How NASA Photoshopped A Galaxy

Posted: March 30th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: photography | Tags: | No Comments »

Did you know that every time you look at one of those amazing images captured by Hubble cameras you are actually looking at a composite image made up by as many as 1400 still shots? Did you also know that the colors you are seeing in those images are completely faked and added by scientists in order to show off specific details within the scene?

How NASA Photoshopped A Galaxy » f stoppers

See a timelapse video of how it’s done below.


Apple’s Jonathan Ive: How did a British polytechnic graduate become its design genius?

Posted: March 29th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: apple | Tags: | No Comments »

“‘Jobs comes in, looks at all Ive’s amazing prototypes and says, ‘My God, what have we got here?’’”

Apple’s Jonathan Ive: How did a British polytechnic graduate become its design genius? | Mail Online

My Sunday reading. Always interesting to read about the mysterious Jonathan Ive.


An Interview with Andy Carvin

Posted: March 29th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: internet | Tags: | No Comments »

With 40,000 Twitter followers and a dedicated stream of local sources, Andy Carvin has become a first stop on Twitter for news throughout the Middle East and North Africa. An NPR strategist, Carvin has approached social media–and Twitter in particular–as a platform for real-time reporting.

An Interview with Andy Carvin · Global Voices

If you don’t follow Andy Carvin on twitter. Start doing it now.


Spotify Box

Posted: March 29th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: music | Tags: , | No Comments »

Amazing concept by Jordi Parra as his masters degree project. A small box that plays music from Spotify. The music to play is controlled by placing magnetic RFID tags onto the device.

The design is outstanding and I love the physical interaction with the box, that you have to change tag to change album. Brilliant!

More photos in this set on Flickr and videos on Vimeo.

(via Rasmus)


Find as you type (a.k.a. type-ahead-find) in Google Chrome

Posted: March 28th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: internet | Tags: | No Comments »

chrome-type-ahead – Chromium extension – Find as you type (a.k.a. type-ahead-find) – Google Project Hosting

This extension is a life saver! It makes it possible to press ‘ and write the first few characters of a link you want to open and then press enter to open it.

No more using the mouse to open links!


The Aurora

Posted: March 26th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: photography | Tags: | No Comments »

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Amazing timelapse of the aurora borealis by Terje Sorgjerd. Magical!


Ian Squires: Conservative Pie; Republicans Introduce Legislation Redefining Pi as Exactly 3

Posted: March 24th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: misc | Tags: | No Comments »

“That long-held empirical value of pi, I am not saying it should be necessarily viewed as wrong, but 3 is a lot better,” said Roby, the 34-year old legislator representing Alabama’s second congressional district, ushered into office in the historic 2010 Republican mid-term bonanza.

“For decades, we’ve all been learning that pi is this crazy ‘irrational’ number. And any number with no end is, not, well, it makes it really hard,” Roby said. “We talked about making pi 3-and-a-third, but that wouldn’t really help, because you’re still then stuck with endless threes.”

Republicans Introduce Legislation Redefining Pi as Exactly 3

Brilliant!

(Via Marco.)


Tokyo – Tap Water Not Safe for Infants

Posted: March 23rd, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: environment | Tags: , | No Comments »

“Levels of radioactive iodine in tap water at a water treatment center in downtown Tokyo measured 210 becquerels per liter of iodine-131 — more than twice the recommended limit of 100 becquerels per liter for infants, officials from the Tokyo Water Bureau said at a news conference.”

Tokyo – Tap Water Not Safe for Infants – NYTimes.com


Radiation Chart

Posted: March 22nd, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: environment | Tags: , , | No Comments »

“There’s a lot of discussion of radiation from the Fukushima plants, along with comparisons to Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Radiation levels are often described as ‘<X> times the normal level’ or ‘<Y>% over the legal limit,’ which can be pretty confusing.

Ellen, a friend of mine who’s a student at Reed and Senior Reactor Operator at the Reed Research Reactor, has been spending the last few days answering questions about radiation dosage virtually nonstop [..]. She suggested a chart might help put different amounts of radiation into perspective, and so with her help, I put one together”

Radiation Chart

Gives perspective on the numbers thrown around in media.


A New Class of Nuclear Reactors

Posted: March 22nd, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: environment | Tags: , , | No Comments »

“TerraPower, an Intellectual Ventures spin-off that also boasts Bill Gates as an investor, is working on a new reactor design called a traveling wave reactor that uses fast reactor technology, rather than the light water technology used at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The two biggest advantages of the fast reactor design is that it requires no spent fuel pools and uses cooling systems that require no power to function, meaning the loss of power from the tsunami might not have crippled a fast reactor plant so severely.’”

A New Class of Nuclear Reactors – Slashdot

Sounds promising. Even though I believe in researching alternative non-nuclear power sources it’s not like we’re going to get rid of nuclear power for quite some time.