New, Fun Stuff
Portent.org
Previously we've had a slow motion video of a water filled ballon popping on Portent. This one though doesn't pop, it deforms instead.
Interesting stuff- things you don't normally see!
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Posted: July 29th, 2010 under default.
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One of my favourite websites for free images is Stock Exchange. That's where the safety pins photo originated. Image 605848 uploaded by Tue Romanow, a Danish photographer who has generously allowed his photos on Stock Exchange to be used without restriction. There are hundreds or thousands like him. You can see how big the photo is from the fact that it contains three full size safety pins.
This isn't the only site mind you, this page is full of links and reviews of free photo sites. The reviewer describes Stock Exchange as being a bit prone to slowness but if my experience is anything to go by, those days are long gone.
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Posted: July 28th, 2010 under default.
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This is an effect that says that what you see affects what you hear. Watch
this short video of a man. He is saying. Da Da Da Da Da. Now repeat but this
time close your eyes. He is saying Ba Ba Ba Ba not Da Da Da. Try it again with
your eyes open. Da Da Da. There's no tricks. Its called the McGurk Effect.
It is quite amazing. The effect is apparently that the shape of his mouth
looks as if his saying Da etc but a recording of his voice saying Ba Ba Ba
instead has been used. When you say Ba you close your mouth for the B sound. But
with Da, you keep it open for the D sound. Your brain thinks he is keeping it
open (when you watch) so you 'hear Da' even though it is Ba.
Theres also a bit about it on Wikipedia.
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Posted: July 28th, 2010 under default.
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The linked page has head shots of 24 women. They look ok, not glamorous or beautiful. But click any of the photos and you see them before and after a makeover. The difference is just astonishing.
The photo above demonstrates the type of thing- yes those are the same woman!
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Posted: July 27th, 2010 under default.
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These images of very small objects from the natural world are tremendous. You can buy these (and many more) prints from this site as well.
I'm always amazed by just how scary looking some of these bugs are. Thank goodness they are miniscule!
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Posted: July 27th, 2010 under default.
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I think TV did us a disservice with its early versions of Rednecks – eg the Beverley Hillbillies and the Dukes of Hazard. Nowadays we've got Cleetus and Brandine in the Simpson's, Earl, Randy and Joy in My Name is Earl and I've just watched the Blue Collar Comedy tour which was great- with lots of 'You might be a redneck if" jokes such as "… you mow the grass and find a car'.
Well now there is a board game called Redneck Life. In their words "It is a board game that takes you on a winding journey through the swamp, across the river, through the mudbog and cornfield, around the lake, through the woods, and finally arriving at the green grasses of the family reunion! Designed by rednecks, for rednecks…so hop in your race car, roll the dice and begin the journey!!"
I wonder if it mentions Nascar. (The sport worshipped by rednecks).
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Posted: July 26th, 2010 under default.
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Now here is an Australian (name of Peter- nickname TDU) who knows how to have fun with electricity! Specifically Tesla coils which are a way of generating high voltage electricity at high frequencies. These overcome air resistance so can produce long sparks. Because of the higher frequency, you don't get a shock if you touch a spark (muscle spasm) but you can get nasty burns. In otherwords be careful!
Tesladownunder is clearly a labour of love site and if this stuff fascinates you, well worth a visit- loads of photos and videos. In particular the recent addition of photos of him in a swimming pool with a 100,000 K spark discharging into the water looks very scary!
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Posted: July 26th, 2010 under default.
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Sneaky this, grabbing the domain for creationsim.co.uk to use as an anti-creationism website! My own belief is live and let live, but I regard Creationism and Intelligent Design as just bunkum ideas and not even close to being theories or hypothesise as say Evolution is.
This website though is concerned with the forced spread of creationism in schools- they say “Creationism is of particular concern, as their main tactic is to target schoolchildren & the schools in which they are taught. They then attempt to undermine a child’s understanding of the principles governing modern science especially that relating to the concept of biological evolution. They also attempt to indoctrinate the children with extreme religious views & antipathy to modern society; views (such as those vilifying homosexuals) which are completely at odds with the values of modern western society.”
After a Christian “Enlightenment” which costs many lives and hundreds of years to get science recognised, it would be just plain awful to have it undermined by those who want to force their religious ideologies down people’s throats. When it replaces or attempts to suppress scientific ideas, through ignorance then it’s time to say stop and that is what creationism.co.uk is trying to achieve.
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Posted: July 25th, 2010 under UK, comment, politics.
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This is quite a novel idea. If you'd like to know what development may take place in your nerighbourhood (choose within 200M, 800 M or 2KM), just register for email alerts. The site provides info from the following councils but more are planned to be added.
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Posted: July 25th, 2010 under default.
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This is quite unusual in this day of electronic mail. it is a personal project of Rick, a Southern Californian who clearly hunkers back for a time when receiving a letter from someone meant something. If you ask him by email, he will send you a hand written letter. It's not a scam, he is apparently quite genuine and your address is safe. What will be in the letter depends on his muse on the day he writes it. I like the idea of this though I suspect it costs him a bit in postage and the time writing letters.
Writing letters can sometimes have nice, unintended consequences. This is a true story of one letter I wrote. At the time in 1983 I was living in N. Ireland and writing technical articles for Vic (later Commodore) Computing magazine. The magazine passed on a letter from a reader, a blind radio amateur, with a technical question. I remember I wrote back a couple of pages in answer.
One year later. I'd set up in business with a mate of mine (writing Computer Games – some history and details here ). My business partner and I went into Belfast to buy a door plate for our business. The chap who did the plate was the father of the radio amateur, recognised my name and we got the plate for nothing as he was so pleased that I'd replied to his son a year earlier!
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Posted: July 24th, 2010 under default.
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If you're interested in civil aircraft then you're probably already aware of airliners.net. With over a million high quality photos of aircraft from 12,000 photographers and a database of 4,300 aircraft details, it is a phenomenal resource with I'd guess every civil aircraft in the world covered and photographed.
You can also send an electronic postcard using any of the photos.
Interestingly, the whole site is located at a Swedish university.
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Posted: July 24th, 2010 under default.
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Slavery of course was abolished over 200 hundred years ago but various forms of it still exist, even in Britain today.
This exhibition, which is currently at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London (and moving to Edinburgh in August-October 2007) highlights the plight on those who are trafficked or brought into the UK as unpaid domestic servants. It has photos by Panos photographers Karen Robinson and David Rose and you can see some on the website.
There is also a petition asking for the British Govt to ratify and implement the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against trafficking in Human Beings. This was signed up to in March 2007 but until something happens…
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Posted: July 23rd, 2010 under Exhibition, UK.
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Taken just a few week’s ago and uploaded to Wikipedia, this panoramic photo is 17,458 x 2,904 pixels in size. Even compressed as a JPG it’s 18MB in size so may take a while to download.
It looks down into Paternoster square and for miles around. If you look on the skyline you can see the Post Office tower and just to the right of that the big arch of Wembley Stadium which must be five or six miles away.
The photo also includes the Gherkin, Canary Wharf, Tower Bridge and the London Eye. Impressive.
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Posted: July 23rd, 2010 under UK, photos.
Tags: london, panorama, photo, st. pauls cathedral
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This is Fred, if you click him you'll find out that he is having a spot of internal trouble and needs surgery to save him. You have 60 seconds to put him right.
This is a beautiful piece of work- animation, sound and music. There's not a great deal to it but it is just so well done!
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Posted: July 22nd, 2010 under default.
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This is quite clever. You move a little man through a maze to get to the “end of screen” door, picking up keys to unlock barriers and avoiding jumping or moving onto the spikes.
So far so normal. However if you press the shift key, everything inverts – the screen dump actually shows the same screen twice, both normally and when it’s inverted. (Inverted 180 degrees and flipped colour).Lots of screens to get through and you will need to press shift as well as think outside the box. Very clever.
BTW, both this and the previous game are by Armor Games- a coincidence but also a tribute to the quality of their games. (And no I have no connection to them, financial or otherwise!)
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Posted: July 22nd, 2010 under flash, puzzle.
Tags: flash, inversion, puzzle
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