Welcome to Mike.GastonFamily.org
Home Photos Archives Subscribe
|
Welcome to Mike.GastonFamily.org Home Photos Archives Subscribe |
Explore the sky - ...with Google EarthWith Earth's new Sky feature, you can:
- Zoom in to distant galaxies and nebulae
- View constellations and the movements of the planets
- Learn about the lifecycle of a star and different kinds of galaxies
- Create and share your own imagery, placemarks and more
—Mike @ 11:12
Fiddling with Time - I managed to knock 17 years off my biological age, and add 17 years to my life expectancy by using the Real Age Calculator... check it out!We know that lifestyle choices, habits, and health issues affect the quality and span of our lives. This program approximates REAL age by asking 34 questions related to known health factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, etc.
Real Age, sometimes called health age, is a formula to calculate health risk factors to determine length of life and vitality. The results are only approximations. The science of aging cannot predict all events of one's life. It simply averages the lifespan of persons with known conditions.Labels: medical
—Mike @ 11:00
Riveting coverage - As part of WCBS Newsradio 40th anniversary this summer, they have posted quite a collection of videos, photos and sound files, including this one of live coverage of the first half-hour of the events the morning of 9/11/01. We were away on vacation in Montana at the time; it's amazing to hear how it all unfolded.Labels: radio
—Mike @ 01:39
102 years later, still shining brightly - Check out the story of this light bulb from 1905 that's still working just fine, thank you. (And wonder at what technology could do if not for planned obsolescence.)
—Mike @ 10:33
Shore picnic -About a week ago, Veronica's cousin Stephanie and Don invited us to stay overnight at their brand new shore house, which dovetailed nicely into their hosting the annual family picnic the following day. About 20 of us enjoyed a beautifully sunny, if slightly cool August day on the water and on Don's sailboat.
Meanwhile, I got to play around with my new camera, so here's the first published batch of results. Click the picture above to view the photo album, or click below to see one of the videos from that day.Labels: family, photos, videos
—Mike @ 22:51
As high as an elephant's eye -
Or in this case, as high as an elephant ear plant. It's been one very wet summer, and it's just amazing how happy Veronica's summer garden is, when provided nearly unlimited rainfall. The elephant ear plant in particular is out of control, and everything else is growing sky high too!
—Mike @ 23:16
A universal communications device - Technology is changing so rapidly, especially in the area of communications, that hardware is having a hard time keeping up with the sometimes conflicting trends of obsolescence, convergence and miniaturization. Enter the SDR: software-defined radio, which could conceivably "do the job of all RF gadgets". Additional functionality could be downloaded as needed.Labels: radio, technology
—Mike @ 08:50
100 years of Women In Film - In just a couple of minutes of this morphing video, see how many faces you can recognize. Nicely done.Labels: movies
—Mike @ 07:29
Even Father Time didn't know this one - Did you know you can use your wristwatch as a compass? It never dawned on me that this could be done, but it makes sense, now that I think about it. Kind of like reverse engineering a sundial, which knows the direction and tells you the time. Here you know the time, so you can deduce direction (well, approximately, anyway). Pretty neat. For those of you with digital watches, you'll need to imagine the face of an analog watch first and use that. [Thanks, Steve!]Labels: time
—Mike @ 14:02
Big Sky Country - Since our trip to the Yellowstone area in 2001, I've often told the story of how, driving back through Grand Teton National Park to our hotel one moonless night following dinner, we stopped the car on an empty patch of road, shut off the car's lights, and stepped out to behold the universe above us. Never have I seen such an indescribable sky, where you could almost read by the light of our Milky Way galaxy sprawled across the heavens. There was no way I could capture the image on a camera at the time, much less adequately describe the beauty.
But today, the Astronomy Picture of the Day has done the job for me. Five digital photos of the Grand Teton range set against the grandeur of the overhead sky have been stitched together to form this masterpiece. It looks exactly how I remember it that night: Awesome.
—Mike @ 21:36
Pi Pie - ...is accurate to 50 digits, and looks yummy, too!Labels: haha
—Mike @ 22:40
Offering hope in mine disasters - By next year, inventor and former Navy submarine technician Russell Breeding hopes to have ready an inertial sensor tracking device, a system that uses "microelectro mechanical sensors" to track miners within three meters of their location. With last week's double mining disasters, this would've come in very handy.Labels: currentEvents, technology
—Mike @ 15:12
Outsource your life - Too much stuff to do? Not enough time? Put your chores up for bid, and let other people do your stuff! DoMyStuff.com is an online community where busy people can quickly find Assistants to complete their chores. Interesting idea, anyway.Labels: services
—Mike @ 09:03
Wonderfully inventive - That's how I'd describe the movie Stardust, which opened this week, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Robert De Niro and many new faces. It was very different and magical, with lots of humor thrown in for good measure. I had read a review and synopsis first, and had my doubts, but was pleasantly surprised.Labels: movies
—Mike @ 12:25
Apollo Image Archive - It's going to take about three years to complete but this summer, NASA and Arizona State University have begun scanning and creating an "online digital archive of all the original Apollo flight films" for public download. Great idea. [Thanks, Rob]Labels: space
—Mike @ 12:17
Competition is a wonderful thing - Here's another Wall Street Journal article, this one summarizing the current plans by Toyota and GM to begin using new lithium ion battery technology in their hybrid offerings. The automotive landscape will be undergoing some radical changes in the next two-to-four years.Labels: green power, transportation
—Mike @ 13:28
Already viewed by 8 million people - The once-in-a-lifetime YouTube video, Battle at Kruger, was featured on tonight's premiere of iCaught on ABC. A hapless tourist vacationing in Africa with a video camera he uses only once a year, managed to catch an epic battle between a herd of buffalo, a pride of lions, and a huge crocodile, as they all fight over a baby buffalo. Professional wilderness photographers working for years to capture something half as good for National Geographic can only look on and drool.
—Mike @ 22:29
Things are heating up in plug-in hybrid development - This Wall Street Journal column and video does a good job in summarizing where things stand with the Toyota Prius and the GM Volt, and shows an actual test version of a plug-in Prius. Conversion kits may become readily available before long, and after that... well, things may progress a little faster than anticipated.Labels: green power, transportation
—Mike @ 21:55
Humpty Dumpty - Suicide photo -- story at 11.Labels: haha
—Mike @ 15:49
A different kind of clock - Father Time always find clocks fascinating, and this one's no exception, but some of the data is just a tad frightening. Info provided by various sources, including the World Health Organization, the CIA Factbook, the US Census Bureau, the UN and other official sources.Labels: currentEvents, time
—Mike @ 11:46
Time to renew soon? - Remember the federal donotcall.gov registry, where you may have signed up to keep telemarketers from bombarding your phone? Well, next June it will be about 5 years since the registry was first implemented, and your requests to be included in the registry will expire after 5 years, so you may want to make a note to re-register as your expiration date approaches. Some states also have similar registries, which may have different expiration periods, so it would be good to re-check those from time to time, as well.Labels: services
—Mike @ 10:02
More? - There's additional reading available in the Archives.
Subscribe to this weblog via e-mail:
 |
|
|
