Raghava KK: Shake up your story

Raghava KK
Raghava KK's paintings and drawings use cartoonish shapes and colors to examine the body, society, our world

Why you should listen to him:

Raghava KK began his career in art as a newspaper cartoonist, and the cartoonist’s bold line -- and dead-on eye for truth -- still powers his art. His work spans painting, sculpture, installation, film and performance, always linked by his challenging opinions on identity, conformity, gender, celebrity, ceremony. (He even views his lavish Indian wedding as a piece of performance art.)
His early work as a painter made a complete break with his cartoon career -- he painted watercolors on canvas using only his hands and feet. Since then, his work has grown to knit together aesthetics from both worlds, as collage and complication play against flat color and precise lines. He shows in galleries and performance spaces around the world. Among his latest work is the adorable children’s book A New Friend for Rudra -- see it in his Flickr set.


Hi everyone. I'm an artist and a dad -- second time around. Thank you. And I want to share with you my latest art project. It's a children's book for the iPad. It's a little quirky and silly. It's called "Pop-It," And it's about the things little kids do with their parents.

(Music)

So this is about potty training -- as most of you, I hope, know. You can tickle the rug. You can make the baby poop. You can do all those fun things. You can burst bubbles. You can draw, as everyone should.

But you know, I have a problem with children's books: I think they're full of propaganda. At least an Indian trying to get one of these American books in Park Slope, forget it. It's not the way I was brought up. So I said, "I'm going to counter this with my own propaganda." If you notice carefully, it's a homosexual couple bringing up a child. You don't like it? Shake it, and you have a lesbian couple. (Laughter) Shake it, and you have a heterosexual couple. You know, I don't even believe in the concept of an ideal family.

I have to tell you about my childhood. I went to this very proper Christian school taught by nuns, fathers, brothers, sisters. Basically, I was brought up to be a good Samaritan, and I am. And I'd go at the end of the day to a traditional Hindu house, which was probably the only Hindu house in a predominantly Islamic neighborhood. Basically, I celebrated every religious function. In fact, when there was a wedding in our neighborhood, all of us would paint our houses for the wedding. I remember we cried profusely when the little goats we played with in the summer became biriani. (Laughter) We all had to fast during Ramadan. It was a very beautiful time.

But I must say, I'll never forget, when I was 13 years old, this happened. Babri Masjid -- one of the most beautiful mosques in India, built by King Babur, I think, in the 16th century -- was demolished by Hindu activists. This caused major riots in my city. And for the first time, I was affected by this communal unrest. My little five year-old kid neighbor comes running in, and he says, "Rags, Rags. You know the Hindus are killing us Muslims. Be careful." I'm like, "Dude, I'm Hindu." (Laughter) He's like, "Huh!"

You know, my work is inspired by events such as this. Even in my gallery shows, I try and revisit historic events like Babri Masjid, distill only its emotional residue and image my own life. Imagine history being taught differently.

Remember that children's book where you shake and the sexuality of the parents change? I have another idea. It's a children's book about Indian independence -- very patriotic. But when you shake it, you get Pakistan's perspective. Shake it again, and you get the British perspective.

(Applause)

You have to separate fact from bias, right. Even my books on children have cute, fuzzy animals. But they're playing geopolitics. They're playing out Israel-Palestine, India-Pakistan. You know, I'm making a very important argument. And my argument [is] that the only way for us to teach creativity is by teaching children perspectives at the earliest stage. After all, children's books are manuals on parenting, so you better give them children's books that teach them perspectives. And conversely, only when you teach perspectives will a child be able to imagine and put themselves in the shoes of someone who is different from them.

I'm making an argument that art and creativity are very essential tools in empathy. You know, I can't promise my child a life without bias -- we're all biased -- but I promise to bias my child with multiple perspectives.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)

Misha Glenny: Hire the hackers!

Misha Glenny
Journalist Misha Glenny leaves no stone unturned (and no failed state unexamined) in his excavation of criminal globalization

Yasheng Huang: Does democracy stifle economic growth?

Yasheng Huang asks us to rethink our ideas about China and other large emerging economies. Lately he’s been asking, Does democracy hinder or promote economic growth?



Why you should listen to him:
MIT and Fudan University professor Yasheng Huang is an authority on how to get ahead in emerging economies. The China and India Labs he founded at MIT's Sloan School of Management specialize in helping local startups improve their strategies. His book Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics (2008) chronicles three decades of economic reform in China and documents the critical role that private entrepreneurship played in the Communist nation’s “economic miracle.”

Huang believes that China is moving away from Marxism (public ownership) but not Leninism (ideology of state control) -- and that strong social fundamentals are the key reason for its growth. He is a vocal critic of US foreign policy in China, calling on American leaders to rethink their messages, which often do not resonate with the Chinese public, and to use technology to broaden their reach, overcome stereotypes and quash conspiracy theories.
He says: "For too long the US has not paid attention to an important force in the Chinese economy: the rise of indigenous entrepreneurs. This is in sharp contrast to the US approach in India."

"It’s rare to hear such frank talk from someone born in Beijing, a person who goes on to say that the near-empty skyscrapers in the world’s third-largest economy are “time-bombs” India shouldn’t copy."

Hindustan Times

SightSpace 3D: A SketchUp iPad Viewer with AR

Have you ever wanted to take your SketchUp models on the go? Our friends at the Boulder-based start-up, Limitless Computing, have a solution for you: their recently released SightSpace 3D app allows you to view SketchUp models on the iPad, iPhone, or iPod

The Oral History Program at the Chemical Heritage Foundation

Science is as much about scientists as it is about the experiments they perform. But the experience of science and stories of the lives of scientists are often missing from the annals of history. CHF's Oral History Program helps ensure that the history of modern science is preserved in the words, beliefs, thoughts, and actions of its current practitioners—and not just in scientific publications.

The purpose of our oral history program is to develop and maintain—in accordance with the Oral History Association's guidelines—collections of oral history interviews with women and men who hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifave contributed to the advancement of scientific knowledge in the 20th and 21st centuries. Our program facilitates and participates in all facets of the conduct and recording of our oral histories, from choosing interviewees, creating question lists, and ensuring the proper use of recording equipment, to processing oral history transcripts and establishing relevant, standardized research materials for scholarly use.

To learn more and browse CHF's oral history collection visit http://www.chemheritage.org/oralhistory

It's Elemental! Hydrogen

Discovering Hydrogen is a DNK Global Studios production that takes you on a journey to discover the element that is hydrogen.

Teagueduino

Teagueduino from Teague Labs on Vimeo.

Teagueduino is an open source electronic board and interface that allows you to realize creative ideas without soldering or knowing how to code, while teaching you the ropes of programming and embedded development (like arduino). Teagueduino is designed to help you discover your inner techno-geek and embrace the awesomeness of making things in realtime — even if you’ve only ever programmed your VCR.

Video Game in a Box from Teague Labs on Vimeo.

Project Kal-El Demo Previews Future of Mobile Gaming

Project Kal-El came into the building, shepherded by a team of engineers from around the world, who had been working around the clock for months. For the uninitiated, the entrance that I’m referring to was by none other than the next generation of our Tegra super chip.
Today at Mobile World Congress (MWC), we demonstrated this little beauty running in an Android tablet. We not only showed that it was alive. We showed it browsing the Web, running games and streaming amazing video. This wasn’t your average amazing video. It was 1440p video content running on a 2560×1600 panel. That will enable mobile devices to output to the highest resolution monitors or tablets equipped with a 10.1-inch display with 300 DPI.

My Job As A Pre-Launch Startup CEO Was To Buy Sandwiches

Skylar Tibbits: Can we make things that make themselves?

Today I'd like to show you the future of the way we make things. I believe that soon our buildings and machines will be self-assembling, replicating and repairing themselves. So I'm going to show you what I believe is the current state of manufacturing, and then compare that to some natural systems.

So in the current state of manufacturing, we have skyscrapers -- two and a half years, 500,000 to a million parts, fairly complex, new and exciting technologies in steel, concrete, glass. We have exciting machines that can take us into space -- five years, 2.5 million parts.

But on the other side, if you look at the natural systems, we have proteins that have two million types, can fold in 10,000 nanoseconds, or DNA with three billion base pairs we can replicate in roughly an hour. So there's all of this complexity in our natural systems, but they're extremely efficient, far more efficient than anything we can build, far more complex than anything we can build. They're far more efficient in terms of energy. They hardly ever make mistakes. And they can repair themselves for longevity.

So there's something super interesting about natural systems. And if we can translate that into our built environment, then there's some exciting potential for the way that we build things. And I think the key to that is self-assembly.

So if we want to utilize self-assembly in our physical environment, I think there's four key factors. The first is that we need to decode all of the complexity of what we want to build -- so our buildings and machines. And we need to decode that into simple sequences -- basically the DNA of how our buildings work. Then we need programmable parts that can take that sequence and use that to fold up, or reconfigure. We need some energy that's going to allow that to activate, allow our parts to be able to fold up from the program. And we need some type of error correction redundancy to guarantee that we have successfully built what we want.

So I'm going to show you a number of projects that my colleagues and I at MIT are working on to achieve this self-assembling future. The first two are the MacroBot and DeciBot. So these projects are large-scale reconfigurable robots -- 8 ft., 12 ft. long proteins. They're embedded with mechanical electrical devices, sensors. You decode what you want to fold up into, into a sequence of angles -- so negative 120, negative 120, 0, 0, 120, negative 120 -- something like that; so a sequence of angles, or turns, and you send that sequence through the string. Each unit takes its message -- so negative 120. It rotates to that, checks if it got there and then passes it to its neighbor.

So these are the brilliant scientists, engineers, designers that worked on this project. And I think it really brings to light: Is this really scalable? I mean, thousands of dollars, lots of man hours made to make this eight-foot robot. Can we really scale this up? Can we really embed robotics into every part? The next one questions that and looks at passive nature, or passively trying to have reconfiguration programmability. But it goes a step further, and it tries to have actual computation. It basically embeds the most fundamental building block of computing, the digital logic gate, directly into your parts.

So this is a NAND gate. You have one tetrahedron which is the gate that's going to do your computing, and you have two input tetrahedrons. One of them is the input from the user, as you're building your bricks. The other one is from the previous brick that was placed. And then it gives you an output in 3D space. So what this means is the user can start plugging in what they want the bricks to do. It computes on what it was doing before and what you said you wanted it to do. And now it starts moving in three-dimensional space -- so up or down. So on the left-hand side, [1,1] input equals 0 output, which goes down. On the right-hand side, [0,0] input is a 1 output, which goes up. And so what that really means is that our structures now contain the blueprints of what we want to build.

So they have all of the information embedded in them of what was constructed. So that means that we can have some form of self-replication. In this case I call it self-guided replication, because your structure contains the exact blueprints. If you have errors, you can replace a part. All the local information is embedded to tell you how to fix it. So you could have something that climbs along and reads it and can output at one to one. It's directly embedded; there's no external instructions.

So the last project I'll show is called Biased Chains, and it's probably the most exciting example that we have right now of passive self-assembly systems. So it takes the reconfigurability and programmability and makes it a completely passive system. So basically you have a chain of elements. Each element is completely identical, and they're biased. So each chain, or each element, wants to turn right or left. So as you assemble the chain, you're basically programming it. You're telling each unit if it should turn right or left. So when you shake the chain, it then folds up into any configuration that you've programmed in -- so in this case, a spiral, or in this case, two cubes next to each other. So you can basically program any three-dimensional shape -- or one-dimensional, two-dimensional -- up into this chain completely passively.

So what does this tell us about the future? I think that it's telling us that there's new possibilities for self-assembly, replication, repair in our physical structures, our buildings, machines. There's new programmability in these parts. And from that you have new possibilities for computing. We'll have spatial computing. Imagine if our buildings, our bridges, machines, all of our bricks could actually compute. That's amazing parallel and distributed computing power, new design possibilities. So it's exciting potential for this. So I think these projects I've showed you are just a tiny step towards this future, if we implement these new technologies for a new self-assembling world.

Thank you.

(Applause)

給台灣的12個新觀念

Understanding Quantum Physics

基礎科學課程 相對論

一、課程簡介、相對論的總覽

國立臺灣大學物理系 高涌泉 教授

2011.2.21　新物111

本堂課講授下列概念：

美哉！相對論
由狹義相對論談起
相對論的總覽（Overview of Relativity）
Michelson-Morley 實驗
光速恆定：C=constant !?
Einstein 的靈感

Video: Japanese University Uses Fish Scales To Develop Stronger Artificial Bones

Ceramics, metallic alloys, bone powder, wood or stem cells are just some of the substances doctors have used to replace or heal broken bones so far. Now a group of researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, led by Professor Junzo Tanaka, has come up with an alternative: fish scales.

According to the professor, using fish scales comes with three advantages (when compared to using collagen from pig skin, for example): it’s safer (viruses don’t migrate from fish to humans), the artificial bones are stronger, and the material converts to bone about two times faster.

German Robot Plays Pool

Thomas Nierhoff, a masters student at the Technische Universität München (TUM) programmed a humanoid robot to play pool. Of course we have seen PR2 play pool in the past but this robot does not need any special accessories to hold the pool cue. As shown in the video below, the robot can be very accurate and even the pool table can be augmented with the software developed for the robot in order to help humans play better.

We are eager to see this new contestant play against PR2, this could sprout a new kind of robotic competition.

Robots Shift Shape and Fits In Your Clothes

As shown in the video, the robot can adapt to take pretty much any shape a human can have by shifting the soft panels that make up its body.

Obama is the Friend of Robots, Announces Robotic Revolution

United States president Barak Obama announced a major manufacturing initiative from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The idea is to create an ”Advanced Manufacturing Partnership” (AMP) that brings together major U.S. manufacturers and top U.S. universities in order to invigorate the local manufacturing activities.


The video above features the full Obama speech at CMU. The video is 22 minutes long, but is filled with interesting information about the current robotic market and nice bits of humor.

Robots Cannot Eat Hamburgers… Yet

The premise of the commercial is that if a robot can not eat or use a product, then it should not make it. Although we know this is just for fun, it is important to point out that robots are commonly involved in producing many foods and consumption goods, so using that reasoning, we would not be able to use or eat much of what is available.

One fun aspect of the commercial is that they posted the making-of the video which is rather interesting to watch.

Robots for Humanity, PR2 Helps Humans in Need

PR2 from Willow Garage is now able to help people with disabilities to perform everyday tasks such as manipulating objects shaving and more. The video below illustrates the scope and the results of the Robots for Humanity project that Willow Garage, the Healthcare Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech, and Henry and Jane Evans are pioneering.

Learn Artificial Intelligence at Stanford for Free

If you ever wanted to learn about AI in a prestigious university, this is your chance. Stanford University is offering its fall Introduction to Artificial Intelligence class I for free for everybody willing to register. All the class contents and lectures will be made available on-line and web students will need to submit assignments and pass tests just are regular students do. They will be also graded at the end of the semester.


Artificial Intelligence is the science of making computer software that reasons about the world around it. Humanoid robots, Google Goggles, self-driving cars, even software that suggests music you might like to hear are all examples of AI. In this class, you will learn how to create this software from two of the leaders in the field. Class begins October 10. Details on the course, including a syllabus are available here.

Swarmanoid, Robot Collaboration At Its Best

Swarm robotics -using several simple collaborating robots to accomplish very complex tasks, instead of using a single very complex robot- is becoming increasingly popular. The Swarmanoid project is a perfect example of what can be achieved by using a swarm of small robots.

As illustrated in the video above, each type of robot concentrates on a single task (e.g. navigating, grasping, or seeing) and combined they can produce emerging behaviours that are more than just the sum of their individual capabilities.

Child Gets Robotic Hand From Mercedes and Touch Bionic

Child Gets Robotic Hand From Mercedes and Touch Bionic
August 18th, 2011

What happens when a 14 year old Formula 1 enthusiast emails Mercedes-Benz asking for a contribution for a new 58 000 $ bionic arm? If Matthew James (from Woking , UK) serves as a reference: he gets it.

Matthew was born missing part of his left arm and hand and is now the owner of a very advanced “iLimb” bionic hand. When he mockingly offered Mercedes-Benz to post sponsor logos on the limb in exchange for financial help, the car manufacturer was touched by the request and actually helped him raise the funds. Then they partnered with Touch Bionic to make a custom fitted robotic hand.

iRobot 110, A Robot You Can Throw

iRobot has been working for some time now on an inexpensive (relatively speaking) military robot that would allow soldiers to explore hard-to-reach areas without risking their lives. You can see the results of their efforts in the video below, the iRobot 110 throwable robot.

As shown in the video above, not only does the robot need to be rugged, it also needs to be light so it can be carried and thrown without requiring too much extra effort from the soldiers.

Documentary about Cyborgs by a Cyborg

The recently released Deus Ex: Human Revolution video game is raising some very interesting questions regarding Cyborgs, bionic implants (or augmentations as they are referred to in the game). The documentary below explores the similarities between the fictitious augmentations and the current state of the art in bionic technology. Not only does this 12 minutes documentary feature some of the most advanced cyborgs out there, it is presented by a cyborg.

CamiApp Lets You Digitize Notes On Paper Notepads With Your Smartphone (Video)

Japanese stationery maker Kokuyo has come up with an easy way to digitize and permanently store what you jot down on paper notepads: all you need is a an iPhone (or soon Android handset), a special app called CamiApp (available for free and in English on the App Store), and notepads made by Kokuyo.

The company says that taking pictures of the notes is enough: CamiApp adjusts the quality through using AR markers or a black frame before it lets you tag, edit, email or store your notes on Evernote or Dropbox (as JPEGs).

Kokuyo is currently preparing an Android version and thinks about exporting their CamiApp-optimized notepads.

This video (in English, shot by Diginfonews in Tokyo) provides more insight:

Hot, Flat, And Widescreen: The Rise Of The Minitabs

Mini Keepon

Carlitos’ Projects: Speech-Controlled Arduino Robot

You may be thinking that making such a robot must be a very complex task. After all, humans take many years before they can understand speech properly. Well, it is not as difficult as you may think and it is definitely lots of fun. The video below illustrates how to make your own speech-controlled Arduino rover.

Heather Knight! She runs Marilyn Monrobot, which creates socially intelligent robot performances and sensor-based electronic art.

The robot Keepon (developed by Hideki Kozima and programmed by Marek Michalowski) dancing to the song "Don't You Evah" by the band Spoon. Keepon and Spoon reunited at WIRED NextFest in LA September 10, 2007 for Creative Commons.

Cast (in order of appearance): Keepon, Hideki Kozima, Jim Eno, Britt Daniel
Keepon Wrangler/Programmer: Marek Michalowski
Executive Producers: Melanie Cornwell, Scott Dadich
Producers: Melanie Cornwell, Zana Woods
Director: Jeff Nichols
Concept by: Melanie Cornwell, Laura Eldeiry, Nancy Miller
Written by: Jeff Nichols, Adam Stone, Chris Walldorf
Director of Photography/Camera Operator: Adam Stone (Mortimer Jones)
Editor: Chris Walldorf (Mortimer Jones)
Graphics and Effects: Joey Beason (Edit at Joes)
Additional Color Correction: Joe Murray (Edit at Joes)
Tokyo Production Managers: Heath Cozens, Sawako Imai

Which Asian language sounds the best in your POV? (Final)

Musculoskeletal Simulation-based Study of Biped Locomotion

Paper Abstract:
Researchers have hypothesized that animal locomotory patterns seen are consistent with the resonant frequencies endowed by their musculoskeletal structures. Further it is posited that systems succeed in minimizing their energy expenditure by moving at this resonant frequency. We choose to systematically study this hypothesis in the specific context of bipedal locomotion.

Researchers have sought to correlate the preferred strike frequency with the resonant frequencies of the model or used indirect measurement such as oxygen consumption, electromyography (EMG) to assess expended effort. In our study, we employed virtual prototyping with a capable musculoskeletal simulation model to study the same hypothesis. We benchmark against the available literature and demonstrate that valuable insights can be obtained that can complement the current knowledge-base in biped locomotion.

*This paper won the "Best Poster Award" at the conference.

Ptolemy and Homer, or the power of epicycles.

Keepon on The Works

The robot Keepon (developed by Hideki Kozima and programmed by Marek Michalowski) dancing to the song "Don't You Evah" by the band Spoon. Keepon and Spoon reunited at WIRED NextFest in LA September 10, 2007 for Creative Commons.

Cast (in order of appearance): Keepon, Hideki Kozima, Jim Eno, Britt Daniel
Keepon Wrangler/Programmer: Marek Michalowski
Executive Producers: Melanie Cornwell, Scott Dadich
Producers: Melanie Cornwell, Zana Woods
Director: Jeff Nichols
Concept by: Melanie Cornwell, Laura Eldeiry, Nancy Miller
Written by: Jeff Nichols, Adam Stone, Chris Walldorf
Director of Photography/Camera Operator: Adam Stone (Mortimer Jones)
Editor: Chris Walldorf (Mortimer Jones)
Graphics and Effects: Joey Beason (Edit at Joes)
Additional Color Correction: Joe Murray (Edit at Joes)
Tokyo Production Managers: Heath Cozens, Sawako Imai

Keepon robot

We've been having a torrid affair with the Keepon robot since 2007, his simple yellow shape and unflappable adherence to the beat capturing our hearts. But, sadly, this has been an unrequited love, as the little guy has only been available to research institutions (and, apparently, rock bands) at the tear-inducing price of $30,000. Now there's a version we can finally bring home to mother, the $40 My Keepon. It's being dubbed a "toy," so we have our doubts that it can bust the same sort of moves its Pro predecessor puts down (embedded after the break), but we're certainly going to be first in line to find out when they hit stores. No, we don't know when that is just yet, but we're told all will be revealed on February 14th. Yes, Valentine's Day.

Barobo iMobot teddy bear learns from your commands, will definitely make varsity (video)

Barobo's iMobot modular robotics system just launched earlier this year, and the folks behind it just started shipping the first kits last month. Turns out, they were on hand here at NEXT Aarhus with a bona fide demo, and we couldn't resist a quick demo. The actual kit is being hawked primarily to universities -- we're told that each $2,000 robot can be programmed to do just about anything, and if you stock up on a couple, you can produce full-on humanoids, a camera-toting rescue snake or something else that'll undoubtedly take over the world in just a few centuries. Each robotic piece is equipped with WiFi and Bluetooth, and aside from mounting points used for connecting family members, there's a couple of sensor ports that allow for rangefinders and proximity modules to be stacked on as well.

The real show, however, happened when Elmo's long-lost cousin made an appearance. We're told that the creature is strictly a prototype using miniaturized versions of the robotic pieces that are on sale now. Those minis aren't up for order per se, but cutting the right check might land you with more than a smile. As you'll see in the video past the break, the software program written for the bear allowed it to "learn" movements that were dictated by the human holding it, and once the latest cheer was burned into its cotton-filled brain, a simple button press played things out in fantastical fashion. Have a look. You won't be disappointed.

Video: “Der Kritzler,” An Automatic Scribbling Machine

Der Kritzler - scribbling "The Chancellor" from tinkerlog on Vimeo.

An automatic scribbling machine sounds less than useful, admittedly, but it’s really just the style of line created by this motorized drawing machine. It’s reminiscent of ASCII art, in which heavier characters are used to create darker tones; in this case, the more jiggle added to the drawing platform, the more ink is put on the drawing surface. It’s kind of mesmerizing.

Der Kritzler - scribbling "TFOE" from tinkerlog on Vimeo.

SOUP KITCHENS IN U.S. RISE AS ECONOMY COLLAPSES ? www.crookreport.co.uk

SOUP KITCHENS IN U.S. RISE AS ECONOMY COLLAPSES?

99 weeks is 5 shy of TWO YEARS. These people aren't unemployed. They are UNEMPLOYABLE.

They lack marketable skills to sell to those who buy skills. In short, their skills set is worthless.

They need to train themselves for work that is available and growing or the need to resign themselves to menial labor jobs, which are jobs that do not need skills.

Millenials: A Disappointed Generation?

Members of Generation Y are starting their careers in perhaps the worst job market since the Great Depression. Experts say the experience creates both immediate and long-term negative impacts, including lower salaries now and in the future. While their reduced spending power will not have a lasting drag on the U.S. economy -- one cohort with reduced consumption does not hold tremendous weight amidst a very broad population, economists say -- it does have significant repercussions for how these young people conduct their adult lives and careers.

How iPads are helping build Disney World expansion

Samsung Unveils Dual-Core Galaxy Tab 7.7 And 5.3-Inch Galaxy Note

Samsung Unveils Dual-Core Galaxy Tab 7.7 And 5.3-Inch Galaxy Note




Samsung understands this, and has thus tried to build a tablet for just about any size pocket or backpack you may own. We all know about the GalTab 10.1 and 8.9, but today even smaller models join the pack. At the IFA conference in Berlin, Samsung today announced the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note.

Reinventing the lead-acid battery to help power the developing world

Kids learn to make their own mobile apps at summer camp

At ID Tech Camp, kids as young as 7 years old can start learning how to program their own smartphone apps. SmartPlanet correspondent Priya David Clemens meets some kids who just might be the Silicon Valley giants of tomorrow.

2011 IBM Global Utility Consumer Survey - What do consumers really think about energy?

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.

Timelapse and Motion Control

Redwoods - Behind The Scenes from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

2010 HDDSLR Gear Video from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

2010 HDDSLR Gear Video from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

What are CineSkates?

Oh Dear… The Viking has landed… and, uh, the Astronaut!

Behind the Glass Part 1: An Intro to Lenses from Vimeo Staff on Vimeo.

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

古謠傳唱 (北大武)

Mobile chat, ChatON

Junaio 3.0 Mobile AR Browser Update. Now Scans Barcodes Too.

Here’s the brief NSN presentation from SlideShare:

Mobile Broadband Beyond 4G

View more presentations from Nokia Siemens Networks

Here is a video of me taken recently, talking about Jobs’s career:

Steve Jobs: Thinking through his CEO legacy

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

WIMM Labs platform

Lecture Series on MEMS & Microsystems by Prof. Santiram Kal,
Department of Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering,
IIT Kharagpur

A total of 31 lectures:

MEMS 多媒體

RFID應用

The Prado in Google Earth

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.

The Serial Sentence

Here is an example - a dialogue

If it has a dependent clause, it needs a comma!

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

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

Is Capitalism Doomed?

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.”

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.

Calculus in 20 Minutes

http://wwhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifw.thinkwell.com/a/calculusin20minutes?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=info&utm_campaign=calcin20min

Google doodle guitar: Coldplay - Clocks

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.

Geek Time with Jim Zemlin

The Story of Linux

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):

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

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...

The Beat is On with HP and Alicia Keys

I Need A Doctor - Dr. Dre featuring Eminem and Skylar Grey

How To Make Your Own iPad Head Girl Helmet

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.

Philip Zimbardo: The demise of guys?

Good Luck Nicholas

The Battle for Sandford Begins




Hot Fuzz

— MOVIECLIPS.com

Good Luck Nicholas




Hot Fuzz

— MOVIECLIPS.com