Ned Gulley's Blog. Resident buzzwords: wise crowds, accelerated design, swarm robotics, synthetic biology.
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 15th, 2011
I once saw a documentary about skyscrapers where the architect says, “It’s not that hard to make a 100 story building. You just need to make a one story building 1500 feet up in the air, and the rest is easy.” Sometimes it’s easy to miss where the real work is. Makani Power is a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 10th, 2011
The Eleonora Maersk is one of the very biggest ships in the world. At 1300 feet long (the Titanic was a mere 880), it can carry 15000 twenty foot trailers. And how big is the crew for the Eleonora? As explained in this Economist post, the answer is 19. Shortly after reading this, I happened [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 1st, 2011
Quadcopters are the hottest thing going in radio-controlled aircraft. Everybody wants one, partly because they’re new and crazy-looking, but mostly because of the insane stuff they can do. Until very recently, our mental image of a helicopter has been a thing with a single great rotor on top. But as it turns out, quadcopters have [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 27th, 2011
Backpacking is appealing partly because it forces you to simplify. You consume only what you can carry on your back, and for the most part it’s a low-tech experience. But even if you can be pried away from your phone, iPod, and GPS device, there’s a big chunk of the petrochemical industrial complex you take [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 21st, 2011
My brother-in-law Joe sent me this one. Pulaski Academy is a high school in Arkansas that punches above its weight when it comes to football. Part of the secret of their success is their unconventional game play. Here’s an example. On September 9th, the Pulaski Bruins played the Cabot Panthers. They scored on their first [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 19th, 2011
I saw this video of dancing quadrocopters, and it made me think of the new sport of synchronized indoor skydiving. Or as I prefer to call it, upside down square dancing. You’ll notice they got the music all wrong. Just mute the volume on this video and open up Turkey in the Straw in another [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 12th, 2011
In the early days of aviation, airports would paint their name in big letters on the roof of the terminal. Incoming aircraft had few navigational aids at the time, so turning the territory into something resembling a map was a clever expedient. I like the fact that nobody on the ground ever saw the sign. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 27th, 2011
Lots of people in high latitudes get to look up at the aurora borealis (or australis as the case may be). But it’s a rare soul who gets to look down on the aurora. Imagine looking out your window and seeing this boiling phosphorescent sea. Good day to be an astronaut! I was going to [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 21st, 2011
In an age where everything is abundant and colorful noise presses in from all sides, what’s scarce is scarcity. Silence, clarity, focus. If there is an economy of attention, then focus is its currency. They should teach college classes on focus. The lab would occur on meditation cushions. I’ve heard stories about how, during exams, [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 15th, 2011
Look at this video. Don’t miss the part around 2:15 where they zoom in on the squid skin. For years I’ve seen these amazing videos of squids and octopuses showing how rapidly they can change color, but I never had any clear idea how they accomplished it. It’s amazing to see the restless, boiling appearance [...]
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