Amazing juggling by Michael Moschen
I have to admit, I have never heard of Michael Moschen or seen this show before, but I can easily see how he is considered one of the world’s top jugglers. A most original and fascinating act, this. The thing that impresses me the most is how he juggles the one ball with his feet. Such discipline.
For insight of how his magic works, here is a 37 minute video from TED.com:
Trying to save a dying computer
My intern inspects a very small and probably very vital part before reassembly.
This is my computer, a HP Pavillion 9575. It’s been my loyal companion for two years, and I’ve driven it like computers should be driven – pedal to the metal, full throttle every day. I’ve had it in for repairs once, just before the one-year-warranty expired, changed the DVD player and motherboard. Two months later, I spilled a beer over the keyboard. Which, with notebooks, means I spilled a beer into the computer. Managed to pry it open and dry it over night, and it kind of worked fine after that. Until I did it again a month ago. This time my clumsiness cost me the fancy touch-slide volume control. But I created a nice little keyboard hotkey for it, so no real harm done.
Then, last night, it started acting up, shutting down, restarting, shutting down, going blank, restarting. So I figured it was dying.
I thought I would give it one last go, and unscrewed every single part of it, dusted and cleaned everything except for the dual processors, and reassembled it afterwards.
I turned the power on three minutes ago, and it still has not shut down or gone bonkers! If it should fail again, I am announcing game over for it, though. At least now I’ll have this nice blog entry to remind me of my brave computer.
*fingers crossed*
EDIT: It’s now been 24 hours, and it seems to be working perfectly, yay!
The heart and the double circulatory system explained
Los Angeles residents Angelinos Hard ‘N Phirm (Chris HARDwick aNd Mike PHIRMan) presents “El Corazon”.
Thanks, @taotad!
Shadow art ad for the Solaria Plaza Hotel
Ingenious and very tasteful Christmas advert for the Solaria Plaza in Fukuoka City, Japan.
 Link Scroll down for today’s pictures & links. Shadow Play Ingenious and very tasteful Christmas advert for the Solaria Plaza in Fukuoka City, Japan. Pop-out Today’s pictures & links: Tsunami of Fog
Another somewhat chilling image of storm clouds, often called “the cloud roll”:
———— Crazy About You
———— Dramatic Sculptures The frightened one:
The love-sick pair:
———— Rubbing Elbows Happy romantic couple, cruising:
———— Mixed fresh links for today: Sinister Nuclear Football, more, pics – [interesting] ———— Fantastically Strange Trucks If you remember our article about Scary Trucks and Truck Trains, here are a couple of incredible trucks we found recently: Two-headed MAN fire truck – more info:
This is the two-headed tunnel washer that works in the Mont Blanc tunnel. Having two cabs allow it not to turn around in the tunnel. Le Tourneau US Army Load Carrier – more info
This is “the 1962 US Army’s 13-unit electric hub motor all-wheel-drive Overland Train MkII, built for the US Army Transportation Research and Development Command. A ‘mere’ 382 tonnes GCW and ’small’ 137 tonnes payload.” ———— I’m always late anyway:
———— A new “creature” from Sam Van Olffen Sam Van Olffen’s work we featured before. Today he returns with - The Obama-Machine!
———— Extreme Graffiti News We are long overdue for the full-length article about graffiti since our last Graffiti Showcase. In the meantime, here are some eye-catching examples:
See other awesome graffiti on this page. ———— Steampunk Animals by James Corbett, The Car Part Sculptor John Davies Gallery has the exhibition of works by James Corbett, each a unique, somewhat whimsical structure built from car parts:
———— Big Heads Click to enlarge – really bizarre ad campaign by DDB London Agency. I feel uncomfortable just looking at these:
———— Another one of these “get rich quick” schemes? Sell these, together with a 30-day course of starting a donut farm.
———— Whaaaat?
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Rotating kitchen art installation
The rotating kitchen will continue to rotate until February 28th. Upon which it will have become a complete mess.
rotating kitchen from Zeger Reyers
via BoingBoing
Man controls robotic hand by thought
Photo: Shadow Robot Company (not related to article)
The Bio-Medical Campus University of Rome announced wednesday that they “successfully connected a robotic hand to a man, Petruzziello, who had lost an arm in a car accident, allowing him to control the prosthetic with his thoughts and feel sensations in the artificial limb. The experiment lasted a month. But scientists say it marks the first time an amputee has been able to make complex movements using his mind to control a biomechanic hand connected to his nervous system.” ( AP )
The €2 million project, funded by the EU, took five years to complete. The Italian test subject Petruzziello had hair thin wires connected to his nervous system for a month, and underwent a good deal of tests. “It felt almost the same as a real hand. They stimulated me a lot, even with needles … you can’t imagine what they did to me,” he says.
Italians are known for their vivid body language, and in such matter Petruzziello makes for a good test subject. During the month he learned to wiggle the fingers independently, make a fist and grab objects. Also, a neurologist says that some of the hand movements Petruzziello learned to use could not be disclosed as “they were quite vulgar”.
Read more at Associated Press.
Thanks, @taotad!
Sugru, the magic modelling clay
I like to at least try to fix stuff before throwing it away.
An old tool that’s undergone numerous repairs and hacks will always be favourite to a brand new shiny tool, even though the new one probably does a better job. For me, it’s got to do with saving money, environment and feeling good about myself for fixing stuff. Prolonging life, sort of. Which, as an EMT, is what I do for a living as well, although I’ll never view patients as neither objects nor tools.
This clay, named “Sugru”, promises to fix just about everything, through magic, no less! -”Sugru’s magical properties mean it can hack almost anything better”. The website explains more, and shows more uses.
It costs a mere £7 (€7.7, $11.6, NOK65), and that even includes international shipping! I’ve ordered the Multi Hack Pack for myself, and might make a post later on telling about my experience with it.
http://sugru.com
via Core77 via BoingBoing
52 jaw-dropping photo manipulations
Photo: Anthony Harmon
Follow link for more computer enhanced artwork, by various artists.
Anthony Harmon homepage
via WebUrbanist
Making deserts into forests
Foto: Bellona
These two photos were taken in Oman two years apart, and shows the effect of the Sahara Forest Project.
The project is a joint effort with four parts involved: Michael Pawlyn (also contributor to the award-winning Eden Project), Charlie Paton, Bill Watts and, joined recently, the Bellona Foundation, a Norwegian enviromentalist group.
By using solar power sea water is pumped on land, where 4″ thick cardboard filters turns the salt water into fresh water, in turn used for irrigation inside the green house complex. In addition to the obvious plant growth on the inside, humidity leaking out of the complex will see to it that the surroundings also flourish, as shown in the photo on the left. As the dry desert sand is turned potent, one expects to see considerable tree growth and a change of environment.
The plan is to build these complexes in a massive scale, many thousands times the size of the Oman trial, right in the middle of the desert of Sahara. The green houses can be set to produce plants for food or algae for bio fuel, which could kill save two birds with one stone.
This could very well be what’s needed. Hopefully, our elected officials will realise this as they are presented with the results during the 2009 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen a week from now.
