Product Displacements: Alessandro Nassiri Tabibzadeh

Young Italian artist Alessandro Nassiri brings together the tradition of performance art with the practices of relational aesthetics to stage actions, carried-out by himself or
other individuals, that disrupt the
conventions of everyday life.

The image to the right greatly intrigues

Is it a large piece of sandstone ?

or Is a concrete remnant ?

Is it a ruin ?

Like a remnant from a Roman aquaduct ?

the image is from
TR4480C, 2006-7 an odyssey of the 21st century

When we buy a new model, we throw away the old one. Often our used things are sold in other countries. Gods have more right to move than any human beings. Old buses from italian cities are now used in Tirana, Albania. The motorcycle of the italian police in the 80's
is now the albanian police's.

Where do all these goods remain at the end of their life?

In Tirana we bought an old Volkswagen Golf from 1978, and we drove it back to Italy, where it used to be since 1994.

Toshiba AquilionONE CT Scanner

The Toshiba AquilionONE looks like a giant white glazed doughnut that stands more than two metres high. A patient is placed in the "hole" of this high-tech doughnut, and within a matter of seconds, the machine can collect enough data to produce three-dimensional images of the heart on a computer screen.

That means doctors can immediately see if the patient has any narrowed or obstructed coronary arteries that could be an early warning sign of an impending heart attack.

It does 320-slices, enabling doctors to see the entire heart while making patients hold their breath for merely "a second or two." Put simply, the machine should allow for heart disease to be spotted in its earliest stages without putting individuals through a lengthy tribulation, and the ultra high resolution 3D images it produces will allow medical personnel to quickly determine if there are any problems that need to be dealt with. Currently, the system is being tested at Toronto General's Peter Munk Cardiac Centre.

Sources One and Two

Mutant Hub: USB to SATA/eSATA with 5 USB Ports Combo

Brando, e-tailer of products has just released a new USB hub that turns any SATA or eSATA mass storage device into a convenient external USB 2.0 High-Speed drive. This adapter supports 2.5" and 3.5" SATA hard drives, SATA CD/DVD drives and eSATA drive enclosure. It is a great test bench device perfect for technicians or anyone needing to copy or offload files from one hard drive to another. In additions, it contains a 5-Port hub, it is more convenience to use.

Available immediately, the mutant hub is $33, or $43 and is bundled with a USB Cable, Power supply Bundle, Hard Drive Power supply, Power cord and a 12V/SATA Power Y-Cable.


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Aerion Supersonic Business Jet To Begin Flights 2014

Do you think that a normal flight over the ocean from Paris to New York takes too much time but you'd like to deport in less than 4 and a half hours and do this by flying at 1.6 Mach? Aerion Supersonic Business Jet is the answer for all this questions. Aerion Corporation is now developing a Supersonic Business Jet.... continue reading



Here is a CNBC video introduction to Supersonic Business Jets said to begin service 2013 and this video highlights a problem for the USA;
Commercial supersonic flights across the North American airspace are presently against the law, not so almost everywhere else except for some provisions that countries implemented during the Concorde era.

Pollution wise this Jet won't be using Afterburn after reaching cruising speed and its fuel consumption will be less than half the amount a contemporary jet currently uses.

It appears as though this Aircraft has come to the forefront because of this man.

Source and Video

Methane-Eating Bacteria Could Combat Global Warming

New Zealand scientists have found a bacterium, named Methylokorus infernorum, that feasts on methane, considered the second most abundant greenhouse gas behind carbon dioxide. Found in a hot spring, the bug lives off of methane emissions from geothermically active areas. A scientist quoted in the article stated that a cubic meter of liquid containing the bacterium would consume about 11kg of methane each year. But Dr Stott cautioned that such an application was probably some years into the future. He said it was unlikely the micro-organism, which prefers acidic conditions of about 60C, could ever be added to sheep or cows' food to stop the animals releasing methane.

Yes I've always believed that if something is made on earth then there's bound to be an agent or thing in the earth that will enable it's destruction (cf posted a blog inwhich Russian Scientists seem to have discovered a new mineral that totally neutralizes radioactively charged water )


Sources: 1 & 2 & Forum Discussion

Physicist Slows, Stops and Sends A Beam of Light

Lene Vestergaard Hau can stop a pulse of light in midflight, start it up again at 0.13 miles per hour, and then make it appear in a completely different location. "It's like a little magic trick," says Hau, a Harvard physicist. Of course, in all magic tricks there's a secret. And her secret is a 0.1-mm lump of atoms called a Bose-Einstein condensate, cooled nearly to absolute zero (-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit) in a steel container with tiny windows. Normally — well, in a vacuum — light goes 186,282 miles per second. But things are different inside a BEC, a strange place where millions of atoms move — barely — in quantum lockstep. About a decade ago, Hau started playing with BECs — for a physicist, that means shooting lasers at them. She blew up a few. Eventually, she found that lasers of the right wavelengths could tune the optical properties of a BEC, giving Hau an almost supernatural command over any other light shined into it. Her first trick was slowing a pulse of light to a crawl — 15 mph as it traveled through the BEC. Since then, Hau has completely frozen a pulse and then released it. And recently she shot a pulse into one BEC and stopped it — turning the BEC into a hologram, a sort of matter version of the pulse. Then she transferred that matter waveform into an entirely different BEC nearby — which emitted the original light pulse. That's just freaky. Hey, Einstein may have set that initial speed limit of light, but he only theorized about BECs. It's not breaking relativity, Hau says. But I'm sure he would have been rather surprised.

Source & Video

Exoskeleton: A Human Amplifying Machine, Turns Humans Into Terminators

This video shows an experimental robotic exoskeleton as it turns soldiers into super-soldiers and also works independently as a robot.

Humans aren't the quickest creatures on Earth, and most of us are limited in the amount of weight that we can pick up and carry. These weaknesses can be fatal on the battlefield, and that's why the (DARPA) is investing $50 million to develop an exoskeleton suit for ground troops. This wearable robotic system could give soldiers the ability to run faster, carry heavier weapons and leap over large obstacles.

These exoskeletal systems are expected to give soldiers amplified strength and speed, and will also have built-in computers to aid soldiers in navigating foreign territories.

Olympus Births HD Panoramic Movies

Olympus has developed a new video camera and projector that can capture images with a full 360-degrees horizontal view in 1080i HD resolution. The camera, which looks more like a high-end immersion blender than a camcorder, is outfitted with a tapered lens that can grab omnidirectional images within a vertical plane of 50 degrees. The camera utilizes a proprietary system based around an "axisymmetric free-form-surface lens," the camera can shoot video at horizontal and vertical viewing angles of 360-and-50-degrees, respectively; the images can then be projected in the same range by a separate unit.

On the left is a camera that can shoot video images with horizontal and vertical viewing angles of 360 and 50°, respectively, in full HD resolution. On the right is the projector in the centre of the room inwhich the images shot with this camera are being projected on a cylindrical screen.

The lens is shaped like a top with a diameter of about 6cm. It is made of plastic. It can form omnidirectional images (horizontal and vertical viewing angles of 360 and 50°, respectively) on a plane surface in an annular manner, or project annular images on an omnidirectional surface.

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A Ghost That Missed Halloween Gets Captured On CCTV

A ghost appears to have showed up at a fuel depot in Parma, Ohio (USA) recently and was caught on the station's security tape . A vivid blue image is seen floating around before flying off after about half-an-hour. Local customers who viewed the tape had a number of theories. Some thought the apparition was an angel, while others thought the eerie vision was a spirit from an old Indian reservation, though all agreed the price of gas today is enough to spook anyone.

I wonder though if anyone at the depot actually experienced it in person ?

Source

Update

Bug Girl from Bug Girl's Blog has decloaked the blue ghost
with this likely explanatory video

River Dancing Chimps

The pitter patter of the chimps feet
on the dancing canvas sounds authentic
in this video.

The BA609: The Worlds First Civilian Tiltrotor

The BA609 Tiltrotor combines the speed, altitude, and comfort of a turboprop with the vertical takeoff and landing capabilities of a helicopter. Having cruising capabilities of 25,000 ft., this versatile aircraft will fly in icing conditions and extreme climates, from Arctic to desert. With seating up to nine passengers and at twice the speed of typical helicopters of comparable capacity, the BA609 is designed to be the best multi-mission aircraft for the task. An executive could conceivably take off from the helipad of a country house outside London, fly in comfort to a meeting in Frankfurt in just 60 minutes, then fly on to Zurich, Milan and back home for early dinner. All with a minimum of ground transportation requirements.

Itinerent transitory mobile conveniancy has just been turned up a notch with this vehicle, I wonder whether they'll get around to developing for a solo pilot and or upscale it to a freighter. check out the Gallery, also this website, demonstrates how MATLAB was used to design and simulate the Tiltrotor's control systems

The Video link page has among the 4 different file media types 2 video's and 2 QTVR's

The image above on the right is a screen shot taken from a spherical view of the cockpit but what is that strange piece of furniture ?


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Korean Research Institute Demonstrates 2 Empathy Robots

Kobie looks like a fluffy Koala bear. The robot is able to recognize human faces, make eye contact, and express emotions through sounds.

Rabie gets its name from its rabbit-like design, and has a built-in "reasoning" system called Bossam. Bossam was developed last year and allows the educational robot to play a word guessing game in English. Rabie is able to play word guessing games in English. Rabie tries to guess things a human is thinking of by asking questions. If a person has the word "elephant" in mind, Rabbie will try to guess the word by asking questions such as "does it live inside?" or "is it big?"

By not having a computer integrated the new robots are cheaper to build.

Kobie and Rabie receive their instructions through a wireless Internet connection. That makes them more affordable than similar robots from other countries that come with pricey computers built-in. Kobie offers a calming stability, very similar to a normal pet, and we believe it can be used for patients in need of emotional help, said Son Ju-chan, head researcher of ETRI's Knowledge and Inference Research Team.

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Video

Content Aware Resizing: Seam Carving

With the lightening pace of daily computer use we pause to contemplate the genius behind some newly invented software engineering tricks.

Like when we do a simple thing on the screen like physically alter the physical size of our photograph on the screen by dragging the image into a smaller size we are in effect seam carving our image into a size that fits the page or screen.

This technique of effectively rubbing out or erasing least heat related data of an image will and is currently by and large impacting on our daily impressions of perception, our eyes are being trained to iron out the detail or perhaps flatten it and fold it away.

Diffen: Net Savy Comparative Feedback Work Unit

diffen
is a great little internet helper application that returns surprisingly quick comparative differences between two things, ideas or concepts. Examples listed on the start page immediately give hugely detailed responses, like Blue Ray Vs HD DVD or CT Scan Vs Mri .

Scissor Spider Sculptures

Christopher Locke makes spider-sculptures out of confiscated scissors bought at TSA auctions.The larger ones are made from barber scissors, and the smaller ones are made from cuticle scissors.

This spider pictured is made from 8 pairs of stainless barber scissors that were confiscated at an airport security checkpoint. See more Scissor Spiders by Christopher Locke, and to see step-by-step how these spiders are made, go here.


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Nanosolar PowerSheet:The New Dawn Of Solar Energy

A company has developed a new way for printing Nanosolar powersheeting incredibly inexpensively. Nanosolar’s cells use no silicon, and the company’s manufacturing process allows it to create cells that are as efficient as most commercial cells for as little as 30 cents a watt. They are able to reproduce this new material seemingly without end. This new manufacturing process will inherently alter the economics of the Solar industry.

The company produces its powerSheet solar cells with printing-press-style machines that set down a layer of solar-absorbing nano-ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil, so the panels can be made for about a tenth of what current panels cost and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute. With backing from Google’s founders and $20 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, Nanosolar’s first commercial cells rolled off the presses this year.

In San Jose, Nanosolar has built what will soon be the world’s largest solar-panel manufacturing facility. CEO Martin Roscheisen claims that once full production starts early next year, it will create 430 megawatts’ worth of solar cells a year—more than the combined total of every other solar plant in the U.S. The first 100,000 cells will be shipped to Europe, where a consortium will be building a 1.4-megawatt power plant next year.

Sources: One , Two & Video

The Genesis EV-X7: Axle Corporation's Hybrid Electric Bike

The EV-X7 has a magnetic motor built into its rear wheel. The motor is a hybrid between a electromagnet and a permanent magnet. It was designed by the Axle Group in Japan. The bike has a range of about 110 miles (180 kilometers) on a single charge, and a top speed of about 92 mph (150 kilometers per hour). The company plans to start selling a mini-scooter version of the magnetic-powered bike next year, which will be priced at about $2100. Running on neither petrol nor diesel, the manufacturers say it is almost noiseless the motor is seven times more cost efficient than scooters running on petrol. The battery can be charged at home, with a full charge taking just a little over six hours.


Source & Video 1 & Video 2

Scientists Have Built A Robot Controlled By A Moth Brain.

Mothbot is a small robotic vehicle controlled by the brain of a moth. Charles Higgins, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona has created it along with graduate student Timothy Melano. The brain of the machine is provided by a living hawk moth, the adult version of the horned tobacco caterpillar. It is a relatively large and rugged moth, with a wingspan of about 3 1/2 inches. It lives for several weeks.

The moth is immobilized in a plastic tube; it is connected to the robotic electrophysiology instrument with tiny wires implanted in its rice grain-sized brain. The wires are implanted after the moth reaches maturity (scientists are also at work on placing control hardware in an insect when it is still a pupa - see Hybrid Insects Sought For Bug Army). When the moth moves its eyes to the right, the robot vehicle turns in that direction.

One long-term goal of these experiments is to utilize the incredibly sensitive receptors in the moth; a hawk moth costs about $4, whereas state-of-the-art artificial sensors cost orders of magnitude more and are far less sensitive.

The image above depicts a 6-inch-tall wheeled robot moves when the insect’s eyes look around, but only left and right.

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Puyo:A Spongy Soft Texture: A Honda Fuel-cell Concept Car

The Puyo fuel-cell concept(the fuel cell generates electricity by using hydrogen and oxygen, making water the only byproduct) replaces traditional sheet metal for a soft bodied gel-like substance which they claim is safer in collisions. The material is dense and strong but flexible enough to absorb more impact and because it doesn't crunch, is much easier to repair. The tiny wheels are pushed to the very far corners for stability and in doing so, allows the Puyo to spin 360º in place.

Puyo translates from Japanese that means something "soft and spongy in texture," and for a good reason. Covering the outside of the car is a soft silicon skin designed to absorb the impact of light collisions, much like our own skin. The body of the Puyo lacks and sharp edges in an attempt to make it glance off anything in case of an accident, and because it glows in the dark, those should be few and far between.

The interior is designed around a single idea : space. All you have to do is look at the size of the door to see that. Honda went a step farther by making a 360 degree glass bubble around the top half of the car.

Source , Image & Video

The Headroom Project: Industrial Blues

This video resonates with surrealist overtones.

Interview with the musician
composer of Industrial Blues
Andreas Ecker

The Solar Impulse: Solar Powered Plane Takes Off!

Solar power just made aviation history, as two Swiss adventurers revealed a prototype for a solar-powered aircraft they hope will be the first to fly around the globe in 2011. The Solar Impulse prototype was just unveiled yesterday and is an amazing feat of design and engineering. Made from light-weight and super strong carbon fiber, and covered with a thin layer of high powered photovoltaics, the plane has a wingspace of 262ft from wing tip to wing tip.

The biggest challenges for solar flight up until now has been how to store enough energy from its array of solar panels to keep the slow & lightweight aircraft flying in darkness. In the case of the The Solar Impulse, engineers are relying on the battery capacity of the plane - which will store the energy generated during the day to keep the plane alight at night. The ultra-thin solar cells integrated into the wings will be used to collect sunlight and convert it into energy to power the four electric motors.

Sources 1 & 2

Pyglet Invention Enables CD-to-DAP Transfers Sans A Computer

Until now there is not any way of transfering music from CD directly into an ipod or DAP (Digital Audio Player), but a four-member team from the University of Adelaide is hoping to commercialize a CD-to-DAP device that won first prize in a recent eChallenge event. The so-called Pyglet -- which seems to function a lot like the iPod-only iLoad -- gives music lovers the ability to transfer songs from a CD to a MP3 player of their choice sans the need for a computer, and "Pyglet Enterprises" is expecting to have a prototype ready to rock rip in the next few months. Reportedly, the unit would sell for around $150 for personal users, while "more complex devices" would run businesses upwards of $700.

Source

3D Medical Display Utilizes Finger-controlled Interface

This new volumetric medical display from the Fraunhofer-Institut in Berlin offers not only 3D visualization for radiologists and surgeons, but also has a built in function that allows the manipulation and rotation of the image without touch, hence allowing clinicians not to break the scrub during sterile procedures.

The display relies on a pair of cameras mounted overhead and a single one integrated into its frame to capture exactly what angle the physician is gazing in at. Subsequently, the doctor can simply wave his / her finger and the image will rotate and shift as commanded in order to provide a more detailed look while keeping things as sterile as possible. Essentially, this system weds your average 3D display with a less common non-contact user interface, and while hard pricing deets weren't disclosed, the team suggested that even smaller medical practices should be able to squeeze this into their budget.

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High Definition Video of the Moon Taken by a Japanese Luna Probe

Almost one month after Japan's successful launch of the Kaguya lunar probe, the unmanned observatory has begun its first major activities in orbit around the moon. In addition to snapping its first lunar images, the probe jettisoned one of two 110-pound (50-kilogram) baby satellites that will help create a detailed gravity map of the moon. The major objectives of the Kaguya mission are to obtain scientific data of the lunar origin and evolution and to develop the robotics for the future lunar exploration. Kaguya consists of a main orbiting satellite at about 100km altitude and two small satellites (Relay Satellite and VRAD Satellite) in polar orbit.

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Aeroscraft: A Hybrid Airship's First Flight

Even though the Aeroscraft dwarfs the largest commercial airliners, it requires less net space on the ground than any plane because it doesn't need a runway. The airship takes off and lands like a helicopter.

The Aeroscraft is 850 feet (260 metres) in length, and has a top speed of 174 miles per hour, faster than conventional airships (top speed around 90 mph) but slower than jet aircraft (500 mph). It has a flight ceiling of 8000 feet.

The Aeroscraft uses a combination of aerodynamic and aerostatic principles to remain airborne. Approximately two-thirds of the craft's lift is provided by helium gas. The remaining lift is provided by the forward thrust of the craft's propellers, in combination with its aerodynamic shape, and its canards (forward fins) and empennage (rear fins).

As well as its horizonal propellers, the Aeroscraft has six downward-pointing turbofan jet engines for vertical take-off and landing. The craft also uses Dynamic Buoyancy Management, a novel technology which controls buoyancy by taking in air from the surrounding atmosphere and holding it in pressurised tanks. These systems make the Aeroscraft capable of landing on rough or snowy terrain, or on water.

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John Papandriopoulos: New Ultra Fast Broadband

John Papandriopoulos of the University of Melbourne – has invented a way to reduce crosstalk interference on DSL broadband copper lines and increase speeds to a theoretical maximum of 200 Mbps.
Many years ago people used to pick up the phone and make a phone call and you'd be able to hear a faint or distant telephone conversation taking place, and that's called cross-talk. This cross-talk in current day DSL networks effectively produces noise onto other lines, and this noise reduces the speed of your connection.
After developing an algorithm to reduce the electromagnetic interference that slows down ADSL connections. Dr Papandriopoulos said his algorithm served to minimise that interference and thus maximise the line speed.

Stanford University engineering professor John Cioffi, known by some as the "father of DSL", was one of the external experts reviewing the research, which made up Dr Papandriopoulos's PhD thesis. Professor Cioffi, who developed the computer chips inside the first DSL modems, was so impressed he offered the 29-year-old a job at his Silicon Valley start-up company, ASSIA, which is developing ways to optimise the performance of DSL netwoeks

Source

popcorn bursting at 5,400 fps.

High speed video of popcorn kernel
popping at 5,400 fps




Why Popcorn Pops

Capture Your Own Parts Of The Astro Sky From Your Backyard

Michael A Mayda took this image of Three Nebulae in Narrow Band two of them; colorful M8, above and right of center, and compact M20 at the left. The third, NGC 6559, is at bottom right. Over a hundred light-years across, M8 is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. Divided by obscuring dust lanes, M20's popular moniker is the Trifid.


Thanks to the wonderful equipment and software that is now available, it is possible to capture beautiful images and do "real" science from locations that "the pros" would never consider using (but where most of us live). Narrow band imaging filters, especially those manufactured by my good friend Don Goldman, make imaging from urban, light-polluted skies possible. We look up from the city at skies that are seemingly featureless, except for the Moon, a few stars and the occasional planet. But look deeper, with silicon eyes, and there is much wonder to behold. I created this site to share that wonder along with stories about the equipment and techniques that make such images possible.


So I wonder, is video capture using these narrowband imaging filters possible ?

Extremely Flexible Woman

rather unbelievable

Everyscape:Gliding Panoramic Fly Thrus of Inter-Urban Architecture

EveryScape has launched a 3D local search site that lets people drive down streets and even walk into buildings. The visuals (video) are stunning as you fly through the front doors of hotels, bars, and other buildings and turn around for a 360-degree view.

At the site
You click anywhere in the map to be taken to the next spot. One navigates by using the auto drive button and get a tour of the neighborhood as if you were a passenger in a cab, watching the sights go by. Clicking on the you drive button and take the controls, clicking on an orange arrow to proceed forward and using the mouse to change direction or glance up.

Besides the ability to tour the insides of buildings, what makes EveryScape different from other 3D local search sites, like Google Street View and Microsoft Street Side, is the business model.

So a huge new market in Inter-Urban photo capture Industry will smartly arise and; EveryScape is cutting deals with businesses to create the tours inside the buildings, instead of just showing ads on the map.

This new web platform will spread like wildfire across the Globe in tarmac grafitti proportions
Its definiely a huge enhancement for GPS Technologies,and it may quite easily turn into its own as a handheld appliance or even as public access stations. Gee I wonder if Google will buy it ?


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