Swarling Black Mable » Interesting People

Damien Walters – Making Gymastics Metal

blainegarrett — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:52:24 +0000

I am easily impressed by anyone who can do crazy physical feats – this time by UK native Damien Walters.

Also be sure to check out the Danny Macaskill video – equally awesome stunts, but with a bike.

Interesting Bit of the Day – Sight for the Blind

blainegarrett — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:39:06 +0000

Is this what comes to mind when you think of prosthetic sight?

The keynote speaker for the “All Hands” meeting today was Erik Weihenmayer. Erik gave an amazing and inspirational talk about overcoming adversity and achieving great things when others believe you can’t.

This is often the topic of various motivational “You Can Do Anything” speakers. If I remember correctly, we had a few of these in middle school and high school mixed in with the “Say no to drugs” and “Avoid Peer Pressure” speakers. Usually, the “You Can Do Anything” speakers were (maybe) recovered Meth addicts or high school drop outs who got their GED and started their own auto salvage company. Obviously, a massive company like AOL can get a higher quality of speaker, and they struck gold with Erik. What makes Erik so great is that he is blind, and among other things, a rock climber. His feats include reaching Everest’s summit. Pretty amazing.

If that was not interesting enough on its own, Erik showed a new technology called BrainPort allowing visually impaired people “sight”. A textured mouth piece is placed on the tongue of the user. Cameras worn by the user translate video into a sort of pixelated image that is then translated into the texture of the mouth piece. The texture triggers signals to the brain that are then interpreted as visuals. I envision it to be like those pin art toys you see at Spenser gifts, etc.

A video on the device can be seen on the Brain Port Website. From the video “Your brain is what really sees not your eyes. When your eye’s don’t work, you create another portal into your brain”. In the video, Erik can be seen retrieving objects with confidence and even discerning numbers. Very cool.

Other therapies have been researched including “seeing through your skin” but the BrainPort technology makes a lot of sense and seems similar to the development of smart prosthetic limbs using nerve connections.

My thought is that your brain is like the CPU of a computer (usually the metaphor is reversed). Your input devices and peripherals are your sensory organs (eyes, ears, skin, etc). These are connected to your brain through nerves and chemical paths within the brain. The devices (eyes for example) detect an object (say a lovely member of the opposite sex) and send a signal to the brain to process it. Your brain receives the signal and processes as needed (perhaps sending signals to other parts of the body). Visually impaired people typically have a problem with only their eyes (the sensory device) yet their brain and nerves are fine. We have not yet been able to simply replace eyes (like you would with a broken scanner), but, as seen with BrainPort, perform a similar function using a different set of tools (perhaps using a digital camera in the computer metaphor).

Lots of interesting bits come to mind (synaesthasia, phantom limbs, etc), but I’ll save that for another day. Have a great weekend. Hopefully, you have enjoyed my posts this week.

Interesting Bit of the Day – Dyson Trees and Stuff the Orbits Other Stuff

blainegarrett — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:04:51 +0000

Wheat in space - Nasa.gov

Today’s interesting bit of the day is an old favorite of mine – Dyson Trees. Dyson Trees were proposed by physicist Freeman Dyson as a means of creating atmospheric conditions on comets. The comet would provide the minerals and water for the tree to grow and the tree in turn would produce atmospheric gasses. This was all theoretical, but presumably is highly doable using available technologies.

The interesting bit about them is that they are proposed to grow as a sort of “shell” around the comets. Theoretically, the diameter of the comet is significantly smaller than that of the Earth. Since the earth is so large, trees here seem to grow perpendicular to the surface. In actuality, they radiate from the center like spokes on a bike. With the relatively small size of the comet, the trees could easily cover the surface of the comet to form a visual shell of foliage. Think of it like a chia-pet comet…. pet rock.

This inspires two thoughts:

Aside from the seeds themselves, the conditions exist for life in space on comets similar to that of primitive earth. Some theories suggest that elemental chemicals that helped create life on our planet originated from comments that crashed here. Given the proper comet and the introduction of organic material in the form of the tree and the oxygen it produces, higher forms of life could theoretically evolve in a sort of celestial petri dish flying through space. Can you imagine “catching” a comet, planting some seeds, letting it continue its orbit towards the sun, then catching it on the way back and harvesting a few years worth of growth? Heck, Haley’s comet could give us a forest of 75 year old lumber pending Einsteins’ theory of relativity.

The other interesting thought is making use of the gravitational forces in play with comets. Comets have their own gravity, which would allow for satellites and also are greatly affected by other bodies gravity which allows for transport. Short of building our own DeathStar, having a structure in space large enough to have even minimal gravity and mobility to support satellites would be a massive undertaking. Making use of comets could be a great way of energy harvesting. Dyson already proposed this as well in the form of Dyson Spheres basically networks of satellites encompassing a celestial body for various purposes, including atmosphere trapping and solar energy harvesting. In the same aforementioned harvesting method above, comets could be fitted with solar panels, shot towards the sun, and the electricty could be harvested on the return trip. Pretty awesome in my opinion.

I propose that things of this nature are not far off. It seems like space exploration and colonization is something moving at a very slow pace compared to consumer technology. However, it has only been 40 years since anyone even stepped foot on another world and we have since made leaps in energy generation, space flight, etc. I would love for one day to carve my initials in a Dyson Tree and I think it is probable. If the US is to again lead in space exploration and development, we need to get more kids interested in these things, which is part of the reason I do these posts. I hope it works

Interesting Bit of the Day – Peter Principle

blainegarrett — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:38:06 +0000

A special thanks to David Hauser for finding this one…

The Peter Principle is a concept developed Lawrence J Peter in the 60s as a bit of office humor that states that all employees get promoted higher and higher until they attain a position which they are not suitable for and thus do not get promoted further. Another way to look at it is “If you are not currently in a position which you are incapable of doing, expect further promotion.” Originally humor, this has since been entertained as legitimate observation of the corporate world as well as abstracted to other areas. Read the full concept.

This was interesting for me for a few reasons. I have seen this a lot in most of the jobs I have worked – from Grocery Stores to Universities to Non-Profits to Conglomerates. Essentialy, everyone wants to further their own career – be it for power or a better quality of life. Perhaps it is the Idiocracy of the system: if enough of the upper escehelon gets eroded by incompetence, even the most minimally competent person will like like a genius. This leads me to another interesting concept in the “Related Links” of the Peter Principle -”Negative Selection“. This concept suggests that political Dictators will stock their staff with the people least capable of reamoving him or her from power. This then trickles down through each lower position until you have a pyramid of leadership that is based on complete and utter incompetence. No wonder Dictatorships seldom work.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed these finds. I am hoping to post something interesting/educational daily to help combat stupidity in our world. Feel free to email me with links you think should be posted.

Get Well Chi

blainegarrett — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:02:49 +0000

The week I was sick saw a few black marks on history – Michael Chriton Died of cancer and Chi Cheng, bassist for one of my favorite bands, was involved in a serious car accident.

“Chi is one of the strongest people I know, and I’m praying that his strength will get him through this,” Moreno added in a note on the Deftones’ blog. “Please say a prayer for him as well.”

The Deftones posted an update on his condition – “serious but stable”. Get better man. You’re in my thoughts.

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Interesting People – Franz Reichelt – the falling man

blainegarrett — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:31:28 +0000

Thanks to Nathan on the Podcaust forums, I discovered another interesting person today – Franz Reichelt. Reichelt was an Austrian tailor that was only famous for the manner in which he died – he leaped from the Eiffel Tower demonstrating his jacket, which is somewhat like the modern day parachute suits. However, they really only perfected the concept in recent years.

I like this guy because he jumped head first into uncertain death in hopes of progress. I wouldn’t say this guy deserves a Darwin Award, but rather an honorable mention for all those who didn’t quite become famous for sacrificing themselves in the name of advancing the human experience.

More commentary here.

Check out the video below:

Interesting Ideas : Documentary Hypothesis

blainegarrett — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:17:53 +0000

Last night before bed, I conducted in my not-unusual practice of ODing on Wikipedia. I don’t know where I started nor where I ended, but somewhere in between, I got on to reading about the Old Testament of the Bible. I am in no way shape or form a biblical scholar, nor do I aim to be, but I do sometimes think about the historical context to things… sometimes of which is the bible. I didn’t read the Davinci Code, but around the time of all the hubub regarding it, as well as the references in HBO’s Carnivale series, I got somewhat interested in Gnostic texts – specifically why these texts were not part of the bible, yet others were. Additionally, why do Islam, Judaeism, and Christianity essentially share the same old Testements, but only “essentially” (i.e. some differences and texts left out or included). To be fair, I have not given this much thought outside of “huh, that is kinda weird” and then go back to doing whatever I was doing.

However, last night, I read quite a few of the articles related to the Documentary Hypothesis and it was pretty interesting. So, if you have ever been interested in the context of the bible, give the below a read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_Hypothesis

A November to Dismember – Crypticon MPLS

blainegarrett — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:38:52 +0000

I picked up a copy of Vita.MN today to see an ad for Crypticon Minneapolis running Novemeber 14th – 16th. I am not a convention kiddo, but afte Toni and I were set on going to CONvergence and then couldn’t at the last minute due to the 4th O’ July holiday, I sorta have an inikling to go. I think I subconciously added it to my list of things to do before I die. So… anyone want to go see the guy that played the bunny in Donny Darko, a couple incarnations of Jason, the master of disguise Doug Jones (fish guy in Hellboy, Pan, Silver Surfer, etc), or just some horror groupies?

Official Website, Myspace

Amazing Alan Moore Video – Thanks Miki!

blainegarrett — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:13:55 +0000

My buddy Miki sent me an amazing Alan Moore video today on the Facebook. I watched it on an off over the workday today and have to say that I think it jolted me back on to my path I seemed to have strayed from. I have never known a whole lot about Alan Moore aside from that he wrote the original comics for that piece of crap movie “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and that he resented the film adaptation of “V for Vendetta”. I guess I blew him off as a comic cook like Frank Miller has seemed to become. However, this video changed my mind about that… and reminded me a wee bit of who I used to be.

An Evening with Aldous Huxley

blainegarrett — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:46:44 +0000

I had the pleasure of listening to a recording of Aldous Huxley from 1962. Huxley, a visionary speaker and thinker predating the 60s hippy movement was a leader in predicting the social control that is all the rage in counter culture thought even today. It reminds me of some dialog in THE MIST, where the people trapped in the grocery store discuss the potential impending violence among the captives. They argue the good nature of people vs. the psychotic fickle nature of man when all the social safety precautions are removed. The MIST wasn’t a movie about Terrorism, but still commented on the fear imposed when you are exposed to the
unknown terror. Huxley, in this speech, describes the potential to pacify the populous in order to prevent such behavior. Perhaps, this is why we find movies like the Mist so interesting, because what would most of us do in the face of terror when all the safety measures of the military, medical system, etc are unavailable – caused by Terrorists or monsters from another dimension. Perhaps, the mist in the Mist, is a commentary on the veil hiding the inner workings of the controls in place. I think I need to read Brave New World.

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