Rathergood.com has some great vids showing you how to make all sorts of things.
This video show you how to turn a german gas mask
into a giant, nightmarish kazoo.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuGIj3YIKM&hl=en&fs=1]
Sheer unalloyed genius.
More fantastic origami - fantastically curved - from Polyscene on Flickr.
Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.
The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.
Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the system was able to reconstruct and display what the test subjects were viewing based solely on their brain activity.
For now, the system is only able to reproduce simple black-and-white images. But Dr. Kang Cheng, a researcher from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, suggests that improving the measurement accuracy will make it possible to reproduce images in color.
“These results are a breakthrough in terms of understanding brain activity,” says Dr. Cheng. “In as little as 10 years, advances in this field of research may make it possible to read a person’s thoughts with some degree of accuracy.”
The researchers suggest a future version of this technology could be applied in the fields of art and design — particularly if it becomes possible to quickly and accurately access images existing inside an artist’s head. The technology might also lead to new treatments for conditions such as psychiatric disorders involving hallucinations, by providing doctors a direct window into the mind of the patient.
ATR chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also become possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.”
The research results appear in the December 11 issue of US science journal Neuron.
From Pink Tentacle
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3kyNGVK-hI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]
Wow.
Докторрр ин дер ролле Fima_Psuchopadt (с) (via Warren Ellis)
From Boingboing
[+]
GIRL: Not yet?
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[+]
GIRL: Are they really going to do it?
BOY: I’m telling you, they’ll do it. Watch.
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[+]
DOCTOR: So… what seems to be the problem?
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[+]
PATIENT: Uh, it’s just some pain in one of my back teeth. Uh…
DOCTOR: Mmm hmm.
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[+]
DOCTOR: I see. The root of your pain does not exist in our dimension. Kishikawa-kun, go get the usual stuff.
NURSE: OK.
PATIENT: Huh?
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[+]
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DOCTOR: This machine will expand your body into the fifth dimension. Then we’ll get rid of what’s causing your toothache.
PATIENT: Huh?
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[+]
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PATIENT: Uh… I think it’s just a cavity. What the hell is this?
NURSE: Please don’t move.
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DOCTOR: Just relax. This is a long lost technique from the Golden Age that I managed to get my hands on. Trust me.
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NURSE: Here we go!
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PATIENT: Naaaa…
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NURSE: Heave-ho! Heave-ho!
DOCTOR: Looking good. Looking good.
PATIENT: Everything’s starting to look distorted.
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PATIENT: I… I can see little people.
DOCTOR: That’s fine.
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[+]
DOCTOR: Kishikawa-kun. See the toothache spores sprouting up over there? Cut them off.
NURSE: OK.
PATIENT: Oh, that feels nice.
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NURSE: Doctor. The handle is stuck. It won’t turn back.
DOCTOR: Again? It’s such an old machine.
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NURSE: What should we do?
DOCTOR: Just leave it. It’ll come unstuck eventually.
GIRL: Wow.
BOY: Amazing.
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[+]
PATIENT: Doctor!!!
DOCTOR: Don’t worry. Don’t worry.
GIRL: Fifth-dimension treatment!
BOY: Yeah!
[Published in Cannabis Works (2003) // Scans via Digik Gallery]
[got this from Pink Tentacle too]
To demonstrate a new method for fabricating three-dimensional living biological structures, researchers at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) have created a 5-millimeter tall doll composed of living cells.
According to an announcement made on January 22, the researchers created the tiny figurine by cultivating 100,000 cell capsules — 0.1-millimeter balls of collagen, each coated with dozens of skin cells — together inside a doll-shaped mold for one day. After the cell capsules had coalesced to form the doll-shaped mass of tissue, it was placed in a culture solution, where it reportedly survived for more than a day.
The researchers, led by IIS professor Shoji Takeuchi, also successfully tested the biofabrication method with human liver cells. According to Takeuchi, the technique can be used to create bodily organs and tissues with complex cellular structures, which may prove useful in the fields of regenerative medicine and drug development.
“The overall shape can be controlled by changing the mold,” said Takeuchi, who expressed a desire to combine multiple types of cells to create a complex system that functions as a living organism.
[got this on Pink Tentacle, one amazing blog site]
To demonstrate a new method for fabricating three-dimensional living biological structures, researchers at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) have created a 5-millimeter tall doll composed of living cells.
According to an announcement made on January 22, the researchers created the tiny figurine by cultivating 100,000 cell capsules — 0.1-millimeter balls of collagen, each coated with dozens of skin cells — together inside a doll-shaped mold for one day. After the cell capsules had coalesced to form the doll-shaped mass of tissue, it was placed in a culture solution, where it reportedly survived for more than a day.
The researchers, led by IIS professor Shoji Takeuchi, also successfully tested the biofabrication method with human liver cells. According to Takeuchi, the technique can be used to create bodily organs and tissues with complex cellular structures, which may prove useful in the fields of regenerative medicine and drug development.
“The overall shape can be controlled by changing the mold,” said Takeuchi, who expressed a desire to combine multiple types of cells to create a complex system that functions as a living organism.
[got this on Pink Tentacle, one amazing blog site]
Beautiful set of pics here.
Have you ever heard of Microsoft songsmith? Me neither. Looks like they
have some software that lets you sing into the computer, filling in the
music automatically... Cue people creating remixes of popular songs
(that they can get acapellas of).
My favourites so far:
Intergalactic! (Beastie Boys)
and
ROXANNE by Yoga Breath and the Fuzz.
(Thanks Greeny)
Durex Outake from Justin Street on Vimeo.
(via @EFF on Twitter)
Click here and try out Tiltshiftmaker. It's an online programme where you can upload a picture, Tiltshift it (make a clear line and blur the rest) and then save it. Yes I know you can do whizzy stuff on Photoshop that gives you the same result, but this is still pretty cool. Make sure your pic is REALLY colourful though - you'll get much better results.
This is only supposed to happen in the movies. Guy robs a corner shop in America, there's a car chase, he comes off second best. But instead of giving up, he lights one last cheroot and goes down guns blazing. As Joshua Bearman says, "Just look at this fucking guy and tell me he wasn't supposed to go out like this." The robber was identified as one Robert Sylvester. Age? 57. Wow. He died in hospital after police took him out.
Take a look at the photos by the very brave David Proeber.
Kate Kunath is a fantastic photographer. I found her via a link on BoingBoing, and she has done some terrific projects, from finding the Rabbit King of China to Beekeeping in the 21st Century. Her website is here. Above are a couple of pictures from her series on triplets called Mismatched: The Triplet Identity. The picture below is from Standard of Perfection: American Show. It's worth going to her site to see the pictures in larger format.
Got it from http://prollyisnotprobably.com/
Here is an extract from an interesting piece by Roger Cohen in the New York Times. In it, he says he is glad that Obama is a constitutional lawyer, and discusses his appointment of Clinton and the fact is keeping Robert Gates on as defense secretary. The interesting bit, though, is this on Guantanamo:
Of the 770 detainees grabbed here and there and flown to Guantánamo, only 23 have ever been charged with a crime. Of the more than 500 so far released, many traumatized by those “enhanced” techniques, not one has received an apology or compensation for their season in hell.What they got on release was a single piece of paper from the American government. A U.S. official met one of the dozens of Afghans now released from Guantánamo and was so appalled by this document that he forwarded me a copy.
Dated Oct. 7, 2006, it reads as follows:
“An Administrative Review Board has reviewed the information about you that was talked about at the meeting on 02 December 2005 and the deciding official in the United States has made a decision about what will happen to you. You will be sent to the country of Afghanistan. Your departure will occur as soon as possible.”
That’s it, the one and only record on paper of protracted U.S. incarceration: three sentences for four years of a young Afghan’s life, written in language Orwell would have recognized.
We have “the deciding official,” not an officer, general or judge. We have “the information about you,” not allegations, or accusations, let alone charges. We have “a decision about what will happen to you,” not a judgment, ruling or verdict. This is the lexicon of totalitarianism. It is acutely embarrassing to the United States.
That is why I am thankful above all that the next U.S. commander in chief is a constitutional lawyer. Nothing has been more damaging to the United States than the violation of the legal principles at the heart of the American idea.
Read the whole thing here.
