I've Been Thunderstruck

The theory goes that if a butterfly flaps it’s wings on one side of the world, a hurricane will happen on the other side of the world. It’s the lynchpin of Chaos Theory, and essentially says that things we do affect other things. I ran across a web site today with a video that shows the REAL butterfly effect!

The thing that amazes me most about this video is the fact that the guy did it everyday for 8 years! I’d probably have done it for a week, then something would have caused me to miss a day, and wanting to be pure to the project, I would have given up. It’s quite interesting to watch how this guy changes over the years.

Two climbers lost on Mt. Hood were rescued after they stumbled across a local geocache. The pair got lost in a whiteout while climbing on the mountain. They stumbled across a geocache as they attempted to find their way down, and rescuers were able to use the cache coordinates, along with other information, to help find the pair. It’s an amazing use of the information that comes along with geocaching!

Let me start by saying this : there are too many pollution belching cars on the road, and too many factories spewing all kinds of nasty things into our atmosphere. That I will agree to, and that I believe we need to fix. However, what I do not subscribe to, from a scientific point of view, is that all those things are causing global warming. The science just isn’t there. Take this test, and see how you do:

Global Warming Test

You’ll be surprised by some of the scientific facts in the case against global warming as a result of pollution caused greenhouse effect. At the very least, even if you don’t buy it all, it makes for some interesting reading.

There’s been quite a lot written lately about the Garmin Colorado series of GPS receivers lately. I decided to check out the product at their web site, and do a quick comparison of the high end Colorado, the 400t, against my 76CSx. Here are the results:

	400t	76CSx
Display Size	1.53″W x 2.55″H	1.6″W x 2.22″H
Display Resolution	240 x 400 pixels	160 x 240 pixels
Waterproof?	Yes – IPX7	Yes – IPX7
Floats?	No	Yes
High Sensitivity Receiver?	Yes	Yes
Waypoints/Favorites/Locations	1000	1000
Routes	50	50
Track Log	10,000 points, 20 saved tracks	10,000 points, 20 saved tracks
Built In Memory?	Yes	No
Data Card?	SD Card (not included)	128 microSD card (included)
Preloaded Maps?	Yes (topographic)	No
Unit-to-unit transfer (shares data wirelessly with similar units)?	Yes	No
Picture Viewer?	Yes	No

All else being equal (more or less), that sums it up. I do like that the 400t has internal memory, into which you can load maps, and that it accepts SD cards (I have more of those from my cameras than I do microSD cards). The picture viewer might be kinda cook for viewing hints or something. The fact that you can transfer info from similar units would seem to be beneficial only if you know somebody else who has one! And, since I use mine when I kayak, I certainly appreciate the fact that the 76CSx floats!

The 400t seems interesting, and I would like to get my hands on one to experience it myself. For the meantime, however, given the price of these things, I’ll stick with my trusty 76CSx. It’s helped me find my way more than once!

I’ve started posting some of my photos on Flickr. Check them out…I hope you like them!

I’ve used Soundsnap a number of times in my projects, and I absolutely love it. With categories like Animals, Comic and Film FX, Nature and Science Fiction, chances are there is a sound effect or music loop that fits your exact project. The best thing about this site is that all files are free, are in the public domain, and you do not have to give credit to the authors (though it’s certainly a nice thing to do). Attribution is optional, and you can even use them for commercial work (aside from selling a CD with them on it). If you use sound in your projects, you should absolutely check this out.