Archive for the ‘General’ Category.

OK Go Video: This Too Shall Pass

Steve Nelson just forwarded along this awesome OK Go music video.

I’ve been teaching Introduction to Mechanical Sculpture and Electromechanics for Everything at the Crucible. So I sent this to my students as encouragement:

And yes, this was really shot all in one take!

1. Watch the music video.
http://www.geekologie.com/2010/03/crazy_impressive_rube_goldberg.php

local version:

Watch it again, looking at each of the components.
Note the “awesome” of it all.

2. Watch the “Making of” videos just below the main video on this page.

Note that you could be on that team of builders.

Awesome!

Lee Sonko
The Crucible
Kinetics and Electronics Lab

Pi Day Approaches!

Celebrate Pi day irrationally!

It’s next Sunday!

The Exploratorium is having a big Pi Day Thing. Maybe I’ll go!

On Polyphasic Sleep

I had a recent conversation with a friend about polyphasic sleep. Here’s my followup email to him about this
——————
…It was my impression that you believed polyphasic sleeping couldn’t be done because people just aren’t capable of doing it for more than a short period of time (IE like the breatharian argument – no one is a breatharian for more than a few weeks because they die).

Morgan Engel presented at the September 2009 5 Minutes of Fame “A Primer on Polyphasic Sleeping”.
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2180170 25 minutes into the video. At 29:00 he says (paraphrased ) “I did it for 6 months and it was great. I taught myself many things with the extra time. I had to stop because my girlfriend thought it was weird”. But also … “it’s really hard to do because to have to live a regimented lifestyle.” That is a popular refrain I’ve seen from others.

If this page (http://trypolyphasic.com/map) is any indication, there are maybe 100-1000 people in the world who say they have successfully done polyphasic sleep.

There’s lots of resources and community around it… this is a good starting point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

That said, I think a good simple summary would be:
Polyphasic sleep is certainly possible. However, it takes at least as much personal effort as going to a gym regularly. The awkward social aspects add to the difficulty.

Since I’ve never been able to make it to a gym on a regular basis despite trying and knowing that there are many personal benefits (having more energy, improved physical strength, needing less sleep), and I don’t feel a serious desire to attempt this, I’m not going to. At least not right now… ;-)

International Space Station Flyover San Francisco Thursday 3-4-10

The International Space Station (ISS) will be passing over San Francisco Thursday night!

Look up in the southwestern sky at exactly 6:57pm on Thursday night and you’ll see the International Space Station appear and fly all the way to the northeastern horizon. It should take about 4 minutes to go from horizon to horizon. It looks a bit like a jet flying at very high altitude, only it’s way too bright, it will likely be the brightest thing in the sky besides the moon, brighter than venus, brighter than watching the planes coming into SFO on Bernal Hill! When I first saw it on Bernal Hill last year, it took my breath away. It’s this tiny tin can moving at 20,000 miles an hour with 5 astronauts bobbing around inside, an artificial satelight that was put there by all these countries cooperating with one another.

The Symphony of Science Continues!

A History of the Sky: 146 Days

Ken Murphy’s A History of the Sky, an ongoing project.

Watch and experience as a meditation

local version:

John Thomas Finnegan, Happy Birthday

That’s all!

Returned from India

I’m back from Techkriti in India! The talk went very well, the students totally swarmed us every time we rolled orbs, and the trip was a blast.

Recovering from 12.5 hour jet lag is a bother. I’ll have photos and stories soon.

Porter carrying our bags in Kanpur

Each of the 2 full size suitcases on his head weighs 30 lbs.
In the underpass between tracks in the Kanpur India train station.

Busy, busy, busy is what we Bokononists whisper…

busy busy!

Tutored 2 students today

Started teaching Intro to Mechanical Sculpture class last night

Starting teaching Electromechanics for Everything class tomorow night

I’ve got to straighten out my flight plans with a guy 12.5 time zones away. Hopefully he just woke up.