Roundup: From last time to now - stuff that caught my eye

The LXD: In the Internet Age, Dance evolves…
--This is quite an entertaining look at one direction dance is moving. The beginning of this video might be a little slow, but when they start introducing the four main guys, then it gets interesting.

Librophile, powered by Librovox
--Free ebooks, both in text and audio

Using your body for broadband
--Korean scientists transmitted 10MB/sec through a person's arm!

Paris - at 25 Gigapixels!!!
--The music is annoying, but the zoom factor is quite cool

Corrective swim goggles
--Who'd a known they were so cheap?

Blind? Maybe you can see with your tongue...
--Yeah, the human body can be hacked in some mighty weird (yet fascinating) ways.

Peruvian surfing alpaca
--Enough said

Insects in dew
--Simple concept, amazing execution

Sci-fi/Fantasy film guide
--Get the low-down on what's happening in tinsel town with our favorite genre flicks

Techno-snot
--Is this really the most amazing stuff science has to offer???

Branding your photography business
--A good read by a good writer and a great photographer, Don Gianetti (aka wizwow). Another one is "Do You Know Your Camera Well Enough to Master Your Craft" - actually, most all his articles are good - just check out the whole site - www.lighting-essentials.com

Parkinson's Law: Work expands to the time allowed
--A good read while you're expanding your work time

Art and Math
--Meant to be together - I'd so love to have some of this artwork - the beauty of order that looks chaotic...or is it the chaos that is orderly? hmmm...

The Future of Storage
--A good rundown and the current and future state of data

DIY magnetic spice "shelf"
--This looks like something I would do

Guiness Chocolate Pudding
--This also looks like something I would do (or eat, at the very least)

Foxtrot: Flash on the iPad
--If you're not a geek who cognizant of the relationship Apple has with Adobe, you won't get it

Quantum effects on visible objects
--That's pretty darn cool - superposition!!! - now we just need sharks with frickin lasers!

And finally, just for some laughs - 15 Fat Dogs and, sometimes, all you need for a good photobomb is good cropping skills

Link Round-up for 2-10-2010

Brain Scan Shows Vegetative Patient Responding To Yes-or-No Questions
---This one brings up all KINDS of questions, many of them quite unsettling. Termination of life, what it would be like to be trapped in a completely unresponsive body, the meanings of the terminology we use surrounding our dialogue about life - lots of questions.
Aerogels for home insulation?
---Yes, it is becoming a reality. I'm sure it will take a while (if ever, but I hope it does) for it to reach mainstream, but wow, great steps in the right direction.
Convert your netbook into an eReader
---Handy-dandy DIY guide.
Brewtarget
---A helpful little tool for all you who like to brew your own libations.
Why you shouldn't shoot for peanuts
---Quite a good article on why you shouldn't undersell yourself when it comes to pricing your skills as a photographer, and why sometimes it's just better to shoot for free. Unfortunately, this has too often been the case for myself. I'm working on getting paid though, and getting paid what I should be paid. My reputation is (very slowly) building - I just have to get the "right" people to see my stuff - you know, the kind that can actually "pay" for me to do my thing.
And just for fun - Stop-motion T-shirt war
---It has balloons and explosions and even a fire extinguisher (plus 222 t-shirts).

Link Roundup 2-4-2010

Spray-on Liquid Glass
---Both graffiti and dirty clothes will be a thing of the past - the glass makes them "permanently" clean.
Schizophrenia - It's not just in your head
---New studies show it affects a lot of your cells, and should be detectable by blood test within a year.
Fig trees kill cheating wasps
---Don't even think about cheating! The tree will kill your babies. Fascinating new info on parasitic versus symbiotic relationships (and wasp infanticide by trees).
LogMeIn Express
---Dead simple screen sharing over the internet - open the webpage, enter a 12 digit code, done.
Is "Avatar" #1?
---Nope, it's actually #26
Power Point Pizazz
---If you have to do it, at least make it look nice
DIY Glow-in-the-dark sketch wall
---This just looks ridiculously fun
Which way is she turning?
---Look at the left image, the center appears to turn one way. Look at the right image, it appears to turn the other way. Actually though, it's not turning at all...there is no spoon...
Tough Guy Contest
---Eight *miles* of ice, mud, barbed wire, submerged tunnels, broken glass, and fire. And lots of injuries.
Clay and water based Hydrogels
---Possible alternative to plastic that is MUCH more environmentally friendly
EMP Cannon
---Stops cars (post-1970s) immediately...and a potentially a whole lot more - see video
Mexico's Cave of Crystals
---Some extremely rare video footage of the deep-earth crystals, some of which are over 40 feet long. Amazing stuff.
30 Commercial Games - released now for FREE
---Have fun, but don't get too sucked in

...wow, that was a lot of tabs sitting open since my last post.

Random Roundup 1-19-2010

Okay, some of the stuff I found since I last posted:
Liquid Diamond Oceans Possible, with Solid Diamond "Icebergs" - you wouldn't want to swim in it though
First Personal Carbon Credit Sold - sign me up
Are Digital Music Prices Illegally Fixed?
Apple - Buy if you can, their P/E ratio is terribly undervalued
(Plus, they're releasing some new gadget's soon [tablet and iphone 4?], so the masses will be going nuts and BUYING shiny toys = $$$ for investors)
Vacuum Tubes at Stanford Hospital!
Chrome add-ons (I didn't even know it had them)
and Chrome Security (It sets the standard, say experts)
The Avatar script - free, just download as a .pdf
The Antikythera mechanism - basically, a computer so far ahead of it's time, it's not even funny (but it is pretty amazing)
Full explanation of RAID configurations
Children who were spanked become more well-adjusted adults - well duh
Snippage - make any webpage a widget
Two 8x10 canvas prints for 8 bucks - that's a great deal

The *MOST* Amazing video of it's kind, ever (thus far in history)
The Third & The Seventh - main video (and a compositing video here)
..and you might ask why it's so amazing? Well, it's completely CG - the whole thing, start to finish - watch it and you'll understand why it's so incredible. Watch the leaves in the wind, the birds in slow motion, the movement of the photographer - it's just wow.

And finally, this one gets a special mention:

****Two Gentlemen of Lebowski****

Seriously, this is amazing. I'm not a huge fan of The Big Lebowski (only seen it once), but this Shakespearean rewrite - dude - it's a true masterpiece of the modern seamlessly blending with the old. Kudos to the guy who wrote it (Adam Bertocci). Long Live The Knave!

And to close, not one, but TWO words of the moment:
micturate and (less uncommon, but still a good word to remember) equanimity

****Roundup of interesting stuff:****
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Note to self - Don't teach monkeys kung fu
And just in general - Don't mess with nature
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Sacsayhuamán - Amazing Incan rock wall construction
Places you'll never live - Most expensive homes around the world
Losing to win - The neuroscience of screwing up
I love the Banyans, but they're all Amazing trees
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Rock-breathing bacteria could generate electricity
Engineering bacteria to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel
Using Electromagnetic Pulse Technology to Machine High Strength Steels
Is the LHC going to play second fiddle?
Does Minnesota have Dark Matter?
Living without medical insurance in Japan
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The video project (Ataque de Pánico! [Panic Attack!]) that landed it's creator a $30 million contract.
If you've got Android - 40 Tips and Tricks
Want something new to play with? - Most popular downloads of 2009
as well as Most popular photography hacks
And just for fun, the word of the moment is "shibboleth"

Stuff that caught my eye recently:
Silicon-Air Battery to Have Unlimited Shelf Life
How Major Labels Cook the Books with Digital Downloads
MIT gestural computing makes multitouch look old hat
Charity: A visual breakdown
What do futurist really know?
That last one I find rather interesting because that seems like an ideal job for me, considering my natural proclivities.

Quite simply the most amazing stop-motion paper craft video ever: Going West
(Made for the NZ Book Council)

Remains of the...well, since last time I posted (aka, cool stuff I have open in tabs right now)
LHC pics - Large Hadron Collider is all systems go
23 years in a "coma" - but really conscious the whole time - he just couldn't move or respond in any way
The "crystal girl" - little girl has to take a cocktail of drugs to keep her body from crystallizing
Intel's brain chip implants - it's how you'll turn your TV on in the future (cue eerie futuristic music)
And just for fun, some sweet slow shutter shots.

This is just absolutely bonkers: Bear Hockey

Dali and his anteater

This is why we're fat: Portion Size, Then Vs. Now

AND...

Going for the "fat free" options (a.k.a., fake fat), is not not such a good idea either, because then this kind of thing can happen, and that's just gross.

Algae and Light Help Injured Mice Walk Again
...gives a whole new meaning to "You light up my life"
(Basically, this is brain control via light stimulus)

Vegetarian Spiders - what are they going to discover next, vampire moths???
...oh wait

Mac need to feel lonely no longer:
Hackers pay 43 cents per hijacked Mac
...I wonder what they pay for PCs???

So you do your own gardening? Well, here's how to get better tomatoes...if you dare.