en-us http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080 Copyright 1999-2005 by CoveComm Inc. This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/dapApFiKvvQ/20080107Fivedangerousthingsyoushouldletyourkidsdo.html Okay, so Gever Tulley isn't a parent, and maybe his perspective would change if he had kids of his own. But he makes some good points. I certainly benefited as a child from a lot of freedom to explore, although my guardian angels probably put in a lot of overtime. http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20080107Fivedangerousthingsyoushouldletyourkidsdo.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/IY2q8-25Dqg/20071005ADCpowergrid.html Back in September green wombat reported on scientist David Mills' conclusion that a solar farm 92 miles on a side would provide enough energy to power the entire US. Oddly, the article also states that the power grid would have to be reworked for DC instead of AC to minimize transmission losses; presumably the author means conversion losses not transmission losses. In the late 1800s Thomas Edison pushed hard for acceptance of DC power (even electrocuting dogs and cats to demonstrate the dangers of AC), but one of the reasons DC eventually lost out to Nikola Tesla's AC system was that AC power could easily be stepped up (via transformers) to higher voltages for transmission over long distances, and then stepped back down for local use. If you don't have high voltage you need much larger wires to carry the current. If a DC grid is needed, and becomes a reality, Edison will have the last laugh. And had his lifelong rival not been cremated the US could have generated all the energy it...http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20071005ADCpowergrid.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/yysTmvUE4wQ/20070820Undergroundcities.html One of my favorite blogs is BLDGBLOG; Geoff Manaugh's take on architecture is highly readable, and his flights of fancy are a treat. Check out this post on the underground cities of Cappadocia, Turkey. http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20070820Undergroundcities.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/xDp1dJogtUM/20070522Claymationwouldvebeencheaperbutdangthisisprettygood.html I came across this commercial about 45 minutes after FedEx dropped off a package. Lovely bit of animation, although I can't help but wonder how much of that international shipping fee I paid went into the ad fund. Oh well.http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20070522Claymationwouldvebeencheaperbutdangthisisprettygood.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/3pxIA4yhjKY/20070410ThemindofWalterMurch.html Here's another gem from Geoff Manaugh at BLDGBLOG. Film editor Walter Murch may seem like an odd interview choice for an architectural blog, but Murch's interests intersect the architectural plane at a number of points, including an unexpected connection between Copernicus and the Pantheon. I visited the Pantheon in 1997 and I remember being both disappointed to discover that this ancient building was not made of cut stone, and boggled at the thought of a 1900 year old concrete structure. But the Murch interview is about much more than the Pantheon and an ancient idea that the planets revolve around the sun; topics include sound recording and archicture, surveillance recording, and an inspired idea for a real-time high def video feed of the earth, from orbit. http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20070410ThemindofWalterMurch.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/dvsI6Z0yM74/20070216Whateverfloatsyourboat.html Tired of the same boring old canal locks? Want something that's a bit more like a slo-mo carnival ride? Take a turn on the Falkirk Wheel. I have no idea how cost-effective it is to build a device like this is for lifting boats, as compared to a traditional lock, but it's cheap to operate. It takes about the same electrical energy to go through one half rotation as is needed to boil eight kettles of water. And it's a stunning bit of engineering. And for those of us with short attention spans, the time lapse version: http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20070216Whateverfloatsyourboat.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/juMdu0ytAvg/20070117LookUpintheskyItsabirdItsaplaneItsaabanana.html Yessir, it's a banana. Not only that, it's a giant geostationary banana floating high over the state of Texas. Or at least that's the plan, with a launch date scheduled for 2008. The banana will be constructed with a bamboo and balsa wood frame, then covered with yellow nylon and filled with helium. This banana idea is ripe, even if the team seems to have occasional trouble spelling "engineering". It's nice to see the Canada Council for the Arts kicking in a few tax bux, but these folks are still well short of their million dollar budget, and they can use some technical and administrative help. http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20070117LookUpintheskyItsabirdItsaplaneItsaabanana.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/XpjEiUBIVIk/20061226.html The best four second video on the web (although you may have to be of a certain vintage to get the joke). [HT: The man who went to dinner with Ursula Andress]http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20061226.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/HU4afkSPfBo/20061128QuesoMenonita.html My Cajun friend Andrew Guidroz II, political mover/shaker and preserver of farming tradition, pointed me to an NPR story about a famous Mennonite cheese which is about to lose its character, thanks to the Mexican government's upcoming pasteurization requirement. Despite growing up Mennonite (and on a farm, no less) I have had little contact with the very traditional groups within the Mennonite culture. When I was at the University of Waterloo my roommates and I bought raw milk from one of the nearby Old Order farms. I did my first milk run on a dark winter evening, and pulling onto the farmyard I was struck by the complete absence of electric light. The only illumination was the yellow flame of a kerosene lamp glowing behind a barn window. The farmer filled the jugs I'd brought with fresh milk poured from a can; I paid him and thanked him. And I drove back to my electric world. http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20061128QuesoMenonita.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/62GcTE2aR5A/20061009Howtodealwithexcesses.html Geoff Manaugh over at BldgBlog comments on this ring launcher for satellites and other payloads, as being studied by the US Air Force. The launcher would gradually accelerate the payload to Mach 23 before sending it up a 30° ramp. Geoff says: Rather than satellites encased in sleds, however, how about sheds? Ice-fishing sheds. Or whole suburbs, thrown into space. With the US housing market tanking and supply of McMansions growing I look for this idea to get some serious traction. http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20061009Howtodealwithexcesses.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/WUyx7XDfdCI/20060928TheSagulator.html Now here's something truly useful: an online calculator to determine how much a given length of shelving will sag. You choose from a wide choice of materials, including hardwoods, softwoods, exotic woods, and sheet stock (like particleboard or MDF, which sadly enough are common shelving materials). Then you specify the dimensions of the shelf, and the load on the shelf. Can also be used as a beam deflection calculator. http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20060928TheSagulator.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/cv0XfzkE8_Y/20060821Allyouneedisakiteandsomeblades.html It's still waaaayyyy too early to start thinking about winter, but...if I were to start thinking about it, I'd probably want to build a traditional Polynesian ice canoe. Another gem from Instructables. Watch the video in Step 10.http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20060821Allyouneedisakiteandsomeblades.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/48Vzbt2pQrA/20060811IslandBoychunkedpineapple.html Instructables is one of my favorite sites. Yes, there are some really whacked out explanations downright dangerous ideas, but it's worth wading through the crap to get gems like this explanation of how to cut up a pineapple. I just wish I could find a way to automatically display all steps on one page. Maybe there's an instructable somewhere...http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20060811IslandBoychunkedpineapple.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/zHl_zZtyhaQ/20060519Windows.html Windows Vista, when it arrives next year, will require 15 gigabytes of disk space, enough for 2,500 copies of Windows 3.1, which was released in 1992. Memory requirements for Vista: 512MB, enough to run 200-500 copies of Windows 3.1, depending on the processor used. In 15 more years, will we need 37 terabytes of disk space to load Windows, and 250 gigabytes of RAM?http://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20060519Windows.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/niImxG559xs/20060517Closeyoureyesandlisten.html You've gotta love the creative spirit. Hard to find much on the web about this guitarist, but I eventually tracked down a short bio: Hannes Coetzee’s is a soft-spoken 72-year old whose job is tapping the aloes that grow around his Karoo hometown of Herberstdale (South Africa) for their medicinal juice. Hannes composes his own songs and learnt to play the guitar on the side of the hill when the aloes were too dry to tap and to keep himself company on long lonely evenings in the mountains of the Kamiesbeg. The only known practitioner of the ‘optel and knyp’style he must rank as one of the most unusual slide guitarists in the world. If you shut your eyes you would think that there were two people accompanying each other on guitars. And if you're a Gypzy Jazz/Django Reinhardt fan, open your eyes again and check out this awesome video of Joscho Stephan. HT: Jeff Slarvehttp://www.knobblegrud.com:8080/blog/20060517Closeyoureyesandlisten.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/lAoHr4JslOI/stuff.html Scott Peterman's photos of ice fishing shacks in Maine. "The photographs are taken on milky days in rain, fog and snow, when the light is filtered and the range of color is extremely narrow. This makes the shacks appear all the more mysterious, as if they have been airlifted onto the scene, opening them up to secondary narratives beyond the strictly functional."http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13919 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/puBGfbb7k_c/stuff.html "What would a child's drawing look like if it were painted realistically?" [HT: Mike Pickus]http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13917 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/QSnlKx2QwXs/stuff.html Cool pics of bridges made of stacked coins. No glue.http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13909 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/-BDKfZf0pcc/stuff.html We all know that the QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow down typists and prevent them from jamming mechanical typewriters. 130 years later nothing much has changed, except for those few who use the Dvorak layout. Peter M Klausler wonders: "But Dvorak designed his layout in the 1930's without the aid of computers. It contains a couple annoying features that lead to common errors in my typing -- namely the placement of Y and B). Could a modern evolutionary algorithm and a huge input sample discover a better arrangement? I had to give it a try. The results surprised me!"http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13910 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/PyFoDEwnYl8/stuff.html My friends know me as a fanatic about PC noise. But I haven't yet gone to the extreme of filling up the computer case with eight gallons of refined vegetable oil (better idea than eating the stuff tho). [HT: Jeff Slarve]http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13911 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/aldUYJ-8aq4/stuff.html Ever had one of those days when the fish were just jumping in the boat? [HT: Moldy Chum]http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13912 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/qek-qhzJbaw/stuff.html Mitsubishi has a new line of DLP pocket projectors, weighing about one lb. These projectors don't throw a whole lot of light, but the company thinks they'll be great for things like store displays, and watching movies while camping. Yay! Movies while camping! What are you gonna watch, Deliverance? Still, this is nifty technology.http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13902 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/RO7Q_W9kQBc/stuff.html Kodak's new camera with two lenses made me wonder why there doesn't seem to be a 3D digicam out there. And then I discovered that you can make your own 3D movies for cheap.http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13897 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/SlsUnrXwSLw/stuff.html Here's a slick idea - a company that can quickly build stuff directly from your CAD drawings. The key is the custom CAD software you download (for free) from the eMachineShop site. You create not just the drawing, but the machining instructions as part of the drawing. HTT Mark Riffey.http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13896 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/d2jq-PLVh3Y/stuff.html Leroy Schulz pointed me to this cool site that lets you snip a virtual snowflake. The Flash app folds some paper for you, and you decide where the cuts go. You can also see what other snippers have achieved - and there are some pretty cool flakes.http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13895 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/JjF0TYeNzGg/stuff.html Check out the awesome three-wheeled Carver, a car that rides like a bike. Someday I want one of these. http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13894 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/Xu5dw1v4ZaI/stuff.html This DVD rewinder would be the perfect useless gift, only they've gone and put a compartment inside for disk cleaning supplies. C'mon, guys. Think Pet Rock.http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13858 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/-bKAhcewjgM/stuff.html Just what you need - another way to watch TV. The Slingbox is a bit of hardware that connects your TV to you local computer network, or to the Internet, so you can watch your TV from any PC, anywhere. You need Windows 2000 or Windows XP, and broadband to watch across the 'net. From the web site: "Absolutely zero subscription fees! All you need to begin watching your TV anywhere is your Slingbox. You don't need to buy another computer just to watch it, and there are no monthly, yearly, hourly, or split-secondly subscription fees. That means you don't have to feel guilty about watching TV all the time now. (Well, unless you want your significant other to still love you.)" Important disclaimer there, I'd say. Thx to Mike Pickus for the link.http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13850 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/1krJhV2K0UQ/stuff.html The Dutch animal protection agency is in a flap over a sparrow ruthlessly killed with an air rifle after it knocked over some 23,000 dominoes, out of four million being set up for an attempt at a new world record for falling dominoes. "I think they were awfully fast to pull out a rifle. If a person started knocking over a few dominoes they wouldn't shoot him would they?" Um, why do you think the rifle was there in the first place?http://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13848 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Knobblegrud/~3/WGwc6hxFk1E/stuff.html if you have never heard of archy my friend then you are in for a treat the poor little guy was a free verse poet in a past life and came back as a cockroach where the only way he could communicate with the world was to climb up on a typewriter owned by don marquis and hurl himself down headfirst onto the keys one at a time a laborious process to be sure and not one that permitted luxuries like capitalization or punctuation but at least he has a friend mehitabel who was once cleopatra you would not believe the things a cat will sayhttp://www.knobblegrud.com/stuff.html#13849