Rambling On A Saturday Night -- Nothing About The Bakken -- October 13, 2018

The Apple page: this is really, really cool. After years of rumors it appears that Apple is about to release an iPad without the 3.5 mm headphone jack. Finally. Here's the link.

Of course, no one except fourteen people in the entire world use the 3.5 mm headphone jack but "everyone" is now coming out of the woodwork (again) to complain about Apple removing this jack. [There hasn't been a similar jack in the iPhone for ages and we've all done just fine.]

Folks are trying to tell us that purists use the 3.5 mm headphone jack for their high end headphones that cost thousands of dollars. What a joke. That may or may not be true, but wireless relays are used by rock bands all over the world for that very reason.

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The Physics Page

From Jeremy Bernstein's 2013 A Palette of Particles.

1928: Paul Dirac produced an equation for the electron that united the quantum theory with Einstein's theory of relativity. Wow.

Some people think this is the most beautiful equation in theoretical physics.

There was only one problem: and Dirac saw it. The equation produces four solutions, but only two made sense at the time. The other two equations gave the electron a negative energy -- impossible.

This led to a couple of years of what Pauli called "desperation physics" before a solution was arrived at: antimatter. Wow.

The challenge: to prove that antimatter exists.

Solution: use a cyclotron to produce a positron (an electron with negative energy). Problem: that was more energy than any existing cyclotron could provide.

Solution: build a cyclotron big enough to do this.

Result: the Bevatron -- a billion electron volts which would slam one proton into another proton, producing one antiproton and three protons. How one gets three protons and one antiproton from two protons is perhaps a discussion for another day.

Ernest Lawrence, the inventor of the cycloton (in general) raised the money to build the Bevatron at UC Berkeley. It went into operation in 1954, and was built at a slightly "smaller scale" resulting in ability to generate barely enough energy to do what the theoretical physicists wanted it to do.

One year later, 1955, physicists announced they had discovered the antiproton. And antimatter.

Ernest Orlando Lawrence was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1939 for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements.

Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree, Tony Orlando & Dawn
A worldwide hit the year I graduated from college.

Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, 1928, a transgender novel. 

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Notes For The Granddaughters

Notes regarding my cross-country trip, Dallas/Ft Worth area to Flathead Lake, Montana, October 4, 2018 - October 12, 2018, at these posts.

• first note upon returning home
• second note upon returning home
• photos only: moving gravel
• nirvana: not much posted
• video only: kayaking
• Yellowstone National Park 
• first note about planned trip

Additional comments.

Jeep Compass: now that I'm back to driving my 2012 Honda Civic.

• the new go/no-go or start/stop app that will be required on all cars by 2020 is going to really catch Americans by surprise, and they are not going to like it; it feels that this was designed/initiated by advocates of EVs
• dashboard displays: old 2012 Honda Civic much better than 2018 Jeep Compass
• much better visibility from the Honda Civic; 
• rear view very limited
• poor visibility over/behind left shoulder
• visibility to right and behind not good
• everything seemed to be slightly delayed: switches, lights, acceleration from standing start
• very poor range: in my 2012 Honda Civic, I could easily get 500 miles on a tankful of gas; in the Jeep Compass, it seemed I was filling up every couple of hours; 
• 2012 Honda Civic: still get 40 mpg when cruising (although I cruise more slowly in my Honda than in the Jeep) 
• 2018 Jeep Compass: best mpg was about 31 mpg and generally well below 30 mpg
• "driveability" -- I enjoyed driving both, but the Honda Civic seems to be a lot more fun; snappier; smoother
• MSRP; mileage
• Jeep Compass: from $21,595; 23/32
• Honda Civic: from $18,940; 32/42
• Nissan Rogue: from $24,800; 26/33

Herring in wine sauce: lasts a long, long time (re-posting)

• in the refrigerator out at Flathead Lake, an opened jar of pickled herring with "sell by" date of December, 2017
• on October 9, 2018: no discoloration; tasted just fine; no ill effects 24 hours later

Trip:

• Grapevine, TX, to Lakeside, MT
• route: Amarillo, Denver, Cody (WY); Yellowstone National Park; Missoula; Lakeside
• Lakeside, MT, to Grapevine, TX
• route: Missoula; Salt Lake City bypass to Provo, UT; back roads over Soldier Summit; Price, UT; Green River, UT; Arches National Park; Moab, UT; Cortez, NM; Shiprock, NM; Bloomfield, NM; Albuquerque, NM; Amarillo; Grapevine