phyllostachys 58: Minute Tech 43 show notes

43 - What are Winter Sports?

Good afternoon, this is Alex Landefeld with episode 43 of the Minute Tech podcast -

coming to you for Monday, December 3rd, 2007

On this tech podcast about the broader meanings of technology, we'll mention:

- Snow, Hadrosaurs and Apple all on the rise;
- What are Winter Sports?
- HangBoarding may be in my future.

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Minute Tech podcast is brought to you in part by:

Larry Tolbert's Sunday Morning Taiji - learning tai chi and qi gong 9:30 am every Sunday morning at the Dunamis Baptist Church, in Wilkinsburg, PA. "Move with the motion of the planet - move with Taiji" - e-mail leonardtolbert-[at]-hotmail-[dot]-com for more info.

And:

Ravelings, by Carol. Pittsburgh-region classes in needle-craft - encompassing crochet, embroidery, knitting, & tatting, as well as an associated lace collection. For more information, contact Carol at carolb207-[at]-alltel-[dot]-net.



Tech News:

What we experienced as rain Sunday in Pittsburgh, thank goodness, was experienced as a bunch of snow in the northeast. Parts of New York State had six inches of the white stuff, while New Jersey was getting some three inches.

Out in North Dakota, I don't know about the above ground weather, but scientists are just releasing information that below ground the weather is quite, uh, preserving. Dakota, as the unearthed hadrosaur has been named, is a dinosaur body that was first found as a body...with skin and musculature preserved in the fossilized state rather than just the skeleton. Scientists speculate that the ground in North Dakota at the time somehow converted the whole body to minerals before bacteria could eat away at the corpse. Wow...just thinking the word "corpse" with a dinosaur fossil....makes you look quickly behind you to make sure you're not being watched.... :-)
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/071203_dakota.htm

Meanwhile, back in present day, we have a new milestone - Apple, according to Net Applications, is up to a high of 6.6% market share, and the safari web browser is up to 5.14%. Both these measurements are based on computers that have accessed many websites, rather than the number of units sold that other companies use for tabulation. Check out www.netapplications.com, or any of the mac rumor sites such as Mac Daily News, MacRumors or ThinkSecret for more complete reporting.

Tech Question:

Winter Sports: Skating, hockey, figure, tour & speed; Sledding; Skiing, both cross country & downhill, and related sports; Taboganning; Hang-boarding; curling...what else is there?

Obviously, winter sports encompass that set of sports that are unique to the winter, that is that they are not, or can not, generally, be performed during the summer. With the advent of modern cooling systems, ice skating has become a year-round sport, whether you're in Calgary or Miami. With various forms of astroturf combined with treadmills, or cross-country ski's with wheels, you can nearly ski year round. And of course the wheeled versions of skates & snowboards have been around for decades in the form of rollerskates, inline skates and skateboards.

This past weekend I took my son to a sixth skating lesson at a local ice rink. While it was like pulling teeth to get him on the ice, I couldn't wait. Although I skated quite a bit, and played hockey, as a youth, I haven't skated before this year in probably 25 years. Now, I did pick up on inline roller blading several years ago while living in San Francisco, which whetted my thirst for this type of movement...but ice really is quite different. On ice you have much more freedom than on wheels on pavement. Ice-skating backwards, if you can manage it both mentally and physically, is rather effortless....doing so on roller-blades is more suicidal.

After skating for about 1 and a half hours on Saturday...about an hour past my son's endurance...I realized that I got more than just movement out of the experience...but some exercise as well. My primary exercise these days is commuting in my car, so you can imagine that some atypical exercise form might be welcome. Later in the evening, I went straight to Youtube, and glommed onto videos of how to do various things on the ice, including types of "extreme" skating.

In the next few podcasts I'll focus on some of the technical details of winter sports...if you're listening in the Northern Hemisphere...or at least in the northern reaches, you'll notice outside that this is the right season for this focus. Hang on!


Podcasting - Blogging News:

So, speaking of blog journeys, as I did in MT number 42, I took a couple more yesterday and this morning. From Facebook, I followed link to the blog of an old friend, Charles Buchwald, at http://buchwald.ca/. Charles is a designer for HangBoard Snoflight, Inc. HangBoard makes a most interesting device - as it's name implies, it appears to be a snowboard on you hang from a harness, somewhat akin to a hangglider harness, and swing side to side to move the board left and right. If you go to www.hangboard.ca, you'll see links to a few Youtube video demonstrations.

Personally, with all the societal opposition to sledding these days...and I guess I refer to my inlaws' desire not to allow my son to sled due to the potential hazards...I'm hot to try this device. It looks very cool to be racing down a mountain on a futuristic flexible flyer, which looks to have quite a bit of control and maneuverability in the hands of the "pilot".


Thats all for today on Minute Tech podcast.
you can reach me at minutetech@gmail.com -
and my blog is at minutetech.blogspot.com

"Move with the motion of the planet - move with Taiji"

- Snow, hadrosaurs and Apple all on the rise;
- What are Winter Sports?
- HangBoarding may be in my future.

Go to the Minute Tech iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.