Sci-Fi Corridors

Very neat. [Link]

I wasted too much of my childhood and youth imitating and developing the superb production sketches of Ron Cobb, Syd Mead, Ralph McQuarrie and many others. I walked round Elstree studios collecting precious vacuum-formed sections of cloud-city corridor from The Empire Strikes Back, some months after principal photography stopped. I had reams of sci-fi corridors worked out.

Corridors make science-fiction believable, because they're so utilitarian by nature - really they're just a conduit to get from one (often overblown) set to another. So if any thought or love is put into one, if the production designer is smart enough to realise that corridors are the foundation on which larger sets are 'sold' to viewers, movie magic is close at hand.

Go to the link for many pictures.

British Justice

Doink Doink!



Also, Law & Order UK is great except for the theme music. It is just wrong. There is no doink doink!

The Day the Zodiac Changed

Not really. [Link]

It seems to have started with this article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune last weekend, in which one astronomer made some statements about the zodiac. Parke Kunkle is on the board of directors of the Minnesota Planetarium Society and teaches astronomy at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Kunkle told the Star-Tribune the Earth's relation to the sun had changed since the Babylonians first created the zodiac.

We got in touch with Kunkle and asked him what he actually told the Star-Tribune. He said he was asked by the Star-Tribune to give them a few bits of information about astronomy, not realizing the article would become a huge discussion of astrology and the relationship between astronomy and astrology. And the main stuff he talked to the Star-Tribune about has to do with the phenomenon of "precession."

Says Kunkle:

If you take a toy top and spin it, it spins around an axis and that axis tends to point in different directions. It moves around. That's what we call precession. So in Earth's case, right now, Earth's spin axis points towards Polaris, the North Star. But in 3000 BC, the Earth's axis pointed towards a different star, Thuban. And that majestic motion takes about 26,000 years. so if you went from 3,000 B.C. and waited 26,000 years, you'd have the north star Thuban again.

This phenomenon was first noticed around 130 B.C. by a Greek astronomer, Hipparchus of Nicea. And as a result, if you actually look at what stars were positioned behind the sun on a particular date, that would have been very different 5,000 years ago than it would today. "We're in a different constellation now and that is the typical sun sign," based on the sun's position when you were born.

And no, Parke Kunkle didn't tell the Star-Tribune that the zodiac ought to include 13 signs instead of 12 — especially since he doesn't believe in astrology at all. (He highly recommends Phil Plait's page about astrology.) He did mention that astronomers tend to reckon the sun's position with 13 constellations instead of 12, and Ophiuchus is the 13th. But in the current astrology zodiac, there are just 12. "I just mentioned that it's there, and astronomers actually count it... So if you actually watch the stars in the background of the sun, it actually does go through the constellation of Ophiuchus." He adds that the Babylonians probably had totally different constellations anyway.

Nature by Numbers

Neat. Watch in 720p if possible.

Smart Contact Lenses

I want a pair. [Link]

Researchers at the University of Washington have been working on extremely tiny and semi-transparent LEDs designed to be integrated into contact lenses. So far, they've managed to create red pixels and blue pixels, and when they can figure out green ones, they'll be able to make full color displays.

Despite being millimeters from your retinas, the images created by the lenses will be in perfect focus, and when the display is turned off, everything will be transparent. Since the lenses are inside your eyelids, though, you can't un-see anything that they decide to project, which is something that you'll have to consider when you're watching something especially scary or gross on them. Power will come from a beltpack that transmits electricity wirelessly to a resonating antenna in the lens itself, and data will be transmitted the same way so that you don't have to plug HDMI cables into your eye sockets.

Private Space Company Obtains Old Russian Space Station Modules

They plan week long trips starting 2013. [Link]

The private spaceflight company Excalibur Almaz has obtained two partially completed Almaz space station modules from Russia and brought them to the company’s home base on the Isle of Man. The modules and Excalibur Almaz’ reusable return vehicles were developed by a Russian company in the 1970’s but were never flown. Excalibur Almaz hopes to offer week-long orbital space flights beginning as early as 2013, using the once top-secret Russian capsules and modules.

In 2009, EA reached an agreement JSC MIC NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia, the company that originally built the spacecraft, and purchased both the Reusable Return Vehicles rockets and modules for the Almaz space station. In the 1970′s, the RRVs went through nine flight tests, with two RRVs flown to orbit several times.

EA will work on updating the spacecraft to conduct crew and cargo space missions for private individuals, corporations, academic institutions and national governments.

In a press release, EA said the stations will be initially stored, followed by research, testing and possibly completion and launch to orbit.

Transforming unicycle/motorcycle

Neat. [Link]

BPG Motors describes the Uno III like this:

The Uno is the worlds first real transformer. At low speeds, the Uno is similar to a unicycle, for high-speed travel, the Uno transforms into a full motorcycle. This transitioning design allows the Uno to be compact and nimble for weaving through traffic, bringing indoors and parking, while at the same time, having all the benefits of a conventional motorcycle at high-speed.

Inspired by the overcrowded streets of China, Gulak set out to design the Uno III as a compact transportation device with the ability to carve through congested traffic with ease. The collapsible Uno can effectively fit in an elevator, boasts a top speed of approximately 35 miles per hour and has a range of 30 miles. This adaptable vehicle can morph from its upright Segway-ish mode to its motorcycle-like horizontal position on the fly. BPG hopes to launch the Uno III in early 2012, at least on a limited basis.

And now, Star Wars cakes

Neat. [Link]

What comes around...

Goes around. [Link]

If you had gone to sleep in early 2006 and woken up today, you would learn that the filibuster is no longer a necessary brake on the tyranny of the majority but rather is a fossilized impediment to necessary progressive change. Recess appointments no longer result in “damaged goods” but are necessary protocols to get the talented by ossified ideologues in the Senate. If raising the debt limit beyond $9 trillion was once reckless and proof of a lack of leadership, exceeding $14 trillion is sober and judicious. Iraq is no longer lost, it is our “greatest achievement.” And just as Guantanamo and Predators are no longer constitutional affronts but critical tools against man-made disasters, so too the “fat cat” Bush tax rates ceased being impediments to spreading the wealth and evolved into necessary incentives for economic revival.

Hmm.

Prison inmates and honey buns

Food, currency, substitute for addictions. [Link]

They are a lowly, sturdy food designed for desperate cravings and vending machine convenience. They can endure weeks of neglect and even a mild mashing in a coat pocket or backpack. They are, it should come as no surprise, especially beloved by a similarly hardy but disrespected population: Florida's prison inmates.

Inmates in the Florida prison system buy 270,000 honey buns a month. Across the state, they sell more than tobacco, envelopes and cans of Coke.

Not only that, honey buns have taken on lives of their own among the criminal class: as currency for trades, as bribes for favors, as relievers for stress and substitutes for addiction. They've become birthday cakes, hooch wines, last meals even ingredients in a massive tax fraud.
So what is it about these little golden glazed snacks? Is it that they're cheap, which is big, since the prisoners rely on cash from friends and family? That their sugary denseness could stop a speeding bullet? That they're easy, their mise en place just the unwrapping of plastic? What gives?

Congressional Shooting

Can't we just agree that he is mentally ill? Emphasis added. [Link]

Meanwhile, better sense from Howard Kurtz:

Let’s be honest: Journalists often use military terminology in describing campaigns. We talk about the air war, the bombshells, targeting politicians, knocking them off, candidates returning fire or being out of ammunition. So we shouldn’t act shocked when politicians do the same thing. Obviously, Palin should have used dots or asterisks on her map. But does anyone seriously believe she was trying to incite violence?

I guess the Democrats’ map with targets was fomenting violence, too, then.

Let me be clear, as a great man says: If you’re using this event to criticize the “rhetoric” of Sarah Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you’re either asserting a connection between the “rhetoric” and the shooting — which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie — or you’re not, in which case you’re just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible. So which is it?

A use for Comic Sans

In education, where to make the text slightly harder to read appears to improve retention. [Link]

This new paper attempted to provide the most direct test yet of the benefits of disfluency. I’d like to focus on their second experiment, as it involved actual students in actual classrooms in Chesterfield, Ohio. The researchers began by getting supplementary classroom material, such as PowerPoint presentations, handouts and worksheets, from a variety of teachers. (Subjects included English, Physics, U.S. History and Chemistry.) Then, the researchers changed the fonts on all of the materials, transforming the fluent text into a variety of disfluent formats, such Monotype Corsiva, Comic Sans Italicized and Haettenshweiler. Because all of the teachers included in the study taught at least two sections of the same class, the psychologists were able to conduct a neatly controlled experiment. One group of students was given the classroom materials with the disfluent fonts, while the other group was taught with the usual mixture of Helvetica and Arial. The font size remained the same.

After several weeks of instruction, the students were then tested on their retention of the material. In every class except chemistry, the students in the disfluent condition performed significantly better than those in the control-fluent condition.* Here are the scientists:

Comic Sans

Qwest Field has some explaining to do

About why their large beer (which costs $1.25 more than the small) appears to contain the exact same amount of liquid. [Link]

A few observant fans made a little video showing how the liquid in a large cup fits perfectly into the small cup. So really, those large brews are just an optical illusion, disguised in a taller vessel. Shame on you, Qwest Field. Shame. On. You.

Violet Sedan Chair on Fringe

The producers of Fringe seeded vinyl records of a fictional band, Violet Sedan Chair in record stores across the country. [Link]

The next episode of Fringe, airing Jan. 21, features Walter meeting his musical idol, Roscoe Joyce, who was the keyboard player in the 1970s band Violet Sedan Chair. (And he's played by Christopher Lloyd.) To tie in with the episode, the show's producers created an actual vinyl album by Violet Sedan Chair called "Seven Suns," and shipped copies to record stores around the country. (And now we're dying to hear what this thing sounds like!) Apparently the records have been sitting in stores for a couple of months already.

But each copy of the record is unique, containing its own set of clues and spoilers about the show hidden in the lyrics and liner notes, and possibly elsewhere.

Related video



Related Blog post. [Link]

I think it says this:

"I guess somehow through playing the keyboard you can tell that I had a great voice even though we never heard it, so i went for about a year and people would ask what are you gonna play for us and my my my favorite track on the record was violets slow vibrations because it dealt with topics that were real..."

That's what me and my cousin got out of it.  Also check out the rest of MIKELEEPSYCHS videos.  they were all loaded after this one and they are all kinda strange.  See if it is anything.  

Awesomeness.

Wired has a reference as well. [Link]

1971   The liner notes on Violet Sedan Chair's albumSeven Suns list a missing 11th song, and the penultimate track is rumored to produce hallucinatory effects when played on multiple turntables.

The evolution of the Batmobile

Awesome.


Via: CarInsurance.org

The river that Mountain Dew comes from

Not really, but it certainly looks like it. Pranksters dumped fluorescent dye in the river. [Link]

Last week, pranksters dyed the Goldstream River on Vancouver Island bright green using the dye fluorescein. Apparently the river was so bright that it was painful to look at. Here's footage of this roiling ectoplasmic channel.

Verizon making iPhone announcement next week?

The Verizon announcement everyone has been waiting for is happening. [Link]

Well, here we are: the Wall Street Journal says Verizon will indeed announce the iPhone at its mysterious Tuesday event, according to "a source familiar with the matter." That's all the info the Journal has, but we'd say that all but seals it at this point -- and you know we'll be there live when it happens.

P.S. And just like that, Apple's managed to once again be one of the biggest stories at CES with zero presence here. That's what, five years in a row now?

Here's why Verizon is doing the announcing and not Apple. [Link]

So why is next Tuesday’s announcement of the Verizon iPhone a Verizon-hosted event in New York and not an Apple-hosted event in Cupertino? Here’s my theory. Apple is fully aware that when they say “We’re having an event next week” that people expect big news and a new product. If they were hosting this event, speculation would be rampant that it would involve a new iPad and maybe an iPhone 5, in addition to the expected Verizon deal. There is no new Apple product, though. We nerds know that a CDMA iPhone 4 is a different device than the GSM iPhone 4, but from a consumer perspective, it’s the same phone but just works on a different carrier. What would Apple show? What would there be to demo?

Precious Bodily Fluids

Government calls to reduce amount of fluoridation. [Link]

U.S. government officials said Friday that the amount of fluoride in the nation's drinking water should now be set at the lowest recommended level.

Although fluoride is a significant help in preventing cavities and tooth decay, too much of it can cause unattractive spotting on children's teeth. About two out of five teens have white spots and streaks on their teeth due to too much fluoride, according to a recent government study.

To prevent this problem, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are recommending that the fluoride level in drinking water be set at 0.7 milligrams per liter of water, replacing the current recommended range of 0.7 to 1.2 milligrams.

Rockets of the world

From Telstar Logistics

Click to view full size

The return of the Commodore 64

As a modern PC with a built in C64 emulator so you can run your old programs. [Link]

It's back... and better than ever! The new Commodore 64 is a modern functional PC as close to the original in design as humanly possible. It houses a modern mini-ITX PC motherboard featuring a Dual Core 525 Atom processor and the latest Nvidia Ion2 graphics chipset. It comes in the original taupe brown/beige color, with other colors to follow.