CNC Panel Joinery Notebook I’ve been collecting clever ways of slotting flat stock together since I first read Nomadic Furniture back in 1999, well before the advent of the accessible hobby-class CNC tools that today make manufacturing parts like these pretty easy. Now, the world is full of people designing models, project enclosures, sculpture, furniture, and all kinds of other cool stuff to be assembled from parts made on laser cutters and CNC routers. I keep expecting a definitive book or website to emerge that covers the “bag of tricks” in an organized way, but so far, I haven’t found it. Maybe this article can serve as a jumping-off point. In any case, I think it’s time to share my notebook of CNC panel joinery. In presenting this material, I want to first acknowledge my respect for the world’s established and ancient traditions of joinery. I may abuse some terms, without meaning to, and I am glad to be corrected by those who are in the know about traditional joinery. Laser vs. Biasing Cross (“X”) Joints
How traffic actually works Every so often this article makes the rounds and it annoys me. That isn’t how traffic works and the proposed solutions won’t fix anything. Maybe you can eliminate the annoying stop-and-go, but no one gets home any faster. The facts Here’s how traffic works. The important fact: there is a limit to the number of cars that can pass by a given point on the highway in a given amount of time, and that limit is one car every 2 seconds, per lane. Merging Say there are some cars that are trying to merge into your lane a mile or so in front of you. Leaving space in front of your car for people who are trying to merge won’t solve anything. If anyone tries to tell you that if only drivers left space in front of them and took turns merging, traffic would flow smoothly, and it’s only because of jerks that there are any traffic jams at all, just ask them what’s going to happen at the next merge. Bottlenecks Catastrophe At low occupancy (cars per mile), drivers can go as fast as they’d like. Some code Bye!
Education Theory/Constructivism and Social Constructivism - UCD - CTAG "Constructivism is the philosophical and scientific position that knowledge arises through a process of active construction."(Mascolol & Fischer, 2005) "As long as there were people asking each other questions, we have had constructivist classrooms. Constructivism, the study of learning, is about how we all make sense of our world, and that really hasn’t changed."(Brooks, 1999) Background Constructivism and Social Constructivism are two similar learning theories which share a large number of underlying assumptions, and an interpretive epistemological position. Underlying Assumptions Jonassen (1994) proposed that there are eight characteristics that underline the constructivist learning environments and are applicable to both perspectives: Constructivist learning environments provide multiple representations of reality. Epistemology The default epistemology in education is an empirical/reductionist approach to teaching and learning. Main Theorists Dewey Piaget Bruner Vygotsky According to Vygotsky:
Tesla showcases West Coast charging network Owners of the Tesla Motors electric Model S can now drive from San Diego to Vancouver, British Columbia, without ever paying for juice. Tesla has installed enough high-speed Supercharger stations to complete a drive up the West Coast, the Palo Alto company reported this week. Tesla has spaced the stations close enough to each other that Model S drivers won't need to recharge anywhere else. To demonstrate how well the system works, the company launched two Model S sedans from San Diego Wednesday morning to drive north on Interstate 5. Model S drivers can use the stations for free, a welcome perk considering they've already shelled out $69,900 to $94,900 for the car. In addition, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Wednesday that the company's East Coast network of Superchargers should be complete in "a few months." The company could use a little good news.