Weekend review, GSA, and pumps.


I've not been keeping the blog up to date, though a lot's going on here.

My last post was about New Orleans, written before Gustav had formed. As I write this Monday morning it's weakening and it looks at though New Orleans will be spared what could've been another Katrina.

Jesse and I worked on a groundwater injection/extraction system for the Emriver to improve on our first prototype. We did a lot of research on pumps and materials, and I'm very happy with the result. Jesse did a great job on both design and building. Here's a photo of him at work, and a bonus shot of Stimpy of Ren & Stimpy. Stimpy's workbench looks a lot neater.

Also a shot of one of our gruesome pump autopsies. Here's an online animation of how that pump works. We're finding that pumping and filtration are endlessly complex. I don't envy the people running the big ones in New Orleans, which must be humming right now.

We're spending a lot of time getting ready for the October Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting in Houston. We're in booth 912 at bottom center on this map. Lots of general arrangements that Cara and Dayna are handling, and planning for who's there when, what we'll take. We're spending a lot of money on this and it'll be crucial to our Emriver marketing.

We met with Nicholas Pinter and Harvey Hansen of SIUC to decide where to go with our NSF grant. That was very productive, and I felt better aftewards. The application was a huge effort and expense for us. It looks as though we can resubmit and eventually prevail.

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