Posted
on January 25, 2012, 9:54 am,
by GrandpaRichard,
under Science.
No. Not a post about Buzz Lightyear. A post about 2 Canadian 17 year olds who sent a Lego man to the edge of space.
Using a $400 budget, Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad were able to design and construct a homemade helium powered module that included several digital cameras and a video camera. They were quite ingenious, and thought it through well. For example, to keep the camera batteries active despite the frigid temperatures 24 km above the earth’s surface, they included mitt warmers. They did it all on their own, using just research on the Internet.
The following article in The Star includes a video. Click and watch.
Toronto teens send Lego man on an a balloon odyssey 24 kilometres high
They haven’t been accepted to college yet, though that might change after this story. The 17-year-olds have already sent a (Lego) man into space. Two weeks ago, Ho and Muhammad launched a homemade balloon carrying a Lego passenger and four cameras.
www.thestar.com
Posted
on January 22, 2012, 10:38 pm,
by GrandpaRichard,
under Motivational.
Music is a universal and very important part of society.
According to dictionary.com, music is “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color“.
As an art form that touches our emotions, music can inspire and motivate.
I have various songs that motivate or inspire me. Some are based on my faith as a Christian. A good example would be, “Jesus, Lover of my Soul”, as sung by Darlene Zschech and the group from Hillsongs, in Australia.
Jesus, lover of my soul
Jesus, I will never let You go
You’ve taken me from the miry clay
You’ve set my feet upon the rock
And now i know
I love you, I need you
Though my world may fall
I’ll never let You go
My Savior, my closest Friend
I will worship you until the very end
Others are more well known popular pieces. A great example would be, “Hero”, as sung by Mariah Carey.
And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you’ll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you
The above 2 songs helped keep me strong, and moving forward, when my life seemed to be at its lowest times about 5-8 years ago.
Another that I really just noticed today is, “A Moment Like This”, as sung by Kelly Clarkson. If we ignore the reference to “that one special kiss”, this song could also refer to many facets of life. Something you have searched for in your life, and you finally find it.
A moment like this
Some people wait a lifetime,
For a moment like this
Some people search forever,
For that one special kiss
Oh, I can’t believe it’s happening to me
Some people wait a lifetime,
For a moment like this
What is curious is the way I came across Kelly’s song. A number of “friends” on Facebook have used a FB app that tells you what song was # 1 on the day you were born. As I searched out the # 1 songs for various people in my family, I found that my first grandchild had Kelly’s song as the # 1 song on their birth date. I was curious and went and listened. I found I had an emotional response to the song. Like I should expect a breakthrough in a part of my life that has been lacking in victories. I will keep you up to date on that.
Do you have favourite songs that inspire or motivate you? Please share in the Comments section.
(note: does not seem to be an official video of the Hillsong video, although they have many of their other songs on Youtube.)
Posted
on January 20, 2012, 10:17 am,
by GrandpaRichard,
under Advice.
That is an interesting title. Saw it in an article I was reading this morning. By the way, this post has nothing to do with babies, even though I am a Grandpa, and even though the title says something about a baby.
This post does, however, have something to do with change, because people, in general, are like the title of this post. They don’t like change.
Shutter closes on Kodak | Toowoomba News | Local News in Toowoomba
Toowoomba photographer Graham Burstow is saddened by news of the demise of camera company Kodak. GRAHAM Burstow is sad that his many Kodak moments have come to an end. The veteran Toowoomba photographer said the announcement by Eastman Kodak that the …
www.thechronicle.com.au
How is that for an appropriate title. Shutter closes on Kodak. Love it!
How is it that one of the most famous and successful companies in the world has fallen all the way down to bankruptcy?
Change. More specifically, unwillingness to change.
Today’s Kodak Moment: Bankruptcy
Eastman Kodak company, one of the Pioneers in both analog and digital photography, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today.
http://mashable.com/
Here is a quote from the Mashable article. Read it carefully.
As consumers began to move toward digital photography in the 1990s, Kodak feared it would cannibalize its film business by embracing digital, and held back. The rest is history. Companies like Canon, Olympus and Nikon jumped into the digital fray early, leaving Kodak behind. It was ironic because Kodak had not only brought to market an early digital model, the DCS-100, but a Kodak engineer actually created the first digital camera back in 1975.
Let me repeat part of that quote.
“… a Kodak engineer actually created the first digital camera in back in 1975.”
WOW! They helped create the digital camera. They own $2B worth of digital related patents. But they failed to embrace the changes, and died.
What about you? Do you embrace changes that are needed to move your life forward?
Posted
on January 17, 2012, 11:31 pm,
by GrandpaRichard,
under Quotes.
Will Smith in the movie “The Pursuit of Happiness”.
Don’t ever let someone tell you, you can’t do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. Period. All right?
This is so true. Humans, in general, pull their friends down to a common level. That fact is embedded in that quote.
Posted
on January 16, 2012, 11:57 pm,
by GrandpaRichard,
under Observation.
And what is the suggested selection criteria in some cases?
Gender.
That is the suggestion of some professionals in the GTA, and it is resulting in subtle discrimination.
At the national level here in Canada, according to the 2006 census figures, there are 932 girls to 1,000 boys under age 15 in the South Asian community, compared to 953 girls to 1,000 boys in the general population. Is that statistically significant? Could there be some genetic pattern in the South Asian community that explains it? 932 versus 953. A 2.2 % difference.
Let’s look further at the details.
In Toronto, the ratio is 917 girls to 1,000 boys. A 3.8% difference.
In Mississauga it is 904 girls to 1,000 boys. A 5.1% difference.
In Brampton it is 864 girls to 1,000 boys. That is a 9.3% difference from the national average. That seems statistically significant to me.
Are couples aborting female fetuses? Personally, I find that disgusting. A woman’s right to stop another woman from coming into the world, but a male fetus is just fine, thank you.
Talk about discrimination. (although people familiar with the cultural norms involved say it is not the mother, but the in-laws creating the pressure)
And what is the discrimination involved? Some ultrasound technicians are avoiding giving gender information to expectant parents until later in the pregnancy, when it would be very difficult to have an abortion.
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, or SOGC, … (said that the research) “fails to acknowledge the cultural values and norms that lead certain individuals to pursue pregnancy termination based on the gender of the fetus.”
So, SOGC seems to be saying that gender is a perfectly valid reason to abort a baby in Canada. Would they say the same thing about honour killings, which are also a horrible cultural norm is a small segment of society.
Posted
on January 16, 2012, 11:07 pm,
by GrandpaRichard,
under Opinion.
Poor Mississauga.
Long the diamond in terms of the very low tax increases, Toronto’s neighbour to the west has finally seen the end to good times. Why did they not see it coming? Why do we humans always ignore gathering storms?
After about 3 decades of lower than average property tax increases, including near zero for the past 10 years, it looks like this year’s will be a whopping 7% or more. WOW!
The culprits?
Lower developmental fees were cited as a big factor. Mississauga has been depending on those fees (the result of very rapid development of new homes and commercial spaces) to keep taxes low. But that rapid growth could not be sustained forever, and as the brakes go on there, homeowners will be paying more.
Another factor hinted at in the report in the Star was that roads have reach a phase were more and more of them need upgrades. This is a factor that I have talked about for decades. We build and then we do not allow for the eventual breakdown. We try to shift that to another generation, or another mayor and council.
Just think, Hazel. If you had made your last term the last one, you could have left saying every thing was rosy, and blamed the mess on the next administration!
Posted
on January 13, 2012, 7:54 am,
by GrandpaRichard,
under Advice.
It is actually only 9 minutes long, not 23 1/2. However, it does ask a question about 23 1/2 hours of your day.
I love walking. My favourite is to walk in some woods. Preferably on a path created without man-made stuff, like asphalt. There are some awesome trails in east Scarborough and Pickering (parts of the GTA of Ontario, Canada).
A Doctor-Professor answers the old question “What is the single best thing we can do for our health” in a completely new way.
Dr. Mike Evans is founder of the Health Design Lab at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Toronto, and a staff physician at St. Michael’s Hospital.
Follow Dr. Mike on Twitter @docmikeevans
Facebook/docmikeevans
Using a $400 budget, Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad were able to design and construct a homemade helium powered module that included several digital cameras and a video camera. They were quite ingenious, and thought it through well. For example, to keep the camera batteries active despite the frigid temperatures 24 km above the earth’s surface, they included mitt warmers. They did it all on their own, using just research on the Internet.
Let me repeat part of that quote.
