think or thwim

Wired has the story of Alex Roy and David Maher’s attempt to break the USA cross-country driving record known as the Cannonball Run.

The previous record for the 2800 mile coast to coast trip was 32 hours, 7 minutes, set in 1983. To beat it, Roy and Maher must average 90 miles per hour for almost a day and a half.

Roy’s quest is definitely illegal and quite possibly impossible. He is one of the few drivers wealthy and geeky and foolish enough to try it anyway. So far he’s tried and failed twice, but he’s still convinced that his careful calculations will allow him to beat the record.

The story is at Wired Magazine.

An interesting piece of trivia: In 1980 the winner was Will Wright, creator of the Sims.

:: Miscellany

If you plan to try it, this site might be helpful: Speedtrap Exchange.

“The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss”
- Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

From Science Creative Quarterly:

…But the ground is really big, and, as the Tick so sagely noted, “Gravity is a harsh mistress.” So herein contained is my handy-dandy explanation of how you can impress your friends and family by throwing yourself at the ground and missing:

Step one

Throw yourself at the ground. Luckily, this is really easy thanks to gravity, which will pull you down to the ground at an acceleration rate of 32.174 feet per second per second, meaning every second you are falling to the ground, you fall 32 feet (9.8 meters) per second faster. If you want to fall for one second, just spend enough energy to climb 16 feet (4.9 meters) above ground and drop. Voila!

Step two

Miss. This is the not so easy part…

Continue reading at Science Creative Quarterly. Here’s an example:

:: Seed

Leo Dirac: bicycle enthusiast, Google employee, and grandson of Paul speaking at Ignite Seattle.

He didn’t get to everything he wanted to say. The full text of the speech he practiced is at his website: Embracing Chaos.

I’m both a geek and a hippy, so I’m feeling twice the normal pressure to save the world us right now.

Leo also writes these blogs:

• Embracing Chaos - trends in business and technology.
• Safety Fourth - outdoor gear and adventures.
• Add Garlic - food and cooking.

I have read them extensively and concluded that I would like to be Leo Dirac’s friend.

:: Communist Robot

Even though I’ve seen some of their movies, I had no idea a company like this existed until I watched Jeff Skoll’s presentation at TED.

In 1996 Pierre Omidyar hired his friend Jeff Skoll to be the first employee in his new company, Ebay. Skoll subsequently became obscenely wealthy, and wanted to do something to make a difference in the world. He started Participant Productions to do that.

Participant believes that a good story well told can truly make a difference in how one sees the world. Whether it is a feature film, documentary or other form of media, Participant exists to tell compelling, entertaining stories that also create awareness of the real issues that shape our lives.

A list of productions Participant Productions participated in (from IMDB):

Previously Released

• Murderball (2005)
• Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
• North Country (2005)
• American Gun (2005)
• Syriana (2005)
• An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
• Fast Food Nation (2006)
• The World According to Sesame Street (2006)

Currently In Theaters

• Angels in the Dust (2007)
• Darfur Now (2007)
• Jimmy Carter Man from Plains (2007)

Upcoming

• Chicago 10 (2007)
• The Visitor (2007)
• The Kite Runner (2007)
• Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
• Untitled Live Earth Documentary (2008)
• S.O.P.: Standard Operating Procedure (2008)
• The Mayor of Castro Street (2009)

About twice a week somebody uses the contact form to send me an email. Sometimes people contact me just to tell me I can’t spell, but most people write to say the site doesn’t suck and they appreciate the effort. Yesterday a new reader named Matt sent a great email that really made my week. It also made me think. I wish you could experience what I’ve experienced over the last year because it’s been really cool.

Frankly, I wasn’t expecting much from you. I’ve seen comments on other blogs and I’ve seen daytime talk shows. My opinion of people tends to run along the same lines as George Carlin’s. I like some people on an individual basis, but as a group, not so much. However, I’ve been shocked by how smart, well spoken, and overwhelmingly positive you have been. It’s made me feel better about the human race, and improved my outlook in general.

Thanks.

Our son is getting an XO laptop for Christmas. According to Ecogeek they’re only going to be available for two weeks. From xogiving.org:

Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time in North America. For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home.

Here’s Nicholas Negroponte presenting it at TED.

Visit laptopfoundation.org for more details.

Update

T-Mobile is offering donors one year of complimentary access to T-Mobile HotSpot locations throughout the United States, which can be used from any Wi-Fi-capable device, including the XO laptop.

There’s origami and there’s origami by Eric Joisel, which is at a another level entirely.

From Wikipedia:

Wet-folding is an origami technique developed by Akira Yoshizawa that employs water to dampen the paper so that it can be manipulated more easily. This process adds an element of sculpture to origami, which is otherwise purely geometric. Wet-folding is used very often by professional folders for non-geometric origami, such as animals. Wet-folders usually employ thicker paper than would usually be used for normal origami, to ensure that the paper does not tear.

There’s a slideshow of Joisel and some of his creations at the 2007 British Origami Society Convention Flickr.

Visit his website: ericjoisel.com

There are also some videos showing how to fold some of his simpler stuff of YouTube:

• Crane
• Rat (part 1 of 3)

V.S. Ramachandran explains the neurological mechanisms behind:

• The Capgras delusion - brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and family have been replaced with imposters.
• Phantom limb syndrome - using mirrors to cure patients with imagined pain in amputated limbs.
• Synesthesia - hearing color, smelling sounds, or seeing numbers as colors.

He sums up with his theory of where abstraction, metaphor, and creativity are generated in the brain. I love this guy.

:: Neural Dump

NOAA’s Science on a Sphere is an animated globe that can show dynamic images of the atmosphere, oceans, and land of a planet. That’s where the video of the tsunami waves was made.

An Example - Plate Techtonics

How it works