Wednesday, July 26, 2006

The Smoking Duck

I am always amazed at the number of engineering problems that remain to be solved. What starts off as a very simple idea is complicated by a set of situations that make the original idea almost impossible to implement. It's only though the incremental steps taken by scientists and researchers each day that we can hope to solve such important problems.

The last few weeks one problem in particular has struck me: The proper flotation of a rubber duck. Evidently, getting a duck to float as designed is a difficult task.

Consider the following
My son has three rubber ducks for his bath time fun. Two of them float on their side with the head partially (or completely) submerged.

There are two possible explanations:
1) These companies designed and mass produced a rubber duck without testing whether it would float properly
2) A complicated set of design problems prevent rubber ducks from floating properly without losing other functions.

The third duck does floats correctly; however, there is no hole on the bottom for squeaking. Obviously, this was a design decision to promote proper flotation.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

They have cycling on TV

I've missed not being able to watch the tour on OLN this year - it has been a very interesting tour.

I was unsure if I liked Floyd Landis before the tour began. However, I think any American cycling fan should be a die-hard fan by now.

Unless, of course, we find out next week that Floyd got a visit from his pharmacist.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

We won (kind of)...

So, EverSinceSomething fell just shy of placing at the battle of the bands we played on Saturday; However, the band did win the award for best vocals - and walked away with 2 free vocal mics.

Definitely worth the price of gas.