I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of data processing putting something like this together takes. DT-MRI image voxels have nothing on this.
From the BBC:
Gravity satellite yields ‘Potato Earth’ view. By Jonathan Amos
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Our lives are spent trying to pixellate a fractal planet.
Silverfork /
Gotta be the glasses
Part of the ritual.
View from below
Back up for more.
The full run of photos are in the Skiing 2011 set on Flickr.
Took the camera out today with just a 50mm lens. Simplicity. I had forgotten how much fun it is to just be out with no other lens options. Also fun, great snow. However, good friends are really what make being out in the mountains rewarding.
Spring /
The time of year were winter thaws and new plans are made. This time last year we were recovering Polly’s hip and hoping that climbing would be pain free. This year we’re hoping the same thing about her ankle. So even as the spring snows come here and keep the skis out of storage for a few months longer, the green sprouts and flower buds in our garden remind us that warmth and summer are coming. I hope adventures like climbing in mountains with Polly work out this year, through the year all the way to and through next winter and beyond. Recoveries are slow and tedious, much like impatiently waiting for a season to change.
Here’s to this season of recovery setting and a new spring beginning for what may come.
Black Diamond Cyborg crampons CLIP to PRO conversion /
What do you do when the crampons you already own, don’t fit the boots you just bought? And by don’t fit, I mean the boot can slide around on the crampon until it ends up being so far forward that the front welt of the boot covers half the front points. This is not a comforting feeling.
This what the Cyborgs looked like before:
Stock image from Black Diamond stock photo via Google images
Note the three holes… I’m going to bet that BD doesn’t use separate stamping tooling to manufacture these and the only difference between the the strapped (CLIP) version and the wired (PRO) version is the removal of the vertical tabs. This is the assumption that I made anyway.
The front of my boot are too narrow to be stopped in the right place by those two vertical tabs that are riveted to the plastic strap. Removing the two tabs was the easy part.
And after removing that front strap.
The trick was getting the wire into the holes (really hoping that the 2nd hole would fit my boots, turns out it did).
The details of what’s been done.
Now the crampons fit my boots well (Mammut Mamook Thermos) and I’m really happy with the way things turned out. And now these will also work with my telemark ski boots too. I’m sure this is not covered by Black Diamond’s warranty, and I would also doubt they’d approve of this modification. For me, it was worth it to not buy new crampons and get what I already own to work for the price of two toe bails.
Details to note:
1) Don’t use a grinder that might cause excessive heating and de-temper the steel
2) Don’t excessively bend/flex the wire which might weaken it
3) Do this at your own risk
4) A vice is helpful (more so if its jaws are wooden and the spikes can dig in lightly)
At the gear swap this past weekend, picked up two Titan picks for $5. They were both blunted flat at the tip, and after resharpening them I only lost about 2mm off the length. Spending the time to resharpen was completely worth it and given what they cost new (each).
Sunday tour /
Zack, Leight, Renne, Polly and I zipped up and out to a nice open run and glade above Mill D on Sunday. Super windy on the ridgeline, but less so back down in the trees. The snow was fast, and just enough new to make the turns fun.
Very windy, its not snowing more than a light flurry…
Full set in the Skiing 2011 set on Flickr.
Accelerating the design process /
On the redesign of the Fusion ice tool:
"We didn’t feel we could safely reduce more weight with the older design after we did the (FEA) analysis," says Brendan Perkins, design engineer at Black Diamond. Starting with a clean slate, the engineering team gave the designers a basic mockup of what the ice tool’s wall thickness should be along with other critical design elements like pick angle and approximate shaft size. Using the same iterative design workflows, the team came up with a new hydroformed aluminum shaft design that was 9.4 percent lighter."
And on the use of Finite Element Analysis (FEA):
Previously you might get to an optimized design through engineering know-how and experience, but at this point, further gains won’t come through those means
From: Design News: Walk a Mile in Your Ski Boots
Interesting article for those curious about the design and optimization of the design of climbing and skiing gear. The article focuses partially on the use and need for FEA, however it seems to me the real power behind these redesigns is the up-front collaboration between the engineering, industrial design, and manufacturing. Understanding what you need, what your constraints are to achive that need, and where to start iterating is immensely valuable to speeding up a design process.
Iterations on our knee femur implant.
In medical device design, and specifically what I’m working on, the times that we’ve had a design review with surgeons, engineers and machinists present has taken months off the design cycle just because we could rapidly iterate to a better starting point for a particular implant design concept.
waiting /
Its hard to imagine sitting on ‘go’ like this guy. Packed and ready to go, goodbyes already said, sun’s out where he’s waiting, but storming where he needs to land.
The lack of control is the most frustrating part. On the Arctic Ocean my progress north is up to me, and even on the worst days I can battle with blizzards and headwinds and negative drift to win a few miles. Here in Resolute, where the wind is still and the sun is shining, the weather somehow has me pinned down, with no chance to fight back.
From NORTH 3: Delay http://www.bensaunders.com/standard-post/delay/
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“The battle’s on and there’s always a prize”
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Gram counting. from http://www.bensaunders.com/
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One way to start off with a good morning.
Plus it felt good to get the camera out again.
A tour up Little Cottonwood /
A great tour up the ridge between White Pine and Red Pine drainages in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Super fun north to north-east facing snow, well preserved indeed. And a boot-pack for good measure.
The full set is on the Skiing 2011 set on Flickr
(thanks Rich for the great photo!)
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“He seeks to place all his years of learning and preparation into one cast… in the hope that he will have done enough.”
darts /
My answer to work frustrations.
roma bags /
A friend and designer, Jenn Ketler has a project called Roma Bags, and while I don’t buy purses or clutches, getting to see some of the evolution of these has been great. The bags are all unique and are each made from reclaimed materials. .
Awesome to see Roma resurface.
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Last shuttle mission:
Space shuttle Discovery has reached orbit and is on its way to the International Space Station. “Good to be here,” Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey radioed soon after the three main engines shut off and the external fuel tank was jettisoned. The official launch time was 4:53 p.m. EST.
Sad to see the end of an era.
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So satisfying to metal on my desk that was once just a CAD model. Even more so when the function, balance and feel are all right.
Ice and snow /
The ice was in this weekend, and despite highs in the upper 40’s here in the valley, Provo Canyon’s north wall was cold and empty of people. Getting to lead two of the four pitches off the ground was fantastic. One was a challenging lead for me, the other was the easy kind of fun. Even got some bushwack/choss’ineering in between pitches, which is even more ‘fun’ to descend.
Polly was able to ski again! On a break from the Alta clinic on Sunday, and it was so good to see her grinning and turning. Its been a long four months, and now recovery has returned to activity.
After getting to ski with Polly for a few runs, met up with some friends and skied out of Alta to Rocky Point, skied down, then booted back up to Patsy Marley and back down into the resort.
NYTimes: Out of Touch, Out of Time by Thomas Friedman /
Before this uprising, he said, “I was not proud to tell people I was an Egyptian. Today, with what’s been done here” in Tahrir Square, “I can proudly say again I am an Egyptian.”
Humiliation is the single most powerful human emotion, and overcoming it is the second most powerful human emotion.
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“But I’ll hold on hope…
And I’ll find strength in pain, and I will change my ways,
I’ll know my name as its called again”