Google self driving car road test
Google seems to be the leader in achieving one of humanity’s remaining sci-fi dreams: the self-driving car. According to an article on the IEEE’s Spectrum blog:
[Stanford University professor Sebastian] Thrun and his Google colleagues, including co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are convinced that smarter vehicles could help make transportation safer and more efficient: Cars would drive closer to each other, making better use of the 80 percent to 90 percent of empty space on roads, and also form speedy convoys on freeways…
[Google engineer Chris] Urmson described another scenario they envision: Vehicles would become a shared resource, a service that people would use when needed…
via How Google’s Self-Driving Car Works – IEEE Spectrum
Lytro Light Field Camera
A new camera from a company called Lytro has been getting a ton of hype in the photography media for a few months. Their “Light Field Camera” is now available in 2 memory sizes (8 and 16 GB). The concept is that the camera is a true point-and-shoot in that “the lens of the camera doesn’t need to be focused on a single point.”
Each image is recorded and presented in a way that allows the photographer and the viewer to choose a focus point on the fly, changing the depth of field of the shot in real time. (I am guessing that a proprietary image format and/or image viewing software framework–like Adobe Flash–is necessary, which limits penetration into the mobile device market.) It feels to me like both a powerful tool and a cheesy gimmick.
Why a gimmick? Read More →
What's your number?
BBC News has a cool interactive infographic that approximates where you are in the birth order of Earth’s population. Enjoy!
BBC News – 7 billion people and you: What’s your number?
World Population Estimates
On Monday, a baby will be born somewhere and demographers will proclaim that the world’s population has reached 7 billion…
Wow. Didn’t realize it would happen so quick. How does one celebrate an occasion like this? With chocolate, of course. But what kind???? Bittersweet.
It’s a good thing because it’s proof we’re healthier, living longer, and reducing infant mortality. It’s a bad thing because our planet’s resources are not infinite, and the environment’s ability to absorb our waste is dwindling.
World Population Poised to Hit 7 Billion. What Challenges Lie Ahead? | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS
Computer scientist cracks mysterious 'Copiale Cipher'
There are plenty of suggestive details in the recently decrypted minutes of an 18th Century German secret society, but the highest value to historians maybe in determining if and how a secret society like this shaped political events:
…there are plenty more unbroken codes out there to be attacked. The team hopes to tackle the Voynich Manuscript (aptly called “the white whale of the code-breaking world” by the NYTimes), the Zodiac killer‘s encrypted messages, and the Kryptos code on a sculpture on the CIA’s grounds—just for starters…
Read More →
Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street
Political action is well-known to attract young, good-looking women…but so is almost everything. The “We Are the 99%” protests address issues that concern young people with liberal tendencies. So, why is Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street so controversial??? The site is not nearly as exploitative as the title suggests, so enjoy it guilt free!
Mad Men
Mary and I are addicted to Mad Men on Netflix streaming (better late than never), but getting close to the end of the 4th season. We watched “The Beautiful Girls” tonight. The mix of comedy and drama was highly entertaining, and a serious departure from the tone of the previous episode. “The Summer Man” introduced us to Don’s new self: he works out, drinks less, smokes less and is fairly straightforward with his women. And apparently he’s writing about…stuff. (A wholesome, decent, introspective Don Draper?!?!) It was a brilliant episode and I noticed some stylistic homage to Martin Scorcese. Read More →
Design Process by Melike Turgut
Here’s a very cool (albeit difficult to understand) graphic that illustrates the creative process (at least for one man):
How do you map the path from idea to result? Soon to graduate from the Ringling College of Art and Design, self-described ‘experimenter’ Melike Turgut drew the complex curving path towards a well thought out result. His journey is curving and spoken with symbols, yet communicates his process convincingly. Head to meliketurgut.com to see more on this upcoming designers work.
via The Curving Path of the Design Process.
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