Inside Google

One of man’s greatest assets is his curiosity and being the curious little blogger that I am, I have always wondered how Google finds all the information to satisfy those billions of queries it receives each day. Well my curiosity was finally satisfied yesterday when I found a site on the internet that shows exactly how it’s done. Click on the link and all shall be revealed. Enjoy.

Inside your Google search

Apollo 11 Saturn V takeoff.

I came across this on the internet and found it rather cool. It is a film taken during the liftoff of Apollo 11 with the camera running at 500 frames per second versus the usual 24 frames for a movie. The super slow motion shows the ignition and lift off in minute detail. The film runs for 8 minutes but in real time it is only 30 seconds.

Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 from Mark Gray on Vimeo.

A trekking we will go... we're back

We finally survived three days and 40 kilometres of trekking through the wilderness. We had a beautiful sunny day, a cloudy day and the last morning with drizzle, so it wasn't as bad as the weatherman had made out. It was a hard trek on a trail that wasn't always the best (a lot of dead-falls and a mud hole about every 50 metres it seemed) but the students were great and even in the hardest going they kept up their spirits. Hre are some of the photos I took during the trek.

Hiking down the trail

The lake where we slept

Our shelter for the night

The lake calm as a mirror

Reflections

Part of the trail

Some falls

A trekking we will go...

I am leaving tomorrow for three days of backpacking with my students. The weather has been nice all week and will be nice all next week, but on two of the three days we are walking we are supposed to get showers. There must be someone up there with a strange sense of humour. ;o)
I'll publish some photos when I get back from carrying my backpack across the Laurentians.

Dear Pedestrians in answer to Jazz

My lil sister Jazz wrote a blog today about cyclists being a menace for pedestrians. So seeing as I'm an avid cyclist I thought I would share my thoughts about pedestrians.

Dear Pedestrians,

Most cities in the world have specially made places for pedestrians to walk on. These special paths should be only for you, dear pedestrian, bikes should not ride on them and cars even less so. They belong exclusively to you... They are called sidewalks. Now cities are also building bike paths. These may look like super wide sidewalks but they are not. They are made for bikes and bikes travel quite a bit faster than you do and cyclists just hate having to dodge around you as you stroll along, without a care in the world. How do you know if it is a bike path? Well that should be easy, there are usually big yellow signs with a black bicycle on it and sometimes there is a big white bike painted on the ground. Is there a little black pedestrian on a yellow sign or a little white man painted on the path? Nope... well then you sure as hell ain't on a sidewalk... Another clue should be the yellow line painted in the middle, very much like a highway.  (see examples below)
Now I really don't mind if you want to get yourself killed, but if that is your fondest wish, go for a walk on the highway with the cars because hitting you at 30 km/hr will really warp my front wheel and lead to my having serious bumps and scrapes. Also please remember, that baby carriages do not qualify as bikes, neither does your 3 year old on his tricycle qualify you to be walking along the bike path. 
A concerned cyclist...

Bike path

Sidewalk

Washington

Just came back from Washington DC with my students. The kids really liked their trip and were impressed by the grandeur of the buildings, the free museums and the weather. (It snowed in Montreal while we were running around in bright sunlight, cool but bright. ) It is hard to beat all those free museums. I've been going there for years and I still haven't got through them all. We also took them to the Holocaust Museum, which is less fun but a very good lesson to them. Each year when the kids finish the visit they are very thoughtful and silent which for 13-14 year olds is saying a lot.
All in all a good trip.