Clipmarks | Beholder's clips

Gestures of Pride and Shame Are Universal

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:34:37 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

Bursting your buttons with pride -- the puffing of the chest associated with success -- may be innate, researchers suggest this week in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

The key evidence in the new study is that congenitally blind athletes, who have never seen a soccer team celebrate after a goal or a defensive end after a sack, make almost the same nonverbal gestures after a win or loss as their sighted counterparts.

Plenty of scientific work has gone into testing the universality of certain gestures across human cultural groups. Paul Ekman's work at the University of San Francisco has found that certain simple facial expressions, e.g. mad or happy, can be understood from Papua New Guinea to Moscow.

No cultural differences were observed among competitors from different countries and, aside from the shaking of the fists after a loss, sighted and blind athletes displayed remarkably similar nonverbal behavior.

Tags: behavior, gestures, pride, shame

littleBits early prototype

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:32:25 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

Clip Source: www.ayahbdeir.com

[Video]

littleBits is an opensource library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny circuit boards. Just as Legos allow you to create complex structures with very little engineering knowledge, littleBits are simple, intuitive, space-sensitive blocks that make prototyping with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together. With a growing number of available modules, littleBits aims to move electronics from late stages of the design process to its earliest ones, and from the hands of experts, to those of artists, makers and designers.

Tags: electronics, gadgets, littlebits

Humans Implicated In Prehistoric Animal Extinctions With New Evidence

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:27:26 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Scientists have long argued over the reasons behind the worldwide mass extinctions that took place towards the end of the last ice age. The main culprits are generally thought to be climate change or some form of human impact. People only arrived in Tasmania around 43,000 years ago, when the island became temporarily connected by a land bridge to mainland Australia. None of Tasmania's giant animals, known as 'megafauna' were known to have survived until this time. This appeared to clear humans of any involvement in the disappearance of the island's large megafauna.

This new international study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, reports the discovery of giant kangaroos surviving in Tasmania until people arrived, placing humans back on the list of likely culprits for the subsequent extinction of the megafauna.

The researchers believe that the tale from Tasmania is relevant to many other parts of the world.

Tags: extension, ice age, tasmania

Abandoned NASA Trailer Found Roadside

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:18:36 GMT

clipped by: Beholder
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: gizmodo.com

Since it came about in the 1930s as the Army's rocket research lab, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been a part of just about every major unmanned U.S. space mission to date. JPL also has a somewhat surprising history of running major missions out of modular trailers scattered around their Pasadena HQ, which are packed with all of the stuff you need to, oh, I don't know, monitor a spacecraft on its way to Mars. Photographer Richard Harrington stumbled upon one of these trailers, abandoned on a dusty lot somewhere between L.A. and Las Vegas, and as you would expect, it's a retro space-tech dream inside.

It's a little puzzling as to how something like this could find its way to a derelict desert in the middle of nowhere, but with NASA's budgetary fluctuations, I guess sometimes you have to rip and run. The whole thing has a definite abandoned-seconds-before-the-apocalypse kind of vibe.

Clip Source: gizmodo.com

Tags: nasa, gadgets

Beijing Olympic 2008 opening ceremony giant firework footprints 'faked'

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:54:24 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

As the ceremony got under way with a dramatic, drummed countdown, viewers watching at home and on giant screens inside the Bird's Nest National Stadium watched as a series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks processed gloriously above the city from Tiananmen Square.

What they did not realise was that what they were watching was in fact computer graphics, meticulously created over a period of months and inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment.

The fireworks were there for real, outside the stadium. But those responsible for filming the extravaganza decided in advance it would be impossible to capture all 29 footprints from the air.

As a result, only the last, visible from the camera stands inside the Bird's Nest was captured on film.

"Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks," he said. "But most of the audience thought it was filmed live - so that was mission accomplished."

Tags: olyimpics, cgi

The Photographer's Guide to the Eye

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:35:39 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

Clip Source: www.popphoto.com

Eyes -- nostrils -- lips -- shiny things. My eyes scanned the photo of two women almost the way a monkey's would, going first to the faces, specifically features that would indicate friend, foe, or possible mate, then to the brightest objects in the image: a blue bottle, a pendant. Surprisingly, it took forever (almost three seconds) for me to look at the famous -- and famously gorgeous -- face in the photo, Angelina Jolie.

We process visual information very quickly, as the brain electronically parcels parts of images to different cortical areas concerned with faces, colors, shapes, motion, and many other aspects of a scene, where they are broken down even further. Then the brain puts all that information back together into a coherent composite before directing the eyes to move.

the eye physiologically sharpens and is drawn to lines, corners, and junctions, as well as to faces, while the unconscious mind is attuned to Fight or Flight situations.

Tags: eye, sight, photography

Giant Lake Confirmed on Saturn's Moon Titan

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:11:45 GMT

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Clip Source: www.space.com

A giant, glassy lake larger than North America's Lake Ontario graces the south pole of Saturn's largest moon Titan, new research confirms.

"This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid,"

Called Ontario Lacus, the lake extends 150 miles (235 kilometers) and covers an area of about 7,800 square miles (20,000 square kilometers). The lake structure is filled mostly with methane and ethane, hydrocarbons that are gases on Earth but liquid on the bone-chilling surface of Titan.

Wet ideas

The finding, detailed in the July 31 issue of the journal Nature, is just another gold star for Titan, which has become one of the most fascinating bodies in the solar system for exploring environments that may give rise to life. Boasting a size that's one-and-a-half times that of Earth's moon and bigger than Mercury, Titan is the only solar system moon known to support a planet-like atmosphere.

Tags: solar system, titan

Secrets of Antikythera Mechanism, world's oldest calculating machine, revealed

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:45:58 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

The secrets of the worlds oldest calculating machine are revealed today, showing that it had dials to mark the timing of eclipses and the Olympic games.

The dictionary sized crumbly lump containing corroded fragments of what is now known to be a marvellous hand cranked machine is known as the 'Antikythera Mechanism' because it was discovered near the tiny island of Antikythera, between Crete and mainland Greece.

"We knew that this 2,100 year-old ancient Greek mechanism calculated complex cycles of mathematical astronomy. It really surprised us to discover that it also showed the four-year cycle of ancient Greek games," reports Dr Tony Freeth of Images First, a TV company, and three academic colleagues today in the journal Nature.

Earlier work on the mechanism, which dates to around 150 to 100 BC, showed it displays the date, positions of the Sun and Moon (including its variable motion), the phase of the Moon, a complex 19-year calendar and sophisticated eclipse prediction dials.

Tags: archeology, antiques, antikythera

This is what 10 million pixels look like

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:03:32 GMT

clipped by: Beholder
clipper's remarks: wow!

Clip Source: dvice.com

Whatever your feelings are about Comcast, you'll be helpless but to fall in love with the media giant's 10 million pixel display at the new Comcast Center in Philadelphia. The media wall covers an area of over 2100 square feet and uses four-millimeter LED lights, packed together as one giant, seamless array. It plays all manner of video, and even cool segments where three-dimensional-looking dancers seem to hover in thin air at five times the resolution of HD television.

The wall gets its feed from an automated control center packed with digitizers, routers, video processors and 27,000 gigabytes of information. Comcast paid the visualization experts at Barco $22 million for the wall and control room.

[Video]

Clip Source: dvice.com

Tags: display, hd, barco, comcast

eco-nightclub - where the dancers generate electricity

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 11:54:17 GMT

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Clip Source: www.thisislondon.co.uk

Britain's first eco-nightclub is to open in King's Cross.

The venue will sell organic spirits served in polycarbon cups and will be powered with renewable energy.

There are also plans to install a recycled water system to flush its lavatories and an energy-generating dancefloor, which would harness power from the pounding of clubbers' feet and convert it into electricity.

Although entry to the club costs £10, those customers who can prove they travelled there by foot, bicycle or public transport will be allowed in free.

"There is no greater platform than clubbing to reach out to young people. Having an energy- generating dancefloor is a very exciting and interesting idea that we have been talking to people in Rotterdam about. Such a dancefloor could generate about 60 per cent of the building's energy."

Dancefloor power: the nightclub is fitted with a bouncing floor and a series of power generating blocks

Tags: green, nightlife, nightclubs

The "Terrible" Truth About Truth

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:57:25 GMT

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Clip Source: www.dharma-haven.org

Many people believe that science is the best route, if not the only route, to truth about the natural world. Other people, including many scientists, believe that scientific knowledge may not be perfectly true, but it is closer to the truth than other sources of knowledge and belief.

Both those views are misguided, not because of any problem with scientific knowledge itself, but because of our overly simple beliefs about it. In this essay I will argue that totally correct knowledge -- "truth" -- is neither the goal, nor the product, nor any part of the process of scientific work.

Science never pursues the illusory aim of making its answers final, or even probable. Its advance is, rather, towards the infinite yet attainable aim of ever discovering new, deeper, and more general problems, and of subjecting its ever tentative answers to ever renewed and ever more rigorous tests.

Sir Karl Popper
The Logic of Scientific Discovery

Tags: science, truth, philosophy of science

Dubai - Quiz

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:17:57 GMT

clipped by: Beholder
clipper's remarks: After learning about Dubai, take the quiz!

* Bonus: photo galleries

Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

WorldWise Quiz: Dubai

Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

Tags: dubai

Dubai

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:11:03 GMT

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Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

From sleepy trading port to global gateway in 25 years, the Middle East metropolis of Dubai has sprung up out of the desert sands. Once centered on bustling Dubai Creek, from where old dhows (boats) still sail to Iran, Dubai now sprawls south toward the United Arab Emirates’ capital, Abu Dhabi. While oil revenues fueled its early development, now trade and tourism power this city-state’s phenomenal growth rate. Travelers come for sun, sand, shopping, and a touch of the exotic, and Dubai delivers. While it might not have the ancient sites of Cairo or Damascus, Dubai just gets on with making history as one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

Tags: dubai

10 Gadgets For Air-Conditioned Summer Survival

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:17:00 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

Clip Source: gizmodo.com

For many of us, the first day of summer starts just before midnight tonight. That means it is time to start thinking about how to beat the heat when the temperatures soar and the air conditioning unit in your home or office inevitably breaks down. In this scenario, survival means being prepared for anything. The following summertime gadgets will ensure that you have all of your bases covered.

USB "Air Conditioned" Shirt:

Nike PreCool Vest:

The innermost layer of the vest is filled with frozen water and it is insulated by an outermost layer of aluminum.

Insulated Evaporative Cooling Hat:

Ice Sauna:

it can keep the temperature at a brisk 10 degrees below zero.

"Air Conditioned" Bed:

Luxury 18-headed shower:

Universal Shower Diffuser:

Finally, what you put on the inside is just as important as what you put on the outside when it comes to staying cool. And when I think of a hot day, two things generally come to mind: booze and ice cream.

Taisin Ice Sphere Mold:

creating perfect ice spheres.

Tags: gadgets, summer, air conditioning

The science of sex

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:26:15 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

Clip Source: www.scienceandsex.com

Tags: sex, second life, genetic design

Clipmarks | Beholder's clips

Gestures of Pride and Shame Are Universal

littleBits early prototype

Humans Implicated In Prehistoric Animal Extinctions With New Evidence

Abandoned NASA Trailer Found Roadside

Beijing Olympic 2008 opening ceremony giant firework footprints 'faked'

The Photographer's Guide to the Eye

Giant Lake Confirmed on Saturn's Moon Titan

Secrets of Antikythera Mechanism, world's oldest calculating machine, revealed

This is what 10 million pixels look like

eco-nightclub - where the dancers generate electricity

The "Terrible" Truth About Truth

Dubai - Quiz

Dubai

Know Before You Go: Dubai

10 Gadgets For Air-Conditioned Summer Survival

The science of sex