The human soul can be found within a single cell. It's like how the essence of a painting can be seen in a single brushstroke.
Our drive to force our will upon the world is in shackles as no thought is truly free. Freedom can only exist in a state of chaos. Chaos breeds in pits of conflict.
Searching for slaves under the whip of infallibility, we enter this room. Within these walls, a child that never was is taken, as faceless beings reimagine the future... the birth of a giant with a frozen heart. --Avatar
For my part I deem those blessed to whom, by favour of the gods, it has been granted either to do what is worth writing of, or to write what is worth reading,... --Pliny the younger, nephew of Gaius Plinius Secundus, the father of the modern encyclopedia
Note: Wikipedia is not my job. It's just a hobby; something to do when I'm on hold. I am very busy in real life and spend very little to almost none of my time on the computer/phone. So far, Wikipedia is the only worthwhile thing I've found to do on the entire internet, but my time here is limited to those few moments when I'm simply stuck with nothing better to do. I try to be helpful and respond to any question I can answer, offer refs, or point people in the right direction whenever I can, but my focus here is on producing quality, not quantity. (I will never be a quantity editor, because, as my grandpa used to say, "Don't do anything half-ass. Give it the whole ass or no ass at all".) Therefore, I may not respond to questions or comments in a timely manner, but will reply sooner or later ... eventually. Zaereth (talk) 23:44, 28 June 2018 (UTC)
User:Zaereth
Hi! Welcome!
Hang out at Zaereth's and stay awhile.Stretch your legs and get comfortable. Everyone is welcome.
My call sign is Zaereth and I am a proud citizen of Anchorage Alaska, USA. I have some experience in several areas, to include metallurgy, forging, lasers, glass working, fluid dynamics, hydraulics, fishing, and more. Please feel free to hang out. Below are some pictures to help brighten up the place. All of my photos have been released into public domain, so feel free to use them.
I joined Wikipedia in an effort to improve accuracy and understandabiliy. I believe that Wikipedia policy is fundamentally flawed, and should state that Wikipedia is about reporting all truths that are significant, verifiable, and reliably sourced. Facts are not opinions, but nearly the polar opposite. I am truly frightened by the media's tendency lately to blur the line between them, (Wikipedia included).
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Everyone is not entitled to their own facts." --FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps (From Bill Moyers journal, discussing Net Neutrality and the demise of investigative journalism.)
I've contemplated leaving Wikipedia over this, but have decided to continue helping to provide high quality information written in a proper encyclopedic format. However, since I have no interest in "reinventing the wheel", I will steer clear of helping out on policy and guideline pages. (Sometimes history needs to repeat itself, so people can learn it the hard way ... again.) I will continue to hold myself to the higher standards of which a paper encyclopedia would expect.
I love technical articles, but often find them mired in extraneous explanations filled with unnecessarily large words and undecipherable math. One of my favorite quotes is:
An average English word is four letters and a half. By hard, honest labor I've dug all the large words out of my vocabulary and shaved it down till the average is three and a half... I never write "metropolis" for seven cents, because I can get the same money for "city." I never write "policeman," because I can get the same price for "cop."... I never write "valetudinarian" at all, for not even hunger and wretchedness can humble me to the point where I will do a word like that for seven cents; I wouldn't do it for fifteen. --Mark Twain
I also like this quote very much:
A sufficiently paranoid conspiracy theory can never be disproven. --User:Fluzwup/scot
The problem with conspiracy theorists is that they can explain away any fact.
Shhh. I'm contemplating the universe right now.
My philosophy can be summed up simply enough:
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend... Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it... If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo. --Bruce Lee
My methodology can also be summed up by the great Bruce Lee:
The localization of the mind means its freezing. When it ceases to flow freely as it is needed, it is no more the mind in its suchness... Turn into a doll made of wood: it has no ego, it thinks nothing, it is not grasping or sticky. Let the body and limbs work themselves out in accordance with the discipline they have undergone... I'm moving and not moving at all. I'm like the moon underneath the waves that ever go on rolling and rocking. It is not, "I am doing this," but rather, an inner realization that "this is happening through me," or "it is doing this for me." The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action. --Bruce Lee
Give up thinking as though not giving it up. Observe techniques as though not observing... Eliminate "not clear" thinking and function from your root... The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease... To see a thing uncoloured by one's own personal preferences and desires is to see it in its own pristine simplicity. --Bruce Lee
He has also affected my thoughts about life in general:
Wisdom does not consist of trying to wrest the good from the evil but in learning to "ride" them as a cork adapts itself to the crests and troughs of the waves... The point is [the] doing of them rather than the accomplishments. There is no actor but the action; there is no experiencer but the experience... Those who gain, lose. Do not precede others, always follow them... Do not run away; let go. Do not seek, for it will come when least expected... All vague notions must fall before a pupil can call himself a master... After all, all knowledge simply means self-knowledge. --Bruce Lee
This is where I live.
Katana, showing alternating layers of steels with different hardenability. Very hard to capture on film. The true beauty of these blades can not be appreciated without holding it, and moving it against the light.A katana, shown at an angle to display the hidden features of the hardened edge. The inset shows the intermediate zone between the hard and softer metalThe curving of a katana during the quenching process.Katana cross section, showing the different hardened zones.This is the first sword I ever made, way back when I was fourteen (brings back memories) Unfortunately, I overheated it, and it cracked in the quench. I put it in the shed for years and years, but decided to take it out, polish it up, and differentially temper it for Wikipedia, showing the tempering colors, because a picture really is worth a thousand words.Weapons from outer space. An iron meteorite and a hatchet forged from one.A cross section of a jackhammer bit, revealing the layered construction which increases its strength, similar to the layered construction of a Japanese sword.Tempering colors of steelTempering standards, used to compare to some work-piece being tempered.A chisel that has been differentially tempered, to provide a very hard edge but a more impact-resistant shaft.Flame-hardened sprocketMechanisms of alloy formationSoda-lime glass. The bubbles trapped withing help show how the supercooled liquid simply "froze" in place rather than crystallizing.Glass weldingCast glass, showing the weld-seam.An electric sparkMy first attempt at building a laser. Failed miserably. All the basic components are there, just lacking everything else to make it work. (That's when I learned reliable sources aren't always that reliable.)Military surplus Nd:YAG laser blasting a hole in a rubber block. With an input of 45 joules, the laser can penetrate 5 Gillette razor blades in one shot. It can also drill a Stanley razor blade in a single shot, or a utility knife blade in 5 shots, leaving a hole 1/2 millimeter in diameter.A dye laser shown without the cover, exposing the internal optics and intra-cavity beam.A ruby laser head.A ruby laser rod, and the view through it.An Nd:YAG laser rod.Laser pumping cavitiesCan you realign an SSY1 laser? Sure, all that is needed are shims thin enough.A dye cell, (cuvette), for a dye laser.Rhodamine6G Chloride, emitting yellow light under the influence of a green laserMy first green laser pointer emits a TEM00 beam. This photo somewhat shows the beam's Gaussian profile, although this has proven extremely hard to photograph in a true Gaussian distribution.Multiple prism dispersion is used to tune the output color of a dye laser.This is the same photo as above, but shows that beam expander in operation for better effect.An enhanced-aluminum, first-surface mirror on a optical flat, with a flatness of /20.A dielectric coated laser mirror. Highly reflective of yellow light.A mirror used in a dye laser.A dielectric output-coupler (where the beam exists a laser). Reflects most yellow and green but transmits most red and blue.All mirrors are not created equal. Clockwise: Dielectric, protected aluminum, chrome plated, and enhanced silver. The silver laser-mirror reflects 99.9% of the light, while the chrome automotive-mirror only about 25%.A beamsplitter, reflecting 80% and passing 20%A hot mirror to reflect infrared-light (those wavelengths just below the visual spectrum}, to reduce "red-eye" in a digital camera. Placed between the lens and the sensors, within the "cone of least confusion" (where the chaotic jumble of waves interfere to begin forming the image), the mirror serves the same function as the tapetum lucidum in the eyes of most mammals; to enhance contrast by reducing unnecessary interference. Plus it cancels out our own eyeshine.The reflection from a household mirror from the far field. Errors in the flatness produce distortion and artifacts in the image.A window with an antireflection coatingA diffraction grating, separating green light from white.Diffraction on the surface of a fishtankVarious light sources reflected in a diffraction grating, showing the various spectra.A helical fluorescent lampYour digital camera can often see colors that your eyes can not. Place an infrared filter in front of the lens, one that will remove all visible light, and see what colors show up. This photo shows the strong spectral lines around 900 nanometers, in the near-infrared, emitted by a helical fluorescent light.Compared to the fluorescent lamp, an incandescent bulb emits a great deal more near-IRHelical fluorescent lampIncandescent lampMercury adsorption in a fluorescent lamp causes it to lose pressure. The result is that the arc turns into a glow discharge, and ringed "Faraday cones" move across the lamp.When a tube is turned on and off regularly, it suffers from sputter, resulting in blackening of the ends.Three flashtubes and an arc lamp.A krypton arc lamp is shown above a xenon flashtube.Flashtube wear processes; sputter and ablation.This just looks cool. A xenon high speed flash.Here is the same flash at full power, (85 Joules, or 24 million watts). The flash is so intense that it has no problem penetrating the very dark shade 10 arc welding lens which the camera is behind.The 24 million watt flash delivered about 500,000 watts per square centimeter of internal surface area, with a temperature of approximately 17,000 Kelvin, centering the output at 170 nanometers in the far UV. The intense radiation burst left the lamp glowing with phosphoresence for up to twenty minutes after the flash.Xenon flashlamp ion spectral radiation, showing the strong lines around 900 nm.Spectral line radiation from a krypton arc lamp, showing the strong infrared line at 820 nm.Spectral line radiation from an argon flashlamp, showing a multitude of strong yet distinct spectral lines in the near-IR.Spectral outputs for various gases show a remarkable similarity when operated in flashtubes near greybody radiation current densities.An optical-flat test, showing both surfaces are perfectly flat.This is the same photo as above, but the fringes are slowly magnified as air is forced from between the surfaces and they become parallel. This is as close as you'll ever come to seeing what a light wave looks like.Optical flat thermal image, after handling for a few seconds, which changes the flatness.An optical flat test in both green and white light, showing wringing as it progresses.A flatness test of simple float glass. It doesn't look very flat does it? That's the flattest glass you can get without grinding and polishing.Optical flat test, fully wrung, in both red and green light.The harmonics of light.1/4 wavelength harmonics, as photographed in a optical flat.Optical flat test in which the angular size of the light source is too small.Iridescence from gas on water as seen in amber laser-light.An optical flat test on common plate glass. The common air wedge needed to be replaced with a liquid wedge of acetone to promote wringing.A pulse forming network.A high-speed, low inductance capacitorA high-energy capacitor. Be very careful!Crystallized honeyCreamed honey, both fresh and after aging for two years.This is an extreme close up of Steve, a wild bull-moose who sometimes sleeps on my lawn, being rudely awakened by a photographer that was dumb enough to sneak up on him. Don't try this at home. (OK, I tried it at home, but don't try it anywhere. Steve doesn't like it.)Steve really doesn't like it.Mountain hemlock. Alaskan Monkshood. Sometimes the most beautiful things can be the most deadly.A whole field of deadly beauty. Arguably the most toxic plant on the planet, a little sap on the tip of a lance is enough to bring down a whale. Also shown are fireweeds, yarrows, alpine bistorts, false hellebores, bumblebees, and various grasses.A bee collecting nectar from monkshood.Another beautiful plant, especially in early summer when the leave are still unfolding. The false hellebore. Not as potent but just as deadly. Here's a mountainous plant you can eat. Crowberry. Not bad... Not great, but not bad. The most abundant berry found in Alaska. No reason whatsoever that anyone should go hungry when there's food all around us.An occultation during the solsticePersonally, I think this is one of the most beautiful views in the world. I don't know what it is I like about it, but I like it a lot.Mt Mckinley, along with Mt Hunter and Mt Foraker, as seen from Kashwitna Lake.Mt McKinley south face, as seen from Bryers LakeA barrel roll. Wikipedia desperately needed a diagram, but my computer graphics skills are limited.Ever wonder what aerobatics maneuvers look like from the pilot's perspective? Quite a bit different than you'd expect from an outside view.Fighter combat - circle flow.The wingover maneuver.A falling leaf.Turn circle, a concept in dogfighting.Japanese Zero chasing a B-25 bomber.Zero underbellyA zero taxiing the runway.Zero landingZero wings folded.Aerodynamic braking.F-22 during take-off. (Very loud, and difficult to get on the camera.)Thermal image of both a honey bee and a fly on a dandelion. Can you tell which is which? (Hint, the bee is "warm-blooded".Thermal image of a cow moose in the winter.Ducks on the water ... an eagle in the sky. (There's no eagle in this photo, just think'Deep Purple' while you're saying that.)Thermal image of two German Shepherd dogs.Entropy shown as heat loss in a electric motor.Thermal image of hot and cold water, showing immiscibility.Thermal image of a fan that is powered by the heat of a wood stove. (Stove not shown.)Electrical main panel. Arc-flash hazard. Be very careful.
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