Have you ever wanted to embed a 3-dimensional graphic into your report that can be rotated, zoomed, and manipulated in almost any way imaginable?
Now you can! Using the movie15 package, its as simple as adding a normal Latex figure [almost].
[See http://www.astrobetter.com/ post on March 7th]
(unless you are trying to do observational astronomy).
I was surprised that this apparently hasn’t been on our blog, maybe some of you haven’t seen it yet (it created quite a buzz in early January)? London’s Story Box Productions time lapse video of London at night really surprised me, I think of the YXU as such a small town but it looks like a Megopolis at night. Excellent soundtrack by Erwin Steijlen is a great match as well.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDKXXv60-7E?wmode=transparent]
Host of CBC’s award winning radio show Quirks & Quarks Bob McDonald weights in on the PEARL closing, stating that the closing “has once again lowered this country’s environmental reputation on the world scene.”
Please read this on the Purple Crow Lidar Blog, as I thought it a better location for it. The blog piece is entitled:
Why Canadians should care about the closure of the PEARL Observatory
http://blog.purplecrowlidar.ca/why-canadians-should-care-about-the-closure-o
It’s not a feel-good story.
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street…
Hopefully Phil (and Willie) are safe today. Maybe they’ll tell us when winter is going to start!
So check this out: http://funnymike.posterous.com/creative-artist-makes-artworks-with-gps-maps
This guy from Baltimore, Michael Wallace, uses his GPS to create art using the waypoint information! Check out his images. I ride and run with a GPS watch all the time but never thought to get creative with my routes to this extreme.
It’s funny, you can buy the hardware to do this for about what you would spend on art supplies to make traditional drawings!
And a good time to mention that GPS is the only practical application of special relativity I know of. Without the time corrections required by the special theory the GPS satellite system would be useless.
You are constantly bombarded with propaganda convincing you the Tim Horton’s is the warm-hearted little guy coffee maker for the people while rich people with money to burn go to Starbucks. While it is true that my Bob-Bodum-brewed cup of morning Kona is cheaper and much better than either, if you can’t roll your own I argue save money and go to Starbucks.
Huh? No, this has nothing to do about Tim’s changing the cup sizes around. Let’s compare the brews under the following assumption: we are drinking coffee for the caffeine. Taste is subjective, but caffeine is caffeine and if this isn’t a prime reason most of us are coffee drinkers, then I invite you to have a big mug of Joe right before bed. Ok, Mrs. Sica can do that but most of us can’t. And study after study shows that overall coffee has mostly positive health benefits.
So, a 20 oz Timmie’s (which I believe is now called a Large) is about $1.60 and has about 200 mg of caffeine. A Starbuck’s Venti is the same size and will set you back like $2.10, but has about 400 mg of caffeine. There you go, 25% more coin for a Bucky for 2x the buzz. Which coffee is the bargain!
Just found out that in comparing these numbers remember: your mileage may vary. Here’s an interesting story from NPR in the States about the large variations in caffeine content: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6155178. For instance:
The study also found that Starbucks’ caffeinated breakfast blend, purchased at a Florida store, varied greatly in its caffeine content from day to day. One day, a 16-ounce cup had 259 milligrams of caffeine. Another day, the same size coffee contained 564 milligrams.
So given the error my initial reaction was to be safe and bring a thermos, but the article argues that more like 100 mg might be a optimum dose. Since they are still working on my new office here, maybe I can get them to plumb in some lines for a proper espresso maker so I can spread out my daily buzz!
