Thursday, December 17, 2009

Resting over the holidays

This will be the last Blog for 2009. The Blogger is ready for some vacation, especially after the grueling and not so pleasant weeks spent on this year's Annual Economic Review. So I'll wish you a very happy holiday season and extend my wishes for a brighter and more prosperous new year. This will be the last Blog for 2009. The Blogger is ready for some vacation, especially after the grueling and not so pleasant weeks spent on this year’s Annual Economic Review. So I'll wish you a very happy holiday season and extend my wishes for a brighter and more prosperous new year.

I was attending an Organizing Committee meeting for next year's SALA (Seminar on Advanced Laser Applications – East Hartford; April 14–15) event. ILS is the exclusive media source for this two-day meeting that presents the latest applications for industrial lasers in manufacturing applications. Paul Denney (CCAT) asked me to begin thinking about a new session to be held at next year's ICALEO. The concept, which evolved from some old-timers conversations at this year's event, is to identify the weirdest, most outrageous application request for using an industrial laser. My contribution was the use of an Nd:glass laser to destroy a gland located behind the eye of a male shrimp to cause the shrimp to grow to immense size because its libido was destroyed as all it did was eat. There is a lot more to this story, which I'll save for the session in Anaheim (September 27-30).

When you get a few laser pioneers together the air is filled with stories about wild ideas on how to use laser energy: debeaking chickens, slicing cheese, harvesting hyacinths, etc. The anecdotes go on and on and many provide a good laugh, while others actually made it to the prototype stage before failing. The impetus on my part stemmed from my background research for the January ILS article referred to below. Many of these strange application requests came to mind as I reviewed my files.

So, if you have a candidate for the wildest industrial laser application send it along to Paul Denney (pdenney@ccat.us). A committee will pick the mot hilarious of these and they will be shared with ICALEO attendees at the Anaheim meetings. ILS will select some of the top ones and we’ll publish them on our Website after the Anaheim event.

Challenge Dave

Come on all you puzzlers, time is running out on the Challenge Dave contest. Here's the game, pick the ten most important industrial laser material processing applications that occurred during the first 50 years of the technology and you can win a $100 American Express gift card. I'll give you a hint, one of them is sheet metal cutting, now only need to guess 9 more.

Just send your list, no justification needed, to me by email (belforte@pennwell.com). The contest closes January 18 so e-mails must predate this.



Tales from the past

For all the many Federalist fans that have asked about the Town Crier , there is news. Through a welcome donation from the Cooper, the Town Crier now appears on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays shouting the Noon news from a rowboat anchored in the middle of the river.

It's not ideal but it is a short term solution because the Cooper is rather flush this time of year with all the crops in and the farmers who are busy making cider, placing orders for more wooden barrels, he has been doing quite well financially.

Different story with the Merchant as his stock of tea hasn't diminished much since he cut back on his Town Crier funding. He hasn't had much sympathy from the townsfolk as they have another beverage as a replacement - the Farmer's cider.

The Town Crier's three day per week schedule is due to change as winter has reared its ugly head in New England and the river may freeze over any day now. The Town Crier mentioned the weather in his Wednesday news. Seems that El Nino is acting up again and that bodes well for the Northern states as it is expected to be milder. Good news for him though as the ice may be thin enough for his row boat to crack through.

So, indecision remained the order of the day among the other possible Town Crier sponsors who just weren't ready to ante up enough to bring the Crier back full time. However as a Christmas gift they did pass the hat and raised enough to buy the Crier some Riocola drops so that he wouldn’t get too hoarse shouting into the Winter winds.

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