After staying up till about 1 AM watching several
movies (Resident Evil: Afterlife and part of the Hangover) I passed out.
Luckily today was one of the first days where I could sleep in and just relax a
bit (sleeping in until 9 AM (watch out guys I’m a sleeping fiend)). Today
basically nothing has happened (so I’ll try not to make this a
boring-fill-up-pages-use-memory-waste-time blog entry). The morning was all
about chilling and eventually getting a shower and eating some breakfast (at
like 10 AM (getting back on the weekend college schedule I suppose)). This
morning was also epic though because I was able to go online and get some time
to just enjoy electronics and science. I explored Scientific American’s website
and read some interesting articles on extreme tech such as expanding foam (good
stuff basically) to be injected into wounds to coagulate and stop the bleeding
(it actually works too!) but some are worried that the foam can disintegrate
and spread smaller pieces into the blood streams (causing blockages in other
critical blood vessels). Another piece of technology I read about was this
acoustic sensor that uses three wires to trace the path of individual air
particles and create a sound profile given that information. This information
can then be extrapolated to pinpoint the origin of the sound and determine the
direction of the sound as well (by looking at the displacement of the
particles). In essence this allows for quantification of sound origin and one
major application is in military devices for pinpointing and classifying
gunfire. By far my favorite new piece of technology I read about today is
called electro permanent magnet. Basically this technology takes the advantages
of an electromagnet and combines them with the toggle privileges of switch to
create a magnet with changeable strength (this magnet can be toggled on with electricity
and then will stay on after the power is removed (unlike an electromagnet (HOLY
FUTZ! SO AWESOME!))). This technology has actually been used by (have to give
them credit for this one) an MIT lab group to build these 1 cm cube modular
robots that will arrange themselves and stay in the shape (due to the locking
power of the magnets) chosen by the group. Obviously this technology can be
extended and minimized (and another MIT group was working on a stepper motor
using this type of magnetic winding (which shows quite promising capabilities)).
Another advantage about this magnet type is that the design can actually hold
quite a bit of weight (up to 10x weight of the magnet). This technology is
quite applicable to modular robotics as this can help to minimize the current
required to keep the robots together (this technology is accomplished through a
coil winding around two different permanent magnets such that a current running
in the wire induces a magnetic field in the two cores that change the effect of
the field (on and off)). Basically I want to buy myself some of these and start
putting them on everything I have. Also during this time I realized that I have
been wasting too much of my life with useless pursuits and realized that I have
to focus more on my work (basically having a mini-life crisis in the sense of I
have to start doing more projects and whatnot as I haven’t done anything “quite
cool” in my opinion (Thank you Iron Man for getting me stoked to fabricate all
manner of projects (I also have revised how I see projects and learning to
better understand life (all very important ideals (major life and soul
searching going on down here))))). Anyways basically life has been pretty chill
here during the time after the morning, just been reading up on electronics,
chilling and napping a bit (and eventually Dan and I walked around the city of
San Carlos and took in the bustling metropolis of San Carlos (bustling if you’re
an a rural farmer in the middle of the nowhere in Kansas)). The city here is
rather nice actually as it’s located right on the Río San Juan with the
waterfront and the Solentiname islands in the distance. The town is only
several blocks with very small shops and a tiny enclosed market. The people are
quite amiable here and will say hello and smile. There really aren’t the major
dance clubs or major theaters (or any theaters) or major large city attractions
(apparently there is an airport) here, but the tradeoff is the quite appeasing
relaxed environment. There also is a fort above the town (that Dan and I did
not see as we weren’t looking hard enough (-.- dunno how we missed that one)),
but we’ll have to see it later (don’t want to wear out all the excitement here
in 1 weekend). The town is rather tranquil though. Another note I have to make
is the architecture in Nicaragua. Many of the houses and buildings here
incorporate the ambient environment into them with open windows and passageways
leading between rooms. This incorporates quite a bit of natural light and
airflow (as AC is wicked expensive) but this all reminds me of the
eco-effective design as brought up by William McDonough and Michael Braungart
in their book Cradle to Cradle (which I highly recommend reading a bit
of). The incorporation of nature (granted the area here has the climate for
such interweaving) gives the architecture a more rustic organic and relaxed
feel (in stark contrast to the ultra-sterile and nature-opposed designs of some
of the eco-efficient buildings in the states). Moreover, the buildings seek to
reuse and conserve resources as much as possible (something I think the states
should do more often). Anyways not sure what tonight will bring, but take care
for now!
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