Some more about proton therapy

I finally got my hands on one of the brass apertures that was used for my proton radiation therapy.  It took a few months for the radioactivity to decay to safe levels, and my parents were finally in the area and picked it up for me.  That’s it on the right.  It governed the shape …

I was in Alabama all last week for work, and now I’m out of sorts.  It was my first real experience traveling for work, and though there weren’t really any big surprises, time went exponentially faster.  After working all day, my computer remained off and I was oblivious to all the news stories enveloping the …

A third industrial revolution

I was particularly intrigued by The Economist’s latest special feature about manufacturing and innovation.  Not so much because they are reporting on anything that is so groundbreaking to me, or most engineers I would think, but because they gave exposure to the exact kind of thing I do – engineering custom solutions on the fly …

Yes! I am a long way from home

Pioneers! O Pioneers! (Walt Whitman) Come my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready, Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes? Pioneers! O pioneers! For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on …

A brief summary of 24 hours in San Francisco

Our flight out of Chicago was delayed a few hours, but there are only so many $8 airport bar beers I can drink while waiting.  I don’t travel by air that frequently, but I will say from now on, whenever I can, Virgin America is my new airline of choice.  I’d flown Virgin Blue around …