27 June 2006
The 10 Weirdest Things Ever Sold On eBay
The 10 Weirdest Things Ever Sold On eBay according to Rob Lee from Collage.
Kathleen Connally's Photos
.jpg)
A beautiful selection of favorite photographs from Kathleen Connally's photoblog of her walks through Durham Township, PA.
Scientists respond to Gore's "Inconvenient Truth"
Turns out that the hundreds of scientists respond to Al Gore's warnings of climate catastrophe in the movie An Inconvenient Truth aren't supportive of his views at all.
Richard Attenborough video of an amazing mimicking bird
This is a video of Richard Attenborough showing the audience an amazing bird that mimics all sorts of bird calls as well as sounds from the human world: car alarms, jack hammers, etc.
The insidious life cycle of Ribeiroia
DamnInteresting.com's article Products of Pollution? focuses on Ribeiroia, a fascinating parasite that changes hosts many times over, and more interestingly causes deformities in its hosts to guarantee its survival.
The Confederados
From DamnInteresting.com comes an interesting article for our history buffs about The Confederados, a colony started by expatriate Confederates who left America for Brazil after the civil war.
23 June 2006
Maillardet's Automaton
Maillardet's Automaton is an 18th Century automaton that is located in Philadelphia's Franklin Institute. Looking like a person, the automaton will draw four complex drawings and write two poems.
Black Sun
From Earth Science's Picture of the Day comes a series of pictures of the Black Sun phenomenon. "During spring in Denmark, at approximately one half an hour before sunset, flocks of more than a million European starlings (sturnus vulgaris) gather from all corners to join in...incredible formations...This phenomenon is called Black Sun" and the flocks can be so dens that the sun is completely eclipsed.
Skidmore Owings and Merrill's Innovative Skyscrapers
This article from the Architectural Record shows that SOM still is making innovations in skyscraper architecture, despite the horribly bland Freedom Tower offering that they have given the World Trade Center. Unfortunately, these innovations are all outside of the USA.
Archimedes and Infinity
From the Stanford Report article over 4 years ago, that a palimpsest that has the only known copy of Archimedes The Method of Mechanical Theorems shows that the great thinker already had a firm concept of infinity and that modern calculus is a rehash.
Magnetic Fields for Microchips
The University of Bath is starting research to replace wiring on computer chips with microwave energy created by magnetic fields. If successful the research could increase computing power over 500 times.
See a need fill a need... The Commute Helper
An edited article from Personal Finance Advice:
A man helps people have a smooth and quick commute by standing at the freeway entrance and held up a sign that said, "Traffic is bad. Spend 2 hours or pay me $10 and get there in 20 minutes" then sitting in their cars so that they can use the carpool lane. When he gets dropped off, he walked to the other side, holds up his sign and gets paid to go back the other way. On a typical day he makes 2 to 3 round trips during the morning commute rush hour and 3 - 5 round trips during the evening rush hour. If there is an accident and traffic is really slow, his price doubles. He clears $100 - $300 a day sitting in a car so others can get to work and home faster.
A man helps people have a smooth and quick commute by standing at the freeway entrance and held up a sign that said, "Traffic is bad. Spend 2 hours or pay me $10 and get there in 20 minutes" then sitting in their cars so that they can use the carpool lane. When he gets dropped off, he walked to the other side, holds up his sign and gets paid to go back the other way. On a typical day he makes 2 to 3 round trips during the morning commute rush hour and 3 - 5 round trips during the evening rush hour. If there is an accident and traffic is really slow, his price doubles. He clears $100 - $300 a day sitting in a car so others can get to work and home faster.
Message in a Bottle Found 10 Years Later
From WLTX News19: A Wisconsin man has received an unexpected message from a deceased friend -- in a bottle floating in a lake.
Steve Lieder was chatting with friends near White Lake when he looked down and saw a bottle. They broke it open and found a note. Lieder was amazed to find it was written eleven years ago by one of his closest friends, who died last year.
Joshua Baker was ten years old when he wrote the message for a school project, stuck it in a bottle and tossed it in the lake.
The note reads: 'My name is Josh Baker. I am 10. If you find this, put it on the news. The date is 4/16/95.'
Baker died last year in a traffic accident in California. His mother says he had recently returned home after serving in the Marines in the Middle East. She plans to display the note in her home."
Steve Lieder was chatting with friends near White Lake when he looked down and saw a bottle. They broke it open and found a note. Lieder was amazed to find it was written eleven years ago by one of his closest friends, who died last year.
Joshua Baker was ten years old when he wrote the message for a school project, stuck it in a bottle and tossed it in the lake.
The note reads: 'My name is Josh Baker. I am 10. If you find this, put it on the news. The date is 4/16/95.'
Baker died last year in a traffic accident in California. His mother says he had recently returned home after serving in the Marines in the Middle East. She plans to display the note in her home."
Fossils
An article from the Great Falls tribune article about a Brachylophosaurus fossil called Leonardo that is so perfectly preserved that they not only can see its skin, soft cartilage beak, but also its internal organs and the contents of its last meal. Scientists are using new technology that allows them to examine this fossil, discovered five years ago, in superb detail without taking it from the surrounding rock.
On a related note, an article from NewScientist.com reveales the oldest spider web found encased in amber.
On a related note, an article from NewScientist.com reveales the oldest spider web found encased in amber.
The AIBO is dead, long live the AIBO!
An article from Engadget about Sony teaching AIBO, its robotic dog, new tricks at its labs in France. Certainly has a bit of an I Robot tenor to the whole thing, but it is still fascinating that independent units can be taught to learn and teach each other.
A related article, from The Engineer Online, speaks of the technology behind what made the Sony experiments possible -- allowing robots to "evolve their own language, bypassing the limits of imposing human rule-based communication."
An edited excerpt from the article: "The most important aspect is how it learns to communicate and interact. The AIBO dogs start from scratch to develop the language structures and common agreements on words to describe objects. The researchers achieved this through instilling their robots with a sense of ‘curiosity.’
Initially programmed to merely recognise stimuli from their sensors, the AIBOs learnt to distinguish between objects and how to interact with them over the course of several hours or days. The curiosity system, or ‘metabrain,’ continually forced the AIBOs to look for new and more challenging tasks, and to give up on activities that did not appear to lead anywhere. This in turn led them to learn how to perform more complex tasks, an indication of an open-ended learning capability much like that of human children.
Like children, the AIBOs initially started babbling aimlessly until two or more settled on a sound to describe an object or aspect of their environment, gradually building a lexicon and grammatical rules through which to communicate."
A related article, from The Engineer Online, speaks of the technology behind what made the Sony experiments possible -- allowing robots to "evolve their own language, bypassing the limits of imposing human rule-based communication."
An edited excerpt from the article: "The most important aspect is how it learns to communicate and interact. The AIBO dogs start from scratch to develop the language structures and common agreements on words to describe objects. The researchers achieved this through instilling their robots with a sense of ‘curiosity.’
Initially programmed to merely recognise stimuli from their sensors, the AIBOs learnt to distinguish between objects and how to interact with them over the course of several hours or days. The curiosity system, or ‘metabrain,’ continually forced the AIBOs to look for new and more challenging tasks, and to give up on activities that did not appear to lead anywhere. This in turn led them to learn how to perform more complex tasks, an indication of an open-ended learning capability much like that of human children.
Like children, the AIBOs initially started babbling aimlessly until two or more settled on a sound to describe an object or aspect of their environment, gradually building a lexicon and grammatical rules through which to communicate."
22 June 2006
The Deepest Hole
From DamnInteresting.com comes an article about the Kola Superdeep Borehole, a scientific project that ended 8 years ago in Russia after having drilled ever seven miles into the Earth's crust.
Your Gallery
Your Gallery is art world magnate Charles Saatchi's attempt to introduce new artists to the world. It allows any artist to upload up to 8 pics of their work onto the site to be exposed to the 1.7 million daily visitors.
Toolhaus.org
Toolhaus.org provides an interesting tool that will automatically summarize an eBay user's negatives and gather them for easy reference.
Thanks to Phil Reid for the heads up!
Thanks to Phil Reid for the heads up!
15 June 2006
Smart paper Bends with electrical current
From New Scientist Tech, an article about paper that has a thin coating of gold that will bend and flap with electricity. Seen as a way to get ligtweight cameras into the skies.
13 June 2006
Origami Tessellations
A Flickr account of Origami Tessellations, which are constructions made out of smaller origami units.
Transformer Houses
A post from BLDGBLOG on Transformer Houses in Toronto, which are, as the post notes, "architecturally-disguised electrical substations, complete with windows, blinds, and bourgeois landscaping."
12 June 2006
Diet Coke and Mentos as inspired by the Bellagio fountain
So we all know what happens when you put Mentos into Diet Coke by now -- that single shooting geyser is pretty cool, right? And most of us know or have some idea what the Bellagio Fountain in Las Vegas is like:
Sooooo... What happens when you combine the two?
Sooooo... What happens when you combine the two?
09 June 2006
Remote Control Airplane Video
A fun video from YouTube of an R/C plane demonstration in a school gym nicely synchronized to music.
Felice Varini and The Denial of Perspective
Further to the earlier post on the optical illusions webpage is this post on a modern op-artist, Felice Varini who creates seemingly flat planes in three dimensions. Varini's art essentially does the opposite of what Renaissance artists sought to achieve in understanding perspective -- the creation the illusion of three dimensions on a flat plane. As can be seen in The Denial of Perspective, when the viewer is at the right angle, her artwork coalesces into a floating flat plane.
Another example is from her website, which has her works listed in a chronological index, a work from 2000 called "Ellipse orange, évidées par 7 disques":
When seen outside of the proper point of view, you realize that there is no object that exists in that plane, only clevery painted surfaces that come together at the right point:
Her webpage also offers some interesting unrealized projects.
Another example is from her website, which has her works listed in a chronological index, a work from 2000 called "Ellipse orange, évidées par 7 disques":
When seen outside of the proper point of view, you realize that there is no object that exists in that plane, only clevery painted surfaces that come together at the right point:
Her webpage also offers some interesting unrealized projects.
06 June 2006
Numbers station
From Wikipedia, an article on the mysterious numbers stations, short wave radio stations of uncertain origin. They generally broadcast people reading streams of numbers, words, or letters that all amount to gibberish.
The Hip Hop Prayer Book
Just as William Tyndale translated the bible into English and popularized it through print, The Hip Hop Prayer Book "offers a means to worship that will draw in the young and speak to those not generally spoken to by the Church" by presenting "daily prayers, psalms, a variety of services (including a Eucharist), and a selection of bible stories" through the filter of Ebonics and Hip Hop.
For example, here is a comparison of Psalm 23 between the King James and the Hip Hop Prayer book
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil;
my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
The Lord is all that, I need for nothing.
He allows me to chill.
He keeps me from being heated
and allows me to breathe easy.
He guides my life so that
I can represent and give
shouts out in his Name.
And even though I walk through
the Hood of death,
I don't back down
for you have my back.
The fact that you have me covered
allows me to chill.
He provides me with back-up
in front of my player-haters
and I know that I am a baller
and life will be phat.
I fall back in the Lord's crib
for the rest of my life.
For example, here is a comparison of Psalm 23 between the King James and the Hip Hop Prayer book
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil;
my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
The Lord is all that, I need for nothing.
He allows me to chill.
He keeps me from being heated
and allows me to breathe easy.
He guides my life so that
I can represent and give
shouts out in his Name.
And even though I walk through
the Hood of death,
I don't back down
for you have my back.
The fact that you have me covered
allows me to chill.
He provides me with back-up
in front of my player-haters
and I know that I am a baller
and life will be phat.
I fall back in the Lord's crib
for the rest of my life.
Anonymous Law Firm LLP
Looks like i have finally found a law firm that shares the same values that I do. I think its time for me to make the move to Anonymous Law Firm LLP!
04 June 2006
Winchester Mystery House
The Winchester Mystery House is the home of Winchester Rifle heiress Sarah Winchester, who apparently haunted by the ghosts of those killed by the Winchester rifle created a home that has many unexplained oddities that are meant to confuse those angry spirits. More information can be had about this house from a tour guide's blog, which includes a link to the Wiklipedia article on the home.
With thanks to C. Junceau for telling me about this house!
Demolition of ConEd's Waterside Steam Plant
A very recent picture of the demolition that is happening on the east side of New York City. Consolidated Edison's hundred and five year old Waterside Steam Plant which used to provide power to the City is being demolished to make way for condominiums.
This High Dynamic Range picture is one that I have been trying to take for some months now.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
The Umbilical Brothers
A video from eBaum's World of the Umilical Brother's illusion act. It is neat to think all you need to have is two peopleand a piece of black cardboard to make a rather entertaining show.
03 June 2006
Mighty Illusions
The Mighty Illusions blog is a repository of interesting pictures and videos of optical illusions.
Transporting Richard Serra Sculptures
An interesting article about moving some sculptures from Richard Serra's Torqued Ellipse series. The sculptures are often monumental, and weigh tons, being made of massive steel plates, yet retain a graceful fluidity that is truly to be experienced.
Airplane Graveyards and a Terminal
A Flickr set of photos of an airplane graveyard in the Mojave Desert in California, a set of photos from other places in California and Arizona, and a separate set of photos of the Detroit Metro Airport's psychedelic tunnel. Some great shots...
02 June 2006
Ben's Incredible Big List of Initialisms and Acronyms (BIBLIA)
Ben's Incredible Big List of Initialisms and Acronyms (BIBLIA) where you can find out that BFMI means Brute Force and Massive Ignorance.
The Flying Luxury Hotel
From Popular Science, and in connection with my previous post on the CargoLifter, here is an article on the proposed Flying Luxury Hotel, yet another massive dirigible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
