links for 2009-06-30

  • I have to admit that when I first started watching this I thought it was one of those parody videos. But then I realized that Yuri (a nom de photo used by Jacob Wackerhausen) has basically beaten the microstock equivalent of the Kobayashi Maru by creating an entire facility based around the needs of microstock.
    (tags: photography/blogs photography, stock)
  • When faced with an important decision, we are often on our own to think through what we might do and what the probable consequences of out behaviors are. As we make these judgments, it is important that we be able to communicate precisely and fluently with one another. In Rational Choice in an Uncertain World, renowned authors Hastie and Dawes compare the basic principles of rationality with actual behavior in making decisions. They describe theories and research finding from the field of judgment and decision making in a non-technical manner, using anecdotes as a teaching device. Intended as an introductory textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, the material not only is of scholarly interest but is practical as well.
    (tags: books selfhelp)
  • Welcome to the Atlas Obscura, a compendium of this age's wonders, curiosities, and esoterica. The Atlas Obscura is a collaborative project with the goal of cataloging all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist. If you're looking for miniature cities, glass flowers, books bound in human skin, gigantic flaming holes in the ground, phallological museums, bone churches, balancing pagodas, or homes built entirely out of paper, the Atlas Obscura is where you'll find them.

    The Atlas Obscura depends on our community of far-flung explorers to find and report back about the world's wonders and curiosities. If you have been to, know of, or have heard about a place that belongs in the Atlas Obscura, we want you to tell us about it. Anyone and everyone is welcome and encouraged to nominate places for inclusion, and to edit content already in the Atlas.

    (tags: travel)

links for 2009-06-29

  • Pump for portable shower?
    (tags: tools pump, microhousing)

Ricky Gervais and Elmo

Star Wars Gnarls Barkley

This one’s pretty good too…(Note: not for the squeamish.)

links for 2009-06-28

  • videos de realidadARToolKit is a software library for building Augmented Reality (AR) applications. These are applications that involve the overlay of virtual imagery on the real world. For example, in the image to the right a three-dimensional virtual character appears standing on a real card. It can be seen by the user in the head set display they are wearing. When the user moves the card, the virtual character moves with it and appears attached to the real object. aumentada en PC
    (tags: programming tools, ar, art)
  • To be a good programmer is difficult and noble. The hardest part of making real a collective vision of a software project is dealing with one's coworkers and customers. Writing computer programs is important and takes great intelligence and skill. But it is really child's play compared to everything else that a good programmer must do to make a software system that succeeds for both the customer and myriad colleagues for whom she is partially responsible. In this essay I attempt to summarize as concisely as possible those things that I wish someone had explained to me when I was twenty-one.

    This is very subjective and, therefore, this essay is doomed to be personal and somewhat opinionated. I confine myself to problems that a programmer is very likely to have to face in her work. Many of these problems and their solutions are so general to the human condition that I will probably seem preachy. I hope in spite of this that this essay will be useful.

    (tags: programming programming, selfhelp)
  • NORRÃNA has a burning desire to develop, construct and produce the most innovative products on one hand, and the passion and love for nature on the other. Our company was started in 1929 and has been in the same family for four generations. See our outdoor and freeride clothing and backpacks here online.
    (tags: travel backpacks, preparedness, gear, tools)
  • (tags: programming/objective-c variadic, arguments)
  • memory leak detection
    (tags: programming/gdb valgrind, gdb, profiling)
  • Sometimes it's desireable to build something out of fiberglass, without the use of a mold. This is often true in car audio, where you are building a single structure, such as a dashboard, or a speaker box.

    Many articles cover building a speakerbox into a stange cove, by fiberglassing into a corner or hole, but what they don't show you how to do, is to build a completely custom object, such as a speakerbox with a curving exterior shape.

    (tags: art fiberglass, mold)
  • To pay homage to this ideal, Camp Apokiliptika decided to build a symbolic icon. After serious consideration between camp founder Kernul Killbuck and No. 1 acolyte, Jellyfish, the Spawn of Burning Man came into being. The Spawn is a 12-foot-plus recreation, the progeny, if you will, of the real Man. Miniman is mounted on a backpack and becomes an extension of his handler's movements. Though conceived by Jellyfish, Jelly insists Miniman is the creation of Larry Harvey, as it is made in the image of the original Burning Man.
    (tags: burning_man)
  • As these are the necessities for greenscreening, we chatted with a few different greenscreen technicians and came up with a pretty simple how-to guide for building your own portable greenscreen for $60. This is larger than most of the portable screens on the market (as well as being much easier to set up and collapse) and it allows a soft curve to meet the floor so you donât have harsh shadows.
    (tags: photography tools, greenscreen, backdrop)
  • Blimps that look like cars other products.
    (tags: airship airship, blimp)

Is “gay face” real?

People can identify pictures of gay men at a rate above chance:

The January 2008 study investigated people’s ability to identify homosexual men from pictures of their faces alone. In an initial experiment, researchers Nicholas Rule and Nalini Ambady from Tufts University perused online dating sites and carefully selected 45 straight male faces and 45 gay male faces. All of these photos were matched for orientation (only faces shown looking forward were used) and facial alterations (none of the images contained jewelry, glasses or facial hair). To control for context, the faces were also cut and pasted onto a white background for the study. These 90 faces were then shown to 90 participants in random order, who were asked simply to judge the target’s “probable sexual orientation” (gay or straight) by pressing a button. Surprisingly, all participants (both men and women) scored above chance on this gaydar task, correctly identifying the gay faces. Even more surprisingly, accuracy rate was just as good when the images were exposed at a rapid rate of only 50 milliseconds, which offered participants no opportunity to consciously process the photo.

links for 2009-06-27

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Floating fire lantern festival

Loy Kratong festival in Chiang Mai Thailand. Music: Lokrev Aaraaki by Org Lounge. Lanterns can be purchased at www.skylanterns.com

“Loy” means to float in Thai. Alongside the floating vessels, decorative lanterns (Kome) also became part of this tradition. There are four different purposes for the Northern Thais to hang lanterns. They are for beauty, to pay respect to Buddha images, to make one’s home brighter, and for propitious reasons. The four main northern traditional Komes are: (1) Kome thuea (carrying lantern) or Kome gratai; (2) Kome kwaen (hanging lantern); (3) Kome paad (revolving lantern); and (4) Kome Loy (hot air floating lantern).

The Kome Loy is a drum-size lantern similar to a hot-air-balloon. It is made of lightweight rice paper to be able to float in the air, and in order to send it up, a method to heat the air is included by tying a small receptacle underneath the open section of the lantern. Oil is then placed with a cotton cloth. As the oil catches fire and burns, hot air quickly fills the lantern and it soon rises into the air.”

This would make a great event at a future Ephemerisle.

links for 2009-06-26

  • A few months ago we received a press release from McMurdo on a revolutionary product, the Fast-Find 210 PLB, a portable version of an EPIRB, The revolutionary part was not a change in the way distress signals are sent from the device but rather the size (very small) and price point ($299 list) of the device. Subscribing to the theory of Too Good To Be True, we have held off on writing about the product until we had confirmation on the quality of the unit from a trusted source. Today that verification came, via Panbo, from friend of gCaptain and survival expert Doug Ritter.
    (tags: preparedness survivalism, epirb)
  • Gnu screen tutorial
    (tags: programming/screen screen)
  • Iâm new to Objective-C and programming for OS X in general, but I get frustrated when all articles, books and tutorials narrow themselves down to just one IDE and push you away from the glory of the command line. So how do you compile a simple âHello World!â application in objective-C on a Mac?
    (tags: programming/objective-c compiler, objective-c, hello, tutorial)
  • 27

    Feb
    How To Build a Green Screen Chroma Key Set DIY
    Posted by Dave Dugdale Published in Video

    greenscreen.jpg

    The lower lights in the picture above are two 250 watts (500w total) to light the green screen (one stand cost $24), the one in the upper right is the back light (kicker) and the one in the middle is my spot light – but the spot is not working well so I am going to build another softbox for this location.

    (tags: photography greenscreen, film, photography, backdrop)
  • My name is Kristina and I have been a henna artist since 1998 in the Cleveland, OH area. Aside from my henna excursions, my art background includes a Bachelor in Studio Art from Cleveland State University.

    I use only natural henna directly imported from Middle Eastern manufacturers. I do not use "black henna" or any substance containing PPD.

    My home made henna paste contains all natural ingredients like lemon juice, honey and essential oi

    (tags: photography henna, body_art, photography, blog)
  • This is not the right way to shoot a green screen, but I needed to work in a hurry.

    I found an opportunity to convince some business folks on the benefits of an in-house studio space with a built-in pre-lit green screen. I wanted to make sure the execs knew that we already had the technical capacity to shoot and composite green screen work and that we only needed dedicated space to make an efficient system.

    The first photo shows my basic screen setup inside the office used for my editing/equipment storage room. The main screen is a Photoflex Flexdrop collapsible blue/green screen. Since I needed to grab a full body shot, I clipped on the vinyl green screen that shipped with my copy of Serious Magic Visual Communicator Studio.

    (tags: photography greenscreen, film,)
  • Metal Supermarkets®, The Convenience Stores Of The Metal IndustryTM, is the Worldâs largest supplier of small quantity metals.

    With a network of over 80 stores we carry most standard grades, sizes and shapes of:

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    If we donât have what you need weâll source the material for you.

    Buy Only What You Need
    You can buy whatever size or type of metal you need, quickly and easily, with no minimum order size. Orders are cut to size while you wait, or delivered fast!
    Thereâs no need to buy full lengths. You simply purchase the size and shape you want.

    Not sure what you need? Our friendly, knowledgeable associates are ready to help.

    More Than Metal

    (tags: photography photography, backdrop, metal, pipe)
  • 1 1/4" kee_klamp like pipe fittings
    (tags: photography kee_klamp, pipe,)

Monk and Nina Conti

Via Newmark’s Door.