Tag Archives: technology

Video Fridays: Paper Airplane World Record

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On the surface, this week’s Video Fridays installment might seem like much ado about nothing or a blatant filler entry while I’m away in Colorado.

And yet, I found something about this record-breaking paper airplane flight surprisingly captivating and impressive for the following reasons:

  • That people have put so much effort into a seemingly yet far-from trivial pursuit
  • That there’s actually a building big enough to contain this event…barely
  • That the technology and design that went into this flight must have been extensive
  • That they thought about using a football quarterback to throw the plane
  • That the former record was beaten by nearly 20 feet!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Scientists Messing With Lemmings Of The Sea

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You gotta love this catchy headline from a Wired article today:

Real Fish Welcome Robotic Overlord Into Their School

…and the story itself is VERY interesting:

A robotic fish has sailed across an aquatic uncanny valley by tricking real fish into following it upstream…

To help investigate the dynamics of fish schooling, Marras and Porfiri designed a robot inspired by Notemigonus crysoleucas, a species of Golden shiner. The plastic-covered robofish was twice the size of the real fish but mimicked its back-and-forth tail motion.

When the researchers plopped single Golden shiners into a water tunnel meant to simulate a stream-like current, each fish swam in school-like positions near their robotic counterparts for several minutes. Around a robot that didn’t move, however, the Golden shiners swam randomly for shorter periods of time.

Although some fish kept a wary distance ahead of the robot — they may have perceived it as a threat — most kept pace by trailing in the machine’s watery wake. The behavior matched that of fish in the wild, which group into schools to reduce drag and make swimming more efficient.

Now, sometimes I read science journalism and I’m blown away by the vast amount of time that scientists spend on what seems, to me, to be the most boring and trivial matters. (It’s a good thing, then, that I’m no scientist.)

When it comes to animal behavior research, in particular, my heart often goes out to the critters being studied, how the scientists try to mess with their heads in order to learn more about how they tick.

In the case of the Golden shiners, however, it might just turn out to be for their own good:

“If accepted by the animals, robotic fish may act as leaders and drive them away from human-induced ecological disasters that are affecting life in aquatic environments, such as oil spills, and man-made structures, such as dams,” the authors wrote.

VERY cool!

Tweet of the Day: @TomMINT

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Hat tip to my friend Tom, who tweeted the following, reminding me for the millionth time that Europe is lightyears ahead of the U.S. when it comes to supporting bicycles as an alternative form of transportation to the single occupancy gasoline-powered vehicle.

Cool, practical design!

Some group tried bicycle sharing here in Bellingham years ago, but it was doomed to fail thanks to poor funding, poor-quality used bicycles, and some theft.

It sure would be great if the city could find some grant money to do it right, with regulated/automated check-in and check-out.

Done right, I think it could be a HUGE success.

Tweet of the Day: #ElectricVehicles

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Last month I posited that one of the keys to a successful transition toward electric vehicles is that these vehicles must be utilitarian in design, speaking specifically of trucks and vans, and now a company in Boulder, Colorado is offering up a truly viable 2-ton cargo truck, and they’ve sold their first fleet!

Likes and Follows and Blogging, Oh My!

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To paraphrase Dorothy Parker:

I love writing, love having written, but getting read, well, that’s a little more complicated.

I started my first blog the same year that Facebook was born. Zuckerberg and associates went on to achieve fame and fortune, and I still work a 40-hour/week day job and make no money whatsoever from this part-time pastime called blogging.

But, I’m not bitter. Really. I’m not.

Seriously, Fish & Bicycles is the product of many precious stolen moments, painstakingly extracted from the crazy busyness of work, homeownership, husbanding, parenting, and other assorted pursuits and distractions. Consequently, I barely have enough time to hammer out the entries that I do post, and I could do so much more if only I had more time.

Of course, if it were as simple as that I wouldn’t be writing what you are reading right now. Instead, this funny thing happens when you publish your work out in public for all to see for so long: It just might happen that people might read what you’ve published — I know, crazy right? — some of those people might even like what you’ve published, and some might keep coming back for more.

And, however much you tell yourself that it doesn’t matter, that you adhere to the advice of a writing mentor of yours who said you should write as if no one will ever read it, it feels really, REALLY good when people ARE reading your writing and even better when they tell you that they liked what you wrote.

So, there were always comments to manage, but the vast majority of part-time, non-professional bloggers like me don’t get more comments than they can handle.

But now, thanks to Like and Follow buttons, readers are provided with a wider variety of ways to show their appreciation for your work, and bloggers are told in articles all over the web that the best way to build traffic early on is to engage with folks who take the time to read and appreciate your work, to respond to their comments, thank them for the Likes and Follows, and visit their blogs to reciprocate.

Well, if you’re a social creature like me, that all comes quite naturally. I enjoy the social networking element of blogging immensely, I love meeting new people and discovering great blogs, especially given that these great people and blogs are from all over the world!

And yet, remember that bit about stolen moments extracted from crazy busyness?

If Fish & Bicycles was my day job, if I was getting paid to blog all day, this would be a non-issue and I’d have plenty of time to write and engage with the blogosphere.

Sadly, finally arriving at the regrettable point of this long, rambling note, I’m having to make the painful decision to cut WAY back on my responses to Likes and Follows.

I hope to continue replying to comments left at Fish & Bicycles, and I hope to stop by the blogs that I follow from time to time, but I’m no longer going to be able to reciprocate every time someone Likes one of my posts or chooses to Follow Fish & Bicycles.

There, I said it.

Heavy sigh.

I hope you all will understand, and please know that I’m deeply honored and touched when anyone appreciates what I do here.