What I've Been Working On

I've been rather busy at work. Here's one of the things I've worked on lately.




In case you stumbled across this and want to find out more, go here.

American Idol Top 3

I don't know what the judges were drinking in their Coca-Cola cups, but they were wild tonight. Paula and Simon grabbing each other--and whatever else they were doing, AI cameras didn't show us. Kara putting her hands over Simon's mouth.

Judges Choice Songs:
Danny - "Dance Little Sister," by Terrence Trent Darby chosen by Paula. I've never heard the song. Danny did a good job singing, but to me, it was forgettable.

Kris - Kara and Randy chose "Apologize," by One Republic. Did an OK job. According to Paula he was off on one note. To me, also forgettable.

Adam - "One," by U2 chosen by Simon. There's something about Adam that is engaging. He really feels the music.

Contestant Choices:
Danny - "You Are So Beautiful," by Joe Cocker. Very moving and he really did the Gokey magic to it. Simon called it a "vocal masterclass."

Kris - "Hearless," by Kanye West. He took the song and made it his own. Redeemed himself after his first song.

Adam - "Cryin," by Aerosmith. I like Steven Tyler's version better. He did his usual scream with his tongue out. Of course, the judges loved him.

Who can say how America will vote. But, I'd love to see Danny and Kris as the final two.

My Favorite Practical Joke from College

The alumni magazine from my college, Cedarville University, recently asked for submissions of our favorite practical joke at college. Here's what I submitted:

I used to play lots of practical jokes, but my favorite took place in Maddox Hall my junior year. I always took my stereo with me each year to college and this particular year, I took a sound effects record. One of the effects on the album was an emergency with lots of sirens and fire truck sounds. It occurred to me that it might be pretty funny to put my stereo speakers in the room window (the one facing the courtyard) and blast the emergency sound effect as loud as I could.

I never dreamed of the response I would get. Almost immediately, girls came running out from their rooms looking for the tragedy. They ran out in their night gowns and robes. A crowd ran down one hall and when they got to the end, someone yelled, "It must coming from the other end!" The mob turned and ran down the hall towards the open end facing Lawlor (the guy's dorm). As more and more girls poured out of their dorm units, it became clear we should silence the sounds and put the stereo speakers back in their place before getting caught. It stirred up quite the commotion. Ma Printy (the resident dorm mom) never made an appearance that night, but she did send out a few student RAs to see if they could find the culprits. A friend of mine was the RA in the unit next to mine. She had a sneaky suspicion it was me, but she never turned me in. We laughed for weeks.

American Idol Top 4

It was Rock night on Idol. They had an incident on the stage where a set piece collapsed before air time, so the idols didn't get a dress rehearsal.

Adam - Rocked the house with a Zeppelin tune. But can America handle this extreme performer?

Allison - Of all the rock songs to pick, she decides to choose something obscure from Janis Joplin. Hmmm, I wonder if she'll be back next week. Way to go giving it back to Simon. You go girl!

Danny & Kris Duet - nice harmonies. Danny seemed "different" as in out of it. Judges didn't like Kris, but I did.

Kris - Not too comfortable with singing this Beatles' tune, "Come Together," but he still did good.

Danny - "Dream On" by Aerosmith. It was OK. OMGosh, the scream at the end was, well, it was pitiful. Nice try, though.

Allison & Adam Duet - "Slow Ride" by Foghat. These two were in their element tonight.

I have no idea who'll go home on Wed., but maybe Kris. Daughtry and Paula take the stage tomorrow night.

This is a test blog entry from my mobile phone.

Meat Jewelry

Is this not bizarre? It's meat jewelry. The designer, Stephanie Hensle, creates jewelry by making resin casts of animal and human fat, bone, organs, muscle, and tendon. For fasteners and chains she uses meat hooks and sausage netting.

"I think today I'll wear the bone marrow brooch and sausage necklace."

Below are more photos of her fascinating collection. Available soon, I'm sure, at Macy's and Dillard's.

(notice the meat trays that she displays her brooches on)

[Dwell via Fast Company]
Photos by Petra Jaschke.

Flight of the Bumblebee

According to the laws of physics and aerodynamics, there is absolutely no reason or possibility for a bumblebee to be able to fly. Their bodily structure should make it impossible. Yet, they do fly.

If you care to read in detail about Bumblebees check this out from Wikipedia. If not, skip down the bottom. According to 20th century folklore, the laws of aerodynamics prove that the bumblebee should be incapable of flight, as it does not have the capacity (in terms of wing size or beats per second) to achieve flight with the degree of wing loading necessary. Not being aware of scientists 'proving' it cannot fly, the bumblebee succeeds under "the power of its own ignorance". The origin of this myth has been difficult to pin down with any certainty. John McMasters recounted an anecdote about an unnamed Swiss aerodynamicist at a dinner party who performed some rough calculations and concluded, presumably in jest, that according to the equations, bumblebees cannot fly. In later years McMasters has backed away from this origin, suggesting that there could be multiple sources, and that the earliest he has found was a reference in the 1934 French book Le vol des insectes, they had applied the equations of air resistance to insects and found that their flight was impossible, but that "One shouldn't be surprised that the results of the calculations don't square with reality".

Some credit physicist Ludwig Prandtl (1875–1953) of the University of Göttingen in Germany with popularizing the myth. Others say it was Swiss gas dynamicist Jacob Ackeret (1898–1981) who did the calculations.

In 1934, French entomologist Antoine Magnan included the following passage in the introduction to his book Le Vol des Insectes:

Tout d'abord poussé par ce qui fait en aviation, j'ai appliqué aux insectes les lois de la résistance de l'air, et je suis arrivé avec M. SAINTE-LAGUE a cette conclusion que leur vol est impossible.

This means:

First prompted by the fact of aviation, I have applied the laws of the resistance of air to insects, and I arrived, with Mister Sainte-Lague, at the conclusion that their flight is impossible.

Magnan refers to his assistant André Saint-Lagué, who was apparently an engineer.

It is believed that the calculations which purported to show that bumblebees cannot fly are based upon a simplified linear treatment of oscillating aerofoils. The method assumes small amplitude oscillations without flow separation. This ignores the effect of dynamic stall, an airflow separation inducing a large vortex above the wing, which briefly produces several times the lift of the aerofoil in regular flight. More sophisticated aerodynamic analysis shows that the bumblebee can fly because its wings encounter dynamic stall in every oscillation cycle.

Another description of a bee's wing function is that the wings work similarly to helicopter blades, "reverse-pitch semirotary helicopter blades".

Why is it possible for bumblebees to fly? The answer is simple. That’s what God created them to do.