All posts by Richard

Trans-Superior Cycling Tour

Northern Life

Do you love Lake Superior? This inland sea is the largest lake in the world, and holds 10 percent of the earth's fresh water supply (Lake Superior facts). For this reason alone, the lake which the Ojibewe call Gichigami, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow transposed to Gitche Gumee in his epic poem, Song of Hiawatha, should be on your list of favorites and deserves your support and protection. 

Thus, this Summer I will be thrilled to bike the Trans-Superior Tour with my wife Molly (her blog, SuperiorFootprints). Over the course of nine days we will bike 500 miles, and ride two ferries allowing us a one night stop over at Isle Royale National Park. Our journey is sponsored by the Lake Superior Binational Forum. This organization's charter is to restore and protect the Lake Superior Basin. While Molly and I are not seeking donations for our trip, we do ask you to follow our journey, both via our blogs, the Forum's web site and their Facebook page. We hope you will learn something about this great resource.

Our slogan for this ride, which is printed on our custom jerseys, is "500 miles of love"! Having both grown up in Duluth, and given that by this Summer we will have been married for 29 years, the tag line seemed perfect. We're in love with a Lake named Superior, and each other!

Here is our planned route, and a photo taken of us today down at Brighton Beach on the North Shore of Lake Superior at the end of a 35 mile ride! Our trip starts on Saturday, August 18th.

Click upon either image to view at full size.

Trans-Superior-Tour-Map
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Here are a few links to other bike trips I've taken in the region:

The Unofficial Encyclopedia of Dr. Seuss

Northern Life
  • Take Mulberry Street to Sollaw Sollew,
  • Meeting Turtles and Sneetches just to name a few.
  • Eat Green Eggs and some Ham
  • This ride is never about SPAM!
  • For the Doctor is most wise,
  • You will soon completely realize!

Back in 1960 when Green Eggs and Ham was first published, I was 4 years old. It was one of the first books I ever read to myself. Over the next half century I've been in love with a doctor named Seuss! It's with pleasure today I publish the free eBook, "The Unofficial Encyclopedia of Dr. Seuss".

The encyclopedia is a compilation of articles from Wikipedia in downloadable pdf format. You'll find information about many of your favorite books, but also a long article about Dr. Seuss himself. In total, the encyclopedia is 87 pages long, and has active links to other Wikipedia related content. Thus take a virtual ride from Sollaw Sollew to the Kingdom of Didd!

The technology involved in the creation of this book is the Wikipedia Book Creator which is documented in this prior post. You can even send my Encyclopedia Seuss to your Kindle! (learn how). If you prefer to read via an iPad, link to this post and scroll to the bottom to learn more about my favorite iPad pdf reader.

Seuss-stamp-2

Highways and Byways Connections

Economy 2.0, Northern Life

Time: November 14, 2009
Location: NW Wisconsin on US Highway #2
Weather: Cold and Blustery (freezing rain sweeping in off Lake Superior)
Scenario: A LinkedIn Connection in the Making … 2.5 years hence!

Rich and Molly are driving home to Duluth after a weekend retreat to the Apostle Islands and hiking in the Porcupine Mountains. It is a real ugly day … in fact it is one of those days when you wonder if Florida would be nicer place to live.

Scene: Rich spots a person walking on the shoulder of the Hwy 2, with a backpack and sign. However, the sign is hanging from the backpack, and the hiker is not trying to thumb a ride. Here is the conversation which takes place:

  • Rich: Should we stop and offer him a ride?
  • Molly: No! The person may not be safe.
  • Rich: He isn't trying to hitch-hike, and it's ugly out. I'm stopping

Thus, over the protests of my wife, I put the car into a U-Turn, and we drive back to greet the hiker. The conversation continues:

  • Rich: Can we give you a ride
  • Hiker: No, I'm walking across America (unusual accent)
  • Rich: You aren't from around here!
  • Hiker: Nope … England!

You get the idea. Regardless, Molly and I got out of the car and had a great conversation (in the cold, icy rain) with Colin Skiner (Wikipedia Link). Here is an excerpt from his bio:

Dr. Colin Skinner (born 1965) is a British adventurer and molecular biologist who is attempting to walk around the world. To date he has walked over 14,500 miles (23,300 km) and has crossed Great Britain, Iceland, America and New Zealand. He has used the walks to raise money and awareness for various causes, including conservation biology, people with disabilities, cancer relief, AIDS, and hospice.

Earlier today I received a LinkedIn invite from Colin, which I happily accepted. Stop and think how amazing is this fact. In just a few short years, our world has become much, much smaller. It is easy to reach out to someone you met on a roadside a few years ago, and make their re-acquaintance.

Please take a few moments to check out Colin's web site, which is worth a read. You may also enjoy my wife's blog, which she just started up: SuperiorFootprints.Org.

My prior post from back in 2009: Walking Across America.

Molly-Colin  Colin-Location

Google 3D Graphing

College Search

Via my son. Erik, who is finishing up his BSEE this Spring, I learn that there are a few things I do not know about Google. Try this! (insert into Google):

Here is another example, with the image! (click to maximize)

  • 3*cos(sqrt(x*x+y*y))+10

Google-Image

—————————–

I knew there was a reason I paid thousands and thousands of dollars to allow Erik to get his engineering degree … to keep me informed about Google's latest tricks!

 

Free Universal Construction Kit

Legos

I need access to a 3D printer! If you love Legos, K'Nex and Tinkertoys, then you you have a similar need. The folks at F.A.T. Lab and Sy-Lab just developed items you can print out for free via your rapid prototyping 3D printer which allows these three building / construction toys to be interconnected. How cool is that?! Here is the link to download your designs / free universal construction kit!

If you have some engineering prototype designs in the queue for your 3D printer, they can wait. This is really important!

Post Update on April 13th: I'm investigating the online 3D Printing Service named Shapeways. I uploaded some of the models, but I need to find out if the design dimensions use metric or inches.

Free-universal-contruction-kit1  Free-universal-contruction-kit2