For something completely different & unusual-here's Pork Track. If you've always wanted to know what song you were conceived to, this might have the answer. A weird idea that is probably getting some attention. Check it out @:
http://www.porktrack.com/
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Sunday, June 8, 2014
How Small Can We Go?
Looking at world records the other day on:
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/
I came across one record in particular that caught my fancy--the world's smallest movie. Strangely enough it seems it was created by IBM researchers. You can see how they created it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA4QWwaweWA
But for the fun stuff, watch the movie itself below. It is as simple as it can get for a movie, but what more can you expect when you're making it out of atoms?
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/
I came across one record in particular that caught my fancy--the world's smallest movie. Strangely enough it seems it was created by IBM researchers. You can see how they created it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA4QWwaweWA
But for the fun stuff, watch the movie itself below. It is as simple as it can get for a movie, but what more can you expect when you're making it out of atoms?
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Time Travel...Possible?
We've long dreamed of travelling thru time--going back into the past or forward into the future. Of all the wondrous things that could be done this must rank in the top 5 certainly. And yet we know for sure that time travel is an impossibility. Right?
Well, hold on a minute. Let's not rush to conclusions just yet or give up on the idea. There might be a way to at least see into the past. And if that could be done would that not be considered the same?
I may have lost most of you reading this already--I know it's a fantastical concept to even be able to see into the past. But I have an idea for doing it that is I think possibly not too far from being a reality.
Achieving this goal would require three things in my opinion:
1> a hardy space vessel for transporting occupants thru space in a timely and efficient manner. We have the capability to create this already, so step 1 is complete.
2> The most powerful telescope mankind has ever devised, but small enough to fit inside the spacecraft and be usable by the occupants.It would need to be perhaps a million times better than the Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA scientists are continuing their work on the James Webb Space Telescope, said to be the most powerful telescope ever created. The telescope is said to be capable of capturing seven times more light than its successor, the Hubble Space Telescope, a factor that will aid in its expected exploration of the deepest reaches of outer space. The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is managing the project in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. NASA reported today that the last three mirrors necessary for assembly of the complex infrared device have been delivered, allowing them to move forward with assembly. The $8.8 billion telescope will be massive, with its largest mirror, a unique folding, 18-segmented creation, spanning over 21 feet in length and weighing in excess of 1500 pounds. The mirror is six times larger than that of the Hubble Telescope). This is a leap forward in technology but a far cry from what I propose is needed for this mission. Perhaps in a hundred years or so we will have advanced technologically enough to create what I envision is needed. And also, by then perhaps we'll have located the third and final component on my list of requirements;
3> A known wormhole in space that can be navigated by our spacecraft and has the following characteristics:
a> the entrance is not too far from Earth to allow us a timely journey there,
b> the wormhole extends thru space to a point hundreds or even thousands of light years from earth and takes a very short time to journey thru to its exit,
c> both ends are permanent so that it can be counted on being there for a long time/forever.
d> the exit would be located somewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy (so it would be no more than say 80,000 light years away from Earth).
Okay, here's the proposed idea/plan: Take the spacecraft loaded with the telescope thru the wormhole & to wherever it exits. Park the craft and deploy the telescope. Look back at earth & zoom in on whatever is happening in the past. (Since light travels at light speed we would be looking at an Earth hundreds or possibly thousands of years old).
If this could all be done then whatever was witnessed could be recorded and sent back thru the wormhole to Earth of the present. We wouldn't be able to hear people talking, but you might be able to see the actions of people outdoors. And there were apparently some famous things going on back then. For instance:
*See the crucifixion of Christ
*see Noah build the arc & the great flood
*see Moses part the Red Sea and lead the slaves to freedom
*see David defeat Goliath
etc. (moments depicted in the bible could be verified as to have truly happened)
Then, if even longer wormholes were found that took us farther from Earth perhaps we could see back even further in time. Like seeing when man first appeared on Earth. This would possibly require a wormhole exit located in some other galaxy, however, due to this being millions of years ago (which would mean millions of light years away). And, it is almost inconceivable to imagine, but if there was a wormhole that could take us around 65 million light years distant we could possibly witness the extinction of the dinosaurs. Of course the telescope required for this would also have to be unimaginable in power.
-As for actually physically traveling back in time, I still have no theories on how this could be done, although I'm sure other have various ideas. I as well have as yet no ideas for future time travel or even looking into the future. But, I'll be thinking on this next and will report back on the blog if I come up with any ideas. :)Well, hold on a minute. Let's not rush to conclusions just yet or give up on the idea. There might be a way to at least see into the past. And if that could be done would that not be considered the same?
I may have lost most of you reading this already--I know it's a fantastical concept to even be able to see into the past. But I have an idea for doing it that is I think possibly not too far from being a reality.
Achieving this goal would require three things in my opinion:
1> a hardy space vessel for transporting occupants thru space in a timely and efficient manner. We have the capability to create this already, so step 1 is complete.
2> The most powerful telescope mankind has ever devised, but small enough to fit inside the spacecraft and be usable by the occupants.It would need to be perhaps a million times better than the Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA scientists are continuing their work on the James Webb Space Telescope, said to be the most powerful telescope ever created. The telescope is said to be capable of capturing seven times more light than its successor, the Hubble Space Telescope, a factor that will aid in its expected exploration of the deepest reaches of outer space. The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is managing the project in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. NASA reported today that the last three mirrors necessary for assembly of the complex infrared device have been delivered, allowing them to move forward with assembly. The $8.8 billion telescope will be massive, with its largest mirror, a unique folding, 18-segmented creation, spanning over 21 feet in length and weighing in excess of 1500 pounds. The mirror is six times larger than that of the Hubble Telescope). This is a leap forward in technology but a far cry from what I propose is needed for this mission. Perhaps in a hundred years or so we will have advanced technologically enough to create what I envision is needed. And also, by then perhaps we'll have located the third and final component on my list of requirements;
3> A known wormhole in space that can be navigated by our spacecraft and has the following characteristics:
a> the entrance is not too far from Earth to allow us a timely journey there,
b> the wormhole extends thru space to a point hundreds or even thousands of light years from earth and takes a very short time to journey thru to its exit,
c> both ends are permanent so that it can be counted on being there for a long time/forever.
d> the exit would be located somewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy (so it would be no more than say 80,000 light years away from Earth).
Okay, here's the proposed idea/plan: Take the spacecraft loaded with the telescope thru the wormhole & to wherever it exits. Park the craft and deploy the telescope. Look back at earth & zoom in on whatever is happening in the past. (Since light travels at light speed we would be looking at an Earth hundreds or possibly thousands of years old).
If this could all be done then whatever was witnessed could be recorded and sent back thru the wormhole to Earth of the present. We wouldn't be able to hear people talking, but you might be able to see the actions of people outdoors. And there were apparently some famous things going on back then. For instance:
*See the crucifixion of Christ
*see Noah build the arc & the great flood
*see Moses part the Red Sea and lead the slaves to freedom
*see David defeat Goliath
etc. (moments depicted in the bible could be verified as to have truly happened)
Then, if even longer wormholes were found that took us farther from Earth perhaps we could see back even further in time. Like seeing when man first appeared on Earth. This would possibly require a wormhole exit located in some other galaxy, however, due to this being millions of years ago (which would mean millions of light years away). And, it is almost inconceivable to imagine, but if there was a wormhole that could take us around 65 million light years distant we could possibly witness the extinction of the dinosaurs. Of course the telescope required for this would also have to be unimaginable in power.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
ICE CREAM BREAD!!!
Yes it's true! You can make bread from ice cream. Well, ice cream + flour. Sounds crazy. I mean, who would imagine that it could be done? But there's many videos on Youtube and elsewhere showing it being done. I guess that all the ingredients to make the bread must be within the ice cream minus the flour, so that must be how you can do it. I just wonder who was the first to discover they could make it. Well, at any rate, watch the video below to see it for yourself. It's true and pretty wild!
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
HALT AND CATCH FIRE
AMC, the channel that has previously brought us spectacular and award-winning shows like Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Mad Men is attempting to deliver its latest hit with the period drama Halt and Catch Fire.
Halt and Catch Fire = (HCF) an instruction which causes a computer to cease functioning.
With one episode under its belt we've so far been introduced to the main characters;
Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace)=the adrenalin fueled and highly ambitious go-getter who has left IBM Corp a year before the shows opening apparently because he is tired of "playing it safe", arrives at his new job at Cardiff Electric and has the secret goal to build a computer better than anything else on the planet. And his methods leave little to the imagination as nothing it seems is off limits in achieving this goal.
Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy)=the engineer nerd who might just be smart and eager enough to follow Joe along on this quest.
Cameron Howe (MacKenzie Davis)=the gorgeous babe with brains to match lured into this yarn by the charm and salesmanship of Joe, who's already made it with her by halfway thru the show.
I highly anticipated watching the initial episode as I grew up in the 80s and have always had a personal computer ever since my first one which was an Apple II+ that I bought for $1000 in 1980. Looking back on it that simple machine seems so pathetic now, however, back then it was state of the art. If we only knew then what we know now.
In "I/O" episode 1, Gordon Clark reverse engineers an IBM PC & figures out the hexadecimal codes within the bios chip. Presumably from there he can program his own bios chip and then put together a PC of his own. Gordon's Family and company problems derail these plans quickly, however, as IBM's attorneys arrive at Cardiff Electric due to Joe informing IBM of what he and Gordon have done.
AMC it looks to me has hit another home run-hopefully the rest of the season's episodes will be as good as the first.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(TV_series)
http://www.amctv.com/shows/halt-and-catch-fire
Halt and Catch Fire = (HCF) an instruction which causes a computer to cease functioning.
With one episode under its belt we've so far been introduced to the main characters;
Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace)=the adrenalin fueled and highly ambitious go-getter who has left IBM Corp a year before the shows opening apparently because he is tired of "playing it safe", arrives at his new job at Cardiff Electric and has the secret goal to build a computer better than anything else on the planet. And his methods leave little to the imagination as nothing it seems is off limits in achieving this goal.
Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy)=the engineer nerd who might just be smart and eager enough to follow Joe along on this quest.
Cameron Howe (MacKenzie Davis)=the gorgeous babe with brains to match lured into this yarn by the charm and salesmanship of Joe, who's already made it with her by halfway thru the show.
I highly anticipated watching the initial episode as I grew up in the 80s and have always had a personal computer ever since my first one which was an Apple II+ that I bought for $1000 in 1980. Looking back on it that simple machine seems so pathetic now, however, back then it was state of the art. If we only knew then what we know now.
In "I/O" episode 1, Gordon Clark reverse engineers an IBM PC & figures out the hexadecimal codes within the bios chip. Presumably from there he can program his own bios chip and then put together a PC of his own. Gordon's Family and company problems derail these plans quickly, however, as IBM's attorneys arrive at Cardiff Electric due to Joe informing IBM of what he and Gordon have done.
AMC it looks to me has hit another home run-hopefully the rest of the season's episodes will be as good as the first.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(TV_series)
http://www.amctv.com/shows/halt-and-catch-fire
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Nature Can Be A Scary Thing
I found this video on the website:
http://www.snotr.com/video/9664/Damn_natureYou_scary__O
I've known clouds to look pretty scary at times, and I've seen some wierd stuff, but never anything quite like this. I've never seen a tornado or hurricane in person-though I have seen a waterspout, which was pretty cool (down at Gulf Shores, Alabama during a thunderstorm there was one of these tornado-like events churning up the surf about a hundred yards off the beach & running parallel to it=probably one of the coolest experiences I've ever witnessed. My brother was there with me to see it & I took a couple pictures of it with his camera). I'd imagine that these are kinda scary. But watch the following video for something else pretty scary looking.
http://www.snotr.com/video/9664/Damn_natureYou_scary__O
I've known clouds to look pretty scary at times, and I've seen some wierd stuff, but never anything quite like this. I've never seen a tornado or hurricane in person-though I have seen a waterspout, which was pretty cool (down at Gulf Shores, Alabama during a thunderstorm there was one of these tornado-like events churning up the surf about a hundred yards off the beach & running parallel to it=probably one of the coolest experiences I've ever witnessed. My brother was there with me to see it & I took a couple pictures of it with his camera). I'd imagine that these are kinda scary. But watch the following video for something else pretty scary looking.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
My Own Bed Project
A few weeks ago I began work on what I call a pedestal or riser for my bed I've been using for the past 9 months. Since getting the bed and mattress from Overstock.com I've known that it sat too low for me. I'm a kinda tall guy (6' 2"), but even so, I'd think that any adult would find the bed a bit low for them. Maybe a child would be comfortable with it the way it came, but not adults, as I sit at only like 1 foot off the floor.
So, I'd always wanted and thought about lifting it up a few inches somehow. The how was the puzzler. Exactly what method or design I'd make or use would be really important because I'm also a heavy guy (about 260+ lbs.), so it needed to be strong and well made. I know about the little 4" lift plastic feet you can get that only cost like $5 to $10 or so for a set of 4. But I'd need 6 of them, not 4, due to the way my bed is designed. (there are 2 support posts in the center of my bed frame that holds up the middle structure, so I'd need 2 for those in addition to the 4 outer feet. This alternative, however, left me feeling unsure about if it would be wobbly & fall over. So I rejected this plan.
Without another solid plan I lived with the bed as it was like I said for the past 9 months or so until I saw a video on youtube.com. It was of a guy who built his own bed frame to hold his king-size mattress. It was a clever design & sat up off the floor like 6" or so using 4 sturdy feet. You can see his video on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDjPqZ_Gtmw
in addition, you can see complete details on how he built his bed frame
on his facebook page here:So, I'd always wanted and thought about lifting it up a few inches somehow. The how was the puzzler. Exactly what method or design I'd make or use would be really important because I'm also a heavy guy (about 260+ lbs.), so it needed to be strong and well made. I know about the little 4" lift plastic feet you can get that only cost like $5 to $10 or so for a set of 4. But I'd need 6 of them, not 4, due to the way my bed is designed. (there are 2 support posts in the center of my bed frame that holds up the middle structure, so I'd need 2 for those in addition to the 4 outer feet. This alternative, however, left me feeling unsure about if it would be wobbly & fall over. So I rejected this plan.
Without another solid plan I lived with the bed as it was like I said for the past 9 months or so until I saw a video on youtube.com. It was of a guy who built his own bed frame to hold his king-size mattress. It was a clever design & sat up off the floor like 6" or so using 4 sturdy feet. You can see his video on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDjPqZ_Gtmw
in addition, you can see complete details on how he built his bed frame
https://www.facebook.com/KevinHagerty/media_set?set=a.552281930614.2071539.19304077&type=1&l=e9d5dda6e7
Inspired by Kevin's video I designed a pedestal to lift the bed frame that I had. After careful measurements of what I would need to build I gathered my materials: I used 9 of the wooden 8' 2"X4"s as the 'bones' and a sheet of 4'X8' plywood as a 'skin' to cover them. The 2"X4"s I cut to size and notched so that they could be interwoven into a kind of latticework, which I then glued and screwed together. The plywood was cut into 4 perfectly fitting boards and screwed down onto the top
of the framework. Then it was onto the feet, which were probably the most demanding part of the build. I created 4 feet from the remnants of the 2"X4"s by gluing 3 pieces of wood together (1 short piece sandwiched between 2 longer pieces). This way I wouldn't need to cut a notch out of one large 4"X4" or something (which is what Kevin did & said had been really tough for him). Gluing and clamping the boards together for a couple days was all it took & they were stuck
permanently. After some finish work on them to cut off the 'flash' some might call it I went about the tough job of attaching them to the underside of the pedestal framework. This involved positioning the 5 legs in place and locating drill holes. Needless to say this was tough as my drill bit was only like 3" long and the holes drilled needed to be like nearly 6" to pass all the way thru both the legs and the
undercarriage. I ended up using a pattern drawn on paper that would position where to drill the holes. It still was a kind of trial and error experience, but not too taxing. And eventually, after about a
week of work in my spare time it was completed.
The finished pedestal was rather heavy when me and a helper carried it to my upstairs room, but we managed to get it in. I didn't want to mess up the bedroom with sawdust & stuff which was why I didn't work on it in there & why I built it on the back porch. It did fit the bed frame quite well, though it was a tight fit, and ended up lifting the bed exactly the height that I had wanted. Bully!
The total cost of supplies for the build (wood, bolts, nuts & washers, and wood glue=I already had screws & the tools I needed, which included a jig saw, circular saw, hand saw, 2 drills, 2 large clamps, a ratchet set, hammer, & screwdriver) came in at well under $100 from Home Depot.
The total cost of supplies for the build (wood, bolts, nuts & washers, and wood glue=I already had screws & the tools I needed, which included a jig saw, circular saw, hand saw, 2 drills, 2 large clamps, a ratchet set, hammer, & screwdriver) came in at well under $100 from Home Depot.
Here are a couple photos: one of the bed I'd purchased from Overstock.com & one after it was lifted. Also one photo of the underside where you can see a bit better the framework & feet beneath the bed.
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