NASAdude

Flowers and free time

2007-05-21T00:10:55Z

I took some free time today to do some gardening. That puts me up by three flower planters and some re-potted houseplants.

In some ways this is a "keeping up with the Jones'" scenario. One of my neighbors did work on her landscaping, adding some new flowers. That inspired me to do some work for my own home. I don't normally do much beyond taking care of the lawn. I'm lagging behind all of my neighbors.

Even with what I did today, I'm still behind the curve, but at least I put forth some minimal effort to be socially acceptable.

I don't want them all to think I'm a unabomber in training.

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Hawaii 2007

2007-02-24T15:49:00Z

three weeks in Hawaii.
what a wonderful way to avoid a frigid Pennsylvania winter.
that much time yields lots of photos.
follows is a small assortment.

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white tiger. in zoo. not in the wild.
same tiger
lava and ocean
lava and ocean
peacock. roaming in zoo.
creepy guys
sea turtle
underwater sea turtle. snorkeling is fun.
Volcano National Park. big crater. long, hot hike around rim and across lava.
waterfall
waterfall. long drop.
whale
snorkeler pretending to be a whale?
whale
cave (lava tube) entrance
gecko. rampant everywhere. completely let down after watching the Geico commercials.
awesome golf courses
more awesome golf courses
Hilo bay. open ocean on left. protected bay on right.
more lava
magma meeting ocean
top of Mauna Kea, about 14000'.
big mirror at Gemini
ocean sunset
mountain sunset
very windy and below freezing at the top of the mountain. note blowing hair.
sunset.

didn't avoid PA winter entirely
ended up stranded in Atlanta overnight due to snow/ice storm in PA
required four guys to push my car out of parking space, after digging for half an hour and liberal salt application
got home to find a frozen sewer line
brrr

bad math

2007-02-19T15:00:00Z

1 Kings 7:23 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.

circumference = pi * diameter

The diameter is given as 10 cubits, and the circumference is 30 cubits.

If the diameter is 10 cubits, then the circumference would be 31.4 cubits, an error or 1.4 cubits.
If the circumference is actually 30 cubits, then the diameter would be 9.5 cubits.

Rounding doesn't really work for the first case, but one could argue that the diameter could have been rounded up from 9.5 to 10 cubits.

Unfortunately, it's clear that measuring in fractional cubits was practiced, so that excuse isn't valid.

1 Kings 7:31 And the mouth of it within the chapiter and above was a cubit: but the mouth thereof was round after the work of the base, a cubit and an half: and also upon the mouth of it were gravings with their borders, foursquare, not round.
32 And under the borders were four wheels; and the axletrees of the wheels were joined to the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.

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Smallest seed

2007-02-18T15:11:00Z

31Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
32Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

Acually, the mustard seed is not the smallest seed. The orchid, poppy, and wolffia (duckweed family) are smaller.

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Automotive revolution

2006-12-25T17:20:00Z

I've been pondering how to put this all together in one article, and am tired of these sitting in my writing queue. As such, this will be a pretty course overview.

Link - A fuel-cell powered three-wheel self-balancing "motorcycle". It appears this is only a concept vehicle and won't be sold any time soon. Nor does there even appear to be a prototype yet.

Link - A motorcycle with a wide two-wheel front end. Tilt-assisted steering enhances performance and safety. As-pictured, it appears to be for off-road use only. It's scheduled for release in Summer 2007.

Link - A 3-wheeled car. Non-hybrid. Tilt steering. Computer-enhanced suspension. It looks like this won't make it to market, at least in its current incarnation.

Link - A 3-wheeled scooter.

Link - A 3-wheeled motorcycle. Electric motor in the rear wheel.

Link - A 3-wheeled hybrid sports car. Over-powered gas engine, plus an electric motor in each wheel.

Link - 3-wheeled electric trike. The battery and motor are essentially invisible. Very cool design. Runs at 10mph for 4 hours.

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20 questions

2006-12-20T13:30:00Z

This is a fun site that demonstrates the power of neural network artificial intelligence.

20Q sets you against a computer in a game of twenty questions. If you answer the questions accurately, it will probably figure out your item by the time it gets to its twentieth question.

Good luck!

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Waxy art

2006-12-08T16:34:00Z

I came across this web page and was compelled to share it. The media is so basic, simple, and commonplace, yet it is rarely used. Moreover, the pure rich color stands out in contrast to many of the angular and mechanical forms presented.

Perhaps what is most enthralling is simply childhood memories of coloring with Crayons.

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From movies to reality

2006-11-18T16:50:00Z

Watch the video for a demonstration of this new killing technology. It has very good head-tracking capability, so it should be able to get clean head shots on most targets.

This is a stationary automated gun turret. All they need to do is put it on a mobile base and you'd have a movie legend (see image at right).

Oh wait, they've already done that (these auto-track targets, but require a human to issue the command to open fire).

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Robbed at gunpoint and towed

2006-11-14T02:25:00Z

A guy got robbed at gunpoint and towed all in a 15 minute window. Well... he almost got towed. He couldn't convince the towing company to not tow his car, but fortunately he was just robbed at gunpoint (?) and the police were on the scene, who managed to keep the victim's car from being towed. There is no word if the police had to draw their weapons to fend off the tow truck.

All this happened a block from my home.

You've got to love "happy valley". I think there are more tow trucks in town than there are bars. For most cities that wouldn't be saying much, but for a small college town with a bar on every corner (or more) that's a lot.

One thing that did disappoint Hall, however, was that "while all this was going on" a tow-truck company had arrived to haul away his assistant manager's car. "There was no sympathy from the tow-truck company whatsoever," said Hall, who was at the scene. The police had to explain that the car should not be towed, he said. The owners of the tow-truck company could not be reached for comment.

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Once you go buck...

2006-11-12T22:38:00Z

My father emailed me this link. It's definitely the sort of practical joke he'd pull.

"I'm not a pi�ata!"

That was such a good laugh. Now back to work...

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Mmmmm... bacon

2006-11-12T03:00:00Z

We all know that if you ask what some unknown meat is like, you'll be told that it "tastes like chicken." However, what would a cannibal say about her choice dish? "It tastes like bacon." Or at least it likely would if cured and fried.

A robot with "taste" sensors recently identified that humans taste like bacon.

It's not really a surprise since humans have many similarities with pigs.

I'm not worried about our future robot overlords eating us because we taste good. But if I get hungry, I'll be sure to keep my friends close.

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Productivity

2006-11-11T02:19:00Z

With the advent of this item, I find that I have so much more free time. To think that I used to use the slow, tedious, old-fashioned models! Hooray for technology.

Click the image on this page for a demonstration.
(Warning: Linked web page may not be work-safe.)

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Consent

2006-11-04T22:38:23Z

Ignoring the largely unenforceable nature of such a legal document...
Will it be long until we need to resort to such extremes?
If handled properly, would such an agreement really be a bad thing?

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AI Intersections

2006-10-17T14:59:00Z

Does this represent the future of traffic intersection management?

This appears to be based on a research paper I reviewed more than a year ago. It's interesting to see a purely theoretical idea come one step closer to the "real world"... even if that is only in a commercial, which is still a long way from everyday implementation.

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The title of the prior work is Multiagent Traffic Management:A Reservation-Based Intersection Control Mechanism. While a bit of a mouthful, it depicts an intersection where vehicles make a reservation for safe passage. That reservation guarantees that no other car will be in the way when the car reaches the intersection. It doesn't mean the intersection will be empty, though. Other cars may be passing in front and behind you as you travel through the intersection... perhaps with spacing of only a fraction of a second.

In the traffic light model, cars are delayed by an average of 9.45 seconds relative to how quickly they could travel without an intersection present. In the AI intersection reservation system model, cars are delayed an average of 0.076 seconds - significantly less than when using a traffic light.

All the details are in the PDF. But what's really fun is to see the models in action. The most complex is an amazing 6-lane intersection simulation using the reservation model. If that isn't enough, there is a user-customizable model available from the main page.

Computer AI not required?
This is a really crazy intersection in India. It may appear chaotic and the chances for an accident seem high, yet the only "AIs" involved are the human drivers.

What else can we expect?

a vehicle that can detect a drowsy driver and check/increase alertness through seat and/or steering wheel vibrations, increasing-volume audible alerts, or even giving the driver a blast of cold air. More crude systems might require the driver to acknowledge the alert by pressing a button, but more advanced systems can use the driver's facial expressions to determine alertness.
a vehicle that can speed up or slow down to match the posted speed limit
a car that can drive itself into a parking space
advances in navigation, where the navigation system compensates for real-time traffic congestion, road work, accidents, etc using a WIFI network link
Perhaps the ultimate in car AI is one that can drive itself. Even on a limited basis this would provide a lot of added convenience. Current technology already exists to allow a car to drive itself on highways. That could help take the monotony out of longer journeys. Also, imagine if you could "page" your car as you are heading out of your office or as you are paying at the check-out line of the grocery store; the car could meet you at the curb.

And of course, don't forget about KITT, the car of Knight Rider fame. KITT will return with an all new look in the 2008 release of a new Knight Rider movie.

From the Annals of Science...

2006-10-06T15:28:00Z

From the annals of science, a finger up your butt can cure hiccups. In more scientific terminology, that translates as "The Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage," but it's really the same thing.

Now I have a better understanding of this video from about half a year ago. The monkey was trying to cure her own hiccups.

Now you know. Isn't science empowering?

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