Stirling Engine at the Machinist School

In the foreground is a traditional Stirling Engine at the Machinist School. Under the torch is a modern Stirling Engine. One reason to be a machinist is so that you can make things you want to make - like a Stirling Engine. One advantage of a Stirling Engine is that there is no steam boiler to blow up. A Stirling Engine can be "Green" .... it will run from the heat of sunlight. The air in the engine recirculates and never exhausts .... it just keeps heating up and cooling down, resulting in a wheel going around in circles and NO pollution. Stirling Engines have been used to power vehicles, boats, and equipment. Variations are used in outer space.

Ceramic vs Styrofoam at NTI

This is a snowman riding a snow duck at NTI - perhaps a new rodeo event? Probably not but it does bring up the topic of material science. The snowman is made partly from styrofoam. The duck is made from snow (ice crystals).
Styrofoam is not edible although it is a carbon-based material. Since it is a light weight material, some folks use it as a "filler". Again, just because it is filling, don't eat it!
Snow is simply water in a solid form. Water is made from a metal (hydrogen) and a non-metal (oxygen). Some folks don't believe that hydrogen is a metal. At room temperature, hydrogen is not only a metal, it is a vaporized metal. Other people wonder why water doesn't burn since it contains hydrogen and oxygen (actually water is burned up, oxidized, hydrogen ..... hydrogen ashes???). Anyway, another generic name for a metal & non-metal combination is "ceramic". Aluminum Oxide is a popular ceramic. Like "Plastic", "Ceramic" isn't really a material. Ceramic is a property - a set of characteristics - if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck!
That leaves us wondering ... are Igloos ... are they ceramic houses?