Little Pepsi’s. They are selling soda in 8 oz cans. I made great sport of this at the office, telling people I had found soda with “half the calories and half the caffeine”. I’ve often wondered about the larger standard cans because I rarely finish one before my soda gets warm. I’m happy with the size and therefore marvel if it will last. [Author’s note – it did last, but the price is nearly equal to the 12 oz can so I never bought them regularly.]In my research on homemade radio parts, I read an article about a topic I’d never considered. Why does not the concave bottom of metal soda cans focus the sun and cause [more] forest fires? This caught my eye, because I know very well how easy it is to start a fire with just such a shape.
The can manufacturer is required to give the surface a matte finish, it is scored or scratched thousands of time to diffuse any potential focal points. The same article claimed the can could be polished for an hour with chocolate and used to ignite tinder. I’ll let someone else prove that one. Someone who doesn’t know there are far faster ways to make fire if you have to. Besides, if you brought the can with you, it is probably still full. If you didn’t, somebody else carried it to where you found it. In either situation, if you are lost that close to home, you are far too flakey to be trusted with fire-making skill and should die of stupidity anyway.
[Author’s note – I modified a small seismograph out of lumber and bricks for the amusement of my co-workers. In the end, I could not find a way to make it record what it saw when nobody was around. It is kind of a neat contraption and sensitive enough to shake when a truck drives past outside. The goal was not to make a device unless all the parts were home-made.]
The seismograph. I have all the parts. One problem I can’t solve is the recording mechanism. I’m a tinker, not an engineer. Okay, its a home-built siesmometer made with a brick and some heavy wood – but who cares what it’s properly called, as long as it works. It is actually sensitive enough to pick up someone walking down the hall. This would only be useful if I can think of a cheap way that one does not have to constantly watch the thing. (Interpret this correctly, reader. I can think of dozens of ways, but my challenge is always to do it cheaply with homemade pieces. And a bell would also alert the walker…)
