Climbing again

Went down to the Westway climbing centre and got back on plastic for the first time in 18 months or so. Unsurprisingly I was very weak, but somewhat surprisingly my technique wasn't quite that horrible. I think I will stick to top roping and easy routes while I build up my strength again, hopefully without injury. With so long away from climbing I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy it. Climbing is such a focused activity that it allows me to put the stresses and strains of the day behind me, and just enjoy the activity.

Technorati Tags: climbing

Its snowing

nicely too, will post some more pictures later. Update: Its Meeeeeeelting.

Cool messenger bike video

This should give you a little insight into riding in the big city. Very nicely made, not sure about rollerblading still. There is also a colour version on youtube here:

IMified

IMified is a great instant messaging bot that lets you post to your favourite web services from your favourite IM service. I can see myself posting quick bolg entries this was as its much faster than going through Wordpress. IMified.com

Fakenger, moi?

Article on Moving Target, a bike messenger zine/blog about Fakengers.

You know what I mean: Bianchi Pista or a Specialized Langster; SIDIs that haven’t been scuffed or Converse that haven’t been repaired with parcel tape; a Chrome bag that’s still water-proof or a brightly coloured Crumpler; no radio or holster on the strap, only a mobile phone holder or an MP3 player; black Campy hat with a rainbow stripe that has an unbroken peak; a spoke-card from an Alleycat a friend gave them; clean Dickies; no sweat-stains on the t-shirt.

Lets go though the checklist:

1. Specialized langster, Tick, though black taped and somewhat customized.
2. Chrome bag, Tick, still wearing it in.
3. SIDI shoes, nope
4. no radio, Tick
5. black campy hat, nope
6. Spoke card, nope

Hmmm, looks like I pretty much fit the profile, better get those legs in shape there is only one thing worse than being a fakenger and thats being a fat slow one. To be honest I am surprised how long it has taken for the messenger style to be co-opted by the mainstream. Most of the other sub-cultures were assimilated long ago, BMX, skateboarding etc. Though just as with those cultures, if you are a part of them it's not difficult to tell the fakers from the real thing. Link

Leaden Legs

I rode back from my brothers house in East London to Richmond yesterday afternoon and my slightly competitive nature lead me to get into a race down the embankment with a kiwi rider. I just about managed to cling on to his slipstream as we tore down the Embankment, riding single speed is great up to the point that your legs just can't spin any faster. During this high speed pursuit I came to the realisation that I have just been cruising of late on my bike. Just going comfortably along, not pushing at all. I can ride much much quicker it just hurts and requires of each pedal stroke that I actually put some effort into it. With my new office being in East London and the commute from Richmond being fairly substantial its about time I started getting in shape, don't want o get schooled by riders day and night on the commute. Interestingly enough he was from Hamilton, where I will be in a couple of short weeks for my good friend Dan's wedding. With a population of only 155,800, there are a surprising number of Hamiltonians in London. Blair, Pete I am looking at you.

Fantastic folding chair

This chair is a fantastic piece of design. It expands accordion like to a very surprisingly large size and collapses down to virtually nothing. It certainly appears useable at least in some of the configurations. I am very curious about what actually is joining the elements in the chair to give it that degree of flexibility and stability. Watch the video for the full effect.

Monster Potato/Tennis Ball Canon

I really want to play with this, much more fun that the spud guns we had as kids. The damage it can do with tennis balls has to be seen to be believed.
Potato Gun / Tennis Ball Launcher - video powered by Metacafe

Sounds of the worlds animals

One of the silly conversations you can have with foreigners is discussing what sounds animals make in their language. Not all cats say meow across the world. Thanks to the internets you no longer have to meet anyone from another country to discover what strange noises their otherwise familiar animals make. Here for example is dog from around the world.

Afrikaans: woef Albanian: ham ham / hum hum Arabic (Algeria): haw haw Bengali: ghaue-ghaue Catalan: bup, bup Chinese (Mandarin): wang wang Croatian: vau-vau Danish: vov Dutch: woef English: bow wow, arf, woof, ruff ruff English (Old English): Hund byrcð. Esperanto: boj Estonian: auh Finnish: hau hau /vuh vuh French: ouah ouah German: wau wau, wuff wuff Greek: gav Hebrew: haw haw (/hav hav) Hindi: bho:-bho: Hungarian: vau-vau Icelandic: voff Indonesian: gonggong Italian: bau bau Japanese: wanwan, kyankyan Korean: mung-mung (/wang-wang) Norwegian: voff / vov-vov Polish: hau hau Portuguese (Portugal): au au au (nasal diphthong) Portuguese (Brazil): au-au Russian: gav-gav Slovene: hov-hov Spanish (Spain, Argentina): guau guau Swedish: vov vov Thai: hoang hoang (with falling tone) Turkish: hav, hav Ukrainian: haf-haf Vietnamese: wau wau

Personally I am a little worried by any dog that goes mung-mung More here via neatorama

Vehicular Pinball

Just left Portland and not really surprised by the lack of winter driving skill shown in this video. Fortunately our road never really got this bad, and we left the car in the driveway anyway.
Via: VideoSift

Remarkable colour photos from 1900's russia

Long before colour emulsion was available Prokudin-Gorskii used colour filters with black and white glass plates to create vivid colour images. These images could be shown using a three colour lantern, something like this. he US Library of Congress has an exhibition of his work using digital techniques to reassemble the individual red green and blue slides into vivid photographs. You can see many of the remarkable images on their website: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ The images are a fascinating insight into imperial Russia prior to the Russian revolution.

Cafeinated Doughnuts

The invention of caffeinated doughnuts has improved the efficiency of my morning routine by 50%, impressive inventing Doctor Robert Bohannon .

Back in the UK

After a hectic week or two of leaving the USA I am finally back in the U.K. A big thanks to all the people that made my stay in there fantastic yet again. Going to miss you all here in England. I managed to get my packing just about spot on with both bags weighing in at the maximum 32kg. Can someone explain why you get so much more baggage allowance flying to the States than flying to Asia. Weather is much the same here as in Portland, but the feel is quite different somehow. Have already rebuilt my bike and will be riding with new saddle, looks amazing will see how it rides later today.

Life as multimedia presentation

Its a pretty hard one to explain, but there are some very amusing diagrams rendered beautifully with motion graphics and linked with a great voiceover. It's just under 4 minutes, fantastically creative and occasionally thought provoking. Via Presentation zen

tin foil boat floating on invisible gas.

This youtube video shows a boat made of tin foil floating on top of Sulfur hexafluoride gas. Hexafluorid is five times denser than air, hence the boat floating on it. Fantastic demonstration. Via boing boing

Octopus Camouflage

I may have posted about this before, but this video shows just how amazing Octopi are at changing colour.

The secret behind (octopuses') color capability is special skin cells called chromatophores. Each chromatophore consists of three bags of pigment. By squeezing or expanding the bags, octopuses can change the color displayed by each cell, allowing millions of subtle combinations. And since each cell is controlled separately, they can create remarkably sharp displays. In addition, reflective coatings under the cells help enhance the effect.

This actually sounds quite similar to the method used by some of the e-ink designs.

All good except the turkish delight

Sir Richard Burton, sounds like a fantastic guy to have at your next dinner party. Of course he did introduce Turkish delight so it's not all positive.

He was the first non-Muslim to make a successful pilgrimage to Mecca posing as one of the faithful, and the first to penetrate the ancient kingdom of Harar, in Somalia. He was the first Westerner to discover Lake Tanganyika, in an attempt to find the source of the Nile. He served as a spy in peacetime India and as an officer in the Crimean War. He prospected for gold in Egypt, West Africa, and Brazil. He wrote what is thought to be the best book on sword fighting of the nineteenth century. He introduced the word “safari” into the English language and is said to have introduced Turkish delight [a candy consisting of jellylike cubes] to Europe. He was one of the earliest translators of the Kama Sutra and of the Arabian Nights, and he also wrote poems in the manner of the classics of Arabic literature. … Explorer, anthropologist, linguist, erotologist, universal genius - [he] could easily have turned up as a character in a Joseph Conrad novel. - Joseph Epstein, New Yorker (11/23/98) Via the ever excellent Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society

No more loud commercials

One of the things that really annoy me when watching TV is how loud the adverts are relative to the program you are watching. I have to grab the remote and turn the TV down every time the damn ads come on. Thankfully someone else has spotted this and they work for dolby.

models how humans perceive audio to finally eliminate variable loudness when changing channels or programs, without disruptive audio artifacts.

Via adfreak

Royal Mail Still Rocks

The Royal mail managed to deliver this letter with only the above map and a name. That is great service. I do particularly like the "SOMEWHERE HERE" annotation. It took nine days which is roughly the time it takes a first class letter these days.

Mr T, Stylin!

This video of Mr-T makes me wonder how civilization made it through the 80's. The music alone is enough to destroy a small countries culture.

Thanks M