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Around the world

The tragic Cerro de la Silla aerial tramway

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The “Cerro de la Silla” (Saddle Hill) is the symbol of my hometown Monterrey, Mexico. The view in the photo above is basically the view I saw everyday driving from my house to school and college. I remember hearing two interesting stories about the iconic mountain while growing up:

First, the rumor that on top of it there are living pterodactyls (pterosaurs?). While I haven’t confirmed this one, the fact that at least you can find mentions about it online means that at least I did hear it somewhere.

The second was about this building you can see halfway up, on the north side. Map. What I was told as a kid is that a local entrepreneur wanted to build an air tram as a tourist attraction. It was finished but on its inauguration day on the first trip, him and some other people were killed in an accident, making it the last trip as well. More info in this page. Original footage below:

Random junk

Puzzle

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Another puzzle from Wiseman’s blog (don’t click until you’ve solved it).

There are 2 flagpoles that are each 100 foot high.  A rope that is 150 feet long is strung between the tops of the flagpoles.  At its lowest point the rope sags 25 feet about the ground (see schematic diagram below).  How far apart are the flagpoles?

Note: The image below is not to scale.

Tech

Real-life Pipe Dream

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Many of you saw this cool computer animation that went viral a few years ago (you know it’s because it’s hosted on Google Video):

This week at IDF they demo’ed a real-life version. The video is not professionally shot, sadly:

They mention they use a bunch of Intel gear. What they don’t mention, is that the company that put this together, SISU Devices, also used a bunch of National Instruments hardware and software, probably a more key component to the system. Cool stuff.