Geek Dad Guest Blogging

For the next two weeks I have the honor of guest blogging on Wired's Geekdad blog (www.geekdad.com) It's important to nurture the next generation of Edisons, Teslas, DiVincis, and Curies and here's a forum for exploring just that topic.

My friend John Baichtal is a regular contributor there and I read it regularly. So, when the opportunity to write for a group of like minded people with a big readership came along, I jumped on it.

Exploring the trans-Saharan Gold Trade

My archeologist son Andy leaves today on an expedition to a remote part of Ghana, on Africa's western coast. It's seems like it's going to be quite an adventure:

I'm leaving tonight for Ghana to once again participate in an archaeological investigation of West African history. We're staying in the main city of Accra for a few days before heading out to the rural village of Banda. I'm working on a team of North American and Ghanaian archaeologists investigating an ancient market town connected with the very beginning of the trans-Saharan gold trade about 1000 years ago.

Under Andy told me about it, I didn't know there was a trans-Saharan gold trade. According to Wikipedia,

"Trans-Saharan trade is trade across the Sahara between Mediterranean countries and sub-Saharan Africa. While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of such trade extended from the eighth century until the late sixteenth century

The place he's working is so remote that there's no phone or email. I can only imagine what it's going to be like for him.

The Marvelous Work of Norman Saunders

I met illustrator Zina Saunders at the GEL conference in New York City last week. Wildly creative and fairly edgy, she works have been in a number of top magazines. I hope to talk to her later today to learn more about what she's doing.

Anticipating that call, I did a bit of internet research and found out she's the daughter of Norman Saunders. Norman was a big time illustrator also and did a lot covers for pulp novels. It turns out Norman was from northern Minnesota (I live in Minnesota) and the story of his life is fascinating.

Random bits of information from NormanSaunders.com:

Norman Blaine Saunders' illustration career was as big and successful as any artist could hope for, and no single genre could contain his remarkable talent. He painted them all - aliens and aviators, heroes and hunters, detectives and demons, quarterbacks and comic books, sex kittens and serial killers, westerns and wacky packs.

and

1953- Daughter Zina is born. Norm's style of work for gruesome comic books is effectively ended when Comic Book Code of Decency Law is enacted and most comics are printed with a the seal "Approved."

More on this to follow. . .

100 Geeks You Should Be Following

GeekDad.com is the parenting blog at Wired.com. Basically it is a group geeks who have reproduced biologically and now blog their experiences raising children in the digital age. I like this blog as it ruminates about the way being a parent intersects with technology and popular culture.

Today, on GeekDad.com, this post: 100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter

Among those recommended are Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage, Trent Reznor, and. . . . . (wait for it) me(!).

I love the recognition, but now I'll have to try harder to make my tweets more interesting and actually understandable. No more "I think anchovy pizzas suck" or "A/n hav bn sndng ppls (s bck 2 thn. edit LT @SpazNet:"

New York: I am a Camera

I flew home from New York last night, and boy, are my arms tired. Seriously though, flying a plane is no different than riding a bicycle, it's just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes.

I was part of Mark Hurst's always excellent GEL presentations which was held at the TimesCenter in Manhattan. GEL 2009 was super despite the down economy - upbeat and interesting. I spoke on the Art of Living Dangerously.

Before I left I decided to walk around midtown, play tourist, and take a few pictures. My requisite shots of skyscrapers at night.



This one is better. On 30th street I found this locust tree.

The tree's trunk was bubbling up, sort of angrily, out of the tiny open space allowed for it between concrete layers of NYC sidewalk. The other trees on the block were a lot calmer.

Next week I head for Washington DC to participate in Kinneret USA. Should be fun.

How to Give an Ignite Presentation

What is an "Ignite Presentation" and how do you give it? Ignite talks are a style of presenting where people speak on a subject of their choice for five minute accompanied by 20 powerpoint slides. The slides are automatically changed every 15 seconds. At the end of five minutes, the Ignite talk is over - that's it; fini; done.

On Wednesday, I gave a five minute Ignite talk at Ignite Minneapolis. It was a boisterous crowd, 500+ people strong, and many of them a little tipsy after having a few glasses of beer at the free social hour that preceded the event. I've done Ignite before and I'd do it again because I find it a lot of fun to get up there and talk about something for five minutes.

Reaction of the crowd? It was positive; they laughed at the appropriate places and I got a sort of a boozy roar of approval at the end.

I encourage everybody to give it a try. As far as public speaking goes, it's a good place to start. Here's why:

• Like karaoke, even if you suck, no one really cares.
• It only lasts five minutes.
• Most people come to ignite to be entertained. It's a pretty non judgemental crowd. (But there may be some troglodytes or hecklers out there - just ignore them since they're idiots anyway.)

Convinced? Okay, if you're going to do it, here are some tips:

HOW TO PREPARE AND PRESENT YOUR IGNITE TALK

• If you write out your talk in advance, figure that you can speak about 20 to 30 words per 15 second slide. That's not a lot but you can do a lot with that if you're good.
• You have five minutes, that's it. So, you're really limited to how much you can say. Don't try to explain global warming. But you can tell people how to plant a tree and why that's a good thing. Have a single concept broken into 3 to 5 subparts (and keep those subparts SIMPLE)
• Use as few words on your slides as possible. Most of my slides have no words at all, just a single photo or graphic. The slides should reinforce your words, not vice versa.
• You need to connect with your audience using your voice. Modulate it. Talk fast then slow. Loud, then soft. Sound sarcastic then sincere. It keeps people interested.
• Figure out your natural style and go with it. I tend to talk fast. It works for me. But your natural style may be completely different. Your style will become apparent when your practice your talk. Once you figure it out, go with it.
  
• Humor is terrific. A few funny pictures will hold the audience attention.
• Speakers get energy from your audience. Look for a few people in the crowd who like what you're saying and speak to them.

Ignite Minneapolis

I am doing a talk at the upcoming Ignite Minneapolis this Wednesday (April 22) . Ignite presentations were invented by my friends Bre Pettis and Brady Forrest a few years back in Seattle and the concept has taken off. Basically, you sign up and talk for five minutes about what ever subject you want. You have 20 PowerPoint slides and they change automatically every 15 seconds.

It's fast paced and fun. I did this before at an OReilly event in San Jose and it was fun. This time it should be even better as there's free beer!

Come if you can. Feel free to email me via the form on williamgurstelle.com/contact.php

Here's the info from the Ignite website:

Ignite Minneapolis #1

The first ever Ignite Minneapolis event is right around the corner. Admission free. Beer is free.

Wednesday, April 22
Solera, downtown Minneapolis

6:00 – Doors Open, social hour
7:00 – Presentations Begin
8:00 – Break
8:15 – Presentations Continue
9:00 – Event Conclusion

Risk Taking and Decision Making

I gave a talk yesterday about the Art of Living Dangerously at the Minnesota High Tech Conference. Some of what I spoke about is based on the work of a number of well known academics who more or less pioneered the ideas of measuring and analyzing an individual's proclivity to assume risk.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
A number of people asked me for additional information on the field of risk taking and decision making. Here are some books I recommend on the subject.

1. "Risk Taking, A Managerial Perspective" by Zur Shapira. It's good, although I'd have say it's pretty densely written, and doesn't lend itself to skimming.
2. "Behavioral Expressions and Biosocial Bases of Sensation Seeking" by Marvin Zuckerman. This is a terrific book should be read by more people. No doubt the title puts people off.
3. "Choices, Values, and Frames" edited by Amos Tversky. Covers the concept of framing bias in risk taking and decision making.
4. For a book on decision making in general, apart from looking strictly at risk taking psychology, consider "Decision Making" by the editors at Harvard Business School
5. Finally, there is much information on risk taking psychology and suggestions on ways to improve your life through wise and rational risktaking in my new book, Absinthe and Flamethrowers: Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously. It will be widely available in June. To reserve a copy, preorder now on Amazon by clicking below:

RISK TAKING PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST INSTRUMENTS
An adapted version of Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale V psychological test is available online here . Note that SSSv and provides a more detailed breakdown of risk taking behavior than the SSSVI version we took at MHTA. The online test provides raw scores and some interpretation.

Fully interpreting SSSv is a bit involved, but there are instructions in the Zuckerman Book listed above.

FURTHER ADVICE
I speak professionally and consult with organizations on this subject and would be happy to discuss working with your organization. For more information, please visit www.williamgurstelle.com

Methylene Chloride and Dippy Bird Science

Methylene Chloride is the bonding agent I used to attach one piece of polycarbonate plastic to another piece when I was constructing the firepiston (see Feb 13 post in this blog.) MC works well because it's thin and penetrates into seams well and does a good job of dissolving the plastic so it solvent welds together.

Coincidentally, I found out, while researching dippy bird physics, that methylene chloride is the same stuff used in the dippy birds to make them go up and down. The science of dippy birds, according to the How Stuff Works website are this:

1. When water evaporates from the fuzz on the Dippy Bird's head, the head is cooled.
2. The temperature decrease in the head condenses the methylene chloride vapor, decreasing the vapor pressure in the head relative to the vapor pressure in the abdomen.
3. The greater vapor pressure in the abdomen forces fluid up through the neck and into the head.
4. As fluid enters the head, it makes the Dippy Bird top-heavy.
5. The bird tips. Liquid travels to the head. The bottom of the tube is no longer submerged in liquid.
6. Vapor bubbles travel through the tube and into the head. Liquid drains from the head, displaced by the bubbles.
7. Fluid drains back into the abdomen, making the bird bottom-heavy.
8. The bird tips back up.

Methylene chloride is also used, apparently in decaffinating coffee. The MSDS says the stuff is somewhat dangerous, but apparently not so much that it cannot be used in dippy bird toys - at least until someone complains.

Publishers Weekly review

My new book, Absinthe and Flamethrowers, was reviewed in today's Publisher's Weekly:

Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously William Gurstelle. Chicago Review, $16.95 paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-55652-822-4

If you can imagine Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes all grown up, this supercharged guide for amateur thrill seekers would probably replace Hobbes as his constant companion. Ostensibly in order to encourage the notion that “to a point, the ability to wage risk is a useful and worthwhile attribute,” professional engineer Gurstelle (The Art of the Catapult) lays out detailed instructions for making “black powder” (gunpowder), rockets, flamethrowers and other devices that will endanger your digits and eyebrows. To the author’s credit, he is equally detailed in his prescriptions of safety gear and precautions. He also details more hedonistic thrills, such as absinthe, cigarette smoking and “thrill eating” à la the Travel Channel’s Andrew Zimmern—“in small amounts,” he says, “they add bite and depth to the flavor of life.” Most of the recipes and blueprints that Gurstelle shares with fellow “Big-T” (thrill-seeking) personalities, can be found all over the Internet, but this antidote to the usual cautious self-help guides is written well if occasionally in overheated prose, and, more important, is presented responsibly. Illus. (June)

From this day forward, it shall becomes my life's work, nay, my life's passion, to henceforth, wrest every infinitesimal bit, every intimation of overheatedness from my prose. Seriously though, it's a great review and I think the reviewer understands what it's about. Look for it in June at bookstores everywhere.

Making Fireworks

<---- Lighting the Lances

This weekend I've made fireworks with the chemicals I bought during Skylighter's half off sale last week. I made a couple fountains, or as fireworks makers often call them, gerbes, with pretty good results. But the great appeal to me is to make "set pieces." This is an old time fireworks display where glowing and moving things are set down on the ground or against a wall instead of shooting them in the air. I feel they have this old, Victorian feel and I like that.

First and foremost among set piece fireworks are chemical lances which are a lot like railroad flares. The lances burn brightly for a minute or more. They're very bright and cheerful.





<---Lances burning brightly

Blowing Stuff Up as A Kid

Last night, I tried out a new combination of pyrotechnical chemicals in some fireworks I made. It was a fountain, or in pyrotechnical lingo, a gerbe. It worked wonderfully. The key was the addition of fine iron particles into the fuel-oxidizer and those iron flakes lit up the night with intense sparks and streamers.

I mentioned this on my twitter feed and was gratified that fellow like-minded technologist and my electronic correspondent, Dan Dubno, wrote me immediately and directed me to a wonderful article he wrote in yesterday's Huffington Post.

A few years ago, I questioned a large number of scientists working for the Office of Naval Research on critical projects for our nation's security. In this room full of doctorates and inventors I asked, "How many of you hold a patent or have been closely involved with one?" Most of the several hundred scientists here raised their hands.

I wondered what gave them the "permission" to invent. "Since this place is clearly full of inventors," I wondered, "how many of you blew stuff up when you were kids?" Nearly every hand in that audience -- an audience filled with the nation's leading innovators -- shot up.

In particular, Dan relates how he asked a group of accomplished scientists "did you blow things up as a kid?"

Well did they? What do you think, of course they did! And that's something to think about: Is the world to led by small minded, tort fearing, safety-first, second, and always, nanny staters? Let's hope not. More on this subject later

Make Day at the Science Museum of Minnesota

Me, Richard Hudson, John Edgar (Eggy) Park explain Maker life to visitors at Make Day -->

At Make Day, Minnesota's finest tinkerers, inventors, geeks, and hackers showed their mettle and wowwed the crowd.

I was the MC on the Maker Stage and the theme of the day was music. There was a lot of music from self made instruments. Keston and Westdahl, Tim Kaiser, and Savage Aural Hotbed expanded my musical horizons, providing a wholly encompassing tableau of sound and music.

The museum staff said the turn out was excellent, far exceeding the norm, which was especially noteworthy since today was the nicest day, weather-wise, since last October.

Savage Aural Hotbed -->

I received word today that the people who run Make Magazine's Maker Shed (the magazine's online store which carries an terrific assortment of Maker gear, tools, kits, and so on) are offering an incredible deal my books and DVD. I'm amazed that they can offer a discount this big.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Announcing our new bundles available exclusively in the Maker Shed. William "Bill" Gurstelle is an award-winning writer, licensed engineer, bestselling author and professional speaker (not to mention MAKE Magazine contributing editor and producer on Make: television). We like the guy, we like the way he thinks. We think you'll like him too, which is why we've created the Ballistic bundle.

The Ballistic Bundle includes:

• Backyard Ballistics $16.95 value
• Whoosh! Boom! Splat! $16.95 value
• Make Vol. 3 $14.99 value
• Barrage Garage Vol. 1 DVD $19.99 value

All for the discounted price of $48. That's an amazing 46% off the price if you purchased these items individually. Take advantage of this amazing deal before it's too late.

More about the Welcome to MAKE bundle in the Maker Shed

The Fire Piston

Doesn't look like much, but it's actually way cool ->
(click on picture to see it work)

The fire piston is a clever little device for starting a fire when you're say, in the woods and don't want to use a match. Basically, it's a small, handmade piston and cylinder. You place some easy to ignite tinder in a cavity in the end of the piston and smack the piston down inside the closed cylinder. The air inside heats up and viola! the tinder ignites.

Sounds simple, and it is, but actually making one took more time and care than I expected. I used a number of different materials for the piston and found that I could make a working piston out of either hardwood or hard plastic. The tricky part was making a good seal, and making the cylinder end air tight.

The fire piston demonstrates the ideas of 19th century scientists Rudolph Clausius, James Joule, and Julius Meyer. Basically, it shows the relationship between work and heat. Work and heat are the same thing, said those scientists, which was in contrast to the then current notion that heat was a "thing," a mysterious quantity called phlogiston or caloric. Nope, said Clausius, heat is simply the what happens when you do mechanical work in a closed system.

See a movie of my fire piston in action at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX9odql1Abc

The Maker President

As a maker and rational risk taker, I was thrilled to hear President Obama say this in his inaugural address:

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or

seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labour, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Making, like charity, begins at home. Go out and make something cool today. For ideas, visit:

• makezine.com
  
• makezine.tv
  
• instructables.com
  
• wonderhowto.com
  

The Moaster

What happens when you mix a toaster, an arduino, some pressurized CO2, and the same English ingenuity that brought the world the steam engine, the power loom, and the sandwich? You get the Moaster, the world's highest popping toaster.

While I didn't realize the need for such a device before, upon reflection there is no doubt that it serves a crucial need. And it leads to a glorious vision of other amplified, modified appliances. Work must begin immediately upon the world's loudest kitchen timer, built from a series of air powered klaxon horns and kettle drums. Or perhaps the world's most powerful stove burner, an oxyacetylene powered hob with integrated scram-jet technology to boil water faster than you can say "the rural juror's brewery*."

* John Edgar Park (or "Eggy" as he prefers to be called on the set of Make: Television) and I have decided that of all possible lines in an actor's script, this is the most hellish to say.

The Airborne Laser - World's Largest Hunk of Titanium

Titanium alloy is extraordinarily strong, stiff, and light, all qualities coveted by people interested in cramming in as much horsepower into the lightest, strongest package possible. On the flip side, it is extraordinarily expensive, and a real pain in the neck to cut and weld. It is close to impossible to cut with a hacksaw, all but requiring the use of fancy water jet cutters or electrical discharge machining.

Titanium is such a cool material that its has developed its own mystique, even crossing over to non engineers, conjuring up, for many, the promise of a real space age materials – rare, expensive, and high performance. Even though it is one of the more common elements in the earth’s crust, it is so hard to work with that items made from it are necessarily, expensive.

Marketing types have pounced on the metal’s cachet, and it is used as a come-on in sorts of marketing campaigns that seek to project of an image of high tech strength. There are titanium golf balls, titanium coffee cups, titanium rain coats, titanium computers, titanium sunglasses, and titanium condoms. There may actually be some rationalization for including a fleck or two of titanium in a golf ball, but the need to include it in the others doesn’t seem apparent, and in fact most of these items don’t actually contain a lick of it.

One item that does contain titanium, in fact quite a lot of it, is the “ABL”, a gigantic US Air Force airplane-mounted laser, one of the linchpins of U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense system which is the successor to Ronald Reagan’s Cold War Era “Star Wars” Strategic Defense Initiative. The ABL is a very large oxygen-iodine laser that is powerful enough, or so its Pentagon designers claim, to destroy a missile during its “boost phase”, the first few minutes after it lifts off and is thrust into the sky by its powerful chemical rocket engines.


Large parts of the missile killing light beam are encased in an approximately 25 foot by 10 foot protruding titanium “belly skin” affixed to the bottom of a heavily modified Boeing 747. This skin, or panel, has 36 holes arranged in eight neat rows of four holes, each hole being slightly larger than one foot in diameter. Through these holes, the jet of steam exhaust generated by the laser’s firing system will be ejected after it locks on and destroys an ascending missile.

When the laser operates, great quantities of hot, highly pressurized steam will rapidly exit the aircraft and extreme measures to protect the airplane and crew are required. The project engineers designed a massive hunk of robot-fabricated titanium, the world’s largest titanium part, for the laser shell because only titanium met the thermal, material strength and chemical requirements of the project.

How to be Interviewed on Live TV

So, maybe you've been trying to figure out how to be interviewed on live television without crashing and burning. Well, don't worry, I can help.

I decided to write this post after I did a live tv spot plugging Make:television on Almanac.

Almanac is the live, weekly public affairs television program produced by Twin Cities Public Television and I was asked to come on the show and talk about Make:Television.

Personally, I've done interviews on over 100 radio and tv stations. I've never died on stage, and actually, they've typically been a lot of fun. Good time, and the interview went just fine.

And, as Andy Warhol said, everybody gets their own fifteen minutes of fame eventually. So, odds are you'll get your time on TV as well. (Hopefully not on Fox Network's COPS.)

When your time comes up, it pays to be prepared.

How to be Interviewed on Live TV
1. Make a personal connection with the person interviewing you. The better the connection, the better the interview. At a minimum learn, memorize, and use that person's name. Sound easy, but a lot of people all of sudden can't remember the name of the interviewer when the lights go on.
2. Know where to look and where not to look. Usually, just look a the person interviewing you and not at the camera.
3. Take it easy with hand gestures. The camera operator will have a hard time tracking if you constantly wave your hands around.
4. Easy to say and hard to do, but: try and relax and have a good time.
5. Dress in solid colors. Bright white shirts and those with patterns make strange moire patterns and should be avoided.
6. Talking about your product or book is great but avoid over plugging it. Hopefully, the interviewer will take care of that for you. But if you get to the end of the interview and your product, book, video, etc hasn't been mentioned then by all means plug away. But do it with restraint and succinctness.

Potato Cannon Instructions - NOW RENDERED IN 3D!!!

This is way, way cool.

In 2006 I wrote an article for Make Magazine which describes in detail how to make a potato cannon. I called it the Night Lighter 36 and it was quite fine piece of work. It was constructed from clear PVC plastic (the better to see the what goes on inside the combustion chamber) and uses a high voltage taser to supply the spark required to ignite the fuel that propels the potato. (Note to the the taser-averse crowd, you could subsitute a flint and steel lantern lighter in the end cap for the the taser. But, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting (or expensive))

As far as spud guns go, it was pretty high tech. Speaking of high tech, the Make magazine website made an interactive 3D rendering of the device available. I didn't know about that until I read Make website editor Phil Torrone's comments on a recent newsgroup post called the Foo Camp Digest.

The technology is exceedingly interesting and interactive 3d rendering of tech projects shows great potential. Check out the 3D PDF for yourself on the Make Mag web site. 

(A bit of self promotion here: this and many other wonderful projects are brilliantly rendered and explained in my book Whoosh Boom Splat. There is a link to Amazon.com to the right -->)

I'm not sure how complicated the software is that makes such interesting drawings. I've doodled around with SolidWorks and AutoCad and, well, I just don't have the patience to learn it. Maybe this one is easier.