That ride is a trip
Posted: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 12:27 PM by Will Femia
Filed Under:
Games
A train that uses less energy by never stopping
is one of those ideas that's a little beyond my imaginative grasp. I
get what they're saying, stopping and starting is a huge energy waster,
and yes, the animation makes it look like it works, but my mental model
has the passengers suffering whiplash and the car flung across the
countryside.
Speaking of straining the mental model, here's
the latest on the Uno monocycle
- which turns out to actually have two wheels side by side. The thing
tops out at 15 mph right now and the maker hopes to get that up to 40.
Imagining a gyroscope in a size that would fit this vehicle that can
maintain its axis while braking from 40 mph is where my brain shuts
down.
Speaking of crazy monocycles,
the BuzzBall
seems like it could hold some promise with the addition of a gyroscope.
The fact that it doesn't have one is why it's being compared to a
personal roller coaster: "Once the BuzzBall is in motion and the pilot
decides to turn, their seat inside the ball will rotate against the
direction of travel resulting in spins, somersaults, corkscrews, barrel
rolls and other nausea inducing motions."
This game is supposed to guess how old you are by how well you score. It's not in English so you don't really get the benefit of instructions. The first time I played it guessed correctly. The second time I played I came out nine years younger. So it's a good game in my book. (Oh, the instructions are that it shows you a bunch of numbers and then replaces them with empty circles. Click the circles in the order of the numbers they represent, lowest to highest.)
Commuter Click:
Why are the media obsessed with supposedly 'out of control' women? "Out of control women" should not be confused with "Girls Gone Wild." I had always seen the focus on Lindsay Lohan/Britney Spears train wreck stories as being a mix of "at least I'm not screwing up as bad as that guy" and a general public mothering. I'll be interested to read how this person argues that it's part of a feminist backlash.
The Website is Down literally made me laugh out loud. It reminded me a little of
You Suck At Photoshop and made me wonder if there's a name for the genre of movie that is a voiceover while you watch someone's actions on a computer screen.
Shepherd huts - These make me want to go ice fishing or something. (Do I need to have a hole in the floor for ice fishing or can I just park my hut next to the hole?)
With liberal bloggers (and commentators in other media) spinning themselves in circles trying to figure out if they should bash Obama for his stance on the FISA bill or maintain a facade of unwavering support, I thought this was an interesting point of note:
Reminder: Obama Told Us To Judge Him, and Pressure HimWiring up all your furniture with LED rope lights didn't really grab me as a good idea until I saw the bed. I'm not necessarily a fan of those pimped-out cars with the glowing undercarriage but if anyone in your family has monsters-under-the-bed issues, I can't think of a better solution.
50 Must-Read Up and Coming Blogs by Teachers7 People From Around the World With Real Mutant Superpowers - I'm not sure how I feel about this piece. On the one hand it's great that people physical challenges and anomalies can be successful at finding new ways to deal with the world. On the other hand it feels wrong to cheer for birth defects and crippling injuries. (And P.S. yes, on some of these the facts are a little thin.)
Speaking of super humans, "Some people have a mutation that makes them amazingly resistant to HIV -- and now, scientists may have
found a way to give that immunity to anyone."
The popular Boing Boing blog has purged its archives of any mention of a popular sex blogger named Violet Blue. No one knows why for sure and frankly the whole thing is the kind of drama I avoid but the waves the matter is making across the Web are undeniable (whether for the drama or principles like censorship and transparency) so I'm giving it this one mention and this,
the most detailed account of the whole thing I've seen.
NOTE: In case you glossed over it, Violet Blue is a sex blogger, which isn't a porn blogger per se but links to that site are almost guaranteed to contain nudity. The link I've place here is fine.
Barroom Debate:
Is Having Sex with a Robot Hooker Cheating? An interesting remark from my colleague sitting nearby: "If you have to ask, it is." That's a fair point, but I also wonder at what point a non-cheating inanimate sex toy crosses the line to cheating sex robot. When it has a face? When it's life-sized?
Alternative energy saves the day headline of the day:
Wind on the verge of being a power player - It's interesting to see a wind-power business story - as opposed to a tech story or some kind of human interest story about the wind-powered rock concerts or something.
I'm inclined to agree that the addition of Robin to Batman changes the dynamic and
decreases the overall coolness of Batman drastically. Then again, Christopher Nolan has done such a great job amplifying the coolness of Batman I'd be really interested to see what he could do with Robin.
