Cartoon: For The Runners

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

For the runners who persevere. This was linked on Lance Armstrong's Twitter feed (pretty cool).

Music: One Love - Playing for Change

This is a cover of one of our favorite songs to sing with Isaac.

It was released by the group Playing for Change. According to their website, they have an an admirable goal to, "...bring peace through the world through music."

Hiking: Camino de Santiago

This blog article describes a trail which can be hiked across Spain. This looks like a spectacular vacation (although a long one).

Take a look at the movie these hikers created discussing their journey. I especially enjoy the shell trail markers.

Of course, the Camino has many websites describing it, and here is a map of the trail. Appropriately, it ends at the ocean.



Finally, if you're trying to learn Spanish, or interested in Spanish culture this is a great blog to read.

Science Fair: Homopolar Motor

Isaac told me last night he has the opportunity to participate in a science fair this year. Here is my write up to guide him through a potential project.

The experiment teaches the principal of electro-magnetism in a simple motor allowing many options for creative design.

I. Design

a. The only parts needed are a battery, copper wire, and a circular magnet (I had ordered some magnets during the weekend if you want to use those).

b. See this video for the operation of the simple motor, and the variety of design options.

II. Explanation of Electro-magnetic principals

a. Basically explained by using force vector diagrams, where the interaction between the force in the electrical circuit and the magnetic force of the magnet create a tangent force perpendicular to the magnet giving the torque (spinning to the copper wire).

i. See the second half of this article for demonstration and illustration

ii. Here’s another explanation in Wikipedia

III. History

a. A similar experiment creating rotation from electro-magnetism was created by Michael Faraday in 1821

IV. Additional questions and experiments for Isaac

a. How can you make the wire spin faster?

b. What happens when adding a bigger battery, or stronger magnet, or alternative shaped wires?

c. How does this apply to other types of motors? DC, AC, etc.

Games: Lunar Lander

Do you guys remember this game on the old PCs? I certainly do, great stuff!

Birthday: Isaac's Birthday 2009

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Here are some pictures from Abuela's camera from Isaac's birthday. My personal favorites are of Isaac playing the banjo in our newly created band. We also got some more of Gammy; however, not surprisingly, look who she's holding again (Lucky kid). Also some majestic pictures of Leo at the end.

We want to also thank you all for a fantastic time. What a tremendous joy it is having a house full of loving, happy people.

Genealogy: Our Branch of the Hughen Family Tree

Last night after watching a show about the Highland games in Scotland, Denise started looking up some information about the Hughen family tree. Dad helped confirm some of the names which he knew.

So here is our tiny branch of the Hughen tree, for simplicity, I only included the males with the Hughen surname. Links when possible to online sources.

• Samuel Hughen or Hughens arrived in Charleston, SC in July 1772. He is thought to have sailed to the US from Larne, County Antrim, Ireland in a large Protestant movement to the United States.
  
• Robert Hughen - born 1784
• James Hughen - born 1800
  
• George Washington Hughen - born 1837 - the link shows George as a Private in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He seemed to serve in the 33rd Arkansas Infantry. It also documents his son Wallace (Frank). He was also the first to move his family to Texas in the late 1890s.
• Wallace G. (Frank) Hughen - born 1870
• Victor Alvin Hughen - born 1900
• James Frank Hughen - born 1946
• Mark Timothy Hughen - born 1969 - Most of Mark's online presence is in the referee reports of the Texas Rugby Referees
  
• Isaac Alan Hughen - born 2001

Quote: Be Who You Say You Are

I usually send my salesperson extraordinaire wife sales tips from this blog. However, today they have a bit of advice for all of us. It primarily involves being honest, be who you say you are. The examples they give in the article are meant for a work environment, but probably applicable in many areas.

Here's my favorite.

Don't charge for hand leaf raking, but use a leaf blower when the client isn't home.

DIY: Magnet Tricks

Magnet Tricks from the Evil Mad Scientist. My favorite is the Homopolar motor, many examples of these on YouTube.

Video: PBS Streaming Video Site

Great site from PBS for streaming video. Looks like they even have past editions of shows such as Nova and Frontline, as well as others. Perhaps inspired by the Hulu interface, it could make for great watching.

Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!

Take a look at this wikipedia entry describing some of the history of Earth day. It began in 1970, ironically spurred on by an article in the NY Times regarding a "global cooling" scare.

Movie: The Realm - Cisco Advertisement

This is an incredibly intelligent ad campaign from Cisco. They show short action cartoons which relate to various real world computer security threats. The cartoon characters are also linked to actual engineers.

Quote of the Day: Isaac's Birthday Celebration

This quote is extremely appropriate for our celebrations this weekend. How fantastic to have family and friends fill our home with love. Truly spectacular to see so many smiling faces.

Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your good health has vanished. Og Mandino

Pictures to come soon.

Pictures: Forwarded Pics of Isaac

Good looking pictures of Isaac. Again, thanks to Dad for forwarding from his mother.

Cartoon: Man's Best Friend

Leo often helps us out using the very same method. However, he doesn't stop licking so quickly.

Games: Tone Matrix

Interesting little music game.

By playing with the boxes, do you see how the application was developed with its pattern of rows and columns?

Boxes on the same row have the same tone, but the timing is different. Make a line of boxes on the same row.

Boxes on the same column have different tones, but the same timing. Make a line of boxes on the same column.

If you create a diagonal line, guess what it will do?

Happy Birthday Mom

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

With all this technology, we don't buy too many birthday cards these days. Its too easy to create your own.

As you can see, Mom/Gammy has been very elusive during picture time. However, we managed to get a few of her. Also, I can't help but notice a certain grandchild she seems to appear with the most.

Happy Birthday Mom! We love you!

Reverse Evolution: Chicken-osaurus

This Discovery article discusses Jack Horner's vision to reverse engineer a dinosaur by way of a chicken embryo. The article is taken from his book, How to Build a Dinosaur. The NY Times summary answers a few questions of practical application.

The growth of the tail is tied into the problem of the spinal chord, and spinal chord birth defects in human are a major medical problem. Learning more about what prompts and stops tail growth could give us important insights about serious human birth defects.

The final quote comes from the Discovery article as Mr. Horner describes his quest for learning.

I don't like providing answers. ... I like questions. I like asking them, trying to figure out answers, trying to figure out what we are really asking, and seeing what new questions come up.

Music: Anyone Else But You - Ukulele

This is one of our favorite songs from the movie Juno. It's covered here with a ukulele and an interesting collaboration that makes YouTube great.

Also a quote of the day, which may have been posted before, but can't hurt to repeat.

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. Abraham Maslow.

Links: Homeschool and Ukulele

Here's an interesting link to six great and geeky home school websites. Looking through the list, these would be interesting to anybody wanting to teach their kids extra science and math.

Also a ukulele link, must learn this version of Lionel Richie's "Stuck On You".

Happy Monday!

Games: Ball Dropping Physics Game

No score keeping, just fun music and physics.

Space: Hubble Telescope 'Crown of Thorns' Galaxy

Mom desperately wants to write a blog, and I'll help her out for now until she learns the technology.

NASA's Hubble telescope photographed a galaxy bordering between spiral and elliptical. The halo is formed from a collection of individual stars.

Religion: Jewish Celebration of Birkat Hachama

This evening the Jewish faith celebrates Birkat Hachama or the Blessing of the Sun. This celebration only occurs once every 28 years; when, by Jewish tradition, God initially created the Sun.

This year, the Birkat Hachama coincides with Passover, an extremely rare confulence, happening only 12 previous times in recorded Jewish history (over 5000 years).

ASL: Colors

This video has lots of sample signs in addition to the colors.

Science: Stephen Wolfram A New Kind Of Science

Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind Of Science is online including linked notes and search functions.

This feels like the future of online publishing. It is far to convenient to confine only to computer science applications and research. The ability to search the full text, index, as well as the author's notes is amazing.

Learn ASL: Fruits and Animals

We have a long way to go, but here are fruits. No better way to learn than to be totally immersed.

Here are animals.

Development: IPhone

There have been some discussions at my work regarding an IPhone application. Here is a link to a new course at Standford regarding IPhone development.

The only prohibitive factor is the price of a Mac, they are sure proud of those machines.

Star Wars and Music: Chewbacca on a Strat

Being fans of both Star Wars and electric guitars, we thought you might appreciate this short clip.

And, speaking of a galaxy far, far away, an other worldly quote of the day.

If we discover a desire within us that nothing in this world can satisfy, also we should begin to wonder if perhaps we were created for another world. C.S. Lewis