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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Travel Photo of the Week

Beach at Placencia, Belize. Photo by Tim Rock.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

New Theory Doesn’t Limit Consciousness To The Brain

This in from Science News: "Each split second of awareness is a unified, holistic experience, completely different from any experience before or after it."

Giulio Tononi intuited a powerful new theory of consciousness, a theory based on the flow of information and his theory defines consciousness as the capacity of a system — any system — to connect and use that information.

Tononi’s idea extends beyond humans. By moving from nerve cells to the math that describes them, he has broken the theory of consciousness away from the physical brain. His equations can fit any system. With the right calculations, scientists could test whether a tornado with its innumerable dust particles circling in unison, 2050’s iPhone or the trillions of megabytes of information zooming around the Internet could have some degree of consciousness. Personally, I've always wondered whether stars or other celestial bodies could be conscious. Under this notion they certainly could be tested.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Why Everything Is Connected To Everything Else, Explained In 100 Seconds

The underlying theme of this blog is that everything is connected. Here is physicist Brian Cox prooving it.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Guys! A New Way To Play With Your Balls!

Now that I have your attention.



Want to know more? Go to their website, gosphero.com.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Fun Time!

The Periodic Table that's a table.

Friday, February 24, 2012

The Man Who Prints Houses

3D printing is all the rage these days. Ten years ago it was in its infancy and was the province of university labs. The equipment was expensive and enormous and only printed out fragile plastic toys.

Today the technology is starting to come on line for the rest of us. MakerBot Industries will sell you a machine for about a grand that will allow you to print out 3D plastic items from your home computer. Other companies are developing printers that use metal.

Now, here comes Enrico Dini. He is developing a machine that will use sand and print out a house. Don't believe me? Here's a video............


The Man Who Prints Houses Trailer from Marc Webb on Vimeo.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Is That A Faster Than Light Neutrino I See, Or Is Your Cable Just Loose?

After all the hoopla about Einstein being wrong about the speed-of-light thing, it's looking like it may have just been a loose cable that caused scientists to think that neutrinos might be going faster than photons.

Here's a link to the Reuters' article on this "breakthrough." CERN will be running tests on this in May. In the article it stated that the possible error "concerns the optical fiber connector that brings the external GPS signal to the OPERA master clock, which may not have been functioning correctly when the measurements were taken," said CERN. "If this is the case, it could have led to an underestimate of the time of flight of the neutrinos."

Such a shame...just when I was ready to book that trip back to the Renaissance to help Leonardo get that helicopter thing working..

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Travel Photo of the Week

Trunk Bay, St. Johns USVI - Photo by Gigi Amr

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Robert Davidovitz's "Woven Paint" Series

These beautiful "paintings" are created from "thread" made of extruded paint that is then woven into tapestries. They are the creation of Robert Davidovitz and here is a link to an interview with the artist and a slideshow of his work.



Monday, February 20, 2012

The History of the Universe: From Big Bang to Big Blah

Here's the progression from:

BIG BANG

To now-ish.............

To the distant future............

Tell me true; don't you feel better now you know how it's all going to turn out?

Sunday, February 19, 2012

LEGO Prosthetic Arm

I love LEGOs. BEST. TOY. EVER. Here's a link to Max Shepard's (the arms' creator) website.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Fun Time

I love Jack White and The White Stripes. Obviously, I'm not the only one. Here are students from The Blast Lab at Imperial College, London, a place where scientists study how explosions affect the human skeleton, performing "Seven Nation Army" on the lab's equipment.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Hobbyist Excavates Basement With RC Model Construction Equipment

Yeah and I thought I knew what nutz was. This is guy takes it to a whole new level. Here's some video. Here's his YouTube website in case you might want to watch a 13 minute clip of this action.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Circuit Playground

I'm not usually hawking apps on my blog here, but this one just caught my eye. A few years back I decided to start building guitar amps. I've been playing for over 40 years and building an amp had been a teenage dream. So what if I waited until my 50's to make good on it? Now comes this great app for designing circuits.

As the iTunes app store description says, "Circuit Playground simplifies electronics reference & calculation so you can have more fun hacking, making, & building your projects!"

Here's a partial list of its functions:

Decipher resistor & capacitor codes with ease
Calculate power, resistance, current, and voltage with the Ohm's Law & Power Calc modules
Quickly convert between decimal, hexadecimal, binary or even ASCII characters
Calculate values for multiple resistors or capacitors in series & parallel configurations
Store, search, and view PDF datasheets

Now, if they only had tube information on it.

Only $2.99 at the App Store.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Travel Photo of the Week

Tanzania

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

House in Stone

Don't you just wonder who lives here?

Monday, February 13, 2012

Whole Earth

Nasa has recently offered two striking new views of the whole earth as seen from space. Here they are and here is how they made the images.



Sunday, February 12, 2012

Bamboo Bicycle

Here's a neat
idea: make a bicycle from
bamboo. Only don't use any
machines to make it.
Have it grow into the shapes
you need!

“Consumption of raw materials has lasting implications – economically, socially and environmentally. This vehicle is about rethinking our approach to both design and ecological sustainability of the products we create and use,” said  Alexander Vittouris, the bikes designer. Instead of depending on the energy of factories to shape material into the form of a car, Vittouris’ design relies on nature for that energy.

To read more: The Ajiro Bike is Grown From the Ground Up on Inhabit

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Fun Time!

Artist Jeff Meadows did a great custom paint job on his shoes! From an interview with him on Illustration Mundo.

Friday, February 10, 2012

40 Tiny Homes

This is from Tiny House Blog. Click on the previous link and you go to a page with 40 pictures of tiny homes. Each picture will take you to a full description of the house.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Japanese Apartment Tour

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in, say, Tokyo? Well then, here's something cool. This is a short look inside a Japanese apartment. Very clean, very organized and just right for one person.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Travel Photo of the Week

Huayna Picchu, Peru

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Why French Parents Are Superior

I never thought I'd be writing that headline on the blog, but if the Wall Street Journal says it, it must be so.

In truth it comes down to some simple ideas.

1. Children need rituals.
2a. Children need their own space. Respect it.
2b. Children need to know you have your own space and respect it.
3. Children need to make their own mistakes.
4. Don't hover over your kids trying to make everything "alright."

Read the article. If you disagree, don't have kids or you'll be part of the problem. If you agree, have kids. You can be part of the solution.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Living On The Beach In A Pop-Up Trailer In Mexico

Those words in the title almost sound like magic, don't they?  Well, in this blog, Small House Revolution, two sane adults get rid of half their belongings, ditch their rental house and pick up the kids and go to Mexico for five months, live on the beach, homeschool their kids and generally live the dream. I'm not going to bother writing more drivel about them and their wonderful adventure. Click on the link, find out for yourself.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

40 Tiny Houses in 40 Days

Jay Shafer is the founder of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company and is the author of the self published “The Small House Book.” He has an interesting blog on his website and recently he decided to post photos and descriptions of 40 tiny homes in 40 days.

"I’ve been shooting pictures of other folk’s tiny houses for over a decade now. While I’ve put some of my images in The Small House Book, I’ve still got some more stuff I should put out there. Here, then, are a few of my favorites- some new, some old."

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Friday, February 3, 2012

POD House

Swiss design firm ROB GmbH has come up with a simple low-impact housing solution. The POD house was originally designed to be used at Swiss ski resorts, but makes a great basic unit for a tiny home.

There are several configurations and without solar panels, start at just under $11,000.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

TechShop

TechShop is a member-based workshop. They have one of every tool you could dream of -- laser cutters, plasma torches, computer-control sewing machines, welders, 3D printing machines, you name it -- plus piles of regular tools (drill presses, lathes, oscilloscopes, miter saws etc.), and once you are member and cleared for training, you can use them whenever you want. They have a big open tables, lots of room, and offer classes for various tool craft as well.

Right now there are only locations in San Fransisco, San Jose and Menlo Park, California and Detroit MI and Raliegh-Durham, NC. I imagine if enough people want one they'll start one in your area. Just don't hope for Washington, DC: all we make here is trouble.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Travel Photo of the Week

Villa Borghese Gardens, Rome, Italy