Rick's Restorations is the business featured in the History Channel show American Restoration. Rick's is owned and run by Rick Dale. Rick has been doing this a long time, and does some pretty nice work. I'll admit that I've only seen a couple of episodes of the show, but if I had a bunch of cash to blow and lived in Vegas, I'd probably check their place out just based on some of the items for sale on their website. I think it's cool that these guys spend their lives taking these old items and giving them new life.
Here's a tour of their operation:
and of their "boneyard" with the items to be restored:
Last year, we saw Erik the Red practice eating tamales at home. If you're interested in seeing him eat something else, here he is eating the 12 Egg Omelet from Beth's Cafe in Seattle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N48Q1qJQGUo
On a related note, I had eggs for dinner last night. But only three of them.
Another kind of derrick is used around oil wells and other drilled holes. This is generally called an oil derrick and is a complex set of machines specifically designed for optimum efficiency, safety and low cost. This is used on some offshore oil and gas rigs.
The centerpiece is the archetypical derrick tower, used for lifting and positioning the drilling string and piping above the well bore, and containing the machinery for turning the drilling bit around in the hole. As the drill string goes deeper into the underlying soil or rock, new piping has to be added to the top of the drill to keep the connection between drill bit and turning machinery intact, to create a filler to keep the hole from caving in, and to create a conduit for the drilling mud. The drilling mud is used to cool the drilling bit and to blow rock debris clear from the drill bit and the bottom of the well. The piping joints sections—usually each about 10 meters (30 ft) long—have threaded ends, so they can be screwed together. The piping is hollow to allow for the mud to be pumped down into the drilling hole, where it flushes out at the drilling bit. The mud then proceeds upwards towards the surface on the outside of the piping, carrying the debris with it.
The derrick also controls the weight on the drilling bit, because the drill bit works at an optimum rate only when it is pushed with a precise degree of pressure relative to the rock beneath it. Too much weight can break the drilling bit, and not enough weight will prolong drilling time. At the start of drilling extra heavy piping collars are used to create enough weight to drill. Since the weight of the pipes above the drill bit will increase the pressure on it as it goes deeper, the derrick will apply less pressure as piping sections are added. It will eventually lift the nearly entire drill string-and-piping complex to prevent too much weight as the well goes deeper.
And this is how an oil derrick works, per youtube:
("Its really basic. It took my like 10 min to animate. dont judge it.")
Quick update from last week: Da'Rick Rogers signed a free agent contract with the Buffalo Bills after not getting drafted. Per the Bill's website, they really liked him going into the draft, and when he was still available afterwards, had to fight off half the NFL to get him as a free agent. Let's hope he sticks.
This draft profile video on him was too good to pass up. It's a Vikings podcast by David Erickson and his guest, RickBirmingham...talking about Da'Rick Rogers. Are you kidding me?!
Musician Rick Ross (or RICK RO$$) got into a bit of trouble a few weeks ago for some lyrics he uses in a new song by Rocko that seem to condone rape. Per Rolling Stone:
On the track, Ross refers to a form of the drug Ecstacy known as "molly" when he raps, "Put molly all in her champagne, she ain't even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain't even know it"
Unsurprisingly, that didn't go over very well in some circles. Rick later said "It was misunderstanding with a lyric, a misinterpretation where the term 'rape' wasn't used. And I would never use the term 'rape' in my records." and also, per CNN, apologized via twitter:
"Ross took to Twitter in early April to seemingly apologize for the lyrics he used in his song. He tweeted: "I dont condone rape. Apologies for the #lyric interpreted as rape. #BOSS"
Two hours later he attempted to apologize again: "Apologies to my many business partners, who would never promote violence against women. @ReebokClassics @ultraviolet"
Unsurprisingly, neither apology did much to win over those who weren't happy with him. Reebok decided to cut ties with Rick, saying that they didn't believe he showed an appropriate level of remorse.
Rocko has stated that Rick's verse will be dropped from the song in the more radio-friendly version, due to the backlash. (side note: after listening to the song and reading the lyrics, I'm not sure how to make a radio friendly version)
Here's the song. Rick's verse starts at about the 2:00 mark, if you're interested.
