» Environmental success stories: places saved by conservationists

April 22nd, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

Slate shows off some of the fruits of labor that the environmental movement has worked so hard for. Seven places saved by conservation.

Horicon Marsh, Wisconsin. … The marsh was dammed for water power, then undammed, then opened for large-scale duck hunting, then drained for farming. In the 1920s and early ’30s, its exposed peat soils dried out and repeatedly caught fire, leaving it a literal smoldering ruin. Enter the Izaak Walton League, which lobbied the Wisconsin legislature to restore the marsh. In 1934 the fires were doused and water started flowing once again. As marsh plants grew back, waterfowl followed. Today Horicon Marsh covers 50 square miles and is the largest freshwater cattail marsh in the United States. … A vital stop on bird migration routes, it has been named a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention (an international environmental treaty) and a Globally Important Bird Area by the American Bird Conservancy. More than 300 species of birds have been sighted there, drawing birders year-round.

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» 22º Solar Halos in Cuba

April 18th, 2013 § 2 comments § permalink

Screw you and your trip to Cuba James Duncan. Bastard.

We discussed the various permutations that would cause what we were seeing, but without easy access to the internet, we simply shrugged and made more photographs, as one does when in Cuba with a cold beverage and camera in hand.

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‡ Why we need NASA

April 8th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

I am a huge fan of the advances we have made to privatize space flight. Companies like SpaceX are doing amazing things to bring down the costs of getting cargo into space and I can’t wait to buy a ticket on Virgin Galactic once the prices become reasonable. This does not mean, however, NASA’s importance is in any way reduced. If anything the hand off of such responsibilities will allow NASA to focus on what it does best which is pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

Full Moon Over Earth (NASA, International Space Station, 11/11/10)

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center via Compfight

Take for example the recent announcement of a project to capture an asteroid and bring it into earth orbit for study. As Robert Braun, a former chief technology officer at NASA said “This would be the first time ever humanity has manipulated a space object in such a grand scale.”

Obviously there are outfits like Planetary Resources that are planning to mine asteroids but their success is built upon the problems that NASA solves and I expect they are downright giddy with the recent announcement. Lets also not forget the penchant private enterprise has for vaporware. In order to raise money they have to put of a facade that makes it seem like their incredibly ambitious project is all but a done deal. Otherwise who would invest? That’s why an organization that explores for the sake of science is the keystone to humanity’s bridge off spaceship earth.

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» Rocket powered by nuclear fusion could send humans to Mars

April 8th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

This is the kind of innovation we are going to need before humans will able to travel beyond the moon.

The research team has developed a type of plasma that is encased in its own magnetic field. Nuclear fusion occurs when this plasma is compressed to high pressure with a magnetic field. The team has successfully tested this technique in the lab.

Only a small amount of fusion is needed to power a rocket – a small grain of sand of this material has the same energy content as 1 gallon of rocket fuel.

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‡ Taking down the industrial movie complex

April 6th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

It’s a brave new world for independent film makers and those of us that enjoy high quality content are going to reap the benefits. As the costs to make and distribute content for both the big and little screen continue to be reduced the people with money who fund the project, and typically make the important decisions, are being replaced by the creative visionaries that came up with the idea. If the project can survive off a small but loyal fan-base the emphasis can be put on quality rather than mass appeal. There is no reason that the next Sopranos or The Wire can’t be distributed by YouTube instead of HBO and produced by a couple dozen people instead of a couple hundred.

A case in point is Freefly. Using what they learned from making camera-dones and stabilizers they have built MōVI, a professional grade camera stabilizer at a fraction of the cost.

The rig also has a remote-controlled gimbal and 3-axis gyroscope so that one person can be responsible for holding the rig while a second will move the camera and frame the shot. Normally a setup like this can run well into six figures but this one costs a “mere” $15k with a $7.5k unit in the works.

Hopefully this will do to image stabilization what the Red has done to digital cameras.

MōVI BTS from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

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» 2000, the Year Formerly Known as the Future

March 28th, 2013 § 2 comments § permalink

Once considered the benchmark for the future David Bauer takes us through the day of your average citizen in the year 2000. Even though it was a mere 13 years ago things don’t go well for our intrepid time traveler.

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» Vortex knots in water with a high speed 3d camera

March 27th, 2013 § 1 comment § permalink

I’ve always wanted to see what wind looks like when it’s doing interesting things.

When air flows around the wing of an airplane, it creates vortices of swirling air. When that wing accelerates suddenly, two vortices form and circle in opposite directions. Sometimes these circles link with one another to create knots. Knots occur in nature and physicists have theorized for the last hundred years that they could be created in liquid, too. Physicists have now figured out a way to create them and have 3-D footage of the results, which were published in Nature Physics on Sunday.

Water knots in 3D

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» Why Nobody Can Copy Apple

February 28th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

Harace Dediu recently wondered why Apple’s competitors are not moving quickly to mimic the vertical integration that has served them so well over the past decade1. For the first two decades of the PC revolution Microsoft was largely successful because they let OEM’s fight over who could build the cheapest hardware while they collected Windows licensing fees from all of them. Economists call this commoditization and while it steadily drove the price of computers down it doesn’t always produce the best devices. By controlling both the hardware and software Apple has been able to produce products that are more stable and have a higher degree of polish. Clearly it has worked out well for them.

While it would certainly be a big undertaking for Microsoft or Google to take full control of their hardware it’s not a task that requires the company to pivot away from its core focus. In the 80′s IBM had to pivot away from building computers and start focusing on software to save itself from obsolescence. Instead Google and Microsoft can continue to make software while a new division starts to make hardware2. The Nexus and Surface product lines show that these companies are capable of making hardware just not very committed to it.

Charlie Kindel posits that this has more to do with Apple’s focus on the consumer than anything else.

In my experience, the behaviors and culture of an organization (large or small) that focuses on the Consumer as a customer is diametrically incompatible with the behaviors and culture of an organization that focuses on Business as a customer.

I feel strongly that this is a key reason Microsoft’s products are often good, but not excellent; the consumer ones and the business ones. This is why Google will never be able to beat Apple at Apple’s game: Google’s customer focus is split between the advertiser and consumer.

  1. Meaning that they not only build the software but they also design and build the hardware that uses their software. [↩]
  2. One could even argue that doing so will make software developers lives a little easier as they will be able to spend less time worrying about the myriad of hardware configurations that plague the Windows & Android ecosystems. [↩]
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» Problems With Precision and Judgment, but Not Integrity, in Tesla Test

February 19th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

A follow-up piece by Margaret Sullivan over at the NYT Public Editor’s Journal. She has been covering the Musk vs. NYT showdown since the story broke last week.

Over the past several days, I have questioned and listened to Mr. Broder, Mr. Musk, two key Tesla employees, other Times journalists, the tow-truck driver and his dispatcher, and a Tesla owner in California, among others. …… [A]lthough I do not believe Mr. Broder hoped the drive would end badly. I am convinced that he took on the test drive in good faith, and told the story as he experienced it. Did he use good judgment along the way? Not especially. In particular, decisions he made at a crucial juncture – when he recharged the Model S in Norwich, Conn., a stop forced by the unexpected loss of charge overnight – were certainly instrumental in this saga’s high-drama ending.

She failed to mention what appears to have been some pretty shoddy customer service on Tesla’s part but it’s hard to argue with her conclusion.

In the matter of the Tesla Model S and its now infamous test drive, there is still plenty to argue about and few conclusions that are unassailable.

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» Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road

February 15th, 2013 § 1 comment § permalink

Last night I showed my wife this remarkable video of a meteor crashing to earth in Russia.

Her immediate response was “why was this person filming themselves driving?”. I didn’t really have a good answer for her. All I could say was that people in Russia seem to enjoy filming themselves while driving and the internet thanks them for the LOLs.

As it turns out these videos are not primarily there for our entertainment but are instead a Russian drivers best form of insurance.

Dash-cam footage is the only real way to substantiate your claims in the court of law. Forget witnesses. Hit and runs are very common and insurance companies notoriously specialize in denying claims. Two-way insurance coverage is very expensive and almost completely unavailable for vehicles over ten years old–the drivers can only get basic liability. Get into a minor or major accident and expect the other party to lie to the police or better yet, flee after rear-ending you. Since your insurance won’t pay unless the offender is found and sued, you’ll see dash-cam videos of post hit and run pursuits for plate numbers.

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