Scene from Sunshine

Aside from the original Night of the Living Dead, I full on loathe zombie films. The plots are always the same, a virus (or magic) turns people into perpetual-motion flesh eating things. Big whoop.

That was until the independent film 28 Days Later came out and reinvented zombies. Only these weren’t walking-dead, these were people infected with super-hyper-rabies cubed. And they didn’t want to eat your flesh, they wanted to puke blood on you to spread the virus. And it had an intelligent plot with terrific characters trying to survive and keep their humanity, instead of just lining then up to die in variously gory ways. (Note: The sequel, 28 Weeks Later, was an unintelligent film that did just line up characters to die in variously gory ways.)

So when I heard Director Danny Boyle and Writer Alex Garland were teaming up again to make a hard-core Science Fiction film, Sunshine, I was peeing my pants with excitement–only the high-budget thriller wasn’t being shown within a 200 mile radius of where I lived. You would think that Cinema Multi-plexis with a bazillion screens each a little bigger than a TV could let this film grace at least one of them, but no, so sorry, having 10 screens to show another Shrek film is more important than selection.

This afternoon I rented Sunshine, finally released on DVD, and it was well worth the wait. This film is Hard SF, but also a classic horror film that lines up the characters to die in various inventive ways. The deaths are not so much gruesome, but interesting, as characters are fried by the Sun’s heat, frozen in space, etc. etc. Because the victims here are scientists, we don’t experience the same frustrations watching them as we do with the college-kids appearing in most horror films doing stupid things we all know are stupid on their way to becoming monster-fodder.

Instead, we have highly-professional characters who are really smart. So instead of shouting at the screen, “Don’t go into the basement you stupid Cheerleader!!!” you get to yell, “Don’t forget to factor the solar shielding into your calculations when you plot your course adjustments you stupid physicists!”

Okay, not really, actually it’s all the audience can do to keep up with and admire the inventive solutions the characters arrive at to survive. Which is the other cool aspect to having scientists as horror-movie monster-fodder, they don’t take it shrieking. These characters identify the threat and immediately figure out a daring solution, all of them. Even the least courageous of them is still pretty damn courageous.

It’s nice to see a film that doesn’t underestimate the audience’s intelligence, even if the theaters underestimate our desire for intelligent films.

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Warning, the film’s website has plot spoilers right on the front page.

My Legoland Avatar

This free software is available for download, and is a great way to introduce your child to 3-D Modeling software. It’s also free and didn’t cause my computer to explode, so you’ve got nothing to lose by trying it out.

A huge selection of Lego parts are available in the application, which also allows for zooms and 360-degree rotations. In fact, this software is so much like other 3-D design tools I have used, that I started calling it “Lego Cad.”

Once your child has built a model they want to have in real life, they can order the exact parts they need online, and the software will walk the child through the process of assembling their model in real life. Although I haven’t had the opportunity to order any parts through this software, Lego is an established brand, and I don’t have any doubts that they are a safe company to buy from online.

This is software is a really neat toy in and of itself. I had very few problems learning my way around the program, and am confident that most children will fall right into the Lego virtual world, and, like most computer-related things, become better at it than their parents possibly could.

I mentioned it’s free and you don’t have to brave the consumer feeding frenzy at the stores for this last minute gift right?

Lego is also a big-time exercise in imagination too…

Lego Imagination Ad

If you like the above Lego ad, also check out these other creative Lego ads.

When I was in elementary school, there was a huge Rubik’s Cube fad. In addition to the Rubik’s Cube, there was the Jacob’s ladder-like Rubik’s Magic, Barrel, Diamond, and many more. My favorite was the Pyraminx because it was the most complex puzzle I could actually solve on my own.

I am happy to see today that the Rubik’s Cube has made a serious comeback. Speedcubing events are taking place all over the world, and new records are being set regularly. Even so, the Rubik’s Cube as a gift will often be quickly forgotten for most children.

The problem with the Rubik’s cube comes with it’s unsolvability. 99.9% of us are never going to figure it out on our own, and that’s why it’s important to go online and learn how to solve one.

It’s a surprisingly easy thing to do. You only need to memorize six simple Algorithms to Solve a Rubik’s cube. “Algorithm” is a scary word, but it shouldn’t be. An algorithm is simply a set of steps to perform some task. For instance, the directions on a Betty Crocker box are an algorithm for making a cake. You can learn how to solve a Rubik’s Cube in about an hour. That’s pretty amazing when you consider there are forty-three quintillion possible permutations to a Rubik’s Cube.

A Rubik’s Cube is best solved in three layers. The first is super-easy to master, the second involves memorizing two algorithms that are mirrors of one another, and the third is where things get a bit more complex.

The following are pictures of my Rubik’s Cube in various states of completion, solving layers one, two, and three. Just ignore the numbers on the cube, I wrote those on there in permanent ink so I could play sodoku, which prompted a friend to ask me, “Are you that hurting for things to do???”

Rubik’s Cube Scrambled

Rubik’s Cube Layer One

Rubik’s Cube Layer Two

Rubik’s Cube Layer Three

Add a Twist

The following two videos by Dan Brown are the best instructionals I’ve found for learning how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. You’ll need to watch them several times, pausing and rewinding, and write down the algorithms on a cheat sheet for practicing while your waiting in line at the grocery store, on a plane, or ignoring your significant other.

 
How to solve a Rubik’s Cube (Part One)

 
How to solve a Rubik’s Cube (Part Two)

Dan Brown has also got other great videos online, like how to lubricate your Rubik’s Cube using petroleum jelly for speed cubing and other nifty tips.

Rubik’s Cubes are a great way to teach spatial relations. Learning how to solve a Rubik’s Cube only gave me a better appreciation for the puzzle and a better understanding of how the parts worked.

Adding a Sodoku Layer is great way to teach math, but be sure to give the cube a few days for the ink to set, or find a better way to paint the numbers on. Mine keep rubbing off.

If you’ve got a free weekend on your hands, you might want to try making a Rubik’s Cube out of Dice too.

Happy Cubing!

Blade Runner The Final Cut

I watched Blade Runner, The Director’s Cut for the upteenth time Monday, appreciating the film’s flaws, and speculating on which ones Ridley Scott would clean up with the final, digitally-remastered version.

Of course, all the silliness that made the original theatrical release of Blade Runner a total flop would stay on the cutting room floor. The bad narration and pasted in happy ending wouldn’t sully the film, but what about the other items that dated the movie? The strings visible in one scene… The H.R. Geiger background that doesn’t quite fit… The sound overlays that didn’t quite match… how much of this would Ridley Scott fix?

When you can add “esque” to the end of a film’s title, you know it was a breakthrough in filmmaking. Ridley Scott’s story takes place in San Angeles, San Diego and Los Angeles grown into one another, a bit of futurism considered outlandish in 1982, but today is a reality. Akira, Battle Angel Alita, and Ghost in the Shell all model their worlds on Blade Runner’s cinematic style. The film’s philosophical dilemmas were as old as Frankenstein, but the plot devices used to explore them were novel, later appearing in films like A.I. and I, Robot.

The Final Cut was released yesterday, but nowhere in Elizabeth City would carry it and it’s not on Netflix. One kid working at Blockbuster apologized and couldn’t believe they didn’t get at least one copy.

So I scrambled, found a copy, and just finished watching it. It’s Beautiful!!! The special effects are so much clearer, revealing more detail in the city. The sound effects are so much more detailed, so that we can hear Roy whispering to Sebastian as he comes after him in a haunting scene. This is movie that could have come recently, it’s so relevant and it’s style so dateless.

The plot twist is still there, and is still very easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. I’ve never actually met anyone who’s caught it, and only know about it myself from an interview with Ridley Scott, where the director actually came out and explained it.

This is a classic groundbreaking film, and deserves to be in everyone’s film collection.

Plot spoiler!!! (If you’ve never seen ANY version of the film)

Pay attention to Deckard’s dream/waking vision of a unicorn running through the forest, and the origami calling card left for him at the film’s end.

Why would that be there?

Kill-A-Watt

Awhile back I blogged on Blackle.com, a black-background version of google.com that purported to save energy by reducing the amount of light monitors needed to emit to display their page. Researchers confirmed this was true of old, obsolete CRT monitors, but flat screens used more energy to suppress white than display it.

Well, my Kill-A-Watt ($25) arrived in the mail awhile back, and it’s now official. My computer system, running dual flat-screen monitors uses 254 to 255 Kilowatt Hours of electricity to display Google on both screens, and 255 to 256 kilowatt hours to display Blackle on both screens. With both monitors turned off, my computer uses 142 kwh.

You know what else I found? My computer consumes 14 kHz when it’s turned off. After some troubleshooting, I found this was because I leave my speakers on, turning them off reduced my power consumption at this wall socket to zero when not in use.

The Kill-A-Watt is a handy device, and one I’ve returned to regularly in the last couple of months out of curiosity to see how changes to my computer affect its power consumption. It provides several different ways to measure consumption, including a clock that tracks total energy used.

The Kill-A-Watt has also made me a bit more energy conscious, and that’s why I’m recommending it as a gift. It’s a scientific tool that gives me a clearer understanding of how my actions affect the burden I place on the Earth, and the burden I place on my pocketbook when the power bill arrives.

Worldchanging A User’s Guide to the 21st Century

“Happiness demands giving up all hope of a better past.”
– Buddha

I dilly-dallied about checking out this book when it came out last year. Then one day, I happened to pick up an opened copy at the bookstore and immediately fell into profound ionian enchantment with it. This is the kind of book I would normally bounce around, taking it down off the bookshelf every now and then and opening to a random subject to enjoy whatever topic I stumbled upon. I still do that to my now dog-eared copy with its worn binding, but I first read it cover to cover, bibliography and all.

With more than 60 authors, many mainstream and noteworthy, contributing to this tome of a book, fantastic design layout, inspiring photographs, and though-provoking material, it would be a wonder if I didn’t fall in love with it. For 2007, this was my catch-all gift, everyone who got a present from me got this book, and everyone receiving it loved it too.

Worldchanging is the greatest collection of sustainable living innovations ever compiled. Worldchanging introduced me to the Mega Cities Project, which seeks innovative solutions to urban living, NGO-in-a-Box open-source software for managing Non-Governmental Organizations, Solar Energy Products at Real Goods, H₂ouse home water-saving ideas, the United Nation’s World Food Programme free video game where players deliver aid to countries in crisis Food Force, the free International Futures modeling software, Gapminder free software to visualize world development, and numerous other resources online, offline, and within myself. Not to mention, the Worldchanging Website, called the “leading sustainability-focused website on the planet” and has “an archive of 7,600 stories on ecological innovation, breakthrough design and social change.”

Most of all, Worldchanging makes us hopeful about the future. It recognizes the myriad problems the global village faces and places its focus on finding the solutions to them. This is the best DIY book ever. After reading over 500 pages of projects, inventions, lifestyle modifications, and products, you will see the world around you in a whole new light. And a fresh outlook on life is one of the best gifts you can give.

Available at Amazon.

ZomeTool’s connector balls are small rhombicosidodecahedrons

I started playing with Zome Tool after watching the college lecture series Joy of Thinking: The Beauty and Power of Classical Mathematical Ideas on DVD, which required no mathematical background and I highly recommend for anyone interested in learning about why Math totally rocks from a humanistic perspective. I wanted to try out some of the geometrical concepts the lecture series talked about and needed a construction set that would suit this need.

Zome Tool is like an errector set, only incredibly geometrically well thought-out. The vertices, connector balls, for the Zome Tool are small rhombicosidodecahedrons, one of the 13 types of Archmedean Solids (this link has 3-D examples that you can rotate). This means that there are three types of connections for the edges, a pentagon, rectangle, and equilateral triangle; and for this reason, the edge pieces come in three different color-coded types.

The length of these edge pieces are related to one another along the Golden Mean, a proportion found throughout nature, art, and architecture, and one that allowed me to build three interlaced golden rectangles inside an icosahedron.

Icosahedron with Three Interlaced Golden Rectangles

I later added another layer to this, by putting the icosahedron inside the dodecahedron with it’s verticies touching the middle of each of the dodecahedron’s faces.

Also on a Holiday note, check out a Zome Christmas Tree

George’s Secret Key to the Universe

George is a restless child. His parents are well-meaning, but oppressively strict environmentalists. They are so anti-technology, that they won’t even let George have a computer. One day George’s pet pig gets out, leading him to meet his strange next door neighbor Annie.

Annie’s father, Eric, is a scientist, who invites George to join the Order of Scientific Inquiry for the Good of Humanity, and learn about the amazing Universe surrounding him through the most powerful computer in the world, Cosmos, which can open portals in time and space to anywhere in the charted galaxy.

But first George must take The scientist’s Oath:

I swear to use my scientific knowledge for the good of Humanity. I promise never to harm any person in my search for enlightenment.

I shall be courageous and careful in my quest for greater knowledge about the mysteries that surround us. I shall not use scientific knowledge for my own personal gain or give it to those who seek to destroy the wonderful planet on which we live.

If I break this oath, may the beauty and wonder of the Universe forever remain hidden from me.

Annie and George take a ride on a comet through the solar system, where they find both danger and enlightenment in this extremely well-told tale that has many twists and turns, villains and heroes, all told with scientific accuracy only one of the world’s leading physicists can provide.

Lucy & Stephen Hawking have written a Hard Science Fiction children’s book, and it’s awesome. I highly recommend it.

I managed to pick up a copy autographed by Lucy Hawking at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum a few weeks back:

Lucy Hawking’s Autograph

Available at Amazon

howtoons.com Cloud of Legends

I was all about Do It Yourself (DIY) as a kid. I built a crossbow out of tree branches that shot bamboo arrows, a boat out of an innertube and piece of plywood, and was forever tricking my dirt bike out. Inventors Dr. Saul Griffith and Dr. Joost Bonsen and comic artist Nick Dragotta’s new comic book Howtoon’s, The Possibilities are Endless totally takes me back to those good old days.

If you’d like your kids to know the nine different types of saws, six different types of pliers, how to make PVC marshmellow shooters, two-liter bottle rockets, electric motors out of a ordinary office supplies, count to 1023 on their fingers using binary, knot tying, terrariums, turkey-baster flutes, on and on, the possibilities truly are endless in this great big comic, which inspires kids to pursue their own DIY adventures.

But it doesn’t stop there, the the Howtoons website is a veritable perpetual engine of DIY ideas including Mechanical Toys, Wedgie-proof underwear, Virtual Cannon Balls, and Circus Science. These are just some of the topics covered at Howtoons.com.

Snap Circuits Junior Set

I picked up a Snap Circuits Junior kit online, and it is undeniably fun. This is like an erector set for electronics.

There are 101 experiments listed in the instruction manual, and I managed to run through most of the experiments over two nights of playing with it. I did come up with a few additional experiments of my own, and so will your child.

Project #6: Lamp & Fan in Parallel

Children aren’t limited to what’s in the kit, and the instruction manual encourages using glasses of water, paperclips, and even your own body in experiments conducting electricity. So an inquisitive young mind will certainly try connecting other foreign parts into their designs.

I did experience on problem with the kit, as the “space war” component only worked erratically, and after much troubleshooting with the kids at Earth 383, we finally concluded that it was a dud. Luckily, individual parts may be ordered from the Elenco Website. I will first try to get a free replacement.

Project #92: Water Space War

Although I nicknamed the toy “Baby’s First Breadboard,” this educational toy is for children “8 and Up.” At the same time, the Junior kit is too simple for anyone over the age of 12, and will only leave your teenager hungry for more components.

So if you can afford it, and you think your teenager would really take an shining to the possibilities Electrical Engineering holds in store for the inquisitive mind, I would recommend the Snap circuits Extreme for $85, which includes a solar panel, the ability to build a digital voice recorder, and computer interface applications.

Project #51: Reflection Detector

I did enjoy the Junior model enough that I plan to purchase an Extreme kit as a stepping stone to eventually building my own breadboarding hobby kit.

Parents take note: If I had this toy when I was a kid, I would’ve had a much happier childhood.

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A Word of Warning! The kit is not idiot proof. Your can wire the battery pack right back into itself, creating a short circuit, and quickly burn out some parts (but no fire hazard). Just like I’ve run a copper wire right back into a battery a have it heat up.