Travel Photo of the Week

Androscoggin River, Turner, Maine

Print Your Own Plane

I've done a couple of posts on 3D printing and this is an update on this fast moving innovation.

Two University of Virginia engineering students have use 3D printing to make an plane, not full size, but very impressive none the less. It all came about when they created a turbofan engine using the technology and then posted a video of it on youtube.

Executives at MITRE Corporation saw the video and offered them the summer job of making the plane.

Need Spy Gear?

Getting ready for the new James Bond movie? Have international bad guys to track? Top secret information to acquire and disseminate? Spymaster is your go-to vendor. Your Q on he run, so to speak.

Spymaster is London's leading spy shop supplying surveillance, counter-surveillance and personal protection equipment. As they say on their website:

"Established since 1991, Spymaster is regarded as London's most respected and best equipped spy shop providing for all your surveillance, counter-surveillance, personal protection and related security needs."

I like the mini-submarine (shown on the right), but when are they going to offer high-powered laser pistols?

No TV For Under Threes

From the Guardian, it seems that TV for children under three years of age might really be a bad idea.

From the article: "A review of the evidence in the Archives Of Disease in Childhood says children's obsession with TV, computers and screen games is causing developmental damage as well as long-term physical harm. The critical time for brain growth is the first three years of life, he says. That is when babies and small children need to interact with their parents, eye to eye, and not with a screen."

I wonder if people will pay attention. Oh wait...most people don't read academic studies. They're too busy using their computers and watching TV.

Fun Time! Beautiful Animated Short, The Maker.

Make Your Own Tools

Modern Neolithic Tools

Homemade Tools is an online community for folks who make their own tools. There are categories for almost any tool type you can think of, including (but not limited to) automotive, buffing and polishing, cleaning, cutting, drilling and tapping, electrical, fastening, machining, measuring and marking, metalworking, sanding, sharpening and woodworking (whew!). They feature over 2900 tools and the people who've made them. Forums, top builders, blogs.

You love tools? Here your website.

How To Beat Stage Fright

Here's a link to a webpage that gives advice on the performer's nightmare, stage fright.

Some of the nuggets of wisdom included are:

Jason Alexander: "And as the curtain rose on that first night, I had a flash of intense vertigo, like I was going to pass out and couldn’t find my center. It sent me into a cold-sweat panic. Luckily, I held on, managed to perform, and warmed into the performance. But the next night as I stood on the stage waiting for the curtain to rise, I was in a panic that the experience might repeat itself. I worked myself up so much that when the curtain rose, the vertigo was even worse than the first night. Every night became a nightmare at the opening of the show. Once I got past the first scene, I would settle down and be all right. But since this had never happened to me before, it was very unsettling."

Robin Williams:"  I think that, especially in the beginning, nervousness is almost a natural response. It’s a bit like fight or flight. You go on stage and there’s an adrenaline rush."

Dave Goelz (Gonzo the Great): "The state I’m in when I go in there is alert—alert, and I know where the doors are. So if it really goes bad, I can get out and they’ll never see me again. I’ll be out the side door, get a taxi, and I’ll never run into those people again."

Travel Photo of the Week

Easter Island

Is Our Universe Just A Computer Simulation?

As a followup to yesterday's entry, here is a link to an article from Technology Review on work that Silas Beane, at the University of Bonn in Germany, is doing to discover if our universe is just someone else's computer simulation.

This is a notion that's been floating around for some time and it seems there are ways to discover if we all are  just numbers floating around somewhere else.

Heaven, maybe?

Is Reality Really Real?

This month's New Scientist magazine is devoted to the question of reality.

An easy question if you don't probe too deeply, a thorny subject if you try to investigate thoroughly.

You go have a look.