Grossan Hydro Pulse

After reading on a blog and reviews on amazon.com about a device that will irrigate the sinuses, I asked for one as a gift. When I received it, I was apprehensive about shooting a stream of water up my nose. So it was placed in the bathroom cabinet.

This weekend I started feeling pretty bad and seem to have to blow my nose constantly. So when getting ready for bed I decided now is the time to wash out my sinuses. I found the manufacturers website at http://www.hydromedonline.com/index.html

They now have a video of girl using the device so it did not seem so bad. I found the packet of powder which seems like salt (package contents: sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, xylitol, calcium chloride, potassium chloride). I got some distilled water, poured it in the container to the 500 cc mark and heated it in the microwave for about 45 seconds. I then mixed in the containers packet.

I got the pump going in the bathroom and tested that water would come out about an inch from the nozzle. I put it up to my left nostril and felt the water slowly move up my nose and then maybe somewhere into my forehead. Water then started to pour out my other nostril. It was a somewhat odd view but it seemed to work. After about 15 seconds, I switched to the other nostril. The water did not seem to flow as well, so I stopped the pump and weakly blew my nose. I then started the pump again and water eventual came out the opposite nostril.

The experience left me with cleaned out feeling and the nose did not feel like it needed to be blown out. So the reviews I had been reading seemed legitimate.

I now need to figure out the contents of the packets: the sodium chloride (NaCl)is table salt, sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) is baking soda, potassium chloride (KCl) not sure if there is a household product for this, calcium chloride (CaCl) I think this is used a de-icer on the roads but it cannot be bought as a cooking ingredient and Xylitol is a sweetener used in gums but has been shown to help prevent infections in the ear.

Make Sure Things Are Wet Before Sterilizing in the Microwave

It looks like the earlier link I posted need to have some additional information. People are putting dry sponges and dish clothes in the microwave and they are burning. They should be wet when heated in the microwave.

See this story for more information:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2007-01-25T000823Z_01_N24478934_RTRUKOC_0_US-GERMS-SPONGES.xml

Sterilizing Kitchen Objects With the Microwave

I just read a study about cleaning sponges and dish clothes using the microwave. Apparently, they need to be wetted and heated at full power from 2-4 minutes.

Read more about the study at:

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070122_microwave.html

Virtual Painting

I am interested in learning how to paint or draw. So I started using Corel Painter Essentials and a Wacom tablet.

Here is an watercolor that we obtained in Galway, Ireland.

It was painted by Anne Osborne.

I used it as a model and tried to match it with my program. The colors and clarity are not quite there. Need to work on the greens.

Hooker Furniture Plant to Close

The other day I came across a story about Hooker Furniture closing its last wood furniture manufacturing plant by March 2007. We had bought a large multi-piece desk from them in 2005. One of the reason was it was large enough to be used in the office for two people and the other that it was made in the United States. You could find similar furniture (not sure about the quality of the wood) made in China for $1000+ less. Seeing the price difference, it can be seen how the competition on price would get to them.

http://investors.hookerfurniture.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=226208

Well, if you still want to see American furniture made, watch New Yankee Workshop on PBS.

Interesting Wi-Fi Problem

My notebook computer has trouble losing its wireless connection sometimes. Eventually, this problem was traced to when the 2.4 GHz phone was being used. So after running NetStumbler here is what the signal graph shows when the phone is used. Look at how the signal level disappears when the phone is on where the notches show up on the graph. If the phone turns on and dial tone will sound, that does not show up on the graph but when the phone starts to transmit when pressing a button the signal disappears from the graph.

Kentucky Vehicle Fatalities for 2006

Driving into Louisville this morning the TRIMARC signs were showing how many people died on the roads in 2005 and 2006.

They listed the number dead in 2005 at 976 while the deceased for 2006 was 899.

I wonder if increased safety laws, better road barriers, and safer vehicles contributed to this. We have stricter safety belt laws now, the transportation department has been installing cable barriers between roads that have opposite flowing traffic, and more vehicles have airbags and traction control systems.

Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007

Well today was a very rainy day so not much was done outside. I was out shopping and I saw the sun come out late in the day which means possible rainbow.

While driving about 10 minutes later I started seeing a vertical line in the eastern sky with a color spectrum. It was not much of an arc since the water in the atmosphere must have been raining in that small section of sky.

So long 2006 may things get better in 2007.

Christmas Gift

My nephew was given a Slinky as a gift. It is a great fun for being a toy that is over 60 years old. It is still made in Hollidaysburg, PA. MIT has highlighted the inventor at this website.

http://web.mit.edu/Invent/iow/slinky.html

The company has a website at :

http://www.poof-slinky.com/default.asp

We enjoyed trying to get it going down the stairs.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Ahhh, Christmas is here at last. The weather in Louisville is cold (30-40s F) with a chance of snow later today which might end up being rain.

A few things I try to do each Christmas besides spend a lot of time with family and attend religious services is read the story "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. I have a book with 4 of his stories published by Gramercy Press in 1982. I keep the ribbon on page 531 to mark where the Christmas Carol begins. Surprisingly, it is a somewhat short story ending on page 585.

I also try to watch a version of Christmas Carol on DVD. There are three that I have: Scrooge from 1951 starring Alastair Sim, A Christmas Carol from 1984 starring George C. Scott, and A Christmas Carol from 1999 starring Patrick Stewart.

We also try to watch Bill Murray in Scrooged who has some great lines in the comedy adaptation.

I also try to watch It's A Wonderful Life.

I wish everyone a happy Christmas and a safe new year. As Tiny Tim says at the end, "God Bless Us, Every One!"

USB Gadgets

Reading the Pursuits section of the Wall Street Journal for December 23, page P2 showed some USB gadgets. Three items were profiled and of those I have a version of one: USB Microscope QX5. I have the one developed by Intel when they were making educational toys. It is a great product even if it is packaged like a toy. I have posted some microscope pictures taken with it on earlier blog posts.

The gadget that caught me eye though was the USB missile launcher from thinkgeek.com. It reminds me of a Hawk anti-aircraft missile battery used by the military. Apparently, you can use the computer to aim the battery and fire it. I guess if someone enters your work area, you can unleash a foam missile barrage to drive them off.

I went to the Think Geek website and they also have the USB rocket launcher which has larger range than the missle launcher and the laser guided missile launcher to help improve targeting accuracy. What an arms race they have going!

The Painting Journalist

Today's Courier Journal had an interesting article about an Louisville artist, Ashley Cecil. She goes to community events and takes pictures or a sketch pad. After recording the event, she paints it and then sells it. When she sells it, she donates part of money to an organization (e.g. paints a scene from Habitat for Humanity (HFH) event and then donates money to HFH).

Check our her website which explains this much better.

http://www.ashleycecil.com

Emergency Supplies for Car Revisited

Today's Louisville Courier-Journal showed an article about how to prepare your car for winter driving. They included an article about checking your car's anti-freeze levels and quality, the oil levels, keep the gasoline in the tank above 50% capacity to avoid freezing, air pressure and tread condtion, battery condition, and inspect the belts.

They recommend the following for storing in your vehicle:

• Blanket or sleeping bag
• Warm clothing
• Small can of waterproof matches
• high calorie food
• fully charged cell phone
• shovel
• container of sand or cat litter
• booster cables
• flashlight with extra batteries
• water container
• tow rope
• first aid kit
• tool kit
  

I like the idea of tow cable and the sleeping bag. I sometimes carry my sleeping bag. I would add an emergency radio. The radio I have seen in the past is from Grundig or Elan (might have those names spelled wrong). The radio has a dynamo that you crank to charge it up. It has an LED light which saves battery energy and a cell phone charger port which can be really handy.

I am wondering if there is a product that people in the car in Oregon could have used to help air searchers see their vehicle better. Maybe a flashing LED or strobe that can be powered from a solar charger. I looked on the web and there seems to be some products out there using electronics that stand out. Maybe cars should carry an emergency dynamo for charging cell phones and batteries.

Small airplanes carry some sort of beacon device that goes off when they crash or something like this. Maybe cars can have this too. Of course, cars can with the Onstar system and maybe this a reason to get such a system that goes off when the car is in an accident or stranded.

Web Links

I will use this post to archive some web links from a notebook computer I use.

This blog entry lists some interesting medical software sites:
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/node/1709

This site has some computer security links:
http://www.wiretapped.net/

This site has a variety of different circuit designs:
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/circ/circuits.htm

This site is the ultimate boot CD
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Links to explore about the NBC show Heroes
http://www.thetenthwonder.com/

http://www.thetenthwonder.com/

Supplies to Carry in Vehicle

After the unfortunate events that befell that family in the Oregon wilderness, I thought about items that should be carried in the vehicle to help with emergency situations.

I try to carry 1 or 2 flashlights in the car. Usually, a D cell or AA cell Maglite. Other things I have:

• poncho
• pen
• tire gauge
• manual air pump
• philips screwdriver
• expired cell phone with charger (still works with 911 calls)
• fire extinguisher
• first aid kit
• quarters and other change
• phone book
• sometimes a floor jack that can lift 2.25 tons
• small shovel if chance of snow
• 5 gallon bucket of sand in case of snow (more buckets for weight)
• blankets in case of snow
• bottled water (at least 3 bottles if snow)
• saline for contacts
• window reflector to keep sun out in summer when parked
• Powerbars
• canned tuna or fruit & can opener
• sometimes in the winter, a candle in a sealed jar
• thermometer to check vent air temperature

I think the things I use most are the air pump and tire gauge. I try to keep the tire pressure correct for better gas mileage and tire wear. I have helped a number of people with tire issues because of it.

The one thing I might add is an empty gasoline container. A couple of tools to add would be a cresent wrench and some adjustable pliers.

Interesting Website on Traffic Flow

I read some of the postings from this website and see some of the things he is talking about while driving in the traffic in the morning. The big thing is avoid traffic by leaving early to get away from all the rush at certain times.

http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html

I sometimes try some things mentioned, like go the speed limit after coming out of congested area instead of pacing with cars around me who drive 70+ mph and then end up hitting their brakes 2 miles down the road where another congested area has formed. You have to fight the herd mentality and realize that you are just wasting energy trying to get to the end of the next line really fast.

Call to the Night Sky

I was getting in my car tonight and looked up and saw a very clear night sky with lots of stars. It is tempting to go out with the telescope and start viewing but last December I went out to take images of the moon and got really sick. Christmas time was not very festive at all with me being sick it seemed like the whole month of December.

So as the siren of the night sky calls... for now I will avoid that opportunity to get sick.

Long Absence

I have not been doing a good job at keeping the blog up to date. I have been working on a sunroom for the house and it takes up a lot of my time outside of work. Also several rooms in the house have now been tiled as we replace the linoleum.

Here are some pictures of some hot air balloons that came over the neighborhood at the end of October.

More Watermelons

I have picked all the watermelons left in the one patch. The largest I weighed was a Charleston Gray at 26 lbs. The next was a little more than 24 lbs and it was a Charleston Gray as well. They were the last ones picked along with a smaller Mountain Hoosier melon.

Watermelon Harvest

I began harvesting the watermelons last week. A picture shows the wheel barrel with some melons. The two striped melons are Crimson Sweet and weighed about 10 lbs each. The three solid green melons are Mountain Hoosier and they weighed about 8 lbs a piece. The smaller melons with the whitish haze on them weigh between 2.5-7 lbs a piece and those are Sugar Baby melons.

I also picked on the Charleston Gray Melons and it came in at 19.8 lbs.