Just a sketch... something might come out of it related to how even old, no longer extant physical artifacts effect our path...
-g
November 19, 2012
Wordlines of Rome and Ancient City
Overlay of the GPS data I collected from volunteers on top of Ancient Rome (photo from Gismondi's giant model of Rome in EUR, Italy)
Just a sketch... something might come out of it related to how even old, no longer extant physical artifacts effect our path...
-g
Just a sketch... something might come out of it related to how even old, no longer extant physical artifacts effect our path...
-g
Reality Games
A few examples of smartphone based games, in which you play the game within the "real" enviroment. The games are location aware: objects, tasks, or effects are stored at locations within a city: but you can only see these objects, tasks, or effects when you have you are looking at the enviroment through your smartphone screen. The thought of people running around the city, fighting off the attack of deamons and mages which only they can see, is terrifying.
From the article:
The idea of playing in an area that you are intimately familiar with or to explore your city more was intriguing. While other apps use geographical location purely for reference, Shadow Cities really emphasizes your particular neighborhood and surrounding ones. After all, there is an inherent desire to defend what’s ours, and neighborhoods are a good place to start. By using actual location, the iPhone becomes a window to a parallel world, hence the name of the game.
The iPhone is a magical device that allows you to become a mage and take part in battles against mages from the other faction, of which there are two, the Animators and Architects. You discover friends on your team near your location and working together through in-game chat, you conquer your city neighborhood-by-neighborhood. There are NPCs, which are roaming spirits, and real players around you that you can fight. You fight by learning spells, which you cast my using the iPhone’s touch surface to draw the rune shape. When you are on the move, you can patrol areas for enemies.
via: http://singularityhub.com/2011/07/08/players-rule-their-real-neighborhoods-with-shadow-cities-a-location-based-mmorpg-for-the-iphone-video/
And Google is getting involved (obv).
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!1111111
and: http://singularityhub.com/2012/11/17/a-google-surprise-worldwide-alternative-reality-game-ingress-revealed/
From the article:
The idea of playing in an area that you are intimately familiar with or to explore your city more was intriguing. While other apps use geographical location purely for reference, Shadow Cities really emphasizes your particular neighborhood and surrounding ones. After all, there is an inherent desire to defend what’s ours, and neighborhoods are a good place to start. By using actual location, the iPhone becomes a window to a parallel world, hence the name of the game.
The iPhone is a magical device that allows you to become a mage and take part in battles against mages from the other faction, of which there are two, the Animators and Architects. You discover friends on your team near your location and working together through in-game chat, you conquer your city neighborhood-by-neighborhood. There are NPCs, which are roaming spirits, and real players around you that you can fight. You fight by learning spells, which you cast my using the iPhone’s touch surface to draw the rune shape. When you are on the move, you can patrol areas for enemies.
via: http://singularityhub.com/2011/07/08/players-rule-their-real-neighborhoods-with-shadow-cities-a-location-based-mmorpg-for-the-iphone-video/
And Google is getting involved (obv).
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!1111111
and: http://singularityhub.com/2012/11/17/a-google-surprise-worldwide-alternative-reality-game-ingress-revealed/
November 16, 2012
Geno 2.0 - DNA testing
In order to understand the story my genes tell about my ancient ancestors: where they lived and when, I am participating in the Genographic Project. While the rhetoric of the Genographic Project is hubristic and trite, the actual science behind it, as well as the implications of the data base as a whole is interesting and important.
I am sending in my DNA samples tomorrow (from cheek swabs mailed to me) to the lab to be analysed. Fingers crossed everything goes well... and I have the results soon.
-g
Ant
Photos by Gier Drange, from the Nikon Small World Photomicrography website:
Subject Matter:
Two ants of different genus meeting on a twig
Technique:
Reflected Light, Image Stacking
Subject Matter:
Myrmica sp. (ant) carrying its larva
Technique:
Reflected Light, Image Stacking
(5x) (2.5x)
More from the Nikon Small World website:
Anna Franz
University of Oxford
Subject Matter:
Ink injection into yolk sac artery of 72 hour-old chick embryo to visualize the beating heart and the vasculature
Technique:
Reflected Light
Dominik Paquet
German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases Munich & The Rockefeller University New York
Subject Matter:
Time lapse movie of transport of mitochondria in nerve cells of transgeniczebrafish with nerve cell membranes labeled in green and mitochondria labeled in blue.
Technique:
Widefield fluorescence microscopy
via http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/people/bio/geir-drange
Subject Matter:
Two ants of different genus meeting on a twig
Technique:
Reflected Light, Image Stacking
Subject Matter:
Myrmica sp. (ant) carrying its larva
Technique:
Reflected Light, Image Stacking
(5x) (2.5x)
More from the Nikon Small World website:
Anna Franz
University of Oxford
Subject Matter:
Ink injection into yolk sac artery of 72 hour-old chick embryo to visualize the beating heart and the vasculature
Technique:
Reflected Light
Dominik Paquet
German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases Munich & The Rockefeller University New York
Subject Matter:
Time lapse movie of transport of mitochondria in nerve cells of transgeniczebrafish with nerve cell membranes labeled in green and mitochondria labeled in blue.
Technique:
Widefield fluorescence microscopy
via http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/people/bio/geir-drange
November 13, 2012
Bionic Leg
via http://singularityhub.com/2012/11/08/bionic-limbs-step-up-thought-controlled-prosthetic-leg-climbs-2100-stair-building/
November 11, 2012
Vacuum Maglev Train
"The National Power Traction Laboratory of Southwest Jiaotong University is developing a vactrain, or a maglev train that runs through in an airless tunnel, allowing it to run at speeds of 600 kilometers to 1,000 kilometers per hour, Beijing Times reported."
From: http://www.china.org.cn/china/2010-08/02/content_20624621.htm
Also see:
Trans-Atlantic Maglev Train:
Norway has studied neutrally buoyant tunnels (concluding that they’re feasible, though expensive), and Shanghai is running maglev trains to its airport. But supersonic speeds require another critical step: eliminating the air—and therefore air friction—from the train’s path. A vacuum would also save the tunnel from the destructive effects of a sonic boom, which, unchecked, could potentially rip the tunnel apart
...Then air would be pumped out, creating a vacuum, and alternating magnetic pulses would propel a magnetically levitated train capable of speeds up to 4,000 mph across the pond in an hour...
From: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-04/trans-atlantic-maglev
From: http://www.china.org.cn/china/2010-08/02/content_20624621.htm
Also see:
Trans-Atlantic Maglev Train:
Norway has studied neutrally buoyant tunnels (concluding that they’re feasible, though expensive), and Shanghai is running maglev trains to its airport. But supersonic speeds require another critical step: eliminating the air—and therefore air friction—from the train’s path. A vacuum would also save the tunnel from the destructive effects of a sonic boom, which, unchecked, could potentially rip the tunnel apart
...Then air would be pumped out, creating a vacuum, and alternating magnetic pulses would propel a magnetically levitated train capable of speeds up to 4,000 mph across the pond in an hour...
From: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-04/trans-atlantic-maglev
November 5, 2012
Photographic Timelines
A photographic technique developed by Jay Mark Johnson.
From the site:
"In the image, anything that is stationary is repeated throughout the sequence (that’s the horizontal lines across the image), but objects that move are only in part of the scene. Furthermore, the faster they move, the thinner they appear. In this way, a single image is capturing objects and their rate of motion through a sliver of space. The leftmost edge of the image is the furthest back in time."
via http://singularityhub.com/2012/10/29/camera-technique-captures-new-view-of-space-and-time/
From the site:
"In the image, anything that is stationary is repeated throughout the sequence (that’s the horizontal lines across the image), but objects that move are only in part of the scene. Furthermore, the faster they move, the thinner they appear. In this way, a single image is capturing objects and their rate of motion through a sliver of space. The leftmost edge of the image is the furthest back in time."
via http://singularityhub.com/2012/10/29/camera-technique-captures-new-view-of-space-and-time/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)