Flying reptiles known as pterosaurs ruled the skies duing prehistoric times. They've always been portrayed as clumsy gliding beasts, but thanks to the application of modern technology and recent finds of remarkable pterosaur fossils, this view has changed. Some scientists are now suggesting that pterosaurs were more graceful and manuverable than modern birds and bats.

What I want to know is, did they scream like the one on Jonny Quest?

Posted by: Ted at 10:44 PM | category: SciTech
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My beloved San Jose Sharks are ice cold, but this site explaining some of the science behind hockey is pretty cool.

In (not very) related news, I'm in 6th place (out of 20 teams) in my fantasy hockey league. And no, I still have no clue what I'm doing.

Also, it looks like the Sharks have some connection to the San Jose Stealth, a brand new professional lacrosse team starting up in a fledgling western league. For those of you not from the northeast U.S., lacrosse is a wicked cool sport that's kind of a cross between hockey and soccer and rugby. It was taught to early settlers by the native indians, who almost certainly didn't have a team called the 'Stealth'. This link takes you to a virtual tour of the Lacrosse Museum and National Hall of Fame.

Posted by: Ted at 08:58 AM | category: SciTech
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But this guy plays a lot better than I do.

Cool pointer courtesy of Spacecraft.

Posted by: Ted at 11:16 AM | category: SciTech
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Everyone's seen it, a piece of incredibly lightweight balsa wood, maybe at a craft store or hobby shop or perhaps in one of those hand-tossed gliders or rubberband powered planes we played with as kids.

But what do you know about it?

The small country of Ecquador on the western coast of South America is the primary source of model grade balsa in the world. The scientific name for balsa wood is ochroma lagopus. The word balsa itself is Spanish meaning raft, in reference to its excellent floatation qualities.

There is no such thing as entire forests of balsa trees. They grow singly or in very small, widely scattered groups in the jungle. For hundreds of years, balsa was actually considered a weed tree. Each tree produces thousands of seeds which are scattered by the wind. Wherever there is an opening in the jungle canopy, made either by a farmer or by another tree dying, balsa will spring up as thick as grass. A farmer is often hard put to keep his food plot clear of balsa.

Balsa trees grow very rapidly (like all pesky weeds). Six months after germination, the tree is about 1-1/2 inches in diameter and 10 - 12 feet tall. In 6 to 10 years the tree is ready for cutting, having reached a height of 60 to 90 feet tall and a diameter of 12 to 45 inches. The basla leaf is similar in shape to a grape leaf, only a lot bigger. When the tree is young, these leaves measure a much as four feet across. They become progressivly smaller as the tree grows older, until they are about 8 - 10 inches across.

Nature evidently designed the balsa tree to be a "nurse tree" which would protect the slower-growing species of trees from the scorching jungle sun during their critical early years. For instance, in an area of the jungle that has been ravaged by a tropical storm or other natural disaster, the balsa trees will quickly sprout and begin to shoot up to impressive heights in a very short time. Their fast growth, and the extra large leaves they have in their early years, provide shade to the young seedlings of the slower-growing forest giants. By the time the seedlings are established enough to take care of themselves, the balsa tree is beginning to die.

The secret to balsa wood's lightness can only be seen with a microscope. The cells are big and very thin walled, so that the ratio of solid matter to open space is as small as possible. Most woods have gobs of heavy, plastic-like cement, called lignin, holding the cells together. In balsa, lignin is at a minimum. Only about 40% of the volume of a piece of balsa is solid substance. To give a balsa tree the strength it needs to stand in the jungle, nature pumps each balsa cell full of water until they become rigid - like a car tire full of air.

Most people are surprised to hear that botanically, balsa wood is only about the third or fourth lightest wood in the world. However, all the woods which are lighter than balsa are terribly weak and unsuitable for any practical use. Balsa wood is often considered the strongest wood for its weight in the world. Pound for pound it is stronger in some respects than pine, hickory, or even oak.

(excerpted from An Introduction to Balsa Wood)

Posted by: Ted at 06:55 AM | category: SciTech
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Not every rocket has to be a towering giant. The kids and I have had a lot of fun with Quest MicroMaxx rockets and motors, which are 1" long and 1/4" in diameter. Our smallest rocket is about the size of a crayon with fins, although they can get even smaller. Or how about a rocket glider that weighs in around 2 grams?

Of course, not every crayon rocket has to be tiny either.

Now these guys are building tiny motors, both rotary and rocket. They talk a little bit about why to miniaturize this much (more here). Not too shabby for Berkely boys.

Posted by: Ted at 09:44 PM | category: SciTech
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In the October issue of ComputerUser there are several articles about wireless computing and WiFi (wireless fidelity). I didn't know anything about the subject, but learned a lot.

It looks like some very creative uses are being implemented for this technology, and often a niche segment of the market leads the way.

This is a perfect example, a small group of wargame enthusiasts travelling around Europe on a historic battlefield tour. From the tour website:
We have assembled a unique tour designed by a wargamer for wargamers. This is NOT an ordinary plain-jane tour with 52 people stopping at gift shops to buy porcelain souvenirs (if that is what you want, call I have hundreds of tours like that). And not a Veterans tour that spends half its time in cemeteries. We see many major battlefields, have the opportunity to play games en-route & enjoy it all without all the hassle of planning and travel details. We are limited in how many travelers we can take because our custom-redesigned motorcoach will have tables installed for wargaming while driving.

The tour coach also has an installed WiFi hotspot as well for online LAN games while travelling. There are planned stops at Agincourt, Waterloo, the Maginot Line, Ypres, Sword and Utah beaches, and more. They've got room left on the tour. I did say 'niche'.

In other WiFi news (this caught my eye this morning), parents are suing a school district that has installed a wireless network because they're afraid that the invisible computer beams are going to harm their children. Uh huh.

We haven't gone wireless with our home network. I'm not in any hurry to do so, partly because of my ignorance of the technology and lazyness about learning it. My main concern is security, it bothers me that important personal information would just be 'out there' floating around and could be intercepted and read by unintended people. Maybe that's not a problem (remember, I'm ignorant), but I remember picking up my neighbors cordless phone calls on our baby monitor back in the day.

Posted by: Ted at 05:03 AM | category: SciTech
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