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Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Brains in Bahrain
First there was the Thrilla in Manila, now there's Brains in Bahrain, as man and machine battle it out on the chessboard.
brainsinbahrain.com
"Man has waited four long years for revenge, now the time has come. In October the world chess champion, Vladimir Kramnik, will go to war with the world's most powerful chess program, deep fritz, where 1 million dollars and human dignity are the prizes."
"There just isn't enough televised chess"
David Letterman
posted at 9/18/2001 10:58:11 AM
Friday, September 14, 2001
Here is an interesting new type of kite made up of a single long ribbon anchored to the ground by swivels at each end. The ribbon will spin, producing lift. As an added bonus, it makes a loud howling noise. Full construction details and a recording of the sound are found on this site.
Jim's Skybow FAQ
"What's a skybow?
It's a new kind of kite that acts sort of like an anti-gravity rope---when you and a friend at the other end hold it across the wind it pulls upward making a huge arch in the sky."
posted at 9/14/2001 01:13:45 PM
Wednesday, September 05, 2001
More in the spirit of pen twirling.
Micro Juggling
This page describes the manipulation of small objects such as coins, pencils, cards, and others. Examples of the types of tricks described include walking a coin across the back of the knuckles, spinning a pencil through the fingers, and others."
posted at 9/5/2001 03:59:21 PM
Good thing I didn't know about this when I was in school. This site has videos of several different pen spinning techniques, from the (so they say) simple to the awesome.
Pen Spinning
"When I was in the ninth grade, my friend was spinning a pen near me. I tried to spin a pen. My friend taught me how to spin a pen kindly. As soon as I got home, I practiced spinning a pen. "Pen Spinning" is called "Pen Mawashi" or "Rohnin Mawashi" in Japanese. "Rohnin" means "Masterless Samurai". Because of hard practice , I failed the university entrance examination. I became "Masterless Samurai". I have practiced spinning a pen for 14 years. Now the number of skills is about 20."
via /usr/bin/girl
posted at 9/5/2001 03:51:52 PM
Tuesday, September 04, 2001
This is an immense collection of digitized historical photographs, documents, books, movies, sheet music and sound recordings from the past 300 years in the US. Check out the 1917 Beauty Pagent Panorama, or Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier for some good examples.
Home Page: American Memory from the Library of Congress
"American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections."
posted at 9/4/2001 04:29:22 PM
Wednesday, August 29, 2001
I could spend hours here.
The Rudiments of Wisdom Cartoon Encyclopedia
"Thousands of cartons illustrating almost everything there is to know."
posted at 8/29/2001 12:15:13 PM
Friday, August 03, 2001
The Galileo spaceprobe is still going ? We'll see about that. Let's make it fly through the plume of an alien volcano !
Another Daring Adventure for Galileo
"The durable robot will skim about 200 kilometers above Io's surface at 12:59 a.m. EDT on August 6th. A few seconds later, Galileo will speed over an area called Tvashtar that was belching a giant plume of volcanic gases only seven months ago. The volcano might still be active, say scientists. If so, Galileo could fly right through a volcanic plume for the first time." "What makes Io so fiery? Tides. But the tides on Io are not like ocean tides we're familiar with on Earth. The gravitational fields of Jupiter and its other large moons raise tidal bulges in the solid crust of Io that are as high as a 30-story building." "
posted at 8/3/2001 05:58:20 PM
Tuesday, July 31, 2001
It's not going to be one of the better years, but I'll be out watching anyway.
Anticipating the Perseids
"This year experts are again predicting a meager display of Perseids, and the reason sounds familiar. A swollen quarter Moon, bright and shining, will rise at midnight on Sunday, August 12th. By dawn -- just when the shower should be at its best -- the Moon will lie high in the sky. Bright moonlight will likely reduce apparent meteor rates to no more than 20 or 30 per hour."
posted at 7/31/2001 06:38:23 PM
