Blew my mind: IC1396

Here is the IC1396 Nebula.  Its 100 light-years across and about 2,400 light-years away from earth.  Just watch it for a bit.  Is your jaw on the floor yet?

IC1396 Nebula

An astrophotographer took several pictures of the area, set them up in layers then made a good guess as to what this nebula looks like.  I really don't care how close it is.  This is mind-blowingly awesome!
Here is the link to the article with a lot of stellar pictures!

FXI. The worlds smallest computer matters.

 I haven't posted anything in a while.  I plan on post a lot more about da Vinci kind of soon.  Also some lectures that I was blessed to hear while at college last month... simply amazing.

Here is a new product that was at CES this year and is now available for pre-sale.  It is literally a thumb drive computer!  Powered by android, it is a little computer that plugs into any screen.  Check it out!
fxitech.com/products/

 

The top 5 most interesting numbers of all time, ever | ksl.com

The top 5 most interesting numbers of all time, ever | ksl.com

All I have to say is that I have used all of these numbers in school and you got to love Euler's Identity:
e^(i*x) = cos(x)+i*sin(x)
e^(i*(pi)) = -1

Leonardo da Vinci (Part II: Our Education)

Part I mentioned that da Vinci's education was unorthodox and boundless.  There was no one there to tell him what subjects were... he learned knowledge rather than math or history.  With the way the American school system is set up (that is really all I know enough about) breaking ideas into subjects is a method of organization that is used as a measuring stick.  Students must do well to graduate high school for example.  I did well in high school, performed really well in math and science (particularly calculus and physics), somewhat well in my English classes, and okay in my history classes.  My getting a diploma and going to college shows that I gained quite a bit of knowledge, but it all was given to me in small segments that were disassociated from one another.  According to my personal religious and psychological views, I believe truth is one whole; no matter the truth it is all the same pie.  Not seeing that in my education until far later in my student career has hindered me somewhat.  History has had a tremendous effect on literature in society, which has shaped science, helped develop mathematics, change religious views, which has altered political systems, and the world.

Figuring out that everything is intertwined, there is a curiosity that emits from the student to find out what silicon is, how that is connected to Silicon Valley, and how money flows into the equation.
What are the similarities exist between our education and da Vinci's?  The better question is how has da Vinci influenced learning, invention, and curiosity?

KHAN Academy... new Free School

 Teaching is one of the most difficult, underpaid, and rewarding jobs in the history of the world.  Right now, however, technology (e.g., the web, video, Google) has allowed children to learn a little different than in the past.  The truth is, everyone that has access to a computer learns very different than the past.  A relatively new company called Khan Academy.  It is a free website to either aid in education or be the main core in education.  The creator Salman Khan was invited to TEDtalk in March 2011 to talk about his new company.  Take a look!

So what do I think.  He talks about a new paradigm: We encourage you to experiment and encourage you to failure, but expect MASTERY!  That is what this blog is about.  A new paradigm from a convoluted one.  I have been familiar with the site for some time but recently made an account on the site.  I hope to use the site with my family.  The coolest thing is all of the data that is available to the teachers/coaches.  There is no asking what the student doesn't understand because the data is presented so the teacher can see what the student struggles with and address that directly with teacher-student time.

A comment made at the end of the video is, "I think you just got a glimpse of the future of education."  I think so as well!

Kindle e-reader

I am a college student.  This semester I have four different text books, all rather heavy.  Now electronics can hold much more than a book and do so in a smaller and light space.  Here comes the world of e-readers.  Arguably the most popular e-reader is the Amazon Kindle.  As an engineering student, there are not very many text books that are available for the Kindle, but for a friend of mine, who is an English major, it is perfect!  Still I really like the new Kindle Touch that comes out the day before my birthday.

Reading old classics (which are usually free), the new best seller, or the scriptures, it is a great devise to have for even the occasional reader.  And with the available 3G with and experimental Web Browser, you have the internet everywhere. 

The exciting point of discussion is the new Kindle Fire tablet.  There is virtually no user information as it comes out the same time as the Kindle Touch, but it may prove to be the best foe to the iPad thus far.  The Kindle Fire still has some growing up to do to fill the expectations of the masses who want a cheaper, effective, user friendly tablet.  The future is rich with possibilities.

jetlev.com: One Amazing toy

I found a new toy that I will get when I become rich an famous!  It is a Jetlev water jet pack!  It uses water to push a person up into the air.  There are some limitations... only 30 or so feet in the air, there is a little boat connected to you by a long tube.  But here is the thing, that boat does all of the work of pumping the water and you can fly around for about 3 hours before you run out of gas.

Now why must I wait until I am rich and famous?  Because the MSRP on this thing is $99,500.

Battery battle... what a BLAST!

One of my favorite things to do is play music.  And when it comes to music, the best instruments are percussion!  Although I never took private lessons, I loved to play anything I could hit.  I was fortunate enough to be able to play in school starting in the 4th grade and continuing through high school.  I love to perform and miss it very much.  There is an organization called Drum Corp International (DCI) that consists of "professional" drum corps that do field shows.  The maximum age for a performer is 21 and is a summer activity.  I was not able to do this, but I did go to the 2007 DCI finals at the Rose Bowl.  It was great!

This group named Blast is a professional marching band of older performers (over 21) that made a group to continue performing and doing what they love at such a high caliber.  This is one of the songs in their show.

BYU vs USU: typical time of year

This Friday at 18:00 MST, the football game against BYU and USU will begin.  This game has usually been played the Friday before the first Saturday in October as to not conflict with the Semi-Annual General Conference of the LDS church.

So what is in store for this years game?  BYU has a power-house defense as well as an amazing special teams... but I can't give so much acclaim to the offense.  USU running game is killer, their freshman QB is the shiz, they had Auburn against the ropes (and lost), yet their defense and special teams have problems.  As a biased BYU fan, BYU wins the game but in a fashion similar to how they won the UCF game: with Special Teams.  I would love to see another kickoff returned for a touchdown, but that is not quite expected.  I think that special teams will put the offense in easy positions to score for BYU.  And with the clash of USU run offense and BYU power defense, those series are going to be exciting.

the video has some hightlights of the BYU vs. U of U game then everything from the UCF game.

I say a close game of dominate offenses, but BYU special teams wins it for the home team.

BYU Football

I have my All-Sports pass, I'll be with friends and my brother, and I will have the BYU Football team.  Football season is about to start and it has been a long time since BYU destroyed UTEP in the bowl game in December.

Now that BYU is 1-2 on the season with two of those games being decided by one point and the other an unneeded blowout... the cougars have started the season by putting a lot of pressure on themselves.  What has been interesting though, is that the defense has become the backbone of the team while the offense can't seem to score a touchdown.  The offensive power house that BYU was last year has not been at all impressive at finishing the drive.  They seem to have the quote, "Life is about the journey and not the destination," to heart.  They move the ball well in the middle of the field and just cannot get into the endzone enough.

This weeks Friday Night game against UCF needs to be a season changer for BYU players, coaches, and fans.  We are the big dog Independent!

Rocky Mountain Conference 2011

I recently made a movie highlighting my and my team's experience at the Air Force Academy during a student Civil Engineering competition.  It was a lot of fun while I was there and it was a lot of fun making the video.  I made it with windows movie maker, which sucks but it was the only thing I have.  iMovie is a lot better.
Hope you enjoy!

"Huge" cancer breakthrough

There are very few ways to fight against Leukemia, none of which is hurt and cause serious illness.  A new method that was tested over a year ago for three patients.  It involves inserting an engineered virus into blood where the virus attaches itself to T cells (a form of white blood cells) and then the virus tells the T cells to multiply and then attack cancer cells.  This proved to be a high aggressive way to fight the cancer cells.

LA Times describes the procedure:

To build the cancer-attacking cells, the researchers modified a virus to carry instructions for making a molecule that binds with leukemia cells and directs T cells to kill them. Then they drew blood from three patients who suffered from chronic lymphocytic leukemia and infected their T cells with the virus. When they infused the blood back into the patients, the engineered T cells successfully eradicated cancer cells, multiplied to more than 1,000 times in number and survived for months. They even produced dormant "memory" T cells that might spring back to life if the cancer was to return. On average, the team calculated, each engineered T cell eradicated at least 1,000 cancer cells.

A year later, two out the three patients are cancer free!  This could be the next big cancer breakthrough.

Blue Man Group: perfect fit for BYU

I recently saw online that Blue man Group is going on tour and they are stopping in Salt Lake.  I grew up wanting to play drums all the time.  And I did just that for about 10 years... through my senior year of high school.  During those last few years of high school and still to this day, I loved to preform.  I then had a new dream job: to become a member of the Blue Man Group!  It was pretty ambitious, and true is... it may never happen.  But if I am ever asked I will have to be held down so I don't break things as I am jumping around with excitement. 

Maybe BYU could think about doing a Blue Man Group show for a little bit.  They both bleed blue!  I'd try out; because I could never leave this dream go.  It's part of me to preform.  I hope to get back into it.  One day...

Earth's two moons? Thats science fiction, right?!

Recently in several articles in the major news outlets, a story is running about a developing theory of why we always see the man on the moon.  One of the articles is titled: Earth's two moons? It's not lunacy, but new theory.  I found a similar article in the LA Times a lot more informative and just flat-out-better overall.

Basically 4.5 billion years ago, a little moon about one third the diameter of our moon and 25 times smaller hit the moon traveling at a relative speed of 5000 mph.  This means that the collision was slow, or at least slow enough to not melt rocks.  Yet the whole episode is theorized to have taken ONLY 3 HOURS.  And in that time the little "moonlet" wasn't touching the moon to having one mass that had already returned to a sphere because of the moon's gravity.

I'll tell you what though, it would be way cool to see the animation of the 3D model simulation!  Because whatever made the image that I started out with is pretty B.A.

Mahna mahna, doot doooo do do do...

The Muppet's have become a great child icon over the years.  They have made great movies (Muppet's Treasure Island and Muppet's Christmas Carol) and great songs.  My favorite song is Mahna mahna.  I am not sure if the song is a Muppet's original or a remake, but it sure brings bake some memories.

The band "Cake" does a really cover of the song.

Leonardo da Vinci (Part I: His Education)

Da Vinci has always been one of my idols as a kid and as an adult.  He was and is the epitome of a Renaissance Man.  He was an artist, anatomist, scientist, engineer, innovator, inventor, and centuries before his own time.  Many have asked how da Vinci flourished in an environment that almost mandated the best schooling of the time?  Part of the answer to this question lies in the answer as to why da Vinci flourished.

Born as a bastard child in 15 April, 1452 to a peasant woman and a notary, he was not really entitled to a formal education.  He instead was informally tutored in Latin, geometry, and mathematics.  At this young age Leonardo started to show his curiosity.  His lost education would have put him on a course like many students today   thinking that all subjects have to be separate and categorized.

Because of his father and young talent, he was educated as a painter under Verrocchio.  While in Verrocchio's workshop Leonardo would have learn theory and technical skills in many areas relating to art: drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics, carpentry, drawing, painting, sculpting and modelling.

Da Vinci's schooling was unorthodox, yet it enabled him to remain curious and thus creative.  For him there really weren't any subjects; there was just knowledge.  He made connections between fields.  For example, da Vinci became a renowned anatomist (which was very rare during his time because of the Catholic Church's ban on dissecting bodies) in order to be a better painter.  He believed that he could paint something accurately only if he knew what happens under the facade.  This applies mostly to humans but he also developed basic theories about plat tectonics.
To help explain my point, da Vinci is recorded to have said, "The Human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art."

Ultrasound = Ultra-excited!

Early this morning my wife and I went to the doctor's office.  Upon a very revealing ultrasound we found that we are having a baby GIRL!  The tech that did the ultrasound finally got in a good position to best see male or female organs and said, "Do you see those three dots? That means its a girl."  Personally I wanted a boy first, but I couldn't be more happy at the moment.

During the Ultrasound, I kept thinking about how it works.  I know that it sends out high-pitched sound and receives a refection of that sound.  But what I was thinking about was how the image is created from a software standpoint.  I think the image is made from a plane that is sent straight out from the sensor.  Now imagine all of the code that goes into getting that image to so quickly... not to mention the bliss that comes with knowing that I will have a baby girl come December!

We hope that you are excited with us.  We are both very excited for this next chapter in our lives and becoming parents.

Schadenfreude!

Oh how wonderful it is to speak a language that has taken so many words from different languages and pronounces them how we want.  This lists includes many but is not limited to the following: chance, Los Angeles, San Diego, taco, schnitzel, crepe, foot, book, kaput, light, schadenfreude.... Schad-WHAT?!

(A band named Avenue Q wrote a song about the word.  Its funny, but not appropriate for children.)

You know, the German word schadenfreude; a compound word from two words meaning "damage" and "joy" respectively.  So what does this mean?  Well, it has one of the best meanings ever and I am happy that the English (or at least American English) has adopted this vengeful word to our diction.  It means, "to be entertained because of the pain of others" or from Webster, "enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others".

from: nichtlustig.de

I first heard the word while serving in the Hamburg, Germany LDS mission along with the likes of "ohrworm" and "tja", meaning "ear-worm" (a song stuck in your head) and "alright-y then" (there really isn't a good translation for this one... look at the picture).  So why do I like this word so much?  It's german for one and I don't have to make up a word in english for it now.

PREZI: the new way to present

While in my junior year at college, I was in a Shakespeare class because I thought I would like it and would be very different from my mostly math and science based classes within my Civil Engineering major.  The class was set up so there were seven groups and each group was assigned a play.  Each person in the group would then choose a question to answer in a presentation.  I saw a fellow student use a "Prezi".  I'd heard of it before but this was the first time I had seen it.  I then decided to give my presentation using the same online software.  My group was assigned the play Timon of Athens, a masterpiece written towards the end of Shakespeare's career.  I presented on how history influenced the play Timon of Athens.

Timon of Athens on Prezi

My second Prezi that I made was for technical presentation in an engineering competition known as Concrete Canoe.   It went well and our team got 2nd in that competition.  As a school was got 4th overall in our region.

Concrete Canoe - INVISCID on Prezi

Its a great alternative to Power Point especially if you have group presentation.  The remote group live editing is wonderfully amazing.  Its a new look and will keep the crowd interested for the entire presentation.  And showing an overview or answering questions with the Prezi itself is easy.  No more looking for the right slide to show because the whole thing is on one slide in the first place.

Space Shuttle Atlantis

While on a spring break band trip my junior year of high school to New Orleans and Orlando, we took our last day of the week long trip to make a short three hour visit to Kennedy Space Center.  I say short because it was not nearly long enough to see everything... and I wanted to see everything!

The three things I remember the most are the Space Shuttle replica that sits by the main entrance, a Saturn V rocket, and the gift shop.  The Saturn V rocket was used in the Apollo missions and is absolutely enormous; much bigger than the space shuttle.  There is one hanger that has the rocket in sections on its side an one engine nozzle is probably 40 ft in diameter.  Now the gift shop may seem odd but i wanted to remember my time there and get a book that had more information so i could take a virtual tour if you will.  My favorite souvenir is a full size Apollo 13 mission patch.  In fact it is hanging up in its packaging in my cubicle at work.  On the back I wrote the mission motto: Failure is not an option.  Go and take a look at my Pick Me Up's! page, it's toward the top.

This is a monumental end to a great American era of space flight.  I hope we continue to endeavor into space flight.  It would be very cool to someday go up there my self.


To see more pictures of the last mission, LA Times as a good selection.