Skateboarding Obstacle Course

Some of you might remember the craziness of MxC—the Japanese variety show where contestants try to complete an absurd obstacle course:

Just came across Kasso (via Kottke) a skateboarding version of the genre. Another perfect mix of hilarious and impressive.

Leo Ham
Casio Desk Clock

I’ve owned a Casio A168WA-1 and worn it as a daily for over 13 years. So found it really cool that Casio launched a similarly styled desk clock! Sadly, it is only available in Japan

One cool thing is that the desk clock has the ability to automatically synchronize to the Japan Standard Time through a radio signal.

I never realized that the US also has a time signal—operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Fort Collins, CO. By coincidence, one of the antennae that was damaged in April 2024 due to high winds was repaired yesterday!

Leo Ham
Ski Ballet + Olympics

Breakdancing is not the only random sport that has made it to an Olympic stage. Check out ski ballet which was a demonstration sport in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics:

Definitely gives me the same vibes as freestyle canoeing. Your day will definitely get better after watching this magnificent performance by Marc Ornstein:

RandomLeo Hamsports
Catchers and Strike Calls

Sure, Jomboy videos are really funny—but they can also be incredibly insightful.

Love this breakdown on how a catcher frames (or doesn’t frame) a pitch and where they position themselves can impact how umpires perceive strikes vs. balls.

RandomLeo Hambaseball, sports
Dishwashers vs. Hand Washing

Growing up in a Korean household, our dishwasher was always used as a glorified drying rack. Recently, when my mom visited us about a year ago, she insisted in hand washing the dishes because she felt it guaranteed that the dishes would be cleaner.

This video from MinuteFood not only shows what happens inside a dishwasher but also presents findings that dishwashers get dishes much cleaner than hand washing! Moreover, they use significantly less water!

Go ahead and use your dishwasher as a dish washer!

RandomLeo Hamculture
All Star by Smash Mouth played on the Nintendo 3DS

YouTube is best when it treads the line between amazement, humor, and ridiculousness. Here’s a pretty funny rendition of All Star by Smash Mouth played on instruments in Zelda: Majora’s Mask (Nintendo 3DS):

The pig oinks are definitely the best part of the whole thing.


If you are looking for more amazing, funny and ridiculous "All Star” content, here’s a cover played exclusively with melons:

MusicLeo Hamcreativity
NASA's Mars Mission Simulation

I had no idea this was happening, but earlier this week the first mission of NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) concluded, where four crew members lived in isolation for over a year in a habitat simulating Mars! Specifically:

This high-fidelity simulation involved the crew carrying out different types of mission objectives, including simulated “marswalks,” robotic operations, habitat maintenance, exercise, and crop growth. The crew also faced intentional environmental stressors in their habitat such as resource limitations, isolation, and confinement.

CHAPEA crew entering the habitat, where they lived in isolation for 378 days (via NASA).

According to Jalopnik: “Even communications between the CHAPEA and mission control were artificially delayed by 22 minutes to replicate the distance it would have to travel between parties on Mars and Earth.”

Their 1,700 square foot base was a 3D printed structure using “Martian clay” to understand the feasibility of building habitats without having to launch huge quantities of building materials.

The second CHAPEA mission will happen in 2025!

Non-Flag Based National Team Colors

When watching international football I’ve always wondered why Italy wears blue, the Netherlands wears orange, and Australia wears green/gold since none of these colors are part of their national flag.

Both Italy and the Netherlands use these non-flag colors because of the ruling houses of their monarchy:

  • Savoy blue represents the House of Savoy that unified and ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1946. Blue remains as a national color for Italy—as seen not only in sport applications but also in their presidential standard.

  • Orange is the color of the House of the Orange-Nassau, the current reigning house of the Netherlands (which is a parliamentary monarchy).

As for Australia, green and gold were officially declared as their national colors in 1984. According to the Australian government: “Gold conjures images of Australia’s beaches, mineral wealth, grain harvests and the fleece of Australian wool. Green evokes the forests, eucalyptus trees and pastures of the Australian landscape. Green and gold are also the colours of Australia’s national floral emblem – the golden wattle.”

Now that I think about it there are many other examples of non-flag based national team colors like black for New Zealand, white for Germany, blue for Japan…

Here’s a Wikipedia page listing national colors for each country. Also interesting is that there are also semi-standardized colors for international auto racing.

The United States’ international auto racing color is “white with lengthwise blue stripes” as seen in this 1965 Mustang GT350, the first road car to feature racing stripes. Stripes do make your car go faster.

Bull-Doser, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Korean Traditional Decorative Knots

by Carmine.shot via Flickr

I remember growing up seeing all these different items with decorative knots: bookmarks, cellphone charms, etc. Just learned today that these were all part of a distinct Korean craft called maedeup (매듭)!

According to the Korean Culture and Information Service, maedeup consists of 30+ traditional shapes and patterns. It also seems that decorative knotting has been prevalent across East Asian culture.

Please, let’s not call it Korean macramé…lol

Knots can actually be incredibly interesting—obviously because of their decorative and functional use…but they also get pretty wild within math and knot theory:

DesignLeo Ham
Remix after Hearing Dua Lipa for the First Time

It’s amazing to see incredibly talented people showcase their skills in magical ways. Here’s Justin Stanton listening to Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” for the first time ever and layering on his own version of keys to the song 🤯. It’s so good:

Pianote, the YouTube channel that created the video also features other “Hearing Songs For The First Time” performances in this playlist—the Alicia Keys with Jordan Rudess one is also pretty mind-bending.

MusicLeo Hamfunk
Overcoming Fear of Needles

I don’t think this exists, but came across Pinsoft, a speculative design from university students in Spain as a possible solution for people that have a fear of needles.

According to the creators, Pinsoft works because:

[It] stimulates the area near the puncture. It works thanks to rounded-tip spikes, which contract thanks to springs, adapting to the patient's surface. As the needle is inserted, they put pressure on the proximal area and there is a feeling of relief from the prick.

In other words, the prongs distract you from the actual needle.

DesignLeo Hamhealth
Voyager 1 is Back Online!

Voyager 1, launched on September of 1977, is currently the farthest man-made object in space. Here’s where Voyager 1 and its sister Voyager 2 are in context of our Solar System and other launched spacecraft:

Via NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA/JPL-Caltech, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Starting in November 2023, Voyager 1 had been transmitting unreliable data and scientists feared that it might mean the end of its mission. However, for the first time in months, engineers were able to bring Voyager 1 back to being operational!

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the only operational spacecraft that have gone beyond the heliosphere into the “interstellar space” so their data is incredibly valuable.

You may also remember the Voyager spacecrafts both carry a copy of the “Golden Record”. I’ll probably post another blog post about this fascinating example of visual representation of information.

NASA/JPL, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Do visit NASA’s Voyager 1 website and see all the contributions the spacecraft has made thus far, including this amazing timelapse when it approached Jupiter in 1979:

Transforming an NFL Stadium into an Olympic Trials Swim Meet

Team USA Olympic Swimming Trials for Paris 2024 are starting this weekend through 6/23.

For the first time ever, the meet will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. Watch how they transformed the football stadium into the largest natatorium in the country (temporarily); I would recommend 2x playback speed:

This type of floor change is familiar to those of us from LA where the Kings, Lakers and Clippers all play in the same venue. Here’s a look at "Sports-ageddon" on May of 2012 when the arena hosted six playoff games in four days (!!).


Moquettes and Beautiful Public Seating

The design of public transportation fabrics is one of the most ubiquitous and consistent “beauty-in-the-everyday” visual experiences people have in relation to a space. One immediate example that comes to mind is the beloved PDX Airport carpet. This deep connection between design and space is often expressed in the myriad of merchandise available. People even get tattoos of the pattern!

The Instagram account @idontgiveaseat is a large collection of public transportation fabrics and patterns. There’s definitely a mix of beauty and horror.

The type of fabric used on these seats is moquette and according to the London Transport Museum:

Moquette was chosen for public transport for two reasons. First, because it is hard wearing and durable. Second, because its colour and patterns disguise signs of dirt, wear and tear. On top of this moquette had the advantage of being easy and cheap to mass-produce.

My sister-in-law pointed out that the London Underground began creating unique moquette patterns to each line. Some of these designs are available for purchase in a wide variety of products and furnishings:

Elephant Using Trunk to Blow Food

Here’s a video of the most amazing thing I saw at the Oregon Zoo last weekend. One of the elephants was using its trunk to blow crumbs of hay together and make an easily graspable pile!

Here’s another example from elephants in Japan:

Seems like this was a pretty novel discovery (!?) as we see findings about it published in the scientific journal, Animal Cognition in 2015.