DIY Your Own Pinhole Blender

DIY Pinhole blender how-to (step 6) by bricolage.108This is a great tutorial on how you can build your own multi shutter pinhole camera using old film canisters and a metal can. Very inventive I must say. The images taken with this sort of camera blends together different scenes in a very organic (see examples) way that many people can only achieve these days using a graphics program like Photoshop. Does anyone still remember the bad old days when trial and error was the only way to do such photographic manipulation?

Bricolage: weblog errante… Arquivo: Março de 2007

If you want to buy one, check out the ‘original’ pinhole blender at pinholeblender.com

Solar Storm Warning, Head For The Basement!

Very cool. I’ll have to load the camera up with some nice film so I can take photos of the Northern lights. Too bad I have to wait until 2010 or 2012.

This week researchers announced that a storm is coming–the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.

I wonder if that in the next few years as the solar activity peaks the weather will be effected. Anyone remember the news about the coming ice age back in the 70’s? I do know that the ham radio guys will be enjoying it. Solar Max makes for good DX’ing.

[via spottings]
NASA – Solar Storm Warning

The Skeptics’ Guide To The Universe

The Skeptic Guide to the UniverseIf 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.

The Skeptics’ Guide To The Universe

Can a Rootkit Be Certified for Vista?

Microsoft VistaYou just know that this can’t be a good thing…

Forget what Microsoft says about Vista being the most secure version of Windows yet. More to the point, what do the hackers think of it. In a nutshell, they think it’s an improvement, but at the end of the day, it’s just like everything else they dissect—that is, breakable. "Not all bugs are being detected by Vista," pointed out famed hacker H.D. Moore. "Look at how a hacker gets access to the driver: Right now I’m working on Microsoft’s automated process to get Metasploit-certified. It [only] costs $500.

Can a Rootkit Be Certified for Vista?

Boiling Hot Ice created in Nanoseconds by Sandia’s Z machine

Daniel Nolan, the super icemanIcy hot!

“The three phases of water as we know them — cold ice, room temperature liquid, and hot vapor — are actually only a small part of water’s repertory of states,” says Sandia researcher Daniel Dolan. “Compressing water customarily heats it. But under extreme compression, it is easier for dense water to enter its solid phase [ice] than maintain the more energetic liquid phase [water].”
In the Z experiment, the volume of water shrank abruptly and discontinuously, consistent with the formation of almost every known form of ice except the ordinary kind, which expands.
(One might wonder why this ice shrank instead of expanding, given the common experience of frozen water expanding to wreck garden hoses left out over winter. The answer is that only “ordinary” ice expands when water freezes. There are at least 11 other known forms of ice occurring at a variety of temperatures and pressures.)

Ice created in nanoseconds by Sandia’s Z machine 

Grand Canyon Skywalk Stirs Up The Dust

Photo: AP/CNNI saw on CNN this morning that the Hualapai Indian tribe(wiki) is getting ready to open what they hope will be their ticket out of reservation poverty. The Skywalk is a massive steel and glass horizontal arch that lets people walk out over the edge of the Grand Canyon and look down some 4,000 feet to the canyon floor. The tribe has bet the proverbial farm on this in hopes that the tourist draw from near by Las Vegas will give them a much needed boost to their economy. The fees from the Skywalk(wiki) attraction ($25US) and a tribal heritage center ($50US) will give the 2,200 members of the tribe a better standard of living.
However, this have been met with criticism from some environmentalists stating that the increased traffic will put an undo burden on the local environment. Also some members of the tribe have voiced concerns that near by burial sites will be damaged.
One mans cultural awareness center is another mans tourist trap. It all depends on what side of the dollar you’re on. I wish them the best of luck with this endeavor and I hope that the entire tribe and the other people involved will not over develop the land around Skywalk and degrade the attraction to the point that no one wants to see it any more.