So I'm at a mexican restaraunt about to eat dinner. I have my clubs tucked in my back belt and some kids see them. They say 'Hey juggleman, can you juggle for us?'. I say sure and start juggling in a mellow very controlled pattern respectful that I'm in a restaurant and there are people around. The kids are loving it and a very attractive woman blurts out 'Ooooooh, check it out!...he's juggling!'. The head waitress comes by and says I have to stop immediately since I'm doing something 'extremely dangerous'!
Extremely dangerous? Say what? Last time I checked, NONE of the hijackers on 9/11 had a juggling club. Juggling clubs are NOT used by any police force in the world to help keep law and order. Neither the cripts nor the bloods carry juggling clubs to street fights. Not a single martial art uses juggling clubs as a weapon in their combat techiques. The CIA, KGB nor any terrorist cell teach agents anything about juggling clubs for good reason...they are NOT dangerous. In fact, with their soft rubber knobs and flexible plastic shells, they are actually quite forgiving...even if they hit you by accident. In our super tight security check points of our post 9/11 era, one can even carry on juggling clubs to an airport...yep, it's true...done it many times...PX3's fly through without even a flinch by TSA agents...and juggling clubs are NOT listed on the TSA's official prohibited items list.
As I was leaving the mexican food restaraunt, I was juggling by a pack of hot babes standing outside the door. They were giggling at each other and started to talk juggling. Generally it's entertaining to listen to hot babes talk about pretty much anything but juggling is definitely a special treat. As I was walking past with my decorated renegades glittering as they spun against the street lights, the babes said "You know what would be really cool? If he lit those on fire, that would be really cool". I thought to myself that technically they'd be hot, not cool. And even if I could light my renegade clubs on fire, they'd probably stink of burning plastic...yuck! The babes continued "swords would be cool too". I was tempted to get my torches and machetes out of my car and put on a show but the babes were smoking...I hate cigarettes!
so i'm walking into disneyland with my kids. we've packed our camera, water and of course some px3 juggling clubs to make the long lines more entertaining for others as well as sliding in some quality practice time for ourselves (some of those lines are LONG). at the gate the disney security people are going through people's personal items to make sure another 9-11 terrorist attack does not occur at the happiest place in the world.
at the entrance, one of the security people pulls out a juggling club as asks why I'm carrying around juggling 'pins'. I tell them the truth, that I'm a juggler, my kids are aspiring jugglers and we wanted an entertaining way to kill the time (ok, maybe 'kill' was not a good word to use here). the security agent says she'll have to ask her supervisor if the 'pins' can come in with mickey. the supervisor looks at the club, studies it closely, waves it around a bit and in all seriousness says I won't be able to bring it in since the club could be 'perceived as a weapon'.
give me a break! disneyland sells a veritable cornucopia of things that not only can be 'perceived as weapons', they ARE weapons!!! from star wars blasters of all sizes and shapes to pirates of the Caribbean swords, daggers, to frontier land rifles to maces available by the haunted mansion to antique murderers (that's what old seamen called hand guns, for obvious reasons (this term's etymology stems from what pirates would do with these little weapons if boarded by surprise by hostiles (i.e. they would be used to murder the invaders))). the national rifle association imposes no waiting period for the purchase of any of these weapons to the public.
i wanted to juggle at a neil young concert in mountain view california. my wife assured me this should be no problem since it was in an outside amphitheater, there was plenty of space and people would probably be doing all sorts of activities. she said if a security person had an issue with my clubs, just pull them out and juggle for them and they should be swayed to let me in. as my wife, baby daughter and I were walking into the event, the security people were going through people's bags. again the guard said i was not able to bring my clubs in. i asked to see the 'head' guard. the 'head' guard looked at the clubs and said that someone could get hurt if the club was thrown.
there is a bit of an inconsistency here. the same security people would let in my nikon 10x70 binouculars which weigh close to 10 lbs and are made of steel and glass. concert goers had glass bottles of beer and the vendors were selling beer and bottled water to the masses. if one were to throw one of those objects, people could get hurt 5000 times more easily than if i dropped a club on someone. here is why:
the NRA and UL measure how much energy a projectile has (be it a toy or bullet) by kinetic energy. kinetic energy is usually expressed as 1/2mv^2. but juggling clubs usually have a bit more energy since we spin them when we throw them. this spinning component adds to the total kinetic energy of the club (to a small degree). so if we assume a normal juggler throws a club, say three feet, and one spin occurs with the club, that means the club is spinning roughly 10 radians/second. the kinetic energy of the spin = Iw^2 where w = radians/sec. what is I? that is a great philosophical question that i could expound on for hours but for this conversation it's the moment of inertia. for a club spinning around it's center, it's roughly ml^2/12 where m is the mass of the club and l is the length (and I'm sure some people are going to get all technical on me and insist i integrate the profile of the club in question but I'm just approximating things here at the moment). the mass of a px3 = 0.22Kg = m. l = 0.514 meters. thus if you do the math, mgh + Iw^2 = 1.97 + 0.48. for my nikon binoculars, mass = 4.54Kg, l = 0.2m. now if the guard is concerned about someone throwing something, i'm guessing if someone wanted to take out neil young on stage, they are probably not going to be able to get closer than 10 meters before security tags him. thus mgh for the binoculars at 10 meters would be 1162 and the rotational kinetic energy will be 1.5 (compare that with 1.97 and 0.48 for the px3). if you compare these two figures, you get that the nikons are going to be able to impart about 4750 times more kinetic energy than a px3.
in other words, if you are concerned about someone getting hurt if something is thrown, leave the jugglers alone!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
10th anniversary
it's been a bit more than 10 years that i've been animating sailing rules and team racing scenarios. below are some examples from 10 years ago that I worked on with a guy named Jay who used to be the webmaster for the ICSA. The boats were orginally modeled in ashlar vellum (a CAD package) to figure out the basic physics of the motion. I then imported into director, animated there and exported as picts. The picts were then dragged into gif animator for the animation (I used GIFs since shockwave was still not workin on all browsers). Back then there was no flash, director ruled the animation world, few people knew what antialiasing was and animated GIFs seemed to be the most standard delivery medium for animation (though it had some pretty significant limitations). Click on the below links to see the animations:
an odd boat that disobeyed physics and a very nice mark
a very tight fit but NO contact!!!
if you look at other entries in this blog you'll see we've come a long way in 10 years...
Sunday, October 21, 2007
US Team Racing Championship 2007
Congratulations to NYYC Silver Panda for winning the 2007 US Team Racing Championship. Reportedly the deepest US Team Racing Championship ever and with a historic number of teams. Tim Wadlow gave an emotional speech at the awards ceremony and pointed out that this is the first time in history a team has completed a grand slam by Panda winning the US Championship, World Championship AND the Wilson Trophy in a row.
Gracious host Seawahnaka Yacht Club, located near Long Island New York, put on a spectacular event. The weather was wet the first day but we had awesome breeze for the entire event (except for a postponement on Sunday to wait for some awesome conditions for the semifinals and finals (which culminated in yet another historic showdown between Whishbone and Silver Panda).Below are podcasts from Saturday and Sunday talking to many of the key players of team racing. Special focus on the very recent Olympic Trials since many of the winners were competing in the event. Learn from the champions what it takes to win the trials and tips on how to win on the water. Also is the INSIDE scoop as to why West Kirby was not able to host the 2007 World Team Racing Championship. A very poignant interview from Gay Lynn Award winner Francis Charles (who has done a terrific amount to grow not only the sport of team racing but sailing in general). The worlds best umpire, Chris Atkins, joined the fun and absolutely made the event a better one...listen to his podcast to learn key insights from THE MAN. Ever ponder the mathematics and algorithms that allow the largest US Team Racing Championship to run without a hitch? Listen to Sandra Atkins give a 'Big Dummies Guide' to the Swiss League format.
NEW! High Definition Video Podcasts of the event (caution, big one is close to 1GB in size. May take a while to load). Video footage by Gavin O'Hare shot on a new Sanyo Xacti HD Camcorder. Audio captured with a Griffin iMic on an Apple iPod. Movie is close to 2 hours long (popcorn not included), packed with hot moves from some of the world's best team racers and has been nominated for an emmy, grammy and nobel peace prize:
Below are audio podcasts from the event:
Welcome from Commodore Al Constance
2005 Hinman Champion Brad Funk
Amanda interviews Bryan McDonald
Scoring whiz kid Sandra Atkins
Gay Lynn Award Winner Francis Charles
The TRUE story why West Kirby did not host 2007 worlds
Olympian Stu McNay and Team Molly
Team Racing Tools and intro movie
Amazing Roll Tacks from Panda and Whishbone
8 year old Emmett McDonald setting the Rave class speed record for San Francisco Bay
Sunday, September 23, 2007
the last cal cup (pictures coming soon)
today was the last cal cup of 2007...honest...we tried having it sat but the wind was not there so decided to have it on a sunday (for the first time of the season). location = emeryville.
sailed my 12.5 the whole regatta. only 4 races (and the first one, at over two hours in length, was a doozy).
the course was set on the cal cup boat (with emmett driving) in a building breeze and percey said he was thinking of going out with a 9. when he came back to change into his wetsuit, the wind died. it's been a rainy weekend and the breeze was off the pace. i decided to get wet and go out and slog on my 12.5 (which jim mcgrath thought i might have a few loose screws to be sailing on). i figured if i planed around for the other racers to see, maybe i'd inspire them to come out. i slogged to the pier and then got powered up. i was aiming for the darkest cloud i could see hoping for pressure from it (this is the hot tip for east coast sailing...aim for the darkest cloud during a storm for the best puffs and most pressure) and it paid off. can't get much angle out of the 12.5 upwind so i was hitting the pier hard, tacking, dipping south, tacking and then hitting the pier hard again.
percey was the next out. boy, he had some great angle on his 11. others followed. sylvester was on an 11 too (big sail for steve-o). pretty much the whole fleet was out on 11's except me on a 12.5, soheil on a 10 (he loves is 10) and ben on something big (maybe an 11.8?).
first race i lined up near the committee end. plan was to be powered by the start and plane through. got in a hole at 20 seconds and ate up some precious angle digging out of it. hit the pin hard...literally hit it...fin got wrapped around the anchor line...even with a 12.5 and 70cm fin, pretty hard to plane while dragging an anchor (call me a whimp...i know micah would have simply pumped around the course as if nothing was there...but i aint micah). the guys who made the start clean (s3 = steve sylvester, percey) where gone. the rest of the fleet was in slog or partial planing mode (including me). eric, soheil and i got planing again towards the port layline. eric was ahead and tacked. we all fell into holes and watched percey and s3 sail away while they had pressure and we did not (this is an example of where the grass is definitely greener on the other side :-). i finally started to plane near the pier (and ben was above me stuck without breeze). i was pointing so low that ben in slog mode was almost beating me up wind. i finally got planing on starboard. i followed eric to the port layline. i tacked when he tacked and got stuck in another hole. still below layline and took many double tacks to finally get around the top mark.
sailed my 12.5 the whole regatta. only 4 races (and the first one, at over two hours in length, was a doozy).
the course was set on the cal cup boat (with emmett driving) in a building breeze and percey said he was thinking of going out with a 9. when he came back to change into his wetsuit, the wind died. it's been a rainy weekend and the breeze was off the pace. i decided to get wet and go out and slog on my 12.5 (which jim mcgrath thought i might have a few loose screws to be sailing on). i figured if i planed around for the other racers to see, maybe i'd inspire them to come out. i slogged to the pier and then got powered up. i was aiming for the darkest cloud i could see hoping for pressure from it (this is the hot tip for east coast sailing...aim for the darkest cloud during a storm for the best puffs and most pressure) and it paid off. can't get much angle out of the 12.5 upwind so i was hitting the pier hard, tacking, dipping south, tacking and then hitting the pier hard again.
percey was the next out. boy, he had some great angle on his 11. others followed. sylvester was on an 11 too (big sail for steve-o). pretty much the whole fleet was out on 11's except me on a 12.5, soheil on a 10 (he loves is 10) and ben on something big (maybe an 11.8?).
first race i lined up near the committee end. plan was to be powered by the start and plane through. got in a hole at 20 seconds and ate up some precious angle digging out of it. hit the pin hard...literally hit it...fin got wrapped around the anchor line...even with a 12.5 and 70cm fin, pretty hard to plane while dragging an anchor (call me a whimp...i know micah would have simply pumped around the course as if nothing was there...but i aint micah). the guys who made the start clean (s3 = steve sylvester, percey) where gone. the rest of the fleet was in slog or partial planing mode (including me). eric, soheil and i got planing again towards the port layline. eric was ahead and tacked. we all fell into holes and watched percey and s3 sail away while they had pressure and we did not (this is an example of where the grass is definitely greener on the other side :-). i finally started to plane near the pier (and ben was above me stuck without breeze). i was pointing so low that ben in slog mode was almost beating me up wind. i finally got planing on starboard. i followed eric to the port layline. i tacked when he tacked and got stuck in another hole. still below layline and took many double tacks to finally get around the top mark.
misc rules questions
many people ask me rules questions. here are my opinions on some of the more interesting questions.
there was one race where the fleet started, and shortly after the starting signal another sound signal was made. a sailor, who was midfleet, looked back and saw the general recall flag up. assuming it was a general recall, the sailor sailed back to get ready for the next start. the race committee changed their mind and dropped the general recall flag and let the fleet race. the sailor who was sailing back turned around to race but was now at the back of the fleet. he filed for redress.
if i were a judge for this incident, i'd grant him redress due to an error by the race committee. while the sailor did sail back to the line by his own choice, i don't think that is a failure to pass the 'through no fault of your own' test. the reason i think that is because the sailor was actually following what the rules say (i.e. when the general recall (first repeater) flag is flying, that means the race is over and come back to the line to get ready for the next start). thus i would not penalize the sailor for following the rules. if the sound signal was not correct, i'd still grant redress since most competitors don't know whether it's one blast or two for a general. they key for me is that the correct visual signal was made and the competitor did his best to comply with the rules. on a different matter, i don't think there is a provision in the rules to allow the rc to NOT continue with a general recall after they have signalled it.
there was one race where the fleet started, and shortly after the starting signal another sound signal was made. a sailor, who was midfleet, looked back and saw the general recall flag up. assuming it was a general recall, the sailor sailed back to get ready for the next start. the race committee changed their mind and dropped the general recall flag and let the fleet race. the sailor who was sailing back turned around to race but was now at the back of the fleet. he filed for redress.
if i were a judge for this incident, i'd grant him redress due to an error by the race committee. while the sailor did sail back to the line by his own choice, i don't think that is a failure to pass the 'through no fault of your own' test. the reason i think that is because the sailor was actually following what the rules say (i.e. when the general recall (first repeater) flag is flying, that means the race is over and come back to the line to get ready for the next start). thus i would not penalize the sailor for following the rules. if the sound signal was not correct, i'd still grant redress since most competitors don't know whether it's one blast or two for a general. they key for me is that the correct visual signal was made and the competitor did his best to comply with the rules. on a different matter, i don't think there is a provision in the rules to allow the rc to NOT continue with a general recall after they have signalled it.
finn north americans
i was asked to be a judge at the finn north american championship this past weeked hosted by the coyote point yacht club. you'd think it'd be great wind and knarly waves at coyote but this weekend was pretty much a bust with only a race or two in whitecaps and many in very light air.
pictures coming soon...
pictures coming soon...
cosmic blobs
there is an amazing 3D program for kids called cosmic blobs. it's written by the solidworks people so it's going to be based on industrial strength 3D. you can learn more about it from cosmicblobs.com and even download a free copy.
i created some fun sailing animations with it. check it out and tell me what you think:
http://homepage.mac.com/sailing/17.1.mov
http://homepage.mac.com/sailing/slalom.mov
the pirate ships are fun. this is an actual tricky rules scenario in team racing (the vexing question of whether rule 17.1 applies to boats on opposite tacks in the zone). it's fun listening to some of the greatest rule minds talking about blue and yellow pirate ships. (most rules experts believe that 17.1 can apply to boat on opposite tacks in the zone, by the way.)
the windsurfer is a zaichek board with real footstraps. the sail is seth besse's. need to make a few more models so i can create some tricky rules scenarios for people to learn from.
i created some fun sailing animations with it. check it out and tell me what you think:
http://homepage.mac.com/sailing/17.1.mov
http://homepage.mac.com/sailing/slalom.mov
the pirate ships are fun. this is an actual tricky rules scenario in team racing (the vexing question of whether rule 17.1 applies to boats on opposite tacks in the zone). it's fun listening to some of the greatest rule minds talking about blue and yellow pirate ships. (most rules experts believe that 17.1 can apply to boat on opposite tacks in the zone, by the way.)
the windsurfer is a zaichek board with real footstraps. the sail is seth besse's. need to make a few more models so i can create some tricky rules scenarios for people to learn from.
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