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| Toyota Grill |
Saw this car yesterday and noticed three little round things in the grill. You might need to embiggenate the image in order to see them. I'm wondering what they are and then I realize they are likely sensors for looking at the road ahead. Might be cameras, might be RADAR, might be mystical quantum doodads.
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| ThinKom Anti-Drone Microwave Weapon |
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| Nito XL2 XRF Handheld Precious Metal Analyzer |
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| Functional schematic of a portable XRF instrument |
Going to the Source: X-ray Tubes by Esa Nummi
The major X-ray tube components are the cathode, anode, the tube envelope, the tube housing, and the window.CathodeThe cathode serves to expel the electrons from the circuit and focus them in a beam on the focal spot of the anode. It is a controlled source of electrons for the generation of X-ray beams. The electrons are produced by heating the filament, i.e., a coil of wire made from tungsten, placed within a highly polished nickel focusing cup providing electrostatic focusing of the beam on the anode. Heat is used to expel the electrons from the cathode.AnodeThe anode represents the component in which the x-rays are produced. It is a piece of metal, shaped in the form of a beveled disk, connected to the positive side of electrical circuit. The anode converts the energy of the electrons into X-rays and dissipates the heat, considered the byproduct.EnvelopeAn airtight enclosure that houses the cathode and anode. It is often made from metal and ceramic because these materials are able to withstand the tremendous amount of heat generated during X-ray production, but they can also be made of glass.HousingProvides protection and absorbs excess radiation.WindowThe X-ray tube window typically is made from beryllium because it allows X-rays to pass through but has sufficient strength to hold the vacuum required for the X-ray tube to operate. When an electrical current is passed through the cathode, the electrons generated by the cathode are accelerated by high voltage towards a metal target, or anode. X-rays known as Bremsstrahlung (“braking radiation”) are produced when the electrons are suddenly decelerated upon collision with the anode. When an atom in the sample is struck with an X-ray of sufficient energy (greater than the atom’s K or L shell binding energy), an electron from one of the atom’s inner orbital shells is dislodged. The atom regains stability, filling the vacancy left in the inner orbital shell with an electron from one of the atom’s higher energy orbital shells. The electron drops to the lower energy state by releasing a fluorescent X-ray. The energy of this X-ray is equal to the specific difference in energy between two quantum states of the electron. These X-rays all have sufficient energy to pass through the X-ray tube window and reach the sample. The measurement of this energy is the basis of XRF analysis.
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| Process of X-ray fluorescence generation |
The United Nuclear XRF ProbeThe earliest handheld energy-dispersive XRF probe was built by United Nuclear in the early 1980s, which was originally used to investigate highly radioactive holding takes, as well as the presence of uranium in the soil. Weighing over 70 pounds, this tool comprised of a measurement head connected to a cart, where the electronics displayed the received data.Modified between 1982-1983, United Nuclear commercialized the MAP-1 device, which had the capability to detect uranium, as well as other elements in the soil through the creation of a “front pack,” while also reducing the weight of the instrument to 50 pounds. The evolution of these instruments continued through the 1980s as United Nuclear developed MAP-2 and MAP-3 analyzers for enhanced lead detection purposes.XRF For Commercial UseIn 1994 electric contracting company Amptek developed the XR-100 X-ray detector for commercial use. This thermoelectrically cooled and simple to use detector replaced the need for liquid nitrogen to cool detectors in many applications. The XR-100 device was selected for the Pathfinder Mission to Mars, where it successfully analyzed rocks and soil in a cost-effective and precise manner.The first fully-handheld XRF detector was created in 1994 by Niton Inc., a Massachusetts-based company, in which this Niton XL-309 instrument offered intensified analytical performance at a lower price than the previous instruments on the market.As interest in these analytical systems began to grow, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in conjunction with KeyMaster Technologies designed the first TRACER II unit, which included an argon transmission target. This aspect of the instrument allowed NASA and KeyMaster to create a portable vacuum XRF analyzer that had the ability to perform on-the-spot chemical analysis, which was a task previously only possible in a chemical laboratory.The first applications of the TRACER II unit allowed NASA to quickly and accurately determine elemental composition on large objects, such as a rocket motor, which was a major breakthrough for this organization. Modifications to the TRACER II unit allowed increased sensitivity to specific metals, including a new ability to measure magnesium and aluminum content in aluminum alloys.As demands for increased accurate and efficacious handheld XRF tools began to rise, competition between industries to produce grew as well. In 2008, Brucker Elemental produced Bruker XFLASHTM silicon drift detector (SDD) technology that was integrated into the first-ever SDD-based handheld XRF unit, also known as the S1 TRACER. Still a unit with one of the best resolutions, Bruker’s S1 TRACER allows the analysis of light elements, including magnesium, aluminum, and silicon in air, while also providing an increased concentration range for these elements of interest.
Hertz's Experiments with Electromagnetic WavesThe experimental setup consists of two metal parabolic mirrors. At the focus of the transmitter mirror is a spark oscillator connected to an induction coil.In the receiver is a metal filings coherer connected to a Grenet battery and an electric bell.The oscillator's spark plug is filled with Vaseline oil, which allows for higher-energy discharges.The trains of electromagnetic waves produced by the oscillating sparks are focused on the coherer. Its resistance suddenly decreases, and the battery current activates the bell. A light tap on the coherer restores its non-conductive state, and the bell stops ringing.A copper plate is inserted between the oscillator and the receiver to reflect the electromagnetic waves. The coherer, shielded by the plate, remains in its high-resistance state, and the bell does not ring.The transmitter and receiver are oriented so that the electromagnetic waves produced by the former are reflected back to the latter by the copper plate. The coherer responds to the waves, its resistance decreases, and the bell rings.
I understand the parabolic mirrors, but what is a coherer? YouTube knows:
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| Texas Tesla Tower |
Tuesday I had my right hip joint replaced by Dr. Elizabeth Lieberman and the crew at St. Vincents Hospital in Beaverton, Oregon. This is typically an out-patient procedure and I would have been sent home that afternoon. However, something went wrong in between closing the incision and when they took an X-ray in surgical post-op - the joint came apart (dislocated), so they took me back to the operating room and put me under once again. No cutting this time, just Doctor Lieberman getting rowdy and twisting me into a pretzel or some kind of wrestling take-down, and the joint reassembled itself. Because I had proven to be troublesome patient, she decided to keep me confined overnight. She's done over a thousand hip joint replacements and this is the first time she has encountered this problem.
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| Doctor's initials on my right thigh Right thigh, not the left |
I had no objection, I was fully doped up and having plenty of pleasant dreams. In the middle of the night when it's pretty quiet, I heard this noise. It sounded like the tune Mosquito by Gustavo Bravetti, it wasn't very loud, but it was definitely there. Every now and again I would hear giant dump trucks rumbling by, but that was probably just the service carts the crew was pushing down the hall.
I probably saw upwards of two dozen people in my private room and only three of them were men. One of the men was a vampire who came to suck my blood around 3 AM in the morning, He tells me that he had his hip joints replaced, which I thought was a little odd because he looked like a kid, maybe 35 years old. Turns out he is 45 and had his hip joints replaced when he fell out of a helicopter in Iraq. He was 22, the helicopter was 20 feet off the ground and there was an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) involved.
The ambiance of the of the operating room was noticeably different than any other place I have been. It wasn't any one thing, it was a combination of whole laundry list of small differences. Bunches of machines I had never seen before, the tone of the people speaking and the direct action and lack of waiting. I suppose that's what this is all about. Getting all the ducks in a row may take hours, but once you are there, it's 'once more into the breach' my friends. Kind of like going to war or staging a theater production or making a movie.
I noticed several new machines. Usually X-ray machines are like permanent installations with their own room. Here they had a portable one that they rolled up to my bedside, slid some kind of imaging tablet underneath me and boom, picture. It took just a couple of seconds. They showed me the image after they got my hip joint back in its socket. There is a small display screen on the back of the machine head. They just swung the it over to where I could see it. I don't recall seeing the one they took immediately after surgery. They may have, but I kind of doubt it, you never want to show the patient ominous images.
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| Exergen TAT-5000 Temporal Artery Professional Thermometer This is only one I found that looks like it fits the bill. |
The nurses had a thermometer that they used to check my temperature. I never did get to see it. They ran it across my forehead and the down the side of my head behind my ear. It felt like a ball point pen with a a tip the size of a child's marble.
They also had a little ultrasonic machine whose sole purpose was to measure the amount of urine in my bladder. My bladder apparently has a capacity of about 250 cc (1 cup), which kind of explains my frequent trips to the bathroom.
I've been home for a couple of days now and things seem to going okay. My hip is still plenty stiff. I'm taking 5 mg of Oxycodone every five hours and the pain is negligible.
The Hounsfield scale, named after Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, is a quantitative scale for describing radiodensity. It is frequently used in CT scans, where its value is also termed CT number. - Wikipedia
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| Hughes Satellite Antennae Meter |
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| Starlink Satellite Constellation Currently 3,000 satellites |
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| Phased Array Antenna |
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| SBX |
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| Atmospheric Absorption of Millimeter Waves |
Silicon Greybeard is talking about a satellite built for Boeing to test some V-Band communications gear. V-Band is very high frequency. At 60 Ghz it is much higher than the other frequency bands used for satellite communications.
The chart above illustrates how much a radio signal is reduced when it passes through the atmosphere. Note the peak right around 60 GHz, which is where the V-Band is. This makes it look communicating with a satellite using V-Band signals is going to a little difficult. So why would they choose to use such a frequency? As the Silicon Greybeard says, maybe they are not trying to communicate with ground based stations. Well, that's dumb. What else is there? Umm, other satellites, other spacecraft and best of all, UFO's.
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| US Navy E-6B Mercury leaving Des Moines International |
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| Scan of excavator showing contraband |
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| X-ray scan of an automobile |
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| Backscatter technology produces an image that resembles a chalk etching |
