Humans can't walk straight

Mai multe: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2010/11/03/131050832/a-mystery-why-can-t-we-walk-straight

Meat will make you happy - murder burger

Trebuie mentionat ca asta nu este o parodie. Este o campanie reala a lantului "Murder Burger" . In prezent se mai numeste Murder Burger numai in Noua Zeelanda

What's cool or fun about a thumping, sweaty dungeon full of posing idiots?

I'm convinced no one actually likes clubs. It's a conspiracy. We've been told they're cool and fun; that only "saddoes" dislike them. And no one in our pathetic little pre-apocalyptic timebubble wants to be labelled "sad" - it's like being officially declared worthless by the state. So we muster a grin and go out on the town in our millions.


Clubs are despicable. Cramped, overpriced furnaces with sticky walls and the latest idiot theme tunes thumping through the humid air so loud you can't hold a conversation, just bellow inanities at megaphone-level. And since the smoking ban, the masking aroma of cigarette smoke has been replaced by the overbearing stench of crotch sweat and hair wax.


Clubs are such insufferable dungeons of misery, the inmates have to take mood-altering substances to make their ordeal seem halfway tolerable. This leads them to believe they "enjoy" clubbing. They don't. No one does. They just enjoy drugs.

Tot articolul: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/aug/13/fashion.comment/print

Top 33 World’s Strangest Buildings (sorted by 4.520 visitors votes)

See more images here..

Strangebuildings.com has a wonderful collection of the world’s most unusual architecture and together with Bored Panda presents you an incredible list of 33 strangest buildings in the world, and best of all, it’s not just another random list, but it is based on 4.520 unique visitor votes. So don’t blame panda for this exact order, blame yourself for voting this way, or for not voting at all.

Galerie completa: http://www.boredpanda.com/top-33-worlds-strangest-buildings/

Site-ul Strange Buildings e foarte interesant pentru ca are detalii despre cladiri nu numai poze.
Surse: http://www.strangebuildings.com/

Magnetism

FOTB 2010 Titles from Süperfad on Vimeo.

This year's titles for FOTB were created by Nando Costa through the use of macro motion pictures and materials with magnetic properties.

Music by Darrin Wiener - music.wiener.us & Marcelo Baldin - combustion.ws

* You may view large stills of the animation on Flickr at flickr.com/​photos/​nandocosta_work/​sets/​72157625165746572/​

* You may download the song for your personal enjoyment here: superfad.com/​uploads/​2010/​fotb/​FOTB_Titles_2010.mp3.zip

Dancing with Invisible Light - Kinect art photography

Lumina structurata de la Kinect si niste filtre IR este tot ce iti trebuie pentru aceste imagini suprarealiste.


Galerie completa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/audreypenven/sets/72157625454305998/with/5197393939/

PACO-PLUS project develops embodied cognition for robot learning

Sursa: http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-intelligence/a-robots-body-of-knowledge

Metrouri 98% reciclabile in Polonia

The interiors are spaciously appointed with extra-wide entrances, for accommodating better passenger flow, large electronic displays for system maps, and lighting that's placed at soothing intervals, rather than in blaring, monolithic banks. The electronics and mechanics cabinets have also been removed from the actual cabin walls -- so that the interior space is as spacious as possible. And finally, you'll also notice that the handholds are lit from above and shaped like tree branches -- a symbol, the designers say, of the subway cars green ambitions.

Those green bonafides primarily come in the form of the carriage's aluminum, "weight-optimized" chassis, which is significantly lighter than the average traincar, reducing its energy consumption. And... wait for it... the carriages are expected to be 97.5% recyclable as well.

 Sursa: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662745/poland-unveils-bmw-designed-subway-cars-which-are-98-recyclable

Artist Guildwars - Daniel Dociu

(click pt mai mari)

Bio:

Daniel Dociu was raised in Cluj, the capital of Transylvania in Romania. After studying art and architecture, he got his Masters in Industrial Design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cluj. He moved to the USA in 1990 after spending two years in Athens, Greece, and he has lived in the Seattle area since 1991.
After working as a toy designer for two years, Dociu wisely jumped ship to interactive entertainment. “I’ve been working as an Art Director in the games industry ever since,” says Dociu, “for companies like Squaresoft, Electronic Arts (twice!), and Zipper Interactive. I have done consulting for Microsoft and freelance work for Wizards of the Coast, Digital Anvil as well as a fair share of small developers who have come and gone.” For the past five years, Daniel Dociu has been with ArenaNet, a fully owned subsidiary of NCSoft, in an art director and lead concept artist role. More recently he's stepped into the Chief Art Director role for NCsoft, overseeing visual development for all of NCsoft's North American projects, with particular focus on ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2.

Siteul artistului: http://www.tinfoilgames.com/gallery.php

Scammed in China

China Part 2a from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.

How Kevin Rose and Glenn McElhose Got Scammed in China


Sursa: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/10/08/random-episode-6-how-kevin-rose-and-glenn-mcelhose-got-scammed-in-china-ha/

New EvE character creation

L-am postat chiar daca nu joaca nimeni EvE (my mistake) pentru ca mi se pare extraordinar de intuitiv.

Casual profanity fluid dress 2.0

Fluid Dress from Charlie Bucket on Vimeo.

A mai fost acum aproape un an pe gilotopia versiunea 1.

Melodia este Cherry - Ratatat

Cum sa faci un meniu inselator

There's a science to where on the menu you display that price, too, he says. Take a typical two-column menu: The description of the food is on the left, and the price is an inch or two from the description, on the right. Bad idea, says Mentzer. Get rid of the second column, he recommends, and put the price at the end of the sentence that describes the dish.

"You want people to read the price after they've read the description," he explains, "not before."

Now that you've nestled together price and description, you've got to think about where on the menu to locate each dish. Mentzer has studies that track where the eye travels when it reads a menu, and part of his presentation to clients is a menu divided into sections: the starlets (top right, the place for items that net the most money), the plow horses (top left, ideal for dishes that are higher than average in popularity and lower than average contributors to the bottom line), the dogs (bottom left, lower than average popularity, lower than average profits) and so on.

"The eye goes first to the starlets and it doesn't like to spend a lot of time with the dogs," he says. "I told a guy recently to move his pastas -- which are really high-margin -- from the dogs to the all-stars, and there was a 30 percent jump in sales."

Tot articolul: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/12/AR2008041201225.html

Panopixel Bucuresti

E o poza multirez a orasului. Try zooming.

http://www.panopixel.ro/multirez/bucuresti.htm

http://www.panopixel.ro/v3/index.php

Thanks Alex!

How does the Kinect really work?

I’m quite tired of seeing the stupid things people try to pass off as facts about how the kinect works so instead of complaining about it I decided to make this handy guide.

First of all what it isn’t: it is not an EyeToy or just a webcam. 

Hardware:

That weird (huge) box contains:

• a VGA 640x480 color camera (CMOS) with a Bayer color filter
• a IR 640x480 camera (CMOS)*
• an IR projector
• a motor,  an assortment of control chips and 4 microphones
• a fan!

(* it seems the outputted depthmap is 640x480 but the IR camera sensor size is closer too 1600x1200)
 

The hardware is something researchers have been pining over for a loooong time because it’s a cheap camera that provides distance measurements for every pixel. Previously all they could do was guess and hope for ideal conditions so that your algorithm would work.

How it works:

It is NOT a time of flight camera as a lot of websites have incorrectly stated. It is a structured light camera. You’ve seen those videos of 3d scanners projecting stripes onto things as if imitating venetian blinds? It the same principle at work only there’s nothing venetian about it.

That IR projector mentioned above is an IR laser that passes through a diffraction grating and turns into a lot of IR dots.

They look chaotic because that’s how the kinect can tell what’s going on. NO IT WILL NOT GIVE YOU CANCER. It is a class 1 laser so it's safe to be exposed to it indefinitely. Each of those points is unique and the IR camera sees how it distorts and says „hmm the distance to that point is x”.

Combine that data with the color image from the camera and you have this:

That ladies and gentlemen is a realtime 3D video stream!
Those odd shadows are where the camera can’t see. Combine a few more you say? You can’t. Remember how I said the dots are unique? They suddenly become a lot less unique if there are two or more dotfields in the same area. The Kinects would become confused, sad and depressed.
Switching between them so there’s only one dotfield active at a time might work but that would divide the 30Hz framerate by the number of Kinects rendering the whole thing useless.

Unfortunately laser light is already polarized to some degree so a hack to enable Kinects to operate simultaneously with polarized filters would prove challenging. In the same tone wavelength shifting would be insanely complicated and expensive as narrow band IR filters are not cheap or easy to come by.

Radu Bogdan Rusu has said that "Judging from a few basic tests with two Kinects, I can't seem to get them to interfere with each other to the point where the data is unusable."

Also here is a great explanation of how the pattern is used to determine depth:



The software:
The software is also quite revolutionary. One guy had this to say about it:

The sophistication and performance of the algorithms rival or exceed anything that I've seen in academic research, never mind a consumer product.

...

We would all love to one day have our own personal holodeck. This is a pretty measurable step in that direction.

 – Johnny Chung Lee

 

Who’s Johnny Chung Lee? Remember this guy?

Him.

What’s he working on? The Kinect.

He’s not exaggerating either. The software is nothing short of revolutionary. Estimates are it took 5 to 10 years to develop! That’s the average lifespan of a ferret. 

(missing picture: Ferret computer scientists)

How it works:

The team first built a software that could learn, then sent it to school to learn how humans look and move.

And it works! It actually works. Until now computer vision has been this thing that sortof works and breaks if you look at it funny but this actually works.

As if that wasn’t enough it also understands your voice and tracks it in the room (those 4 microphones were not just for weigh balancing).

Researchers would pay thousands until now for hardware that wasn’t half as good as this. The community has embraced this thing with open arms. Microsoft has said they’ll release an SDK to work with their wonderful software (hurry up will you?). Until now computers couldn’t actually see. Even the limited info they could receive wasn’t really that easy to interpret so it wasn’t used. The Kinect has given computers more than eyes, it’s given them vision.

One question is: Why livingroom gaming as the first target?  It seems like an odd first choice. My personal theory is that it’s a trojan horse tactic. First get it into everything then enable everyone to write software for it. Developers, developers, developers.

One thing is certain. This has changed the face of computing and robotics forever.

Many too small boxes and Maru

Back from the Future - Cauzalitate inversa

Am sa va prezint doua articole. Ambele se ocupa de problema dubioasa a cauzalitatii inverse. Asta inseamna ca studiaza fenomenul prin care efectul unor evenimente se propaga si inapoi in timp. Suna imposibil?

Primul articol: http://discovermagazine.com/2010/apr/01-back-from-the-future studiaza efectul acesta la nivelul cuantic. Intr-un experiment o particula subatomica este masurata (si automat influentata) de mai multe ori. Daca se fac de exemplu 3 masurari s-a descoperit ca masurarea a doua este influentata de masurarea a treia (care inca nu a fost facuta si in mod ciudat poate chiar sa nu mai fie facuta).

Al doilea articol: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19712-is-this-evidence-that-we-can-see-the-future.html trateaza lucrurile la un nivel macroscopic. Este vorba de un studiu de la universitatea Cornell care a durat 8 ani si a cautat sa afle daca fenomenul de precognitie este adevarat. Rezultatul surprinzator este ca a fost inregistrata o deviatie statistica semnificativa (aprox 3%) de la rezultatul aleatorie asteptat. De multe ori a fost inregistrat acelasi fenomen mentionat si in articolul precedent: reactia a aparut inaintea stimulului.

Detaliile si implicatiile acestor studii sunt mult prea complicate pentru a fi discutate aici asa ca va invit sa cititi articolele si sa trageti propriile concluzii.

Diametrala Capitalei promite traversarea de la nord la sud in 15 minute

Primarul general al Capitalei, Sorin Oprescu, a declarat, vineri, ca dupa finalizarea diametralei rutiere nord-sud, Bucurestiul va putea fi traversat de soferi in cel mult un sfert de ora.

Diametrala va face legatura intre Piata Victoriei si Piata George Cosbuc, cu traversare subterana a dealului Parlamentului.

"Prima etapa a inceput cu amenajarea Berzei, de la Piata Victoriei pana la strada Occidentului, unde linia de tramvai si strada vor fi terminate in acest an. Este un bulevard cu cate trei benzi pe sens, cu doua linii de tramvai. Urmeaza segmentul din Berzei, de la Calea Grivitei pana la Vulcanescu.

In zona intersectiei Berzei cu Vulcanescu, se creeaza o strada noua - este strada Garii de Nord, care iese direct in Dinicu Golescu, in fata Ministerului Transporturilor. In acest fel, castigam si viteza in circulatia autovehiculelor, care vor putea merge cu 20-30 de kilometri la ora, putand fi parcursa distanta nord-sud, adica aproximativ 12,5 kilometri, in maximum 15 minute", a explicat edilul-sef.

Tot articolul: http://www.ziare.com/sorin-oprescu/primar-general/oprescu-promite-traversarea-capitalei-de-la-nord-la-sud-in-15-minute-1055226

Subcarpati - Am crescut pe la Romana

Subcarpati - Am crescut pe la Romana from z00x on Vimeo.

- 57 stencils
- 3 black spray cans
- 8 9volt batteries
- 3 different light sources
- many many calculations, measurements and camera settings adjustments
- many many many nights
- 5313 pictures taken at 15" each

Produced: Ionut Negrila, Mihai Calota
We hope with this no budget clip to inspire creativity and resourcefulness among young creatives. ENJOY!

Making of:

Hotel in 6 zile

the 15 story Ark Hotel built in 6 days. Located in Changsa this building is level 9 earthquake resistant and incorporates some sustainable practices.

Sursa: http://www.archdaily.com/88245/video-ark-hotel/

Samsung transparent display

Partea interesanta incepe la 0:50

Google Refine

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/11/announcing-google-refine-20-power-tool.html

Nu putea sa apara saptamana trecuta?

Fasten your seatbelts - cultural guide

China 3_Lower your glass as a sign of respect. from 43 Films on Vimeo.


China 4_Do bring the right kind of gift. from 43 Films on Vimeo.

This increased mobility exposes millions of travellers every day to new cultures, customs and languages. Without education, dialogue can be difficult and misunderstandings can arise.

You can get yourself into all sorts of trouble in other countries if you don't have an understanding of the cultural language. Much of our behaviour can mean other things in other countries, some of it amusing, some of it extremely offensive. One gesture, or movement, or expression, may have many different meanings, just as our verbal language has words which may have different meanings.

Some people, when travelling to new countries, may forget to consider the different behavioural norms they are likely to encounter and behave exactly as they do at home. In such circumstances, even minor cultural differences can become major barriers to communication and cooperation. This project aims to demystify these cultural differences and encourage visitors to embrace them.

The beauty of Europe lies in the fact that even though there is a firm movement towards standardisation for the sake of efficiency, there is a strong will to cultivate and to promote the diversity of languages and cultures of the different states. With our project we would like to contribute to this important philosophy and extend it to the ‘global village’ that is our world today.

More generally, and perhaps a little less pretentiously, we would simply like to put the idea in the minds of the passengers that it is useful and fun to learn about cultural differences.

The objectives of this project are:
raising travellers' curiosity towards new languages
breaking linguistic and cultural communication barriers
using innovative communication tools and learning methods :teaching through entertainment
offering free immediate access to educational information to travellers
and last but not least, helping to kill time intelligently

The first episode (Fasten Seat Belts 1: Europe) was funded by the European Commission's Socrates-Lingua department.The second one (Fasten Seat Belts 2: Europe - Asia) was supported by the European Commission’s Life Long Learning Programme.

Un proiect european fascinant care are ca scop evitarea gafelor culturale prin educatie.
E si Romania in lista tarilor cu o "cultura speciala"

http://www.fastenseatbelts.eu/

What Alcohol Actually Does to Your Brain and Body

Alcohol, like caffeine, has an enormous reputation but loose understanding in popular culture. Learn how it's absorbed and how fast, why it's essential to reality TV altercations, its paradoxical sexual effects, and its life-lengthening potential, whether red wine or Bud Light.


Image via TheDeliciousLife.


Everyone, it seems, takes their cues on how alcohol affects the mind and body from an eclectic mix of knowledge: personal experience, pop culture, tall tales of long nights, the latest studies to make the health news wires, and second-hand tips. You might have gathered that alcohol is a depressant, that it's dehydrating, that you can drink about one drink an hour and stay relatively sober. Some of that is true. But much of it depends on a large number of factors.
Let's dig into some of things we do and don't know about alcohol. 

Tot articolul: http://lifehacker.com/5684996/what-alcohol-actually-does-to-your-brain-and-body

Russian photoshop

Thanks Cristi!

Making things hard to read 'can boost learning'

The 28 volunteers in the Princeton study were given 90 seconds to try to memorise a list of seven features for three different species of alien.
The idea was to re-create the kind of learning in a biology class. Aliens were chosen to be sure that none of the volunteers' prior knowledge interfered with the results.
One group was given the lists in 16-point Arial pure black font, which is generally regarded to be easy and clear to read. 
The other had the same information presented in either 12-point Comic Sans MS 75% greyscale font or 12-point Bodoni MT 75% greyscale.
The volunteers were distracted for 15 minutes, and then tested on how much they could remember.
Researchers found that, on average, those given the harder-to-read fonts actually recalled 14% more.
They believe that presenting information in a way that is hard to digest means a person has to concentrate more, and this leads to "deeper processing" and then "better retrieval" afterwards.

Tot articolul:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11573666

Noul turn simbol al Taiwan-ului facut de Romani

Felicitari echipei condusa de Dorin Stefan: Bogdan Chipara, Claudiu Barsan, Oana Nituica, Adrian Craciun.

Tot articolul: http://economie.hotnews.ro/stiri-imobiliar-8012812-interviu-dorin-stefan-arhitectul-care-cistigat-proiect-major-taiwan-sper-arhitectura-romaneasca-renasca-precum-cinematografia.htm
Pagina proiectului: http://www.dsba.ro/mainEN.php?lang=EN&news=1

Multumesc Cristi pt pont!

Science saved my soul

Robotul din Tei

(click pt mai mare)

Graffiti-ul asta este pe un bloc in apropierea sectiei 7 de politie la intersectia Teiul Doamnei cu Colentina. L-am observat acum cateva zile din tramvai iar astazi am mers pe jos pana acolo ca sa il pozez. Daca stie cineva cine este autorul sa ma informeze si pe mine.


Vizualizare hartă mărită

10 Strange Things About The Universe

The universe can be a very strange place. While groundbreaking ideas such as quantum theory, relativity and even the Earth going around the Sun might be commonly accepted now, science still continues to show that the universe contains things you might find it difficult to believe, and even more difficult to get your head around.
10 Negative Energy
9 Frame Dragging
8 Relativity of Simultaneity
7 Black Strings
6 Geon
5 Kerr Black Hole
4 Quantum Tunneling
3 Cosmic Strings
2 Antimatter Retrocausality
1 Gödel’s incompleteness theorems

Tot articolul: http://listverse.com/2010/11/04/10-strange-things-about-the-universe/

Subaru WRX STI Spyder

No CGI, no greenscreen.