Friday Afternoon Fun: Turn a Sharpie into a Liquid Fueled Rocket
We donned our mind reading helmet here at Lifehacker and have divined the perfect thing for a little Friday Fun: a high altitude rocket made from office supplies. An inventive user at DIY site Instructables details how to turn a few common office supplies into an impressive rocket. If you can get your hands on a sharpie, a can of compressed air, and an assortment of other office items like tape, rubber bands, and bottle caps, then you’re on your way to winning the Office McGyver award. The parts list has a Leather Multi-Tool as an item but as you’ll see in the video below all you actually need are needle nose pliers.
We can’t promise you it will achieve low earth orbit or even break low lying cloud cover, but we can promise you’ll put your eye out if you’re not careful, so unless you want to live out your career known as the One Eyed Pirate of Cubicle Farm Four, we recommend exercising extreme care with your homemade projectiles. (Or just, you know, get your vicarious fix through the video. It’s what we’re doing.)
http://lifehacker.com/5161306/turn-a-sharpie-into-a-liquid-fueled-rocket
Video: http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/690356/office_supplies_rocket.swf
I Love My Bike
She’s a green ‘07 Bianchi Volpe. Still young at 750+ miles. The derailleurs Shimano Tiagra/Deore had to be adjusted once, out of the box. They slip a touch now on a certain pair of gears, 650 miles later. I had to replace front wheel after I ran over the original with my car. The investigation is still pending whether the car was involved in hiding the wheel from view. It’s been replaced with a rock solid Mavic Open Pro/Shimano Ultegra. The original rear wheel is in bad need of truing, again after 750+ miles. The saddle is a leather B17 Narrow. It’s not broken in yet, but seems more malleable. The frame seems an inch or so too small at times since I had to raise the seat and the headset quite a bit. It sounds like I’m complaining, but all of these are minor. She just flies down the road super quiet and super smooth. With all the baggage stripped off, she’s incredibly light. Most of the time within the first 30 minutes I’m lovin’ on my bike.
I know in this pic she is leaned against a building, but she has a kickstand now that is invaluable. Yes, it would be nice if it were lighter or unnecessary, but who wants a scratched up expensive bike.
Cat Pics
These are three cute cat pics. Tiger is the gray/black strip with the deafening purr. Goldie is the blond with that looks like someone pour caramel on him. Mitten is mom’s cat. Four white mitten paws with here white bib. The Terror of the Kittens, who much to Mittens chagrin ignore a lot of her posturing.
Old Greg
No preamble. You have to see this for yourself.
Training Status
I got two low-medium rides this weekend; a 19 and 24. A bit of a disappointment, but I change my mind about distance when I’m out there and sometimes it means longer and sometimes shorter. Last week was a big disappointment. Only one real training ride and a couple of hours on the indoor bike.
There are three weeks left to go. Weather looks fantastic this week. Low 70s all week. In Tuscon, it’s in the high 80’s and low 90’s. I’ve been so worried about planning winter clothes it never occurred to me that it might be more like June weather.
The Bike Log has some deficiencies. It lists the events in a list, but aggregates the monthly miles at the top. I would like a format that shows a calendar with values actual training and planned sessions and whether they matched.
Eventually, I’ll post the source code on here. It’s c# in VS2005. Records are in a text file (dumb as dirt). Data entry is through a Windows app. HTML is rendered on demand and pasted into the Wordpress page. Without a ton of research and time in AJAX on a good table data entry form this will have to do.
Oktapodi
The CBS show Sunday Morning showed one of the animated short films nominated for an Osar tonight. It is very cute. One octopus out to save another. The video is on YouTube; 2 and half minutes long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qreOELd35Ig
WTF is Wrong with the iPod’s Shuffle Feature
Ok, something is FUBAR with iPods’s shuffle algorithm and has been for several years. I used my cousin’s 1G Mini for a year and now I use an 4G Nano. The shuffle feature never ever plays some songs and will play back to back duplicates of others. For over a year I thought this was an issue with the playlist. It holds over 1000 songs and that takes a long time to work through and it does contain duplicates that might make a song appear more often.
This is shown to be crap by the new Genius feature that can find other songs similar to a selected target song and generate a new playlist on the fly. This feature regularly comes up with at least one song I have never heard either iPod play and several songs that don’t get played very often. WTF, is up with the iPod shuffle algorithm. Did they let a first year CS summer intern design it 5 yr ago and never touch it again?
End of Rant (EoR)
More Google Map Links
Plot Multiple Points from a Google Spreadsheet
Ex. http://gmaps-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/spreadsheetsmapwizard/makecustommap.htm
Creating a Blog from withing Google Maps
Ex. http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/blogarchive/012936.html
Google Calender on a Google Map
Ex. http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/01/killer-mashup-p.html
Data Scraping Wikipedia with Google Spreadsheets
Ex. http://ouseful.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/data-scraping-wikipedia-with-google-spreadsheets/
Interactive Election Map
Ex. http://mapmash.googlepages.com/election_map.html
Video in the Google Map pop up
Ex. http://5tvs.com//internet-tv-maps/news/
BBC News Stories by map
Ex. http://dev.benedictoneill.com/bbc/
Doctor Who Locations
Ex. http://www.doctorwholocations.org.uk/
Flat World Map view
Earthquakes This Week
Ex. http://earthquakes.tafoni.net/
EPA Pollution Data
Ex. http://findpollution.org/
Complex Info Pop Up
World Bank + Google Map Mashup
Ex. http://geo.worldbank.org/
Privately Funded Congressional Travel Map
This is a Google Map with lots of drill down into congressional financing. The last 10 yrs or so of data is online. Several graphs and lists are generated. The ‘08 data doesn’t seem to be up there now.
OpenSecrets.org
http://www.opensecrets.org/travel/search_results.php?state=TX
The Kinky Llama
This is a good little video.
The Kinky Llama delivers sex toys, products in a jiff
John Keilman
Feb 3, 2009
Inspiration can strike at odd times. Anthony Mikrut got the idea for his business about 3 o’clock one morning, when he and a girlfriend were in search of some … uh … products to enhance their … er … special evening.
“We figured you can get pizza any time of night,” he said. “Why can’t you get [sex] toys?”
Thus was born The Kinky Llama, a purveyor of adult goods that promises one-hour delivery—by bicycle, no less — to most places in Chicago. Mikrut, 33, said the company has been around for 21/2 years and that, despite the recession, he’s busier than ever.
“I think people like to have a little fun when they’re not having the best time in the market,” he said.
His West Town home office holds about 1,500 items, from videos to marital aids to specially designed furniture, and he tosses his wares into a bag or bike trailer when it’s time for a delivery. So far, he said, all of his rush orders have come at night or in the early morning — and almost all have come from women.
…
Training Status
This last week was shitty. Only one commute ride. When it only get’s to mid-50’s it’s too cold for anything longer than an hour with the clothes I have. Not to sound like a snob. Getting the clothes right is hard. Too many and you literally melt, consume more water than you carry, and have no place to shed them. Too few clothes and you freeze, constantly cold, and it interferes with the large leg muscles.
This coming week looks better. ~59 tomorrow and ~70 Tuesday with another ~59 later in the week. The wind will blow hard on Tuesday with the warm weather. Wind is my mountain training. It’s just too bad that you have to “climb” it 2 hr straight without a break.
Update 2/16/2009:
It was frackin’ cold out there today. At the end of the ride my legs can’t maintain the minimum heat. Any break in pedaling, even a few seconds, makes them stiff. I would guess it was 20F with wind chill. Pretty good ride though.
Yoga for the Urban Cyclist
BTW, I looove pigeon pose. Last weekend’s 40 miler let me dig deeper into Warrior 1/2 than I’ve been in many months. Just don’t have the muscles to hold it there for long. I’m working on the dissociative mindfulness for when there’s 10 miles to go and I just want to get off and walk.
Yoga for the Urban Cyclist
Tara Irwin
Cycling, a source of pleasure for so many people, can also be a source of pain. While low impact and strengthening, cycling is a one-dimensional and repetitive activity, which means certain muscles are being overused and potentially strained. The urban cyclist often also carries a bag, frequently twists to shoulder check, and is possibly tense from cycling in traffic. All of these variables compound the likelihood of muscle strain and pain.
…
Ellee says cyclists often come to yoga seeking relief from chronic aches and pains. When asked if she could choose a top five list of stretches for active cyclists, she responded that the “best remedy is a complete yoga practice.” However, she provided the following typical problem areas in the cyclist’s body and suggested related stretches to start with:
Chest openers: the camel, wheel, cobra, upward facing dog, and bow pose.
Hip openers: the pigeon as well as warrior 1 and warrior 2, which are also great for the quads.
Hamstring stretches: forward bend or the wide leg forward bend. Ellee stresses taking at least a minute on each pose “focusing on relaxing into the posture.”
Abdominals: straight leg double leg lifts work well for increasing abdominal strength and are essential for cycling. Ellee suggests that doing at least three minutes of abdominal work a day can improve your riding and has overall stabilizing impacts.
…
Google Maps Links
Customizations
Drawing borders on the map by region or district
Custom Overlay
Ex. http://www.wis.ro/index.php/en_GB/WISroGIS/Combining-Google-map-with-custom-overlays.html
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_states2.htm
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_eshapes.htm
Adding pics to marker points
use a web server to host the images and include an tag to the image
Driving Directions
..
Show claims by region
SW has a gif drawing dll, use that to draw a pic and use that pic as the marker
Complex map with points, lines, and different colors
Make a KMZ/KML file that is on a (public?) web server
Ex. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://www.bettertrolley.com/maps/SanDiegoTrolley.kmz
Ex. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://www.traveladventures.org/Traveladventures.kmz
Making Lots of Markers
Ex. http://viswaug.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/creating-a-lean-and-fast-custom-marker-overlay-for-google-maps/
Pics Overlayed on top of Google
Ex. http://ags.gmaps.googlepages.com/gmap_tile_ground_custov.html
Overlapping translucent circles
Ex. http://www.maptiler.org/google-maps-overlay-opacity-control/
Google Search in Map window
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_baroptions2.htm
Driving Directions
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_steps.htm
Pictures in Bubble pop up
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_interceptor.htm
Customize Cursors
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_cursors.htm
Let User Add a Pt to a map
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_store.htm
Infobubble with Maximize
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_htmldata.htm
Layer of Photos and Wikipedia
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_layercontrol.htm
Animate a Car Driving on a set path
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_cartrip.htm
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_cartrip2.htm
Map Type Control Demo
Ex. http://econym.org.uk/gmap/example_maptypecontrols.htm
Complex Overlays on Google Maps showing Velibe Bike Stations
Ex. http://ineedabike.gmapify.fr/
Boston Bike Survey
Ex. http://andrewbikes.blogspot.com/2007/08/city-of-boston-hub-on-wheels.html
Tour of California
Ex. http://map.tourofcalifornia.org/
Click a Marker and View Pic outside of Map
Ex. http://www.dansmith.info/cdg/in.html
Stimulus Tracking Websites
It looks like the stimulus bill will pass today. The latest numbers I see are $787B to make 3.5M jobs. This is actually a bullshit number, because many incentives are tax breaks and if no one claims them or more than the expected number claim them the final tally won’t be $787B. Job numbers are based off of estimates, which seems like a good bit of tea leaf reading. They could give Boeing an tax incentive, which it claims, and then Boeing still lays off 50,000 works. Boeing is an example, but IBM actually did this. Let’s assume no one is lying and everyone involved is of the highest moral and ethical standards; incarnations of Buddha, Jesus, and Krishna. We will spend $225,000 per job “saved”. This is galling. I work in a educated field requiring a technical 4 yr degree and I have 10 yr experience. Even with benefits, my employer doesn’t spend anywhere near this number on me.
The Internet was stirred up by Obama’s election. Weeks before the stimulus bill is passed a website was created to track it’s expenditures and returns. If you would like to participate and note the use of funds in your own community go to:
Shovel Ready
ShovelWatch is a joint project of the non-profit investigative outfit ProPublica, the morning news program The Takeaway and WNYC, New York’s flagship public radio station.
With investigative reporting, interactive features, and (not least) help from you, we’ll be tracking the stimulus bill dollars as they travel from Congress to your neighborhood. With your help, we’ll make sure that one of the biggest, fastest appropriations ever has a big, fast army to track whether it is well spent.
One note: This is only a first step. We’ll be building and improving the site quickly.
And
Stimulus Watch
StimulusWatch.org was built to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account for the taxpayer money they spend. We do this by allowing you, citizens around the country with local knowledge about the proposed “shovel-ready” projects in your city, to find, discuss and rate those projects. These projects are not part of the stimulus bill. They are candidates for funding by federal grant programs once the bill passes. Learn more by reading the FAQs.
How can you contribute? Find a project that interests you, or about which you have special knowledge, and let us know what you think. You can find projects by searching or by browsing by locality or program type. Once you find a program, there are three things you can do: 1) vote on whether you believe the project is critical or not; 2) edit the project’s description and points in favor or against, and 3) post a comment in the conversation about the project.
Training Status
This week I got in about 95 miles. Pretty good for a first week. Six weeks to go. About 4 really, since the last 1-2 are either ramping up or down the mileage. Weather this week was excellent. It was 60+ most of the week with a record 79F on Friday.
Monday was cool and I woke up late.
Tuesday was a short ride from Work to the Car Shop, about 5 miles. I would have commuted that day, but car really need the safety sticker and it turns out a headlight and taillight were out. Luscious Red (my car) was just begging to get pulled over. That ride kind of sucked, because the spring seat is a bit bouncy and I took a header downtown when I mistook a curb for ramp. The brakes work fantastically well at low speeds. I couldn’t get home in time to ride the bike to yoga so I drove and had a good session.
Wednesday was an early to work-early off work day and a ride out to Wildorado (29 miles). A pretty good headwind at 3:40, when I started, was challenging and put my speed down to 8 or 9 mph. This sucked, but it’s time on the bike and not speed I need to be concerned with at this stage. Still, the whole week I average about 10 mph. When the season ended last year I was doing 15+ mph. At the turn around point the wind was still blowing and I made 16 mph without effort, but as the sun set the wind died leaving me wondering why the wind can’t be as much a help back as it was a hindrance fore.
Thursday was an off day. The yoga and 30 miles was getting to me and I needed a break.
Friday, I had looked forward to all week. A record high was set. It felt warm. Really warm like summer mornings. I pedaled out 19 miles at got back at 6:10 pm. It gets really cold at 6:30. The wind on the way out was even harder, slowing me to 6 mph most of the way.
Saturday, I waited till it warmed up and set out at 1:20 pm. My intention was to ride 40+ miles. Standing still there was not wind, but heading out it seemed like there was a slight headwind. This was the first good test of the new iPod Nano. Battery life is incredible and the size and weight make it unnoticeable while riding. The trunk was packed with a Kleen Kanteen of refill water, yellow cycling jacket (light weight, highly reflective, and the arm pits are open), spare cotton T-shirt, baseball cap, and scarf. I was wearing two layers of bicycle and workout shirts and bike shorts.
The sun was behind the clouds most of the time, which made it significantly cooler. The trip out was long and generally boring. The bike feels good as does the seat, pedals, and shoes. The rear derailleur slips a little bit in the middle gears, but not enough to adjust yet.
Leaving Wildorado you pass an Interstate overpass 2-3 miles out and then it’s 7 miles out to the turn around. This is far enough you can’t see were you came from nor the turnaround ahead. This is a lonely and tough stretch. Usually, the excitement has faded at this point, I’m looking forward to turning around, and yet wishing I had the gumption to push on just a little further (5 miles, 10 there and back) to Vega. At the turnaround I stopped and stretched, to put off getting on the bike again, refilled the water bottles, and returned the ogling stares of the curious cows.
Back on the bike, I rode the only sizable hills on this route, the highway overpasses. That’s when I discovered I had had a tailwind on the way out. The new headwind was very disheartening. With two hours minimum in front of me and a headwind that could turn that into three my bladder started really bothering me. The other thing about this route is the complete lack of hiding places to take a piss. You actually have to ride 1-3 miles off the highway on dirt roads to become unnoticeable. Traffic, including a lot of high-sitting 18 wheelers with good visibility, never lets up.
I tried to concentrate on my front wheel, reducing my profile, and just pedaling through the minutes. Thirty minutes at any speed puts you considerably further than your starting point, but it can be some of the longest time of your life. Thirty minutes should put me near Wildorado again and I would definitely feel the progress. Like the rest was “downhill all the way” (Amarilloan inside joke).
Peeing had been an issue on another training trip last summer. I think it was the first time I road this route and the first time I expected to leave my car in Gander Mtn’s parking lot for 4+ hours unattended. Riding in the drops puts a fair amount of weight on your prostate and bladder. Running your legs around constantly doesn’t help. Even though the amount is minor, because your sweating the whole time, it is insistent. That other time took two hours to find a spot, an abandoned collection of gas station and mobile homes, which sometimes serves as a DPS speed trap making it an unpredictable spot.
This time the Highway Dept came to my aid with a huge mound of scrapped together earth stored next to the first overpass out of Wildorado. When I was done and had stretched again a car availed itself of the overpass. Five minutes earlier and I could have given them a show.
Back on the road and 20 minutes later I stopped in Wildorado and rested on a dilapidated trailer. I was definitely ready for this ride to be over. My seat hurt and I was constantly moving it over the saddle. The cycling shoes aren’t wide enough for my feet and attempt to ignore the existence of my little toe. It was about 4:00. I had been out 2 and half hours. Can you imagine going to the gym for that long? Not me. The last of the refill water went into the bottles.
The wind was pissing me off. A starting headwind I could deal with, but a return headwind is just very disturbing. All I wanted to do was go home. I was stuck 15 miles from my car and 21 from home. Doesn’t sound like much in a car, 20 minutes. On the bike, that’s 1 and a half hours.
About three miles away from Wildorado, I cross the highway and stopped again. Two more stops to go. I was at Adkisson Road, the turn around for Wednesday’s 19 mile ride. Next was Bushland just past the Ag research center, then the Love’s, and Gander Mtn. I put on a podcast. It was to run 1 hr 9 minutes. That’s about how long I had left.
The 3+ miles to Bushland are a little tough mentally. Similar to the stretch outside Wildorado. I found out that one of my favorite podcast hosts, of Net at Night, is pregnant and due in two weeks. That show will change with a new girl temporarily or permanently. The guest was a guy who servers as a good example of an Internet career. He makes ringtones, podcast themes, sings at a piano bar, streams live over uStream, etc.
At Bushland I stopped and stretched. Now, everything is very familiar. I’ve ridden the 13 mile route a lot and I’m on the home stretch. Unfortunately, that means I know how long it’s going to take to get in. My speed is running about 12+ and my legs are straining. The wind died down somewhere before Bushland, though I didn’t notice till I made it to the car.
The next stop is the Love’s store about 3 miles away. I was quite surprised to get passed by someone along this stretch. Then at loves I walk my bike across the road instead of stretching and get passed again. I always wonder how these guys do it. I carry a trunk bag with clothes, tools, pump, etc. They have a tiny underseat bag. No one ever has a rack. Ever. It’s a little weird.
A ways down at the Justice of the Peace, I stop and stretch. My legs feel like they are just moving the pedals. Spinning I guess they call it. It’s at these times they feel the most efficient. I don’t have to think about picking up my foot, ie pulling up, as part of the stroke. All the down energy is gone and my legs push and pull alternately instead of just jamming down and letting the other foot push them up with the pedal.
It’s definitely cooler now. The cold front has moved in. The sun is hidden behind layers of clouds and spreads a diffuse, long-shadowed, winter light on everything. The weeks’ good cycling weather is ending in the next few hours.
All I can do is spin the pedals. My legs ache. My ass is sore. My hands are sorely missing my cycling gloves and the palms are numb. My arms are tired of holding my chest up and constantly moving around. My neck is tired of holding my head up in the drops. Oddly, my speed picks up and I’m moving through 12 to 13 and 14 mph.
Then I’m at the overpass. On the other side is my car. Still there. The cycle computer reads 43.8 and the cell phone says 5:37. The sun’ll be gone in an hour. I made it in good time. Four plus hours is what I wanted and I’m done. Can’t believe I was out that far. Two hours ago I turned around. The bike dissassembles by removing the front wheel, turning the front wheel and slipping the whole thing in just right. The front wheel goes on top with water bottles, helmet, jacket, and unused trinkets scattered around in piles. I’m off to get my reward. Over 40 miles gets ice cream to replenish the calories from 4+ hours of working out.
It’s raining as I right this and the weather for this week seems iffy. On days I can I’ll probably commute. I may be luck to get in more than one ride this week.