Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Video: Japan Gets Vending Machine 2.0 With See-Through Full HD Display, Facial Recognition
Maker Sanden says the machine’s display can produce text, pictures or animations in HD quality.
The company commands a 30% global market share for vending machines and is also active in the US, meaning this prototype could also make its way over to North America one day.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
02 pursuit motorcycle
MELBOURNE — Last month industrial designer Dean Benstead unveiled the 02 Pursuit — a prototype for a motorcycle fueled not by gas or electricity, but by compressed air.
Based on the geometry of a 250cc motocrosser, the O2 Pursuit prototype uses the breakthrough engine technology developed by Angelo Di Pietro of Engineair.
Benstead, a recent graduate of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), has harnessed the power that exists in the air tanks to mechanically drive the vehicle.
According to Benstead, testing of the motorcycle showed close to a quarter of an hour running time with stops at around 25-45 km/h. During stationary testing, Benstead’s team timed the speed off the back wheel, registering over 100 km/h. Preliminary testing of the prototype was limited to an indoors factory environment on a circular track.
“The bike is running a standard scuba tank which runs air compressed up to 200 bar, with further developments, we would be looking at running a tank at 400 bar with increased capacity to also increase the range,” he said.
The innovation was the result of Benstead’s final-year design research into the future of motorcycles, looking at air as a genuine alternative to petrol and electricity.
“Air was the starting point back in 2010, but I continued to explore this for the prototype because of its low-tech nature,” Benstead said. “A solar panel and a compressor now becomes your refinery and without huge battery packs to dispose of, we now have a low-cost to free powered bike with minimum impact on the environment.”
The project began mid last year at the RMIT Ecomoto, the only motorcycle-specific design studio in Australia. Led by RMIT Lecturer and Acting Program Director Simon Curtis, Benstead’s super motard bike project won him the Product Design – Automotive and Transport award at the 2010 Melbourne Design Awards.
The air engine developed by Engineair is still yet to be commercialized. The motor used in the 02 Pursuit was one of five prototypes in the world.
Benstead, recently named in Melbourne’s Top 100 most influential people, is currently working with Australia’s Engineair on a new design that can bring the technology to the market.
02 Pursuit specs:
Top Speed: >100 km/h
Weight: <100kg
Engine: ‘Di Pietro’ 9 chamber air engine
Engine Weight: 10kg
Material: Aluminiumhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Development: Melbourne
http://www.engineair.com.au/
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Brad Burnham Explains Why SOPA Must Be Stopped
The Congressional Judiciary committee is debating a bill today called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which nobody in the Internet industry wants to see passed. Not surprisingly, the bill was written by lobbyists for the music and movie industries, who are frustrated by their inability to go after foreign sites filled with pirated material. The piracy problem is real, but the proposed solutions in the form of this bill and the Senate’s corresponding Protect-IP Act (PIPA) will create more problems than they solve.
Brad Burnham, a managing partner at Union Square Ventures, came into the TCTV studio in New York City to explain why SOPA is misguided and how it threatens to break the internet. There are many problems with SOPA, but some of the main ones are that it transfers liability for copyright infringement onto second parties like search engines, social networks, blogs, and all sorts of websites. It provides for DNS blocking much in the same way that China’s great firewall blocks foreign sites it does not want its citizens to see, raising a serious censorship issue since it would not take a court order to block these sites (although it is more complicated than a simple takedown notice).
But more than anything, the bill would inject a level of uncertainty into the internet which could chill the willingness of VCs like Burnham to invest as freely as they have and for founders to start internet companies in the first place. The internet is one of the few sources of job creation in the U.S. economy right now. We don’t need laws that will stifle it.
If you want to learn more about SOPA, read this excellent overview by Mike Masnick at TechDirt. Call your Congress person or let them know that you work for the internet.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Seth Godin on curiosity
These people are the 'curious'. Here is the reason they count. They are the ones who wake others around them from stupor. They are the ones who talk to the masses in the middle who are stuck
Seth Godin Wants You to Decide!
Student Leaders Workshop designed to introduce the next generation of leaders to social entrepreneurship and the concept of patient capital.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Field Notes ♥ Busy Beaver
We’ve been both fans and customers of the Busy Beaver Button Co. since forever. They’ve made buttons for Pinsetter, for Field Notes, and for a lot of our personal projects, too. So when Michele said, “Would you want to go over and film with them?” we were immediately out the door. We hung out in their office for a couple of hours, talking to founder Christen Carter, and put together this short doc, hopefully capturing a little of the greatness that is Busy Beaver (and along the way, showing how a Field Notes button gets made).
Fused I Say, Fused!
Field Notes: Making of Balsam Fir from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.
The inside covers and interior pages of the Balsam Fir notebooks were offset-printed in “Wet Bark Black” at Envision Graphics in Bloomingdale IL, then the covers were sent to Diecrafters in historic Cicero, IL for hot foil stamping. This is FIELD NOTES’ first foray into foil stamping, and the process is shown in the video above. The press is a Kluge EHE 14×22, manufactured by Brandtjen & Kluge in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. Hot foil stamping is fairly similar to letterpress printing (as seen in our Raven’s Wing video) but instead of ink, colored or metallic foil (or holograms!) are fused onto the paper with a heated die, In this case, a snow-white matte non-metallic ‘foil’ was used, rolls of the material can be seen mounted above the printer. Each roll was aligned to a specific print position on the sheet to minimize wasted foil. The finished covers went back to Bloomingdale to be cut, assembled, bound, trimmed, round-cornered, belly-banded, and shrink-wrapped, and they’ll be in your hands soon!
Letterpress and Rounded Corners
Wings: Making the Field Notes 2010 Fall Edition from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.
Sort of like “How It’s Made,” but with much cooler music. Our new film is about about the making of the Fall COLORS edition, “Raven’s Wing.”
Introducing THE STENO
Field Notes: Making of Steno Book from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.
Enjoy this quick film about the production process behind THE STENO. The covers are silk-screened. You might also be interested in our previous printing films covering letterpress and foil stamping.
We’ve been listening. Devoted Field Notes fans have asked for a larger notebook, something to keep on their desks to go along with our pocket-sized and portable originals. So today we’re announcing the new Field Notes Brand STENO BOOK.
THE STENO is 6″ by 9″ with a black, Double-O Wiring spiral binding at the top, so it lies flat, open or closed. The cover is a beefy 60 pt. “Super Duty Chipboard” from Newark Paperboard Mills, and there are 80 pages of Gregg-Ruled, Finch Paper “Opaque Smooth” 70# text paper inside. We’ve been testing them here and frankly, we wonder how we ever got on without them. They’re the perfect form to keep open on your desk at all times.
Some History on Fire Spotters and the Star of Our Film
Field Notes Fire Tower from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.
Located in Oconto County, Wisconsin in the Chequamego-Nicolet National Forest, just two miles from the community of Mountain (pop. 860) and just off Forest Road 2106, the Mountain Fire Lookout Tower rises 93 feet, well above a tree line crowded with pines, oak, and maples. The Model LS-40 tower was built in Chicago in 1932 by the Aermotor Company, and was erected by the Wisconsin Conservation Commission, first several miles east-southeast in far more isolated location reachable only by foot trail, and then disassembled by the CCC and moved closer to service roads in 1935.
In use for nearly forty years, from May through September of each year a trained fire spotter would live at the site, spending every daylight hour up in the cab keeping watch for smoke, reporting possible fires via phone to a central Northern Wisconsin fire suppression station. At one time rich with thick forests, which in turn created a massive lumber industry, the area was prone to raging fires like the 1871 Great Peshtigo Fire which resulted in thousands of deaths, twelve completely decimated towns, and millions of scorched acres. Incidents such as these created a dire need for towers like the Mountain Fire Lookout.
Originally surrounded by small living quarters, a latrine, and storage sheds, the tower itself is now all that is left on the site. The last fire called occurred on April 25th, 1970, and it is one of only 2 remaining towers from the original 19 that were built in the immediate area. After its decommission, it served briefly as a radio antenna/relay for local ambulance and law enforcement services. Between 1993 and 1994 the site was rehabilitated and converted into a public site. The Mountain Fire Lookout Tower was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
Happy Holidays!
Field Notes Brand: The Northerly Edition from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.
Our thirteenth FIELD NOTES COLORS release, for Winter 2011, is called “The Northerly Edition,” and as always, we’re trying a few new ideas.
It's that time of the year again - Happy Holidays!
Wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
You can make your holiday a special one.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Quyen Nguyen: Color-coded surgery
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Quyen Nguyen
Quyen Nguyen uses molecular probes that make tumors -- and just the tumors -- glow, as an extraordinary aid to surgeons.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
New iPhone App Helps NASA Keep Track of Meteoroids
A new app for iPhones and iPads harnesses the power of citizen scientists to help NASA track meteoroids hitting Earth.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Thursday, December 08, 2011
New Battery Technology at Argonne Nat. Labs
Clean Skies News goes behind the scenes where new batteries are being developed at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory. Lee Patrick Sullivan reports.
Getting paid to break into things: Argonne's Roger Johnston on NBC
Roger Johnston and the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne break into "foolproof" systems.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Sarah Kay: How many lives can you live?
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sarah Kay
A performing poet since she was 14 years old, Sarah Kay is the founder of Project V.O.I.C.E., teaching poetry and self-expression at schools across the United States
http://www.project-voice.net/about-us/
Sarah Kay is a Spoken Word Poet who grew up in New York City and began performing her poetry when she was only fourteen years old. Even though she was often the youngest poet by a decade, Sarah made herself at home at the Bowery Poetry Club, one of New York's most famous Spoken Word venues. In 2006, she joined the Bowery Poetry Club's Poetry Slam Team, NYC Urbana, and competed in the 2006 National Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas. That year, she was the youngest poet competing at Nationals. Sarah was featured on the sixth season of the television series Russell Simmons presents HBO Def Poetry Jam, where she performed her poem "Hands." She has performed in venues across the country including the United Nations, where she was a featured performer for the launch of the 2004 World Youth Report. She has also performed internationally in the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, India, and South Africa. Sarah is a published author, whose work can be found in literary publications such as Foundling Review, Damselfly Press, decomP, the Literary Bohemian, Pear Noir! among others. In 2004, Sarah founded Project V.O.I.C.E. and has since taught Spoken Word Poetry in classrooms and workshops all over the world, to students of all ages. Most recently, Sarah was a featured speaker at the 2011 TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) on "The Rediscovery of Wonder" in Long Beach, California.
Sarah is featured on the CNN.com homepage
Sarah Kay is celebrating National Poetry Month on the YouTube homepage
Sarah Kay
A performing poet since she was 14 years old, Sarah Kay is the founder of Project V.O.I.C.E., teaching poetry and self-expression at schools across the United States
http://www.project-voice.net/about-us/
Sarah Kay is a Spoken Word Poet who grew up in New York City and began performing her poetry when she was only fourteen years old. Even though she was often the youngest poet by a decade, Sarah made herself at home at the Bowery Poetry Club, one of New York's most famous Spoken Word venues. In 2006, she joined the Bowery Poetry Club's Poetry Slam Team, NYC Urbana, and competed in the 2006 National Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas. That year, she was the youngest poet competing at Nationals. Sarah was featured on the sixth season of the television series Russell Simmons presents HBO Def Poetry Jam, where she performed her poem "Hands." She has performed in venues across the country including the United Nations, where she was a featured performer for the launch of the 2004 World Youth Report. She has also performed internationally in the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, India, and South Africa. Sarah is a published author, whose work can be found in literary publications such as Foundling Review, Damselfly Press, decomP, the Literary Bohemian, Pear Noir! among others. In 2004, Sarah founded Project V.O.I.C.E. and has since taught Spoken Word Poetry in classrooms and workshops all over the world, to students of all ages. Most recently, Sarah was a featured speaker at the 2011 TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) on "The Rediscovery of Wonder" in Long Beach, California.
Sarah is featured on the CNN.com homepage
Sarah Kay is celebrating National Poetry Month on the YouTube homepage
Luis von Ahn: Massive-scale online collaboration
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Luis von Ahn
Luis von Ahn builds systems that combine humans and computers to solve large-scale problems that neither can solve alone
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Revolutionary Rap In Tahrir Square, Cairo
Reed Lindsey reports: Salman Abdul Aziz al-Balshi and Mohammad Mohammad Youssry mix music and politics in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt.
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Rove interviews Kevin Clash - Elmo
Rove McManus interviews Kevin Clash who plays Elmo on Sesame Street.
Due to the high number of comments about Kevin making a joke about Rove's wife, I think it necessary to let you all know that Belinda Emmett was alive and well at the time.
Friday, December 02, 2011
Simulations have become commonplace in much of higher education in recent years, including at Northern Illinois University (NIU), where students use a
Anyone with a web connection can engage in the marketplace maneuvering, the pressure-packed decision making, and the inevitable price wars that break out among business students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
For four years, students in John Sterman’s [2] business management courses have gone toe to toe in simulated business arenas, with the latest being a concocted world of video game companies looking for an edge in marketing and selling their game consoles and software.
The university announced Nov. 30 that the simulation, known as “Platform Wars,” [3] would be freely available on the MIT Sloan Teaching Innovation Resources (MSTIR) website, following the lead of MIT’s OpenCoursWare program [4], a seminal experiment in higher education’s sharing of open source material.
Sterman, a professor in MIT’s Sloan School of Management, said the chance to employ out-of-the-box strategies in simulated business environments has proven perhaps more valuable to his students than strategizing in the real world.
“In many respects, simulation is superior to the real world when it comes to theory and learning,” said Sterman, director of MIT’s System Dynamics Group, a gathering of researchers. “[A simulation] is a safe container. Students choose strategies that may not work just to learn about it, and your actual bank account isn’t drained if you lose millions in the simulation. … Like a flight simulation, you risk nothing.”
In “Platform Wars,” students set the price of hardware, negotiate royalty rates with game makers, and decide if they should subsidize the first few games for their video game system, because, as Sterman said, “if there are no games to run on it, it’s just a big, heavy paperweight.”
“Platform Wars” often lures MIT students into price wars with their competitors. Companies in the online simulation see their prices undercut by the competition, and respond in kind.
Avoiding this vicious cycle of company destruction has served as a valuable classroom lesson for many MIT students on the precipice of the business world.
“The emotion comes into play,” Sterman said. “They know they’re supposed to signal willingness to cooperate and not trigger a price war, but feelings people have when they’re undercut are hard to overcome. … People’s not wanting to lose face gets in the way of making a good decision many times.”
Management simulations are nothing new for Sterman, who created three simulation programs before “Platform Wars.” “Salt Seller,” for example, teaches students about commodity pricing, and “Fishbanks” focuses on managing renewable resources.
These simulations take place over years or decades, helping students better understand short-term and long-term business strategies and the downfalls of getting big too fast.
Every simulator program is based on case studies read by MIT students. All four are available for free on the MSTIR website.
Simulations have become commonplace in much of higher education in recent years, including at Northern Illinois University (NIU), where students use a simulation [5] that lets users design a desired movement or action using the required formulas and algorithms that apply to all types of engineering.
Brian Coller, an associate professor of engineering at NIU, designed the simulation after showing students computer-generated NASA footage from the Mars Rover landings.
Using Coller’s program, students are required to complete the applicable formulas and algorithms to successfully steer a video game car around an oval track. Students must consider rate of speed, geometrical calculations, and all manner of mathematical information to do this.
“These projects are very open-ended, meaning that I’m not going to tell [students] everything they need to know,” Coller said. “They have to go find stuff, and they have to put things together. There’s no one right answer, … so different students can get to a solution in different ways, and that’s what real engineering is like.”
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Tripod Attachment
Your Gymbl attaches to any full sized tripod or other specialty mounts like a Steadycam through an industry-standard 1/4-20 threaded hole in center pivot for even more flexibility.
Ergonomic Case
The stylish, hard-shelled case protects your iPhone® 4 and attaches to the Gymbl. Feels great in your hands anytime you use your iPhone® 4.
At the heart of the Gymbl™ is a gimbal.
The Gymbl™ is versatile as:
• a comfortable grip,
• an on-the-go tripod, and
• a tripod adapter
for taking images and videos with great fidelity.
Capture great panoramas with the Gymbl™.
Use the Gymbl™ hands-free for FaceTime®…anywhere, everywhere.
YOUBIQ Home Final from YOUBIQ on Vimeo.
Versatile Grip & Tripod
As a smartphone accessory, the Gymbl is compact and rugged. Attach it to your iPhone® 4 in seconds. Use the handheld grip or tripod on the Gymbl anytime, anywhere. Hold the camera in the position that’s best for you. With the Gymbl, you’re always in the picture.
Hands Free
With the Gymbl, you can use your iPhone® 4 hands free—at home, in a meeting, for FaceTime, when interacting with your apps, and everywhere else.
Panoramic Head
The Gymbl has a gimbal, a pivoting, panoramic head that lets you rotate the iPhone® 4 around its optical center. Use the Gymbl to take accurate panoramic photos without optical distortion. Once you’ve created the source files, use your favorite stitching software to create seamless panoramas.
Tripod Attachment
Your Gymbl attaches to any full sized tripod or other specialty mounts like a Steadycam through an industry-standard 1/4-20 threaded hole in center pivot for even more flexibility.
Ergonomic Case
The stylish, hard-shelled case protects your iPhone® 4 and attaches to the Gymbl. Feels great in your hands anytime you use your iPhone® 4.
At the heart of the Gymbl™ is a gimbal.
The Gymbl™ is versatile as:
• a comfortable grip,
• an on-the-go tripod, and
• a tripod adapter
for taking images and videos with great fidelity.
Capture great panoramas with the Gymbl™.
Use the Gymbl™ hands-free for FaceTime®…anywhere, everywhere.
Thursday, December 01, 2011
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