Ivory soap may be the new Mentos and Coke

Did you know that Ivory soap floats when it is put in water?  Apparently that is because it is filled with little air bubbles.  I suppose in a sense this may appear to imply that you are getting less for your money, but in fact you are getting so much more.  You are getting a vehicle for science experimentation and artistic creative expression.  Watch the video and learn.

SparkFun National Education Tour

Our friends at SparkFun (a great place to get Maker supplies of all sorts) bought an RV and are traveling around the country spreading the Maker excitement to schools and kids in all parts of the country.  The basic idea is to get more hands-on, discovery based learning back into the classroom.  It's easy to get the kids excited, the harder part is changing schools.  However, this sentiment of change seems to be growing in the mainstream world, for example this article from CNN steps through the argument nicely in the article here.  I was recently tapped to help raise money for this type of work for my high school back in Ohio (see my ugly mug about 1:15 into the video).  Even the President mentioned elements of this idea in his State of the Union address.  Clearly there is growing interest in incorporating some of the great features of the Maker movement in our education system, and I'm all for it.  SparkFun has embraced this idea and it taking steps to help promote it in their national tour.  I say to Nate and all the folks at SparkFun, keep up the good work!

Read more about the SparkFun Nation Tour here.

New America's Cup boats literally fly through the water

The new big America's Cup boats fly through the water.  As they get up to speed, they lift themselves up until they are zipping through the water balanced on a submerged wing.  The speeds are pretty ridiculous compared to the sailing that I'm used to.
A few months ago we got to see the smaller America's Cup boats racing and it was great (you may even remember the dramatic shots we got of the Oracle boat flipping).  I can't wait to see these new bigger boats this summer.

Breakfast will never be the same

I'm speechless.

Comet PANSTARRS is visible tonight

There is a frozen ball of dirt zipping by the Sun right now.  It is the comet  Pan-STARRS.  In a dark spot you may be able to catch a glimpse of it with your naked eye as described in the video below.

 Astrophotographer Dan Finnerty caught the comet in the very nice time lapse below.

I've played with photography through telescopes and it can be a lot of fun.  It can also be very frustrating.  The video below does a great job of layout many of the issues of astrophotography.  Watching it is a half hour commitment, but it can start you down the road to a many hours in a rewarding hobby.

mostly via Wired Science and The Kids Should See This

What color is the number 7?

What color is the letter 'M'?  I don't mean what color is it on the screen.  I mean what color is the ideal, proto, conceptual letter 'M'? How about the number 7?  What does a musical fifth taste like?  I remember as a child, when I was memorizing the alphabet, that certain letters early in the alphabet were bright and colorful and full of daylight.  I, J and K were like trees in a jungle.  As I got past the middle of the alphabet the letters had more of a nighttime feeling; some blue, some black, some with stars.  Saying the alphabet aloud told a sort of visual story that helped me to remember.  By the time I got out to X, Y and Z, we were in outer space.  I didn't feel like I made up this visual story, it was just something I observed.  I can't remember the details now, just the impression... I guess I grew out of it.  I suppose that is the closest I'll ever come to experiencing synesthesia, a condition that connects senses like color and taste to letters, numbers or sounds.  It is a cross-sensory connection in the brain of synesthete.  It seems really interesting to me, but also a bit difficult and confusing.  I imagine when letters are colored differently than their inherent, synesthetic color, it must feel much the way that the Stroop Effect feels to the rest of us.
Take a look at these videos and tell me what colors you see.

Irrational Exuberance: Happy Pi Day 2013 Everyone!

http://www.ed.gov/blog/2013/03/five-great-ways-to-celebrate-pi-day-on-314/

Happy Pi Day everyone!  In the video below, Vi Hart (yay Vi!) sings pi for you to ring in the day.

While we believe in most any excuse for celebration, we'd just like to remind you that, however much you celebrate today, you should celebrate twice as much on Tau Day.

Temporal aliasing and bendy water - nice!

I remember as a kid watching a western movie and being amazed to see the stage coach wheels appear to rotate backwards as the coach moved forwards.  The wheels weren't actually moving backward.  It was an illusion caused by a combination of the speed of the wheel spinning, the wheel's symmetry  the movie making process and my brain.  As you know, movies are a collection of still pictures shown in rapid succession.  Your brain puts these images together and essentially fills in what must be going on between the frames.  For movies, these frames are coming at you 24 times per second.  In the case of the wagon wheels imagine that during that 1/24th of a second, the wagon wheel moves forward just slightly.  In that case, your brain fills to assume that the wheel moved forward a little bit.  Now imagine that the wagon moves at a speed such that, between each frame of the movie, the wheel rotates one eighth of a rotation.  And, lets suppose that the wheel has eight spokes in it.  Then, from one frame to the next, the spokes of the wheel would line up.  That would mean that the wheel would appear to not rotate at all from one frame to the next.  If it moved just less than 1/8 of a rotation, from one frame to the next, your brain will assume that the wheel has moved backwards slightly.  Putting these together caused the effect that I noticed as a kid; a forward moving coach with backward moving wheels.  This effect is called temporal aliasing.  The video above shows this effect with varying camera shutter speeds.  The faster shutters speeds more effectively freeze the movement and give a stronger effect.

The amazing video below uses this temporal aliasing to make water appear to do crazy things.  By connecting a hose to a speaker, it can be wiggled at a speed that matches up with the speed of the frames of the video.  This effectively freezes the water in mid vibration at the same point each frame.  If you were on location, you would see the water spraying out in fan shape away from the end of the hose, not what we see on the video.  Since the video is in phase with the vibrations, the water appears frozen in mid stream (literally), and the effect is really cool.  Of course as they speed up and slow down the vibrations, the water appears to move up or down accordingly.  What fun!

OREO separator machines vs the Oreo constructing machine

Recently we showed you the application of science engineering to the very real and complex problem of autonomously separating the cookie from the cream filling in an Oreo cookie.  Well, it appears to be an advertising scheme sponsored by Oreo.  I know... I know...  It kind of takes away the fun when you find out it's an advertisement, but you know something, in a capitalist society many many things are advertisements of one sort or another and given all the options, I must say I like Oreo's approach.  Rather than pushing the ads on you, they create something that you might actually like to see.  I say well done Nabisco/Oreo.

There are now a total of four different videos of machines created to separate the cookies from the creamy filling.  Some seem more effective than others, but none seem at all practical... Maybe that is why I like them.  [for contrast there is a slightly different take on these videos at the bottom]

OREO Separator Machine #2 — Creators: Toy Scientists Bill and Barry

OREO Separator Machine #3 — Creator: Conceptual Artist Collective DENTAKU

OREO Separator Machine #4 — Creator: Robotic Butler HERB

Of course, you can still see the original one here.

Now for karmic alignment, balance and avoiding koyaanisqatsi, rather than taking these cookies apart, lets take a look at how they are put together.  'Turns out some very elaborate machines do that too... In fact, these machines are much more amazing than the ones above if you think about it...  I'm pretty sure that the Oreo constructing machine could take all four Oreo destructing machines with no problem if it ever came down to a robot fight.

Every day is a good day - well at least today should be good

The world is far from perfect, but right now the stock market is up and unemployment is down.  It's light in the evening when I get home from work.  Spring is in the air.  I'm sorry, but it's time for a little unbridled optimism and raw inspiration.  Any time you aren't sure what the day will bring, just watch the video above and all will be well.  I'd like each of you to start off the week with a good attitude.  Pass it on.

If you watch the video every morning, eventually you will either be so filled with optimism and positive thinking that you will change to world, or you will end up in the insane asylum crying like a baby (but a good baby, not a bad baby).

If you need a little inspiration to get off your behind and be awesome, just watch Kid President below.  Either way, you are gonna have a good week, so get out there and do something great.  I've got high hopes for us all, people.  Let's go!