Thursday, September 01, 2011
100 YEARS / STYLE / EAST LONDON
100 years of East London style in 100 seconds. Sept 13th 1911 - Sept 13th 2011.
Back to the Start
Coldplay's haunting classic 'The Scientist' is performed by country music legend Willie Nelson for the soundtrack of the short film entitled, "Back to the Start." The film, by film-maker Johnny Kelly, depicts the life of a farmer as he slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future. Both the film and the soundtrack were commissioned by Chipotle to emphasize the importance of developing a sustainable food system.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Eric Kessler’s ‘Time Escape’
Time Escape from Eric Kessler on Vimeo.
With some of the top names in the industry and timelapse photography, ‘Time Escape’ is a quick compendium of the work the group did while shooting timelapse for Tom Lowe’s upcoming TimeScapes film. Simply put, the group shot some of the most stunning timelapse in some of the most stunning places on Earth.
Kessler TimeFest 2011: Behind The Scenes from Kessler Crane on Vimeo.
Learn about image-making and storytelling from the perspective of a photographer and filmmaker.
http://twit.tv/show/twit-photo/22
Hosts: Catherine Hall and Leo Laporte.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
We learn about image-making and storytelling from the perspective of a photographer and filmmaker.
Guest: Vincent Laforet- Filmmaker- DGA Director & DP, Photographer, Producer, Blogger and Tech Geek.
Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/photo.
Thanks to Cachefly for providing the bandwidth for this podcast.
Running time: 1:03:32
Vincent Laforet — New York & Los Angeles
2010 HDDSLR Gear Video from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.
Hundreds Arrested In Sustained Tar Sands Protests At White House
August 30, 2011
Hundreds Arrested In Sustained Tar Sands Protests At White House
Protests demand Obama use veto power to halt proposed expansion of Keystone XL pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Here’s the brief NSN presentation from SlideShare:
Mobile Broadband Beyond 4G
View more presentations from Nokia Siemens Networks
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Should Banks be a Public Utility?
Should Banks be a Public Utility?
Yves Smith: Finance sector controls the regulatory process - there needs to be a publicly controlled alternative to the private banking system
To Heck With iPad Stands, Help Kickstart Some Handmade Pens For A Change
This is what I like to see: people Kickstarting some really amazing stuff. How amazing? Try a handmade pen made of multiple pieces of wood spliced together and top-of-the-line clips and gel-inks. The pen, called the Exemplar, is half-length and costs a mere $100 (relatively cheap for a handmade pen, but still). However, it’s made by two North Carolinian lads, Cass Baltz and Bart Creasman, which adds a certain bit of old country panache.
$50 gets you a handmade wooden letter opener.
The pair are calling their company Baltz Fine Writing Instruments and, while pens have gone the way of the 50-cent milkshake, human kindness, and the Dodo, it’s nice to see two fellows so dedicated to a rapidly dying art.
Introduction
Hello, and thank you for taking a look at our page on Kickstarter. We are introducing our Exemplar line of hand-turned, custom designed luxury pens. The conceptualization for these fine writing instruments emerged over a year ago. Since then, we have worked hard towards creating a product that we believe to be the finest wood-turned pen available. Currently, we are offering three versions from our Exemplar line of pens. This post will serve as a pre-sale for these pens.
Details of our project can be found in the video below. If you prefer to read about the pens and our project, information can be found below the video.
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Introduction
Hello, and thank you for taking a look at our page on Kickstarter. We are introducing our Exemplar line of hand-turned, custom designed luxury pens. The conceptualization for these fine writing instruments emerged over a year ago. Since then, we have worked hard towards creating a product that we believe to be the finest wood-turned pen available. Currently, we are offering three versions from our Exemplar line of pens. This post will serve as a pre-sale for these pens.
Details of our project can be found in the video below. If you prefer to read about the pens and our project, information can be found below the video.
About Our Pens
Exotic woods combined into a unique design -- featuring Birdseye Maple, Paduk, and African Blackwood
Custom designed hardware -- clip and cap are cast like a ring -- finished in rhodium (a precious metal from the platinum family)
Curved clip and matching cap are distinct to our brand of fine writing instruments
SCHMIDT ink writing system (comes with both blue and black ink inserts)
Hand-made, by us, here in North Carolina
Manufacturing Process
Two species of exotic woods are combined through methods of cutting, drilling, doweling, and gluing
Blanks are roughly shaped by hand on a lathe using a gouge, then planing knife
We then sand from 220 grit to 400 grit in order to get a relatively smooth surface
A special finishing compound, known for great durability and clarity, is applied three separate times
Sanding then resumes from 600 grit to 12,000 grit -- which is essentially a polishing rag
Finishing touches are made with a buffing wax
Hardware is assembled to the pen body using a clamp and special glue
Why Kickstarter?
Test the general interest in our pens
Purchase better tools for a more consistent output of pen bodies
Cover the set-up costs involved in manufacturing the metal hardware pieces and purchasing the ink inserts
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Kno Turns Textbooks 3D (Video)
How do you make a digital textbook more than just a glorified PDF on a tablet? Kno, the tablet textbook company started by Chegg co-founder Osman Rashid, is rolling out a variety of features to try to bring textbooks to life, including Facebook integration, automated quizes, an activity stream of notes. But an update to its iPad app today points to how digital textbooks can create entirely new experiences out of static notations. In the vido above, Rashid shows me Kno’s 3D modeling feature.
Below is a video of the QuizMe and Journal features, introduced earlier this month.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Robotic Pipe Organ
The story of a girl who steps into StudentRND. Intrigued and inspired by the possibilities, she explores the world of technology, and changes the world.
Change the World - StudentRND
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Background
Music, science and mathematics have been closely linked since the dawn of time. There's no greater example of this than the pipe organ. Developed around the fifteenth or sixteenth century, they've been a staple in the Western classical music ever since.
But little has changed since then. They've made them smaller and easier to transport, but no one has attached a robot to one even once.
Goal
We want to build a robotic pipe organ that anyone can play and watch over the internet. We will build it out of 25 PVC pipes allowing a full two octaves of notes to be played. Becuase of its inexpensive design, we'll create a set of plans on Instructables.com as well so that anyone can build their own pipe organ as well. We expect to have this done by the end of summer.
What your money will be used for
We'll use the money to fund parts for the organ (including pipes, motors, and electronics), and live broadcast equipment (a netbook). Tools are provided by StudentRND and its volunteers.
Technical Details
The organ will be played with 25 servos opening and closing valves. They will be controlled with a Propeller microprocessor which will interpret input MIDI files. Files can be uploaded via a companion website that will also live-stream the organ playing music so the instrument will be truly accessible to all.
Air will be provided by a high volume centrifugal fan into a windchest, as is common in most pipe organs.
The size will be comparable to a standard upright grand piano, with a MIDI keyboard attached instead of a mechanical one.
Who We Are
We're StudentRND, a student-run nonprofit organization that inspires students to learn more about science and technology. During the summer, we run a workspace where students gather and work on cool science and technology projects. We also partner with local high school robotics teams to offer them a space to work over the summer.
Cane 2.0: The Tacit Is Hand-Mounted Sonar For The Vision Impaired
Project Tacit: Sonar For The Blind from Grathio Labs on Vimeo.
Every once in a while you see an invention that seems a long time coming. The Tacit, a hand-mounted system that pings surroundings and transmits distance information to the user, is one of those. While the reliable white cane and occasional accommodations for the blind and vision impaired ameliorate the difficulty of navigating the world sans sight, technological advances that are both useful and ready for deployment are few and far between.
Jeff Bridges Maybe I Missed The Point
I know somebody whose life is tough.
I help a little, but it isn't enough
Cuz I go an' spend money on stupid stuff
When I know he's strugglin' to stay above.
An' I have so many chances to be
The hero I believe's inside of me
But I get busy and I get distracted
And I do nothin' when I could've acted
I laid low when I could've stood high.
I said nothin' when I should've asked why.
I saw somethin' that I might've done and I didn't,
A chance to speak my truth and I hid it.
Inside, I'd like to believe I'm cool,
Easy to love and hard to fool,
But I know there's more I could've enjoyed.
Sometimes I find myself thinkin'
Maybe I missed the point.
So many times I turned down love,
Stayed in the dark when I could've lit it up,
But every time I did take a chance
Makes me happy when I'm lookin' back
I'm not sayin' my whole life feels like a joke
But I've been a master of mirrors and smoke
And I don't wanna live
No mo' without you.
The Louvin brothers - My baby's gone
The Louvin brothers - My baby's gone
http://youtu.be/kizPITXG9Ag
CHORUS:http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Hold back the rushing minutes
Make the wind lie still
Don't let the moonlight shine
Across the lonely hill
Dry all the raindrops
And hold back the sun
My world has ended
My baby's gone
The Milkman whistles softly
As he comes up to my door
The Mailman brings the letters by
Just like he did before
They seem so busy all day long
As though there's nothing wrong,
Don't they know the world has ended
My Baby's Gone
CHORUS
I wake up sometimes in the night
And realize you're gone
And then I toss upon my bed
And wait for day to come
I try to tell my lonely heart
It must go on alone
But it cries the world has ended
My Baby's Gone
http://youtu.be/kizPITXG9Ag
CHORUS:http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Hold back the rushing minutes
Make the wind lie still
Don't let the moonlight shine
Across the lonely hill
Dry all the raindrops
And hold back the sun
My world has ended
My baby's gone
The Milkman whistles softly
As he comes up to my door
The Mailman brings the letters by
Just like he did before
They seem so busy all day long
As though there's nothing wrong,
Don't they know the world has ended
My Baby's Gone
CHORUS
I wake up sometimes in the night
And realize you're gone
And then I toss upon my bed
And wait for day to come
I try to tell my lonely heart
It must go on alone
But it cries the world has ended
My Baby's Gone
If I Needed You By TOWNES VAN ZANDT (Cover)
If I needed you would you come to me,
Would you come to me, and ease my pain?
If you needed me
I would come to you
I'd swim the seas for to ease your pain
In the night forlorn the morning's born
And the morning shines with the lights of love
You will miss sunrise if you close your eyes
That would break my heart in two
The lady's with me now since I showed her how
To lay her lily hand in mine
Loop and Lil agree she's a sight to see
And a treasure for the poor to find
Once A Gambler Lyrics - Lightnin Hopkins
Yeah, you know I once was a gambler
But I lost my money roll
Yeah, you know I once was a gambler
Boy, but I lost my money roll
That's the reason I don't have no sweet woman
Now I done lost my happy home
You take it down when you lose that no good money
He sat around with his head hung down
When you lose that old dog gone money
You sit around with your head hung down
You will try to borrow you fifty dollars
To start all over again in another town
Too late you gonna lose
Your friends don't pay you no money
Baby, if you only will forgive me
I won't gamble no more
If you only will forgive me, baby
Lord, have mercy, poor Lightnin' won't gamble no more
She says I can't help you now
Sold out to the devil and that's no way to go
And I couldn't help but cry
I cried like I did
She said I didn't want you to gamble, Lightnin'
You know who I am, I'm your wife
She said I didn't want you to gamble, Lightnin'
You know who I am, I am your wife
She's looking at, brother, just like you lost your money
You had a good chance to lose your life
So go ahead on, Lightnin'
Yeah, you know I once was a gambler
But I lost my money roll
Yeah, you know I once was a gambler
Crazy Heart Jeff Bridges Somebody Else
I used to be somebody but now I am somebody else
2x
Who'm might be tomorrow is anybody's guess
What was thought to be the right way turned out the wrong way after all
2x
what I took to be the high road was only leading to a fall
I used to be a preacher, with women, fame, and wealth
2x
From a mighty congregation, to talking to myself
I was cleared of all the charges with money, women and my health
2x
Now that I'm a brand-new man, you belong with someone else
I used to be somebody but now I am somebody else
2x
Who I'll be tomorrow is anybody's guess
CRAZY HEART - Ryan Bingham Performs The Weary Kind
Your heart's on the loose
You rolled them seven's with nothing to lose
And this ain't no place for the weary kind
You called all your shots
Shooting 8 ball at the corner truck stop
Somehow this don't feel like home anymore
And this ain't no place for the weary kind
And this ain't no place to lose your mind
And this ain't no place to fall behind
Pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try
Your body aches
Playing your guitar and sweating out the hate
The days and the nights all feel the same
Whiskey has been a thorn in your side
and it doesn't forget
the highway that calls for your heart inside
And this ain't no place for the weary kind
And this ain't no place to lose your mind
And this ain't no place to fall behind
Pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try
Your lovers warm kiss
It's too damn far from your fingertips
You are the man that ruined her world
Your heart's on the loose
You rolled them seven's with nothing lose
And this ain't no place for the weary kind
Jeff Bridges - I Don't Know (From Crazy Heart)
I don't know baby where we stand
where's the future that we planed
so long ago, ---I don't know
I don't know if your my friend
or a long lost lover comin' back again
Where did you go,,,, I don't know
You'd think by now, I'd know better
Aint got a lot to show
I could write a song,I could write a letter
I could write a book about what I don't know
I watched my life fall thru the cracks
Like a long lost train it ain't coming back
Where did you go-- baby I don't know
You’d think by now that I would know better
But I ain’t got a lot to show
I could write a song I could write a letter
I could write a book about I don’t know
My past is pretty rocky
And my future ain’t long
Why do I think we got a chance at all
Where does the wind blow?
Baby I don’t know
Where does the wind blow?
Baby I don’t know
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Kibin is the easiest way to get feedback and editing on your writing.
Watch live streaming video from 500startups at livestream.com
Kibin www.kibin.com @kibininc
Kibin is the easiest way to get feedback and editing on your writing.
AngelList: http://www.angel.co/kibin
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/kibin
Kibin
View more presentations from 500 Startups
A quick tour of Radian6
Radian6, which was acquired by Salesforce for $326 million earlier this year, has offered some of the world’s largest brands a web-based social media monitoring platform. But the company has not offered a mobile component to clients to monitor brands on the go, until now. Today, Salesforce’s Radian6 is announcing its first mobile presence with a new iOS app.
Radian6 helps clients like Dell, GE, Kodak and UPS monitor, analyze and engage in ‘hundreds of millions’ of social media conversations. The UI is similar to the Radian6 web platform, and agencies and marketers can now monitor overall volume, share of conversation, geographic distribution and more data from the app on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. You can filter by keyword, media type, date range and more to view conversations.
You can also build customized listening ‘stacks’ based on certain topics, lists, user assignment and sentiment. Managers can actually classify posts, and assign tasks to employees from the app. And users can respond to Tweets, posts, threads, or blog comments right from the app.
The app itself is free for Radian6 users. It’s actually surprising that Radian6 didn’t have a a iPhone app considering that much of social media monitoring for brands happens in realtime and a mobile app helps marketers keep track of conversations on the go. The company says that an Android app is on the ‘product roadmap.’
It should be interesting to see how Salesforce integrates Radian6 with its own products like Chatter. In the past, the CRM giant has said ‘the combination will create a “bridge between public conversations and Chatter” and “enhance the Salesforce Sales and Service Cloud products with social intelligence that customers can act on. Developers building on the Force.com platform also will be able to tap into the power of Radian6, putting the social web into everything they build.”
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Video: Crunchy Logistics Brings Multi-Touch To A 150″ Conference Table
The LCD/LED screen has more than 36 touch-points and uses most of the same multi-touch language that we’re used to, like pinch-to-zoom. The size variations are as follows: 55-inch, 65-inch, 70-inch, 130-inch and 150-inch, but the table measures 1.5-inches thick across all models. The table features interactive gaming, and is compatible with both PC and Mac.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
DANGER ZONE - Google Earth - details under (More info)
Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins
Helicopter -- Off San Diego
32°33'3.93"N, 117°16'27.12"W
Arggg, Google Earth has updated the helicopter away.
But here is a 3D model of the helicopter right where it used to be:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=71235fa0f573a36f5c2d4a8bd4...
Or you can use the time slider to go back and see it again.
And here's another one over water: 21°59'48.19"N, 159°46'45.31"W
Sea Plane Taking Off -- Alaska
61°10'47.75"N, 149°58'30.10"W
The sea plane has finished taking off and is gone now.
You can use the time slider to go back and see it again.
Here's a different one: 55°20'30.64"N, 131°39'17.12"W
Mid-Air Refueling -- California
41°51'7.14"N, 121°28'46.87"W
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy behind a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker
Helicopter with Load -- Colorado
39°43'0.38"N, 104°45'12.51"W
Google Earth has been updated. The helicopter has now moved on.
You can use the time slider to go back and see it again.
Here's another one: 30°31'4.45"N, 88° 0'49.66"W
Parasailer -- Sarasota, Florida
27°15'38.66"N, 82°32'53.35"W
The parasailer has been updated away.
Use the time slider to December 31, 2004 to see again.
Goodyear Blimp -- Pompano Beach, Florida
26°15'35.18"N, 80°5'39.71"W
Since a Google Earth update, the blimp has moved on. But, here is a 3D model of it:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=55528b21185f01825c2d4a8bd4...
Or you can use the time slider to go back and see it again.
And here is another one: 51°23'42.95"N, 6°30'15.03"E
The Google+ Song
Starring Ashley Pitman
Vocals by Katie Hines
Music by Sean Motley
LYRICS:
Check my email, got an invite
To a website I don't know
Looked like googlebuzz at first sight,
But my friend said that's a no.
Why did we need, another social network?
Doesn't Facebook work alright?
A new thing for me to learn
This could take all night, Look out!
What is this google +
I don't Need google +
There's another +1 and another +1
What is this google +
Hey, Why's this red thing here?
Go away google +
You want me to put my friends in circles
But circles are for squares
Everday's like Sophie's choice
Trying to choose which friend goes where
But No Parents, or Ex-boyfriends...
Can get in without invites
And when I drunkenly post that he's cute
I can edit it later that night - whoa
I kinda like google +
Can't believe I'm on google +
Oh another hangout, and another hang out
I dig my google +
Hey, old high school friend
You can't join my google +
Friends add me, without me adding them
That feature's really nice
Randos
Uglies
my pot dealer
and all these friend's I've never liked
No one knows, my circle names,
So even good friend's get handpicked
Do you make it into my main feed
or do I add you to my circle of pricks
I'm in love with google plus
I'm judgemental on goggle +
and Another douchebag and another loser
You didn't make my google plus
Hey, Now I'm a facist pig
Thank you google plus!
GLMPS releases very cool new iPhone camera app
Other companies have gotten $41 million to compete in this space. Not GLMPS. What have they done? Just something Instagram, Color, PicPlz, and others have not: combined photography WITH video. Here I talk with two of the co-founders about it and get a demo
Video: World’s biggest touchscreen display is 82-inch beast
Impressive hardware aside, the touchscreen technology introduces some nifty new tricks. The Nvidia graphics processor allows for seamless streaming of a dozen or more videos, which can be be manipulated in all kinds of fancy ways using what the company calls touchcast technology. Users can also embed an application within another, such as a map within a map.
But mind you, the displays aren’t flash-in-the-pan prototypes and can actually be purchased through Perceptive Pixel, though a price has yet to be announced. Let’s just cross our gesture-ready fingers and hope that the panel doesn’t have an outsized cost to match.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Imec: Japanese Company Lets Plants Grow On Thin Films Instead Of Soil (Video)
Here’s some amazing tech from Japan: Tokyo-based Mebiol is working on an membrane–based plant cultivation technology called Imec that makes it possible to let plants grow on thin film instead of soil. The film is made of a water-absorbent material called hydrogel and is just “tens of microns” thick.
Mebiol says that tomatoes, radish, cucumber, melons etc. need up to 80% less water to grow when compared with conventional culture and that 1g of SkyGel (that’s the brand name of the hydrogel) absorbs and holds 100ml of water. In contrast to soil, bacteria or viruses have no chance to harm the plants. Another advantage is that SkyGel can be used on various surfaces, including sand, concrete or ice (see this PDF for examples from recent years).
The film can be used to grow plants for 2-3 years before it needs to be replaced, according to the company.
This video, shot by Diginfonews in Tokyo, provides more insight (on both the advantages and the disadvantages of Imec):
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Was S&P Downgrade a Preemptive Strike Against Prosecution?
Was S&P Downgrade a Preemptive Strike Against Prosecution?
Gerry Epstein: S&P face possible prosecution for role in sub-prime debacle
UK Unrest Forces Recall of Parliament Session
UK Unrest Forces Recall of Parliament Session
Prime Minister Cameron calls for special measures to be taken in wake of recent violence
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Jasmine Star - The London Workshop, July 2011 (Wedding Photography Training)
Jasmine Star - The London Workshop, July 2011 (Wedding Photography Training) from FX Films on Vimeo.
As a lovely recap of the day, the ever-fab Richard Wakefield of FX Films created a video of The Workshop...I can't tell you how lucky I am to have such talented friends! Check it out...
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Start-Up Chile is a program
The Program
“Instead of changing the world through revolution, we can change the world through #innovation”
Software Creates Interactive Streaming Video
Stanford researchers designed software that allows a viewer to zoom and pan while streaming online courses. They recently released the code to the public.
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Thursday, August 04, 2011
TEDxSoMa - Pankaj Kedia - The Coming Mobile Internet Tsunami: Putting Power in Your Hands
Description: About TEDx, x=independently organize event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self- organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
Welcome to Kerpoof Scholastics
Kerpoof's multimedia software is used by kids worldwide to create original artwork, animated movies, stories, greeting cards and more. The site is meant to be fun, but we're serious about its educational value. Elementary and middle school teachers can use Kerpoof in many ways to enhance classroom activities while meeting a range of educational standards.
Raising the Bar
• Support for high resolution 3-D object rendering and annotation
• The ability to peel back layers of complex visual information by tapping
• Images, text and web links visually anchored to words and objects
• A redesigned Inkling Store, making it easy to explore our growing title library
• An easier and more familiar login experience using Facebook
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
ICE ROAD TRUCKING - THE ORIGINAL STORY!!! [HD]
Since its completion in 1979, the 417-mile-long Dempster Highway has provided Inuvik, the largest town north of the Arctic Circle in Canada's Northwest Territories, with year-round road access to the rest of the country. Built from gravel and crushed stone piled high on top of permanently frozen ground, the Dempster makes for treacherous driving, especially during the winter months. Once you get past Inuvik, however, the situation gets even tougher.
Sometimes called the Amazon of the north, the Mackenzie River begins at the Great Slave Lake and flows north into the Arctic Ocean's Beaufort Sea. During most of the year, towns in the Mackenzie River Delta region, such as Aklavik, located west of Inuvik, and Tuktoyaktuk, located 100 miles north on the coast of the Beaufort Sea, are accessible only by air or boat. When the weather gets cold enough to freeze the river (often in December but sometimes not until January or February) drivers heading north from Inuvik take their chances on the Mackenzie River Ice Road, opened for the first time in February 1981. Though the ice road is reportedly well-marked and plowed frequently to remove insulating layers of snow, extreme caution is necessary to navigate through often severe weather conditions and potholes caused by fissures in the ice. At kilometer 34, the road breaks into two branches, one heading west towards Aklavik while the other shoots up toward Tuk. The rough driving conditions only get worse further north, as the road reaches the mouth of the Mackenzie near Tuk and heads onto the frozen surface of the Beaufort Sea itself.
Prior to 1981, dogsled was the only way to make the journey north to Tuk and other river delta communities; since then, trucks have been able to take the place of boats on the river highway during the winter months. They play the crucial role of supplying the river delta communities such as Tuk with much-needed medical and other supplies, as well as fueling the economy of the Northwest Territories by ferrying machinery, tools and fuel to work sites like that of MGM Energy Corporation, a Canadian oil and gas exploration and development company, and the Mallik Gas Hydrate Research Project, which studies the potential of extracting carbon energy from the natural gas hydrates that exist in the permafrost soil north of the Arctic Circle.
The Mackenzie River Ice Road is only one of many similar Canadian ice roads; the longest one in the country (and the world) is the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road, which extends 370 miles from north of Yellowknife into the neighboring territory of Nunavut and allows trucks to service several diamond mines along the way. Ice roads are also in use in Finland, Norway, Alaska and Russia. In one particularly famous instance, the so-called Doroga Zhizni, or "Road of Life, stretching across the frozen Lake Ladoga, was used to evacuate refugees from Leningrad when the city was under siege by the Germans for 900 days—from September 1941 to January 1944—during World War II. During the winter months of the siege, trucks did the work of boats, ferrying thousands of people across the frozen lake to freedom.
The debt-ceiling debate seen from abroad - The Tea Party explained
THE best explanation of last week's weirdness in the US House of Representatives (which was finally resolved, after a fashion, late on July 29th), is provided by the animators at Taiwanese television. I particularly liked the Tea Partier pulling a turd out of his diaper and hurling it at John Boehner's head, and the Tea Partiers dancing in ecstasy as Congress burns down. It's now the turn of Dingy Harry Reid to get the Taiwanese treatment.
The Tiny WIMM Communications Device Allows For Wearable Communications
Like a miniaturized, wearable Chumby, the WIMM micro communications device looks interesting and, given enough support and interest, could actually be interesting. The device looks like a tiny iPod Nano but features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It is supposed to play nicely with your Android phone and runs its own stripped-down version of Android to display messages, handle exercise monitoring, and, presumably, run tiny apps that others will write.
Monday, August 01, 2011
CreativeLIVE 2011 Trailer for Zack Arias
I'll be back in the creativeLIVE studios April 29th, 30th, and May 1st for the "Things you need to know to be a photographer" class. It will be 10 foundational skills and philosophies that you need to grasp and run with to be a working photographer. From camera skills, to lens selection, to light of all kinds, to business, marketing, and balance with the rest of your life.
Writing and Grammar Video
In this video I teach students how to use compound sentences in their writing.
SOBA sentences Part II from Mechanically Inclined
In this video I teach students how to use compound sentences in their writing.
SOBA sentences Part II from Mechanically Inclined
In this video I teach students how to use compound sentences in their writing.
Flipped-Mastery Classroom
Peer into Jonathan Bergmann's Classroom as he explains the flipped-mastery model. Presently Jonathan Bergmann & Aaron Sams are writing a book on the fli...
The Flipped Classroom
Peer into Aaron Sams' classroom as he explains why he flipped his classroom. Aaron Sams, along with Jonathan Bergmann were the first to flip their classes. ...
Flipped-Mastery-Student Impressions
When Jonathan Bergmann & Aaron Sams started the flipped/mastery model of education, they had no idea that it would strike a chord around the country. One question they are often asked is what do your students think about learning in this way. So they asked their students. In this video their students answer that question.
Creating Interactive Tabs in Powerpoint
A tutorial on how to add interactive tabs containing hidden information into a powerpoint lecture.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
DNA-based artificial network
Many simpler forms of life on this planet, including some of our earliest ancestors, don't have proper brains. Instead they have networks of neurons that fire in response to stimuli, triggering reactions. Scientists from Caltech have actually figured out how to create such a primitive pre-brain using strands of DNA. Researchers, led by Lulu Qian, strung together DNA molecules to create bio-mechanical circuits. By sequencing the four bases of our genetic code in a particular way, they were able to program it to respond differently to various inputs. To prove their success the team quizzed the organic circuit, essentially playing 20 questions, feeding it clues to the identity of a particular scientist using more DNA strands. The artificial neural network nailed answer every time. Check out the PR and pair of videos that dig a little deeper into the experiment after the break.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Heritage students made this stop-motion video
Heritage students made this stop-motion video
The students at Heritage Middle School in West St. Paul knew they’d all be getting Apple iPad 2 tablets to use for schoolwork. They just didn’t know when.
School staffers were maddeningly evasive when asked about this, even though they recently held a series of iPad-orientation sessions for the children and parents, assuring them the tablets would likely see the light of day before the end of the school year.
Then Principal Chris Hiti began to boogie.
Students in a gym Thursday for what they thought was a standard pep rally were agog when the tall, burly administrator bobbed his hips and doffed his sweatshirt to reveal a black T-shirt imprinted with “iHeritage.” Teachers joined him in a frenetic line dance.
And then the kids saw the unfurled banner and the answer to their big question: “Heritage iPads are here!”
Dreamed up the iPad back in 1994
Knight Ridder, former owner of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, pretty much dreamed up the iPad back in 1994. But when the iPad did come to pass, Knight Ridder was long dead. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Innovating to Keep up with the Ever-changing Consumer
Nielsen’s Steve Hasker addressed attendees at Consumer 360 in Orlando with a focus on how technology evolution and consumer demand has challenged marketers to keep up.
Companies and executives across all industries hold different beliefs on the primary drivers of innovation, but according to Hasker, for consumer-facing companies, the most important driver of innovation is an ability to secure a unique and comprehensive understanding of the consumer.
“Consumer behavior is the driver of innovation,” said Hasker. “In order to innovate you have to understand the consumer, and in order to understand the consumer you need to be world class in research, insights and analytics.”
Hasker laid out three trends driving today’s need for innovation, and with it, a need to continue to improve research, insights and analytics surrounding these consumers and their behaviors.
Social Media – “In seven short years, every aspect of consumer behavior has changed as a result of social media,” Hasker said. By giving examples of how user-generated content is fundamentally changing behavior among younger generations of consumers, Hasker demonstrated how social media is changing the way programs are discovered, how people communicate and how products are purchased.
Explosion in Multiplatform Media Usage – As TV viewership grows alongside video use across mobile devices, tablets and other platforms, distribution of content is becoming increasingly fragmented as users continue to multitask. “If you don’t understand cross platform consumer, you’re at a disadvantage,” said Hasker. “Marketing plans have to reflect the different ways consumers are getting content. Understanding this behavior helps empower brands to better understand their consumers.”
Changing Sources of Global Growth – The demographics driving growth are ever-changing in an increasingly global world where technology is advancing across borders and groups of people, and brands face continuous challenges in understanding which demographics are growing and how, in order to innovate in the ways consumers demand.
Car Talk: Bob Lutz and Malcolm Gladwell Talk Innovation, Branding and Bean Counters
June 22, 2011
At the closing main room event at Consumer 360 in Orlando, which focused on innovation and branding, Fortune’s Adam Lashnisky moderated a discussion between, Bob Lutz, retired Vice Chairman of GM, and author Malcolm Gladwell. Using Lutz’s book “Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business,” as a jumping off point, the duo discussed the tension between the creative types that value the consumer’s emotional response and the bean counters who tend to focus on cost and the bottom line.
Lutz recalled that problems at GM increased when finance was moved to the same space as operations and began to overshadow the engineering and operational departments. In perhaps the snappiest line of the session, Gladwell floated the idea of a “bean counter island” where finance departments of every company could be kept far away from the innovation teams.
Lutz and Gladwell were in agreement more often than not, especially when it came to branding and customer value. Lutz noted that many cars in the luxury category were basically constructed of the same material as lower priced vehicles, but the true differentiator was brand value and perceived customer value. That “intangible thing” (as Gladwell called it) that separates brands tends to be the domain of the creative and Lutz agreed, noting that when you want to elicit an emotional response with the buyer, that’s where you defer to the creative types. The emotional distinction is also notable when it comes to research. Lutz relayed anecdotes of GM research, downplaying instances where they asked consumers about their preferences and favoring research that measured consumer responses against the competition. The visceral response of a consumer, especially when it came to perceived price, was incredibly valuable, and often the most accurate according to Lutz.
When Multicultural is the Culture
When Multicultural is the Culture
June 23, 2011
The 2010 Census confirmed something Nielsen has been noting for some time: multicultural consumers are rapidly becoming the majority in the United States and their buying power is significant. Understanding their purchasing and media habits is the next big challenge/opportunity facing marketers and brands today. Taking a deep dive into data and trends within the African American, Asian American and Hispanic communities, Nielsen’s Claudia Pardo laid out compelling statistics and a demographic framework shaping the future. It’s clear that marketers and brands will be forced to rethink their perspective — and their share of spend — when it comes to multicultural groups.
“Can anyone in the room honestly say they’re doing everything they can to satisfy the consumption needs of this population?” Pardo asked attendees. “The demographic growth of these groups is simply becoming too great to ignore.” The good news, noted Pardo, is that multicultural groups are actually more loyal to brands and there’s an opportunity to win a consumer for life.
Macworld Boston 1997-Full Version
Here is the full version of the 1997 Boston Macworld expo where we see Steve Jobs for the first time since returning to work for Apple after being gone since 1985. This was a very historic time for Apple because they were almost bankrupt at the time, so Steve announces a temporary partnership with Microsoft to a very hostile crowd. Bill Gates also makes an appearance.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Apple WWDC '97 Steve JobsによるClosing Kynote
スティーブ・ジョブズ氏がAppleに復帰して初めてのWWDC '97で彼はClosing Kynoteを担当した。当映像はその全容である。なお当セッションの仔細については http://www.mactechlab.jp/oldmac/10658.html をご参照ください。
Macworld Boston 1997-Full Version
The ultimate universal remote for your TV system? Uses your iPhone
Dijit's founder, Maksim Ioffe, and Jeremy Toeman and learn all about the future of TV and get a look at how Dijit works on your iPhone to become the ultimate remote control for your home entertainment system.
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