I will not be writing for a while

Due to the fact that I have broken my thumb and cannot type well, I will probably not be writing for a while.  I am sorry about this.  Please keep checking though, I hope to start soon!

The Monowheel

Most have heard of the unicycle, a vehicle where the rider is seated above a single wheel.  However, few have heard of such a creation as a monowheel.  In a monowheel, the wheel is much larger, allowing the user to sit on a special seat inside the wheel.  Confused?  The pictures should help you out.  The first was believed to have been built in 1869 by a craftsman named Rousseau from Marseilles.  (There were many strange machines in the late 1800's in France.)  The monowheel was built to be easy to navigate on bumpy roads (compared, that is, to the pennyfarthing bicycle with a large front wheel and a very small back one), but had a few unfortunate disadvantages.  The monowheel could not easily be steered (one had to lean from side to side), was unstable, and, when braked, often led to an effect sometimes known as gerbilling, where the monowheel would roll and spin the poor rider in circles.  Improvements have since then been made to the monowheel's design.  Monowheels have been made with better brakes, motors, steering capabilities, systems that prevent gerbilling, and even gyroscopes to prevent the monowheel from falling over.  There aren't any manufacturers of such inventions, but you can order them from builders or try to build one yourself.  Steering has been managed by using tilting gyroscopes, propellers, vertical wings (not for low-speed models), and outboard skids which produce friction against the ground.  As whimsical as these machines are, some people actually ride them at events.  In the 2005 Doodah Parade (what a strange name!) of Columbus, Ohio, Keith Dufrane rode an electric monowheel on the streets.  (See the picture here.)  It had a system to allow steering and prevent gerbilling for his safety.  The monowheel usually uses a rubber-covered steel bar with four prongs as both a brake and an anti-gerbilling mechanisim.  Though one could question the monowheel's practicality, it is an interesting, imaginative invention.

wikiHow University

If you have ever wanted to improve your writing by taking a formal writing class and participating in a workshop, but not had enough capital for such ventures, wikiHow University is for you.  Some have most likely heard of wikiHow, the free, editable how-to guide in many languages.  It has over 10.4 million readers who visit the site more than 13.6 million times per month, and has (at the time of this writing) 36,361 articles, from How to Get Into an Ivy League School to How to Make Salmon Sushi With Mango Meat.  Considering it was started so recently (it was launched Febuary 15, 2005), it has shown rapid growth.  Unlike Wikipedia, another wiki-project, wikiHow is for-profit and shows Google Adsense ads to users who are not logged in.  Since wikiHow has become more and more profitable, it has started to pay for more services for its users, such as free flights to certain meetings.  Thus, wikiHow has started to offer a free 6-week writing class taught by the Gotham Writer's Workshop of New York.  Tuition is completely covered by wikiHow, and the class is held fully online.  The class of 16 students will be instructed by an experienced writer, and the class will contain lessons, discussions, and writing assignments wherein students and the teacher give feedback and share ideas.  Material is available online 24 hours a day for a whole week per lesson, so it matters not whether you are in Mongolia or Tierra del Fuego.  It is mainly geared towards writing how-to guides, but will cause improvement in general writing quality as well.  It is also accredited via the International Association of Continuing Education and Training, and graduates receive 1.8 CEU's and a Certificate of Completion.  Unfortunately, high demand for classes results in the fact that most cannot go.  In the event that many sign up, the most active editors are selected.  However, if the first class works out well (and most likely it will), they will continue with more sessions and perhaps different classes.  So if you sign up for an account at wikiHow and become a regular editor, soon you will get to take the class.  Editing wikiHow isn't hard and can even be rather enjoyable if you like writing.  It's rare that such educational opportunities are offered for free, for anyone.  If there were more programs like this, society would be improved as people are liberated by education.

Note:  This author is a wikiHow editor himself, with the username Beowulf195.  At the time of this post, he has written two articles: How to Open Up an iPod, and How to Avoid Being an Internet Troll.