A collection of digital wonders and some other stuff
Last fall Robert Scoble and Thomas Hawk interviewed Marc Levoy, Stanford University Professor of both computer science and electrical engineering.
Levoy shows them leading edge research about automatically stitching images together, digitizing real world three dimensial objects like statues, and among others, camera technology that allows you to refocus the image AFTER you shoot it!
You can view the interview here.
See also: CNet’s article about the multi-dimensional focusing technology.
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I just listened to last week’s episode (#348 Tough Room) of This American Life.
This week we bring you backstage with comedy writers at The Onion. They start with over 600 potential headlines for their fake-news newspaper each week, and over the course of two days, in the very tough room that is their editorial conference room, they select 16 to go in the paper. Plus other people speaking their minds in very tough rooms.
One of the contributors, Malcolm Gladwell, relates some prankery from his days at The Washington Post. The mp3 is available on TAL’s website, and you can also get it on iTunes. For those not interested in digesting stories aurally, Gladwell wrote a version of this story for Slate in 1996.
By way of a little self indulgence, here is a photo my brother took of me dunking the basketball last weekend. Does my long hair and beard remind anyone else of Teen Wolf?
This amazing music video by Director Simon Laganière, for the Quebec duo Tricot Machine, uses artwork of entirely knitted yarn to animate each frame. (A tricot is a plain, warp-knitted cloth of any of various yarns.)
Over 700 unique knitted pieces were created for the video by designer Lysanne Latulippe of the fashion label Majolie.
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Did the city of Berkeley, California, tell the US Marines that their recruiting office was not welcome there? Yes, they did.
BERKELEY, Calif. Local officials in this liberal city say it’s time for the U.S. Marines to move out.
The City Council has voted to tell the Marines their downtown recruiting station is not welcome and “if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome guests.”
The measure passed this week by a vote of 8-1.
I just came across this clip of Patrick Stewart on The Extras. This is an old one that you may have seen before, but it’s a classic.
[Patrick Stewart on Extras – YouTube]
This electrifying speech by Oprah Winfrey solidifies my belief that nothing could be better for the United States and possibly the entire world, than Barack Obama as President.
[LA Rally: Oprah Winfrey – YouTube]
Here are a few stats from urbanfervor:
Obama has received, on average, 51.2% of the votes in each of the states to have held primaries through Super Tuesday yesterday. Clinton has, on average, taken 42.3% per state. Obama has won 70% or more of the vote in three states, Clinton has won 70% of the vote in none.
Obama has won 60% or more in 8 states. Clinton has won 60% or more of the vote in only Arkansas, where she was once First Lady of the state and a successful corporate attorney.
Obama won 80% of the vote in one state, Idaho. Clinton has not won more than 69% in any state.
Obama has won 10 states by at least 15 percentage points over Clinton. Clinton has won only five states by such margin, including Arkansas again, New York, where she currently serves as the Junior Senator, and Florida, which was uncontested and is virtually worthless delegate-wise.
In the states Obama has won, he has won by, on average, 25.5 points. In the states Clinton has won, her average margin of victory is 15.09 points.
Obama hasn’t just won more states by big margins, he’s won the most tight battles. In elections decided by five or fewer points, Obama has won 3, Clinton only 1.
A couple months ago everyone was penciling Clinton in as the nominee. Probably time to rethink that. I think a lot more people out there are a lot more excited about Obama than are for Clinton. The more we see him and get to know him, the more we like him. As the primaries continue on, with the money he has raised and the enthusiasm he has generated, I can’t see him not winning the nomination.
I hope he’s right. I’m tired of not loving the United States—the world is watching and hoping for change.
Here’s Obama himself, answering some questions at Google headquarters.
[Barack Obama: Q and A from Google employees II – YouTube]
The Electoral Compass is a tool designed to help you know which candidate in the US Primaries holds views most similar to yours.
Here’s where I stand, if I were voting:
Guillermo del Toro has been hired to direct two movie adaptations of J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
His previous directing credits include Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, and Blade II, none of which I’ve seen but Ebert’s review of Pan’s Labyrinth has me curious.
I’m one of the few fans Tolkien’s books that enjoy The Hobbit more than the Lord of the Rings, so news of the new movies has me fairly excited. I’m not sure how I feel about Peter Jackson sitting in as producer instead of director, but you can bet they will be filmed in a way that seamlessly completes the series.
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So here’s the question of the day:
“A plane is standing on a runway that can move (some sort of band conveyor). The plane moves in one direction, while the conveyor moves in the opposite direction. This conveyor has a control system that tracks the plane speed and tunes the speed of the conveyor to be exactly the same (but in the opposite direction). Can the plane take off?”
Personally, my first thought was that the plane would not take off because it wouldn’t have enough lift without moving up to speed relative to the ground. But after thinking about what it is that actually causes a plane to lift off, the wind going around the wings, I wasn’t so sure.
The wheels in planes aren’t generally what cause the plane to move forward, it’s the suction of wind through the propeller or engines. Presumably the plane would pull the same amount of wind whether or not it was riding the conveyor belt, therefore, I think it would take off.
While you’re taking a moment to think about this problem, let me tell you that tonight the Mythbuster’s are putting this question to rest once and for all. Will a plane on a conveyor belt take-off? (We’ll see tonight, but I think yes).
Update: here is the clip:
[Mythbusters – Plane on a Conveyor Belt – YouTube]
The Mythbusters official channel has uploaded the full episode: