Some Useful Information

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I went to a power supply design seminar last week.

I got some useful information about safety. This handy chart was in the book we got:

THRESHOLD VALUES OF ELECTRICAL CURRENT
Current (mA)         Effect
0.0 to 0.5              Perception, minimal reaction
0.5 to 3.5              Startle Reaction, but ability to tolerate
3.5 to 10               Muscles contract, inability to let go
10 to 50                Fibrillation, cell damage

Now, current happens because of voltage. For safety, regulations say we need to prevent people from coming in contact with anything that would generate more than 2.0 mA of DC current. They recommend protecting anything higher than 43V peak ac or 60V dc.

Just so you know. Stay away from those 110vac outlets, which are actually something like 170 pk vac.

This Song Won’t Stop Playing In My Head

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Firefly Theme Song

Main Title Theme Written by: Joss Whedon
Performed by: Sonny Rhodes

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don’t care, I’m still free
You can’t take the sky from me
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain’t comin’ back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can’t take the sky from me
There’s no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can’t take the sky from me…

It’s not a particularly brilliant song, but it is well-suited to the show. I’ve watched all 15 episodes of this series over the last couple weeks, so it’s been burned into my brain.

I guess it’s better than If You’re Happy and You Know It, which is the song it replaced.

Book Log – Running With Scissors

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Running With Scissors: a memoir by Augusten Burroughs

Well, that was an odd childhood.

My favorite scene in this book is when teenagers Augusten and his “sister” (it’s complicated) decide the ceiling in the kitchen is too low, so they rip it out. Then they decide it’s too dark, so they cut out a skylight in the roof, and use one of the side house windows to fill it, only it’s 12 inches too short. When the “father” comes into the kitchen in the morning, he steps over the rubble, makes coffee and says, “that’s quite a project you’ve got going.” They hit him up for a couple hundred dollars to finish the project, which they spend on beer. Nice.

I’d heard that this story was disturbing, but I wasn’t particularly disturbed. It was an odd childhood, though.

Book Log – Fast Food Nation

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Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser.

Well, if it’s at all possible, I’m never eating at a fast food restaurant again.

But what about Moe’s, Chipotle, and other sort-of fast food restaurants like that? Where do they get their beef and chicken, and how are their workers paid?

Maybe there’s a restaurant rating somewhere on the web.