SI Top Plays of the Last 10 Years in the NFL

A bunch of memories, some good, some bad (i.e., Super Bowl XXXII).

Photo Gallery - Reliving Plays of the Last 10 Years

How to pick and care for a live Christmas tree

Just in time for the Christmas season, an article routed through LifeHacker describing the path to best results with a live tree.

How to pick and care for a live Christmas tree

America's Fastest Cars

A slideshow from Forbes.com, listing the 10 fastest cars designed in America. Once again, the brothers to my Magnum (SRT8 Chrysler and Dodges) are solidly at #8.

America's Fastest Cars

How They Make LEGO Bricks

Courtesy Slashdot, a tour of the Lego factory. Little-known fact extracted: Lego is the world's largest tire manufacturer, in terms of units sold.

How They Make LEGO Bricks

Master Sword Forged

Not a Hittori Hanso blade, but a fan of online gaming paid a Scottish blacksmith to forge a 12-inch-to-the-foot-scale model of a master sword featured in his game of choice. Puts my hobbies into perspective....

Master Sword Forged

How the First-Down Line Works

From the Howstuffworks site, not to be confused with the How Things Work e-mail list, a description of the process involved with showing the imaginary first-down indicator line on football fields on TV. The same basic principle applies to other sporting events where advertising or graphics are applied to the field of competition (like straightaways on race tracks).

Howstuffworks "How the First-Down Line Works"

Top 100 Cover Songs

Fraught with opinion, retroCrush web site has assembled (with links) a list of what in their opinion are the top 100 cover songs in the rock music era. Good for some laughs, and it added to my CD wish list.

retroCRUSH: The World's Greatest Pop Culture Site

The Wooden Periodic Table Table

A gentleman has assembled a wooden table whose top is comprised of a number of bins, in which he has put a sample of each of the elements of the periodic table. Bonus points to him from me for getting the higher-numbered elements, and the left-hand column (sodium, potassium, cesium, francium) which spontaneously reduce when exposed to moisture.

The Wooden Periodic Table Table

Sunrise, Sunset Calendars

A resource which shows the local sunset/sunrise times, and offers the ability to print a calendar showing them for the coming month, and download a toolbar widget.

Sunrise, Sunset Calendars and Local Time

The History of Pop Music in 4 Chords

In the course of a few minutes, a guy plays through and sings a bunch of songs which have the same chord progression, one phrase from each.
Of course, thanks to the Pale Hose, Journey's contribution is now an earworm for me....

The History of Pop Music in 4 Chords

"As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly"

In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday just past, a favorite remembrance.

"As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly"

WKRP Thanksgiving promotion episode

From conversations with people who were in radio at the time, WKRP was almost as much of a documentary of the archetype personalities that were present in the radio industry in the '70s as Dilbert represents the modern office. I've threatened to put yellow tape across my cubicle opening a few times.... :>)

Fighter Plane vs. A Wall.....Wall Wins

From "back in the day," a test by Sandia National Labs (under contract) to see which part of an airframe would be most likely to survive an impact at-speed with a reinforced concrete wall. As with the World Trade Center, the steel-containing engines had the most remaining.

Fighter Plane vs. A Wall.....Wall Wins

Legacy computers and the Space Shuttle

Legacy computers and the Space Shuttle:

"The U.S. Space Shuttle computers cannot tell one year from another. Some of the software, when it hits December 31st, goes on to December 32nd (or, day 366). This is why the Shuttle can never operate through a change of year. The Shuttle control computers on earth do recognize the changing of the year, but some of the computers on the Shuttle do not, which makes News Years Eve flights impossible. The Shuttle is reaching the end of its useful life, and that three decade old software bug is one of many ways it is showing its age. The Shuttle was designed in the late 1970s, and many of the computers are still using 1980s computer technology. The web, and sites like eBay, have been a salvation for the Shuttle. That's because these auction sites make available a lot of ancient (1980s) computer technology, to provide spares for Shuttle gear that is no longer manufactured."

As I've heard it described, the Space Shuttle is less like any other aerospace program that the Air Force operates, and more like an auto owner in Cuba, where one is continually scrounging for parts to keep his '57 Chevy running.

Huge Explosions

Huge Explosions

As advertised, in video

That's Cheesy...

A history of Kraft, courtesy their web site.

James Kraft's early experience with cheese instilled in him the desire to
improve, or change, certain qualities in cheese to give it a longer shelf
life and more uniform flavor. Until that time cheddar cheese, which was the
most widely sold variety in the United States, either moulded or dried
quickly so there was excessive waste. It also varied greatly in taste, much
of it having a strong or bitter flavour that was unpalatable.

From the small beginnings of selling a few standard varieties of cheese
wholesale, the company was distributing within a few years some 30 varieties
of cheese packaged under the brand names of Kraft and Elkhorn, and by 1914
the cheeses were available in most towns across the United States. The
company also began to manufacture its own products, including new and
traditional varieties of cheese. Most of its new cheeses were packaged in
glass jars or in foil-wrapped packages.

As a result of constant experimentation throughout the years to give cheese
longer lasting qualities, James Kraft's major contribution to the cheese
industry in America was processed cheese. His work resulted in a product
that could be packaged without waste, maintain a uniform quality, and be
sold in convenient sizes.

He sold US$5,000 worth of pasteurised cheese in tins in 1915, the first lots
going to India and Asia. The next year sales went up to US$150,000. The new
product was ideal for shipment over long distances, and the US Government
ordered more than 6 million pounds of Kraft cheese in tins to feed soldiers
during World War I.

A patent for what became known as processed cheese ('process cheese' in
America) was granted to Kraft in 1916. The Phenix Cheese Company (famous for
its Philadelphia cream cheese) had been working on a similar process to
produce Swiss Gruy?re cheese but did not file its patent in time. However,
in 1921 James Kraft agreed to share the patent rights and in 1928 the two
companies were united as the Kraft-Phenix Cheese Corporation.

The rapid growth of the company prompted Kraft to extend its production into
other areas of the United States. Later the company had cheese production
facilities in 23 states and the production efforts of farmers' cooperatives
in others. After the processed cheese was launched on a national scale,
Kraft added to its line the mass production of such specialty cheeses such
as Edam, Gouda and blue cheese.

In 1920, Kraft purchased MacLaren's Imperial Cheese Co Ltd and began selling
processed cheese in tins and loaves in Canada on a national scale. The
Canadian company was used to export Kraft products to Europe until
operations were established in England and Germany. James Kraft and Fred
Walker met in August 1925, and in 1926 the Kraft Walker Cheese Company in
Australia was formed.

From its earliest days, the rapid and continued growth of what was to become
the world's second largest food company was brought about by its new product
development and the use of innovative advertising methods. James Kraft was
an early user of all communications media and, as early as 1911, was
advertising on Chicago elevated trains, using outdoor billboards and mailing
circulars to retail grocers. He was among the first to advertise in consumer
journals and to use coloured advertisements in national magazines.

In 1933, the company started to use radio on an extensive scale. It
sponsored the one-hour weekly musical and variety show 'Kraft Musical
Review', which headlined notable show business personalities. New products
such as Miracle Whip salad dressing (1933), Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner
(1936), and Parkay margarine (1937) were introduced through the 'Kraft Music
Hall' and became immediate favorites. During those years the company also
added to its line Kraft caramels, marshmallows, and jams and jellies.

While in his seventies, James Kraft helped create one of the first major
television programs, the 'Kraft Television Theatre', which was said to have
set audience and studio production records. The show ran from 1947 until
1958.

James Kraft died in Chicago in 1953, survived by his wife Pauline and
daughter Edith. Like Fred Walker, James Kraft had a genius for picking the
right person for the job, an unerring executive ability and a personal
aptitude for unceasing work. The company that still bears his name continues
to go from strength to strength.

CRESCENT CITY ILL 1970 JUNE DERAILMENT

CRESCENT CITY ILL 1970 JUNE DERAILMENT

Someone YouTubed a TV account of the aftermath of one of the US' most destructive BLEVEs, where a number of railroad tank cars of LP derailed in downtown Crescent City, IL. The resulting fire and explosions leveled much of town.

What's That Stuff?

An entertaining instructional site, from Chemical & Engineering News, describing the chemistry behind "...a wide variety of everyday products."

What's That Stuff?

16,000 Firecrackers Gone in 60 Seconds

As advertised. Had they known the timing of the progression, in my opinion they could have accomplished it in about 40 seconds. :>)

16,000 Firecrackers Gone in 60 Seconds

Resonance

An interesting video, showing how the standing waves on a drumhead-like membrane over a speaker cone change as the frequency goes up. Visually-interesting patterns are created in the process.

Resonance - Google Video

Think of the entertainment industry as a utility, and the cost of a DVD as a recurring monthly bill (courtesy GMSV)

Think of the entertainment industry as a utility, and the cost of a DVD as a recurring monthly bill
The entertainment industry has never been reluctant to make consumers pay over and over again for media they've already purchased. So it comes as little surprise to hear that the Motion Picture Association of America is suing a company that sells brand-new iPods pre-loaded with a selection of DVDs chosen by the purchaser. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York, Paramount Pictures accuses Load 'N Go Video of violations of the both The Copyright Act and The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, claiming the company illegally decrypts and copies its DVDs. Now, it is true that Load 'N Go Video's business is built on ripping DVDs and transferring their content to portable media devices. But the company insists the process it uses does not involve decryption. Furthermore, it rips only DVDs already purchased by its customers. Included in the purchase price of an iPod from Load 'N Go Video are all the DVDs their clients have paid to have loaded on the device. When the company ships its customized iPods, it sends them out along with the original DVDs. So essentially, Load 'N Go is a fair-use-by-proxy service. Of course Paramount doesn't like the idea of that at all. It would much rather its customers purchase all their DVD movies a second time if they want to watch them on a portable device. Clearly, its own bottom line is far more important than preserving our rights to use lawfully the digital media we already own. "This is copyright gone too far," writes Fred von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "If you buy a DVD, you should be able to make a personal copy of it for your iPod, just like you should be able to make a copy of a CD for your car, without having to ask permission or pay a second time. That's one of the things fair use is for. ... This lawsuit is just the latest example of the entertainment industry taking aim not at 'pirates,' but at the legitimate fair use rights of music and movie fans."

Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System

Home page of the St. Lawrence Seaway System, including graphics, video and animations of the whole system in operation (i.e., how a 750-foot boat and its cargo is transferred from sea level to 621 feet above).

Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System

2006 NFL TV distribution maps

For those of you so inclined, an interesting set of graphics showing how the different non-national (everything not SNF or MNF) NFL games are distributed across the television markets in the country, week-by-week. It's updated about a week ahead of time, it seems.

2006 NFL TV distribution maps

How to Tie a Tie

How to Tie a Tie

Global Rich List

Global Rich List

"Every year we gaze enviously at the lists of the richest people in world.
Wondering what it would be like to have that sort of cash. But where
would you sit on one of those lists? Here's your chance to find out."

Google Earth in 4D

Google skipped right past the third dimension and landed directly in the fourth (time) by offering historical maps on Google Earth. Way cool!

Google Earth in 4D

You might be an engineer if...

Some good ones, some old ones....

Engineers Rules

Huge explosions

A segment from a TLC program about disastrous explosions and fire, featuring a couple of BLEVE (boiling liquid-evaporating vapor event), and the fire/explosions that wiped out a rocket fuel plant.
On the morning of March 4, 1996, a friend called me from Weyauwega, Wis., to tell of a large derailment and fire there. Little did we know at the time, but a number of liquid petroleum cars were involved, which would result in the town being evacuated for almost three weeks for fear of a BLEVE. Luckily, it didn't happen, and the (paper-fed) fire basically was allowed to burn itself out until a controlled detonation was conducted.

YouTube - huge explosions

A pool filled with non-newtonian fluid

For those of you less geekily inclined, a non-newtonian fluid (like the water-cornstarch mixture shown here) acts like a solid when stress (like someone walking across it) is put on, but like a liquid other times. In this case, it was mixed in a cement mixer, because of the volume. Enjoy!

YouTube - A pool filled with non-newtonian fluid

Find out if you're tone deaf

From a project at Harvard Medical School, an interactive test to tell whether you're tone deaf.

Find out if you're tone deaf - Lifehacker

More MAKE: how LPs are made

How phonographs records are made

from MAKE Magazine

How phonographs records are made, Popular Science 1947 - "THE silent black disk that makes noises when needled is chiefly shellac, lampblack and limestone. In its manufacture, however, pure gold, wax, glass, copper, nickel and sometimes chromium are used by the craftsmen who operate the intricate and delicate machines that squeeze sound into a scratch. From beginning to end, the commercial manufacture of records is a tremendously exacting process. For example, 50 percent of the wax-coated glass disks on which the music is recorded are rejected before reaching the cutting room. The accompanying pictures tell the story." - Link.

Related records:

• Animated records - Link.
• Play Records with a Laser - Link.
• Digitizing Records and Tapes - Link.
• Convert vinyl records to MP3s... - Link.
• Glasses made from vinyl records - Link.
• Camera records "eye interest" of reader - Link.
• 3 things to do with old records... - Link.

Make: Blog podcast. How to make a super-size spud gun

Make Podcast: Weekend Projects - Vegetable Projectiles

from MAKE Magazine

In this episode of weekend projects, you will learn how to bring a rain of apples and pumpkins upon the earth.

For the Johnny, an apple shooter, I used a bbq igniter to ignite the fuel. After doing some research, I've found that my muzzles are too short. The volume of the muzzles should be 1.5x the volume of the ignition chamber. The next vegetable projectile that I make will have a longer muzzle. Of course then they won't fit into the spud gun rack in the back window of my car! I used 2' of 4" diameter abs for the ignition chamber and 2' of 3" abs for the muzzle. If I were to do it again, i would use 4' for the muzzle.

For the pumkin canon, aka the "Pumpk-zooka," I used a five foot piece of 4" abs. In truth, I could have used the entire 10' section and gotten A LOT more power out of it, but I'm limited by what I can fit in my car. True pumpk-zooka fiends will buy a trailer or set up a hydrolic rig in the bed of their pick-up truck! Because I was a scared of the pumpk-zooka's raw power, I set up a remote switch. The stun-gun's switch popped right out and I soldered a long set of wires to it so that I could hide behind a log just in case the plastic ruptured. Today is the Pumkin Chunkin, a worldwide pumpkin tossing championship for vegetable projectile enthusiasts. Here's a previous blog post about it.

Here's a quicktime mov for your ipod.
Here's an mp4 for your psp.
Here's a giant hd size quicktime mov for those with quick download speeds.
Here's a 3gp and 3g2 for people who like to watch on their phone!

Of course if you subscribe in itunes, the videos get downloaded automatically for you, no muss no fuss.

And you can browse all the Make: videos on blip.tv and youtube at your leisure!

Toyota launches hybrid car?

I own and drive (between Easter and Thanksgiving) a sport compact car built during the heyday of that type, a 1993 Toyota MR2. As such, I have a soft spot for cars that fulfilly my aviator's premise, maximizing the thrust-to-mass ratio. Ten to fifteen years ago, a plethora of them were available, with the top dogs in the class including the Mazda RX7, the Honda Prelude, the Mitsubishi 3000GT, and the Toyota Supra. Each of them fell prey to corporate cost-cutting and Americans' love affair with the SUV in the mid-to-late 90s, but are beloved by enthusiasts to this day.
With this perspective, and the return of the modern Japanese sports car in the body of the RX8, it gives me hope to see the following, that Toyota Motor Company may be interested in selling something other than Prius, Camry, and trucks in the US. I look forward to seeing this at the Chicago Auto Show in my annual pilgrimage to same.

Toyota Supra launches hybrid car

L.A. to New York

For those of us who may not have the opportunity to make the pilgrimage on the "mother road," a taste of something similar. A time-lapse video, set to a French pop song, of a journey in a 60's-vintage convertible from what appears to be San Bernardino to Manhattan, by the northern route.
Semi-related words from the wise: rental cars may exhibit vibration at excessive speeds when driving from San Francisco to Chicago.

A time lapse video of a drive from L.A. to New York

Rubber band physics demos

Rubber band physics in super slow motion. Includes multiple video links.

Flight Patterns

Thanks Andy!

An apparent UCLA art student animated commercial flights in the 50 states in the periphery of a map, in time sequence of a week, plus-or-minus. It provides some perspective to the amount of flights that the FAA were able to safely bring down in short order on 9/11/01, and also to the volume of traffic that the (break-even) air carriers deliver to destination each day.

Flight Patterns

Will It Blend?

From the "curiosity killed the cat" department, a possibly-apocryphal blender company scientist demonstrates a corollary to David Letterman's "Will It Float" running gag.
In my humble-but-somewhat-educated opinion, either the marbles were compromised, or the blender container was Lexan. Discuss.

Will It Blend? - Marbles

USB Christmas tree

Way too early for this year, but my attention was brought to it. A gift for your favorite geek, a USB-port-powered fiber-optic Christmas tree.

USBGEEK.COM

Old-School Illegal Internet Activities

Yes, some of us from the 'old school' _may_ have partaken in some of these activities, for entertainment or educational purposes only, and for the sake of the microphones in the room we're joking.
Seriously, though, I possibly have known people who referred to some of these activities happening at my alma mater MSOE 'back in the day,' before the powers-that-be were wise to such things.
Those of you stricken by the curiosity bug, may consult the oracle about the "414's," in your free time.
Why there was a pay phone on only two floors of twelve in Roy W. Johnson dorm, perhaps. :>)

Old-School Illegal Internet Activities

Top 11 Reasons You Shouldn't Forward Me That Email

Top 11 Reasons You Shouldn't Forward Me That Email

This year's "Treehouse of Horrors"

As advertised, the entirety of this year's Simpsons premiere episode, thanks to YouTube.

TS XVII HS