Last week I attended what was arguably the largest gathering of fans of any sort I had ever been part of. Over 140,000 people from all over the world descended upon the San Diego convention center for four days of total nerd nirvana. Comics, movies, toys, collectibles, TV stars… For me the best parts were getting to meet Syd Mead and seeing Ray Bradbury again.
Replica Submarine Make Waves
You just have to love New York…
A man in a Revolutionary War-era submarine was cited by the U.S. Coast Guard for drifting into a security zone, and for unsafe sailing in New York’s East River near the Queen Mary 2 luxury liner, the Coast Guard and New York City Police Department said Friday.
I remember when I first saw a drawing of the famous ‘Turtle‘ I was fascinated by the entire concept. It’s a good thing that I didn’t live around any lakes or I might not have survived my childhood.
I applaud the artist for making such a cool contraption I have to wonder why he didn’t think of the obvious repercussions of taking such a craft into a busy water way. Lights, reflectors, having a line to a boat… I’m all for the coolness of an adventure like this but you have to use some common sense and think about safety.
(sorry about the headline, it was such an obvious joke I just had to do it)
ABC News: NYC Man Cited for 1775 Submarine
Adventures With an Egg – Flickr photoset
Duke Riley home page
Transmission of Power via Long Range Induction
This demonstration never fails to be a crown pleaser. However, this one was quite a bit more practical.
The idea of transmitting energy wirelessly isn’t new. For almost two centuries, scientists have known that rapidly changing magnetic fields, such as those produced by an alternating current flowing through a wire, can induce an electric current in another wire. That’s how the coils inside power transformers transmit energy from one coil to another without touching. But this form of induction usually works efficiently only when the two coils are very close to each other.
[via boingboing]
The Power of Induction: Science News Online, July 21, 2007
Rice Paddy Art
Who knew that growing rice could be so artistic.
Each year, farmers in the town of Inakadate in Aomori prefecture create works of crop art by growing a little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed tsugaru-roman variety.
[via nocot]
Pimp my rice paddy
Wind to Light, Art In Motion
This is a, excuse the pun, brilliant use of micro wind turbines:
the installation is custom built, using 500 mini wind turbines to generate power, which illuminates hundreds of mounted leds, creating firefly-like fields of light, with wind visually interpreted as electronic patterns across the installation.
Go have a look at the video of the installation in action. This is great meshing of art and technology, I can’t wait to see what Jason Bruges comes up with next.
[via core77]
Wind to light
TV in Japan
Via the magic of YouTube and other video sharing sites international television is becoming more accessible to the general public. I applaud these and get an especially good kick out of the ones that focus on Japanese TV. If you have never seen Japanese TV you are in for a wild ride…