Happy Father's Day

Wish I was tooling down Route 66 today. Still on my Bucket List.



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Washington DC

It's Cherry Blossom time on Embassy Row...


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The "Golden Years" are behind us......

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/health/trainees-in-radiology-and-other-specialties-see-dream-jobs-disappearing.html?smid=pl-share

Well circulated New York Times article amongst radiologists in training.

Cycling News

The latest news from Rouleur.


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The Google Car visits!!

The Google Car was caught in Lafayette by one of Angiographer's roving reporters!  Thanks AKBH for sending...


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The Club

Social networking has become a club. Twitter is the dance floor. Instagram is the bar and Facebook is the people crying in the bathroom.

Convair B-58 Hustler - Sonicbomb.com

Convair B-58 Hustler - Sonicbomb.com

Classic B-58 video from SonicBomb.com

Tesla Coil at Griffth Park Observatory

Gigantic Tesla device at the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles. 

Art Deco Science

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Location:NSU

HiFi/ Plasmatronics updated

Since the post below was first published in 2009 (see archives), the Hill Plasmatronics speaker has been honored at the following web address....

Point your Browser to:  http://hillplasmatronics.com

 Here is my previous post.....

I have been remiss in not writing about one of my lifelong passions, a hobby that is for all intents and purposes, largely a thing of the past.  It is the realm of high fidelity 2 channel audio, or hifi.

I first got into the audio hobby as a teenager and have really never left it.  Good audio equipment has always caught both my ear and my eye.  I have listened to nearly every brand of high end gear out there.  For the purposes of this post, one of the more unusual speaker designs will be considered.  It is the Plasmatronics speaker.

 

Images of production Plasmatronics Speakers

Image Source:  Engadget.com

Designed by Dr. Alan Hill, a New Mexico weapons designer, the Plasmatronics cabinets were huge pieces of furniture, each containing an amplifier, a set of loudspeakers and a large helium tank.  Helium was utilized to form a gaseous plasma that served as an essentially mass less tweeter to handle the frequencies of the audible spectrum above 800 Hz.  Since helium is a noble gas and non toxic when ionized, there is no danger, but when one walked into a room with these speakers powered up, there was a distinct odor of ozone present.

Plasmatronics Tweeter in use (close up view)

Image Source: Unknown

Unbelievably, there was a high end audio shop here in South Louisiana, that carried the Plasmatronics speakers and as a first year medical student, I was able to demo a pair of these speakers.  I never owned a pair of these technological marvels, but every blue moon, a pair will surface on audiogon.com for sale.  The Hill Type I listed for US$5995 in 1978 and by the time they were discontinued several years later, list price was US$10,000 per pair, exclusive of the A13 helium bottle from your local welding supply.  Reportedly, only 52 pairs were ever sold.

With the growth of home theatre, the Internet and the increasing pace of life, critical listening of music in your home, even for devotees such as myself, is increasingly difficult.  But, even so, life without music would be a shame.

Generator Test Today

Pretty low tech setup but gets the job done! Hurricane season will be here before long. Bought this Honda generator the day before Katrina made landfall. It's been amazingly trouble free with very little maintenance. I replaced the oil a couple of years ago and put Mobil One in it.


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Rock Stars of I.R.

I am lucky to practice with a great group of men and women.  Sometimes things get pretty wild as you can see. 

Here are two of my Interventional partners, hamming it up before a case.

Image Credit:  TPG