Wired Nextfest 2006

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I had the happy accident of seeing a sign for the Wired Nextfest in a subway on Tuesday and made it one of the last things on the big list for NYC.
Holy crap, all the time I was there I kept thinking Roy Batty’s line from Blade Runner "I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…’ This was stuff that I had blogged about or read of in magazines…

Flickr photoset Wired Nextfest 2006 

DIY Lenticular Stereo Images

Lenticular dragonI’ve seen parallax barrier/lenticular kits that you can buy in computer stores in Thailand. It had some software (simple image manipulation, 3D title maker, and the lenticular program) along with a picture frame that had a screen of the ridged lenticular material. The whole thing looked very cool. I think it was being sold by a printer maker, but I can’t remember what one. I do a bit of stereo photography here and there and was quite intrigued with it, but sadly not enough to buy the kit. The free software in the DIY article should be fun to play with though. 

 

[via MAKE]

Colograms – a simple way to create stereoscopic images

Magnetohydrodynamic Projects

MHD projects If you have ever seen the submarine movie "The Hunt for Red October" you will remember that it’s big thing was the silent propulsion system. It used something called ‘magnetohydrodynamics‘, that is it used a powerful electro magnet to pull water through a pipe and squirt it out the back. Your thinking ‘water and magnets? Get real’ well it’s true, water, and may other fluid type things (solar wind, salt water…) can be manipulated with magnetic fields. Water is a substance that is diamagnetic, that means that it is magnetic in the presence of a magnetic field (read the Wikipedia article on it, it’s explained better there). Grab a super magnet and shallow plastic pan and fill it with a little water and see what it does.

Anyway, this is a little project where you can experiment with this fascinating subject. Go have a look and try it for yourself. You could be having races with your mad scientist friends in no time..

Three magnetohydrodynamic propulsion projects

Effects of LSD on an Artist

Artist on acid

This is a fascinating look into what happens when an artist is given a dose of LSD and then asked to draw portraits of the same person at various stages of his trip. Quite a mind expanding journey, I can see why this was favored by some creative types.

These 9 drawings were done by an artist under the influence of LSD — part of a test conducted by the US government during it’s dalliance with psychotomimetic drugs in the late 1950’s. The artist was given a dose of LSD 25 and free access to an activity box full of crayons and pencils. His subject is the medico that jabbed him.
First drawing is done 20 minutes after the first dose (50ug)
An attending doctor observes – Patient chooses to start drawing with charcoal.
The subject of the experiment reports – ‘Condition normal… no effect from the drug yet’

BTW, if you want to get an idea of what someonf the visual effects are like, take a look at this optical illusion

[via neat-o-rama

Acid trip 

Moo Cards: Mini Custom Cards From Your Flickr Photos

Moo cards from FlickrHow cool, tiny name cards that feature your favorite Flickr images! If your the owner of a pro Flickr account you can have a free sampler pack of 10 shipped for you, you guessed it, free! These would be great as gift tags too, just stick a ‘To:’ and ‘From:’ line on the back and your set. I can’t wait to see what other people end up using these for. I should get mine in about a week. I’ll have to make it a point to shoot some photos specifically for these cards on my next trip.
For more printing ideas go have a look at the Qoop page. I’m betting that if the mini cards are as popular as I think there going to be, Moo will be branching out to the other popular photo sharing networks as well. I can only hope.

[via Boing Boing]

Moo Cards: Stunning kid-sized custom biz-cards with Flickr pix