Oktapodi, a short CG animation from the students at Gobelins.
DIY Garden Lanterns
If you’ve ever thought about getting some LED garden lights, check out the link for a simple and inexpensive tutorial on how to make your own.
Olympic Swim
As I’ve mentioned (many times to anyone that cares to listen) my former house-mate is Canada’s fastest swimmer in the 50m freestyle. This morning at around 4:30am local time he will be swimming in Beijing!
I saw Richard’s photo on Yahoo News (same photo here) and caught a couple clips of him swimming and on deck on the CBC a couple nights ago. (I also saw his roommate Jonas swimming tonight to—he competed in the 100m breast).
Here’s what Richard has to say on his blog the night before the big event.
Why I and not i?
The New York Times on why we capitalize the word “I”?
(via)
Astro-09 High Altitude Photos
The following photos are from a set taken with a Pentax k10d from a high-altitude sounding balloon during an experiment conducted by Oklahoma State University while testing a new cosmic radiation detector.
According to the original poster, the k10d performed flawlessly in the harsh vacuum of space at temperatures below -60F.
“The payloads are attached to a sounding balloon which climbs to over 100,000 ft. The balloon is tracked with GPS telemetry systems. When the balloon is launched, it is about 12 ft. in diameter. At peak altitude it is between 40-50 ft. in diameter before burst (or commanded cut-down).”
(via)
What will the LHC find?
Check out Cosmic Variance’s list of possible discoveries and the probability of each discovery being made in the next five years at the Large Hadron Collider.
Also, be sure to check out The Big Picture photos of the LHC.
Lightning Strike
My friends Paul and Jessica had their building struck by lightning last night. I think that’s what inspired them to start a new blog. Time will tell if they’ll actually keep it up.
As for the lightning, perhaps it was a divine message: vegetarianism goes against FSM.
Back to the Hat
It’s a civic holiday this Monday, so I’m away for the long weekend visiting family in Medicine Hat. My sister and her kids are going to be there—hopefully I’ll get some nice action shots of the boys jumping off the couch.
Speaking of my sister, check out her site jackiehutch.blogspot.com new site Jackie Hutchinson photography.
Posting has been sparse lately so it’s probably not particularly surprising when I say I may not be adding a whole lot while I’m gone.
Addicted to Oil
Good Magazine produced this politically charged, entertaining, and interesting youtube video about the state of the world, our demands for oil, and the dramatic increases to the cost of living in a world thirsty for energy.
If we’re addicted to oil, our twelve-step program should begin with admitting that we have a problem. As the price of oil creeps higher, finding new energy sources is more important than ever. But the search for alternatives, combined with environmental disruptions, is putting new pressures on other essentials like food. There are some things that are going well in the world. Right now, the economy is not one of them.
[Oil Addiction – YouTube]
Thank Goodness
“Thank Goodness” is quality essay about being thankful from the perspective of philosopher and atheist Dan Dennet after he suffered a “dissection of the aorta”—the lining of the main output vessel carrying blood from his heart had been torn up.
[W]hereas religions may serve a benign purpose by letting many people feel comfortable with the level of morality they themselves can attain, no religion holds its members to the high standards of moral responsibility that the secular world of science and medicine does! And I’m not just talking about the standards ‘at the top’—among the surgeons and doctors who make life or death decisions every day. I’m talking about the standards of conscientiousness endorsed by the lab technicians and meal preparers, too. This tradition puts its faith in the unlimited application of reason and empirical inquiry, checking and re-checking, and getting in the habit of asking “What if I’m wrong?” Appeals to faith or membership are never tolerated. Imagine the reception a scientist would get if he tried to suggest that others couldn’t replicate his results because they just didn’t share the faith of the people in his lab! And, to return to my main point, it is the goodness of this tradition of reason and open inquiry that I thank for my being alive today.