Stop Motion: Rainbow Bunnies in a crowd

This commercial from 2007 is astounding. It looks like they did the stop motion on the rabbits with little care for the rest of the world. If someone walks or drives through the frame....no problem. If someone steps and flattens a bunny...it pops back up again. (Planned or accidental, either way it's cool.)

The blurb on the YouTube page says, "The stunning new advert from sony, it took 3 weeks, 40 animators and 3.5 tons of clay to make it to make it."

So, head out to the streets Do your stop motion. It could turn out astounding.



Found this "making of" video for the bunny ad just before I posted. There was a more complete list of materials and time:

• 2.5 tonnes of plasticine on set
• 40 animators
• 3 weeks
• 189 2ft bunnies
• 150 1ft cubes
• 10ft x 20ft purple wave
• 30ft giant rabbit.
• 6 cameras.
• 40 animators working through 4 hours generated 4 seconds of footage.
• 40 animators working on the same scene had never been attempted before.
• The 60 second spot will be constructed of approximately 100,000 stills.

[via Monsters and Rockets]

[Image captured from the video]

Funny: Advantages to Dating Librarians

Space Station Piece by Piece

I was looking for a picture of the space station and ran across this video showing the station as each section is added.

There is a glossary on the side that lets you click on each part to get a brief description.

Cool.

Jay Leno talks about the Aptera

Jay Leno recently did a nice video about the Aptera on his website Jay Leno's Garage. He has some good footage and commentary on driving the vehicle.

Carousel

Here is a amazing piece of film making. It is one continuous dolly shot through the middle of a bank robbery where the action has been stopped. First watch the clip. Then watch the "making of" video. If I understand this correctly, it was created as a showcase piece for the new Cinema 21:9 television.

"The world’s first ultra-wide TV that perfectly matches the original 2.39:1 movie format used by directors. Be blown away by movies the way they’re meant to be seen. No more black bars in your movies."

I was blown away by the video.





[Image captured from the video]

Funny: Literal Video

Here is a fun idea (for a song or two). Take a well known music video and redo the lyrics to match what is happening on screen. No more trying to figure out obscure metaphors and allusions.

Your Beautiful by James Blount (literal by Simeon Bisas)



Total Eclise of the Heart by (Literal by dascottjr)

Grate Art

This video gives a little background on the artist, Joshua Allen Harris, who creates those cool scultpures out of plastic bags that become animated when a subway draft fills them up.








[via Accidental Mysteries]
[Image captured from the video:Street Art: Joshua Allen Harris' Inflatable Bag Monsters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH6xCT2aTSo]

Morning Elegance: Stop Motion Video

Beautiful stop motion music video done to the song "Her Morning Elegance" by Oren Lavie

Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance
by IgnitionVM

Filtering

I'm working on my "computer safety" lessons for the upcoming year and found this article by Justin Reich helpful in organizing my thoughts. He talks about the failure of filtering in our schools and that our money should be spent on educating the kids in the following areas:

• Safegaurding personal information
• Cyber-bullying
• Dealing with advances from strangers
• Avoiding online scams
• Courteous online communication

Then monitor the kids an make them accountable for their online behavior.

Each of these bullet points will be a lesson plan in my classes this year. Nice way to break it up into units.


[via 2¢ Worth]

[Image: "No tresspasing":Uploaded on February 12, 2008 by diankarl (www.diankarlina.com): Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/diankarl/2261139983/ (Creative Commons License Deed Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic)]

Capturing energy from moving cars

Interesting idea. Cars move over plates that generate electricity. My understanding is that this will be used in a shopping center in the UK and the energy will be used to run the cash registers. What if you put something like this at every intersection. They already install pressure plates to help control the lights. With a little modification, you could also help keep the lights running. Add a solor cell and they might be self sufficient?

I had a similar idea while watching the students stream into school a couple of months ago. What if we attached generators to the entry doors. The movement of the doors opening and closing could generate power. I'm pretty sure the power generated as the kids rush out of school every day could light an entire city block!

[via DailyMail] [Image captured from the article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1193070/Shoppers-cars-soon-able-power-supermarkets.html]

Kangoo Aerobics

I've started thinking about winter.

We had a lot of rainy, snowy days that kept me inside last year. I did some bouncing in the house last spring but I got to thinking I need some routines I can do in the house to forestall boredom in case it's another wet winter. I started listing out some some foot drills (like the dot drill) and some aerobics steps I could do with the boots.

No problem, I thought. I've been bouncing for twenty or thirty minutes at a time in the neighborhood. I should be able to handle some interesting footwork in the house. I was wrong. Jogging does not prepare you for some of the lateral movements you make in aerobics. I barely made it through a dot drill without taking a tumble. And after about ten minutes, I was ready to die. I stopped and decided I was going to have to work up to a more complex routine. I'll keep you posted on what I come up with.

(Of course, I guess I could order one of the DVDs from Kangoo? Nah....where's the fun in that?)

[Image: "Al is too Old for Aerobics": Creative Commons. If you use it just give me credit.]

John Medina Interview

So here's my question. If scientists like John Medina say that we learn better when we are physically fit and exercise regularly, why is physical education a low priority in schools? Why aren't we running massive research to prove or disprove this concept? Seems to me if this were true, it wouldn't take a whole lot of extra money to build more activity into each school day.

One of the questions that comes up for me when I hear that exercise improves cognition is that from my own experience as a teacher this doesn't hold true. My best students haven't always been athletes or even athletic. Some of my worst students have been star athletes. And vice-versa. I've never noticed a pattern?

Anyway, here is a nice interview with Dr. Medina where some of the basics from his book Brain Rules are covered.

Funny: If you can read this

[Image captured from Library Stuff: http://www.librarystuff.net/2009/07/07/heh/]

Kangoo Jumps: Intervel Training

Video and suggestion for doing an simple interval workout with Kangoo Boots.

EarthTaniner: Self watering tomato planter

My wife and I are planning a small kitchen in our yard where we can grow a few tomatoes and other vegetables next year. We wanted to build in some self-watering pots so we wouldn't have to worry about the vegetables if we went on a short trip. She found the plans to this planter through TomatoFest and after looking over the diagrams and watching the video's I was impressed. Ray Newstead, the inventor of the system, put a lot of thought into the construction, including that every part is easily available to the average person. You can get everything you need at Lowes. (Buckminster Fuller would be proud!)

The plans are freely available for download. Ray only asks that you make a donation to Feed The Children organization. It's a little late in the season to be planting tomatoes here in Colorado and I don't quite have the area ready for the planter but I want to get a head start on next year. If I get one built, I'll post the results.

Cockroach Heart Design

This artificial heart is based on a cockroach heart. Seems that a cockroach has a twelve chambered heart compared to our four chambered heart. This built in redundancy helps to protect them from keeling over with angina as they are about to invade my pantry.

I was trying to figure out how this worked from the picture and it made no sense to me. The picture looks like a tennis ball with an aquarium pump inside of it. So, I went looking on the web for a diagram of a cockroach heart. I was unable to find a clear picture or diagram of the little critters ticker. I did eventually find this diagram of a insect heart that I think is similar to what you might find inside a cockroach. Still not clear to me how they can survive the failure of one chamber when they are in sequence like this?

Shoot me a note if anybody knows of a better diagram, picture or explanation.















































[via dvice]

[Image of artifical heart captured from dvice: http://dvice.com/archives/2009/06/indian-artifici.php] [Two images of insect heart captured from mathphysicschemistrybiology.com/circ.html]

Bacteria Based Computer

This interesting piece appeared recently in the Guardian Science Blog. Bacteria were used to create a working computer. They gave it the Hamiltonian Path Program which very simply is finding the best route that goes through a specific number of cities.

"[The] problem is surprisingly difficult to solve. There are over 3.5 million possible routes to choose from, and a regular computer must try them out one at a time to find the one that visits each city only once. Alternatively, a computer made from millions of bacteria can look at every route simultaneously."

The scientists did mention that programing the bacteria is pretty difficult.

An interesting side note to this story was the mention of a database of the basic biological designs for these types of machines called the Registery of Standard Biological Parts. I looked around this site for a while and it was facinating. It quickly went over my head, but all the parts and concepts that have already been developed was mind boggling. It's kind of like looking through an electronics catalog. You don't know what all the parts are for or how they are made, but you still look and wonder.

Link to the original article in the Journal of Biological Engineering.

[Image captured from http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2009/jul/24/bacteria-computer]

What is a browser?

What is a Browser?

When I ask my high school students this question, the number one answer I get is "Google". Somewhere in the past six years or so most ordinary folks have stopped thinking about the browser. Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer don't mean much to most of my students.

This short film asks the same question "man on the street" style and gets pretty much the same answers I get in the classroom. I think this reflects better designed browsers. We are more concerned with the results. Like a good tool, they start to fade into the background. Unless they stop working.

[Image captured from the video: What is a browser?]

Government's Cash for Clunkers

I posted an idea I had for helping to jump start the auto industry and help the environment last November. I sent a copy off to my congressmen and one to the President where I'm sure they all said,

"Oh...here's a note from Al. We must stop what we're doing and consider it."

Or it got filed in the crackpot folder. Or possibly just deleted. I was OK with that as I knew it was a little radical. I was just trying to think outside the box a little. My idea: I suggested the government buy up all the old cars over a ten year period. Pay better than Blue Book with the condition that the money was used to buy a newer, greener car.

So, yesterday I see this article about the Car Allowance Rebate. Under this plan consumers can get a rebate off the cost of a new car if they trade in their old gas guzzler for a more gas efficient vehicle. The official website for the Car Allowance Rebate System says the dealers must scrap the cars that are traded in. Not quite as radical as my idea, but still a good start.

So, today in my little fantasy land I refer to as "Al World", I am thinking that some aide to some government aide glanced at my email and at some pre-meeting brainstorming it got shuffled onto a long list of ideas that eventually ended up on the long list of stimulus ideas. So, if this saves the auto industry, I will be taking credit at all family gatherings from now on. A big bronze medal would have been nice, but I'll be happy with a cleaner environment. And saving the planet.

I'm humble that way!

[Image captured from

Funny: Web Site Story

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

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Other Kangoo Boot Drills?

After seeing the young woman jumping rope wearing a pair of Kangoos, I got to thinking that maybe there are other exercises you could do while wearing the boots. I know that there are aerobics type routines available on DVD and offered through some clubs. I was wondering in particular if there was any information on using the boots in a dot drill or something similar.

Found this one video from the official Kangoo site called power training. It's given me some ideas to explore.

[Image captured from video: Power Training Video: http://www.kangoojumps.com/pags.php?d=O533O533&video=123]

Ray Bradubury and the Internet

I credit Ray Bradbury with helping me become the reader I am today. I read everything I could get my hands on of his when I was a kid. Usually through our local public library.

His recent quote, "To hell with the internet" has been on several web sites I frequent.

I much prefer what he says about libraries in this quote from the New York Times:

“Libraries raised me,” Mr. Bradbury said. “I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”

My childhood would have been very different if I hadn't had access to a local library. Yet I am fully engaged in the digital world and dabble in electronic books. I have a reader on my iPhone that I use occasionally. It still doesn't have the appeal to me of a hard copy book. But I find I am using it more often.

I've also noticed that it is getting harder and harder to get the books I want at our library. I often have to use inter-library loan. I wanted a copy of Thomas Paine's Common Sense recently and our library didn't have a copy. They could get it for me in a couple of days. I was able to download a free copy to my iPhone in several minutes. Our library tends to spend their very limited resources on the most popular titles. The more obscure titles and authors tend to be under represented. I go to the library with a list of ten books that I've jotted down from articles or interviews I've seen or from the citations inside other books I've recently read. I run about 10% on the immediate availabilty of those books in our library. My librarians have always been able to get me a book if I am willing to wait. Sometimes I am. Sometimes I'm not.

When I was a boy, our local library had a great science fiction section because one of the librarians was a SF fan. She made sure there was a good selection and often recommended books to me as I was growing up. (Thank you unknown library lady...I wish I could remember your name.) If we lose libraries, we also lose librarians, and I am very fond of librarians! A group of people whose job is to maintain collections of books and help me find what I want or need.

So where do I sit on the idea of spending tax dollars on libraries. I support it. I also support the idea that libraries need to be a flexible, changing entity. Many of the librarians I've talked to recently realize that their world is in a state of change. It's hard to predict what a library will look like in 10 years. But, we still need a place where information is easily accessible and free. I also think we need librarians in some shape or form?

I had a conversation with a parent a while back. She felt libraries wern't as important because she "could get whatever book she wanted, when she needed it, on Amazon.com". Of course, she came from a two income family that spent money on books for their kids. I'm not too worried about those kids. It's the ones who have never received a book as a gift. Who don't have a bookshelf at home because there is no need. Who would never have access to information and knowledge were it not for the local library.

Libraries are for all of us. They are a democratic institution in their thinking and intent. A strong democracy needs a strong system of libraries. I'm just not sure what they will look like in the near future?

[Image captured from Sci Fi Wire: http://scifiwire.com/2009/06/ray-bradbury-to-yahoo-to.php]

We're done...lets take a breather

How often and in how many situations do we have this conversation with ourselves? Which one usually wins?

"Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory." ---Ghandi

[via Ross Training]

Kangoo Jump Rope

After I put my simple Kangoo video up last week, I did a some searching to see if there was anything new on YouTube related to my favorite bouncy boots. Found this one of a young woman jumping rope in her Kangoos. I am going to try this. Maybe not in slow-mo, but soon. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Human Skateboard Animation

I've posted several things from PES before. They do some wonderful stop motion stuff. This particular one will have some of my kids coming up with all kinds of animation plans.

It will probably lead us into a little talk about trying to do this out in the field. All kinds of issues come up. But, if they want to try it....as long as I'm not the skateboard...I say go for it.




Previous links about PES:

• PES Stop Motion Production Company
• Western Spegetti

[via Neatarama]

[Image captured from the video]

Funny: United Breaks Guitars

Link to Dave Carroll's website gives the story behind the video he posted last week. By the time I post this, it will probably be old news, but it is still such a good song. Check out some of his other music. He has a new album out called Perfect Blue. Also available on iTunes.



Dave was on the CBS Morning Show because of his video. As I write this his video has already had over a million hits and over 8000 comments. If you do a search on Google for "united breaks guitars".....you'll get over 13 million hits. Pretty sure United is wishing they had handled this differently by now. The CBS interview is embedded below. I wouldn't be surprised to see him performing this on one of the talk shows in the very near future.


Watch CBS Videos Online

United has made one statement that I could find quoted in this July 9th Yahoo article:

"While we mutually agree that this should have been fixed much sooner, Dave Carroll's excellent video provides United with a unique learning opportunity that we would like to use for training purposes to ensure all customers receive better service from us."

Short video put up on July 10th by Dave Carroll. United has offered to compensate him and his reply to that.



How about a video of Mr. Carroll singing something besides United Breaks Guitars. Here is a little ditty called, A Woman Like You.

Compressed Air Fire Starter

This Maker Faire project facinates me. I had never heard of a "fire piston" before. A device which uses the rapid compression of air to create fire. A device which is based on a tool used by indigenous people in Malaysia and elsewhere. It was introduced into Europe in the early 1800's and was a common household item until the match became widely available.

Watch the video to see how you can make your own.



As a former social studies teacher, I wondered how I had never heard of this device before. I went out and bought a flint to try mimic early mountain men. (A success). I also tried to build a fire-bow once. (Not so successful). So I went on line and did a little research. Turns out there are lots of videos an info out there on the subject. Here are a few if you are curious.

Detailed article about the fire piston. And of course a link to wikipedia.

This little video is a quick demo from a site where a guy makes them out of Buffalo horn and bamboo.

Another video of a traditional Malaysia fire piston. This one also uses materials that could be found in the wild including a strand of thread as the seal. I read somewhere in my browsing that the natives could also use saliva to wet the thread around the piston. (When I first watched this, I thought it might be a hassle to find water to soak the thread.)

If you are a teacher, this could be an engaging activity for students. I am thinking it might be fun to look at some of the different ways man has been able to create fire and let the kids try a few. Children and fire....sounds like a winner to me!

[via Make] [Image captured from Make: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/07/weekend_project_fire_piston.html]

kangoo update

I've been sick a lot this past six months. Lots of colds and a particularly nasty sinus infection that just wouldn't go away. This is my excuse for not completely testing my Kangoo boots that I bought in February. I'd get a run in and then be laid up for a while. Summer came on with me being in terrible shape.

So I started off with the plan of bouncing a few times a week. Travel, another cold and a unrelated back injury have kept me from doing that consistently. But, now I am back on track. I bounced yesterday even though my back isn't a hundred percent yet, it was not noticeable while I was exercising. My workouts are currently about thirty minutes. I've worked up to about half running and half walking. I expect that to be mostly running by end of the month.

What I've noticed so far.

• Able to exercise even when my back is bothering me. I also am able to get out on the road even if my knees are tender. I wish I had tried just walking daily with the boots when I first hurt my back. I think that would have been helpful. Although, if I went down for any reason, I'd of been like a turtle on it's back until helped arrived.
• Short run is a good workout. Remember I am overweight and out of shape. With that in mind, I feel like I get my heart pumping and give my legs a good workout for the short time I'm on the boots.
• When I first started bouncing, I'd feel it in my hips and thighs after a workout. Now as I increase my time running, I feel some soreness in my shins. No soreness anywhere else. Wonder if this is related to the gait you are forced into when running in the Kangoos?
• As I increase my time running I am beginning to notice some hot spots developing. I am wearing heavy hiking socks but I may need to experiment with some lube on my feet or buckling the boots differently. More on this as I build up my time.

I love running again. It has been years since I could get out and do this. If I can do no more than go out a couple times of week and run in the boots for a half hour or so, I'd be a happy camper. If these boots help me work back into a modified running program again, I'd be ecstatic. Either way, I'm still happy with the purchase.

The video below shows the buckle mechanisms a little closer than you may have seen elsewhere. I made this shortly after I got the boots which is why I am dressed for the cold. I also try to demonstrate how to stop. Tried to show some things that I never saw when I was thinking about buying the boots. Hope it helps.

Snake Camera

I've seen a couple of these robotic snakes on the web before, but this is the first time I've seen them demonstrated in a real world situation.

Is there any kind of terrain a snake can't maneuver through? (I even saw a little bit on snakes that can glide the other day...ewwwwh!)

Beyond delivering a military payload, I think they could be extremely useful in searching/mapping environments that are difficult to navigate. For example, a collapsed building or a pipe/drainage system.



[via BotJunkie]

[Image captured from video]

Funny: Typing

Claymation and Comics 2009

I've enjoyed following the progress of this Claymation and Comic summer camp. Some good links to resources. Some great pictures. Lots of ideas if you are planning on doing something like this in your own classroom.

Wish I could remember how I discovered this? I had it set up in my RSS feed and it just started popping up this month. I don't remember putting it there. Must have been a late-nite find.

Anyway, worth a look if you are into this kind of thing.












[Image: Captured from http://claycomics.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/hello-world/]

StopMotion: Deadline

Yet another example of stop motion animation. This was a senior project at Savannah College of Art and Design for Bang-yao Liu. Below is also embedded a "making of" video. Enjoy.

Capturing sound energy

In a sci-fi story I once read, their was a carthat was almost totally silent. The characters in the story believed sound was reflective of bad design. Any noise from a device, like a car, represented poor components and lost energy. Don't know if that is a true engineering concept or not, but I've always remembered that silent car. (If anybody remembers the name of this story, shoot me a note.)

This award winner from the 2008 International Design Competition got me thinking about noise. The SONEA is a device that captures sound and turns it into energy. Pretty much the opposite of what a microphone does. Place a bunch of these along a busy highway, a train station, a crashing surf.......a high school gymnasium, and you could gather some of that wasted noise and feed it back into the electrical grid.

Fascinating concept! I foresee a day when my lectures could power my students iPods. They would beg me to lecture longer......or at least until the charge bar is in the green!

[Image captured from JDF: http://www.jdf.or.jp/idc/dw/index.php?md=Detail_Work&id=116&ln=2]

Funny: How to Fake an Appreciation of Art

button design

My web design students love to make buttons for their pages. They often don't put much thought into them, but they like to make them. The prettier. The flashier. All the better.

They hate modifying a button after it's been made. I suspect the same complaint is made by English teachers about getting students to revise/edit their work. The attitude seems to be do it once and it's done. Already done that once. Why do it again?

One of the questions I often ask when I'm looking at a design is "What does this button do?". Too many times I hear, "You click it to find out." (Which means in kid talk....I forget.) I then state that if I have to start clicking buttons just to see what they do, I'm probably going to move on to another web site. I then try to guide the discussion towards what is the best design for a button; an icon, text or both?

Here is a short article that gives the advantages of each choice. The bottom line according to this article: Text and image combination work best.

Tree shaped air conditioner

This air conditioner would be a lot more attractive on the side of my house the the current square box. Won Grand Prize in the 2005 International Design Competition in Osaka. The designer is Ryuichi Tabu. It is a modified heat exchange type unit. I wasn't able to find any updated information on Tabu or his design. If anybody knows if he followed up on this design, let me know.

[via craziestgadgets.com] [Image captured from JDF: http://www.jdf.or.jp/idc/dw/index.php?md=Detail_Work&id=35&ln=2]

Flesh eating robots

Either really creepy or really cool. I guess it depends on your state of mind. Machines that catch flies or mice and then digest them for power.

I'd like to see a robotic lawn mower that eats the grass it cuts to supply it's own power. Then deposits little pellets of whatever is left over onto the grass as extra organic matter. That I might buy. If it also brought me cool drinks while I sat under a tree in the shade, I'd have my credit card out now!

A table that eats mice....not so much.





[Image: Image captured from www.newscientist.com: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17372-gallery-domestic-robots-with-a-taste-for-flesh.html]

Funny: The Hauntening

Powerpoint Game Templates

Joe teaches in the computer lab the period before me and he is my hero. He is knowledgeable about his subject area. He has great relationship with his students. He is creative. Always seems to be on top of things....even when he's not.

Walked into his classroom recently and the class was broken into two teams and they were playing a trivia game off the internet. His previous lesson had run short. Really short. So, he fired up a site and had the kids working on something for the rest of the hour. They thought they were getting some free time. Joe had his kids on task....although not quite the task he had originally planned. I was envious of how quickly he changed direction on the fly. I probably would have tried to stretch the short lesson out long. Painful for me. Painful for the students.

So, one of the things I want to add to my bag of tricks for this next teaching year is some filler ideas. I want some of those web sites that I can send the kids to if I need to fill in a little time. I want to have some activities ready when I run short. Have a bad lesson. Need a change of pace. I want some fun ways to check for understanding before they walk out that door.

This site gives me a few tools I plan on adding to my repertoire. It has templates for creating games in PowerPoint like Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and Bingo.

[via Free Technology for Teachers]

Crack Garden

Here is a marvelous idea for re-claiming areas that have been covered with asphalt. Based on the idea that plants often will take root in the cracks you find in concrete. This happens to the sidewalk in front of my house every week. Left to their own devices they will slowly widen the crack and fill in with soil and more plants. So, why not take advantage of this process and help it along in areas of your choosing.

Whole project cost $500 and didn't take near the labor and time it would have to remove the concrete.

Interesting idea.


[Image: "crack garden"; Captured from Neatorama: http://www.neatorama.com/2009/06/04/the-crack-garden/]

Hey What's That?

Found this one via an application on my iPhone called Where. One of the functions on this little app is something called Hey What's That? Based on your location it will create a panorama showing the names of all the peaks you can see from that point. If you don't have a classroom set of iPhones to use, it has a more full featured version online.




I live with the Rocky Mountains to the west. So, if I was curious about that peak I've looked at every morning for the past ten years as I drove to work, I could enter the appropriate info into this program and it will give me a panoramic view that looks like this:

















I can click on each of those little triangles and see the name of the peak and it's elevation. I also get a google map that shows the peaks in relation to where I am.




























If I click on one of the little triangles on the google map, it will plot a line between that peak and my location along with the degrees from my location (based on a 360 degree panorama).












I am already planning a lesson using this program and pictures of the front range that we can take with our digital cameras from the front parking lot of our high school. Still working on the final product and objectives.

[Images all captured from website http://www.heywhatsthat.com/]

Funny: King of the Cul-de-Sac

[via Miss Cellania]

Another cool toilet design

Came across this toilet design that actually looks like something that could catch on. It easily an convert to a urinal. The toilet also cleans itself which is a big sell for me!

Take a look

[Image captured from Freshome: http://freshome.com/2009/06/08/the-toilet-that-transforms-into-an-urinal/]

TED: Call to reinvent Liberal Arts Education

TED talk by Liz Coleman to reinvent liberal arts education by not narrowing our focus but broadening the scope of such a degree.


"The reality: No one has the answers. Everyone has the responsibility."



[Images captured from the video]

Looking in the Past

Here is another idea of a project you could aim at your students. Take an old picture and hold it up in front of the location where it was taken. Take a new snapshot with both the new location and the old picture in frame.

Sounds complicated when I write it out, but take a peek at Looking into the Past Flickr group to see lots of examples. It's a terrific effect.

I'm going to set up a lesson around this idea for the fall. I'll update you once I run it through a class.

[via Neatorama]
Image: Flickr: "Looking into the past"; Uploaded on May 29, 2009by jntolva; http://www.flickr.com/photos/ascentstage/3577469096/in/pool-lookingintothepast (Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic)]

Google Blog Search

I've used Blogger ever since I started this thing a little over two years ago. It has it's flaws. In particular, adding graphics to a layout often will not give the results expected. But my complaints are easily dismissed by ease of use. From the very beginning I wanted the software to be as transparent as possible. I didn't want to spend more time working with my blogging software than writing.

So far, this has been true.

I am approaching 500 posts over a two year period. I often have trouble remembering if I wrote about something and will do a search to check. I also search for things as a reference for my own teaching. Sort of a personal filing cabinet. Google recently added a new gadget that makes this process easier. You should be able to see the new "Search this Blog" box in top right corner of my page. As an example, I entered "stop motion" into the search field and got the following result.


The results pop up in your blog and you can either follow a path to your search item or close out the results box and be back in the blog.

Terrific!

I've been using the gadget for a few days now and have found it a beneficial new tool to make my work easier and faster. The best kind.

Try it out and if you want to add it to your own Blogger blog, the directions are in this post by Google. (Takes about two minutes!)

Thanks Google.

Funny: Pep Rally

Stop Motion: Wedding Invitation

Stop motion wedding invitation.

Can't make it to the wedding, but best of luck. Hope your lives together are as creative as your invitation!

Ratio. A different kind of cookbook

I don't often write about cooking on this blog. I love to cook but rarely does my interest in technology and my interest in cooking cross. Ratio by Michael Ruhlman has blurred the lines somewhat.

Ratio isn't a recipe book so much as an explanation of the different ratios that go into making various dishes. For example a pie crust is a ratio of 3:2:1. Three parts flour. Two parts fat. One part liquid. Put the ingredients together in these amounts and in this order and you get pie dough. This is the fact. The science. The structure behind cooking. The art is determined by how skillfully you blend the ingredients. What changes you make in ingredients.

This book has me looking at cooking from a whole new perspective. I haven't made a pie dough in years. But, I did last night, thinking about ratios the whole time. When I was a boy, I could usually whip up a nice pie crust using an old Betty Crocker Cookbook as my guide. Somewhere in my adult years, I started overthinking the dough and they started turning out tough. Store bought crust was easier and tastier. Last night, I thought about the dough in a different way. How and why I put the ingredients together. I followed the ratio. I let my hands and eyes tell me when the dough was mixed enough. It worked beautifully.

If we still had a Consumer Family Studies class at any of the schools near me, I'd send a copy to those teachers. Teaching kids to cook in my district has gone away. If it ever came back, I think teaching kids to think about cooking would be a good addition to the curriculum. (And what a great crossover lesson between math and the real world.)

If you like to cook, check this book out.

GoateeSaver

As a man who consistently has uneven sideburns, a crooked mustache and oddly trimmed beard. This device might be just what I need.

"It reflects your personality
It declares your individuality
Your goatee is much more than just facial hair
Your goatee helps fashion your identity"

Start dropping those Christmas hints for your very own GoateeShaver.

[Note: As you watch the video, the female actress break character as she moves off screen....right around 58 seconds.]



[via CraziestGadgets.com]

[Image captured from CraziestGadgets: http://craziestgadgets.com/2009/04/21/goateesaver-keeps-your-manscaping-in-check/]

Google Wave

Marvelous new development from Google. Think of a "wave" as a conversation Participants can enter this conversation and leave it at any time. The software helps you, as a participant, to keep track of the conversation, participate in a meaningful way, and invite others into the discussion.

The way the app handles an online conversation is so much more intuitive than anything I use now. Looks like it would be easy to follow the various twists and turns of real conversation. I'm excited to try this out when it comes available later this year.

It's still in development but watch the demo to get some examples. I think it has the potential to change the way we work together online.



[Image: captured from the video: Google Wave Developer Preview]

Funny: Don't Shoot Them

Don't Shoot Them from Rebecca Mayes on Vimeo.

Suco de Laranja--stop motion

Cool example of stop motion animation. Looking for examples to show my students as they are going to be creating their own in the fall.

do bem™ - Suco de Laranja 100% fruta (MPC de torradas) from do bem on Vimeo.

[via Neatorama]

Product Evaluation Videos

I've been toying around with getting my video students to do product evaluation videos. It involves lots of editing and mixing of canned with planned footage. Good practice of their basic skills.

I'd considered it as a project a couple of years ago and then it fell by the wayside as time constraints took my mind and my students to other areas.

Watching this video from Slate comparing two of the "late-nite" miracle machines is a good example of the kind video the kids could do. They could compare two products. They could test a single product to see if it performs "as advertised". It could be straight up or a parody of the genre. I think it would be fun. (Of course my idea of fun and my students are often at odds.)

[Image captured from video: As Seen on TV: Slap Chop vs Vidalia Chop Wizard]

Schools Out

My school district is out for the summer. I have no work related commitments this summer. I just sent my paperwork in for re-certification so I have some breathing room before I need to take any classes. There were some rumors of writing some curriculum materials for the district but since no one called me, I can assume that fell through or I am an unattractive candidate or they forgot me.

So for a change I get to spend a little time working on my plans for next year

• Not happy with my curriculum for web design. I need to improve my methods for remediating the students who don't get it while I keep the rest of the class moving forward.
  
• Experiment with Boinx's iStopMotion. Going to be adding stop motion unit to my beginning media class and this software came in just before I walked out the door.
  
• Watch a lot of movies so I have examples of various film techniques and shots for my media class. Want to start each class (or a majority of them at least) with a video clip related to that day's lesson.
  

Or.....I may just hike everyday and watch the clouds float by....

[Image: Boundry Waters: Al Gunn: Creative Commons (Attribution: Non-generic 2.0)]