Try that with the i-have-no-mind-of-my-own-so-I’ll-just-by-what-the-cool-company-that-lies-to-my-face-says-Pod.

Here’s some useful resources if you’re already an owner: [LINK]

Back in the 1600s figuring out what your longitude was of HUGE importance world wide. It meant the difference between whether your shipment made it to its destination (forget "on time", if it got there at all it was a minor miracle). That in turn effected the global economy.

If you were a sailor it could mean the difference between life and death. Literally thousands of ships were lost at sea due to inacurrate navigation through dead-reckoning. If you’re on a ship that doesn’t know it’s longitude you might starve to death when the food runs out. Worse still you might get scurvy from lack of vitamin-C. Scurvy causes your cells to lose their integrity and the cell wall eventually breaks down, spilling the contents of the nucleus. You start out with bruising all over your body. Your gums begin to bleed. Your teeth fall out. Wounds don’t heal. Eventually your entire body bleeds to death.

Latitude (the parallels lines) were easy to figure out using the stars which maintain their positions despite the earth’s rotation. Longitude was a big problem though and because of this a number of different governments setup cash prize to the first person who defined a reliable mechanism to figure it out.

"In July of 1714, during the reign of Queen Anne,  the Longitude Act was passed in response to the Merchants and Seamen petition presented to Westminster Palace in May of 1714.  A prize of £20,000 was offered for a method of determining longitude to an accuracy of half a degree of a great circle."

John Harrison, a brilliant mind with no formal training in watch or clock making figured it out by building a clock that would keep accurate time at sea despite the pitching and rolling of the boat (Pendulums don’t work on boats).

Harrison built 4 models, the final model (the H4) set sail for the Indies on 18 November 1761. They arrived in Jamaica on 19 January 1762 where the clock was found to be about 5 seconds slow!!!
That’s impressive even by today’s standards. My Omega Seamaster GMT [LINK] which is a COSC certified chronometer is reliable to +/- 4 seconds a day. ( Not really a fair comparision as performance with a chronometer typically balances out over time. That is to say the Omega will worsed case lose 4 seconds a day but likely gain those back the next. )

So far I’m finding this an easy read and a fascinating look into some of the real-world problems faced in the "old days".

"Olympic athletes, K-1 fighters and pro-wrestlers from around the world compete to conquer the ultimate obstacle course – Ninja Warrior. Since 1997, over 1,400 people have attempted Stage One, less than 200 have made it through. Only one has completed all four stages. Tune in to see what it takes to conquer… Ninja Warrior!"

The basic premise is 100 competitors compete on each show. There are four rounds. Each round has it’s own obstacle course and if you finish you get through to the next round.  The obstacles are related to what a ninja might face and they are crazy. Only 11 people made it through round 1 on the show I caught.

Competitors make impossible leaps off of spring boards to catch on to chains or metal rings. If you miss you land in the drink. It’s sort of like MMX but for real athletes.

The toughest obstacle was probably in stage 3. It’s a thin ledge about 2 inches wide which you must cling to using your finger tips, sort of doing a chin up with your palms facing outward. You then have to work your way along this thing, about 12 feet. The ledge is stepped in the middle so you have to move UPWARDS to the next ledge about 2 feet. Then on a bit, then back down. It’s nuts and only I think 3 dudes finished.

Add to this that it’s Japanese with hilariously bad english subtitles, I wish there was more stuff like this on TV.

So what do you do with a tube? Crawl through it of course.

So my cousins and I went through this tube a few times.  It was so tight that you had to stretch both arms above your head and squirm through. Now I can’t recall specifically but I believe at one point I got marginally stuck. To the point where my cousin had to grab my hands from over my head and pull me along a few inches.

I wasn’t stuck for long but for the few seconds in that tube I felt true, raw, visceral, explosive panic.

This weekend I watched the movie "The Descent" [LINK]. *** Read on, there are NO SPOILERS ***

Initially I was a bit put-off by the box and thought maybe I shouldn’t rent this movie. It looks a bit over-the-top violent. I was happily surprised and came out thinking this is one of the better movies I’ve seen in a while.

The movie plot is basically a group of friends (all women) go pot-holing and get more than they bargained for. Although the box depicts the main protagonist emerging from a pool of blood, the actual movie shows a lot more restraint with the red-stuff.

The first half of the movie sets the stage with some minor plot development and the group heading off into the hole. Invariably they run up against some nasties whilst in the hole. I won’t spoil it.

However, there is one scene in particular that brought me all the way back to the tube on the farm. The girls (for whatever reason) crawl through an impossibly long and narrow crawl space. One of the girls gets stuck and begins to panic. The very thought of this makes me cringe even now. Then things get rapidly worse. I think this is the best part of the entire movie.

If I have an achilles heel, I would say being stuck in a small tunnel is it. I’ve never been spelunking and I can categorically say I never will.

I bought this copy for retail of $13.95 but Amazon has it for $11.16. Of course I knew this by checking the price on my BlackBerry using Baebo’s Amazon search interface [LINK]. (which you can learn how to build in my upcoming book [LINK].

It’s such an easy read. I went through the first 100 pages like butter. Feynman and I would share the same line of thinking in many areas and I found myself saying "yes, I’ve thought of that" on more than one occasion. It’s not that Feynman and I have anything in common (he was one of the greatest minds of the century and I’m a Dubliner from Donnycarney) but that he’s such a relatable character with so few aires or graces.

This book is a collection of thoughts, each in its own chapter and each with its own lesson to impart. Topics include Feynmans role in the investigation of the NASA shuttle disaster, along with how to count a minute accurately whilst running up stairs!!!

The most poignant chapter tells of how he met his wife, married her in spite of her being terminally ill and subsequently buried her whilst working on the Manhattan project for the US government.

Highly recommended (as are all things R.P.F. on this site).

I have long been a casual fan of Neil Young, mostly his old stuff. I have to say this DVD is just a joy to watch or listen to. There’s some new songs mixed with some old stuff and the whole atmosphere of the film just makes you want to watch it over and over. Personal favs from this DVD are:

"It’s a Dream", "Prairie Wind", "Here for You", "Needle and the Damage Done" (which after my last trip home I can now relate to even more) and lastly, "The Old Laughing Lady".

If you have someone you’re looking to get a DVD for this Christmas who likes music in general, I highly recommend this one. You’ll not be disappointed.

Folks laud over The Guitar Grimoire series and they are an excellent and complete resource but for my purposes they’re just too much.

The latest DVDs I’ve watched are The Godfather II which in my opinion is better than the first one. It also features Joe Spinell as Willy Cicci. You’d never believe how few degrees of separation I wound up from him.

Near Dark- an excellent 80s vampire flick with Lance Henrikson and a few other folks from Aliens like Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein. This movie is like the anti-”Lost Boys” of it’s day.

Finally, I was reading CPU Magazine and on the back cover they have a full page ad for the new Zalman 9500 CPU Cooler. This thing is awesome looking. There’s something about heatsinks that warms the blood (mixing metaphors?). When will the first heatsink museum be launched? I’ll be looking forward to seeing the price of this thing.

The actual presentation of the award took a total of 30secs during which none of the band actually made it on stage. It was a real joke to think more time was devoted to such train-wrecks as Gwen Stefani (who in a fit of un-creativity has resorted to sampling the great Jewish musical “Fiddler on the Roof”) and The Black Eyed Peas (dreaded vegetable). Dear me.

In recent times I’ve been reading “Dazed and Confused” which provides some insight into Led’s history. Despite humble beginnings, the band soared to eclipse such super-bands as Cream and the Yardbirds and even the Jimi Hendrix experience.

Jimmy Page’s father was a doctor. Page got his first guitar at age 12 and was mostly self-taught. He worked as a session musician from an early age. After various stints in the Yardbirds and other bands of the time he set about forming his own group. Jones was also a session player and phoned Page when he heard about the project. Page discovered Plant in a small town in rural England. Plant knew Bonham from an earlier gig and hence the band was formed.

“Led Zeppelin I” was recorded in 9 days!

When “Since I’ve Been Loving You” was recorded, Bonham’s drum peddle was in need of oil and hence to this day a squeak can be heard on this track. Fascinating stuff.

Oh and YES there are new pics of SYDNEY up!

The book is small, relatively short and not that bad a read. Some of the language is a little “dated” but that’s ok. Overall it’s a good read, covering mostly power of positive thinking type topics and outlining different ways to conduct introspection and self discovery. This book is also one of the most recommended by business schools across the nation. If you’ve done an MBA and haven’t read this then I suggest you hop the next train to Borders and get a copy.

There are two gripes I have with this book
1) As with all books of this type, the content is obvious. The idea that you could grow rich by NOT thinking is startling to me. How else are you going to do it? Indeed the idea that you could do ANYTHING by NOT thinking is equally startling. In order to achieve any goal, you must fix a point in the horizon and direct your mind toward it. Amongst countless Americans struggling with things like credit card debt, unemployment, weight loss, etc. this seems like a revolutionary concept but I hate to say it, it’s not.
b) The cover. The lettering on the cover makes a bold statement but it also makes folks look at you like you’re an idiot when you’re standing in the elevator reading this book.

I wonder if Frank Herbert (author of Dune) ever read this book. Is this where “it is by will alone I set my mind in motion” came from?

Otherwise, great anecdotes in this one, ‘specially around Mr Ford, no silver bullets but has affirmed what I already knew. $7.19 well spent.