Tuesday night – VASE

May 27, 2014 johncohn Leave a comment

I did at least one good thing today. I went to the biannual VASE dinner meeting. VASE is the Vermont Academy of science and engineering. A couple of years ago my friends and I helped create a science Santa program that made small grants to schools to buy science equipment hands-on experimentation. At tonight's meeting we got to meet some of the recipient students and teachers from those first awards. It was so much fun.

We had kids learning about mechanics by using mobile kinects

When school built an underwater open Remote submersible. Very cool

This team made bio batteries that used anaerobic bacteria to generate electricity. I never seen such a thing

Erin two old friends there. Howard and Dale both retired IBM fellows. Only guy we are missing was Dave h

Is grace talking to one of the teachers Dana about her biodiesel program up in Swanton.

We also had a great program from Burlington high school on using genetic analysis to determine whether sushi was the type of fish it was labeled and whether camel meat bought an local markets wasn't indeed camel. The kids got the samples and then used the PCR device that we help them amplify the genetic material .they then did gellm electrophoresces and sent the gels in for analysis. You'll Be happy to know that the camel was correct as marked. but the sushi not so fast. One of the pieces of salmon tested was indeed salmon but one of the other ones was something called largemouth Brem.

We also inducted to new members I didn't get the first gentleman's name but he did a fascinating talk on climate and biodiversity and evolution. One fact stuck out from his talk. He said that if you go to any forest in the world and you were to measure the weight of all of the animals there except the ants and compare them against just the ants the biomass of the ants would always be more. Think about it !

Our other inductee was prof DubAlie fromt he biochemstry program at uvm.she gave a fascinating talk on xray crytalography. She was one of the first to use the techinique to determine the molecular shape of dna polymerase.. How cool is that

Ok.. Back to work.. More tomorrow..

Nite all, note sam

-me

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Monday night – Sam hike

May 26, 2014 johncohn Leave a comment

Today was memorial day.. it was also the closest non=-work day to what would have been Sam’s 22nd birthday which will be Wednesday. We did our traditional hike up to the top of bolton . We had about 20 folks join us for a cool and misty walk up to the top.

We had a bunch of dogs with us including Raya’s new puppy Kota.. he made it all the way up and down…

There was even some snow at the top..

Gabe and I climbed up the fire tower to do our annual sam ceremony.. which involves drinking red bull and firing off some fireworks.. Thats always pretty nuts in the wind on that shaky tower.

Baby Franchesca .. age 3 weeks also took her first hike with mama Vernigue and dad Matt.

We all did a redbull toast for Sam at the top

Then down the hill and back to our house.

It started raining just as we got home.. be we still had fun. Gabe made these wierd hot dog wrapped in cheese wrapped in hamburger wrapped in bacon.. really ?

rain didn’t keep people out of the pool or tramp..

there was a kid there that wanted to blow something up.. but i didn’t want to make noise.. so we did an ammnium bichromate volcano.. one of my favorite daylight demos.

Around 7L30 we had another redbull toast for sam and dug into two cakes that diane had made.. including carrot.. sam’s favorite !

It was a really nice day…

It would also have been my folks 57th anniversary

Thinking of him, my mom…

Life is full of joy and sadness.. i’m feeling more joy now

-nite all, nite sam

-me

sunday night – slowing down

May 25, 2014 johncohn Leave a comment

wonderfully slow day.. I’m rarely a full day away from work. I found it fun and unsettling. I would like to get more used to being away from work
In keeping with the slow theme.. Here are a few more of the slow motion videos that gabe took with the Edgertronics camera we borrowed. This thing is truly magical.. as is Gabe’s eye for it.

here’s Raya shaking her hair

… and gabe clapping

a match lighting

an incandescent bulb flickering

Gabe snapping his fingers

Water hitting a spoon

.. now with the spoon the other way

mixing clear and green water

Gabe putting his fingers through a stream of water

a dripping faucet

ok.. gotta sleep now. More tomorrow..
Remember we are marking the coming of spring and Sam’s birthday tomorrow with a 1pm climb up bolton mountain and a 5 PM potluck here. come if you can !

(note i’d incorrectly said the hike was 2PM.. it is 1pm !)

nite all, nite sam
-me

Saturday night – Senior Prom !

May 24, 2014 johncohn Leave a comment

I think I bought my last corsage today !. It’s Gabe’s Senior prom.. I guess it’s our last one..until grandkids at least 🙂

Gabe and his friends had the great idea to take pictures before the prom in front of the Round Church.. So dd every other kid in Richmond. It was so fun seeing all of our friends there . Here’s what we saw !

Saturday night - Senior Prom !