Jedi Church ... Why Not?

It turns out that there is now an official "Jedi Church" ... and why not?

Sure, you have to get past the obvious tongue-in-cheek Star Wars movie tie-ins. But otherwise ... if you think about it, the underlying philosophical principles of the Jedi are not so completely out of whack with our current society. Given the political, economic, and sociological turbulence surrounding us across the globe, it seems to me that people are craving something new and refreshing to believe in. Perhaps a "religion" whose core tenets include beliefs that "there is one all powerful force that binds all things in the universe together" and "there is an innate sense of morality inside every one of us" is just the cure for what ails many people today. Folks tend to find solace wherever they feel most comfortable.

Hey, then again, as a disillusioned Catholic who married a Jewish woman and spent most of last year in Islamic countries, perhaps I'm not the best judge of religious doctrines?! After the latest Star Trek movie comes out in a few weeks, I might switch my affiliation to either "Vulcan" or "Klingon" (I don't think I'd fit in as well as a "Romulan"). ;-)

"Living the Map"

I love it when people intentionally take unique turns with their lives. For example, one of my best friends from high school is finishing up a 5-year sail around the world ... with her husband and two young sons!

I recently came across another individual living an interesting life. A 26-year-old guy named Daniel Seddiqui came up with a unique approach to figuring out "what he wants to be when he grows up": he's trying to work 50 different jobs in 50 weeks ... in 50 different states! Talk about a terrific job-searching and soul-searching experience! He's calling it "Living the Map", and he's currently 31 weeks into the project. As you can imagine, he's garnered lots of media attention, too.

BTW ... those of you who know me very well may notice something interesting at the bottom of Daniel's home page. He organized his photo gallery by state and used photos of each stateline sign as the home page icon linking to each state's photos. A number of years ago, I started collecting photos of stateline signs during my travels. I'm up to 43 (including Alaska and Hawaii!), but I've been stuck for a while. I need to make a return trip to the Pacific Northwest (I was in Oregon and Washington BEFORE I started collecting snapshots) and a doubtful swing through the northern Midwest (Minnesota, Michigan, etc.). The novelty of the project wore off a long time ago, so now it's just a matter of my not wanting to give up without crossing the finish line. We'll see!

Death and Taxes

A while back I was looking for a breakdown of the U.S. Federal budget, just so I could figure out where NASA's budget fit into the big scheme of things. I came across this incredibly useful visualization.

click for larger image
or here for more interactive version

Talent = Hard Work + Luck

Even if you haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, Outliers, you probably heard about one of his key concepts: the "10,000 hour rule". Essentially, Gladwell studied the backgrounds of many truly exceptional people to find out what made them stand out from the rest of us "normal" people. One thing he found is that most of these "outliers" became truly exceptional only after spending at least 10,000 working in their particular field. This roughly equates to ~10 years.

Since this July will mark my 10-year anniversary working with entrepreneurs and startup ventures, I keep telling my wife that our gravy train is just now getting ready to leave the station. Ha! At least Kirby Ferguson made me laugh with this video take on Gladwell and others:

Absolutely INSANE Bicycle Riding!!!

I previously wrote about "Parkour" (or "free running") and how amazing it is to watch these guys do what they do in an urban setting. Well, here comes "Parkour for Bikes" ...

My youngest child is just about ready to ditch the training wheels on his bike, and my second oldest is just starting to try some small tricks (e.g., riding with no hands, wheelie, bunny hop, ramp jumps, etc.). However, you can imagine how blown away they were by this video of what Danny MacAskill can do on a bicycle. Of course, I had to remind them that he must practice A LOT to get this good. ;-)




Danny Macaskill : Next level street trials from brainchild-films on Vimeo.

Innovative (If Not Workable) Concept Airplanes

This recent article does a great job of compiling and describing a slew of cool-looking airplane prototypes and concepts. Here is a sampling:

Ideo Lab's "Rube Goldberg Machine

For years I've been continually impressed with the high-caliber creative thinking that seems to roll out of Ideo Labs on an almost routine basis. So it did not surprise me too much when one of their corporate "team building" exercise became an instant Web sensation a few months ago. For those of you who missed it, you can read about this project and watch the video on their blog. Essentially, they spent two weeks devising a ultra-complex "Rube Goldberg machine" that would in effect connect all of its worldwide offices. Talk about a great way to build group unity, foster a fun work environment, AND inspire creative thinking among your team!

Speaking of Interesting Photos ...

Here's one that falls into the category of "it's GOT to be fake!" (even though it is a genuine photo from NASA's archives): the Space Shuttle Discovery is on the launch pad in Florida when replicas of Christopher Columbus' original exploration vehicles passed by. Talk about a passing of the torch!

click image to view original at TwitPic

Photos Taken at Unusual Angles

Just about everyone I know has taken the funny photos of themselves picking a President's nose in front of Mt. Rushmore or pushing over the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We love to have fun with how unusual angles can make for amusing images. This site collected a bunch of creative shots ... here's a sample that I call "Jet-Powered Bird":

Guy Kawasaki's "10/20/30 Rule"

I can't believe I haven't already posted this before, but regardless here is Guy Kawasaki presenting his classic "10/20/30 Rule" blog post:

Common Craft

Since I'm such a visual person, I'm always impressed by people who are creative enough to visually explain complex concepts. The folks at Common Craft are exceptionally adept at this, as evidenced by this sample video:

Hitching a Ride

In a post entitled, "Beauty Captured in a Split Second," the blog Animal Talk posted a number of compelling animal photos, including one of my favorites:

Obama and the Inauguration: Parting Shots

I can't believe it's been less than 2 weeks since the inauguration ... it seems like ages ago! Here are a couple of final items from all of the images that bombarded us on that day:

First, check out this ingenious mosaic of Obama created from images of front pages from all over the world.

Second, the Denver Post's photoblog, Captured, posted a number of terrific inauguration images, including two of my favorites (click for larger images):

In Memoriam ...

This past week marked the anniversaries of three tragic losses in the American manned space program: January 27 (Apollo 1 in 1967); January 28 (Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986); and February 1 (Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003). This is certainly a time for remembrance and also a time for looking ahead to make their sacrifices meaningful. Please visit this site to commemorate these three crews, as well as other cosmonauts and pilots who lost their lives in pursuit of our space-borne efforts.

To the stars through adversity - always exploring

Create Your Own Original Star Trek Story

If you're a fan of Star Trek, I'm sure you'll find this piece from the folks at io9 to be hilarious:

click for larger image

GeoEye's Inauguration Satellite Image

Our friends at GeoEye released this now-famous satellite image of the Obama inauguration. Their site has many more close-up shots, and it is simply amazing to see the tremendous number of people ... even hours before the ceremonies began (and the crowds got REALLY big!).

click for larger image

Clayton Christensen on Curiosity

Christensen has an interesting take on what early family dynamics lead children to develop innate curiosity.

I watched this video and thought of my father, who was very much like the father Christensen describes. Ironically, I ended up being the exact opposite. However, even though I did not develop the same kind of mechanical or technical curiosity for which my father was an excellent role model, I *did* develop an intense curiosity about how everything else works: interpersonal relationships, religions, political/economic/legal systems, nature, science, etc., etc.

I just hope that I can be as good a role model for my three young kids!

Terrific Quick Story

What an excellent commentary on the impact of technology on our social relationships ... as told through an entertaining medium:

Robot Power!

The world is quickly being overrun by robots! Well, perhaps not quite. However, the point of this IEEE Spectrum piece remains: humans are increasingly relying on mechanical assistants to help with a large number of tasks.

For Star Wars Fans - Part 2 of 2

My 8-year-old son spends HOURS designing, creating, building, and re-building all varieties of Star Wars ships and vehicles out of LEGOs. However, even he was impressed and inspired by the work of Mark Borlase, who built this 5' x 10' Hoth base diorama using 55,000-60,000 pieces of LEGO. Apparently, it took him 4 years to finish and cost over $3,000. Now that's a fan(atic)!

For more photos, please visit here.

For Star Wars Fans - Part 1 of 2

Here is a fairly detailed map of the entire Star Wars galaxy. Nice!

click for larger image

Sweet Computer Setup

My wife always makes fun of me because I have two 21" monitors for my desktop, as well as my laptop open in front of me (not to mention the small TV off to the side so I can watch sports events while working!). However, I got a little envious when I saw the setup that Scott Jones, CEO of ChaCha, has in his home office: 8 screens PLUS stationary bike pedals to exercise while he works! Check it out:

Very Cool Cloud Formations

Someone recently forwarded me a link to a gallery of very cool photos of lenticular clouds. Here are a couple of my favorites:

(image credit: Valuca)

(image credit: Jane English)

Exploring Undersea "Space" Resorts

World-renowned submersible designer Graham Hawkes is the founder and Chief Engineer of Hawkes Ocean Technologies and Ocean Galactic. As he is fond of telling his aerospace colleagues, "you've got your rockets pointed in the wrong direction!" Spending time with Graham at last fall's Space Angels Network Aerospace Venture Forum, I became increasingly intrigued by the notion of focusing on exploring Earth's oceans as a precursor to exploring outer space.

I've been finding a number of interesting projects around the world, but unfortunately I'm just not sure how viable each of these will be. I'm still holding out hope! Supposedly, there are plans for a 7-story underwater hotel in Istanbul. However, the most prominent such projects include:

Poseidon Resorts in Fiji



Hydropolis in Dubai


There are other projects around the world, each in varying stages of development. I certainly hope that I'll be visiting one of them soon!

Parkour: Free Running

I was recently reminded of how blown away I was a couple of years ago when I saw the following scene in Casino Royale:



Besides the refreshing throw-back to the older Bond movies where REAL stuntmen performed REAL breath-taking stunts (no CGI here!), I was amazed by the running style used during the chase sequence. It led me to research this a little, and I discovered "Parkour" or "free running." I was especially intrigued by Sebastian Foucan, the man Daniel Craig is chasing in the Casino Royale clip and one of the founders of free running.

Unfortunately, I'm way too out of shape and past my prime to be able to enjoy this new sport myself, but man is it cool to watch!

Geological Time Spiral

Speaking of teaching my kids ... I recently came across the following image while trying to figure out the best way to show them a relative time-scale of human existence versus the dinosaurs versus planet Earth versus the universe. This is an interesting visual depiction.

click for larger image

Rap: CERN's Large Hadron Collider

This was one of my favorite videos from last year, since I was also able to use it to entertain/teach my kids about particle physics (ha!):