Basic, Helpful Things

In this issue we will

Learn how to assemble a four poster bed.
Make a smoothie with spinach and cashews
Get to know the theory of relativity

Lets begin!

The Four Poster Bed

1: Using a portable drill, create 3/4" deep counterbores for the heads of your 3/8" x 6" assembly bolts in the bottoms (flat sections) of the Posts (F). Be sure these counterbores are a large enough diameter to accommodate the flat washers under the heads of your 6" long assembly bolts. Then, dry assemble the Head and Foot Rails (B) to the Posts (F). Use long bar or pipe clamps to hold the rails in position while you bore 3/8" diameter holes all the way through the four Posts (F) and the tenons in each end of the two Rails (B).

2: Disassemble these components and use your Horizontal Boring set-up with a 3/8" diameter bit to bore 4-3/8" deep holes into the ends of the Side Rails (C). During assembly, your bolts will go through the four Posts (F) and into the ends of the Side Rails (C). The mating nuts will be positioned within the mortises and when the bolts are tightened, the Rails (C) will be drawn tightly into the Posts (F).

3: Glue the Side Rail Cleats (D) to the inside bottom of the Side Rails (C). For extra strength, add six 1-1/2" long #8 roundhead wood screws, spaced evenly along the length of each Cleat.

4: Glue the Headboard (A) and Head Rail (B) to the Headboard Posts (F & G).

5: Glue the Blanket Rail (H & I) and the Foot Rail (B) to the Footboard Posts (F)

6: Finish to suit your decor.

Spinach Smoothie

The most important aspect of a good smoothie, is a good blender. Once you have that, the world is your oyster. To begin, you can basically fill the blender to the brim with fresh spinach. It liquifies away to hardly anything. Cup and 1/2 of Orange juice. Cup and 1/2 of Soy Milk.( If you have any fruit lying around, thats always an optoin at this point.) A medium sized handful of cashews poured over that. Let er rip. Sip and enjoy.

The Theory of Relativity

from an article by Alan Lightman

In November of 1919, at the age of 40, Albert Einstein became an overnight celebrity, thanks to a solar eclipse. An experiment had confirmed that light rays from distant stars were deflected by the gravity of the sun in just the amount he had predicted in his theory of gravity, general relativity. General relativity was the first major new theory of gravity since Isaac Newton's more than 250 years earlier.

Published in 1915, general relativity proposed that gravity, as well as motion, can affect the intervals of time and of space. The key idea of general relativity, called the equivalence principle, is that gravity pulling in one direction is completely equivalent to an acceleration in the opposite direction. A car accelerating forwards feels just like sideways gravity pushing you back against your seat. An elevator accelerating upwards feels just like gravity pushing you into the floor.

If gravity is equivalent to acceleration, and if motion affects measurements of time and space (as shown in special relativity), then it follows that gravity does so as well. In particular, the gravity of any mass, such as our sun, has the effect of warping the space and time around it. For example, the angles of a triangle no longer add up to 180 degrees, and clocks tick more slowly the closer they are to a gravitational mass like the sun.