The Crack of the Bat! Another baseball season is upon us … and in the true spirit of this blog let's research the science and engineering of the game. After all, I need an edge to win my fantasy baseball league!

Drilling down into the archives, browse on over to this NY Times article from 2001 … The Crack of the Bat: Acoustics Takes On the Sound of Baseball. Here are a few lines to warm you up:

Now, if you really want to learn about the science of baseball, then link on over to Kettering University's Professor Dan Russell's extensive web portal, The Physics and Acoustics of Baseball. You'll find not just written research, but references to many podcast interviews.

Hopefully all these icons will survive into 2010. I'm not worried about the Apple Pie, but sometimes I wonder about Baseball (new stadiums, higher ticket prices, etc). Now Chevrolet … that is a whole other matter …

• Post Update: From a friend at work … Why MLB benched Microsoft!

Posts on technical subjects have been few and far between recently due to family concerns which have limited my research time while I have been visiting northern Minnesota and central Iowa. However, as the blog post suggests, life marches on. Up in Duluth I managed a final Nordic ski for this Winter at dawn in the Amity Creek Wilderness … and a world and weather experience apart, I watched the Spring migration of thousands of Snow Geese on my Uncle's farm. I took short videos (about one minute long each) of both experiences, thus the NorthstarNerd brings you two short movies:

• Nordic Skiing at Dawn in Northern Minnesota
• Snow Geese on the Mississippi Flyway

One comment, during the migration video, I incorrectly identify the birds as tundra swans. While I did see tundra swans in the area, these dinner time visitors, who were munching on my Uncle's left-over corn, were snow geese.

With respect to the Nordic Skiing Video, the snow was quite crusty / icy for my ski … thus not the "silent snow" experience one would normally have during the middle of the Winter, but the scenery and relatively warm temperature (25F) makes the noise worthwhile!

You can expand either of the videos or my photo to full size. Just click!

The rest of the world may be warming up, but last weekend as my youngest son and I drove to the Brule River Forest in Wisconsin for the River View Loppet Cross-Country Ski Race, the temperature dipped to -21F near Moose Lake, Minnesota, but by the time our race started at 10:15 a.m., it was a balmy +8F. By most folk's standards this is still bitterly cold … by Erik's and my standards is was perfect for a 12k race … kept us from overheating!

The end result from this cold weather is Lake Superior is almost completely iced over … a rare occurrence considering the lake reaches depths of over 1300 feet and is larger than the state of South Carolina! Make certain you watch the TV Report embedded below about the Lake Superior ice! You'll continue to think that NW Wisconsin and NE Minnesota are somewhere near Frostbite Falls or Siberia.

However, don't watch this short video showing the great wilderness canoeing in the Summer … I want to keep NW Wisconsin and NE Minnesota for myself.

Last Sunday I read the NY Times interview with Marissa Mayer. Given my professional focuses are web 2.0 and collaboration software tools for the enterprise, I found it neat that Ms. Mayer and I had something in common … she wanted to ski America's longest and most difficult ski marathon … the American Birkebeiner. Actually, the NY Times got it wrong, she had just completed her first Birkie 7 days earlier (I suspect the interview occurred before the race, but the publication came after). I also had just completed my first Birkie … in fact Marissa and I were in the same starting wave … number 8 for first time Birkie skiers.

My only comment is … way to go Marissa! Fantastic! Well done! Now, before you think I am just heaping praise on a senior Google executive, let me put her achievement in perspective.

• Senior management for any company have hugely demanding work schedules
• Silicon Valley weather over the past few weeks has been very warm and sunny
• This weather would make ski training very difficult
• Running is NOT a replacement for time on the snow

In other words, when one works in the San Francisco area, there NEVER is the opportunity to get out and ski after work. The total days of snow on the ground in Silicon Valley this Winter … ZERO! By contrast, although I have a demanding software job, a local park keeps 7.5k of trails lit at night till 10 pm. Any day after work I could head over and ski 15 to 20k for a hard workout.

Thus, I admire Marissa Mayer for her personal courage that allowed her to finish. The official Birkie records show she was out on the trail for over 8 hours. The hills on the Birkie course never stop; I know from my own pain that it would have been easier to quit. Congratulations Marissa. Oh yeah … 54k equals 33 and 1/2 miles, which is a long distance anyway you cut it!

• See what the American Birkebeiner is like (short animated slideshow)

Learn about my own Birkie impressions from my prior post including how "I cooked my cast"! Finally, here are two photos … one of me resting a few minutes after completing the Birkie, and one of Marissa out on the trail. Click to expand either image to full size.

Post Update: Check out MinnSki (new portal – Nordic Skiing in Minnesota)

Part of me died yesterday … Although I may be a techie who focuses upon what's new … part of my essence comes from small town America. Paul Harvey died yesterday. In 1951, five years prior to my birth, he started broadcasting for ABC News. Up until very recently, you could still hear his Americana and twist on current events coming out of the radio. It was always fun to be teased by Mr. Harvey as he would tell a story of some famous person's early years … never revealing their name. At the end of each broadcast he would reveal that famous person's name. Thus, I leave you now with the rest of the story:

New-Age Media Describing its Predecessor:

• Listen to Paul Harvey … via YouTube
• Bio: Paul Harvey … via Wikipedia

"Good Day!"