Transportation
Japanese custom maker M&M featured this sly custom Kawi W650 in July.
(Site in Japanese)
We’ve all seen the futuristic transportation in a sci-fi movie that
has pods joining up on the freeway to make “trains.” The assumption is
that this sort of constantly reconfiguring convoy would require
massive infrastructure investment and complex controlling software.
Maybe not. Maybe all it takes is an in-car module and a professional
driver/conductor in the front vehicle. Drafting that semi may actually
prove to be the answer to the traffic mess.
Massive time-waster alert. Track marine traffic in real time. Like so
many of the best information gathering and reporting efforts this one
is a volunteer collaboration. Using existing technology and piping the
data to a central data gathering and display app is the way to go for
so many tracking problems. (Weather underground is another brilliant
example.)
The Unitd FWD Time AttackUnlimited Scion tC is arguably the ugliest
damn race car in the world at the moment. But it’s kinda fun to cruise
the picture gallery and wonder what we could do with that Datsun
sitting out behind Dave’s shop. (It would be nice if these guys to
settle on the exact name of the car too.)
For those of you flying this holiday season. Try to book something
through SFO. I had forgotten about seeing this exhibit of space toys
from the past during a layover in Feb. 30 minutes of pure nostalgic
joy.
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Society
Ars Technica has a decent summary of the Biliski patent case. (Can a
commodity trading method be patented? No, it fails the transformation
test.) The implications for other none traditional (software) patents
aren’t entirely clear yet but the case bears close following by those
of us who make our living moving bits from one state to another. The
fact that the case under consideration isn’t about a software patent
troubles me, but it looks to be the starting point for the judicial
reconsideration of what a patent is meant to protect.
Warren Ellis has a bad day and puts an end to the discussion of the
augmented reality as the urban digital future. One of the finest
snarks ever and he uses the word shoutiness.
I don’t think any of my loyal readers have access to a scanning
electron microscope. (I’m probably wrong) So if you simply must have
that sample of Barbie Hair examined in great detail, pack it up with
the appropriate form and send it off to ASPEX. The maker of SEMs is
running the cleverest publicity/public service campaign ever. You send
it, they scan it and post it on the website. There’s a link below the
example pictures on this page to a couple more.
Another site that focuses on the very small. University of Utah’s
Genetic Science Learning Center has a widget that lets you experience
just how small small can be. Move the slider to the right and watch
small (coffe bean) get smaller (baker’s yeast) and smaller (‘flu
virus) and finally smallest (carbon atom)
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Art, Images
Underwater photography is cool. Underwater movie making is awesome.
Here’s a set of pictures taken by a diver/photographer of the action
at Pinewood Studio’s underwater tank.
More about the facility on the Pinewood site. Click on the Water
Filming link in the left sidebar.
Chanzhi Lee’s Nestcage book is an extreme example of the
transformation of text as book into book as object. Whatever that
means. The artist’s own website is fun but flash based and unlinkable.
On the Spanish language blog WIP (work in progress) you can watch the
progression of a page of a comic from the rough sketch to the finished
product. Love it.
more tomorrow my lovelies.