NorthStarNerd.Org

This Inflation Topps The Cake!

On the way home I stopped at the grocery story. At the checkout counter I noticed a display for Topps Baseball Cards, 20 cards and a stick of gum on sale for $2.99. What a deal! Back in 1963, when I was seven years old, a pack of five baseball cards and that same stick of gum only cost 5 cents. Why do I remember this fact? My allowance was 10 cents per week, and I was allowed to buy one, and only one, pack of baseball cards per week.  The rest was supposed to go in my piggy bank! Thus, forty-five years of inflation has yielded ... a 1500% inflation by the baseball card index!

• Cost per card in 1963: 1 cent per card
• Cost per card in 2008: 15 cents per card

(click to expand image to full size)

le Tour de Carl! (oops ... France)

Some of you know that I'm reliving my past via my middle son's backpacking trip through Europe. If you have any interest in bicycle racing you may enjoy Carl's Tour de France posting. He even has a very neat video which he personally took. My own travels through Paris via Eurail 32 years ago were not quite so exciting, but did include:

• Being all excited that I could serve as the "French speaking" guide for my fellow Dartmouth buddies, and upon having a long conversation in French with a "local" in order to get dinner recommendations ... discovering ultimately he was Harvard student! Arrgh! You can imagine what sort of grief I received from my friends. Perhaps this is why I retreated back to Minnesota!
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• Oh well ... here is Tour de Carl

 

Learning GPS (Global Positioning Systems)

Everyone talks about GPS, but how many people understand it? A leading manufacturer of GPS systems, Garmin, has published a free manual / eBook which explains basic concepts (download now). If you wish to learn even more about GPS follow this link to Garmin. The company has a nice educational portal which has additional content.

I will add this information to my Engineering Learning Wiki (included the manuals section).

The Periodic Table a la YouTube

I wish the mad scientist of Nottingham has been around when I was a kid. Instead, I watched the sheriff ... this would have made Chemistry much more fun! My thanks to Brent Schlenker which is how I learned about "this" periodic table! In the mean time check out your favorite element! In fact, the site even has a social network quality ... most watched, etc. You'll even find a link in the bottom right corner for those or you whose firewall blocks YouTube.

• University of Nottingham Periodic Table of Videos (check out Helium!)

This will definitely get added to my Engineering Learning Wiki, both the Chemistry and Engineering for Children sections.

Not Your Mother's Librarian!

Ellyssa Kroski is not your mother's librarian! In her blog's bio she notes "she also works as an information consultant providing services in web strategy, information architecture, social marketing, ...." If you want to read (hopefully subscribe via RSS) to a cool blog which will keep you in tune with news and resources about the Web 2.0 revolution, then link! to iLibrarian! Who needs the Dark Knight?