Several years ago, I was really into rock climbing, and I came across a young guy who was an emerging star in the sport, even as a teenager. His name was Chris Sharma. Now 31, he has truly become a living legend, with a long track record of success to his name. Below is a NatGeo film trailer that gives you a good idea of just how phenomenal he is. Amazing!
Following up my previous post about Jetlev, here's a land-based version called the Martin Jetpack. While it is not yet commercially available, it won't be long ...
The other day I came home to find my 13-year-old daughter sitting on the floor drumming out a tune using a cup. Yes, a cup. She was practicing hard at getting the hang of a pretty cool rhythm, and a few hours into it she started weaving in the vocals. It sounded really good, and just today she finally shared with me the YouTube video she was trying to emulate. The first one is the original, and the second one is the best of the many viral covers. The third is Anna Kendrick's appearance on David Letterman, where she reprises her own cover from Pitch Perfect. These girls are pretty talented, so ... enjoy!
I don't know who took these behind-the-scenes photos of Google, but they were forwarded to me recently and I think they are really cool. Click on each to see larger versions and to read the captions.
I was recently granted the privilege of membership into The Explorers Club. Founded in 1904, this is "an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore." The membership roster is filled with historic figures, so I can only hope that someday I will measure up to my new brethren ... either with my current activities exploring the oceans in manned submersibles or ideally with my future endeavors exploring space beyond the bounds of Earth!
Over the years, I have been interviewed many times for print, web, and broadcast news outlets. Perhaps I have become jaded, but I am not easily impressed with the end product from most media or journalists. It is rare to end with a piece that is factually accurate, visually compelling, entertaining, and informative. Of all the stories I have appeared in, my recent experience with MSN's News of Main is probably my favorite. They were extremely professional from start to finish, the crew they sent to conduct the onsite interviews was a pleasure to work with, and their finished product was well-structured and edited. Below are the two stories they ran, one focused on me personally and one focused on OceanGate as a startup venture.
David Blaine is one of my favorite illusionists. In 2008, he appeared on national television and broke the then current world record for static apnea -- holding his breath underwater for 17 minutes. That record was later broken by Tom Sietas, who is the current world record holder at 22 minutes and 22 seconds. Below is Blaine's TED Talk about his background and breath hold record.
Earlier this year I had the privilege of spending some time with Michael T. Jones of Google Ventures. Among various topics we discussed, he helped me discover the concept of an "Ames Window". This is basically a special type of trapezoid that leads to a very cool optical illusion.
Here is a video that shows the illusion quite clearly:
Here is the same concept applied to a life-size room:
Like nearly 8 million other people around the world, on October 14, 2012, my family and I were glued to the Web (and Discovery News) watching Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team break several skydiving records as he jumped from his capsule at an altitude of 128,000 feet (roughly 24 miles!) and broke the sound barrier on his way down.
Not only did he succeed on virtually all of his record attempts (he came up ~10 seconds short of the record for longest freefall), but also the entire event was executed phenomenally well by Red Bull and all of its partners around the world. It was a huge publicity bonanza, continuing to garner public attention even weeks later. I wished that James Cameron, National Geographic, and their partners had executed nearly as well during his March 2012 record-breaking solo submarine dive to the deepest point in the ocean.
This is one of my favorite images from the historic day.
In one of my favorite TED talks, Derek Sivers presents a funny -- and insightful -- analysis into the types of people required to "start a movement". Although it reminds me of Macolm Gladwell's much more analytical framework from Tipping Point, this video is much more digestible, so I have used it in several of my own presentations. Thanks, Derek!
A friend recently sent me this article attributed to David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D., Professor of Economics.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this...
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing
The fifth would pay $1
The sixth would pay $3
The seventh would pay $7
The eighth would pay $12
The ninth would pay $18
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20". Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men ? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.
And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!"
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
I've played guitar since I was 13 years old, but since I'm not that good I'm always amazed by truly talented musicians. Last week I started learning a little more about a guitar style called "percussive guitar", where the guitarist uses the strings for melodies and the body of the instrument for rhythm. One of the originators of this unique style was a guy named Preston Reed. The first video below is him playing a show last year, and the second is a TED performance earlier this year with a 21-year-old prodigy he inspired. Very cool stuff!
Tired of seeing fuzzy videos of NASA's spacecraft? Film maker Bard Canning to the rescue. He cleaned up various official videos of the Curiosity lander touching down on Mars, and then added some realistic sounds. Check out the detachment of the heat shield and get a first-hand view of the descent to the Martian surface. Very cool!
My daughter recently got me hooked on this catchy tune, which I did not realize came out a few years ago (I'm a little slow on the pop scene!). And ... no, I don't know how to do the dance ... yet.
From the movie:
Learn the dance:
A friend pointed me to this cool site with some of the best photos of 2012 so far. Here are some of my favorites:
The innovative folks at Marine Advanced Research seem to be making tremendous progress with their manned and unmanned watercraft designed to ride smoothly on just about any wave or sea state. I wonder if they can carry, launch, and retrieve a submarine. Hmmm ...
Since she appreciates my passion for the connections between "inner" and "outer" space (see, e.g., Sea-Space Initiative), a friend of mine sent me this hilarious image:
Last fall I had the privilege of spending a fair amount of time in Monterey with Bob Talbot, who is a world-reknown photographer and a gifted film maker. He shared with our team his IMAX documentary, Ocean Men: Extreme Dive, which tells the story of two world record free-diving rivals: Cuban-born Pipin Ferreras and Italian Umberto Pelizzari. It is a fascinating story told through Bob's amazing imagery. You can enjoy it on Hulu or on YouTube below.
Many of you have previously seen Blue Marble, NASA's image mosaic of Earth. However, the Russians recently one-upped the Americans by capturing the following image ... in a single shot:
This amazing photo was taken by a geostationary weather satellite (Electro-L). You can read more about it at Gizmodo, and you can see more in the incredible video below. Enjoy!
I was recently introduced to the Gigapxl Project, which is REALLY cool ... even if you know very little about photography (like me). I won't do it justice trying to explain it, so I will merely encourage you to visit the site, learn more about their work, and enjoy the many stunning images. Below is a sample ... but to be truly appreciated you should click on them to see additional details.
I don't know why, but I find this artwork really cool. It's an ad for Samsonite. It's a 3D work of art. It's a little of both. Click on it to view the larger image and study its details.
I recently discovered on the Web an extremely talented illustrator by the name of Gavin Aung Than. This guy is insanely good! I really like his Zen Pencils site, where he illustrates in comic book style some of the most famous quotes in history. My personal favorite is this one by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
During my third year of law school, I was Editor-in-Chief of our environmental law journal. That was my first exposure to the use of "Lorem Ipsum", which is a publishing technique that uses nonsensical Latin text as a placeholder while designing a page layout. Since similar text is used in Web development, there are apps and sites that will generate the text for developers (see, e.g., Lipsum). Now some creative space enthusiasts have created a text generator with a space theme: Space Ipsum. As a fellow space geek, I have to love the site. However, as an editor, I think it defeats the purpose of the Lorem Ipsum technique, because I catch myself reading the text rather than assessing the page layout. Oh, well. I guess it's the price we pay for following our passions!
I love infographics, especially when they relate to one of my passions!
Created by: MastersDegree.net
On April 19, 2012, NASA and the Smithsonian conducted an unusual exchange: two retired Space Shuttles changed ownership. On the runway outside the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport, the two vehicles were placed nose-to-nose for a ceremony marking the occasion.
My company's flagship submarine is Antipodes, so we get many questions about the name's origin. There are many historical answers, but here is my favorite:
The term "antipodes" comes from the mathematical field of geometry and refers to a point on a sphere that is diametrically opposed to another. For example, if you place the index finger of your left hand anywhere on a basketball and place the index finger of your right hand at the point on the basketball directly opposite along an imaginary line through the center, then your right index finger will be on the "antipodes" of your left index finger (and vice versa). Another way to imagine this is to look at a (now) old-fashioned desk globe that spins along an axis held by a stand at the North and South Poles ... they are each the "antipodes" of each other.
Enough math! What does this have to do with a submarine?!
Well, our planet is a sphere that happens to be mostly covered in water. Because of the geographic distribution of land mass, less than 4% of land has a land-based antipodal point. This means that just about every human settlement on Earth has its antipodes somewhere in an ocean ... which can be explored only in a submarine. Hence the name. Make sense?
Here is a map that helps visualize the rarity of finding land-land antipodal pairs:
For a fun interactive exercise, check out this Google Maps mash-up that allows you to find the antipodal point of any location on the planet!
This is one of my favorite movie quotes of all time, and I play it on my iPad during every business trip. It makes me evaluate every day to make sure I am spending every minute on truly worthwhile activities. It keeps me focused on what is really important and allows me to let everything else slide by.
Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity.
And so we ask ourselves,
Will our actions echo across the centuries?
Will strangers hear our names long after we're gone and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?
- Odysseus
I wrote an earlier post about the "Race to the Bottom" of the world's oceans. Well, yesterday James Cameron succeeded in his solo dive to the deepest part of the world. Very exciting times ahead for ocean exploration and manned submersibles!
I've had several people ask me about the title of my blog, so here's the scoop ...
My high school years marked an especially creative time in my life, when I wrote a number of stories, poems, and songs that I still carry with me. One particular short story, written during my senior year, was a reflection of my life at the time, and in retrospect has become a reflection of my entire life.
Patterned after one of my favorite books, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, it was the story of a young boy who was prone to excessive day-dreaming. One day, he awakened from a particularly vivid day-dream where he rescued his grade-school teacher from a burning building and became a local hero. However, to his shock, he discovered that he had not been dreaming at all. In fact, his "real life" had finally mirrored his "dream life".
For me, the story represented a critical lesson that I have abided by since I wrote the story 25 years ago: we should never stop dreaming, because it is the only way that we can accomplish great things in our lives.
Yes, the title of the story was Dreamin' Steven.
While the media continues to push forward with the ongoing "Race to the Bottom" (of the ocean), there is another race picking up significant steam: the race to break the 50+-year-old record for sky diving ... almost high enough to be considered "space" diving.
Over the past few weeks, the global media has been making a big deal about a proclaimed "Race to the Bottom". This "race" refers to several individuals and companies seeking to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the planet's oceans, in a variety of different submarines. Of course, this is really not a race at all, since two men (Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh) already made the descent over 50 years ago as part of a U.S. Navy exercise. In fact, as Walsh likes to put it, this current frenzy is really just a "Race for Second".
That being said, there is no denying that this recent crop of adventurers and explorers is helping to rekindle a worldwide public interest in the oceans, manned submersibles, and exploration in general. Here is a brief overview of each participant in this "race":
James Cameron
The famed director of mega-hit films like the Terminator and Alien series, Titanic, and Avatar, has had a long-time fascination with the oceans, manned submersibles, and exploration in general. He is close friends with the recognized godfather of research submarines, Anatoly Sagalevich, he has made several descents to the Titanic, and he has produced underwater documentaries such as Aliens of the Deep and Ghosts of the Abyss. Overall, he has over 70 dives in deep submersibles. He leads a NatGeo-backed team that has spent almost eight years developing a one-person submarine specifically for the attempt to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep within the Mariana Trench. If successful, Cameron will set the world solo diving record, and the team will boast the world's deepest diving active submarine.
Outlook. Cameron will likely make the full descent by the end of March 2012.
Richard Branson
In late-2010, sailboat racer Chris Welsh decided to honor one of his heroes, world-record aviator/sailor/explorer Steve Fossett, by taking up the challenge he was working on when he perished in a plane crash in 2007: the world solo diving record to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Fossett had commissioned Graham Hawkes to design a submarine specifically for the world-record attempt, but he died before the sub got to its sea trials. Welsh purchased the unfinished sub from Fossett's estate, hired Hawkes to complete the project, and partnered with Richard Branson, Fossett's long-time partner, to create Virgin Oceanic ("VO"). While Branson has garnered the media spotlight during this "race", VO still remains Welsh's passion project, expanded to include diving to the deepest points in each of the world's five oceans.
Outlook. The sub has not yet passed its pressure tests, so it is unlikely that VO will make its dive attempt until late-2012.
Triton Submarines
Triton is a reknowned builder of submarines specifically tailored for use aboard luxury yachts. The company is fronted by master-marketer Bruce Jones and headed by acclaimed sub expert Patrick Lahey, and together they have delivered six submarines ranging in depth capabilities from 1,000 feet to 3,300 feet and carrying 2-3 passengers in different configurations. They have extended their unique sub designs to include a three-person Full Ocean Depth ("FOD") model 36000/3, which could reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Outlook. Triton is still looking for its first client to pay for the development of the FOD 36000/3.
Deepsearch
The brainchild of famed ocean explorer Sylvia Earle and initially backed by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, the Deepsearch project is taking a unique "open source" approach to community-based design and development of a deep-diving submarine. The project is spearheaded by Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, an ocean engineering firm headed by Sylvia's daughter, Liz Taylor.
Outlook. This project is still looking for additional financing to move beyond initial design stage.
For the past few weeks, I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about the concept of "balance" in the universe. Along the way, I have reviewed some of my earlier readings about Taoism generally and the idea of yin yang specifically.
While I continue honing my beliefs on this topic (likely a life-long effort), I thought posting the Taijitu here might promote ongoing reflection. Over the years, I have spent countless hours just staring at this symbol, and each time something new seems to grab me. I find it amazing that such a simple image can generate so much thought and analysis!
On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston died. That was less than a week ago, and I'm still thinking about it. Why? I'm not sure. Celebrity deaths rarely affect me, but for some reason this one did.
Perhaps it was because she was such a icon during the 1980's, my formative teen-age years? Perhaps it was because I never got tired of being blown away by her voice? So much range, power, control, and beauty. She had a "big voice" years before anyone even thought a voice could get that big. Absolutely amazing.
Or perhaps her death hit me so hard because of her acting debut in the 1992 film, The Bodyguard, with Kevin Costner? The movie was OK, her acting was really good, and her singing was expectedly stellar. However, what hit home with me was Costner's character, Frank Farmer. I wanted to be Frank. I wanted to be a Protector. Something about that profession called to my base instinct to protect others.
A couple of years prior, I had read a book called The Fifth Profession by David Morrell. The main characters were also professional protectors, and I was hooked then. I wanted to be a Protector. Years later I joined the U.S. Marine Corps to protect our country. Now I would give anything to protect my family. That base instinct is still there. But Whitney is not. At least I will always have Rachel Marin. And Frank Farmer.
Here is Kevin Costner's wonderful eulogy at her funeral:
When I co-founded OceanGate in 2009, my partner and I wanted to create a business that helped "expand humanity's understanding of the world's oceans" ... by using manned submersibles ("submarines") to support ocean exploration and marine research. One of the most common questions I get is "How deep can submarines go?"
Well, the deepest part of the world's oceans lies approximately 11,000 meters underwater. The Challenger Deep region of the Mariana Trench in the South Pacific is such a deep canyon that you could place Mt. Everest inside and still have 1.5 miles of water above the peak. Only two human beings have ever been to this remote location: Swiss oceanographer and engineer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh made the descent on January 23, 1960. No one has been back since (although there are currently a few individual efforts underway to do so).
In fact, the deepest diving (non-military) manned submersibles in the world reach just about half that depth (which still gives humans access to roughly 98% of the world's oceans). There are currently only 6 submarines in the world capable of reaching these extreme depths, and they are operated by 5 national governments. Hopefully, this will change in the near future (with OceanGate playing a key role), but until then here is the line-up:
One of the most common questions we get about our submarine, Antipodes, is this: how long can you survive in case of an emergency?
As with most submarines, especially those with similar A+1 safety classifications from the American Bureau of Shipping, the answer is 72 hours, or roughly 3 days. (Actually, the technically correct answer is 360 man-hours, so 72 hours is at our full complement of 5 people.) Of course, it is difficult for me to imagine what it would be like to be trapped in a small submersible with four other people for three days ... the whole time waiting to be rescued.
In 1973, two submarine pilots had the misfortune of living through this exact experience. At the end of an exhausting 9-hour mission 150 miles off the coast of Cork, Ireland, the Pisces III submarine became disabled and sank to the ocean floor at 480 meters (1,575 feet), trapping pilots Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson with no way out. They waited on the sea bottom for over 3 days while a massive global rescue effort took place with the entire world watching and holding its collective breath. Much like the Apollo 13 mission three years prior, it was a life-and-death struggle where hundreds of professionals worked feverishly to bring home safely two brave men from an immensely hostile environment. The outcome was a testament to the courage of the trapped pilots, but an even stronger affirmation of the ingenuity, resolve, and teamwork of the many people who made possible the successful recovery of the sub and crew.
Chapman later wrote a gripping book about the ordeal, and he appropriately entitled it No Time On Our Side. I think about this story every time I get in our sub, and I have made it required reading for all of our pilots and crew. I hope that someday someone will turn this into a major motion picture and associated documentary, because it is a dramatic human story that should be shared with a global audience and new generation of explorers.
Last October, we took OceanGate's sub to Monterey, CA, for a month of ocean exploration and education outreach. During that time, we connected with film-maker Bob Talbot, who was shooting a short film for the new visitor center for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Santa Cruz. The star of Bob's film was Kirk Krack, a freediving coach who also founded Performance Freediving. We shot several scenes with Kirk, including him climbing around the sub while it was sitting on the bottom at 50+ feet. He is an incredible talent and a genuinely "good guy", so our whole team enjoyed spending time with him and the rest of Bob's team.
This is an absolutely amazing video that features Kirk and some of his colleagues:
Defending The Vandenberg from Ren Chapman on Vimeo.
As I do during the last week of every December, I recently conducted a personal self-analysis, reviewed the prior year, and set goals for the next. This year in particular has been especially significant because we are in the process of relocating our business--and therefore my family--from Seattle to South Florida. This helps mark a much deeper personal transition from one phase of life to another, so I have been unusually introspective.
To help my efforts, I have been spending a lot of time with one of my favorite songs of all time, River of Dreams by Billy Joel. Like many others who have listened to this song, I find the lyrics to be extremely powerful and inspirational:
In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
From the mountains of faith
To the river so deep
I must be lookin' for something
Something sacred I lost
But the river is wide
And it's too hard to cross
Even though I know the river is wide
I walk down every evening and stand on the shore
I try to cross to the opposite side
So I can finally find what I've been looking for
In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the valley of fear
To a river so deep
I've been searching for something
Taken out of my soul
Something I'd never lose
Something somebody stole
I don't know why I go walking at night
But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore
I hope it doesn't take the rest of my life
Until I find what it is I've been looking for
In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the jungle of doubt
To the river so deep
I know I'm searching for something
Something so undefined
That it can only be seen
By the eyes of the blind
In the middle of the night
I’m not sure about a life after this
God knows I've never been a spiritual man
Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river
That is runnin' through the promised land
In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the desert of truth
To the river so deep
We all end in the ocean
We all start in the streams
We're all carried along
By the river of dreams
In the middle of the night
For years I have been thinking about getting a tattoo, and lately my 13-year-old daughter has been pushing me to get one. Unfortunately, I just have not been able to find anything that I felt would look good on an 85-year-old man (after all, tattoos are *permanent*). However, if I ever get one, it would probably be the image below ... over my heart.
Many years ago, a close friend gave me a greeting card by Richard Stine which had this image on it. It really spoke to me on a number of different levels. A while later I was amazed to find a sweatshirt with the same image on the front, so I bought it and I have since used it regularly during my morning workouts. I find it so inspirational ... and so do my three kids. Perhaps someday soon I may take the plunge and get that tattoo. Who knows?
The previous post came as a result of a conversation that started with my friend quoting Robert Frost's Road Not Taken ... another personal favorite:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
A close friend recently reminded me of a soliloquy I once had to memorize back in 6th grade. Amazingly, I still remember this powerful passage from William Shakespeare's Macbeth:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
— Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)
Over the past year I had the pleasure of connecting with Kenny Broad, a University of Miami ocean researcher who was also named 2010 National Geographic Explorer of the Year. His work exploring underwater caves in the Bahamas resulted in some breath-taking images captured by award-winning photographer Wes C. Skiles, who shared the Nat Geo honor with Kenny. Sadly, Wes died in a diving incident shortly before his photo below graced the cover of Nat Geo Magazine. For more stunning photos, check out this gallery.
I played soccer competitively for ~25 years. I loved playing in all sorts of weather conditions: sun, heat, rain, snow, whatever. The only condition I did not like for soccer was wind. Here's a great example of why wind and soccer don't mix very well:
For the past few weeks, I've been using the image below as my desktop background. Many people insist that it is Photoshopped. In fact, the photo was taken by NASA astronaut Ron Garan (@Astro_Ron on Twitter) from the International Space Station on October 21, 2011. I just think it's way cool.
Over the years, I've seen many different graphical representations of the history of human existence in the context of the history of the earth (or the universe). This recent one using a 24-hour clock image was not necessarily unique, but the title generated some interesting debates in the comments.
It seems like I'm kicking off the new year with a focus on music, so ... here is one of my favorite "unplugged" tunes: Brian Johnson, Angus Young, and Malcom Young of AC-DC playing You Shook Me All Night Long on an episode of Howard Stern:
Last summer I was trying to explain to my kids the idea of a music mashup. They (and I) ended up loving Kid Rock's All Summer Long, which combined Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon and Sweet Home, Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd into a unique third song that is vintage Kid Rock.
Over four years ago, I wrote about fellow Bullrunner Kristine Elezaj. Since then, her career has really taken off. Here is one of her latest videos:
I have to end 2011 with a posting I've been meaning to write all year: one of my favorite new musicians in a long time is Aussie guitarist Orianthi Panagaris. Listening to her play reminds me of the first time I ever heard Eddie Van Halen on Eruption. Or some of her idols and mentors, such as Joe Satriani, Carlos Santana, and the man who discovered her at the age of 15, Steve Vai. Here she is playing an instrumental duet with Vai. Enjoy!
Every now and then, someone comes up with an innovation that seems like "D'oh! That makes sense!" ... *after* they bring it up. As we celebrate the dawn of the new year, it is only fitting that Steve H. Hanke and Richard Conn Henry have now devised a new twist on our old Gregorian calendar. Their proposed system would ensure consistent days/dates every year, with 30-day months, a 31-day month every third month, and an additional week in December every 5-6 years to replace our quadrennial leap year day. Sounds cool to me ... now, they just need to convince the world to make the switch!
