tingilinde

a Scottish sonic screwdriver

It seems only right that the real sonic screwdriver should come from the UK.

classically stupid acts in slow motion

Using a 2,500 frame per second camera to record some events at about 80 times slower than how we normally "enjoy" them.  From a Danish Program called Dumt & Farligt (stupid and dangerous)

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I pointed this out to Alan, who yawned as he uses 10,000 frames per second cameras to do diagnostic work.

roger mcguinn's folk project

An NPR Talk of the Nation piece on Roger McGuinn (The Byrd's) effort to preserve folks music. about a half hour and good while exercising:-)  

 

Here is his website - The Folk Den - with a lot of free mp3s

hemloft - a rather amazing treehouse

Anyone can buy something, but to design and build a thing of beauty with your own hands is special.  I'm sure Jheri is going to love this one in BC.

Here is a rather fine tree house - a description via gizmag and its own site.  The builder has a land-use problem - perhaps you can give him an idea.

this looks like a great woodworking project for a few of you (Greg and Steve) :-)

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watch the video!

 

more on the spectrum "crisis"

David Isenberg was quoted in the recent NY Times article on the Spectrum "Crisis", which begins to examine the question if it is an artifact of old fashioned technology (it probably is to a large extent).  He has posted some additional comments on his blog - a must read if you are interested in this sort of thing

 

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My only quibble is minor and would only detract from his message ... "color" is manufactured in the brain and is sort of dependant on the frequency of a photon, but not strickly so ....  consider color mixing as an example)

beards in politics

What would Obama or Romney look like with beards?  Why were they popular in the past?

A cute piece from Slate

global warming notes

The existence of human-caused global warming is pretty much settled science, but there are powerful interests who have reason to sew doubt.  These deniers - they aren't scientific skeptics as they aren't expert in the field and their arguments have never held up - continue to confuse and delay. Some of the key people were active in supporting the tobacco industry and they were very successful for a few decades until the scientific evidence was finally too overwhelming.  Their goal is not to disprove, but to cast doubt and stall movement allowing an industry (the fossil fuel industry in this case) to remain profitable. 

Here is a nice list of denier statements along with rebuttals.

focused kids who are creating part of their own educations

A 13 yr old boy and appropriate technology in Kenya

 

and

 

a young woman who is learning the deep basics of how machines work.  such passion:-)

 

Both of these kids rule!

student loans

We know several 20 and 30 somethings who are in serious trouble with student loans and a few more who may be on the road to trouble.  The situation is putting a crimp on the economy and extinguishing dreams.

will the lumina make it?

AT&T reports that its enormous promotion of the Nokia/Microsoft Lumina is doing well, but there are serious questions in Europe where it has been out for awhile.

It is clear that the carriers in the US want a third major player - particularly to deal with Apple - but it certainly isn't clear that phones like the Lumia represent sufficient value to anyone who needs a mobile device that moves much beyond what a featurephone can offer.

I've spent some time with the new Lumina and at the $100 price point (note that the subsidized prices are minor compared to the two years of plan billings) the last generation iPhone 4 (which is the phone I currently have) is probably a much better choice for most users.  The available apps and their integration are vastly superior. The same can be said for some of the current Android phones. And if you plan on using the phone as a camera even a little I wouldn't recommend the Nokia at all...

Microsoft and Nokia may be a bit too late to the party for this one...  a respectable try, but they needed something dramatically better than the iPhone and couldn't pull it off.   I was hoping for much more as I like the Micosoft UI (although the UX falls short).  

But Microsoft knows they need to survive in the mobile market and they will keep pushing.  Nokia has no other chocie but to push ... now if they can only master that ecosystem thing ...  (ecosystem is such a poor term, but sadly it is used by everyone these days)