Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
Nice but sold out. Crap.
Designed by postmodern architect Frank Gehry and developed by Fossil this Gehry Writes Time Digital watch has an innovative time read out display in Frank Gehry’s own script. If the time is 11:30, the display reads in script, "half past 11" and if the time is 12:54, it reads as "6 til 1". The display also automatically switches back and forth showing a negative screen during daylight hours and a positive screen at nighttime. Also contains a calendar function.
If critical thinking is your cup of tea then this podcast is just for you. The Skeptics Guide to the Universe is a free weekly podcast sponsored by the New England Skeptical Society that is dedicated to the examination of paranormal, fringe science, and controversial claims with science and reason. Scientific process and peer review are the watch words of the day on this site! Even better, once in a while the famous James Randi makes a guest appearance on the show.
I was reading my eWeek today and say this cool article talking about a way to teach programming to kids. The idea is that you have this rich visual 3D world that you program the objects in it to move and interact. I took a look at it and discovered just that, it talks about methods, objects, and other tenants of modern programming . Man, I wished I would have had this when I was a kid. It would have made learning BASIC a lot simpler.
Once the students get comfortable with the interface they will be producing animated movies in no time at all. They can draw from a library rich in 3D models like dragons, faeries, spaceships, buildings. There is also a way to import models from 3D Studio Max using a third party utility. There is also a collaboration with the popular game ‘The Sims‘ to add a much more fluid look and feel to the character animations. I hope that when this happens Alice will stay free to anyone that wants to download it. My kids are both fans of the Sims and I know that this would at least give them a clue as to what computer programming is like. Even if you don’t have kids but would like to know more of how all this software stuff works you should download it and give it a try. It’s written in Java so it will work on both PC and Mac.
This is one show that I had somehow missed. The "Aaagh! It’s the Mr. Hell Show"(wiki) was shown on BBC2 back in 2001. I took a look for it on Amazon but turned up nothing, I did however see that you can buy it on Anime-On-Line. In this exciting episode Mr. Hell talks all about the virtues of science and how it’s made burning the neighboring village down all that much easier. Go science!
(Thanks to brother Steve for sharing this with all of us)
Everyone knows about hot air balloons. A great big sack filled with hot air that floats as if by magic in the sky. Ok, not by magic, they float because the hot air takes up less space than cold air so it weighs less and thus floats. I’m sure most people think that the air needs to be heated by great honking propane torches to obtain positive buoyancy but that just isn’t the case. With a thin enough envelope (ballooning lingo for the thing that holds the hot air) you can use the mighty power of the sun to do this job on the cheap and clean. This site is loaded with useful info (some may be in French however) and data for your own personal exploration of the atmosphere. Did I say personal? Yep, you bet. Some people have actualy build solar balloons large enough to lift a person. There are even instructions on how you can build and use a 1.9 meter diameter mini solar balloon. I’m surprised that this hasn’t graced the pages of MAKE magazine yet.
Oh. Wow. A medium format stereo camera, now that is just f-ing cool!
The specs:
Camera Type: Medium Format Tri-lens Stereo Camera (Reflex Viewing Lens)
Lenses: Anti-reflection coated glass optics, seven elements in six groups. f/2.8, 80mm focal length
Lens Separation: 63.5mm
Focusing: manual adjustment, 0.8 m – infinity
Shutter Type: metal focal plane shutter
Aperture: F2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22 and six half stops
Shutter Speeds: B – 1/500Sec.
Light Metering: consists of two of SPD’s (silicon photo diodes) for light measurement; aperture and shutter speeds are matched according to the LED display.
Viewfinder: consists of a viewfinder hood and lens, Eye-level pentaprism type with .0.7 X magnification
Focusing Screen: Split-image microprism type surrounded by a Fresnel screen. 3 LEDs in 5 exposure graduations display overexposure (+), correct exposure (O) & underexposure (-)
Flash Synchronization: X-contact only, sync speed 1/30 sec. or slower
Film Advance: Lever provided; 16° standoff angle and 128° winding angle, aligning film numbers through window on camera back
Film: One roll of 120 reversal film for a pair of 58mm x 56mm stereo images. 6 pairs per roll.
Dimensions: Approx. 207mm x 205mm x 134mm (8.15″ x 8.07″ x 5.28”), camera body only
Weight: 1960g or 69oz (camera body only)
If the price wasn’t so high I’d buy one in a hearbeat.
3DWorld Medium Format Stereo Camera: ViewMaster, 3D Glasses, 3D Stereo Photography
(Thank you Brother Steve of the Church of the Holy Exposure for this one)