I Can’t Stop Thinking About The Eclipse.

3 Comments / nature, personal, science, travel / By

2017 Eclipse

I can’t stop thinking about the eclipse.

I thought I pretty much knew what to expect from the 2017 solar eclipse. I understood the science. I had already witnessed a few partial/annular eclipses. I’ve been anticipating the event for a few years now and had read about the sensory changes I could expect to witness. I had a few good viewing locations scoped out with choices depending on the cloud coverage or crowds we might run into that day. My 3 1/2-year-old twins had plenty of food, water, sunscreen, eclipse glasses, and excitement. We were prepared for the event. But I soon learned that nothing could prepare me for the experience.

We had a perfect location on a ridge near Muddy Mountain Wyoming that provided 360 degree views. We were away from the crowds. And most importantly it was cloudless with 2 minutes and 18 seconds of anticipated totality.

We spent an hour watching the partial eclipse and eating a picnic lunch in the shade provided by some old, scraggly, Limber Pines. Eventually, the temperature began to drop slowly. Soon our surroundings dimmed and crickets began to chirp. I found myself caught off guard by the strangeness of my environment. The landscape appeared rosy and dimmed – as if I was wearing sunglasses. My stomach flipped with anticipation and anxiety caused by the surreality of my surroundings.

Quickly, much faster than I anticipated, darkness descended on us. The disorienting passage of time was head-spinning. I took my eclipse glasses off to see if I could see the umbra race toward us from across the valley below. But it happened too quickly. It was with a ridiculous suddenness that the moon’s shadow had shrouded us. I quickly turned around and looked up and saw the eclipsed sun glowing in the sky and my brain turned inside out.

My fingers fumbled around for my camera phone and I somehow managed to capture the image above. I tried to take a video of the “sunset” that surrounded us in every direction, but I only managed to catch these three seconds. I was overwhelmed.

The corona was much more bright and lustrous than I envisioned. It shone bright white and with a jaw dropping brilliance. We were all bewildered with its beauty and absolute strangeness. To look up into the sky and see a sparkling shine, unlike anything I have ever seen in my years of looking at the heavens. To share this with my wife and children.

And then it was gone. And now I can’t stop thinking about the eclipse.

Rare Video Of Bruce Lee Fighting In Competition

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This is rare video footage of Bruce Lee fighting in 1967 Long Beach International Karate Championships. In the video, we get a unique look at Lee using his Jeet Kune Do fighting style in actual competition.

Bruce Lee first fights Ted Wong, one of his top students. He then fights Taky Kimura. It will come as no surprise that Bruce easily wins each match. You won’t be able to readily identify either fighter from their likeness because California State regulations prevented fighting without protective gear. However, is easy to discern Lee from his controlled movement and composed demeanor. Lee’s legendary speed and precision are on full display. He remains calm and cool as his opponents nervously jump around, keeping them at bay by repeatedly countering their attacks with a series of lightning-quick blows.

Eighty Years Of NYC: 1930s to Today

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As evidenced on my Instagram account, I have recently returned from a trip to New York City. This fact might have something to do with why I liked this recent video from The New Yorker so much. It features a side-by-side comparison of the same streets using film from the 1930s and today. A few things I noted while watching the video:

  • Today’s skyline (as shown in the above video) hasn’t changed as dramatically as I would have thought since the 1930s.
  • Mondern day NYC is constantly under construction with scaffolding everywhere. This is especially prominent when compared to the NYC of the 1930s.
  • In the 1930’s Central Park was not pedestrian or bike friendly AT ALL.
  • New York City is much more lush and green than it was in the 1930s.
  • Driving in modern day NYC is insane. Driving in 1930’s NYC is insane.

Every Episode Of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

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It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Twitch is running a Mister Roger’s Neighborhood marathon that will be showing all 886 episodes of the exceptional children’s program. The marathon is a fundraising effort to celebrate the positive influences of PBS. Feel free to use the donation panel on the linked page to donate to your local PBS station.

The Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Marathon features the most comprehensive collection of episodes available, including many that only aired once and are unavailable elsewhere online. We will be playing the episodes back to back starting at 12PM Pacific on May 15th.

The marathon is expected to take about 17 days to run all the way through. PBS has more information on the Twitch-PBS partnership here.

Inside The Stearn Pinball Factory

3 Comments / business, games, reference / By

Manufacturing as a whole in America has been suffering. Add to that the fact that video game consoles have entered millions of homes since the early 90s and you have a perfect storm that has resulted in the shuttered and faltering sales of major pinball manufacturers for decades. A great pinball machine requires a vast amount of craftsmanship, and one of largest producing places you’ll find that kind of work happening today is at Stern Pinball. Last month Popular Mechanics went inside of Stearn Pinball manufacturing facility to see how a 21st-century pinball machine comes together. It examines the process by dividing it into four main sections:

  • Finding a license
  • Designing the game
  • Sub-Assembly
  • Assembly and testing

    • While there won’t be anything new in the article for enthusiasts, it is an excellent primer on pinball manufacturing in America. What pinball machines and manufacturers has sold the most over the years? The table below could give some insight.

    [table id=4 responsive=collapse /]

    Hot Pants?

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    Plastic Pants

    Retailer TopShop is selling clear, plastic, jeans for a meager $100. I would argue that they are really selling clear, plastic, capri pants but whatever. TopShop says,

    Think outside the box with these out-of-the-ordinary clear plastic jeans – guaranteed to get people talking. In a straight leg cut, they feature classic pockets detailing and are cropped at the ankle bone. Ideal as a statement piece for a festival or costume party, take the look to the extreme with a bikini and sequin jacket or dress down, layered under an oversized jumper or asymmetric hem dress.

    If these are your style have a look at TopShop’s pink, vinyl, jamie jeans.

    via Boing Boing

    Vocal Mimicry Using Lyrebird Technology

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    Lyrebird has created a voice imitation technology that uses deep learning and artificial neural networks to create fascinating and somewhat scary results. It relies on deep learning models developed at the MILA lab of the University of Montréal.

    Lyrebird will offer an API to copy the voice of anyone. It will need as little as one minute of audio recording of a speaker to compute a unique key defining her/his voice. This key will then allow to generate anything from its corresponding voice. The API will be robust enough to learn from noisy recordings. Lyrebird will offer a large catalog of different voices and let the user design their own unique voices tailored for their needs.

    Users will be able to create entire dialogs with the new or mimicked voice. Inflection, emotion, and content can all be tailored as necessary through a developer API. The demos are fairly impressive but still distinctly robotic. Check out some Trump/Obama examples below.

    [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/318022504″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]

    I’m interested to find out how accurate this will be for non-english and non-human verbal communication.

    Sheboygan Scanner

    Leave a Comment / entertainment, the mundane, tweets / By

    Sheboygan is a small city of approximately 50,000 residents – a population that seems to provide an endless stream of dumb criminals and weird, small-town crime. Maintained by an anonymous user since February of 2009, the @sheboyganscan twitter account has tirelessly transcribed entertaining communications that come through the Sheboygan, Wisconsin police scanner. Here are a few gems I’ve cherry picked for you:

    …

    Sheboygan ScannerRead More »

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