Thought and Freedom

I am very excited to see Tim Ferris’s new book, “The Four Hour Chef” making its debut on Kindle this Winter. You can find out more by going here.

Earlier this year, I tried (and succeeded at) the Four Hour body diet. Tim Ferris did a great job not only developing a system that was easy to do, but also a system that felt good while I was on it. His slow carb method gives enough freedom that you don’t feel constrained by complete lack of carbs. It also, I might add, keeps the cost of the diet to a minimum by allowing slower carb entrees like beans to be part of the diet.

A couple years ago, I read Tim’s book, the “The 4-Hour Workweek.” This was a phenomenal and revolutionary look at how you can simplify workflows, focus on high results areas and come out way ahead in your business.

I would highly recommend checking Tim Ferris out today. See his new book and reserve your copy!

I cannot believe how much it costs to heat your house. Last month, our bill almost doubled. I suppose that comes with the unseasonably cold temperatures.

Jessica and I were talking about the price difference between propane (like we had at our old house) and natural gas (like we have at our new house.

Our initial thought was that it should be about the same. But after doing some research, we found that there is a pretty big difference between propane and natural gas.

In order to figure out the cost of propane verses natural gas, I did the following:

1. I first needed to determine an appropriate conversion between gallons of propane and therms of natural gas. I found a website that listed a rough approximation between therms and gallons of propane:
   “100 cubic feet (1 CCF) of natural gas is very nearly 1 therm (0.95 – 1.05, typically, depending on gas analysis). 1 gallon of LPG is about 0.91 therm. (91000 BTU).”
2. After determining that 1 gallon of Propane = 0.91 therms, I calculated how much one therm equals by doing the by dividing 1 gallon of propane by 0.91 therms. This gives me the solution that 1 Therm = 1.1 Gallons of propane.
3. Then I looked at our propane and natural gas bills to determine the unit prices for each. For propane, this is $1.49 per gallon. For natural gas, it is $0.80 a therm.
4. Next I determined a standard measurement to base our calculations on. I chose therms. Since 1 therm = 1.1 Gallons of Propane, we will take 1.1 gallons of propane times $1.49. This will give us an equivalent to the price per therm.
   1.1 * $1.49 = $1.63
5. We can conclude that, at current market prices (January 1, 2009), natural gas is much cheaper. Currently, $0.80 of natural gas would cost you $1.63 if it was bought in propane.

As astronomers study space, we should not be surprised if they discover new stars and black holes. After all, there is unlimited amounts of space to discover.

There are times that are more momentous than others when one of the above items are discovered, especially when it helps validate what many believed to be true for a long time.

Marnee Shepperd is reporting that a black hole has been found at the center of a globular cluster in the Galaxy NGC 4472. This was discovered by the ESA.

They were planning on looking at several Globular star clusters to justify the idea that Black Holes might exist inside such a star formation. After only their second cluster, they found a black hole.

Space is something that has captured imaginations of everyone from kids, to sailors, to TV show makers. It is best described in Star Trek’s Theme as “The Final Frontier.”

Most of us will probably never get the opportunity to live the life of an astronaut, but we do have the ability to watch videos of space and of astronaut life.

NASA has built a site where visitors can watch the latest NASA videos right from your home computer. If you are fascinated by the world above, check out the link below:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html

My Google Personalized Homepage had a great quote on it today (in the “Quotes of the Day” widget):

All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
- Edward Gibbon

When I hear that quote, I think of what Governor Pawlenty always says. He always talks about the fact that Minnesota needs to be moving forward all the time, and that if we are simply remaining stationary, we are actually falling behind the crowd.

—

If you think the term “retrograde” sounds familiar, you may have heard it in the term “retrograde motion.” Such motion is what we observe the planets doing from our vantage point. From earth, planets sometimes appear to fall backwards in their orbits.

This can be explained by the fact that the earth occasionally passes a planet in the race around the sun. When we pass another planet, it will appear to go backwards for a while. To see this concept in animated format, look at the University of Illinois Page on Retrograde Motion.

AI the Movie was a film that touched on subjects ranging from science fiction, to philosophy, to biology, etc. The movie’s modern Pinnochio theme made some laugh and some cry. One researcher had a different revelation from the movie.

When Professor Cynthia Breazeal saw the movie, she was inspired by the look and lifelikeness of the Teddy Bear on the movie. She decided to create her own version of the bear in her MIT labs.

Her creation, called Leonardo, is amazing. It thinks, learns, and gives expressions that some would believe were real feelings.

You can see the Leonardo Project at http://robotic.media.mit.edu/projects/Leonardo/Leo-intro.html.

If you would like to see some videos of Leonardo, please visit the Techblog’s Post on the Leonardo Project as well.

It is really fascinating what we can do with computers these days. We can create lifelike sensing robots that appear to have the characteristics of a person or a pet. These robots go far beyond what a Roomba does for humans. And, I can’t even imagine what sorts of algorithms must be used in Leonardo’s decision making process. It will be exciting to see what sort of “toys” they come up with next.

One thing I have always liked about Texas is their humorous approach to getting people to obey their laws.

Their “Don’t mess with Texas!” road signs are world famous. If you have ever traveled through the state, you know exactly what I mean. (Other famous signs in Texas include the What-A-Burger signs, and the “Natural Bridge Caverns” advertisments)

Speaking of not making a mess over Texas, NASA has changed their policy on space junk. The Space Administration has become increasingly worried about the large amount of debris in the path of the International Space Station, and has therefore made a change to their garbage disposal policies.

NASA has decided to encourage astronauts to send their garbage back to earth. This makes sense, since it will simply burn up on it’s way down.

We on earth will never get to see what sort of space junk is found near the space station, but there are reports of putty knives, gloves, etc. If that is not strange enough, a Russian Cosmonaut will soon take place in a Golf Ball Company promotion in which he will launch the world’s longest golf shot from outside the space station. The ball will stay in orbit for between 3 days and 3 years.

I have to admit, it is a brilliant marketing plan. They even got me to blog about it!

terrypearsonc-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/B000059PA5%253FSubscriptionId=0EMV44A9A5YT1RVDGZ82″>The Hubble telescope has moved space research forward at an astounding rate. The highly powerful telescope orbits the earth, directing itself with several gyroscopes.

Much of what is seen in textbooks today came from images captured by the Hubble telescope.

The problem with making repairs is that any mission to the Hubble Telescope, makes it impossible for the Space Shuttle to reach the International Space Station in case of an emergency. This puts the crew and the shuttle at risk.

There could be a possible mission to fix the telescope in 2008. The fixes would extend the life of the aging telescope by approximately five years.

To top it off, the space shuttle will be retired in 2010, so this would be the last opportunity to take the space shuttle to Hubble.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that was started as the ultimate collaboration project.

Imagine how much money goes in to producing content for an encyclopedia. The idea behind the Wikipedia Project, was that everyone on earth could pool their knowledge in a central place, forming an endless source of knowledge and information.

This idea has mostly worked. As of this writing, there are 1,454,708 articles on the site. Many of them exceed the content found in an encyclopedia. Experts from all over submit content, modify and update articles, and review the progress along the way.

Despite the success of Wikipedia, it does have some drawbacks. One major drawback is the fact that any member can edit an article. There have been numerous instances of “content vandalism.” Wikipedia has countered this by creating article revisions that can be reverted back to at a moment’s notice.

The online encyclopedia has also set up volunteer moderators to oversee sections of content, and virtual tripwires that automatically flag potential content vandalism.

In my experience, I have been very successful with wikipedia. If anything else, I can use the articles for an overview of a topic, then use the references found in the article to do an in depth research of the topic.

Still, many professors refuse to acknowledge the importance of this resource. Though they support collaborative approaches to building knowledge, the Not In My Backyard approach is taken.

Rather than refuse to acknowledge the existence of this resource, I would recommend a more mild approach. Tell the students that in order to use the source, you must verify that the article’s facts coincide with other references. They could also require students to look at the article on more than one day. This better ensures the accuracy, because inappropriate or misguided information will usually be deleted by that time.

Rather than rejecting new and useful utilities such as these, let’s embrace these innovative ideas such as Wikipedia. I believe it will help us all do a better job at our research.

Google has a lot of tools. That is part of what makes Google so famous. If they don’t have the tools, they can help you find them.
What makes google really interesting, is when users of google combine the existing google tools with their own creations. As I was browsing the Google Operating System Blog, I came across a very unique creation.

They had said that Joey deVilla has created a “Google Periodic Table.” It is based on the images that come up in the Google Image Search for each element.
It is funny to note that a lot of the images actually are relevant, or related, to the actually elements.

Who knows, this may be a good way to teach students the elements. When you combine each element with a memorable picture, it allows for greater memory retention. One thing I would like to see on “Google Periodic Table 2.0″ is the atomic numbers on each element.

DeVilla definately deserves an A+ for promoting fun in chemistry, and an A++ in finding new uses for the great tools that we have available on the internet!