Warning! If you enjoy browsing old aviation photographs, this site eats up tons of time! The magazine Aviation News is 100 years old, and every article … every photograph … every airplane cutaway drawing is available online for free viewing. While the search engine is a bit slow, browsing the photo archives was fast and a treat. Access everything via their archive: (click to expand either image)
During the process of trying to innovate, we are often challenged to think outside the box … or in this case should I say … outside the goalie crease. Via the Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog, I learned about a high school ice hockey goalie who redesigned his protective pads to blend into the goal net behind him. This was the young man's idea (quoted from the Boston Globe):
Neat idea … will it work? Who knows, but this kids is thinking outside the box!
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IHMC (Institute for Human and Machine Cognition) is the same great academic organization which provides the mind / process mapping tool for which I recently provided a tutorial. Even if you don't want to use the software, attend one of their free IHMC lectures via the web. Here are some recent offerings:
I will definitely add this content to my engineering seminar search engine and wiki.
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My first of three "Kilometers for Kids" cross-country ski races start this Sunday with the City of the Lakes Loppet. Due to a recent ski injury that saw me break my thumb and tear a ligament, I will compete minus one ski pole (i.e. I can't hold anything with my left hand). Although this will slow me down significantly, and cause me problems going uphill … I can't let the kids down. Contributions to the China Tomorrow Education Foundation are tax deductible in the USA (full report).
Donate via PayPal … even a $10 donation helps!
Here are two photos of me … cast and all. In addition, you may wish to watch this YouTube Video Report of last year's Loppet. After all … have you ever seen skijouring (dogs pulling cross-country skiers … another much shorter event)
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If you work in a technical field, or manage projects this resource is FANTASTIC, and it's free (courtesy of a DARPA research grant). Earlier today while participating in the project / chartering definition phase of a project at work, I watched a colleague use a neat tool for visually defining and linking the parts of a project. Not only did the software seem easy to use, but the visualization really encouraged all the team members to participate.
After the meeting, I linked to the software site (IHMC Cmap), downloaded the software, did an install … and in almost no time at all found I could use the mind mapping / process mapping software. The user interface was very intuitive.
I've linked two items below … one is a Powerpoint file which gives annotated screenshots of the IHMC CMap user interface. The other link is to my example (i.e. a completed process map):
Here is one screenshot of the user interface (click to expand):
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