Lunch With George!

February 6, 2003 - Macaroni Grill

Agenda

• Fight Club
• Another Puzzler
• Welding Mask
• Mt. Washington Weather
• How to Make A Virus

Oh well. I would recommend this film to anyone who can put up with some blood, cuz that's not really what this movie is about... but I'm not gonna tell you what it's about, either! Just see it.

Who Thinks Up These Things?

The warden meets with 23 new prisoners when they arrive. He tells them, "You may meet today and plan a strategy. But after today, you will be in isolated cells and will have no communication with one another.

"In the prison is a switch room, which contains two light switches labeled A and B, each of which can be in either the on or the off position. I am not telling you their present positions. The switches are not connected to anything.

"After today, from time to time whenever I feel so inclined, I will select one prisoner at random and escort him to the switch room. This prisoner will select one of the two switches and reverse its position. He must move one, but only one of the switches. He can't move both but he can't move none either. Then he'll be led back to his cell.

"No one else will enter the switch room until I lead the next prisoner there, and he'll be instructed to do the same thing. I'm going to choose prisoners at random. I may choose the same guy three times in a row, or I may jump around and come back.

"But, given enough time, everyone will eventually visit the switch room as many times as everyone else. At any time anyone of you may declare to me, 'We have all visited the switch room.'

"If it is true, then you will all be set free. If it is false, and somebody has not yet visited the switch room, you will be fed to the alligators."

What is the strategy the prisoners devise?

Innovation: Welding Mask

Optrel Satellite

George was telling me about a new kind of welding mask that the user need only take off when they want-- unlike old masks which must be raised up to see when not welding.

How does it work? The filter through which you look is an LCD which automatically adjusts its opacity to filter out just the right amount of light! It responds and adjusts within 2 milliseconds. It's filtering response can be adjusted and even locked in to a specific shade in cases where flickering occurs while brazing or grinding. To top it off, it is powered by solar cells!

UVEX makes a whole line of Optrel welding masks-- all with their patented Advanced Dynamic Filter (ADF) system. Something about a liquid-crystal face mask for welding that turns opaque as soon as the torch is ignited... do some research.

How's the Weather Up There?

George was telling me about an old friend of his who has his own syndicated radio show,

Bryan works at a permanent weather observation station where the worst weather conditions on Earth have been recorded: Mt. Washington, the tallest mountain in New England. 230 mph winds have been recorded there! Check out the current conditions.

At the Mt. Washington Weather Observatory, permanent employees and student interns continually staff the facility, performing research and creating educational programs to advance the public's knowledge of the mountain's sub-arctic environment.

How to Make a Virus

Fred's comments focus on what a scary prospect this really is-- as virologist Vincent Racaniello of Columbia University said in a Science News article:

"Scientifically, the results are not surprising or astounding in any way. The point here, of course, is that the DNA can be synthesized from the [genetic] sequence, and this could be done by any third-rate terrorist."

Eckard Wimmer and his associates at SUNY (at Stony Brook) set out to show just how easy it could be. They downloaded the sequence for polio from the Internet, and built the virus from readily available materials. When it was injected into the brains of mice, the poor little fellows got polio!

Good ol' Fred addresses an even more interesting angle: Are viruses alive? Did Wimmer create life? He doesn't know the answer, but he's suddenly a supporter of human exploration of Mars... and wants to be on the first ship outta here.