the non-invertible quasi-geeky site

Sunday, January 23, 2005

骨董餡餅烘出 & Geeky Engineers

This is a never ending discussion, but quite interesting. You should read the whole conversation. It's in reversed chronical order. Man, I've had enough of school. Don't send me back, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!!

oh yeah, there's a structural joke my prof told us the other day. Chalks make a squeaking sound if you push it against the black board and write. That is because the friction on the board makes the chalk resonant. BUT if you put your finger at the tip of the chalk when you write, you damp out the vibration and hence the chalks don't squeak. ;) interesting, eh?

Another geeky joke, (may as well make that 3) my solid mechanics prof noticed the "curved beams" in the Hobbies' house when he was watching Lord of the Ring I as opposed to ....whatever they want us to focus on. -_-"'

We engineers, sigh~~~~

Ellen

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From: "James Chen"

Eric just told me today that he's working on a thesis... seems like his topic is quite extraordinary. I wonder if there is a position called electrical cookware fabrication engineer that requires a masters degree in EE? Since there are so many ECEs out there, I guess we ECEs are trying to expand our job market by embedding semiconductor chips in everything -- cameras, flash lights, vacuum cleaners, toilets (in BA, for example), tennis rackets (the one Agassi uses, for example) ... If we turn building structures into electrical components, perhaps some civs are going to have to go back to school to learn some physics. Oops, did I say anything wrong? =P

I'm not 100% kidding though. For instance, a possibility is to dampen building vibration by using movements in the building components to generate electric energy & store that into some capacitors/batteries & releasing the energy back at some later time through certain material
that, say, stiffens when electrical current is passing through them. Hey, it could be an interesting research topic if nobody's explored it before. If you know any grad students willing to pay for this idea for their thesis paper, we can share the profit huh =P

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ellen Yeh"

The funny part is my friend's response. Note by the way, Robert Boyle is the one that came out with the Boyle's Law. He's called "the father of Modern Chemistry".

--- Hu Eric wrote:

That's it... we engineer should also make our own "recipe" too. And to make it even more geeky, we should re-design and include fabrication instruction for the stove, cooking pot, cooking utensils, and eating plates.And then publish a book "The complete guide to geeky engineer's cooking!"

Eric Hu
burningtyger@hotmail.com

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Reference Article:

骨董餡餅烘出
【中廣新聞網 】

英國人最近用一個一六四八年的老食譜,烤出了一個餡餅。

英國人過耶誕要吃鹹餡餅。這個耶誕餡餅,用的是絞羊肉、板油、荳蔻、棗子、洋棗子、柳橙皮、糖及葡萄乾。

這 個食單是十七世紀化學家柏毅(Robert Boyle)留下來的。負責製作的也是一群化學家。皇家化學學會主席吉亞沙說,柏毅老前輩當初想出這個食譜的時候,經過仔細實驗,量化以後寫出來的。是一 次化學和美食的完美結合。這個有三百五十八年歷史的羊肉水果派能不能讓大家的味蕾跳動,就得看自己的感受了。

(郭希誠編譯)