Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Back (at the front) in Action
In Langkawi the monkeys spread all over the face of the hotel building at the slightest sign of motion. We were not supposed to feed them but some people did. There were grey ones like this and black ones with white around the eyes like pandas.There were crab-eating monkeys too, near the rivers lifting stones to look underneath them for their breakfast.
One of the more photogenic residents of Kuala Lumpur bird park.
The main reason for my absence was that I have been reading the many many comments on my watch picture blog which seem to be heading towards inter-necine violence!
By "esoteric" I just meant that only a few of my readers would likely understand the comment about Helium. There is not much helium in the atmosphere so it is not a problem for watches unless you are a diver.
Divers going deeper than 600 feet (200 meters) have to breathe a mixture of helium and oxygen instead of the usual mix of nitrogen and oxygen (which we call air) because the nitrogen boils as they come up from the depths and causes "the bends"
Helium is a much smaller molecule than nitrogen and can diffuse through the gaskets of waterproof watches and cause enough pressure to push the glass out of the watch.
So Omega have this little release valve to let the gas out. Ben has an omega with such a valve and probably understands the whole thing better than I do. William is a watch freak like me and might understand it too.
I suppose their science-teacher mother might understand it too especially since her husband is a diver. Incidentally I presume when they are breathing Helium they have squeeky voices - I once saw someone breathe helium/oxygen and play wind instruments and they too produced a higher pitch. The pitch depends on the velocity of sound within the gas which is vibrating to produce the sound.
I will try to keep future comments more exoteric!
Meanwhile I have several burst pipes to deal with here at the front in Boulder before leaving again next week.
# posted by william @ 7:23 AM 
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Burst pipes, oh shit. I thought those were a thing of the past like cars that habitually don't start, leak oil and rust a lot. Thankfully I haven't had to do any plumbing yet.
Kitchen planning is underway here too...
Kitchen planning is underway here too...
Don't know what the fuss is about with that watch- it says 10:10, and it's actually 9:50pm. (The date is also wrong!)
Ben
Ben
# posted by 
: 2:52 PM
: 2:52 PM
That's Omega watches for you.
I am aware that 1% of the air is made up of the Noble gases (discovered by Great Uncle Bertram back at the beginning of the 20th century), 95% of which is argon.
Recreational divers only dive to 30 metres, professionals to 200m, so air ,as we call it, has surficed to date.
Catch was involved in the early work on "the bends". he gave G a copy of his paper, circa 1947, "Pathenogenic factors & pathological consequences of decompression sickness".
Anyway, great photos.
Is "inter-nicene" the same as "sibling"?
m
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I am aware that 1% of the air is made up of the Noble gases (discovered by Great Uncle Bertram back at the beginning of the 20th century), 95% of which is argon.
Recreational divers only dive to 30 metres, professionals to 200m, so air ,as we call it, has surficed to date.
Catch was involved in the early work on "the bends". he gave G a copy of his paper, circa 1947, "Pathenogenic factors & pathological consequences of decompression sickness".
Anyway, great photos.
Is "inter-nicene" the same as "sibling"?
m
# posted by : 3:02 PM
: 3:02 PM << Home
