic might be to say that you can't decide whether to buy a 3D printer or wait for a 4D printer. What, you weren't aware that 4D, where an item prints and then assembles itself, is the new 3D?? Get with it! It's 2014!

And I do too have a posse.



http://www.makerbot.com/

http://www.thingiverse.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing




Pass it along and remember, It's all (c)opyrighted (c)2014(c)(c)