Beckman's pH Meter

A pH Meter is a device used for potentiometrically measuring the pH, which is either the concentration or the activity of hydrogen ions, of an aqueous solution. It usually has a glass electrode plus a calomel reference electrode, or a combination electrode.  pH meters are usually used to measure the pH of liquids, though special probes are sometimes used to measure the pH of semi-solid substances.

Uses

Knowledge of pH to greater or lesser accuracy is useful or critical in a great many situations, including of course chemical laboratory work.  pH meters of various types and quality can be used for soil measurements in agriculture; water quality for water supply systems, swimming pools, etc.; brewing, industrially or domestically; healthcare, to ensure that solutions are safe when applied to patients or lethal as sterilants and disinfectants; and many other applications.

Circuit and Operation

Basic potentiometric pH meters simply measure the voltage between two electrodes and display the result converted into the corresponding pH value. They comprise a simple electronic amplifier and a pair of probes, or a combination probe, and some form of display calibrated in pH. The probe is the key part: it is a rod-like structure usually made of glass, with a bulb containing the sensor at the bottom. Frequent calibration with solutions of known pH, perhaps before each use, ensures the best accuracy.  To measure the pH of a solution, the probe is dipped into it.

History

The concept of pH was defined in 1909 by S. P. L. Sørensen, and electrodes were used for pH measurement in the 1920s.

In October 1934 Arnold Orville Beckman registered the first patent for a complete chemical instrument for the measurement of pH, U.S. Patent No. 2,058,761, for his "acidimeter", later renamed the pH meter. Beckman developed the prototype as an assistant professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, when asked to devise a quick and accurate method for measuring the acidity of lemon juice for the California Fruit Growers Exchange (Sunkist). On April 8, 1935, Beckman's renamed National Technical Laboratories focused on the making of scientific instruments, with the Arthur H. Thomas Company as a distributor for its pH meter.  In its first full year of sales, 1936, the company sold 444 pH meters for $60,000 in sales.  In years to come, it would bring in millions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH_meter

Straight-Eight Engines

The straight-eight engine or inline-eight engine is an eight-cylinder internal combustion engine with all eight cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankcase. The type has been produced in side-valve, overhead-valve, sleeve-valve, and overhead-cam configurations.

A straight-8 can be timed for inherent primary and secondary balance, with no unbalanced primary or secondary forces or moments. However, crankshaft torsional vibration, present to some degree in all engines, is sufficient to require the use of a harmonic damper at the accessory end of the crankshaft. Without such damping, fatigue cracking near the rear main bearing journal may occur, leading to engine failure.

Although an inline six cylinder engine can also be timed for inherent primary and secondary balance, a straight-8 develops more power strokes per revolution and, as a result, will run more smoothly under load than an inline six. Also, due to the even number of power strokes per revolution, the straight-8 does not produce unpleasant odd-order harmonic vibration in the vehicle's driveline at low engine speeds.

The smooth running characteristics of the straight-8 made it popular in luxury and racing cars of the past. However, the engine's length demanded the use of a long engine compartment, making the basic design unacceptable in modern vehicles. Also, due to the length of the engine, torsional vibration in both crankshaft and camshaft can adversely affect reliability and performance at high speeds. In particular, a phenomenon referred to as "crankshaft whip," caused by the effects of centrifugal force on the crank throws at high engine rpm, could cause physical contact between the connecting rods and crankcase walls, leading to the engine's destruction. As a result, the design has been displaced almost completely by the shorter V8 engine configuration.

The first straight-eight was conceived by Charron, Girardot et Voigt (CGV) in 1903, but never built.  Great strides were made during World War I, as Mercedes made straight-eight aircraft engines. Advantages of the straight-8 engine for aircraft applications included the aerodynamic efficiency of the long, narrow configuration, and the inherent balance of the engine making counterweights on the crankshaft unnecessary. The disadvantages of crank and camshaft twisting were not considered at this time, since aircraft engines of the time ran at low speeds to keep propeller tip speed below the speed of sound.

Unlike the V8 engine configuration, examples of which were used in De Dion-Bouton, Scripps-Booth, and Cadillac automobiles by 1914, no straight-8 engines were used in production cars before 1920.

Mercedes-Benz would create the last notable straight-8 racing cars in 1955, with the championship-winning W196 Formula One racing car and the 300SLR sports racing car. The 300SLR was famous for Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson's victory in the 1955 Mille Miglia, but notorious for Pierre Levegh's notorious accident at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 300SLR was the final development of the Alfa Romeo design of the early 1930s as not only the camshaft, but now also the gearbox was driven from the engine's centre. Engineers calculated that torsional stresses would be too high if they took power from the end of the long crankshaft, so they put a central gear train in the middle (which also ran the dual camshafts, dual magnetos, and other accessories) and ran a drive shaft to the clutch housing at the rear.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight-eight_engine

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Current Use

Straight-8s are currently used in luxury coaches, alongside V12 engines. They are generally preferred by coach drivers for their lower fuel consumption and smoother acceleration.

http://automobile.wikia.com/wiki/Straight-eight_engine

"Major League" movie reviews

Plot Summary:  The new owner of the Cleveland Indians threatens to move the team unless they deliver immediate results. She then fills the roster with has-beens and never-will-bes to guarantee their failure. But the team miraculously rallies together and starts to win.

Amazon.com reviews of the 1988 motion picture “Major League”

4 Stars

Major Fun
By D. Mikels on February 9, 2003

No, you're not going to walk away from this movie thinking about how to achieve world peace or end poverty, but you will be walking away with a smile. MAJOR LEAGUE is a lighthearted, entertaining film that also happens to be hysterically funny. Throw the great sport of baseball into the mix and MAJOR LEAGUE is a win/win for those who love the game and those who just want to have a good laugh.
There's nothing complicated about the plot. When an aggressive femme fatale (Margaret Whitton) inherits the Cleveland Indians from her late husband, her plan is to put together a team so bad it will lose its fan base and allow her to relocate. And so a band of misfits is put together: washed-up players, inexperienced players, headcases. Of course, predictably, her plan goes awry, but it's still good fun watching the antics of the Indians as they misfire and then come together over a long, long season.
Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Rene Russo, Corbin Bernsen, and Wesley Snipes headline a great cast. Bob Uecker is absolutely hysterical. My favorite character is manager Lou Brown (James Gammon) who delivers the film's funniest line, but one I dare not repeat here (it would never get past the editors)! Grab a hot dog and a beer, pull up a chair, and let MAJOR LEAGUE put a wide grin on your face.

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5 Stars

Enjoyable movie with a outstanding cast
ByJ. Davis on April 18, 2015

Major League is a lot of fun to watch. So many outstanding actors work well together: Charlie Sheen (rebellious pitcher with a 95 mph fastball, Wesley Snipes ( cocky centerfielder Willie Mays Hays, Corbin Bernsen as the arrogant veteran, and Tom Bergenger as the aging catcher trying to keep his career going--and even more importantly, reconcile with Lynn,the woman he loves (Rene Russo).

The movie is a lot of fun, not only do they have these stars, but there are with so many other wacky characters, including a slugger who's into voodoo, and the goofy announcer (Bob Uecker). Even 25 years later, I still like to watch it once in a while.

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5 Stars
Hockey has "Slap Shot" Baseball has "Major League"
ByRob Smith on April 22, 2014

Major League is one-of-a-kind, perfect in every way possible, not comparable to anything before or after. Except "Slap Shot." Hilarious, raucous, featuring unforgettable cliche riddled characters buffed to a high gloss and presented mostly straight-faced ... there is almost no scene that lacks a line being quoted 20-years later. From "Tribe Slump Hits 34-Years" to (spoiler alert!) "F*** you, Jobu. I do it myself!" There is nothing about this movie that is less than adorable. If you don't enjoy this, consider a sense of humour transplant.

https://www.amazon.com/Major-League-Tom-Berenger/dp/B001D09OAI/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

Isotopes and Nuclides

Isotopes are variants of a particular chemical element which differ in neutron number, although all isotopes of a given element have the same number of protons in each atom. The term isotope is formed from the Greek roots isos (ἴσος "equal") and topos (τόπος place"), meaning "the same place"; thus, the meaning behind the name it is that different isotopes of a single element occupy the same position on the periodic table. The number of protons within the atom's nucleus is called atomic number and is equal to the number of electrons in the neutral (non-ionized) atom. Each atomic number identifies a specific element, but not the isotope; an atom of a given element may have a wide range in its number of neutrons. The number of nucleons (both protons and neutrons) in the nucleus is the atom's mass number, and each isotope of a given element has a different mass number.

For example, carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14 are three isotopes of the element carbon with mass numbers 12, 13 and 14 respectively. The atomic number of carbon is 6, which means that every carbon atom has 6 protons, so that the neutron numbers of these isotopes are 6, 7 and 8 respectively.

Isotope vs. nuclide

Nuclide refers to a nucleus rather than to an atom. Identical nuclei belong to one nuclide, for example each nucleus of the carbon-13 nuclide is composed of 6 protons and 7 neutrons. The nuclide concept (referring to individual nuclear species) emphasizes nuclear properties over chemical properties, while the isotope concept (grouping all atoms of each element) emphasizes chemical over nuclear. The neutron number has large effects on nuclear properties, but its effect on chemical properties is negligible for most elements. Even in the case of the very lightest elements where the ratio of neutron number to atomic number varies the most between isotopes it usually has only a small effect, although it does matter in some circumstances (for hydrogen, the lightest element, the isotope effect is large enough to strongly affect biology). Since isotope is the older term, it is better known than nuclide, and is still sometimes used in contexts where nuclide might be more appropriate, such as nuclear technology and nuclear medicine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope

Pierrot the Sad Clown

Pierrot (French pronunciation: ​[pjɛʁo]) is a stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell'Arte whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne; the name is a hypocorism of Pierre (Peter), via the suffix -ot. His character in contemporary popular culture—in poetry, fiction, the visual arts, as well as works for the stage, screen, and concert hall—is that of the sad clown, pining for love of Columbine, who usually breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin. Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Sometimes he appears with a frilled collaret and a hat, usually with a close-fitting crown and wide round brim, more rarely with a conical shape like a dunce's cap. But most frequently, since his reincarnation under Jean-Gaspard Deburau, he wears neither collar nor hat, only a black skullcap. The defining characteristic of Pierrot is his naïveté: he is seen as a fool, often the butt of pranks, yet nonetheless trusting.

                                                     Paul Legrand as Pierrot, circa 1855 

It was a generally buffoonish Pierrot that held the European stage for the first two centuries of his history. And yet early signs of a respectful, even sympathetic attitude toward the character appeared in the plays of Jean-François Regnard and in the paintings of Antoine Watteau, an attitude that would deepen in the nineteenth century, after the Romantics claimed the figure as their own. For Jules Janin and Théophile Gautier, Pierrot was not a fool but an avatar of the post-Revolutionary People, struggling, sometimes tragically, to secure a place in the bourgeois world.  And subsequent artistic/cultural movements found him equally amenable to their cause: the Decadents turned him, like themselves, into a disillusioned disciple of Schopenhauer, a foe of Woman and of callow idealism; the Symbolists saw him as a lonely fellow-sufferer, crucified upon the rood of soulful sensitivity, his only friend the distant moon; the Modernists converted him into a Whistlerian subject for canvases devoted to form and color and line.  In short, Pierrot became an alter-ego of the artist, specifically of the famously alienated artist of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His physical insularity; his poignant lapses into mutism, the legacy of the great mime Deburau; his white face and costume, suggesting not only innocence but the pallor of the dead; his often frustrated pursuit of Columbine, coupled with his never-to-be-vanquished unworldly naïveté—all conspired to lift him out of the circumscribed world of the Commedia dell'Arte and into the larger realm of myth. Much of that mythic quality still adheres to the "sad clown" of the postmodern era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot

Afterword by the Blog Author

Sir Charles Chaplin himself said that his Tramp character was a modern Pierrot.

Gaming the System explained

Gaming the system (also referred to as gaming the rules, bending the rules, abusing the system, cheating the system, milking the system, playing the system, or working the system) can be defined as using the rules and procedures meant to protect a system in order, instead, to manipulate the system for a desired outcome.

According to James Rieley, the American banker, structures in companies and organizations (both explicit and implicit policies and procedures, stated goals, and mental models) drive behaviors that are detrimental to long-term organizational success and stifle competition.  For some, error is the essence of gaming the system, in which a gap in protocol allows for errant practices that lead to unintended results.

Examples

Finance

Henry Paulson, considering that the financial crisis of 2007–08 demonstrated that our financial markets had outgrown the ability of our current system to regulate them, saw as one necessity a better framework that featured less duplication and that restricted the ability of financial firms to pick and choose their own, generally less-strict regulators—a practice known as regulatory arbitrage that enabled widespread gaming of the regulatory system.

A similar, contributing effect has been identified within corporate rating systems, where gaming the system becomes virulent when formalization is combined with transparency.

Online

Designers of online communities are explicitly warned that whenever you create a system for managing a community, someone will try to work it to their advantage. Accordingly they are advised from the start to think like a bad guy and to consider what behaviors you are unintentionally encouraging by creating some new social rules for your community.

Others however would valorise the libertarian implications of the loophole, arguing that gaming the system, for all the harm it presents to the collective endeavour of a project such as Wikipedia, likewise marks a potential in its own right and emphasizes the continuing role of agency in the singular event.

Child-Rearing

Parental divisions on child-rearing will always give the child plenty of opportunity to play one parent off against the other. Object relations theory stresses, however, that while, if a child finds one parent easy to get round, compared with the other who is trying to set limits, it is likely to take advantage of that split. This is always a hollow triumph. What the child is really hoping is that such parents will eventually begin to see a need to get together on the issue of limit-setting.

On the particular point of contingent feeding—offering treats on condition that a certain unpopular food is eaten—it has been specifically noted that contingent feeding encourages children to argue and practice gaming the system fighting over the fine print.

NHS Dentistry

NHS dentistry in the UK sees the frequent use of "gaming the system" to describe the use of adapting treatment to the payment system, and is frequently referred to as simply "gaming". The practice of adapting treatment to payment systems, rather than clinical need, is thought to be widespread in NHS dentistry and is considered by some to be as a result of a poorly-planned target based system. The term is also used to describe obfuscation of the scope of NHS dentistry in order to "upsell" items of treatment that should be available.

Transactional Analysis

Eric Berne identified a kind of gaming the system in a clinical context through what he called the game of "Psychiatry", with its motto "You will never cure me, but you will teach me to be a better neurotic (play a better game of 'Psychiatry')." A few patients, he noted, carefully pick weak psychoanalysts, moving from one to another, demonstrating that they can't be cured and meanwhile learning to play a sharper and sharper game of 'Psychiatry;' eventually it becomes difficult for even a first-rate clinician to separate the wheat from the chaff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaming_the_system

IBM A.I. Research

Brain Power

 

What is a cognitive chip? The latest SyNAPSE chip, introduced on August 7, 2014, has the potential to transform mobility by spurring innovation around an entirely new class of applications with sensory capabilities at incredibly low power levels. This is enabled by an revolutionary new technology design inspired by the human brain. IBM built a new chip with a brain-inspired computer architecture powered by an unprecedented 1 million neurons and 256 million synapses. It is the largest chip IBM has ever built at 5.4 billion transistors, and has an on-chip network of 4,096 neurosynaptic cores. Yet, it only consumes 70mW during real-time operation — orders of magnitude less energy than traditional chips. As part of a complete cognitive hardware and software ecosystem, this technology opens new computing frontiers for distributed sensor and supercomputing applications.

"The architecture can solve a wide class of problems from vision, audition, and multi-sensory fusion, and has the potential to revolutionize the computer industry by integrating brain-like capability into devices where computation is constrained by power and speed."

— Dharmendra Modha, IBM Fellow

Different from a Standard Chip

Traditional chips run all the time.  This new neurosynaptic chip is event-driven and operates only when it needs to, resulting in a cooler operating environment and lower energy use.

The neurosynaptic chip veers from the traditional von Neumann architecture [the central processing unit or CPU], which inherently creates a bottleneck limiting performance of the system.

Much more at http://www.research.ibm.com/cognitive-computing/neurosynaptic-chips.shtml#fbid=ejd6RgjNwce

Afterword

Very ambitious artificial intelligence research funded by a Microsoft co-founder at:

 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/09/30/brain/