Francis Shanahan[.com] » cool

Supercool Video describing F1 Rule Changes

Francis — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:47:18 +0000

Did you know Formula 1 racing had become boring? No? Well join the club. I guess it was always fairly boring but apparently the cars are so advanced, with so much down force and grip that F1 felt they needed to re-write the rules to jazz things up. The new rules have re-shaped the cars to increase over-taking, reduce grip and even add boost. KERS is a go fast button that uses braking force to charge a battery, when fully charged the driver hits the button and can gain up to 80 horse power for a short boost. This is just like your Toyota Prius.

Anyway here’s a super cool video describing the changes that’s fun even if you don’t like F1.

Portraits by Sebastion Kruger

Francis — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:07:39 +0000

A nice article introducing me to Sebastian Kruger who draws really detailed and realistic portraits that are actually caricatures. I especially like the one of Steve McQueen below.

“I like the dark side of people’s character,” Krüger says in English that, while halting, is easier on the ears than Schwarzenegger’s. “Or I like to find out if there is a dark half. I like painting people like Vincent Van Gogh, William S. Burroughs, Keith Richards or even Marilyn Monroe. These people are very special to me. I feel very close to them. I’m very bored with all these entertainers with white teeth — where everybody is in good health and is so nice — I kind of don’t like it!” he laughs.”

The Milky Way from a Cave

Francis — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:24:00 +0000

Checkout this amazing photo of the Milky Way seen from inside a cave. This is the latest work from Wally Pacholka. [LINK]

“Pacholka, 59, an architect from Long Beach, California, relied on the light of a crescent moon to illuminate the subject and chose the area because of the near-absence of ambient light.

He said: ‘I had to drive 800 miles each way five times to get the shot right. And I had to hike two miles to the cave and back again at night, getting lost each time I came out.’

His photo shows the Milky Way – estimated to be 100,000 light years in diameter and 1,000 light years deep – and Jupiter (to the top left), the biggest planet in the solar system with a diameter 11 times that of Earth’s.

After Venus, Jupiter is the second-brightest planet despite being about 390million miles from Earth.

The cave, which has been carved out of the desert’s red sandstone rock, lies to the south-east of Salt Lake City and is estimated to be 300million years old. The area is rich with Native American ruins.”

Poor Little Hadron

Francis — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:13:00 +0000

Well it had to happen. Call it "boson peer pressure". The Large Hadron Collider has broken and needs repair[LINK]. What’s worse is it’ll have to heat up so the repairs can take place, otherwise the workmen would DIE in the cold. The collider will be out of commission until spring 2009. So the secrets of the Universe, the Higgs boson a.k.a. god particle, strangelets etc. will all have to wait.

Maybe they can get it turned on in time for the end of the world as predicted by the Mayan calender in 2012?

Beauty in Mechanics…

Francis — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:20:00 +0000

Another thing of beauty…

Unlike the Octopult, I actually think I could make this one.