I Can't Wait to go to Mars

Hi,

My name is Curiosity and I am a high tech Geologist.

Guess who's going on a 354 million miles journey? Ouch, that's a long trip. However its certainly worth it. I am going to Mars!

My mission has people saying things like: "the next best thing is having humans on mars". On Mars, I will cruise around with my laser vapourizing tiny segments of rocks. I will take lots of pictures out there, especially in the Gale crater.



Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Care to see me take off from Cape Canaveral? At 7:02 AM PST on Saturday November 26th, watch me here. If only the weather cooperates.

Engineering Watch

Optimise Hockey Pool with Microsoft Excel

So, for a hockey pool at work I thought it would be fun to use excel solver to "optimize" my pool. Using last year's points I was able to pick 11 skilled forwards and 5 high scoring defence men. Here are my picks for the NHL Season 2011 to 2012:

Name Team GP G A Pts Salary Position pts/$
Henrik Sedin VAN 82 19 75 94 6,100,000.00 C 15.41
Steven Stamkos TAM 82 45 46 91 8,000,000.00 C 11.38
Claude Giroux PHI 82 25 51 76 2,750,000.00 C 27.64
Ryan Kesler VAN 82 41 32 73 1,000,000.00 C 73.00
John Tavares NYI 79 29 38 67 900,000.00 C 74.44
Matt Duchene COL 80 27 40 67 900,000.00 C 74.44
Daniel Sedin VAN 82 41 63 104 6,100,000.00 L 17.05
Martin St Louis TAM 82 31 68 99 5,500,000.00 R 18.00
Corey Perry ANA 82 50 48 98 5,375,000.00 R 18.23
Jarome Iginla CGY 82 43 43 86 7,000,000.00 R 12.29
Teemu Selanne ANA 73 31 49 80 4,000,000.00 R 20.00
Lubomir Visnovsky ANA 81 18 50 68 5,000,000.00 D 13.60
Nicklas Lidstrom DET 82 16 46 62 6,200,000.00 D 10.00
Dustin Byfuglien WPG 81 20 33 53 4,250,000.00 D 12.47
Erik Karlsson OTT 75 13 32 45 875,000.00 D 51.43
Kevin Shattenkirk STL 72 9 34 43 875,000.00 D 49.14
Total 792.00 1,254.00 65,825,000.00 -

For a total team budget of $69,000,000.00 I hand picked: a frnachise player Alexander Ovechkin, 2nd year with highest penalty minutes (PIM) in the league from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario Zenon Konopka (Now with the Ottawa Senetors and formerly with the New York Islanders), Jimmy Howard - Detroit Red Wings behind the net and from the greatest hockey team Hockey team, P. K. Subban of the Montreal Canadians.

Lets see what the season holds...

Engineering Watch