Tomorrow one of the most prolific and beloved spacecraft missions will come to an end when the Cassini spacecraft makes its final plunge into Saturn. After nearly 20 years in space and 13 years orbiting Saturn, the Cassini mission is close to running out of fuel. To prevent the craft from contaminating one of Saturn’s moons – which its mission revealed may harbor the ingredients for life – mission operators are instead sending it on a fatal dive into the gas giant.
Cassini also holds a special place in my heart. It launched while I was in middle school, reached Jupiter while I was in college, and collected data throughout my postgraduate research career. It was an inspiration for my undergraduate spacecraft mission design projects, and it provided fun and exciting fluid dynamical discoveries throughout my time writing FYFD. It’s my favorite mission (sorry, Mars rovers, New Horizons, Dawn, and Juno!) and likely to remain so for years to come.
So thank you, Cassini, and many thanks to all the scientists, engineers, and operators who’ve worked on the mission during the decades from its conception to completion. You did a hell of a job. Godspeed, Cassini! (Photo credits: NASA/JPL)
P.S. – Tonight I’ll be helping kick off the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. You can tune into the live webcast here. The ceremony officially starts at 6 PM Eastern time, but I recommend tuning in early, especially if you want to catch my full spiel. – Nicole
I’m going to go around and phoneshoot assorted things around here fast, because we’re shortstaffed and there’s not a lot of time. I may throw in some black-and-white for fun. I don’t know where this is going.
pictures! some phonetos of photos, other things
HAMMERS! OAK on left, ELM on right. I used Elmer to pound out a bump in the car’s trunklid joint, so now it opens smoothly.
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The main Headquarters for Charlie Kelly and Gary Fisher when they were messing around with pre-mountain bikes. It’s in … either San Anselmo or Fairfax. Kind of on the border. It’s #21, I forget the road. The original house is gone, and this mansion’s in it’s place.
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For MUSA shirts coming up on November. I wanted the pink, but it was quit. So we’ll go with the normal blue (which we were going to get all along) and that green above it–which may be a little too Springy for some, but come on, let’s have some fun, OK? Super duper Japanese cotton poplin, each color a non-intimate blend of two. Really neat. Please consider…
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I showed this before in the blag, but I just found it again on my phone. Owner Eileen had her Cheviot professionally parked at an event, and when she handed in her ticket for her bike, they brang it out all deep-dinged, so I filed the dent epoxyputty, put two NITTO stainless steel shims over it, then wrapped and twined and covered it with clear bathtube caulking. Looks better than new!
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This 1890s light ins on an 1890s bike in the Marin Mountain Bike Museum in Fairfax. If you come to SF area for biz or vacation, you should go. Open Th thru Sun everyday. Joe Breeze, his wife Connie, and Charlie Kelley are usually there.
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Work in progress, please don’t ask.
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Boxes of lugs, fork crowns, dropouts. Bad picture, sorry.
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Our clock in the showroom. It’s a real record, too. Both sides.
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My favorite newspaper photo of all time. It’s been up here before, but I never get tired of it. The Israeli riot cops arrested this Jewish guy because he was occupying the West Bank…and as he was being hauled away on what seems to be some kind of cot or cart, he dropped his glasses, and another of the Iraeli cops noticed and is running with them for the handoff. From Aug 8, 2007 NYT.
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This has been here before, too, but I assume that we lose all of our longtime followers and customers for some offensive remark I make about carbon fiber, so may you’re new here and haven’t seen this one. Let me explain: In the old film-only days, this would sometimes happen. The last photo on the roll would get printed with part of the film can on the negative. I don’t know how that happened, but I’ve seen it twenty times at least. This was taken off the television during the 1984 Olympics, during track racing. I shot a bunch of photos, then the camera went to the bleachers, and I clicked off this one.
It’s been 24 x 35″ mounted on foam board and in or near my work area since about 1988. (It took a few years before I was comfortable enough at Bridgestone to put it up.)
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We don’t sell this pump. Spencer’s afraid, as am I, that you’dall buy it from Amazon after hearing about it here. It’s the SKS AIRCON. High volume for fat tires. If you ride tires 38mm+, get one.
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The maker of the CLEMS made me a stainless one (not the fork). I didn’t ask…I’m not into stainless…I like paint, the way it ages, scratches, chips, gets touched up..the colors, all of it. But it was still nice to get this frame. We put on a normal CLEM fork, a funky cheap modern crank, and parts we had laying around. It’s a loaner-outer or tester or something.
..and it’s totally lugless (boo!), but nicely made. All the Tig-welds on CLEM are this way, this perfect. Is BETTER even possible? Nope.
But there is or was a problem threading stainless BB shells, so it has this ultrawide threadless shell. I wouldn’t do a production model this way, but it’s basically fine,
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This is a phonetograph of one of my favorite photographs. I bought it from a street vendor in NY, I don’t know the story, but the kid is drinking water from the fire hose. Note at least three bikes in there.
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I love this photo! Shot with a 25mm lens and a flash at night maybe 12 years ago on an S240. THat’s John–now of Rivelo– and Andrew, now a mechanical designer guy in Portland. It was one hot night, about 88 degrees, and we were in no mood for frivolity. Up about 2300 feet on Mt. Diablo.
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THis is a phonetograph of a photograph of riders in Central Park as reflected in a window of the Museum of Modern Art. Photographer is a guy named Bob Sacha,
Suave finance dude with an offensive question in a fish can.
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Pal Jeff gave me this about 20 years ago. In the early T de Frances, they couldn’t use derailers even if they were available, and this guy’s just changing his gears by flip-flopping the wheel to get at the cog on the other side. You can see the zero derailer.
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Sorry nothing here to sink your teeth into or raise hackles… but the Israeli/Jewish photo has that potential, doesn’t it? I just like the helping part.
OK!
G
Everyone should follow @rivbike for their posts like this that will brighten your day. Knowing that they exist makes me think that the world will be okay after all.
And buy a world’s most beautiful bike from them the moment you can afford it.
Or build your own and buy parts from them if you cannot (like me).
“Of the 147 predictions that Kurzweil has made since the 1990’s, fully 115 of them have turned out to be correct, and another 12 have turned out to be “essentially correct” (off by a year or two), giving his predictions a stunning 86% accuracy rate.“
I’m very proud to be bringing Ray back to spend the day with us at Abundance 360 this year. And whether you join me live at the Summit, or via the livecast through A360 Digital, I can guarantee you amazing insights.
Ray will be participating in two ways…
First, he will join me in a Convergence Catalyzer Session that will look at the intersections between Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), Nanotechnology and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). How will these three fields will intersect and converge to completely re-organize everything? How will they touch and/or disrupt various industries during the next 10 – 20 years?
Second, Ray will join me in a fireside chat (as in previous years) on predicting the future. My goal is to deliver members unfair advantages and insights on new business models and opportunities.
As you may already know, Ray is a brilliant technologist, futurist, and director of engineering at Google (focused on artificial intelligence and language processing). I’m also very proud that he is my Co-Founder and the Chancellor of Singularity University.
Here’s a few of Ray’s predictions we discussed two years ago at Abundance 360, and the conversation we’ll continue during our dialogue this coming January 21 – 23:
Late 2010’s: Glasses will beam images directly onto the retina. 10 terabytes of computing power (roughly the same as the brain) will cost about $1,000.
2020’s: Most diseases will go away as nanobots become smarter than current medical technology. Normal human eating can be replaced by nanosystems. The Turing test begins to be passable. Self-driving cars begin to take over the roads, and people won’t be allowed to drive on highways
2030’s: Virtual reality will begin to feel 100% real. By the end of the decade, we will be able to upload our mind/consciousness.
2040’s: Non-biological intelligence will be a billion times more capable than biological intelligence (aka us). Through nanotech foglets, we’ll be able to make food out of thin air and create any object in physical world at a whim.
2045: We will multiply our intelligence a billionfold by linking wirelessly from our neocortex to synthetic neocortex in the cloud.
As you’ve heard me say, the only constant is change, and the rate of change is increasing.
Most people have no idea how quickly things are moving. I see my role as the curator of Abundance 360 and Exec. Chairman of Singularity University as providing an “over-the-horizon radar” for our members and our executives.
I’m looking forward to seeing what breakthroughs and Moonshots you create after hearing Ray and the other tech rockstars we’ve assembled (including Astro Teller, head of X; Sebastian Thrun, founder, Udacity; and top leaders in Blockchain, Longevity, Energy and much more).
We are truly living during the most exciting time ever to be alive.
Interested in Joining Me? (Two options)
1. A360 Executive Mastermind: This is the sort of conversation I explore at my Executive Mastermind group called Abundance 360. The program is highly selective, for 360 abundance and exponentially minded CEOs (running $10M to $10B companies). If you’d like to be considered, apply here.
Share this with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.
2. A360 Digital Mastermind: I’ve also created a Digital/Online community of bold, abundance-minded entrepreneurs called Abundance 360 Digital (A360D).
A360D is my ‘onramp’ for exponential entrepreneurs – those who want to get involved and play at a higher level. Click Here to Learn More.
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