Engineering news and resources

MotionGenesis: F=ma Software, textbooks, training, consulting.
Wayback machine (archives websites)    Math and mechanics history    Brief history of negative numbers (in vogue since 1500 A.D.)
Etymology (e.g., of "robot")    Contranyms (weird English)    Controversies with Newton F = ma   
Job talk for engineers    Life without Engineers    Dynamic celt (rattleback)   
Physics demos - Harvey Mudd    Physics demos - Brown    MIT Open Courseware   

Quirky news articles

  • (html) Humans lose concrete recipe for 1300 years!
  • (pdf) Humans lose critical heat-shielding recipe for re-entry to Earth!
  • (html) NASA looks for heat shields in Smithsonian museum
    "...according to the Orion program executive the Orion project originally intended to use the heat shield from the Apollo program as a fallback technology for the Orion thermal protection system, but was unable to recreate the Apollo material."
  • (link)   (pdf) NASA has trouble with Newton's Law -- as contrasted with better analysis at (link)
  • (html) Chernobyl nuclear experiment (no accident?)

Software/books

  MotionGenesis (formerly Autolev)   Interactive Physics   Working Model   Audio/Image/Video/Document converter
  SimWise (formerly MSC.visualNastran 4D)   OpenSim (biomechanics software)   Kane's books (Free download from Cornell library)
  Notepad++ (Windows text editor -- free)   TextWrangler (Macintosh text editor -- free)   Convex Optimization (Free?)   Kinematic synthesis (News)

Mostly public domain pictures and images

  Piqsels.com   Unsplash.com   Pexels.com   PublicDomainPictures.net   PublicDomainImage.com
  Pd4Pic (public domain)   PD Photo (Public Domain)   PublicPhoto.org   Flickr image search  
  WikiMedia Commons   WikiMedia Public Domain (list)   WikiMedia Public Domain (list)   Dreamstime (public domain)
  Pixabay -- use CC0 (public domain)   Unsplash   PDPics   1MillionFreePictures  
  PhotoRack.net   99Designs.com   New old stock   Pickup image
  SplitShire   Little visuals   Yahoo image search   Google image search
  US Government images   US Dept. of Transportation (byways.org)   Photographic libraries (Public Domain)   British library
  NASA: Multimedia images   NASA: JPL images   NASA: Great Images   NOAA.gov Photolib   B
  Library of congress   USGS Photos   USDA/Photos   USDA Photo Gallery Natural resources
  USGS Photos   NPS photo archive   US Fish and Wildlife   US National Institute of Health (NIH)
  US CIA - The world factbook   US Center for Disease Control   Simulation ToolKit (SimTK) graphics   US. National Institute of Health (NIH)
  US Marine Images   US Army Images   US Coast Guard Images   US Dept. Of Defense Media
  US Navy Images   B   US Navy History Images   US Airforce images   US Dept. of Defense Media

  WPClipart.com   PD clip art (Public domain)   Open clip art (Public domain)   Nicu's Clipart/cartoons (on OpenClipart)
  ClipArtToday.com   Christians Unite Clipart   Tango icons   $1 DreamsTime   $3 ShutterStock
  Tango icons   $1 DreamsTime   $3 ShutterStock
  Links to more resources

Music and Flash Mob Choirs

  Pandora internet radio   Grooveshark internet radio   Ode to Joy   Uptown funk dance
  Hallelujah flash mob at food court   Sound of Music at Antwerp Belgium train station   Welcome Home (Heathrow airport)   Piano stairs in Stockholm
  TMobile dance (London Train station)   Tmobile flash mob acapella sounds like instruments   6-year old pianist, Rockford IL (from the heart)   Fantastic Instrument
  Free music for videos      

Just for fun

  Calvin & Hobbes   Ph.D. comics   xkcd comics  
  Science is amazing and no one is happy   Abbott and Costello's "creative math"   How you speak = where you are from   Desiderata
  Jung Briggs-Meyer human personality test   How to do everything faster   Don't honk at old people   Smarter than 8th grader?

Meaningful

  Graduate speech: Water      

Multitasking and academics

  Stanford multitasking study: "They're suckers for irrelevancy. Everything distracts them."   Multitasking: Perform worse, feel better.
  Multitasking and brain research (NPR)   Let kids (and the rest of us) be human
  MIT Technology Review: Cell phone equates to drunk driving   Multitasking: Second-hand smoke for learning.
  Facebook + texting + schoolwork = Negative GPA   Multitasking research and teaching: Adjunct faculty
  Relevant teaching? Volcanos, cars, and STEM   Standardized testing pros/cons
  Mis-education in America?   Modern family & stress.   The sorrows of young Palo Altans.   Data
  College ranking by value   B

In the news: College education costs

  Cost of college.   College debt and home mortgages.
  MIT Technology Review: Cell phone equates to drunk driving   Multitasking: Second-hand smoke for learning.
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Riddles for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)

  Monty-Hall (Prize behind 3-doors)   Deadly-choice logic   Poisoned wine and more   More riddles
  Farmer, wolf, goat, cabbage, row-boat   100 prisoners with red & blue hats   4 people across bride in 14 minutes   13 cards face-up
  Cannibal & scientists riddle   Euler: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ... =   -112 ?  

Statics, dynamics, vibrations, and controls demos

  Video demos     Physical demos


Overcoming certainty: Which way will it roll?
Wordplay: The crossword Blog of the New York Times.
Click here for the solution to this dynamics puzzle (.pdf)
MotionGenesis - Roll that spool: Overcoming certainty