UPDATE: We just got our first financial aid award letter and it's pretty depressing.

Note that the following is for a IN-STATE public university.

Estimated Cost of Attendance: $37,126 ($32,632 direct)
Scholarships: $4,000
Subsidized Student Loan: $1,274
Unsubsidized Student Loan: $5,500
Parent Plus Loan: $27,626

Our family income this year will be about $70k, yet they expect us to go more than $34k in debt (this year alone) and are telling us that we should be pleased that they are awarding a generous $4k scholarship to a student that is a straight-A student, has gotten 5s on AP exams, has placed second in international music competitions, both individually and in small ensembles, and has made all-state orchestra every year of eligibility.

I sure hope the private schools are able to do a hell of a lot better!

We just got back from a three-city trip for her last in-person auditions (now the waiting begins). At the two private schools, it sounds like it might be a lot better, but we won't know for another month or so. She thinks she did well and a couple people we talked to at one of the schools said that, given the list of schools that granted her auditions, that she must be in the top-tier of high school violinists.

Through Florida Bright Futures, my daughter gets her tuition paid for 100% at any state university. She chose University of Florida in Gainesville for her undergraduate engineering degree.

We pay room & board, about $7K per semester.

I make enough money that financial aid is not available to us (or her).

Anyway, I pay cash.

 

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Regardless of how one feels about the current quest for "green energy", I think this is an impressive feat:

Runtime record and first electricity generation with a compressorless hydrogen gas turbine

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The technology is not limited to hydrogen; however, hydrogen is particularly well suited because it reacts extremely quickly and enables stable pressure increases. This opens the door to lighter, more cost-effective, and ultra-efficient turbines for power generation and, in the long term, for aviation.

 

Regardless of how one feels about the current quest for "green energy", I think this is an impressive feat:

Runtime record and first electricity generation with a compressorless hydrogen gas turbine
View attachment 363689​

"Coupling a turbine to the combustion chamber—and ultimately generating electricity..."

Yes! This is awesome. You can use the electricity to generate hydrogen.

 

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-adolescent-cannabis-linked-psychotic-bipolar.html

So, our parents (or their parents -- depending on your generation) were right.

 

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-adolescent-cannabis-linked-psychotic-bipolar.html

So, our parents (or their parents -- depending on your generation) were right.

Exactly, that why I used LSD in the service, something safe.

 

Applies to one's personal life as well:

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Applies to one's personal life as well:

View attachment 364001​

I always made a point of emphasizing that, in almost all engineering situations, the design should be "good enough" and not much better. If your design significantly exceeds your customer's needs, then you have likely wasted the customer's resources in unjustifiable ways. There are exceptions, of course. If your standard approach produces a result that exceeds specs, you shouldn't spend time and effort (which ARE your customer's resources if they are paying for it) reducing the performance. But you shouldn't spend ANY effort improving the design once it meets spec -- unless you are willing to pay for that improvement out of your own pocket (not your company's pocket -- unless you own or run the company -- but YOUR pocket). Now, if you see an improvement that could be made but aren't willing to eat the cost, then talk to the customer and see if they will buy into, and pay, for it. If so, great. If not, that's their choice and it must be honored.

 

OK, don't act like garbage.

 

'Goofball', what's old is new again.

 

In 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space aboard Vostok 6. During the mission, she discovered a problem in the spacecraft’s control program: the guidance system was set to raise the orbit instead of initiating descent, which could have prevented the capsule from returning to Earth.
Engineers on the ground transmitted corrected data, which Tereshkova entered into the system to fix the descent program. After 48 orbits and nearly three days in space, she safely returned to Earth.

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The great renaming has started.

https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/18/portland-oregon-cesar-chavez-boulevard-allegations/
Oregon institutions reckon with removing Cesar Chavez’s name following sexual abuse report

 

Soon to be followed by the great rewriting of History ...

 

Since when is computational power measured in watts? ... OTH, this article mentions several interesting developments:

Elon Musk launches Terafab to power next-gen AI, reshape semiconductor industry


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A key technological driver behind the project is space-based solar power. Musk outlined plans to deploy massive orbital systems capable of generating energy in space and transmitting it back to Earth. This would require launching tens of millions of tons of equipment annually—an unprecedented logistical and engineering challenge, reports Techeblog.

 

Since when is computational power measured in watts? ... OTH, this article mentions several interesting developments:

Elon Musk launches Terafab to power next-gen AI, reshape semiconductor industry
View attachment 365042
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Some invented metric for wasted electrical energy.

https://blog.se.com/datacenter/2025...-watt-is-crucial-for-measuring-ai-efficiency/

 

If this is not good news, I don't know what is:

Caffeine May Reverse Memory Loss From Lack of Sleep, Study Suggests

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The suggestion is that our ability to recognize people and recall details about them can be impacted even after a brief spell of sleep deprivation, and that a regular caffeine habit might protect against those memory losses – though further research will be required to know for sure.

 

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A Queen in Any Other Language


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Chess historians, including Yalom, agree that the likeliest explanation for this metamorphosis involves “the high esteem enjoyed by Queen Isabella,” whose reign began in 1474. The transformation might have been catalyzed in part by earlier influential European figures, but Isabella doubtless galvanized it. Even the word that Spanish chess authors used to refer to the queen changed from an Arabic-derived term to dama, which, as Ms. Yalom wrote, “would have at least three circles of meaning in late 15th-century Spain: ‘lady’ as indicating a superior social status, ‘lady’ in a religious sense as in ‘Our Lady,' and ‘lady’ as referring to the Spanish queen, Isabella of Castille.” Though Isabella’s reign was temporary, there would be no going back.

 

I never liked MP3 ... it's so-called compression algorithm is a tradeoff, I can tell the difference, and I'm not an audiophile. WAV format has always beenthe best means to listen to digital music ... this coming from a practical person.

In the case of Bluetooth, the same criteria applies. It seems that a lot of people agree with me. Unless this is nothing more than a fashion trend:

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