Mighty mousetraps!

Wednesday was the first annual mousetrap race car competition at the University of Washington School of Art. It was a showdown between the Junior and Senior Industrial Design classes in three categories, speed, distance and style. One of our instructors, Magnus Feil proposed the challenge and mentioned that there would be press there to cover the event. I think most of us were thinking it would be the school newspaper, maybe the photography club, etc. We were all a little surprised when the two major seattle newspapers showed up and one of the local television stations! It really added to the excitement of the event and I have to hand it to Magnus for arranging this great publicity for our up and coming Industrial Design program. It's no secret that Western Washington University has had the better program in the state but I believe their days on top are numbered thanks to our outstanding faculty and the pure energy given by my fellow classmates who are pouring their heart and soul into every detail of every project.

First, a couple photos of my trapster, I was trying for speed:

 

Here's the article from the Seattle PI:

And finally, I just found this today, here is a little video compilation from the Seattle Times, watch for my car at about 0:39, it was a very close race, but I lost...

CNN's election coverage

Rachel and I cast our votes, together, this morning. Some of the issues, particularly our state's public transit initiative, we continued to debate even at the polls, talking back and forth between our secret voting booths... Now, ten minutes until the polls close here in washington, Obama seems to have a commanding lead and I feel the whole world breathing a sigh of relief. I am watching the coverage of the election on CNN. Have you seen the CRAZY graphics and effects they are using?! They are talking to people using "holograms," had a virtual projection of the US capitol building sitting next to some lady on a desk, and have touch screens they can manipulate in real time to sift through enormous amounts of demographic data and voter breakdowns. It is actually a pretty nice setup. The hologram effect is a little cheesy, but interesting nonetheless. If I hadn't promised to watch the Stephen Colbert and John Stewart coverage with Rachel later the shenanigans CNN is pulling might have been able to pull me away from them anyway.