Am I the only one who was unaware of The Star Wars Kid?
Variations here.
8.19.2003
8.15.2003
8.13.2003
8.12.2003
Keep it secret, keep it safe...
Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but for all of you "The Lord of the Rings" fans, here is the "unofficial" official ROTK Trailer. Thanks to Jaq for bringing this to my attention.
Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but for all of you "The Lord of the Rings" fans, here is the "unofficial" official ROTK Trailer. Thanks to Jaq for bringing this to my attention.
8.07.2003
Solar sails have been proposed as a means of propulsion for interstellar exploration. While acceleration would be very slow, top speed would be much more than that attainable from chemical propulsion. Maybe...
Will they work? Well, for the reasons stated above, certainly not like Count Dooku's sail (scroll most of the way down). But some contend that sails will not work at all. The disagreement is over what principles are in play. In theory, light photons (which are not matter, but do have momentum) would bombard the sail, and push it away from the light source (conservation of momentum). The sail would have a mirrored surface to reflect the light, and thus keep the sail from heating. This lack of heating is the very reason the nay-sayers believe the sail will not work. Since energy cannot be created or destroyed, if the sail doesn't heat, it doesn't move. If the sail does heat, it does move, until the temperature of the object reaches equilibrium with the radiation. The proponents of the sail say that thermodynamics are not involved, and that the sail depends in whole upon the conservation of momentum. But does conservation of momentum apply to light, or only to matter?
The answer seems easy enough to my unschooled mind. If the sail depends on conservation of momentum, momentum would have to be transfered from the light photons to the sail. Correct? If this is the case, the light photons would slow after reflecting off of the mirror. Is this the case? (Anyone, anyone?) I know that light appears to slow when passing through a prism, but then upon exiting returns to it's normal speed. Apparently this is not an actual slowing of light.
We will find out the true answer soon enough. A civilian team hopes to launch a solar sail for testing by the end of October. In the meantime, if anyone with a better background in physics than I can answer my question about light slowing after being reflected please do so.
Will they work? Well, for the reasons stated above, certainly not like Count Dooku's sail (scroll most of the way down). But some contend that sails will not work at all. The disagreement is over what principles are in play. In theory, light photons (which are not matter, but do have momentum) would bombard the sail, and push it away from the light source (conservation of momentum). The sail would have a mirrored surface to reflect the light, and thus keep the sail from heating. This lack of heating is the very reason the nay-sayers believe the sail will not work. Since energy cannot be created or destroyed, if the sail doesn't heat, it doesn't move. If the sail does heat, it does move, until the temperature of the object reaches equilibrium with the radiation. The proponents of the sail say that thermodynamics are not involved, and that the sail depends in whole upon the conservation of momentum. But does conservation of momentum apply to light, or only to matter?
The answer seems easy enough to my unschooled mind. If the sail depends on conservation of momentum, momentum would have to be transfered from the light photons to the sail. Correct? If this is the case, the light photons would slow after reflecting off of the mirror. Is this the case? (Anyone, anyone?) I know that light appears to slow when passing through a prism, but then upon exiting returns to it's normal speed. Apparently this is not an actual slowing of light.
We will find out the true answer soon enough. A civilian team hopes to launch a solar sail for testing by the end of October. In the meantime, if anyone with a better background in physics than I can answer my question about light slowing after being reflected please do so.
8.06.2003
Run away! Run Away!
While in Des Moines, we saw Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. This is the worst movie I have seen since The Lucifer Complex. The acting is horrible, the effects are mediocre, and the editing is atrocious. That is all I have to say about that.
While in Des Moines, we saw Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. This is the worst movie I have seen since The Lucifer Complex. The acting is horrible, the effects are mediocre, and the editing is atrocious. That is all I have to say about that.
The Trip
Well, for those of you who were unaware (of my regular readers, I believe this constitutes one person) I spent most of last week in the saddle. Between early Tuesday afternoon when I rolled out of my driveway, and Saturday night when I kicked the sidestand down, marking the end of the trip, I put 1250 miles on my motorcycle. 480 of those on Saturday alone.
This was much like a trip from last summer, except Krista stayed home this time. From Minneapolis I headed to Hastings, and hopped over to the Wisconsin side of the Mighty Mississippi. I followed state highway 35 south along the river to Prairie Du Chien. 35 is a great motorcycle (or car for that matter) highway, with lots of hills and twisties, and many great views. My brother met me there Tuesday night.
Wednesday morning we crossed into Iowa. No matter what you think or have heard about Iowa, the north-east corner is beautiful. We hugged the river southward for a bit, passing though Guttenberg (pronounced by the locals as Gut-en-brg) down to Luxemburg. We turned west on highway 3. Still lots of hills and curves. About this time my brother experienced what is known as a tank-slapper. He apparently was trying to adjust his jacket, with both hands. He just happened to pick the spot where the road turned suddenly rough. His handlebars started flailing violently back-and-forth. Fortunately the laws of physics allowed him to stay vertical long enough to regain control. Perhaps he will relate a bit of what is was like in the comments. Hint, Hint.
After he started his heart pumping again, we hit the road. We stopped in Waverly (home of our alma mater) for sandwiches at The Other Place, and had a look around campus. I ran into my old advisor and mentor, and we had a good long talk about the state of television news. After a couple of hours in Waverly, it was time to motor on to Des Moines.
We snaked our way through the corn fields toward Marshalltown, where we would have the promise of a straight shot of four-lane the rest of the way to the 'rents. But it wasn't that simple. Just north of Marshalltown, I noticed that things looked a bit hazy up ahead. It had been overcast all day, and I quickly realized that it was raining up ahead. We pulled onto the shoulder, I jumped off and was getting my packable rain jacket out of my bag when I felt the first drops. By the time I had unpacked the jacket from it's pocket, I was drenched. With no shelter in sight, we continued on through the rain. The rain didn't last too long, and we were mostly dry by the time we reached Des Moines.
We did some riding over the next few days with our Dad, who just this summer bought a new bike. Our Mom and sister also tagged along for some of the riding. There are actually some decent motorcycling roads around Des Moines, particularly around Sailorville Lake.
Saturday it was time to head home. Dad tagged along most of the way to Waterloo. We followed generally the same route that we used on the way down, but we used highway 20, rather than highway 3, to cut down on travel time.
Back in Prairie Du Chien, my brother headed off to Madison, and I continued back to Minneapolis. At Lake Pepin, I could see rain on the Minnesota side, but soon lost sight of it as the road moved away from the river and the trees blocked my view. Rounding a corner, I could see the tell-tale haze up ahead, but was able to stop and throw on the rain jacket in time. The rain was short lived, but the road was wet for quite a while, so my shins got a good soaking.
The road between Hagar City (not really a city, more a group of houses) and Prescott is really, really nice. It has the best hills and the highest concentration of squiggly road signs of the whole trip. Unfortunately the opportunities for passing are almost nil. I found myself stuck behind a train of four cars for this entire stretch of tarmac. The leader of this hellish caravan found a top speed of 45 to be prudent, 30-35 where the squiggly signs suggested 45. 65 would have been my speed of choice, even in the curves, as the road is nice and smooth, and lines of sight are good. So I spent most of the last hour and a half of the trip singing songs of the lead car's horrible end.
All in all it was a fun trip. Next time I am pretty sure I am going to need an iPod for some tunes...
Well, for those of you who were unaware (of my regular readers, I believe this constitutes one person) I spent most of last week in the saddle. Between early Tuesday afternoon when I rolled out of my driveway, and Saturday night when I kicked the sidestand down, marking the end of the trip, I put 1250 miles on my motorcycle. 480 of those on Saturday alone.
This was much like a trip from last summer, except Krista stayed home this time. From Minneapolis I headed to Hastings, and hopped over to the Wisconsin side of the Mighty Mississippi. I followed state highway 35 south along the river to Prairie Du Chien. 35 is a great motorcycle (or car for that matter) highway, with lots of hills and twisties, and many great views. My brother met me there Tuesday night.
Wednesday morning we crossed into Iowa. No matter what you think or have heard about Iowa, the north-east corner is beautiful. We hugged the river southward for a bit, passing though Guttenberg (pronounced by the locals as Gut-en-brg) down to Luxemburg. We turned west on highway 3. Still lots of hills and curves. About this time my brother experienced what is known as a tank-slapper. He apparently was trying to adjust his jacket, with both hands. He just happened to pick the spot where the road turned suddenly rough. His handlebars started flailing violently back-and-forth. Fortunately the laws of physics allowed him to stay vertical long enough to regain control. Perhaps he will relate a bit of what is was like in the comments. Hint, Hint.
After he started his heart pumping again, we hit the road. We stopped in Waverly (home of our alma mater) for sandwiches at The Other Place, and had a look around campus. I ran into my old advisor and mentor, and we had a good long talk about the state of television news. After a couple of hours in Waverly, it was time to motor on to Des Moines.
We snaked our way through the corn fields toward Marshalltown, where we would have the promise of a straight shot of four-lane the rest of the way to the 'rents. But it wasn't that simple. Just north of Marshalltown, I noticed that things looked a bit hazy up ahead. It had been overcast all day, and I quickly realized that it was raining up ahead. We pulled onto the shoulder, I jumped off and was getting my packable rain jacket out of my bag when I felt the first drops. By the time I had unpacked the jacket from it's pocket, I was drenched. With no shelter in sight, we continued on through the rain. The rain didn't last too long, and we were mostly dry by the time we reached Des Moines.
We did some riding over the next few days with our Dad, who just this summer bought a new bike. Our Mom and sister also tagged along for some of the riding. There are actually some decent motorcycling roads around Des Moines, particularly around Sailorville Lake.
Saturday it was time to head home. Dad tagged along most of the way to Waterloo. We followed generally the same route that we used on the way down, but we used highway 20, rather than highway 3, to cut down on travel time.
Back in Prairie Du Chien, my brother headed off to Madison, and I continued back to Minneapolis. At Lake Pepin, I could see rain on the Minnesota side, but soon lost sight of it as the road moved away from the river and the trees blocked my view. Rounding a corner, I could see the tell-tale haze up ahead, but was able to stop and throw on the rain jacket in time. The rain was short lived, but the road was wet for quite a while, so my shins got a good soaking.
The road between Hagar City (not really a city, more a group of houses) and Prescott is really, really nice. It has the best hills and the highest concentration of squiggly road signs of the whole trip. Unfortunately the opportunities for passing are almost nil. I found myself stuck behind a train of four cars for this entire stretch of tarmac. The leader of this hellish caravan found a top speed of 45 to be prudent, 30-35 where the squiggly signs suggested 45. 65 would have been my speed of choice, even in the curves, as the road is nice and smooth, and lines of sight are good. So I spent most of the last hour and a half of the trip singing songs of the lead car's horrible end.
All in all it was a fun trip. Next time I am pretty sure I am going to need an iPod for some tunes...
7.25.2003
Well, it appears that my commenting is really pretty screwed this time. I will try to find a new system Sunday night or Monday. I will also try and recover all of the comment to old posts if I can. Until I have a new system up and running, feel free to e-mail me with any comments, and I will post them once everything is OK.
7.24.2003
Whenever I am preparing for a road-trip, looking over maps and guidebooks, one image always springs to mind...
Krista and Jaquandor trying to find a place for us to eat.
Krista and Jaquandor trying to find a place for us to eat.
7.23.2003
OK, just time for a few quick links.
Poor Lurch.
Poor Pelusa. Another photo here
And finally thanks to Dan for this one. Eric emulating Eric emoting. Or something like that...
Poor Lurch.
Poor Pelusa. Another photo here
And finally thanks to Dan for this one. Eric emulating Eric emoting. Or something like that...
7.17.2003
This started out as a comment over on "Enough with the whales!" but quickly grew into its own post here. Jaq was responding to this post from Michael Lopez. It bothers me too, so here is my take.
With budget problems abounding, school budgets keep going up. Districts are calling increases in funding "cuts." Granted the increases aren't as much as expected, but they are INCREASES.
Recently Jaq complained of the cliché "We can't keep throwing money at it," but it is partly true (the problem, around here at least, is that the people uttering the words were offering no solutions, only that "Test scores aren't up, so, no more money 'till they are"). Are these computers really the best use of the schools funds? How about using that money to keep more teachers, and keeping class sizes smaller?
In efforts to raise money through referenda, more than one district in the Twin Cities recently raised the rallying cry "Say yes to kids!" No shit? Who is going to say no to kids? Who hates kids? Not even republicans (They may sit around and hate homosexuals and not give a shit about the environment, but I have a hard time believing that they get together and say "Know what I hate? Kids."). We need to figure out why test scores are low, and maybe re-direct current funding away from technology in the classroom, and not send in the ergonomics expert to completely re-furnish the Dean's office to the tune of $5,000, when all she wanted was a new desk chair that had functioning casters (true story).
I never used a computer before college. Well, except the Apple IIe at the library to play some fantasy game, the name of which I cannot recall (Adam?). In my journalism classes, we used triplicate layout sheets to design our yearbook pages. We crop-marked the photos with Sharpies, and sent them back to the photo lab. We TYPED (as in typewriter) our copy onto triplicate forms. All of this was outdated at the time. Important were the layout and design principals, the journalistic ethics (don't get me started on this) and the writing principals. Translating these skills to a computer came quite easy. Learning the technology is a cinch, it is the underlying base that should be the focus. Besides the technology will be out-dated by the time they enter the "real world."
I hope this is somewhat coherent, I've not had nearly enough sleep.
With budget problems abounding, school budgets keep going up. Districts are calling increases in funding "cuts." Granted the increases aren't as much as expected, but they are INCREASES.
Recently Jaq complained of the cliché "We can't keep throwing money at it," but it is partly true (the problem, around here at least, is that the people uttering the words were offering no solutions, only that "Test scores aren't up, so, no more money 'till they are"). Are these computers really the best use of the schools funds? How about using that money to keep more teachers, and keeping class sizes smaller?
In efforts to raise money through referenda, more than one district in the Twin Cities recently raised the rallying cry "Say yes to kids!" No shit? Who is going to say no to kids? Who hates kids? Not even republicans (They may sit around and hate homosexuals and not give a shit about the environment, but I have a hard time believing that they get together and say "Know what I hate? Kids."). We need to figure out why test scores are low, and maybe re-direct current funding away from technology in the classroom, and not send in the ergonomics expert to completely re-furnish the Dean's office to the tune of $5,000, when all she wanted was a new desk chair that had functioning casters (true story).
I never used a computer before college. Well, except the Apple IIe at the library to play some fantasy game, the name of which I cannot recall (Adam?). In my journalism classes, we used triplicate layout sheets to design our yearbook pages. We crop-marked the photos with Sharpies, and sent them back to the photo lab. We TYPED (as in typewriter) our copy onto triplicate forms. All of this was outdated at the time. Important were the layout and design principals, the journalistic ethics (don't get me started on this) and the writing principals. Translating these skills to a computer came quite easy. Learning the technology is a cinch, it is the underlying base that should be the focus. Besides the technology will be out-dated by the time they enter the "real world."
I hope this is somewhat coherent, I've not had nearly enough sleep.
7.13.2003
Well put.
Over at Stuff About Whales, Jaquandor brings up the issue of some countries wish for an increase in commercial whaling. The fact that any still goes on pisses me off.
I am quite shocked and disappointed with the people of Iceland (one of my favorite places to have been) on this issue. From a nation that is otherwise quite progressive, this just renders me speechless.
Well almost. Iceland passed laws allowing gay marriage in 1996. Reykjavik recently became the first place in the world to open a hydrogen re-fueling station, despite the fact that there are only three fuel-cell vehicles in the country, all busses. Iceland also has the attitudes (and resources) to ensure that the production of the hydrogen fuel is also pollution free. Whaling though, I just don't get it.
As far as the cultural argument goes, well, it is a load of crap. It would be akin to the US telling Canada to quit whining about acid rain, because polluting is part of our culture.
Phneh!
Over at Stuff About Whales, Jaquandor brings up the issue of some countries wish for an increase in commercial whaling. The fact that any still goes on pisses me off.
I am quite shocked and disappointed with the people of Iceland (one of my favorite places to have been) on this issue. From a nation that is otherwise quite progressive, this just renders me speechless.
Well almost. Iceland passed laws allowing gay marriage in 1996. Reykjavik recently became the first place in the world to open a hydrogen re-fueling station, despite the fact that there are only three fuel-cell vehicles in the country, all busses. Iceland also has the attitudes (and resources) to ensure that the production of the hydrogen fuel is also pollution free. Whaling though, I just don't get it.
As far as the cultural argument goes, well, it is a load of crap. It would be akin to the US telling Canada to quit whining about acid rain, because polluting is part of our culture.
Phneh!
7.11.2003
OK, it has been brought to my attention by my wife (who is always eager to point out my mistakes, she has gloated both times) that I have mis-quoted the Bard. The quotation from the "Scottish Play" is actually "Double, double, toil and trouble." Oh well.
Speaking of that play, Check out the film "Scotland PA." if you haven't already. I enjoyed it. Many people hated it, but I liked it. That's right I liked it. Whaddaya gonna do?
Speaking of that play, Check out the film "Scotland PA." if you haven't already. I enjoyed it. Many people hated it, but I liked it. That's right I liked it. Whaddaya gonna do?
7.10.2003
7.08.2003
The window of opportunity was not missed by Opportunity. The second of a pair of NASA rovers is now on its way to Mars. Once there, the pair will search for evidence that there was once (or still is) enough water to sustain life on the red planet. Sprit and Opportunity join Japan's troubled Nozomi (hope) atmospheric probe, and the ESA's Express/Beagle 2 orbiter-rover combo (which is having some problems of its own) in an interplanetary convoy. Lets hope they get past the Martian defense systems.
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