BestBlogPosts

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:39:48 GMT

Buzzball

The Buzzball delivers a thrill like no other interactive ride can. At the heart of the Buzzball is a dual motor configuration, enabling the pilot to control the motion and direction of travel via left and right control triggers, which provides power to the driving wheels.

Once the Buzzball is in motion the pod maintains an upright position until the pilot turns, causing the pod to rotate inside the ball against the direction of travel, which applies a braking force and the pod to lock with the ball. This causes the pod to rotate with the ball until the weight of the pilot and pod overcomes the inertia forces and causes the Buzzball to change direction. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:24:28 GMT

What Do You Think of Online Dating?

I have a reader that tells me that using online dating sites was just about useless for him. That's why he created SparkBliss which, he thinks, is a much better way to meet people online. The idea is that you use introductions from your friends instead of browsing though hundreds of seemingly incompatible people.

This is kind of like being set up on a blind date, except you're online, at least at first. With privacy a big problem on the Internet, and you never knowing who you're really chatting with, wouldn't you feel safer meeting people your friends and family already know?

On online dating sites they make you fill out a whole profile with all your personal information on it. The problem with this is that everyone on the site can see your personal information. What if your boss or your mother were to stumble onto the site and read your profile? What if your co-workers do? Wouldn't you be embarrassed?

With SparkBliss only people you want to see your profile can see it. Your friends and family can recommend someone to you. If you and the other person both want more information about each other then you can both allow the other to read your profile. Posted by: Linda Roeder      Read more     Source

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:06:56 GMT

Free Online Digital Photography Course

For any digital photographer who would like to take an online digital photography course without any pressure here's one that's just starting.

This course is being offered, for free, by a friendly digital camera fan that enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience but still considers herself a beginner.

This strikes me as a good place for noobies, and not so noobies, to exchange ideas and get a feeling for what others at their own level are accomplishing.

Check out the digital photography course here, and, if you want, you can visit the blog where I found the announcement for this digital photography course.

Take a camera with you whenever possible, and look around, you'll find a picture somewhere.

Source:www.fromtherubberroom.com Posted by: jim      Read more     Source

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:50:09 GMT

Dead cedar wrangling

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that Seth and I made a start at cutting away the two cedars that had fallen into the lake after the big ice storm last winter. What you see above is the larger of the two. This one was actually a twin-trunked tree. Each trunk fell in the opposite direction: one into the water and one of equal length up the hillside. That meant that when we took our hikes along the lake shore, we had to divert up the hill at this point just to get around the mess. (That also explains why you don’t see any branches on the top half of this tree. That was the part growing next to the other trunk.)

Our plan was to cut enuf of the lakeside tree away so that at the very least we could walk along the shore here. The rest of our plan was to cut away at the tree and lighten it so that we could eventually haul it up out of the lake.

Trees hanging like this in a lake are supposed to be ideal for fish habitat, and that might be true in deeper water, but I don’t think many fish venture into this shallower end of the lake, nor should they. This is among the first areas to go dry. All that I could see this cedar doing was allowing debris to build up, making this spot even shallower.

So we began cutting. First Seth cut away branches, which I dragged up the hill into the forest. Then, when he got enuf branches out of the way, he began taking lengths off the trunk itself. Did I mention it was hot? For some reason, this was exhausting work, but we kept at it with sufficient breaks and bottles of water.

He cut until he couldn’t reach any further out over the water with the chainsaw. I realize it doesn’t look like much, but what you see below is the progress we made.

What remains of the cedar is far too heavy for us to drag out of the water. It’s also water logged on the bottom and even embedded a bit in the mud. But you can see that we did clear the shoreline, and despite the vibrant growth of the spring, we can blaze a new trail through there now.

Seth says removing the rest of the tree will be no problem. In another month or so the lake will have receded from here and we’ll be able to walk all the way out to the tip of the tree. I’ve noted recently that there are a lot of things growing in the lake that I will want to clear out when the water recedes.

So much to do. So few trips to the woods.

Missouri calendar:

• American toad tadpoles metamorphose into toadlets, leave water.

Today in Missouri history:

• St. Louisan Ed Furgol won the U.S. Open Golf Tournament on this date in 1954. His handicap was unique. His left arm was ten inches shorter than his right arm and his left elbow was fused due to an accident in his youth.
• Actress Kathleen Turner is born in Springfield, Missouri in 1954.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Sat, 24 May 2008 22:34:40 GMT

Nanotechnology and Digital Storage

It still amazes me when I think about mobile hard drive technology. Currently, 2.5" hard drives with 320 GB capacity sell for roughly 130-150 USD. My old IBM Thinkpad 760 EL that I purchased in 1997 had a 2 GB hard drive and that was considered standard back then! We've come a really long way. The application of nanotechnology will allow us to create microchips and computer devices that will surpass what we can imagine.

Flash-based memory is also advancing quickly. I currently use a microSD card that holds 4 GB. This tiny little card literally fits on my fingertip. It's amazing! Nanotechnology will allow manufacturers to build faster computer memory. Nanostructures like quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, and nanowires may be far superior to silicon-based memory. Posted by: Joseph Kim, MD      Read more     Source

Sat, 17 May 2008 02:25:34 GMT

Business Plan Templates

The Business Plan blog is providing free templates for building your business plan.


© juhansonin

Putting your business plan together can be a daunting task, but these templates will make the process a little easier.

Remember not only should you have a business plan for starting up your business; you should update your business plan on a regular basis based on the performance of your business and adjust your numbers.

Now you cannot be the price on these templates, they may not be right for you. There is also many software programs out on the market that may fit your needs even more.

As I have said many times, try them out, see how much you like working with them and use the program that you find the easiest and most cost effective for you. Posted by: John Dornoff      Read more     Source

Fri, 09 May 2008 01:44:06 GMT

Rotating House

I live in the city of Tilburg in the Netherlands. Everyone who approaches the city from the north runs up against a roundabout. This roundabout constitutes one of the most important gateways to the city. Thus it is not surprising that the municipality dedicated this location as an art location.

The roundabout is now the scene of a large-scale and unusual work of art. The Rotating House of Dutch designer John Kormeling, which looks as if it is real, rotates on the roundabout in the direction of the traffic and completes one full round in 20 hours. The house is a full-scale model and has an open and friendly look and feel. It is not fit for human habitation.



More about the Rotating House. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Fri, 09 May 2008 01:35:21 GMT

Fugitive Pieces

"Image, like identity, is always coming into focus throughout Fugitive Pieces," writes Ed Gonzalez in Slant. "Conventionally shot but artfully cut, Jeremy Podeswa''s film, based on a novel by Anne Michaels, toggles back and forth in time, honing in on the nervous psychological headspace of its main character, Jakob Beer, who escapes from the clutches of the Nazis during WWII with the help of a Greek gentleman and grows up to become a great writer."

In the New York Times, Jeannette Catsoulis finds Podeswa "disinclined to dawdle, juggling three decades and as many countries with a sure hand and an eye for candy." Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:21:59 GMT

Changing Habits

We have talked about changing habits in order to make you more successful in starting your business. However, what we have not discussed is some of the things you should avoid when trying to change those bad habits.


© debaird

The Zen Habits blog has 13 things to avoid when trying to change habits.

The first one is a biggie and that is not trying to change two habits at once. I have tried to do this a couple of times and it just doesn't work. When trying to do something like change a habit you need all your focus on one at a time.

Number two is something we have talked about when setting goals and that is not committing things to paper. As I have said before, by not writing goals on paper makes them nothing but New Years resolutions and the same thing applies to changing a habit. If you do not write them down, you are going to loose focus and will not change that habit.

Another important aspect of changing a habit is having support. You need someone to be behind your changes and to push you along. Not only does this give you support, it also has someone holding you're responsible for achieving your goal and changing that habit.

Take a look at the Zen Habits blog to get the full listing. Posted by: John Dornoff      Read more     Source

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:18:57 GMT

Marabou Stork

Saw this bird at the zoo yesterday, but Tay was so disturbed by it that I had to get her away from the enclosure. This is not some freak or injury, all of the birds of this species were sitting like this. I didn''t get to read the signage, because Tay was a handful at that point.... one of the sad things about her autism is that when she''s as tired as she was Saturday, she just couldn''t handle something that looked so different than her usual experiences.

If you think he just looks ugly in this picture, you should read more about his behaviors and appearance:....the Marabou''s fondness for carrion and its habit of squirting excrement onto its own legs....

The most distinctive feature of the Marabou is the nearly bald, spotted, scab-encrusted head, with its huge meat-cleaver bill. Dark, wispy hair-like feathers are scattered sparsely across the head, neck, and nape. The bare skin of the head and neck is predominantly pink to magenta in color, with spots of darker pigmentation concentrating around the face and extending down into the upper portion of the horn-colored bill. In breeding season the back of the neck turns a beautiful pale blue-green, and the spots on the face and forehead become encrusted with dried blood.Oh, no! Now I''ll have nightmares about the darn thing, too!

.... well, actually.....

You have to wonder about the ecological niche a creature like this fits into, and just be happy as can be that you''re not a female Marabou Stork. Posted by: Dori      Read more     Source