Brand New Information

New Coast Guard HQ

2011-02-15T19:37:00.000-05:00

Roosevelt Gets Me

2011-02-08T16:27:00.001-05:00

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

My Favorite Books of 2010

2011-01-01T16:48:00.002-05:00

In 2010 I got an iPad plus the Kindle App for it. These two things go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Discovering and reading new books is too easy now. My reading list gets longer but since they're all digital the stack of books on my nightstand stays the same size.

Here's a few of my favorites with a brief comment on each. Note, not all of these books were published in 2010. I just got around to reading them in 2010.

Spies of the Balkans - Alan Furs

This book needs a movie adaptation even though it could never be as good as the book. Spies of the Balkans is a WWII spy thriller set in Greece in the 1940's. If that doesn't sound interesting to you than you should still read it. It's a great 'atmosphere' book and the main character, Costa Zannis, is fun to read.

Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart

There are no aliens, no world wars, only an explosion or two but this is the scariest description of how America ends. It's disturbing because unlike most books where life as we know it ends, in this book you the reader can actually see how we might get there from here.

The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean - Susan Casey.

A must read if you're a fan of any ocean water sport, mother nature, ships, earth science, the ocean, and especially surfing. The book takes you all over the world to meet big wave surfers and scientists and learn about their common field of study: Waves. I guarantee you'll learn something new about the ocean.

Freedom - Johnathan Franzen

I liked it a lot even though Oprah did also.

Set to Sea - Drew Weing
Highly recommended! A brilliant graphic novel that I've been pushing on every kid in my family. I bought several copies as gifts this season. It's pocket sized but thick and full of old fashioned crosshatched style art work like this.
It's the story of a nameless oaf of a man that spends his days dreaming of being a poet while mostly just being a bum. Then one day he is shanghaied for a journey across the ocean to Hong Kong. I think the moral is great for kids which is - get off the couch and go do something, even if it sucks sometimes or you get shot in the eye and stabbed you'll still have great adventures and live a full life.

The Good Soldiers - David Finkel

I've read a few war books and this is the best by far. The opening page sets the tone for the entire book and still gives me chills when I think about it.

Washington Post reporter David Finkel was embedded with the 2-16 battalion as they executed "the surge" in 2007 Baghdad. This is one of those war stories like "Saving Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers" where after you read it you're convinced it should be required reading in high school history class. ( The NY Times review )

The Millennium Trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest. - Steig Larson

What can I say, it's a guilty pleasure. It sold millions of books and movie tickets for a reason. The US versions of the movies are being made right now with Daniel Craig as Kalle Fucking Blomkvist. Should be pretty good.

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

Like "Set to Sea" above it's about a guy (a boy) that reluctantly leaves behind his comfortable world and ends up having great adventures. Recommended for your little readers.

At Home - Bill Bryson

A room by room history of the household. I'm only about a third of the way through this book but I've already read more historical facts than most history books have in their entirety. Seriously, Bill Bryson crams so much detail, trivia, and factoids onto every page it's like reading an encyclopedia without the narcolepsy. I fully agree with the Publishers Weekly review: "Bryson shows us how odd and improbable our own lives really are."

Cleopatra - Stacy Schiff

Like At Home above I am still reading this book but so far it is fascinating. The level of detail the author gives of the ancient city of Alexandria is amazing. This isn't the Hollywood, Elizabeth Taylor version. Think of it as the "if a National Geographic Channel film crew had a time machine" version of Cleopatra's story.

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

The most original book I read all year. It is set in "London Below", a very unpredictable and entertaining world.

The Unnamed - Joshua Ferris

A guy suffers uncontrollable fits of walking. He walks miles and miles unable to stop until he collapses in exhaustion. It's a sad hopeless tale that I couldn't stop reading.

Solar - Ian McEwan

Murder, a frost-bitten penis, and the promise of unlimited free energy makes for a good book.

Point Omega - Don DeLillo

"How many beginnings before the lie of your excitement is revealed?"

At only 128 pages this book is full of little nuggets like that, just don't expect a nice tidy ending. Significant plot points happen and are never explained or resolved. They just happen, embrace it.

Books I'm reading now or plan to read soon:

Thrive: Finding Happiness The Blue Zone Way - Dan Buettner

The Thousand Autumns of JAcob De Zoet - David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

The Imperfectionists - Tom Rachman

"And then the TSA touch their balls. Like this." on Twitpic

2010-12-06T20:42:00.000-05:00

"And then the TSA touch their balls. Like this." on Twitpic

Instagram + iPhone

2010-12-05T10:12:00.000-05:00

My flickr feed is a lot more interesting since I got the iPhone 4 and Instagram. I used to not take as many mobile pictures with my old iPhone since the camera just wasn't that good. The iPhone's new HDR feature combined with the 5megapixel sensor makes it a pretty awesome camera. My dSLR has been gathering dust (i still plan to upgrade it though to the new Nikon D7000).

Here's some samples of some pictures I never would have taken with my Nikon.

Pachyderm Area Network

2010-02-15T17:07:00.002-05:00

I was watching JANE MCGONIGAL's talk on New Yorker about games and using games to solve real word problems.
She predicts that by 2013 we will find ourselves living our lives inside of massively multiplayer games. We're not talking about World of Warcraft type online games but real world or 'offline' games.
She mentions car based games where your goal is get better mileage, ChoreWars a game that applies gaming to household chores, and SharkRunner which integrates real data from actual sharks swimming around wild in the oceans.

This reminded me of a paper i wrote in 2008 for a class at George Mason. The paper proposed merging social networks like facebook with the social networks of other species. Specifically the endangered Asian Elephant.

http://mason.gmu.edu/~mbrashie/IT304/The_Next_Step.html

8 LCD panels + Google Earth = Wow.

2010-02-13T19:01:00.001-05:00

Ukulele rocking at TED party

2010-02-13T12:51:00.001-05:00

2011 Honda Odyssey: Brilliant Design

2010-02-11T14:20:00.000-05:00

I love the design of the new Honda Odyssey. It's longer, wider, and lower than the current generation model yet it has more headroom.

Minivans are truly the most efficient and therefore ideal vehicle for the modern family man. Now if people would stop believing commercials and bumper stickers that attempt to portray them as soccer mom driven grocery getters.

Buying Good Beef in Bulk

2010-01-16T21:39:00.012-05:00

On a whim I decided to buy a quarter of a cow. Even though I didn't have all the facts before committing to buy I did know these three truths.

If it was good for paleolithic man, with which everyone in my immediate family shares blood type, than it is good for us.
Most cows are processed through large factory farms where they are injected with tons of pharmaceuticals to make them grow big and grow fast and fight off infections caused by their crowded living conditions.
Everybody seems to get cancer or heart disease nowadays.

What I didn't know before I tried to make up for in research into organic grass fed beef after I made the purchase but before I took delivery. I'll try to pass on as much information as I can remember from that research.

Where and How Much?
Last October a woman that works in my building posted a ad on the digital bulletin board stating that for $400 I could buy a 1/4 portion of a cow from a farmer she knows, a guy by the name of Kevin Diehl in Pennsylvania. The ad further stated that the cow is not treated with any hormones, antibiotics, or any other chemicals. It's just a cow in a field doing it's thing. Those are my words, not from the ad.
A 1/4 portion equates to 200lbs of meat "on the hoof". Awesome! That's $2/lb however by the time you get it "in the freezer" it's more like 120lbs which comes out to $3.48/lb.
"On the hoof" basically means they weigh it while it's still a cow. It includes the head, tail, bones, hair, hooves, teeth, and everything else that makes up the cow. When you strip away all that you're left with just meat, fat and some bone all cut to your specifications and wrapped in pretty white butcher paper.
You can learn more about buying grass fed beef at eatwild.com or this article on eHow.

Why Buy Organic Grass Fed Beef?
My wife and I decided a while ago that we were going to eat healthier foods and generally be more aware of the quality of food we consume. Neither one of us has any desire to be a vegetarian and we don't want the kids to skimp on animal proteins. Muscles, brains, organs, these things need protein. Our goal is simply to reduce the amount of artificial food stuff that we consume. So when I saw the ad for organic beef I jumped on it.
What I found out after I committed to buy the quarter cow is that grass fed organic beef seems to be just about the healthiest source of red meat you can buy. It's much more healthy than the meat you get from factory processed grain fed cows which are confined, overfed, and pumped full of chemicals.
For example read the list below that I stole from eatwild.com.

A 2009 study by the USDA and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina determined that compared with grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef was:

Lower in total fat
Higher in beta-carotene
Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin
Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium
Higher in total omega-3s
A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)
Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer fighter
Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)
Lower in the saturated fats linked with heart disease

Kevin Diehl, the farmer who raised the cow, delivered the meat to my office building last week. The four of us beef buyers met him in the parking lot and took possession of our quarters.
Did I mention you will need a lot of freezer space? I got the 14.8 cubic foot Frigidaire Energy Star model.
It was a little overkill for this much meat but I intend to use it to store a bunch of other frozen food. The economics of frozen food is a whole other blog post. Suffice to say you can save a lot of money by getting a freezer and buying food in bulk.
For my $400 I got 120 pounds of meat consisting of:

7 or 8 roasts
a half dozen or so 1 1/4in. steaks of various types
a dozen or so 1 1/2lb packages of ground beef
5 boxes of hamburger patties
a bunch of cubes for stew.

But How Does it Taste?
The short answer is: it tastes really really good. The night after I took delivery I pan fried a sirloin steak with a recipe I got from the Cook with Jamie cookbook. The steak was delicious as was the ground beef we had tonight in tacos. Both had really good flavor and texture. I can't wait to grill a porterhouse next week.

Pan Fried Sirloin Steak. Cook with Jamie pg 158

Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook

Originally uploaded by michaelb1

So......
I bought a huge portion of grass fed organic beef. It saved me some money. It tastes really good. It's healthy for me and my family.
After only two meals I can say that I will buy another 1/4 cow when this meat runs out. By my calculations my family of five eating two or three red meat meals per week should go through the entire 120lbs in about..........I have no idea.

Path of my Ancestors

2010-01-02T12:35:00.004-05:00

My ancestors left Africa 50k years ago. They settled in the Middle East 45k years ago. They moved into southern central Asia 40k years ago. Then they moved into cental Asia 35k years ago. About 30k years ago, as CroMagnon's they colonized Europe. Most people in modern Spain and Ireland carry the same haplogroup as me.

Your Y-chromosome results identify you as a member of haplogroup R1b.
The genetic markers that define your ancestral history reach back roughly 60,000 years to the first common marker of all non-African men, M168, and follow your lineage to present day ending with M343, the defining marker of Haplogroup R1b.
If you look at the map highlighting your ancestors' route, you will see that members of haplogroup R1b carry the following Y-chromosome markers:

M168 > P143 > M89 > L15 > M9 > M45 > M207 > M173 > M343
(Less is known about some markers than others. What is known about your journey is reflected below.)

Today, roughly 70 percent of the men in southern England belong to haplogroup R1b. In parts of Spain and Ireland, that number exceeds 90 percent.
What's a haplogroup, and why do geneticists concentrate on the Y chromosome in their search for markers? For that matter, what's a marker?

Each of us carries DNA that is a combination of genes passed from both our mother and father, giving us traits that range from eye color and height to athleticism and disease susceptibility. One exception is the Y chromosome, which is passed directly from father to son, unchanged, from generation to generation.
Unchanged, that is unless a mutation—a random, naturally occurring, usually harmless change—occurs. The mutation, known as a marker, acts as a beacon; it can be mapped through generations because it will be passed down from the man in whom it occurred to his sons, their sons, and every male in his family for thousands of years.

In some instances there may be more than one mutational event that defines a particular branch on the tree. This means that any of these markers can be used to determine your particular haplogroup, since every individual who has one of these markers also has the others.
When geneticists identify such a marker, they try to figure out when it first occurred, and in which geographic region of the world. Each marker is essentially the beginning of a new lineage on the family tree of the human race. Tracking the lineages provides a picture of how small tribes of modern humans in Africa tens of thousands of years ago diversified and spread to populate the world.
A haplogroup is defined by a series of markers that are shared by other men who carry the same random mutations. The markers trace the path your ancestors took as they moved out of Africa. It's difficult to know how many men worldwide belong to any particular haplogroup, or even how many haplogroups there are, because scientists simply don't have enough data yet.
One of the goals of the five-year Genographic Project is to build a large enough database of anthropological genetic data to answer some of these questions. To achieve this, project team members are traveling to all corners of the world to collect more than 100,000 DNA samples from indigenous populations. In addition, we encourage you to contribute your anonymous results to the project database, helping our geneticists reveal more of the answers to our ancient past.
Keep checking these pages; as more information is received, more may be learned about your own genetic history.

Your Ancestral Journey: What We Know Now
M168: Your Earliest Ancestor

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence: Roughly 50,000 years ago
Place of Origin: Africa
Climate: Temporary retreat of Ice Age; Africa moves from drought to warmer temperatures and moister conditions
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 10,000
Tools and Skills: Stone tools; earliest evidence of art and advanced conceptual skills
Skeletal and archaeological evidence suggest that anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago, and began moving out of Africa to colonize the rest of the world around 60,000 years ago.
The man who gave rise to the first genetic marker in your lineage probably lived in northeast Africa in the region of the Rift Valley, perhaps in present-day Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzania, some 31,000 to 79,000 years ago. Scientists put the most likely date for when he lived at around 50,000 years ago. His descendants became the only lineage to survive outside of Africa, making him the common ancestor of every non-African man living today.
But why would man have first ventured out of the familiar African hunting grounds and into unexplored lands? It is likely that a fluctuation in climate may have provided the impetus for your ancestors' exodus out of Africa.
The African ice age was characterized by drought rather than by cold. It was around 50,000 years ago that the ice sheets of northern Europe began to melt, introducing a period of warmer temperatures and moister climate in Africa. Parts of the inhospitable Sahara briefly became habitable. As the drought-ridden desert changed to a savanna, the animals hunted by your ancestors expanded their range and began moving through the newly emerging green corridor of grasslands. Your nomadic ancestors followed the good weather and the animals they hunted, although the exact route they followed remains to be determined.
In addition to a favorable change in climate, around this same time there was a great leap forward in modern humans' intellectual capacity. Many scientists believe that the emergence of language gave us a huge advantage over other early human species. Improved tools and weapons, the ability to plan ahead and cooperate with one another, and an increased capacity to exploit resources in ways we hadn't been able to earlier, all allowed modern humans to rapidly migrate to new territories, exploit new resources, and replace other hominids.

M89: Moving Through the Middle East

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence: 45,000 years ago
Place: Northern Africa or the Middle East
Climate: Middle East: Semiarid grass plains
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Tens of thousands
Tools and Skills: Stone, ivory, wood tools
The next male ancestor in your ancestral lineage is the man who gave rise to M89, a marker found in 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans. This man was born around 45,000 years ago in northern Africa or the Middle East.
The first people to leave Africa likely followed a coastal route that eventually ended in Australia. Your ancestors followed the expanding grasslands and plentiful game to the Middle East and beyond, and were part of the second great wave of migration out of Africa.
Beginning about 40,000 years ago, the climate shifted once again and became colder and more arid. Drought hit Africa and the grasslands reverted to desert, and for the next 20,000 years, the Saharan Gateway was effectively closed. With the desert impassable, your ancestors had two options: remain in the Middle East, or move on. Retreat back to the home continent was not an option.
While many of the descendants of M89 remained in the Middle East, others continued to follow the great herds of buffalo, antelope, woolly mammoths, and other game through what is now modern-day Iran to the vast steppes of Central Asia.
These semiarid grass-covered plains formed an ancient "superhighway" stretching from eastern France to Korea. Your ancestors, having migrated north out of Africa into the Middle East, then traveled both east and west along this Central Asian superhighway. A smaller group continued moving north from the Middle East to Anatolia and the Balkans, trading familiar grasslands for forests and high country.

M9: The Eurasian Clan Spreads Wide and Far

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence: 40,000 years ago
Place: Iran or southern Central Asia
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Tens of thousands
Tools and Skills: Upper Paleolithic
Your next ancestor, a man born around 40,000 years ago in Iran or southern Central Asia, gave rise to a genetic marker known as M9, which marked a new lineage diverging from the M89 Middle Eastern Clan. His descendants, of which you are one, spent the next 30,000 years populating much of the planet.
This large lineage, known as the Eurasian Clan, dispersed gradually over thousands of years. Seasoned hunters followed the herds ever eastward, along the vast super highway of Eurasian steppe. Eventually their path was blocked by the massive mountain ranges of south Central Asia—the Hindu Kush, the Tian Shan, and the Himalayas.
The three mountain ranges meet in a region known as the "Pamir Knot," located in present-day Tajikistan. Here the tribes of hunters split into two groups. Some moved north into Central Asia, others moved south into what is now Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent.
These different migration routes through the Pamir Knot region gave rise to separate lineages.
Most people native to the Northern Hemisphere trace their roots to the Eurasian Clan. Nearly all North Americans and East Asians are descended from the man described above, as are most Europeans and many Indians.

M45: The Journey Through Central Asia

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence: 35,000
Place of Origin: Central Asia
Climate: Glaciers expanding over much of Europe
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 100,000
Tools and Skills: Upper Paleolithic
The next marker of your genetic heritage, M45, arose around 35,000 years ago, in a man born in Central Asia. He was part of the M9 Eurasian Clan that had moved to the north of the mountainous Hindu Kush and onto the game-rich steppes of present-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and southern Siberia.
Although big game was plentiful, the environment on the Eurasian steppes became increasing hostile as the glaciers of the Ice Age began to expand once again. The reduction in rainfall may have induced desertlike conditions on the southern steppes, forcing your ancestors to follow the herds of game north.
To exist in such harsh conditions, they learned to build portable animal-skin shelters and to create weaponry and hunting techniques that would prove successful against the much larger animals they encountered in the colder climates. They compensated for the lack of stone they traditionally used to make weapons by developing smaller points and blades—microliths—that could be mounted to bone or wood handles and used effectively. Their tool kit also included bone needles for sewing animal-skin clothing that would both keep them warm and allow them the range of movement needed to hunt the reindeer and mammoth that kept them fed.
Your ancestors' resourcefulness and ability to adapt was critical to survival during the last ice age in Siberia, a region where no other hominid species is known to have lived.
The M45 Central Asian Clan gave rise to many more; the man who was its source is the common ancestor of most Europeans and nearly all Native American men.

M207: Leaving Central Asia

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence: 30,000
Place of Origin: Central Asia
Climate: Glaciers expanding over much of Europe and western Eurasia
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 100,000
Tools and Skills: Upper Paleolithic
After spending considerable time in Central Asia, refining skills to survive in harsh new conditions and exploit new resources, a group from the Central Asian Clan began to head west towards the European subcontinent.
An individual in this clan carried the new M207 mutation on his Y chromosome. His descendants ultimately split into two distinct groups, with one continuing onto the European subcontinent, and the other group turning south and eventually making it as far as India.
Your lineage falls within the first group, M173, and gave rise to the first modern humans to move into Europe and eventually colonize the continent.

M173: Colonizing Europe—The First Modern Europeans

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence: Around 30,000 years ago
Place: Central Asia
Climate: Ice Age
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 100,000
Tools and Skills: Upper Paleolithic
As your ancestors continued to move west, a man born around 30,000 years ago in Central Asia gave rise to a lineage defined by the genetic marker M173. His descendants were part of the first large wave of humans to reach Europe.
During this period, the Eurasian steppelands extended from present-day Germany, and possibly France, to Korea and China. The climate fostered a land rich in resources and opened a window into Europe.
Your ancestors' arrival in Europe heralded the end of the era of the Neandertals, a hominid species that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 29,000 to 230,000 years ago. Better communication skills, weapons, and resourcefulness probably enabled your ancestors to outcompete Neandertals for scarce resources.
This wave of migration into Western Europe marked the appearance and spread of what archaeologists call the Aurignacian culture. The culture is distinguished by significant innovations in methods of manufacturing tools, more standardization of tools, and a broader set of tool types, such as end-scrapers for preparing animal skins and tools for woodworking.
In addition to stone, the first modern humans to reach Europe used bone, ivory, antler, and shells as part of their tool kit. Bracelets and pendants made of shells, teeth, ivory, and carved bone appear at many sites. Jewelry, often an indication of status, suggests a more complex social organization was beginning to develop.
The large number of archaeological sites found in Europe from around 30,000 years ago indicates that there was an increase in population size.
Around 20,000 years ago, the climate window shut again, and expanding ice sheets forced your ancestors to move south to Spain, Italy, and the Balkans. As the ice retreated and temperatures became warmer, beginning about 12,000 years ago, many descendants of M173 moved north again to repopulate places that had become inhospitable during the Ice Age.
Not surprisingly, today the number of descendants of the man who gave rise to marker M173 remains very high in Western Europe. It is particularly concentrated in northern France and the British Isles where it was carried by ancestors who had weathered the Ice Age in Spain.

M343: Direct Descendants of Cro-Magnon

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence: Around 30,000 years ago
Place of Origin: Western Europe
Climate: Ice sheets continuing to creep down Northern Europe
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens:
Tools and Skills: Upper Paleolithic
Around 30,000 years ago, a descendant of the clan making its way into Europe gave rise to marker M343, the defining marker of your haplogroup. You are a direct descendent of the people who dominated the human expansion into Europe, the Cro-Magnon.
The Cro-Magnon are responsible for the famous cave paintings found in southern France. These spectacular paintings provide archaeological evidence that there was a sudden blossoming of artistic skills as your ancestors moved into Europe. Prior to this, artistic endeavors were mostly comprised of jewelry made of shell, bone, and ivory; primitive musical instruments; and stone carvings.
The cave paintings of the Cro-Magnon depict animals like bison, deer, rhinoceroses, and horses, and natural events important to Paleolithic life such as spring molting, hunting, and pregnancy. The paintings are far more intricate, detailed, and colorful than anything seen prior to this period.
Your ancestors knew how to make woven clothing using the natural fibers of plants, and had relatively advanced tools of stone, bone, and ivory. Their jewelry, carvings, and intricate, colorful cave paintings bear witness to the Cro-Magnons' advanced culture during the last glacial age.
This is where your genetic trail, as we know it today, ends. However, be sure to revisit these pages. As additional data are collected and analyzed, more will be learned about your place in the history of the men and women who first populated the Earth. We will be updating these stories throughout the life of the project.

My Favorite Books of 2009

2010-01-01T13:18:00.000-05:00

In 2009 I decided to read more dead tree based content instead of web based content. Here's a few of my favorites with a brief comment on each. I also threw in some honorable mentions. Note, not all of these books were published in 2009. I just got around to reading them in 2009.

Under the Dome, Stephen King

I love books with a premise that seems to come out of nowhere. Giant dome isolates a small town in Maine does the trick. The moral of the story: Liberals and conservatives got to stick together against the nut jobs. This book made me hate the villain, Big Jim Remmie.

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, Alain De Botton

Work wasn't always equated with your happiness and life dreams. It was merely something you did as quick as possible so you could eat and pursue your hobbies if you had any.
Somewhat Malcolm Gladwell'ish and a great read. The book describes, with great detail and insight, many disparate workers and industries all across the globe. From the guy that paints the same tree over and over for years in every possible weather and lighting to the South American rocket launch of a French made satellite for a Japanese company the book packs a lot of information gathered from all corners of the globe in an effort to explain why we do what we do.

Shadow Divers, Robert Kurson

A couple of regular guys discover a sunken U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey. It's not in any history books. True story. It's awesome.

Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell

I knew it! Success does not come from brains and hard work alone. It takes a village, and luck, and cultural legacy, and......it takes more than hard work and brains.

The Lost City of Z, David Grann

An amazing true story of Col. Percy Fawcett as he explored the Amazon looking for the mythical City of Gold. This book made me want to explore. It planted the seed in my brain that I should ride my motorcycle across the country and back. My trip wasn't as adventurous as Col. Fawcett's journey but at least bugs didn't try to live in my eyeballs. Supposedly Brad Pitt is producing the movie.

The Signal, Ron Carlson

This "mens fiction" novel by Ron Carlson was another inspiration for me to drive my motorcycle across country. His descriptions of the Wyoming back country are great. The Washington Post says it better than I can: Carlson "writes like Hemingway without the misogyny and self-parody".

1776, Douglas McCullough

McCullough writes history like it's fiction (in a good way). I felt like I was there watching General Washington outmaneuver the British. My only regret is that the book only covers the year 1776 and not the entire war.

Honorable Mentions: I really enjoyed these as well.

The Flood, Stephen Baxter

Like Under the Dome this book explores what happens when things go bad. An ocean under the Earths crust springs a leak and floods the planet over a 50 year time span.

The Singularity is Near, Ray Kurzweil

Humans and computers will merge in our lifetime. Things are going to get very weird.

Shop Class as Soul Craft, Matthew Crawford

A very interesting book about how we kind of overdid it in the 90's and 00's in convincing ourselves that everyone has to be a knowledge worker with high tech skills. There's lots of intelligence, creativity, math, and ingenuity in the trades and crafts.

The Host, Stephanie Myer

I know she wrote the sappy vampire books but this is good science fiction. Benevolent aliens take over Earth via the body snatchers technique. One of them lives within an isolated fugitive camp and goes native. It's pretty creepy.

The Art of the Motorcycle, Thomas Krens

Beautiful bikes and the stories behind them.

Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crighton

I hadn't read Crighton in years but this reminded me of those numerous nights I stayed up late reading the Jurassic Park series. This is a fun swashbuckling adventure set in 1665 Jamaica. There's a ton of Spanish gold in a nearby and well guarded fort. The protagonist is part Han Solo part Jack Sparrow and believes "gold in spanish hands is gold for the taking". Steven Spielberg is making the movie.

Think Big

2009-12-31T14:20:00.002-05:00

“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.”—Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect. (1864-1912)

Genographic Results Delayed

2009-12-24T15:33:00.001-05:00

I'm kind of bummed. The Genographic Project failed to find my haplogroup. It's gonna take a couple more weeks.

Your sample has completed the DNA analysis phase of testing. However, during quality control your initial results failed to clearly indicate your haplogroup. We must perform additional testing to accurately determine your deep ancestral lineage. This is not uncommon, but will delay the posting of your results by two to three weeks.

We appreciate your patience. Please also note that this delay is a sign of the Project's success in increasing the diversity of samples in our database.

If we find that there is a problem at any point during the processing of your sample, you will receive an updated message when you log in to check your status.

Christmas Gift

2009-12-22T21:00:00.001-05:00

Human Genographic Project

2009-12-07T14:18:00.003-05:00

My DNA has been isolated. In a few weeks I will know the route my ancestors took in their migration out of Africa. I signed up for the Genographic Project. It's a great project run by National Geographic that is mapping the migration history of the human species by using the DNA of hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.

A couple of weeks ago I swabbed the inside of my cheeks then put the swab in a solution and shipped it to NatGeo.
They received it and started running their lab work. In their words:

The cells are broken open by incubation with a protein-cutting enzyme overnight. Chemicals and the samples are transferred into deep well blocks for robotic DNA isolation. The blocks of chemicals and samples are placed on the extraction robot. The robotic DNA isolation uses silica-coated iron beads. In the presence of the appropriate chemicals DNA will bind to silica. The robot then uses magnetic probes to collect the beads (and DNA) and transfer them through several chemical washes and finally into a storage buffer, which allows the beads to release the DNA. At this point the beads are collected and discarded

So soon I should have a complete map of where my ancestors came from (on my Dad's side) going all the way back to Africa. Did they come out of Africa, turn right to Australia? Were they part of the group that split off and headed to Asia and across the Bering Straight? Maybe they were the European contingent (likely).

Thanks to Steve Jurvetson for introducing me to this.
Here's his map. As you can see his ancestors ended up in Scandinavia.

Here's more info on the Genographic Project if you're interested.

A Landmark Study of the Human Journey

Where do you really come from? And how did you get to where you live today? DNA studies suggest that all humans today descend from a group of African ancestors who—about 60,000 years ago—began a remarkable journey.

The Genographic Project is seeking to chart new knowledge about the migratory history of the human species by using sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people from around the world. In this unprecedented and of real-time research effort, the Genographic Project is closing the gaps of what science knows today about humankind's ancient migration stories.

The Genographic Project is a five-year research partnership led by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Spencer Wells. Dr. Wells and a team of renowned international scientists and IBM researchers, are using cutting-edge genetic and computational technologies to analyze historical patterns in DNA from participants around the world to better understand our human genetic roots. The three components of the project are: to gather field research data in collaboration with indigenous and traditional peoples around the world; to invite the general public to join the project by purchasing a Genographic Project Public Participation Kit; and to use proceeds from Genographic Public Participation Kit sales to further field research and the Genographic Legacy Fund which in turn supports indigenous conservation and revitalization projects. The Project is anonymous, non-medical, non-profit and all results will be placed in the public domain following scientific peer publication.

My Family of Elves

2009-12-05T14:48:00.002-05:00

This thing is addicting.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Country Elves

2009-12-05T14:34:00.002-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Pictory

2009-12-04T16:13:00.004-05:00

I love this site.

According to the 'About' Page it's a "showcase for people around the world to document their lives and cultures. Anyone can submit one large, captioned image to each of Pictory’s editorial themes."

I just submitted this picture in the "My Most Meaningful Image" catagory. It pales compared to the other submissions but it means something to me and that's all that's required.

Here's the blurb I wrote for it:

I was somewhere in Nevada and two weeks into the journey that I'd wanted to do since I was a kid.
I started out in Washington DC and turned around in Seattle. The Bonneville Salt Flats were not too far up ahead with the Rockies further on. It was a hot day, 105.8F, with a slight breeze.
After hours of riding with the muffled drone of my bike's boxer engine I pulled over to the side of a desert highway to enjoy the silence.
I got off my bike, grabbed my camera, and stood in the middle of the road.
I knew as soon as I shot it that after 5000 miles of American scenery, including many of the most beautiful national parks, this shot is the one I'd remember most. This is the one that will get me back on the road again someday.

Home Energy Use

2009-12-01T13:04:00.006-05:00

I dropped my energy use by an average of $8/month from 2008 to 2009. Nice!

Sometime soon I will calculate how much trees, carbon emissions, etc that saves.

Steve Jurvetson: Innovation in a Disruptive Environment

2009-11-07T19:48:00.002-05:00

Chicama.Peru.

2009-10-08T14:29:00.001-04:00

One of the longest Lefts in the world.

Surfrider Foundation

2009-10-05T13:13:00.001-04:00

Eco Cars: Engineering students give vintage MGB a modern engine

2009-09-12T14:15:00.003-04:00

This is really cool. I wonder if this portends a trend to retro-fit classic cars with modern electric drive systems. First Neil Youngs LincVolt and now this. It's awesome.
Read More

Patagonia Wool Wetsuits

2009-09-11T15:10:00.002-04:00

Might have to check these wetsuits out and see if the market speak is true.

One review I read says they stay pretty dry and warm but they stink up faster than a normal wetsuit.

Collectable "Screw Earth" Doritos Package

2009-09-08T17:08:00.002-04:00

Wasteful Packaging
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

This thing is about the size of half of a cereal box and it feels like it's empty. It's actually "full" of 5 individually wrapped Doritos bags. Total weight = 3.4oz.

I could wallpaper my kitchen with what Pepsi / FritoLay uses to hold 3.4oz of Doritos.

Such waste.

An Astronomy Professor's Take on Superman's Powers

2009-09-06T14:46:00.004-04:00

Mr. Brashier,

I assume this was sent in jest.

I hope you don't get your "facts" from comic books, movies and TV shows.

Regards,

Prof.Geller

On Tue, michael brashier wrote:

Dr. Geller,

During your lecture on the Sun we discussed how the temperature of the Sun dictates that it will emit roughly equal amounts of all wavelengths of light which makes it appear yellow/white.

Thus if the sun cooled down by approximately 1000K it would have a more reddish appearance.

Given the fact that Superman gets his power from the light of our yellow sun and conversely his home planet of Krypton had a red sun which drains his strength, can you please explain what characteristics of fusion within a star would produce super-human strength giving light at 5500K but not at 4000k?

The difference in temperature between a yellow star and a red star appears to correspond to a 100nm change in wavelength. Therefore it would appear that Supermans strength and bulletproofness are functions of a very narrow slice of the visible light spectrum.

On this issue science seems to directly contradict the facts presented in the comic books, movies, and TV shows.

Thanks,

Mike

E-book Reader circa 1998

2009-09-06T14:19:00.004-04:00

DigiBook (1998)
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

Cleaning out my desk I came across my idea from an ebook reader circa 1998.

It was all CD based. My idea was that magazine subscribers would receive a CD in the mail from Time, Rolling Stone et al., and put the CD in the reader.

My design was bifold to replicate the aesthetics of a real book as much as possible.

E-Ink was just starting to get some exposure at the time. There had to be many people with this idea. It's a wonder it took to long to come to market.

It Wants to Ride

2009-07-29T18:51:00.001-04:00

It Wants to Ride Again from Michael Brashier on Vimeo.

SoloMoto By The Numbers

2009-07-28T13:26:00.006-04:00

7 2 1 4 : T o t a l M i l e s
16: Number of days on the road
450.8: average miles per day.
101: Max. speed in mph
15: average speed in mph
52: Moving Avg speed (mph)

0: Speeding tickets
44: average miles per gallon
19: states travelled through
5: National parks visited
2: Number of tires purchased
100: pounds of gear and equipment carried
749: Pictures taken (keepers)
1: Number of times rained on.
3: duration of rainfall in minutes
12073: Highest elevation in feet
4: Number of nights in a Motel
9: Number of nights tent camping
14: Number of 32oz gatorades consumed
96: inches of Subway sandwiches consumed
105.8: degrees highest temperature measured on the road, Green River, UT 4:40pm July 23rd
59.3: degrees lowest temperature measured on the road, Glacier National Park, MT 9:00Am
$369.75: amount of money spent on fuel
110: Number of Twitter/facebook status updates

Arches National Park

2009-07-24T12:51:00.001-04:00

After a 200 mile hot dash across the desert I made it to Arches
National Park. My plan was to blow right past it in favor of Monument
Valley 150 miles further down the road. However when the temp hits 106
degrees you tend to re-evaluate. The cost benefit equation becomes
unbalanced.

So I pulled into the Arches National Park visitor center and marveled
at it's rock models, interactive displays, and air conditioning. The
ranger told me the campsites were sold out so I thought I would just
tour the park, take pictures, and camp outside the park on the
Colorado river.

I saw the sites and took tons of pictures of red rock formations. I
even got lost briefly on a hike to an arch.
Late that evening I came to the campground. They appeared to be full
but the "reserved" area had some openings. Sure enough the nice park
rangers let me camp for the night in the reserved area. I didn't have
the $20 cash so I had to use an old check I keep in my wallet. I was
pleasantly surprised when I unfolded the check and saw the image of
Arches National Park on it.

Thankfully the temp dropped steadily as the sun went down. It fell
through the 90's, mid 80's by nightfall, mid 70's by midnight when I
woke up to star gaze.

Arches offered the best star gazing of my trip. Hopefully the pics
come out. You could see the milky way from horizon to horizon. If you
look straight up in such a way that the surrounding countryside is not
in your field of vision you could almost convince yourself that you're
in space
The pics will be posted to flickr.com/michaelb1

Bonneville Salt Flats

2009-07-23T01:43:00.001-04:00

I wish I had a better mount for the camera.

Some Like It Hot

2009-07-22T12:31:00.000-04:00

Who knew eastern Washington and Oregon get so damn hot? The picture
shows me soaking my riding jacket in cold water. It was bone dry again
after about 30 minutes on the road but it kept me cool. Being wet at
70 mph WILL keep you cool even in 100 degree heat.

After a great weekend in Seattle I am heading SE to the Bonneville
Salt Flats.

Time Is Not on My Side

2009-07-16T09:55:00.003-04:00

I made it all the way to Wyoming with some help from the gentleman in this picture. His name is Denny.

He noticed I was having tire trouble and offered to lead to the bike shop. While my bike was being worked on he took me to his shed, about a block away, and showed me some of his projects. Some really beauties here. I think my favorite is the Olds 88. The detail work on the grill and in the steering wheel is amazing. That's real brass in the globe in the grill. After my bike was done Billy even led me to the freeway so I could be on my way. Great guy.

Rushmore

2009-07-15T19:05:00.000-04:00

Full of Stars

2009-07-15T09:28:00.000-04:00

Camping at Badlands National Park was perfect. That wind out the north
that forced to ride on a 20 degree tilt on I90 made for a very
pleasant camping experience.
I rode up to the automated camping teller at about 730pm. It allows
you to pick your campsite by number but doesn't show you a
corresponding map to match the number with a location. I picked 76.
I set up camp, had a cup o noodles and jerky for dinner, and prepared
to do some star gazing. There wasn't a single cloud from horizon to
horizon. I wasn't dissapointed. I took some great photos with my best
low light lens set to the slowest shutter speed. Some photos, which
only capture a small portion if the sky, have hundreds of stars in
them. I havn't seen that many stars since I was at sea 13 years ago.

I have no idea where I am heading today other than west. I know I'm
running out of time if I want to be in Seattle on Friday.

Yellowstone and Glacier NP's are the only must see spots left on my
agenda. There's a lot more sites I want to see but I gotta start
making cuts on the list.
-mb

A Nail Cost $500 in S.Dakota

2009-07-14T14:32:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning and made a fresh cup of coffee. That's been the
highlight of my day so far.
Right when I got on the bike I noticed that it wasn't handling right.
Even though I was only riding 5 mph through the park I could tell
something was wrong.
My rear tire only had 5psi in it. So I went to a car shop a mile away
and filled her up. That got me to Sioux Falls.
From there I searched 'motorcycle repair' on Google Maps and started
calling places. Apparently NOBODY will patch a tire due to liability
reasons.
So here I am at a bike shop trading $500 for two new tires.
I had planned to replace both in Seattle in 4 days but I had not
planned on spending $500.
:(

Hello from Iowa

2009-07-13T18:36:00.000-04:00

Best Pack Yet

2009-07-13T10:43:00.001-04:00

I came up with a new system to give me more room in the saddle.
Basically I crammed mire stuff into the hard cases to make the duffel
thinner.

Last evening I was racing the sun and the campground was the finish
line. The sun won. My concilation prize was a night at the motel 6 in
Davenport IA.

I hope to make Sioux Falls by night fall.

Breakfast

2009-07-12T12:25:00.003-04:00

Louisiana Mark the Gas Line Worker

2009-07-12T12:25:00.001-04:00

Helping Hand

2009-07-12T12:24:00.001-04:00

Mark ( that's his hand) strolled over to chat while I was packing up. We talked a lot of things including bikes( he rides a Harley ). Mark is in town working on a 42" long distance gas line. He thinks it starts in Canada, runs through Wyoming, and ends up in Chicago. It's one of those things most people don't know exists but makes modern life possible. Mike Roe should do a Dirty Jobs episode with Mark.

He helped me pack my gear and even gave me the best invention ever: a net made of bunjie cord. This thing will change my whole trip. You just stack things up and stretch the net over it. Poof! Done.

Marc since I gave you web address hopefully you're reading this. Thanks again and be careful working those gas lines. Maybe we will meet again on the flip side of my trip.

-mb

SoloMoto: Day 1

2009-07-11T21:46:00.000-04:00

By all accounts it was a good first day. As I type this blog entry on
my iPhone I am laying in a tent at a campground in Baltimore Ohio. So
I made about 400 miles today. Not a bad start but I need to do better
tomorrow.

Today was intended to be a shakedown day when I could learn the
easiest and most efficient way to do things to make the trip go much
smoother.
I learned that The Weather Channel app for the iPhone is a critical
piece of software. I noticed some dark clouds on the horizon so I
pulled over and checked out the forcast. The app is location aware so
I didn't have to bother looking up the local zipcode. I could see on
the radar that the rain band would not cross my path. I didn't have
to worry about putting on rain gear.
The phone was also very helpful in finding a campground. You simple
click on google maps, current location, then search for 'campground'.
Little puns drop on the map where the local campgrounds are. By the
way, KOA wanted $40 for a tent site. Seriously.

I met a guy at a valley overlook in Virginia that at one time rode his
bicycle from California to Pennsylvania. THAT'S a road trip. I also
met a woman that named her gps Myrtle.
MB

Working the Shaft

2009-07-07T10:54:00.001-04:00

I'm at the BMW store getting a once over on the bike prior to
embarking on solomoto ( I'm just going to call it that. 'my solo cross
county motorcycle road trip' takes too long).

There are a lot of nice bikes here including a BMW HP2 with a $27k tag
hanging on the handlebar.

Found a GPS Tracker iPhone App

2009-07-06T18:01:00.001-04:00

Instamapper is an iPhone app that tracks your position and puts it on
google maps so that you can share it with the world. I'll use this for
my trip. Check out my embedded map at michaelb1.com.

The good: it's free which is $100 cheaper than the Spot tracker.

The bad: Like all iPhone apps it does not run in the background so
you have to leave it on to allow it to log and upload your coordinates.

I just tested it out today and it works well. Looking forward to using
it on the solomoto trip.

NYTimes: BMW’s Boxer: A Classic Design Is Updated and Refined

2009-07-06T17:51:00.001-04:00

From The New York Times:

HANDLEBARS: BMW's Boxer: A Classic Design Is Updated and Refined
By STUART F. BROWN

The flat-twin engine has been a distinctive BMW attribute for decades,
but a devoted following does not mean the company has lost interest in
innovation....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/automobiles/05BOXER.html

My Route is Set in Pixels

2009-07-06T08:31:00.004-04:00

Can't change it now.

View Cross Country Via Motorcycle in a larger map

I'll travel through 16 states, stopping at a bunch of parks. The highlights:

Yellowstone NP, WY
Grand Teton NP, WY
Glacier NP, MT
Monument Valley NP, UT
Devils Tower, WY
Badlands NP, SD
Mount Rushmore NP
Little Big Horn, MT
Rocky Mountain NP
Mt Ranier NP, WA
Bonneville Salt Flats SP, UT

This is a test...

2009-07-05T12:28:00.004-04:00

...of the mobile blogging system.

I am typing this post on my iPhone. If all goes according to plan this
email will end up on brandnewinformation.com.

I'm attaching a picture to see how it handles that.

Treat Her Like a Lady

2009-07-04T19:23:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I gathered up all my gear, packed it into my bikes luggage system and a giant duffel bag and loaded it onto the bike. My two objectives were to see if I could get everything onto the bike and to see if I could do it safely.
All this stuff....

Packed into this:

The side bags will hold 22lbs each. The top case holds 11lbs. I was able to put most the heavy stuff (read expensive) in the saddle bags. Best to keep the heavy stuff low. This includes the laptop, camera, etc. The giant duffel holds my tent pegs, chair, and some other knick knacks.

The test ride was successful. You gotta treat bikes like a lady. In this case it means not laying her down, mindful of the extra 70+lbs of baggage she is carrying.

6 Days until I head west.
~MB

Michaelb1.com Is Up and Running

2009-07-04T15:58:00.006-04:00

I just finished the site for my cross country motorcycle website, michaelb1.com. Since hopefully my Mom will be visiting the site to see what I'm up to let me take a minute to pretend that she cares how it works and explain it to her in laymans terms.

Soooo...all the data I create on the road will be automagically uploaded to the big internet cloud in the sky via my iPhone and MacBook. What I cannot upload cellularly I will use the nation's libraries and McDonalds free wifi for. The cloud analogy is not mine but I'll stick to it for this post.

So now all this data is swirling around in the cloud. That's where michaelb1.com comes in. If you don't mind we'll keep the cloud analogy going. This internet cloud is made up of everyone's data. Data = rain. Michaelb1.com is my rain collector.

The cloud is actually a bunch of sites scattered across many servers all over the internet.

Flickr.com host my pictures

YouTube and Vimeo have my videos

this site (Blogger) hosts my blog

Loopt shows my geo-position

Google maps is storing my route information

Amazon has all my gear listed with convenient links so you can buy stuff and I will get kicks-backs from Jeff Bezos

and my tweet of course, come from Twitter.

Michaelb1 gathers up all the data from those myriad sites and sticks them on one page for your convenience. So Mom, it's like having your own personal rain cloud above your new garden.

Road Trip Website

2009-07-04T02:12:00.002-04:00

I just set up an aggregator page for the RSS feeds I will be using on my trip. Michaelb1.com has a feed for my road trip flickr set, my Google Maps route, my "Tweets" from the road, as well as the blog posts on this site. There's even a flickr slide show to watch.

I hope it passes the mom test. It has to be simple and informative. Anything less and she doesn't want to see it.

You Should Because You Can

2009-06-24T17:03:00.011-04:00

In a couple of weeks I am departing on a solo motorcycle trip across America and back again. I'm pointing the front wheel west from Washington DC and turning around in Seattle. I'll be camping out in state and national parks all along the way. That's the 'what' of it. The 'why's' are many.

First, I want to see Montana, Idaho, the Dakotas, The Rockies, and as many of the in-between places that I can. Two, my wife bought me a motorcycle last year and from it I learned that I really enjoy riding motorcycles. Three, it'll be an adventure. In my mind you don't need much more reason than that.
I'm pretty excited about the trip. I've been planning it for weeks, getting the gear, upgrading my motorcycle, finding the best roads, etc. Many of the blogs I read in my research, like chitownrider.com, motomaps, and advrider.com, are written by people that are equally enthusiastic about motorcycle road trips.

The reaction of my friends, family, and acquaintances has been a little less encouraging. Here's some of the reactions I got when told people about my trip:

"Your wife is letting you go?"

"Are you having a midlife crisis?"

"Do you have a death wish?"

"why?"

"It's gonna suck"

"You're doing to be sore and uncomfortable"

"You're going to freeze your ass off"

"You're going to sweat your ass off"

"it's going to be really expensive"

"That's very dangerous"

"You'll die alone in the middle of the road 100 miles from nowhere."

As you can see the typically reaction falls somewhere between incredulity and promises of pain, suffering, and death. Some even suggested that the trip would be a total waste of time if I was not completely comfortable the entire time.

WTF! I'm a 36 year old man living in America! Are we not the descendants of explorers and adventurers? Are we supposed to stay home and never do anything ever again? I mean seriously, WTF? It's not like I am driving my motorcycle across Iraq and Afghanistan. It's North America, home of Wal-Mart and the world's largest ball of yarn. I'll see Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, the Great Plains, The Rockies! Is that not worth sweating once in a while, getting minor back pains, or sleeping on rocky ground?

To anyone else thinking about making a similar trip:
It's not a mid-life crisis. It's just your human DNA. Neil Armstrong was 39 when he walked on the moon.
Also, there's no shame in solo travel explore. It doesn't mean there is something wrong with you. A 25 year old Charles Lindbergh didn't have a co-pilot when he flew across the Atlantic. Don't wait, do it now. Also, send me a link to your blog about it.
-MB

First Long Ride

2009-06-06T19:45:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I took my first real ride on my new bike. I took it though Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. The BMW R1200R handles much better than the Honda VTX. It should as it is designed to and the VTX is designed to just cruise.
On the way home from Tom's Run Relay I cruised through gorgeous valleys and many small towns. As a side note I only say one rebel flag hanging in a yard.
I've made a few adjustments to the bike since I got back from this road trip. I ditched the windshield because I like to feel the wind. I'll probably put it back on for my cross country trip. I also installed some handlebar risers. My riding position was just a little bit too forward leaning. The risers fixed that very effectively. I also intalled a GPS mount on the handlebar. I plan to purposely get lost on this trip but I want to be able to find where I'm going sometimes.
Love the new bike!

The Road Ahead

2009-05-27T09:31:00.002-04:00

View Larger Map

BMW R 1200 R

2009-05-23T23:50:00.003-04:00

Today I got my dream bike, a BMW R 1200 R. My Honda VTX 1300 R is a great bike. In the year I owned it I got a sense of what I am looking for in a motorcycle. It's great for cruising and it looks really good plus it is solid as a rock as far as reliability goes. The BMW is sportier, safer, more efficient, lighter and it's just more suited to the kind of riding I do.
I bought it off Craigslist from a lawyer in Maryland. He really took care of it and rigged it for touring even though he mainly used it as a commuter. He added a lot of aftermarket accessories to make his commute easier which will benefit me greatly on my cross country trip.

The additions include.

hard saddle bags (lockable)
trunk bag big enough to hold my helmet.
extra lighting up front and in the rear
blinking brake lights
red LED brake lights around the license plate
highway bars which will be invaluable to me after many long miles on the road.
heated grips
onboard computer
power plug for charging accessories

I can't wait to pick it up on Tuesday and start enjoying it.

I added a ton of pics to my "Coast to Coast on a Motorcycle" set on flicker.

Hardware Upgrade

2009-05-22T10:12:00.005-04:00

I'm thinking of upgrading my ride to a bike that is better suited for touring. This weekend I'm going to take a look at a BMW R 1200 R a guy is selling on Craigslist.

The BMW has several advantages over my Honda many of which will be particulalry handy on a long trip. For one it has anti-lock brakes. Also the brakes are linked so when I slam on the front brakes it also engages the rear brakes. This keeps the bike from nose diving as much and reduces the risk of going over the bars. Another cool feature is the "Telelever" on the front fork. Basically this little piece of engineering de-couples steering and suspension. The forks of most bikes handle both of these tasks doing neither optimally. There's similar hardware in the rear called the "Paralever". It keeps the rear wheel where it should be at all times.

The bike has a lot of creature comforts as well: heated grips, on board computer, tachometer, water proof hard cases. As a matter of fact it comes with a trunk bag in addition to the cases (not pictured). I can't wait to test drive it this evening. Theoretically the upright seating position will be more comfortable on long trips because the riders legs are directly beneath him/her. The rider can use his legs to absorb big bumps. On a cruiser like my Honda the legs are out in front of the rider. This puts your spine directly in line with the suspension such that it absorbs all the bumps and potholes.

What I like most about the BMW R 1200 R is it's versatility. Take off the bags and it makes a great city bike or all-purpose cruising bike. Put the bags on and you have a commuter / touring bike.

Check out www.chitownrider.com if you want to see some great pictures from a guy that takes his R12 all over the country and beyond.

Luggage for the trip

2009-05-12T17:09:00.002-04:00

Luggage for the trip
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

I just created a set on Flickr that is dedicated to pictures of my cross country motorcycle trip this summer. I really need to come up with a name for this trip so I don't have to type out " my cross country motorcycle trip this summer" everytime.
Here's a link to the set.

Gear Load-out

2009-05-10T12:39:00.009-04:00

On the advice of a friend I stopped by REI yesterday to get some gear for my cross country motorcycle trip this July. Motorcycle camping is a lot like back country camping; you need to pack light and small.
REI has a heavily promoted annual sale. Don't expect to save a ton of money over online retailers but you will get the benefit of seeing, touching, feeling before dropping a C note on a sleeping bag.
Case in point, I walked into REI with the goal of purchasing the cheapest best sleeping bag I could find that would allow me to sleep through the night in Glacier National Park in July. After consulting with the shaved headed goatee'd salesman I bought the North Face Cat's Meow sleeping bag for $121. That's a pretty decent price but not cheaper than you can find online.
I'm not complaining though, the price was good and the sales guy helped me out a lot.

As I will be camping most nights of my 3+ week journey I thought I'd go ahead and get everything I need now at REI instead of little by little over the next month and a half. That may have been a mistake, we'll see.

Here's what I got (click links if you care enough to see the brand and model):

Camping pillow

LED lantern

Dorky head lamp LED thing

a couple water resistance ditty bags

Sleeping bag (see above)

sleeping pad

Spare gas can for those long stretches of road

quick dry Sham-Wow type camping towel

Now all that's left is rigging the bike for travel. I need to figure out a way to attach my large bag to the rear fender and saddle bag brackets. Then there is the power plug which I need to charge my cell phone and gps.
I got the North Face duffel from eBags for $130. It's huge so it should hold all the gear I need. I got the white one thinking any extra visibility would help. I plan to add some retro tape to the back and sides as well.

Moment of Zen

2009-04-26T01:54:00.001-04:00

Road Trip Itinerary

2009-04-25T15:24:00.005-04:00

Here is my tentative itinerary for my big cross country 'chautauqua' this summer.
Of course I will be editing this list over the coming weeks as I figure out distances and such. I want to sleep in a National or State Park every night if possible.

sioux falls

Badlands NP

Mt. Rushmore NP

Yellowstone NP

Glacier NP

Mt Ranier NP

Olympic NP

<
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Badlands National Park Made the Cut

2009-04-25T14:46:00.003-04:00

I definitely have to travel through Badlands on my cross country motorcycle trip this summer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livingwilderness/294680370/sizes/o/

Coast Guard Wiki Knowledge Management System

2009-04-23T23:28:00.000-04:00

Moment of Zen

2009-04-10T00:45:00.001-04:00

Moment of Zen
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

I took a few moments away from a picnic with the kids to grab this shot.

Monkey Butt

2009-03-16T17:12:00.003-04:00

I've been advised by epiphysis on VTXcafe forums that AntiMonkeyButt is a good thing to have on long motorcycle trips. I'm sure I will be thanking him this summer.

Flickr is Knowledge

2009-03-14T19:02:00.005-04:00

I've been combing the internet to find information about solo cross country motorcycle trips. It's about four months until I embark on my adventure.

Flickr is a great research tool. I know Google is everybody's first choice in search but a flickr search is better in some ways for accessing people with specific interests without all the commercial sites, blogs, ads, etc. You just get mostly great pictures and with insightful comments and groups of like minded individuals. My search for "Motorcycle road trip" gave me 9375 results and some stunning photos.

Cross country on a motorcycle

2009-03-10T07:01:00.001-04:00

Originally uploaded by chase20

This is what I'm going for on my trip this summer. I came across this photo by chase20 while browsing flickr for motorcycle pictures.

HD Video with Nikon D90

2009-03-02T10:59:00.003-05:00

Snow Birds Eating from Michael Brashier on Vimeo.

As it happened we got a beautiful snow storm the day after I got my new Nikon D90. Here's some video of the birds in my front yard that I shot using the D90's HD video feature.

I love the video. My only complaint is that there is no auto focus in video mode so you're limited to filming things that don't move very much.

geared up bike

2009-02-28T13:59:00.002-05:00

Henery's bike
Originally uploaded by spiderkakes

I've been looking around flickr for some ideas on how to outfit my bike for the big cross country loop this summer.
Flickr user 'Spiderkakes' posted this photo. I think I have my template.

I already have the saddle bags but I need that big trunk bag to carry my tent and extras. Right below the trunk bag you can see a chrome rack on the rear fender. I really like that. It'll serve to hold the trunk but it also looks really good without the trunk in a retro kind of way. It reminds me of the look of the bikes from the 40's and 50's.

Somewhere in Japan

2009-02-25T19:10:00.003-05:00

I just had to post this picture by flickr user tx_corey.

The Road

2009-02-22T18:17:00.005-05:00

View Larger Map

This summer I’m going on a solo motorcycle road trip from one side of America to the other and back again. I’m starting in our nation's capitol and heading due west to San Francisco. From there I turn right to Seattle then hang another right bound for DC.

My guidelines are:

sleep under the stars as much as possible.

stay off the major interstates as much as possible.

take the picture whenever it presents itself.

capture and post as much of this adventure as possible via pictures, twitter, gps position.

Take it all in.

I want to make the most of this trip.

For the 4th bullet I’m going to build a website where I can post pictures and video from the road so everyone can see what I see. I’ll also post my geo-position in real-time or near real time as well as my twitter updates.

Should I get an iPhone and use Google Latitudes for the positioning?

Do I need to schlub a laptop with me?

What’s the best one-man tent for this?

For the last guideline bullet, what are the must-see attactions along my route? By must-see I mean everything from awesome pancakes to national treasures.

Please give me your insight and advice via comments, email, or twitter.

Thanks!

-Mike

***UPDATE***

I learned via IM that I must see Pike's Market and Jimmy Hendix's grave in Seattle. Will do!

Area Woman Votes for First Time in 2 Years.

2008-10-11T15:25:00.001-04:00

Area Woman Votes. from Michael Brashier on Vimeo.

Virginia:
Obama: 1
McCain: 0

iCommandant

2008-09-29T15:13:00.000-04:00

Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen gets it.

2008-07-17T01:14:00.000-04:00

Use of IT Systems and Social Networks

to Save the Asian Elephant

Michael Brashier

BSIT Major, George Mason University

mbrashie@gmu.edu

Introduction

The Asia Elephant has seen its population decline from approximately 200,000 in the year 1900[^ⁱ] to somewhere between 35,000 and 50,000 in 2005[^ⁱⁱ]. The primary contributor to this population decline is of course man. The most damaging man-made threats are encroachment, logging, and poaching. During the 1900’s and early 21^st century the human population of Southeast Asia increased exponentially. Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar (formerly Burma), China, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia all have native Asian elephant populations that have been encroached upon by farmland. Farming reduces the elephant’s grazing land and increases the frequency of contact between humans and elephants. These incidents often result in death for the elephant and occasionally for the humans as well. Every year in Sri Lanka 120 elephants and 60 humans are killed during nighttime elephant raids on plantations [^ⁱⁱⁱ]. Poaching is the other serious man made threat to the Asian elephant. One study estimates that over three hundred tusks were harvested during a 20-year period in a single province in India [^{^iv}].

Perhaps the most efficient destroyer of elephant habitats is logging. Elephants need to use the cool forest canopy for shade during the hot dry season. A particularly cruel irony is that elephants are often more efficient then trucks at carrying the felled trees from deep in the forest [^{^v}]. They’re being used to help destroy their own habitat.

Man has done tremendous but not permanent damage to the Asian elephant population. The 75% population decline we have caused since 1900 is not irreversible. We are using information and communications systems (ICT) to gather data that was cost prohibitive or simply unobtainable just a few years ago. The increased computing power of the past several decades combined with small form factor equipment and wireless communications has driven new innovations in wild animal tracking. With these new tools we have learned a great deal about the elephants and we’ve gathered new insights into how to manage them better.

To speed up the elephant’s recovery I believe we should make more people aware of their value to the planet. With modern ITC systems we can give millions of people a virtual view of the elephants. We should access the data that scientist are collecting, add a few features to it then package it in a form that is easily accessible to anybody that is interested, especially children. The goal is to inspire people to help save the Asian elephant and in the process create more economic incentive to help them.

Wildlife Data Collection

Our ability to track wildlife and thus learn more about its behavior has improved substantially over the last 20 years. In the past scientists used radio telemetry to locate an animal from a plane or truck, then manually record it’s position on a map [^{^vi}]. In contrast modern GPS systems give us an animals position data at much more frequent intervals and also during the night when many animals are most active.

ZebraNet is a mobile sensor system, designed at Princeton University, in which a GPS chip, a 900Mhz radio, and a microcontroller work together to track an animal’s position [^vii]. The cleverest feature of the ZebraNet system is the way it overcomes the challenge of collecting data from a scattered animal population in a habitat with very few nodes at which they can upload their data. The system is encased in a collar that fits around the animal’s neck. When the animals are near each other the ZebraNet forms a peer-to-peer network over which the data of each animal is copied to the collars of all the nearby animals [^viii]. This feature negates the need for scientists to recover the data from every individual animal. They only need to recover from a single animal or wait for the animal to move within range of a data collection node in the animal’s environment. The aggregate data of every animal in the proximity is then uploaded.

Now that we can get more frequent and accurate position data we can develop knowledge about many aspects of the elephants life. When we plug this data into geographic information systems (GIS) we see patterns emerge immediately. For example we can view migration and foraging patterns and we can see how weather patterns affect grazing [^ix]. Now that we know where elephants like to travel we can do everything possible to avoid them.

All of this knowledge can be used to develop conservation plans as well as identify problem areas that need immediate action. This is exactly what scientists are doing in Myanmar where they overlaid elephant tracking data onto field surveys [^x]. They discovered that most of the remaining large populations of Asian elephants are taking refuge in the country’s border areas [xi]. The hills, woods, and border in these regions give them some measure of safety.

As helpful as these new tools are I believe we can multiply their value by sharing the data they provide with more people and in more interesting ways.

The Next Step

It’s not enough to track elephants and use the data to minimize contact with them. We need to create new demand for their existence. Humans are the most dominant species on Earth. If we can find a positive use for elephants then we can increase their chances of survival. To do that we should start with what we already know about them.

For the most part only scientists are using the data being collected by systems like the ZebraNet. The data is shared in a relatively diluted form to the public via museums and niche biology or science based websites. We have the technology to not only share this data with more people but to add more mainstream features to it. We need to add some hardware to animal tracking systems to create a Pachyderm Area Network (PAN). With the PAN in place we then build some web-based software to access it and mash it up.

The Pan

The current generation Apple iPhone weighs less then 5 oz. (www.apple.com/iphone/specs) yet it contains a wireless radio, camera, microphone, microcontroller, and a battery big enough to provide eight hours of talk time. We can add these components and a small solar panel to systems like ZebraNet without adding any significant weight or bulk. The PAN hardware would of course be optimized for the elephant’s rugged environment but still is so lightweight, relative to the elephant’s 6000lb body, that it would be practically unnoticed. These components could give us a window into the elephant’s world beyond just gps data. We could see and hear what the elephant does and in real or almost real time. To further aid scientist, implanted biometric chips could record the elephant’s health statistics. Tusk embedded RFID chips could help combat poaching. The next step is to take the PAN’s video, audio, biometric, gps, and RFID data and share it with the world.

The Mash-up

We can create new demand for the Asia elephant’s existence using the Internet. Like humans, elephants are very social animals. They have very strong social networks that they depend of for food, water, and safety. Humans now have web based social networks that we depend on for information, communication, and sometimes fun. If we combine our digital social networks with the elephants social networks using the PAN data we can create a platform for educating people about the Asian Elephants plight, fundraise, and aid in conservation.

For this proposal I am assuming a large percentage of the approximately 40,000 wild Asian elephants have a PAN installed. The first step is to get the entire PAN video, audio, gps, and biometric data onto the web. Next we build a website that identifies all PAN carrying elephants. The more we personify the elephants the better.

Now that this information is in a user-friendly format and on the Internet it is much easier for schools and museums to use it to teach children about the elephants. Kids might even form a bond with their favorite elephant.

The final step is to add the PAN data into our social networks. Users of iPhones, Facebook, MySpace and all the other networks can sponsor elephants for small fee that funds the elephant’s conservation efforts. When you sponsor an elephant you can embed all the elephants data including video and gps into your social profile and share it with all your friends. Facebook and iPhone apps are already being used for similar human sourced data feeds

The biggest value multiplier comes from combining the human’s social network with the elephant’s social network. For example John Doe sponsors an elephant named Elle. All the other people that sponsor Elle then befriend John. John as an enlightened individual that cares about animals automatically has something in common with all of these people. This association works both ways. Elle has twenty other elephants in her social group according to the GPS data. When somebody sponsors one of Elle’s friends or family members then John is informed and can ‘friend’ them.

John and his friends are free to create their own mash-ups with the PAN data. I imagine there will be numerous apps that compare and analyze every possible aspect of the elephant’s lives from land speed to heart rates. Whenever there is multiple sets of data available people will compare them.

Stop Digging and Start Building

Man created most of the Asian elephants problems by turning their habitat into farmland and paper products. However we are making efforts to help them. Using ITC systems we have learned a great deal about their behavior. This knowledge is the foundation of all of our conservation efforts. I believe we can do more by creating a web-based platform for people to study, share, and learn from the ICT data we are collecting from the field.

REFERENCES

[i] Chadwick, D.H. 1991. Elephants - out of time, out of space. Natl. Geog. May:14

[ii] Focus 2005. Species Spotlight - Asian elephant. Focus (World Wildlife Fund) 27/2:2.

[iii] "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Asian Elephant Conservation Fund." U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Feb 2004. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 12 July 2008 http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/fwsgov/internationalfwsgov/www.international.fws.gov/pdf/AsiaElephantfctsht0440.pdf

[iv] Animal Conservation (1998), 1: 281-291 Cambridge University Press doi:10.1017/S1367943098000262

Published online by Cambridge University Press 30 Mar 2001

[v] Hile, Jennifer. "Burma Save. Logging Keeps Asian Elephants in Business ... for now." Grist. Environmental News and Commentary. 13 Sept. 2005. 9 July 2008 <http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/09/13/hile/>.

[vi] Mills, Cynthia. "Animal Tracking in the Virtual Age." Animal Planet. 12 July 2008. 12 July 2008 <http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/wildkingdom/elephant/science/science.html>.

^[vii]Zhang, P., Sadler, C. M., Lyon, S. A., and Martonosi, M. 2004. Hardware design experiences in ZebraNet. In Proceedings of the 2nd international Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (Baltimore, MD, USA, November 03 - 05, 2004). SenSys '04. ACM, New York, NY, 227-238. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1031495.1031522

^[viii]Juang, P., Oki, H., Wang, Y., Martonosi, M., Peh, L. S., and Rubenstein, D. 2002. Energy-efficient computing for wildlife tracking: design tradeoffs and early experiences with ZebraNet. In Proceedings of the 10th international Conference on Architectural Support For Programming Languages and Operating Systems (San Jose, California, October 05 - 09, 2002). ASPLOS-X. ACM, New York, NY, 96-107. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/605397.605408

[ix] The Smithsonian Institute. "People–Elephant Conflict: Monitoring how Elephants Use Agricultural Crops in Sri Lanka." The National Zoo. Smithsonian Institute. 10 July 2008 http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/ConservationGIS/projects/asian_elephants/conflict.cfm

[x] The Smithsonian Institute. "Conservation GIS" The National Zoo. Smithsonian Institute. 11 July 2008 http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/ConservationGIS/default.cfm

[xi] [x] The Smithsonian Institute. "Conservation GIS" The National Zoo. Smithsonian Institute. 11 July 2008 http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/ConservationGIS/projects/asian_elephants/status.cfm.

Amazing water photo

2008-07-15T17:16:00.001-04:00

harveyfish
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

One of the parents at the swim team meet took this great photo of Harvey.

Senator Hutchison (R) Texas

2008-07-10T13:29:00.001-04:00

Senator Hutchison (R) Texas
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

Senator Cornyn (R) Texas

2008-07-10T13:21:00.001-04:00

Senator Cornyn (R) Texas
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

Attic Foil seems to work

2008-06-30T09:39:00.000-04:00

Since I installed radiant heat barrier foil in my attic my electricity bill has gone down. Compared to the same month last year I have used 14% fewer KWH. In giving the foil credit for the savings I am assuming all other things are equal such as AC, applicances usage etc. I saved $21 dollars the first month I installed the foil. At this rate I will get full ROI in 7 months. Nice.

The temperature in my house

2008-06-07T14:34:00.001-04:00

The temperature in my house
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

Today was the first day since I installed radiant heat barrier foil that was hot enough (97degrees) to collect some good data.
I went around the house with a digital thermometer and collected some temp. readings. As you can see from the colorful diagram I made the foil works.
There is an 11 degree temperature diiferential on either side of the foil. I got the foil from Atticfoil.com for around $135/thousand sq ft.
This is about half the price of what Home Depot and Lowes charge for this. By my calculations it will pay for itself by the end of summer.

Obama FTP!

2008-06-05T13:47:00.001-04:00

Obama FTP!
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

Moving on....

Picture in Picture

2008-05-08T23:17:00.001-04:00

Picture in Picture
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

This is the picture that pissed off tens of thousands of people in the DC area.

The Jones Wedding

2008-05-05T14:28:00.001-04:00

Jones Wedding
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

Just got back from Tampa where I was a groomsman in Mike Jones wedding. It was an awesome wedding. All the friends and family are really cool people. Everyone had a great time.
I've been replaying the whole event in my mind to try to remember if I embarrassed myself at anytime during the reception. I guess that's to be expected with an open bar.
The best mans toast was awesome.

Formal sneaker

2008-05-04T13:48:00.001-04:00

Formal sneaker
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

This weekend I learned that a sneaker exists that is designed to be worn with formal attire. I also learned that it can be purchased or rented.
That is brand new information to me.

BagHacker slides

2008-04-25T13:34:00.000-04:00

These are the slides I presented to a group of MBA students at George Mason U. the other night.
My hope is that their report on my business idea will include a lot of valuable data about how to make this thing take off.
I've done a lot research myself over the past 3 months but I hope these MBA's can give me some insight into the market space I'm in as well as effective strategies and logistics stuff.

Spring has sprung!

2008-04-19T17:58:00.001-04:00

Violet
Originally uploaded by michaelb1

At moments like this it is appropriate that we named Violet after a flower.

BagHacker Survey

2008-04-01T12:42:00.001-04:00

I'm doing a little market research for my Entrepreneur class. I've come up with a product idea that I think is pretty cool but I don't know if anybody else would ever buy one. I've posted it to digg. We'll see if it gets any traction.

It works like this:

Kid A (maybe 10 years old) collects the plastic bags that mom brings home from the grocery store.
Kid A puts a bag into the Baghacker, turns on BagHacker.
Kid A waits a few minutes and then takes out a fully formed, Lego like brick that he/she can then use to build stuff with.

I've done some testing in my own oven using bread pans and cookie molds. The plastic will indeed compact and harden under heat and pressure. I just need to find out if anybody would ever want to buy a product that produces toys using only the modern bane of the environment.

Any input I can crowd-source would be extremely valuable. Good, bad, or indifferent I don't care.

Oh, one last thing. If anybody reading this knows how to bring a product to market feel free to contact me. I've already submitted a project to guru.com and I've received some promising correspondence. Over the next several weeks my Entrepreneur Studies Prof. is bringing in some finance guys to talk about funding.

Right now I'm trying to cost it out and find out how much each piece will cost me so that I can start figuring out the manufacturing problem.

2008-03-24T15:58:00.001-04:00

Let’s See How Funny This Is in 25 Years
Originally uploaded by gruber

I'm gettting 4 of these. One for each of my kids and another for my sister.
(via Grubers flickr pool)

Well well well

2008-02-03T13:55:00.000-05:00

I finally started a blog that is not .Mac.

When I woke up this SuperBowl morning I didn't plan on starting a new blog.

We'll see how this goes.

Would you buy a BagHacker?
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