General

Arthur Benjamin: Mathemagics

I truly enjoyed this TED talk on Mathemagics. From the description,

In a lively show, “mathemagician” Arthur Benjamin races a team of calculators to figure out 3-digit squares in his head, performs a massive mental calculation, and guesses a few birth days. How does he do it? He’ll be happy to tell you.

Thomas Edison: Electrocuting an elephant

Thomas Edison in his efforts to show that his direct current was safer than alternating current electrocuted a number of animals. In the process, he also demonstrated the dangers of AC on Coney Island’s Luna Park Zoo elephant Topsy. The experiment took place in 1903 and you can read the story on Wired here. Edison made film of this and the YouTube video below shows the unfortunate Topsy getting zapped by 6600 Volts of alternating current.

Jumbo jet and rainbow

During my recent trip to San Diego to attend the IROS conference, I took the following photo from inside the plane upon our final approach to the San Diego International airport; click the image for the higher resolution version.

Jet and Rainbow

High speed camera action with balloons

High speed camera are awesome. Check out the following footage of a water balloon exploding captured at 5000fps,


Balloon Burst – High Frame Rate CameraThe funniest videos are a click away

And also checkout another water filled balloon falling to the ground but not exploding also filmed with a high speed camera at 2000fps,

Motorcycle jacket with airbags

Having been in the unpleasant position of getting hit by a car while riding a bicycle, I can appreciate the existence of what seems a rather crazy product: a jacket with build in airbags! Impact Jackets manufactures these for motorcycle and horse back riders; I wish they had a light version for cyclists, at least for the winter because who wears anything more than a t-shirt during the summer? The jackets are a bit expensive at $500 but compared to preventing you from shuttering your bones and even saving your life, it is a small price to pay. Some guy in Baltimore already owns his life to one of these jackets.