This is the latest multi-touch installation by SenseBloom. It’s located in the campus bar at the Computer Science Department of Coimbra University, Portugal.
...SoundTrack: KC & The Sunshine Band, Shake Your Booty sensebloom.com"
"The aim of this information is to inform the reader about the variety of explosions that exist and to give a visual framework for animating them. The article has been researched from many places on the Internet and is here purely as animation reference..."
"The mind-blowing answer comes from a theory describing the birth of the universe in the first instant of time. The universe has long captivated us with its immense scales of distance and time. How far does it stretch? Where does it end... and what lies beyond its star fields... and streams of galaxies extending as far as telescopes can see?"
On Cyber Monday, Amazon Sold 158 Items Per Second (13.7 Million In Total)
"Amazon this morning announced that on its peak day for this year, November 29, customers ordered more than 13.7 million items worldwide across all product categories, which translates to a – self-proclaimed – record-breaking 158 items per second...
A prototype solar device has been unveiled which mimics plant life, turning the Sun's energy into fuel.
Luz verde a la construcción de una planta solar de 185 hectáreas en Andalucía L.O.
New solar fuel machine 'mimics plant life' "The machine uses the Sun's rays and a metal oxide called ceria to break down carbon dioxide or water into fuels which can be stored and transported.." Article by Neil Bowdlerbbc.co.uk
Luz verde a la construcción de una planta solar de 185 hectáreas en Andalucía
Early cave art researcher Henri Breuil copied this image of overlapping bison and mammoth from the walls of Font-de-Gaume in France.
Unlike other bison-mammoths that depict two distinct but overlapping images, this carving from a spear-thrower features one image that can be seen two different ways. Above, the artifact in its natural state. Below, red ovals highlight the position of the two eyes.
The two sides of a figurine from a site near Cambrai show very different details. On one side (left), the high back leg and short front leg are characteristic of depictions of bison. On the other, the tall straight front leg and grooves depicting long hair in the midriff are typical of mammoths. (Image courtesy of Duncan Caldwell)
Life Under the Bubble "Biosphere 2 was one of the most lauded experiments of the 1990s, then one of the most ridiculed. Now it is back, offering a unique way to put theories about climate and environment to the test." Article by Jordan Fisher Smith; Photographs by Douglas Adesko
There's a mini ice age coming, says man who beats weather experts. "Piers Corbyn not only predicted the current weather, but he believes things are going to get much worse, says Boris Johnson, London's mayor..." smh.com.au
Footprints remain after people walked on the snow-covered beach at Weston-Super-Mare, England.
Photo: Getty Images
To generate heat, you need cold and vice-versa. While global warming has become an iconoclasy/ iconoduly debate, could we not face the very simple fact that heat and cold are the two birds of the same stone?
Scientists find evidence for 'chronesthesia,' or mental time travel
"Researchers have found evidence for “chronesthesia,” which is the brain’s ability to be aware of the past and future, and to mentally travel in subjective time. They found that activity in different brain regions is related to chronesthetic states when a person thinks about the same content during the past, present, or future."physorg.com
You know she's waiting Just anticipating For things that she'll never never never never possess, yeah yeah But while she's there waiting, without them Try a little tenderness (that's all you gotta do)
"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to become a member in good standing of the Australian journalists' union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA)..."
Baby Owen became an orphan when a tsunami struck the Kenian coasts. Luckyly rescuded but sad and lonely he found a surrogate mother in Mzee, a century-old tortoise (albeit a male). They eat, swim and sleep together in Mombasa, Kenya at the Haller Park preserve.
This is a pretty easy project. If you're interested in doing it yourself, here are a few pointers to get you started:
Get an amateur radio license. If you're in the United States, you want to get a Technician's license. This will let you run the type of radio we used to track our balloons, an APRS beacon by Byonics.
Paul Verhage's ebook on near space ballooning is very helpful, although a bit out of date.
If you're in the United States, read FAR 101. FAR 101 has all of the regulations that you'll need to follow if you're launching a balloon. Sorry, I don't know the regulations for different countries.
Telemetry is by far the most important part of this project. Send up a good radio, good antenna, and good GPS. Don't compromise on these things.
Weather balloons can be bought from Kaymont.
Hacking cameras is best done with CHDK, check to see if your camera is compatible.
Radar reflectors can either be made or purchased from West Marine
You can get a rough idea of where your balloon is going to land using flight prediction software or just by looking at the wind charts.
You might get caught up looking at the wind charts and weather patterns for high altitudes. It's also important to figure out what your surface winds are at your launch site. Launching is hard if it's windy on the ground.
Don't be afraid to move the launch site or cancel the launch completely if the weather conditions aren't right.
In this western part of Africa, the dry climate allows construction with adobe. We are accustomed to stone/ wood/ steel architectures which do not allow such a rich plasticity. Still, nowadays' materials should be adapted to cold/ humid conditions together with enough solidity to see such brilliant, inspiring, sensitive architectures...
"In the process of producing their now-canceled documentary on Stanley Kubrick's landmark film, Douglas Trumbull and David Larson have uncovered 17 minutes that Kubrick cut from 2001 just after release—in perfect condition..." Article by Marc Bernardin.
To our cousins with tenderness, laughter and love...
It don't matter how many fingers, legs or fins you have,
what matters is spirit and trust.
"Allison, a green sea turtle who lost three flippers to sharks, swims with the aid of a fin attached to a neoprene suit at Sea Turtle Inc. at South Padre Island. When an attempt to build a prosthetic flipper failed, researchers came up with a carbon-fiber dorsal fin."
"Locations of key events are labeled in this extreme ultraviolet image of the sun, obtained by the Solar Dynamics Observatory during the Great Eruption of August 1st. White lines trace the sun's magnetic field." Credit: K Schrijver & A. Title.
"The August 1st event really opened our eyes," says Karel Schrijver of Lockheed Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Lab in Palo Alto, CA. "We see that solar storms can be global events, playing out on scales we scarcely imagined before..."Author: Dr. Tony Phillips
" Click the arrow and watch an unusually long filament explode out from the Sun. The filament had been seen hovering over the Sun's surface for over a week before it erupted earlier this month. The image sequence was taken by the Earth-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in one color of ultraviolet light specifically emitted by helium, and another color of X-ray light specifically emitted by iron. The explosion created Coronal Mass Ejections which dispersed high energy plasma into the Solar System. This plasma cloud, though, missed the Earth and so did not cause auroras.
The above eruption and an unusually expansive eruption that occurred in August are showing how widely separated areas of the Sun can sometimes act in unison.
Explosions like this will likely become more common over the next few years as our Sun moves toward Solar Maximum activity. " >> apod.nasa.gov
"This global map shows total consumption by region of photosynthetic plant material as a percentage of the plant material grown by region. Scientists call the plant "supply" net primary production, or NPP, and refer to the "demand" as Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP)."
The FEAT (Freelancer’s Estimation Assistance Tool) is a free tool created using Adobe AIR to aid in the process of calculating expenses and set a profit margin for your work.
"Clark Gregg, the actor known for his recurring role in the Iron Man movies, was on hand to witness the unveiling of the XOS 2 robotic suit at the Raytheon Sarcos research facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. Paramount Home Entertainment prepared this video to coincide with the release of Iron Man 2 on Blu ray and DVD on September 28, 2010." Raytheoncompany
Raytheon
"Raytheon’s second-generation exoskeleton (XOS 2), essentially a wearable robotics suit, has been named one of the Best Inventions of 2010 by Time Magazine. The suit was unveiled for the first time in September during an event at the company’s Salt Lake City research facility. XOS 2 is lighter, stronger and faster than its predecessor, yet it uses 50 percent less power, and its new design makes it more resistant to the environment..." raytheon.com
Sending cheese to space is the cleverest way to give aliens a serious hint about humanity (strategically chosen as not French (I mean the cheese)).
Then referring to Abraham, Zucker & Zucker's movie "TOP SECRET" is simply brilliant as one of the most outstanding movie ever (albeit accidentally).
Toping it with Monty Python will keep us safe from invasion unless some dumb astronomer sends some silly engraving showing how dumb we are...
The Cheese Shop sketch, Monty Python
Articles / Links:
NPR
Article by Mark Memmott.
It Went Where No Cheese Had Gone Before, Thanks To 'Monty Python' "When we heard that a wheel of cheese had been sent into space this week aboard the first ever launch into orbit and return to Earth by a private company, we were curious.."
"Yesterday’s historic launch had a secret payload. It was a payload so secret, SpaceXers made it Top Secret (think Val Kilmer 1984, not official US Government). So what was inside the mystery package?
Photo credit to Chris Thompson of SpaceX.."
"Turn the freeways into urban powerplants! With solar-technology and an efficient narrative design, the freeways will re-emerge as structures for the future."
"Urban oil wells have made the link between energy and daily life unusually appearent in Los Angeles. The Solar Serpents introduce a new level of site specific urban energy production."
Inspired by the eye of a fly, EPFL scientists have invented a camera that can take pictures and film in 360° and reconstruct the images in 3D.
"Surround sight has come to the camera. Inspired by the eye of a fly, EPFL scientists have invented a camera that can take pictures and film in 360° and reconstruct the images in 3D."
"It will be the ideal tool for videoconferences, video surveillance, movie making, and creating backgrounds for video games. Researchers from two EPFL laboratories have invented a revolutionary camera that can film everything around it, simultaneously and in real time, and then reproduce the images in three dimensions, distortion-free. A patent application has been filed."
"The camera was inspired by the structure of a fly’s eye, and works without resorting to mirrors or mechanical parts of any kind. Over one hundred cameras, similar to those used in mobile phones, are crowded onto a metallic hemisphere the size of an orange. Because they are so close together, their range of vision overlaps slightly. A second, miniature prototype has also been developed. It’s about the size of a golf ball and has 15 cameras. The user can choose to have them all work together to obtain a panoramic image that covers a 360° range of vision, or individually to capture a particular point of view. The cameras were designed and built at EPFL in a collaboration between the Signal Processing Laboratory, led by Professor Pierre Vandergheynst, and the Microelectronic Systems Laboratory, led by Professor Yusuf Leblebici."
