Brainwaves of Sken

I’m reading a fact-box for one of our articles, and it says that Pressurization of hydrogen absorbs 10% of the energy stored, and that the energy used to pressurize the gas is lost when the gas expands.

My question: Why? Consider one strategy for storing energy involves compressing gas in abandoned mines, why couldn’t we recapture some or all of the energy used to pressurize hydrogen?

Eventually, I think we’re going to have a car out there that recaptures as much of its energy as possible, from brake regeneration to heat recapture, so why not this, too?

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Unfortunately, when I put the leg extensions on the Fit (for carpet), it adjusted my weight and now says I’m ridiculously far away from the goal I set on it when I started. Which is ridiculous, because I could care less about the poundage, I just was looking to set something 10 lbs less from where I am. At this point, despite working up a sweat for 40 minutes every other day, it’s going to tell me I’m well over my -original- weight, even if I lose weight.

Ah well. I find it kind of amusing when it says, “o-bese!” in that sing-song voice. Whatever, little square dude, talk to me when you can measure my fat percentage.

Opening up new workouts is fairly fun, though it throws my off my stride a little – I’ll finish off the Yoga and move to Strength, unlock a yoga and go back to it to see what it is.

Exercises I have difficulty with – the “pushup handstand” and the “jackknife”. The latter because, clearly, I have a belly that prevents a proper jackknife, and the former because I am a substantial person who hasn’t done heavy work-outs in quite awhile.

Instead, when I get to the push-up portion, I skip it and instead do bench presses on my mat, which is a great substitute, and allows me to do reps to muscle exhaustion, rather than two crazy difficult pushups.

Anyway, assuming you’re under 330 lbs and you can handle some high voice telling you what your BMI means every time you step on board, I’d say it is a good ‘game’, even if you just do the yoga and the balance games.

Maybe next week when I get to “reassess” my goal, I can create one I can actually reach.

EDIT: I’m pretty sure the weight limit is a software issue – that it won’t register more than 330 lbs. If that’s true, and it will still let you play, I would heartily recommend it for those over 330 lbs, as it does allow you to gently work at your own pace, allows for leaning on things for balance, and has the great yoga.

EDIT 2: Physics majors – the wii balance board works because the four feet are independent weight measuring devices. Is there a set-up a person could do that would trick the board into thinking less weight was being put on it? Just curious.

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Ann Arbor

Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goal: 20% below 2000 levels by 2015

Renewable Energy Goal: 20% renewable energy by 2015 (Ann Arbor Green Energy Challenge)

Project Activities

• Develop a comprehensive solar plan
• Hold informational solar workshops for consumers and installers
• Implement a community-based solar marketing campaign
• Educate youth about solar energy by including solar curricula in the city’s public schools
• Identify sites for high visibility commercial solar installations.

Project Partners

• Ann Arbor Community Development
• Ann Arbor District Library
• Ann Arbor Energy Commission
• City of Ann Arbor – Community Development
• City of Ann Arbor – Emergency Preparedness
• City of Ann Arbor – Energy Office (Project Lead)
• Clean Energy Coalition
• Downtown Development Authority
• Ecology Center
• Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association
• Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
• Michigan Energy Office
• Michigan Public Service Commission
• Next Energy
• United Solar Ovonic
• University of Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute
• Washtenaw County

Pretty cool, eh?

Also, have you heard of The Solar Grand Plan?

It lays out a plan that, in theory, could have us producing 69% of our electricity via solar by 2050 (not including home solar use).

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Lucy and I crashed out at Randy and Sheryl’s, and I was dreaming that I was kinda like Ender. I was teaching people how to defend themselves. Against Zombies. On the Moon.

Sounds like Ender, doesn’t it?

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If I got a pet, I would name it Sparta, just so, every time someone asked its name, I could say, “THIS! IS! SPARTAAA!”

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You can tell that you’ve done a pretty good job making your Pandora channel when you forget that you’re not listening to your own music.

Oh, Bela!

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Amazon’s selling two major games for $25 each

Super Smash Bros Brawl, $25 bucks for today only.

Until 1pm Eastern (or supplies exhaust): Phantom Hourglass for DS, $23 bucks.

The clues for the next games, offered for 2 hours each:

1:00 PM: “Defy gravity across wild alien terrain.”
3:00 PM: “Run, jump, and stomp your way through unimaginable challenges.”
5:00 PM: “Race and battle your friends all over the world.”
7:00 PM: “Awaken your hero and animal within.”
9:00 PM: “Beat Bowser in the race to the crystals.”
11:00 PM: “Travel to Sinnoh, complete your Pokédex, and become Champion.”

EDIT: The 1pm game, of course, is Super Mario Galaxy. $35.

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Google has, maybe, failed me. If Horst Mann is still alive, he is not heavily invested in the modern internet community, which would seem to be a bit silly.

Horst Mann wrote the original 313 BBS List (renamed to the Southeast Michigan BBS List when we got 810). A guy on the bus gave me a copy of it on my freshman year, with good BBSs already highlighted.

I mention it because it changed my life, see. I was an introverted kid – I’m sure it took all my gumption to interrupt the other dork who was talking about having fun with his modem, y’know?

It gave me a chance to measure my responses, to let go of the constant fear of people’s reactions to my thoughts, to engage in reasonable debate with adults on an equal basis.

Oh don’t get me wrong, at 12 I was in many ways immature, but I could sound like an adult, and most of THEM weren’t any more mature than I was :)

Ultimately, like most other BBS geeks, I met my first girlfriend through a local board, I found people I could relate to, I learned something new, and I found some pride in myself that I had been sorely lacking.

If I’m lucky, Horst Mann wasn’t 60 when he made the list, and is still alive today. I’d like to thank him for his small part in making me into the (fun-loving, social) person I am today.

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I use google reader to read my RSS blogs (engadget, gizmodo, joystiq, boingboing, lifehacker, io9, and sometimes a few others).

It always seemed a little bland, but now I’ve come across feedly.

Feedly provides image thumnails and such, making it much more magazine-like. I would be even more geeked if I used twitter, because it’ll work with that, too.

Once I set it to show them all together, summary and photo, it’s been very nice. :)

EDIT: Oh, yeah – if you’re interested in what nifty blog things I share, they’re right here.

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