Tag Archives: fun

Friday Fun: Amazing Goal

This amazing goal illustrates what is possible with an amazing football (soccer) player and some physics.

Friday Fun: Cats and Kids with iPads

So usable 2 year olds and cats can use them. Fun. Apple sold 500,000 in the first week and demand has outstripped their capacity to produce so they are delaying the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. Google is rumored to have a similar device based on their open Android operating system. Let the games begin. I must admit the iPad seems fun but it seems mainly like hype to me. But I can believe tablet-netbooks could evolve into very cool and popular devices.

Cat Fun: Rocky the Standing Cat

This cat can stand straight up for a long time. And it is a real cat not a Meerkat 🙂

VidÃ©o du chat qui se tient debout: “Il s’appelle Rocky et il sait aussi s’asseoir” (as translated by Google):

“His name is Rocky, he is 2 years old,” said Daisy.
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“He started doing this about a year,” says Daisy. “Now it does more too because I rearranged the furniture, but when I made the video last fall, he could not see out the window if it did not make sense . But the window overlooking the rooftops, where there are often birds. So he gets up. ”

[why does Rocky move his arms in the middle of the video]?
“Maybe he wanted to rest, but waived them, or perhaps there was a bird “, launched Daisy. “Sometimes when he sees a dog growls, so perhaps there was one.”

University of Wisconsin-Stout Wins 2010 Rube Goldberg Contest

University of Wisconsin-Stout wins 2010 Rube Goldberg contest

The team’s machine was called “Valley of the Kings” and had an Egyptian theme, telling a tale of events following the death of King Tut.

The task for the Rube Goldberg machines this year was to dispense sanitizer into a hand. Wisconsin-Stout’s machine dispensed the sanitizer into a mummy’s hand. The Rube Goldberg competition, sponsored by Phi Chapter of Theta Tau fraternity, rewards machines that most effectively combine creativity with inefficiency and complexity.

Machines must use at least 20 steps to complete the task in no more than two minutes. Teams have three tries to complete two runs. Points are deducted if students have to assist the machine once it has started. The Wisconsin-Stout machine has 120 steps. The team completed two perfect runs with no interventions in about a minute and a half each.
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St. Olaf’ College of Northfield, Minn., last year’s national winner, took second place with a medieval-themed machine. Pennsylvania State University placed third with an “Indiana Jones” theme.

Robot Playing Table Tennis

This video shows the robot has a ways to go to become a decent ping pong opponent. But progress is being made. How soon before I can have fun competing with some robot basketball players?

TOPIO can play table tennis with human beings. It has a head, two hands and six legs. It can hit the ball, calculate scores and express feelings upon losing or winning a game. Four high-speed cameras help TOPIO identify the trajectory of the ball and accurately return shots. TOPIO knows how to hit an incoming ping pong ball when it has traveled only 20 cm from the opponents paddle.

The made-in-Vietnam robot TOPIO captured special attention at the International Robot Exhibition (IREX) held in Tokyo in late 2007.

Snow Leopard Playing in the Snow in Ohio

Photo by Karen Schiely/Akron Beacon Journal

While many people were getting tired of the massive snowfall over the last week others are having fun, including some animals having Snow fun at the Akron Zoo

Shanti, a 1-year-old snow leopard that took up residence at the Akron Zoo last fall, thinks the snowfall and subfreezing temperatures are great fun, said David Barnhardt, director of marketing and guest services.

”It may be one of her first snowfalls,” Barnhardt said of the youngster that came to the zoo from The Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Mich. ”She’s literally doing back flips,” he said.
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Also taking advantage of the snow and a respite from zoo visitors were red pandas, who thoroughly enjoyed playing outside, Barnhardt said.

My furnace chose the start of this snowfall, to break so I am surviving a few days without central heating. Doing so reminds me of the conveniences I take for granted – like being warm in the winter. It also makes me think that it would be nice to have fur like a snow leopard for a few days.
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10 Simple Science Tricks for Parties

Fun video by Richard Wiseman on his top 10 science stunts for Christmas parties.

Zubbles – Get Your Colored Bubbles

photo of blue colored bubble.

I first posted on this in 2005: Colored Bubbles. Now you can order your own via Zubbles. Colored Bubbles Have Landed (and Popped and Vanished)

Having solved the colored bubble dilemma, we spent most of 2006 trying to refine our dyes and the manufacturing process. We had invented several completely new dyes and a few derivatives of existing dyes. But the manufacturing process was long, tedious and expensive. It took three days just to make a few grams of each dye. It quickly became apparent that we needed to radically streamline the production process in order to have a viable product.
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The complexities of the chemistry resembled a pharmaceutical more than a toy. So I enlisted the help of Gary Willingham, and the Belgium development team, at Fisher Scientific. Fisher is a pharmaceutical chemical manufacturer with the equipment and expertise needed to manufacture tons of our dyes.
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Due to the complexities of the chemistry, Jamm decided to stay close to the production process and manufacture Zubbles in the US. The first bottles rolled off the line this week. Jamm presented me with the very first case of Zubbles. And it was a very strange feeling to finally hold the product in my hand—15 years after I mixed my first batch of dishwashing detergent and food coloring.

Being an entrepreneur is a challenge any time. When your product requires complex science and engineering that adds additional challenges. It is great to see this product is now available.

Friday Fun: Bird Mimics Other Birds and More

The lyre bird, not only mimics the calls of other birds, buy also man made noises such as cameras, saws and chainsaws, in an attempt to impress potential mates. David Attenborough narrates the above clip.

Web Gadget to View Cell Sizes to Scale

Image of cell size gadget from University of Utah

The Genetic Science Learning Center, University of Utah has a nice web gadget that lets you zoom in on various cells to see how large they are compared to each other. Above see a red blood cell, x chromosome, baker’s yeast and (small) e-coli bacterium.

A red blood cell is 8 micron (micro-meter 1/1,000,000 of a meter). E coli is 1.8 microns. Influenza virus is 130 nanometers (1/1,000,000,000 a billionth of a meter). Hemoglobin is 6.5 nanometers. A water molecule is 275 picometers (1 trillionth of a meter).