   First we dig out the old sidewalk and haul the pieces away. This is best done by prying up the large slabs, placing a rock underneath each slab and then dealing a blow with a 12 lb. sledge hammer to the slab - easily crushing each slab. They can then be hauled into the back lane for the trash collector to pick up.  Next, any large obstructions, such as the concrete pile used to hold this fence post in place, must be removed. The concrete pile has been moved prior to taking the picture for the sake of clarity. It is best to trick somebody else into doing this job as it is likely to be the hardest part of the whole project.    The next step is to install the forms. 2 x 4's should be used to allow ample height to pour the 4" thick sidewalk slab. Base is then placed inside the forms. Any type of base is fine. Be sure not to lay the base either too thinly or too thickly though. Lay it just right. Also keep the base as dry as possible. Excess water in the base will be absorbed by the wet concrete thereby increasing its water/cement ratio and thus reducing the ultimate strength of the concrete.  The last step before pouring the concrete is to install the reinforcing steel. The steel shown is far too thin to be of any use and is used for demonstration purposes only. The rule of thumb for the thickness of the rebar is half the thickness of the slab. The amount required can also be calculated by installing an equal weight of steel to that of the concrete stone in the concrete mix. This is the most practical way to determine if you have enough steel in the design.  The final product. Make sure you trowel in joints with one foot spacing. This will prevent the concrete from holding water and allow it to drain into the joints. Also, keep the concrete as cool and dry as practical for the next 5 days in order to hasten the curing speed and increase the strength. Good luck! Mixing Antibiotics and AlcoholApril 9, 2010
By Robert H. Shmerling, M.D. Is it true you can't drink if you're taking an antibiotic? My 23 year-old niece, Molly, asked me this question over dinner recently. Wine was served. She was taking an antibiotic for bronchitis. I'd heard the warning to avoid mixing alcohol and antibiotics from friends and family while growing up. But during medical school, I only heard it in reference to a specific antibiotic, metronidazole (Flagyl). People who take metronidazole and drink alcohol can become very sick. They commonly experience nausea, vomiting, palpitations and facial flushing. The effect is similar to drinking alcohol when taking disulfiram (Antabuse), a medication prescribed to alcoholics to discourage them from drinking.
Which Antibiotics Cause Trouble When Drinking Alcohol? Very few of the commonly prescribed antibiotics advise against drinking. If you've filled a prescription for cephalexin (keflex), ampicillin (Omnipen, Principen and others) or erythromycin (Ery-Tab and others), you may have noticed that there is no warning sticker about alcohol. Alcohol reliably causes trouble when mixed with only a handful of the hundreds of available antibiotics. In addition to metronidazole and its close relative tinidazole (Tindamax), you'll regret drinking while taking:
Considering the millions of antibiotic prescriptions written each year, these drugs represent a tiny minority. There is no specific warning about some of the more commonly prescribed antibiotics: cephalexin (keflex), ampicillin (Omnipen, Principen and others) or erythromycin (Ery-Tab and others).
It's tricky to predict just how alcohol might interact with a medication you're taking. It can increase the effect of some medicines while decreasing the effect of others. Here are some examples:
How Can Alcohol Have So Many Different Effects on Medications? Alcohol has many different effects on the body. In addition to becoming drunk, it can:
If you take any medication regularly, ask your doctor or pharmacist if it's okay to drink alcohol. You may get important advice that helps your medications work better and reduces the chance of side effects.
Dire warnings about the dangers of drinking while taking antibiotics are not based on facts. The idea that one can't drink if taking an antibiotic is largely myth. Sure, it's best not to drink while taking certain antibiotics. But there are few if any risks if you drink while taking most antibiotics. Always ask your doctor or pharmacist about potential interactions between your medicines, including antibiotics, and your diet. Although it may be difficult to keep all the potential health effects of alcohol straight, the good news is that antibiotics can do a lot of good, as long as you take them as prescribed.
Robert H. Shmerling, M.D. is associate physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. He has been a practicing rheumatologist for over 20 years at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is an active teacher in the Internal Medicine Residency Program, serving as the Robinson Firm Chief. He is also a teacher in the Rheumatology Fellowship Program.  Wednesday, February 03, 2010 Physicist Discovers How to Teleport EnergyFirst, they teleported photons, then atoms and ions. Now one physicist has worked out how to do it with energy, a technique that has profound implications for the future of physics.  In 1993, Charlie Bennett at IBM's Watson Research Center in New York State and a few pals showed how to transmit quantum information from one point in space to another without traversing the intervening space. The technique relies on the strange quantum phenomenon called entanglement, in which two particles share the same existence. This deep connection means that a measurement on one particle immediately influences the other, even though they are light-years apart. Bennett and company worked out how to exploit this to send information. (The influence between the particles may be immediate, but the process does not violate relativity because some informatiom has to be sent classically at the speed of light.) They called the technique teleportation. That's not really an overstatement of its potential. Since quantum particles are indistinguishable but for the information they carry, there is no need to transmit them themselves. A much simpler idea is to send the information they contain instead and ensure that there is a ready supply of particles at the other end to take on their identity. Since then, physicists have used these ideas to actually teleport photons, atoms, and ions. And it's not too hard to imagine that molecules and perhaps even viruses could be teleported in the not-too-distant future. But Masahiro Hotta at Tohoku University in Japan has come up with a much more exotic idea. Why not use the same quantum principles to teleport energy? Today, building on a number of papers published in the last year, Hotta outlines his idea and its implications. The process of teleportation involves making a measurement on each one an entangled pair of particles. He points out that the measurement on the first particle injects quantum energy into the system. He then shows that by carefully choosing the measurement to do on the second particle, it is possible to extract the original energy. All this is possible because there are always quantum fluctuations in the energy of any particle. The teleportation process allows you to inject quantum energy at one point in the universe and then exploit quantum energy fluctuations to extract it from another point. Of course, the energy of the system as whole is unchanged. He gives the example of a string of entangled ions oscillating back and forth in an electric field trap, a bit like Newton's balls. Measuring the state of the first ion injects energy into the system in the form of a phonon, a quantum of oscillation. Hotta says that performing the right kind of measurement on the last ion extracts this energy. Since this can be done at the speed of light (in principle), the phonon doesn't travel across the intermediate ions so there is no heating of these ions. The energy has been transmitted without traveling across the intervening space. That's teleportation. Just how we might exploit the ability to teleport energy isn't clear yet. Post your suggestions in the comments section if you have any. But the really exciting stuff is the implications this has for the foundations of physics. Hotta says that his approach gives physicists a way of exploring the relationship between quantum information and quantum energy for the first time. There is a growing sense that the properties of the universe are best described not by the laws that govern matter but by the laws that govern information. This appears to be true for the quantum world, is certainly true for special relativity, and is currently being explored for general relativity. Having a way to handle energy on the same footing may help to draw these diverse strands together. Interesting stuff. There's no telling where this kind of thinking might lead. Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1002.0200: Energy-Entanglement Relation for Quantum Energy Teleportation  SoulPancake.com
Be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up to the stars.
Henry van Dyke (1852-1933)
A University of Georgia grad student is outraged by "unnecessary" quotes and has a "collection."
This blog is a record of my campaign to eradicate grammar errors in public in Boston and elsewhere. I carry a sheet of comma stickers and a Sharpie with me at all times, ready to fix each mistake. If an error glares at me, I'm there to destroy it. I'm Kate McCulley, and I'm the Grammar Vandal.
Showcasing the best of the worst of the wide world of words.
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