Timothy N. Hornyak: Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots
Hornyak offers a detailed overview of Japanese robot development tracing the history of robotics all the way from the 1600's through today's modern, state-of-the-art wonders like Asimo.
Jennifer Ouellette
'Black Bodies and Quantum Cats' is the type of book that inspired me to study physics as a child and enabled me to develop a life long love of science and technology.
Synthetic Worlds : The Business and Culture of Online Games
Who would have guessed that the modal demographic for online gamers is 40+ year old women? Or that billions of real dollars change hands between gamers as they buy and sell virtual items?
Lawrence Lessig: Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity
The Search
How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture
Satisfaction
The Science of Finding True Fulfillment - Listened to the author being interviewed on the NPR Science Friday show via podcast. Very impressive.
Do You Speak American?
A great and often insightful exploration of the 'American' language
Podcasting Hacks
Podcasting is revolutionizing the way we communicate and even the way we think
The Man Behind the Microchip
Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley - An excellent and extremely well written exploration into Robert Noyce and the industry he created that changed the world
Dan Wulbert is a record breaking cyclist who also happens to be a mathematician. The University of California, San Diego via UCTV has posted one of Wulbert's lectured entitled "Atoms to X-Rays: The Calculus of Bike Racing" on Google video.
Related link:
Tom Swenson's "Bicycle Touring Web Site" is one of the best I've ever run across. The tour reports, the details, the photos, and the overall website design are... yummy. He's included sections covering his tours through some absolutely gorgeous locations like Utah, Colorado, the Blue Ridge Mountains, Bryce and Zion. And he's also included a number of interesting and useful non-tour report articles.
Related links:
The weather was fantastic over the weekend, clear, bright, and just a little cool. Not being one to waste a rare opportunity like that, I took advantage of it and went for some extended kicking sessions on both Saturday and Sunday. The exercise was great. I put a lot of miles on my kickbike and hopefully did my body a lot of good in the process.
As I expected after all that exercise, I could feel the impact on my body. By Sunday evening I could feel muscles I didn't know I had, or at least muscles I hadn't paid any attention to for a long, long time. They felt warm and stretched. They weren't in pain, and they weren't crying out for attention. It felt extremely satisfying.
The thing that really struck me was how different the feeling was compared to times that I had gone jogging or for an extended bicycle ride. I knew from bitter experience that when I had jogged or cycled putting out a similar amount of effort for a period of hours I would be in a world of hurt. My muscles would have been ready to go on strike, or close to it. After a long jog my knees, ankles, and especially my feet would be in severe pain. If I went for an extended cycling session, my feet and ankles would be okay, but my knees and my butt would be doing the complaining. Yet I didn't experience any of this after using my Kickbike for hours, two days in a row. Obviously there was something very different going on.
This got me to thinking about my high school physics classes, especially about how force vectors can be broken down into their horizontal and vertical components. I sketched out a few simple diagrams, and tried to get a handle what happens when I jog versus kick. I've gone through this particular analysis before, but my weekend experience made it even more obvious and relevant.
When I jogged a large part of the force applied by my body went into keeping me from crashing to the ground, decelerating then accelerating with each step, and pushing off from the ground to launch myself forward. Not only was there a lot of vertical motion, there was also a lot of force and physical work that my body had to generate. All the vertical motion and effort did nothing to actually move me forward - it just served to keep me erect.
With kicking, in contrast, the vast majority of the effort I expend goes into forward motion. My body is supported by the non-kicking leg, and to a lesser extent by my hands and arms. My muscle movements and the force I apply goes into horizontal forward motion, not into wasted vertical motion. And I don't have the shock of constant vertical acceleration and deceleration. My hips go up and down a bit while kicking, but nowhere near as much as when I jog. Yet I get plenty of exercise - a real aerobic workout for my whole body.
Last night I was searching the internet looking for good places to photograph during our trip to Nagoya next month. That lead me to a Nagoya cycling museum, which lead me to the Japan Bicycle Historical Club site, which lead me to an article about the last Tokugawa shogun riding a bicycle, which mentioned that he might have seen Thomas Stevens when Stevens visited Japan while cycling around the world, which lead me to another page that mentioned that Stevens published a book around 1888 recounting his experiences, which lead me to another page that said the book had been republished, which lead me - naturally enough - to Amazon.com....
It turns out that Stevens started off by pedaling his way across the United States. That in itself is a major adventure even today. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been back in 1884 when Stevens managed the feat on a 41 pound "high wheeler" with a 50 inch front wheel. After having ridden all the way from San Francisco to Boston, he then decided that he might as well continue on and finish the job. In his travels he pedaled from England to the Balkans, down through the Middle East, over to India, across China, and then Japan before returning to the States.
Early next month my wife and I will be in Nagoya for about a week. I was searching the internet in preparation, looking for good places to sight see and take photos. In one of the Dime magazine issues this past summer they listed a bicycle museum that I thought might be interesting to visit. In trying to find it's website I happened across the website for the "Japanese Bicycle History Research Club." About half the information is in Japanese, but there are a lot of English pages, and an extensive collection of photos and images of early bicycle development in Japan. It's well worth checking out.
Japanese Bicycle History Research Club
According to data posted on the Japan Bicycle Promotion Institute website (in English), there are close to 10,000 official bicycle parking lots next to Japanese train stations. The total parking capacity is over 3.6 million, though actual utilization is somewhat lower. Keep in mind that this represents bicycles used for daily transportation - not recreational or sports bikes.
Like the proverbial iceberg, the official figures only tell a tiny part of the whole story. Since the lots charge a fee for parking most people try to avoid using them leading to huge tangles of bicycles filling the sidewalks and alleys. Most of the bicycles are relatively cheap - around USD$ 100 or less on sale. As a result, it's cheaper to buy a new one if your old one gets worn out or needs any repair. In a nation where people are almost anal about upkeep on their cars, squeaky brakes, almost flat tires, and warped spokes on bicycles are commonplace. Japan imports close to 3 million bicycles/year - primarily from China and Taiwan, and produces a similar quantity domestically.
When a bicycle finally gets to the point where it would normally need significant repairs, people just leave them parked by the station, and eventually they get tagged and trucked away for scrap. As a side benefit, the station bicycle parking lots provide useful employment for what appear to be retired salarymen. They spend their days rearranging bicycles, untangling rats-nests of cycles that have been blown over by the wind, and trying to catch people that park without paying.
It's not uncommon for salarymen and students to have two bicycles for commuting - one at each end of their daily journey. They ride one from their home to the station, park it, take the train, grab their second bike at the other end of the line, and bike off to the office or class.
If you're going to do any serious exploring around Japan with your Kickbike or bicycle, you'll need to be able to take it with you on the train and subway system. It's not uncommon to see Japanese cyclists bag their bicycle, hoist it over their shoulder, and board the train. In fact, almost every bicycle shop has a stock of 'rinko-bukuro' (bicycle bags) that they would be happy to sell you for exactly that purpose. The bags come in several different grades - everything from a low end model for about 5,000 yen, to a top of the line model with a price tag that's probably close to what you paid for your Kickbike.
The most well known bicycle bag supplier in Japan is a company named Azuma Sango. Their brand name is Ostrich. You can find them on the internet at - Azuma Sango Website (in Japanese). Here's what one of their mid-range bags looks like:
The 'bagging' process is pretty simple and straight forward, especially if you're trying to bag a Kickbike (no messy chain....
) Just pop off the wheels, loosen the handlebars so you can turn them to fit in the bag, tie the wheels on either side of the frame, drop the whole assembly into the bag, zip it up, and off you go. I always take along a couple of old towels to wipe down the bike, and stuff along the inside of the bag for additional protection. If you're not too particular about the overall look and are just focused on functionality, you can skip loosening the handlebars and just let them stick out of the bag - no one is likely to complain because it doesn't look pretty. It's also a good idea to use plastic spacers to keep your forks from getting bent (I have been known to accidentally drop a bike from time to time.) Here's what a properly bagged bicycle looks like:
There is usually, but not always, a fee for taking your bicycle on the train. Sometimes the station master will ask you to pay the fee, and other times they will just ignore you. In any case, the fee is minimal - less than 300 yen, so just go ahead, pay it, and be happy that they allow you to transport your bike.
Another alternative is to purchase one of the custom made Kickbike bags from Kickbike International. Their bags are absolutely beautiful and extremely well crafted - I know, I happen to own one myself. The bag pricing is fairly reasonable, but delivery takes a while since they are shipped from Finland and the shipping cost can be significant. It's definitely the way to go, if you can afford it.
One additional trade-off: The Ostrich bags come with a bag, the Kickbike bags don't. It might be a minor point, but it makes a big difference when you're exploring. If I am going to one location, then exploring the local area, the Kickbike bag works fine. I can store it in a locker at the train station, or in my hotel room while I'm out running around. On the other hand, if I plan on getting off the train at one station, exploring, and connecting with the train system at another station, then getting the bag from point A to point B can become a hassle. In that situation the Ostrich bags roll up nice and compact so that they fit in their own small carry bag - small enough so that I can take it along with me on the Kickbike.
Here's a good writeup on using bicycle bags in Japan by Don Todt at Kancycling: Using Bicycle Bags. Don's site is focused on cycling around Japan and contains a wealth of great material, photos, cycling routes, and the like. It's well worth the time to check it out.
I have to admit that I am really slow on the uptake sometimes. I knew from the beginning that the Kickbike was developed by Hannu Vierikko because he wanted to continue his kicksledding training during the off-season. Yet it never occurred to me to study kicksledding techniques to improve my kickbiking skills.
Fortunately there was a discussion in the Yahoo KickbikeUSA message group that mentioned how useful the material in the online kicksledding manual is. That really got my attention, and sure enough the manual descriptions of kicking techniques are extremely helpful. They also give a lot of welcome insight into the cross training effects that people quickly notice when kickbiking.
The section on techniques is quite a ways into the manual, so you might want to page down to it, then come back and read the rest of the material on kicksledding afterwards.
"Kicking is a natural way to propel oneself forward. Kids tend to learn it without almost any effort. A good, efficient technique makes kicksledding easy and enjoyable.
Concentrate on you technique and apply power to each kick, letting rather kick frequency decrease. Try consciously to get rid of extra muscle tension. If you kick properly, you employ only the working muscles. While kicking, you need not act hastily. You won't tumble on your nose even though you take a moment to ponder your next move. Soon you will find out, that it is relatively easy to consciously alter one's technique.
Be relaxed and keep your weight on the supporting foot. Don't lean on the kicking foot or hands"
One major difference between kicksledding and kickbiking - I don't have to worry about breaking through the ice....
I don't read Italian, so at best I understand that this site lists a lot of the European competitions along with many of their website links. Still, I immediately fell in love with the logo on their first page-
Monopattino Italia - Campionato Italiano - Avis Ivrea
Recent Comments