Vancouver Canucks choke?

So it seems like recently that whenever the Calgary Flames lose a game, the Canucks can’t seem to capitalize and make it a closer race for the division title. At this rate we could potentially face the lethal Blackhawks which have an awesome home record. Maybe thats thinking ahead of schedule, I could even see Columbus moving up to 5th place and we’ll be in a rival battle with the Flames. That first round match-up would be one for the century. Guess we’ll have to wait 8 more games to see where we end up! Go Canucks Go!

Nikola Tesla’s Facebook

Nathaniel Fung | D101 | Tech114 | Drew Paulin

Facebook Profile —> Nikola Tesla

References:

Nikola Tesla (2009). Wikipedia. Retrieved March 10, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

Tesla Society, (n.d.). Tesla Memorial Society of New York. Retrieved March 10, 2009, from http://www.teslasociety.com/famousfriends.htm

Pro AV Staff, (July 1, 2006). Fascinating facts about nikola tesla. Retrieved march 10, 2009, from http://www.proavmagazine.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=1757&articleID=599330

Pictures:

Tesla : http://www.teslamap.com/images/guide/nikolatesla.jpg

Twain: http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/artman2/uploads/1/mark-twain.jpg

Johnson: http://www.keats-shelley-house.org/img/fundador.jpg

Westinghouse: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/George_Westinghouse.jpg

Explanation: For the 4th Studio Lab, I have chosen to create a facebook profile on Nikola Tesla. In 1894, he invented wireless communications which the active technologies today include the radio, cellphone and much more. Basically I selected him for my fictional facebook profile because I was uncertain if the name was a male or female. So upon further research, I found out he had a long and interesting life and decided to choose him.

The friends I have chosen are:
Mark Twain: I chose him because they would spend time in Tesla’s Lab (as stated in wikipedia)
Thomas Edison: He helped/worked in the Edison Machine Works Institution
Robert Johnson: Listed as good friends with Tesla
Francis Marion Crawford, Stanford White: They had a good-humored relationship with Tesla

The Technological Development of Basketball Through History

The basketball, as an equipment and sport, is commonly played in today’s society. Most of the modern basketballs are inexpensive and easy to handle. The basketball had been greatly developed and changed throughout history. Looking into each period of time and seeing how the basketball has changed will determine the process of its development.

The basketball as sport we know today was created in 1891 by James Naismith (Wikipedia, 2009). Naismith first intentions were to bring outdoor games inside, such as soccer and football, but they turned out to be too violent for indoors. He was then able to create an indoor basketball game using what was back then a soccer ball.

In the Pre-Industrial Revolution era, the elasticized ball was the most common type of “ball” used for sports because it was the first ball created. The first ball was created with animal skin, meaning the bounce in the ball depended on the shape of the animal’s bladder (Rigsby, 2006). At the time, the pig bladders were being blown up which caused fatalities from lung disease (Rigsby, 2006). Since then, basketballs were made of more than just a pig’s bladder; mainly of cow bladder, animal skin, and even human skull. The predominant usage of the ball was for soccer and the sport; “tsu chu.”. (Rigsby, 2006). One large impact that the soccer balls had was the farm production industry. Special types of pigs were bred for their bladder shapes throughout South America (Rigsby, 2006)

In the Industrial Revolution era, the pig’s bladder had been replaced with vulcanized rubber which led to great popularity, because the shape of the ball began to look circular and not dependant on pig bladder. The invention of the vulcanized rubber was due to the fatalities of the workers that had lung disease from blowing up pig bladders. This creation of rubber allowed the ball to bounce at faster and higher speeds. Toward the 1840s, H.J Lindon developed a rubber ball that was inflatable which also helped prevent casualties amongst the workers. The balls with the rubber bladders ensured that the ball remained hard and oval. This increased labour involved in inflating the balls due to the fact there was no risk of lung disease from the rubber. As a result, the ball was being used many different sports, such as soccer and rugby (Rigsby, 2006). Many changes in the Industrial Revolution era reshaped the way basketballs are made and used. The appearance of mass production influenced the ball to be made in groups and have certain restriction on the size. In addition, the creation of soccer leagues allowed soccer balls to be used in all the games. In general, the development of the ball in this era did have impact on society because of the creation of stable equipment that was used. The reason was that the ball at this stage didn’t require workers to inhale in pig bladders; which was inconvenient and a risk to life.

In the Post-Industrial Revolution era, the ball had been developed significantly. Many of the creations and the developments of the ball occurred during this era. In 1902, the company Rawlings had created the first basketball which contains ten panels (Wikipedia, 2009). This addition of an actual basketball abolished the need to play the game with a soccer ball. The manufacture of basketball in the Post-Industrial era saw panels of leather being stitched together with rubber bladder inside (Wikipedia., 2008). One of the most important functions of the basketball was the grip on the outside that allows players to have a firm hold. The use of leather-grip balls allows the player to have smooth and firm hold. This development of the basketball in the early 20th century had a great impact on the way the game was played. The ball was able to produce better stats for players as it became easier to release. Since the basketball became more popular and useful, the distribution of basketballs had been extensive to the major point where everyone in the society especially in United States could possessed the ball (More than 300million in US alone). The impact made on the society was the change in the way people played sports, and the difference it had from using animal skin and leather for a firm hold.

Throughout the different eras, the ball evolved from a pig’s bladder to leather stitched equipment. The development allows us to visualize the effects technology has even on the material of a ball. With the development of the ball over the different eras, the basketball could well have a different type of material in the future.

References:

Laughhead Jr. George (2004).  Historic Figures: James Naismith. Retrieved March 15, 2009, from the Kansas Heritage website: http://www.kansasheritage.org/people/naismith.html

Rigsby, Bruce (2006). The History of the Soccer Ball. Retrieved March 15, 2009, from the Soccer Ball World website:  http://www.soccerballworld.com/History.htm#Balls%20in%201800%27s

Wikipedia (March 15, 2009).  Wikipedia: Basketball. Retrieved March 14, 2009, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Basketball_(ball)

Studio Lab #3 – Part 2

By creating a wiki, groups of people are able to produce more in depth, more varied, and generally more cultured information on a subject, faster than a single person would be able to do the same thing. Also,  working with a group of people, we are able to see what others have researched and use their ideas off of it in order to better our own research. Along with the benefits of making wikis, there also comes some limitations as well. With multiple people collaborating on a single work, there are always going to be issues of different formats, inconsistency of quality of research, and different writing styles, which lead to problems in the overall flow of the document. Overall the experiment worked very well. With the amount of people we had working on the single subject of crowdsourcing, we were able to bring together an abundance of quality information and display it in a neat and clear format. The only thing that was difficult with this experiment was the final polishing up of the information. The info we collected flows decently well in our wiki, however if one person were to do the entire thing, or if there was less of a time constraint, the final product would have flowed more smoothly. As mentioned above, the outcome of this project would have been different if a single person had done it. If I were to research the same topic and produce a wiki by myself, (in which case, would it really be a wiki?) it would differ a lot in regards to style and breadth of the subject. I would have most likely used the same format as our group used, in which we had subcategories to break down the topic of crowdsourcing, and I would have had roughly the same depth of information as well. However the style would have differed because it would have been all my style of writing, instead of six people’s, and the breadth would have certainly been far less extensive because of the time constraint factor and because of the fact that only one person is doing the research. While working in the same room as the other members in our group, we were better able to communicate to each other about what information each person was to look up and post on the wiki. Overall the only change that occurred was that we could talk to each other right away and face to face instead of communicating through other means, which made working on the post easier. On the whole, creating the wiki has taught me a lot about crowdsourcing, and the benefits of using a wiki as a means of collecting and displaying information.

GSN HSP Season Five!

Every year, professional poker players come together to play on the biggest televised cash game in the world. High Stakes Poker in Las Vegas. Season Five took quite a bit of time to be broadcasted because there was a lack of sponsers due to the economic downfall in Vegas.

The first episode was released last night and heres a link for people that haven’t seen it already. ENJOY!

http://www.pokertube.com/Movies.aspx?movie=9283&KeyID=1&title=High_Stakes_Poker_S05_Ep1_1_4