Archive for the 'tech' Category

Video: Uncontacted Tribe in Brazilian Jungle

Saturday, February 5th, 2011

Wow. It’s mind boggling think about cultures and groups of people that have been uncontacted in our world, living incredibly different lives, away from technology, the industrial revolution, print,  the internet, science, air transportation, and everyday things we take for granted. Watch the video above, and read tons more about these uncontacted tribes at UncontactedTribes.org. I’ll mirror a few of the astonishing pictures after the jump.

“ Video of an uncontacted tribe spotted in the Brazilian jungle has been released, bringing them to life in ways that photographs alone cannot.

The tribe, believed to be Panoa Indians, have been monitored from a distance by Brazil’s National Indian Foundation, a government agency charged with handling the nation’s indigenous communities. Many of the world’s 100 or so uncontacted tribes live in the Amazon.

Until 1987, it was government policy to contact such people. But contact is fraught with problems, especially disease; people who have stayed isolated from the mainstream world have stayed isolated from its pathogens, and have little immunity to our diseases. Brazilian government policy is now to watch from afar, and — at least in principle — to protect uncontacted tribes from intrusion.

Unfortunately, uncontacted tribes usually live in resource-rich areas threatened by logging, mining and other development. There’s often pressure on governments to turn a blind eye. Videos like this, released by tribal advocacy group Survival International and produced by the BBC’s Human Planet program, are legal proof that uncontacted tribes still exist, and deserve protection.”

video via wired science
Wired story and pictures mirrored after the jump

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Esper Dominoes: Self Falling Smart Dominoes

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011



I’m not sure what to think here, but this project by Jarashi Suki at IAMAS Ubiqutous Interaction Research Group, is one of those projects that make you go woa, wow, oh what if this and that! Watch the video above as these dominos are enabled to fall over at a set time and you can do a variety of, well, lets just say interesting things… I want a set!!! Check out his vimeo site of projects, and his website which I must say is one weird home page, but fun!


Google Art Project

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011


Google Art Project is StreetMaps inside several museums plus more. You can explore several museums across the world, while looking at a painting really close or from far away, you can watch Youtube videos about them as your curator, and you can create your own collections. It’s like having the worlds best museum all in 1 webpage! If you own or curate a museum, you can submit your library to the ArtProject as well.


The Noun Project

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

The Noun Projects is a visual library of icons representing everyday things we stumble upon daily, but this library is free to the public for use under Creative Commons. Pretty sweet project, and they also have  Kickstarter page if ya want to help them out.
Heres a bit more about them:

Mission
“sharing, celebrating and enhancing the world’s visual language”

The Noun Project collects, organizes and adds to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world’s visual language, so we may share them in a fun and meaningful way. Here is our pledge to you:

FREE
The symbols on this site are and always will remain free. We believe symbols can not be effectively shared with the world if they are not free.

SIMPLE
Everyone like simplicity. We want you to be able to come to our site and effortlessly find and obtain what you are looking for. Simple as that.

FUN
We think a language that can be understood by all cultures and people is a pretty amazing thing. We also think our symbols and the objects or ideas they represent are works of art worth celebrating. Check out our store.

HIGHEST QUALITY
We get excited about things like scale, proportion, and shape. We are committed to design and quality in everything we do.


DLD Conference 2011 Livestream

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011


For those of you that could not make it to the DLD conference in Munich this year like myself, there is a livestream of their lectures all 3 days. Take a peek at their schedule then grab some food and watch the all day series of talks. Keep in mind the schedule is in Munich time, so I think about 5-6 hours ahead of EST.

*they also have a great archive of each video in that livestream url. Watch these anytime.


Snowman Goes to the Dessert

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011


As snow poors across the world it reminds me of when I attended RISD where I met several international students whom had never experienced snow before. At times, I’d see these students sit outside in a corner just watching the snow for hours as it collected on their shoulders, but then I’d pile them up into theh snow, telling them this was the full experience.

Anyhow, the video above reminds me in this experience.  Panasonic has a new Insulator and to demonstrate how good it is, they made a snowman in Japan, packed it up inside this new material, then shipped it o Bahrain 8,000 kilometers away. Besides the incredible feat, what grabs my attention even more is a reminder in how amazing snow can be. It’s amazing to see how these kids from Bahrain react. I do wonder I I first reacted seeing snow? Do you remember your first time?

For more details on the project and the story behind it:
http://eco-ideas.net/sparks/snowman/


Cracking The Credit Card Code

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Interesting facts about your credit card number. Makes me wonder if the credit card should ever need a redesign to make it more secure somehow…

via mint


TEDMED 2010: Shaf Keshavjee

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011


Back in October I posted about an amazing experience in touching a living lung during TEDmed2010. Well, now the talk about the Vitro machine that helps keep these organs alive for transplants is online here.

“Dr. Keshavjee mesmerizes the TEDMED audience as he unveils a breathing lung on stage and describes how this technology is saving lives.”


Entertainment Gathering 2011

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011


One of my favorite conferences to attend in the best location in Monterey CA is the EG conference happening April 7-9. It’s a very intimate gathering with 300 attendees and speakers for 3 days over lectures, conversations, and an assortment of entertainment ranging from discovery, music, technology, the mind, and amazing stories… or at Matt Groening of the Simpsons who also attends says “It’s like being a fish and analyzing your water…it’s too hard to describe the EG experience.”

I’d highly recommend anyone that can come to attend since I’ll be attending this year as well. it’ll be my 3rd year. Also, for those of you that might need a bit of help, if I can get 4 other readers to attend, I can get a pretty good discount off for each of you. If you are interested, throw me an email and I can send you more details.


TEDMED 2010: Charity Tillemann

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Charity Tillemann was the opening act at TEDmed 2010 back in October. Watch the video, and don’t miss out on the amazing talk after her singing. It’s an unbelievable story and I don’t want to ruin anything so if you have 20 minutes, watch the video and be prepared to be amazed with her story. I got to have dinner with Charity later that night and she is quite a firecracker of a personality!

TEDmed


LEGO Angry Birds created by Chiukeung

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Awesome… thats all I have to say about these Lego creations Angry Bird style. I can even hear the theme song ringing in my ears now… If only Lego had the rights to sell sets of these…they would sell millions.
Lots of pics after the jump. All of the pics on the facebook album via Tsang Yiu Keung (aka Chiukeung).

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TED: Ads Worth Spreading Challenge

Sunday, January 9th, 2011

Ads on the web are horrible. Marketing needs to change, and more importantly, the meaning needs to change and relate back to a user desire, versus a forced upon undesirable interrupting ad.

TED is launching a short project to solve this issue, or at least to understand it more. They got million of people to watch 18 minute ads about ideas worth spreading, so why not take on the challenge in making ads worth spreading… or bette yet, what is an ad in the web world… what should it be, a broadcast, an idea, a problem, a challenge, a solution, or something else.

Watch the video above and learn more about this project which you can participate in here.