Videos

The Luxury of Ice – What Else Do We Take Completely For Granted?

4 Comments

Photo: Kyle May

Not so long ago, ice was a real luxury. In the early 1800’s only the extremely wealthy had ice to cool their drinks. It was harvested by hand during the winter and stored throughout the summer in a covered well. Someone’s miserable job was to harvest ice from a frozen lake! Even more shocking: some parts of the world never had ice. If you lived in an area that didn’t get snow during the winter, you certainly weren’t going to have ice to use during the summer.

In one of the most interesting business ventures I have heard about, ice became a major export of Boston. During the winter ice harvesting season, ice was cut from the top of Boston ponds and stored in insulated ice houses throughout the rest of the year. These ice houses were constructed in many areas that were blessed with warm weather year-round such as the American South, the Caribbean, and India. The ice harvesting companies would then deliver tons of ice by ship or train as quickly as possible, with much of it melting on the way. One huge 180 ton shipment of ice made the journey from Boston to Calcutta, arriving nearly 4 months later with only 100 tons of ice!

Keep reading…

Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies – Or Would You Prefer the Truth?

Leave a comment

Everyone claims they want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But do they really? Think back to the conflicted teachings of your childhood – we are all taught to tell the truth because you wouldn’t want to be lied to. Yet adults acknowledged situations exist when it is necessary for grown-ups to tell little white lies. But of course children still shouldn’t … darn double standards.

One more trip down memory lane. Remember the movie Independence Day? In the movie the U.S. government has known about the existence of aliens for many years, but kept denying their existence to the public. In fact, they kept it so secret they didn’t even tell the current president.

PRESIDENT
“Regardless of what the tabloids have said, there were never any space crafts recovered by the government. Take my word for it, there is no Area 51 and no recovered space ship.”

Chief of Staff Nimziki suddenly clears his throat.

NIMZIKI
“Uh, excuse me, Mr. President, but that’s not entirely accurate.”

Fast forward a few minutes …

PRESIDENT
“Why the hell wasn’t I told about this place?”

NIMZIKI
“Two words, Mr. President. Plausible deniability.”

Of course I didn’t understand what the heck plausible deniability meant at the time, but it stuck in my mind. It’s one thing to not tell the general public about the aliens that visited earth, but the president is a horse of a different color.

Now that I’m slightly older, I understand that the government might not necessary want to alert the public of the existence of extraterrestrials. You saw how they reacted in the movie! Shooting guns in the air, crazy people partying on roofs, rioting, and general mayhem! But if it is in the government’s best interest to lie about this, what else is there? Where do you draw the line?

Keep reading…

Who Else Wants To Do Ridiculous Stuff?

2 Comments

Everyone needs a certain amount of craziness in their life. For some, it is simply enough that Glee does a random episode of Rocky Horror. I hope that is not the only crazy thing keeping your life interesting.

I have been traveling a lot on the weekends to introduce the right amount of hectic-ness and excitement in my life. Unfortunately winter is on its way and this approach is about to loose its excitement. So what other options do I have to throw in a little craziness? I see it breaking down into two categories:

Building Fun Things

I have a mechanical engineering degree for a reason: so that I can build toys for my own amusement. The toy itself will be fun, but the real joy comes from the journey itself – creating something real t(hat is also hopefully big and dangerous). This category falls somewhere in between Mythbusters and Junkyard Wars.


.
Doing Silly Things Just Because

The other category doesn’t require any tools, junk, or money. All you need is the miraculous human body and a little creativity. Things like eating a ton of carrots to see if your skin turns orange or having a competition to see who can stay awake the longest. Two Canadians best friends, Kenny and Spenny, had a TV show with weekly competitions – hilarity ensues.


.
Anyone Interested?

These types of things are always more fun with a friend. Who has an idea they would like to try? Or if I come up with something, who would be interested in joining in?

Stanford’s Freshman Roommate Matching Process Revealed

Leave a comment

Photo: Scorbette37

Stanford University is unique in the way they handle freshman rooming assignments. Freshmen aren’t allowed to choose who they want to live with, nor are they even told their assignment until they show up for the first day of orientation. Even if you and your best friend were lucky enough to get into Stanford, you certainly won’t be living with him freshman year.

The new students show up at the dorm the first day of orientation not even knowing their roommate’s name. No preconceived judging can take place, even in this Facebook world we live in. But that certainly doesn’t mean no one knows them – the entire dorm staff is required to memorize all the student’s names before they even show up. The students are greeted with enthusiastic personal cheers from a dozen people.

To make this process even more interesting – all the freshman roommate assignments are done by hand. Unlike other schools, no computer algorithm is used to quickly make assignments. Rather, two current students spend all summer playing matchmaker. The process has been subject to many rumors, but a recent Stanford News article helped shed some light:

Keep reading …

Flipper Committed Suicide – Not the Only Take Away From “The Cove”

Leave a comment

Photo: Pug Father

The Academy Award winner for last year’s best documentary was The Cove. I recommend it to each and every one of my readers – it is a combination of a government conspiracy theory, undercover espionage, and educational-activist-type documentary. The film focuses on a small fishing village in Japan that kills over 20,000 dolphins a year.

I won’t give much away, but I wanted to write a little bit about the films main character, Ric O’Barry. Ric was the person that made dolphins famous back in the 1960’s – he was the trainer for the 5 dolphins used on the TV show Flipper. He also went on to become the most outspoken critic of dolphin captivity.

Why the change of heart? In 1970, the main dolphin used in Flipper committed suicide. Wait… what? Ric O’Barry was very close to the dolphins he trained and maintains he could tell their emotions through body language. The dolphin swam up to Ric that fateful day, looked him in the eye, and took her last breath, deciding not to take another. He believes the dolphin committed suicide because of its depression living in captivity.

How likely is this? Keep in mind we are not talking about humans who breathe unconsciously. Dolphins don’t always have access to air to breathe – they spend most of their time under water, unable to take in oxygen. They must consciously return to the surface to breathe. Thus, this is certainly plausible and I am inclined to give Ric the benefit of the doubt.

If dolphins (and whales for that matter) have to consciously tell themselves to take a breath when they are out of air, how do they sleep? My guess would be that they would draw in a large breath and take a quick nap before returning back to the top for more air. But how what if they don’t wake up in time? DEAD! Turns out they have a “semi-sleeping” state where they effectively shut off half of their brain at a time. They are still conscious enough to rise to the surface for a breath, but asleep enough to rest. Dolphins spend roughly 8 hours a day in this state.

Worst Parents in the World? – Two Year Old Goes to Rehab to Quit Smoking

1 Comment

The youngest person ever has finished rehab – what a great success story! After 3 months in rehab, a two year old Indonesian boy has successfully kicked his smoking habit. Allegedly, he began smoking at 11 months old when his father gave him a cigarette to help ease a headache. By the time he was 2 years of age, he was smoking 2 packs a day!

Ok, maybe under these special circumstances, completing rehab with flying colors is not a success story. What an epic failure of parents! How can they be such morons? You parents out there that give into your babies anytime a tear is shed – I hope you are strong enough to hold out if your kid was begging for a cigarette. It’s hard to believe anyone can be the perfect combination of a pushover and ignoramus, let alone both parents!

If the family could continue to afford 2 packs a day and the Indonesian government hadn’t step in, I’m sure this kid would still be puffing away. But this story also delivers a great deal of hope. Hope because we now live in a world where it is no longer a possibility to be the worst parent – unless you actively try to do worse than these two Indonesians, I am quite sure you will surpass their low bar.

The New Bay Bridge

2 Comments

Engineers love bridges. I think it is because they appear so simple, but engineers appreciate how much thought and calculation are required.

Living in the Bay Area, we have two of the most impressive bridges in the country. It’s a great time to be here because they are currently rebuilding the Bay Bridge, designed to last 150 years and withstand a whopping 8.5 earthquake. Check out this short video showing how awesome it will be:

And for those of you that haven’t seen this famous video of how not to build a bridge:

Nerd note: In engineering classes we were taught that the reason the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed was because the wind provided a periodic frequency that matched the natural frequency of the bridge. (Non-nerd note: think of a parent pushing a child on a swing – the parent (the wind) is providing a periodic push of the child (the bridge), who is moving back and forth at a frequency. If those frequencies match the kid will swing higher and higher.) The real cause was aeroelastic flutter – aerodynamic forces, not periodic wind gusts, that matched the natural frequency of the bridge. There is a startup that created a tiny wind powered generator using this principle.

Bruce Lee – All That is Man

3 Comments

It is my pleasure to introduce you to the “All That is Man” series. The concept is simple – posts dedicated to the manliest of men throughout history and share some of their amazing feats and abilities. My rationale is equally as straightforward – it’s no secret that today’s males are uber-pansies compared to the rough and rugged men of yesteryear. While I am not an advocate of returning to our manual labor roots, I think it is important to acknowledge the great feats that men have been able to accomplish.

This first installment focuses on Bruce Lee, the star of just about every classic kung fu movie worth watching. He was the quickest little dude and trained ridiculously hard to keep his body in top notch physical condition, which culminated in some absurd feats and abilities. But what really set him apart may have been his philosophy.

Quick background. Bruce was actually born in San Francisco (not China), spent his childhood in China, but returned at the age of 18 to attend the University of Washington. Along the way he became a martial arts expert and dropped out of college to teach martial arts.

Bruce Lee taught what he called “the style of no style” becuase he thought traditional martial arts were too rigid and didn’t translate into chaotic street fighting. This philosophy would later be called “Jeet Kune Do” or the “Way of the Intercepting Fist.” However, rather than opening a chain of karate schools like most martial arts experts, he decided the best way expose his ideas and philosophies was through film.

Unfortunately Bruce Lee and died at age 32 from a sensitivity to a muscle relaxant in a painkiller, just before his latest movie made him an international superstar. Who knows, if he lived longer maybe Kung Fu movies would be mainstream today, right up there with comedies and dramas. Maybe Walker Texas Ranger would have had an Asian fusion.

Strength:

  • Lee performed one-hand push-ups using only the thumb and index finger.
  • “When he could do push ups on his thumbs and push ups with 250lbs on his back, he moved on to other exercises”. -Jesse Glover
  • Lee could thrust his fingers through unopened cans of Coca-Cola. (This was when soft drinks cans were made of steel much thicker than today’s aluminum cans)
  • Lee could take in one arm a 75 lb barbell from a standing position with the barbell held flush against his chest and slowly stick his arms out locking them, holding the barbell there for 20 seconds.
  • Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups.

Keep reading…

American vs. British English – Two Versions of the Same Language

Leave a comment

Photo: Maurice

I considered writing a post on the differences between American English and British English, but then I realized I am not particularly qualified considering I have lived in California my whole life. Instead, here is a funny rant by a British man telling us how we are misusing the language:

Mentioned in the video – American vs. British (links go to audio):

Keep reading …

Why You Should Be a Vegetarian – I’ll Let Someone Else Do the Talking

8 Comments

Photo: Zoha N.

I have been a vegetarian now for long enough now to consider it a permanent life decision. People ask me why all the time and I brush it off to avoid having a lengthy, serious conversation. I don’t enjoy conversations where I feel I am defending my choices or trying to convince someone else how to live their life.

I won’t do a lengthy post trying to convince my readers to give up meat either. Instead, here is a 4 minute TED talk that gives a great introduction and proposes a 70% solution for those who fear committing all the way – “Weekday Veg”. Hopefully this short video will pique your interest and lead you to further research the benefits of becoming a vegetarian.