Beautiful Indian (?) houseboats

Northumberland, England boatsheds

Original: craschworks - comments

nerd-bender - noun, staying up all night researching some fool project that has little to do with your true long term goals, but which is exceeding cool in it’s own right. For example, designing a recumbent diesel/electric hybrid motorcycle. Or a seaworthy ferrocement skullship. Or a tele-operated robotic teddy bear who rides around on a robotic lady bug.

Original: craschworks - comments

On Friday, I went to a “Member Appreciation” party at the TechShop in Menlo Park. Got to talk for a long time with Jim Newton, the founder of the company. He came across as you might expect — geeky, enthusiastic, and smart. He showed me his 1971 M35A2 Military Troop/Cargo Truck “Deuce and a Half”, with a 478 CID Turbo-Diesel Multi-Fuel Engine. He said that the engine could burn almost any fuel, including gasoline that had been sitting for 10 years.

We talked about the growing pains that TechShop was having. Tech Shop is getting so big that he can no longer have direct control over its operations. So he wants to be able to grow the company, while maintaining quality, without introducing a heavy hierarchical structure. I pointed him to Paul Graham’s Y Combinator, and Gore and Associates, as companies that he might want to look into as models for his company.

On Saturday, I met for dinner with Razib of Gene Expression, and Eric Boyd of X Prize Cars at Shalimar’s in San Francisco. Shalimar’s turned out to be pretty sketchy (garbage on the floor, dirty tables), so we regrouped at a nearby Moroccan restaurant called Tajine. Tajine’s food was tasty (I had the DAJAJ MEQUALLI), and the restaurant had a nice ambiance (if a bit crowded). I would definitely eat there again.

Afterward, we walked to the AMC Van Ness 14, for the 9:15 showing of Iron Man. We met up with Kim P. and James. H., and Marek. I didn’t get to talk to Kim and James much, unfortunately, but I was able to catch up with Marek a little bit after the company. His company has developed a pen that can write on any surface and transmit what it writes back to a computer. They’ve finished several prototypes, and now they’re looking for the best way to introduce it into the market.

Iron Man was a lot of fun! Best comic book adaptation I’ve seen so far. Jeff Bridges and Robert Downey, Jr. in particular really nailed their roles. I hope Downey, Jr. can stay off the drugs — I’m looking forward to seeing him in more roles.

Original: craschworks - comments

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Anyone want to go see Iron Man? This weekend will probably be a nightmare, so I’m thinking next weekend, Friday or Saturday night. Let me know if you’re interested, and the dates that work best for you.

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…then drop that sucker!

Via atheism.

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Just an FYI, the Maker Faire is this weekend, in San Mateo:

http://makerfaire.com/

“…Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It’s for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things…”

Last year, I saw a robotic giraffe, a flame throwing fire engine, the Neverwas Haul (a steam punk house on wheels), and the Cycle-cide bicycle powered carnival rides, among many other things. It’s great fun. You can see some of my pictures from last year here:

http://crasch.livejournal.com/574331.html#cutid1

I’m planning to go Saturday afternoon, and maybe Sunday. If you’d like to go, let me know, and perhaps we can arrange to meet sometime over the weekend

Original: craschworks - comments

There’s been a lot of seasteading related news recently:

* patrissimo and co. formed a nascent non-profit called The Seasteading Institute and launched a spiffy new website.

* Peter Thiel kicked off the the Seasteading Institute’s fundraising efforts with a $500 K grant.

* TSI has received a healthy amount of coverage, including a blog post at Marginal Revolution, and a long article in Reason magazine.

* NPR aired a news story about Paul van de Camp a Dutch architect who moved to Dubai to pitch his ideas for floating towers and condominiums.

Kudos to Patri and Wayne on their progress!

Original: craschworks - comments

…Machine Girl! (Not Safe For Work or the Squeamish)

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On February 1st, 2008, I weighed 198.6 lbs. I had a 40 inch waist.

As of yesterday, I weighed 180.0 lbs. I now have a 36.5 inch waist.

Which means, that I met the target for my blackmail diet!

Here’s some pictures I took today:

Many thanks to evillinn for agreeing to monitor my progress! And also thanks to Saul Jimenez, proprietor of Peninsula Crossfit, for provide a superb training environment and regimen. And thanks to gentlemaitresse for providing some early support and encouragement.

Some thoughts:

The first few weeks of the diet, I kept a detailed calorie count. However, I eventually slacked off. Nor did I post pictures to my blog as I had planned.

I also did not eat as uniformly as I had planned. I found that too often I wanted to eat out for social reasons, and the scheduled meal was not available at the restaurant of choice. Instead, I ate more variety, but tried to keep to a mostly paleo plan–lots of fruits and vegetables with a generous serving of meat (chicken, fish, beef).

Also, rather than eating less every day, I found it easier to fast one day a week. My typical eating habits were as follows:

Mon - Thurs — lunch plus dinner (with most of the calories at dinner). Lunch consisted typically of a marinated chicken pita from Daphne’s. Dinner would typically be a takeout meal from Whole Foods (teriyaki chicken plus grilled vegetables and asparagus or broccoli). Occasionally, I would splurge, and buy a cookie, or a piece of pie.

Fri - On Fridays and Saturdays, I would fast from Friday morning to Saturday afternoon. Then I would eat more calories than normal on Saturday evening and Sunday during the day. This timing coincided with many of my social activities, so it worked out well.

As for exercise, on Wednesday’s and Saturday’s I would go to an hour long self-defense class. On Tuesday’s and Friday’s, I went to an hour long Crossfit class.

As you might expect, I would often bonk during my Friday Crossfit classes, due to the fasting. But I knew I would be eating heavily on the weekends, so consistent with the Premack principle, I wanted to “do the hard thing first”, then reward myself on the weekend. In the future, I still plan to fast on Friday, but will schedule my time better so that I do Crossfit earlier in the week.

So what next?

As you can see, I’m still carrying a fair amount of flab. I think if I lose another 15 lbs, I’ll be close to as lean as I want to be. So, after a week’s break, I’m going to start another round.

In retrospect, a 1.5 lb/week calorie loss was ambitious. If I had to do it over again, I’d pick a 1 lb/week schedule. So this time, I’ll set the target to be 165 lbs. That’s 18 lbs over 18 weeks, about a 1 lb/week. ( I expect to gain a pound or three during my break. :> ). At that point, I’ll re-evaluate and see if I want to focus on losing more weight, or if I want to emphasize more muscle growth.

Thanks everyone, for all of your advice and encouragement!

Original: craschworks - comments

We do not quibble about the methods by which we practice our First Amendment rights because that is not the point. And red herring arguments about types of ammunition or handguns versus rifles (even scary looking ones) are just that — red herrings. They distract us from what is at the true meaning of the Second Amendment. And that brings me to my final point.

No. 5: The Second Amendment is about revolution.

In no other country, at no other time, has such a right existed. It is not the right to hunt. It is not the right to shoot at soda cans in an empty field. It is not even the right to shoot at a home invader in the middle of the night.

It is the right of revolution.

Let me say that again: It is the right of revolution.
…
This is an appeal to you, my fellow liberals. Not merely to tolerate the Second Amendment, but to embrace it. To love it and defend it and guard it as carefully as you do all the others.

Because we are liberals. And fighting for our rights — for all of our rights, for all people — is what we do.

Because we are revolutionaries.

Via guns

Original: craschworks - comments

…on the set of “Farcry”

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Via madammayo

Las Pozas (the pools), was once home to the eccentric, English aristocrat, Edward James, poet, patron, collector, and architect of this spectacular mountainside monument to surrealist art. A veritable enchanted garden, where some thirty-six enormous, brightly coloured concrete structures vie for space with the lush jungle vegetation that surrounds and threatens to absorb them, located on the outskirts of the town of Xilitla, in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi.
…
A frustrated artist and poet, although he did publish some very passable verse and a bizarre novel, Edward James was finally able to realise his artistic desires by creating Las Pozas — a work twenty years in the making and still unfinished.

Documentary about his life: Edward James, Builder of Dreams by Avery Danziger

Youtube video. Song is “Witness” by Sarah McLachlan, from her album Surfacing.

Original: craschworks - comments

Via Treehugger

“The 36 foot catamaran, Revelation II, is powered by 3 20-foot long carbon fiber propellers on a 30 foot rotating mast. The windmill transmits power to a 6 blade propeller underwater, with the net result that the boat can make way even directly into the wind.”

The boat was apparently built by Jim Wilkinson who is a member of the AYRS or Amateur Yacht Research Society.

Original: craschworks - comments

Wave powered boat

69-year-old Japanese sailor Ken-ichi Horie will attempt to captain the world’s most advanced wave-powered boat 4,350 miles from Hawaii to Japan. If all goes as planned, he’ll set the first Guinness world record for the longest distance traveled by a wave-powered boat and, along the way, show off the greenest nautical propulsion system since the sail.

At the heart of the record-setting bid is the Suntory Mermaid II, a three-ton catamaran made of recycled aluminum alloy that turns wave energy into thrust. Two fins mounted side by side beneath the bow move up and down with the incoming waves and generate dolphin-like kicks that propel the boat forward. “Waves are a negative factor for a ship—they slow it down,” says Yutaka Terao, an engineering professor at Tokai University in Japan who designed the boat’s propulsion system. “But the Suntory can transform wave energy into propulsive power regardless of where the wave comes from.”

Original: craschworks - comments

Plans Announced for a Wave Power Plant in Hawaii

Oceanlinx, an Australian wave energy company, announced plans for a $20 million project to install three floating wave energy converters (WECs), i.e. wave-powered turbine platforms, to supply up to 2.7MW of electricity to the island of Maui, Hawaii. The company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Renewable Hawaii, Inc. (RHI), for potential passive investment in a project . RHI is owned by the Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc.

The project could be operational by the end of 2009.

Original: craschworks - comments

Nautilus-shaped house built by Senosiain Arquitectos in Mexico City:

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Wind Power That Floats:

Offshore wind-farm developers would love to build in deep water more than 32 kilometers from shore, where stronger and steadier winds prevail and complaints about marred scenery are less likely. But building foundations to support wind turbines in water deeper than 20 meters is prohibitively expensive. Now, technology developers are stepping up work in floating turbines to make such farms feasible.

Several companies are on their way to demonstrating systems by borrowing heavily from oil and gas offshore platform technology. In December, the Dutch floating-turbine developer Blue H Technologies launched a test platform off Italy’s southern coast; last month, the company announced its plans to install an additional test turbine off the coast of Massachusetts, and possibly begin constructing a full wind farm off the Italian coast, next year. Close behind is SWAY, based in Bergen, Norway, which raised $29 million last fall and plans to field a prototype of its floating wind turbine in 2010.

Via futurepundit

Original: craschworks - comments

Via plantgirl. Click photo for more. Art by Brian Dettmer.

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