Aluminum

... or, if you're British Aluminiu--- Nah, I can't even type it, it's so wrong.

Today was the penultimate class in my TIG welding course. I started welding aluminum, which, even though I'd been warned time and time again about how different and difficult it is, found it excessively difficult and different.

One guy described how he could tell that he was getting a good weld bead in aluminum when it had the feel of honey. Other people I talked to about it would just stare off into space trying to find the right words to describe the techniques required.

At any rate, a stringer bead weld in aluminum is the last weld I'm required to complete for a perfect score, so yay me \o/

I can't decide what the next class to take will be, although right now I'm leaning toward doing an oxy-acetylene class. I could also do a drawing class, or the advanced TIG class. I also need to talk to the CAD instructor to find out what she suggests as a corequisite class for the sculptural welding certificate.

I don't know if I've mentioned it here or not, but there's a funny sign in the materials room of the welding shop, it says:

PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOUR STAINLESS STEEL IS NOT MADE OUT OF ALUMINUM

Note from KGNU DJ

I just got this note from Barry, the guy who played the first track from Linguism on the radio yesterday.

He says:

Well, I played Linguism 1 on Friday afternoon. I received around 5 or 6 calls and emails. Several were appreciative ("This is hilarious!", etc.). Some were less than appreciative. One guy called and said something like "this is very disrespectful of Noam Chomsky. He's a great voice for the left in this country". I told him that I agreed and that the piece was more of a linguistic hommage than a spoof. He didn't get it and obviously had no sense of humor.

This is just the kind of reaction I expected, based on having played some similar things in the past. So I say Well Done, Sir!

Good News

Good news is rare.

This is good news:
Cases if guinea worm have declined to the point where it may be "completely wiped out" within two years says Jimmy Carter.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7768871.stm
(WARNING: fairly gross picture on the page)

And caveat:
although BBC is going for the "wow" headline,
they're really talking about prevention, not extinction.