Synthespians

This is a pretty amazing video. The "person" being interviewed is synthetically constructed, using a number of images taken of a real human being to generate all of the facial expressions.

It was created by a company called Image Metrics, who are the people behind the animations in Grand Theft Auto IV.

Update: I've replaced the original YouTube video, which seemed to have some kind of glitch partway through. This seems to be a superset of the old one.

Thanks to io9.

The G Shot

I heard about this on a podcast this evening.

Apparently, The G Shot, also known as "G Spot Amplification", involves injection of collagen into the Grafenburg Spot, to temporarily enlarge it (for up to four months).

While the idea of sticking a needle into such a sensitive area sounds just a little alarming, I guess the outcome could make it worthwhile. Mind you, they're very careful to point out that "results do vary".

97 Degrees?!

You won't be getting me on this rollercoaster anytime soon ...

They Set The Bar High at UNE

One of the subjects I'll be doing next semester includes an assignment that requires you to create an animation of some form.

This was the best submission from 2006. If I started now, and worked 16 hours a day on it, I reckon I could create something at least half as good by ... oh, let's say ... the end of second semester, 2010 :-).

Hopefully the person who produced this has been able to carry the same level of creativity and skill with them into their day to day teaching!

An Awesome Lecturer

Apple just expanded iTunes U to cover more universities, including at least one in Australia ... the University of NSW.

So, I popped on over to see what lectures were available and stumbled upon some introductory C programming lectures by a chap named Richard Buckland.

When I finally make it into the teaching profession, I just hope my classes can be a fraction of the fun this bloke's are.

Even if you have no interest in computing, please watch at least some of this. I think Richard has a truly amazing ability to bond with his class.

Fortunately, the lectures are also on YouTube, so you don't need to subscribe to iTunes U unless you want to. Here's the one I watched last night.

A quick warning, though ... it starts out a little slowly, because it would seem the lecture theatre was a slightly tricky to find, so he waits a few minutes to give people a chance to get there.

Creme That Egg!

Another, incredibly intricate Rube Goldberg machine.


Thanks to Dan Meyer for pointing it out.

Jumping Jeans

This is reminiscent of those French chaps who throw cans into various receptacles from large distances.

However, in this case, the projectiles are their own bodies and the receptacles are pairs of jeans!

Elaborate Wedding Reception Toast

Thanks to Neatorama for the link to this impressive video of a huge production number the family and friends of a bride named "Amy" worked up for her reception. Pretty much everyone was involved.

It's quite long, so you may not make it to the end before nausea sets in. I just think it shows how much this woman is loved ... aw shucks :-).

Water Balloon

Here's a nice video of a balloon full of water being pricked, recorded at 2000 frames per second.


Thanks to Neatorama.

The Height Of Fine Dining

Dinner In The Sky looks pretty amazing.

They hoist a table, and up to 22 diners, 50 metres into the air using a crane!

Mechanical Digital Watch

This De Grisogono Meccanico DG is pretty amazing.

It displays the time in digital form, but is purely mechanical!

They've only made 170 of them, so I would imagine the price is astronomical.

Thanks to Gizmodo for the heads up.

No Sax Please, We're British

... especially when it's the size of this Contrabass Saxophone ... bloody amazing!



Thanks to Neatorama.

Time Management

You may have already seen Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture". If not, I've stuck it at the end of this post.

He's a university computer science lecturer who has pancreatic cancer and at the time of writing is estimated to have less than six months to live.

This is another lecture he gave, on time management. The topic may sound a little dry, but in case you've not seen him before, he's an excellent speaker. Funny, witty expressive, but to the point.

Definitely worth watching. As Life Hacker said, you may want to skip forward to around the twelve minute mark, if you're short on time.



Randy's "Last Lecture".

Death Wish

Some people are absolute nutters, but I'm glad they exist; otherwise we'd never get to see footage like this.

I Want One!

Seekway has created this cube, containing thousands of LEDs, each of which can emit a number of different colours, which can be changed individually up to thirty times per second, allowing some amazing animation.

The current cube has 16 LEDs in each dimension, but they plan to scale this up by a factor of 27 in a future model. That's over a hundred thousand points of light!



Thanks to Gizmodo.

Arterial Art

Artist Billy Chasen created this somewhat icky artwork that consists of a beating heart inside a clear glass cube.

As the heart pumps, it sprays blood all over the inside of the box ... yummo!

Note that the piece is quite apropos in this setting, being a Gala for the American Heart Association.



Thanks to Gizmodo for the video.

Camera Cleverness

Refocus Imaging is working on technology that would truly be of value to me, and a lot of other occasional photographers.

Via a combination of new optical hardware and software, they allow you to change the focus of an image after it has been taken.

This Crave article includes an interview with the company's CEO, but doesn't explain the technology in any real detail.

Click on the image to see some examples of the technology in action.

I'm not sure whether this is a Flash based version of their software, or just a mock-up of how it works.

In any case, you can check out more images in their gallery.

I just hope they can fit this into a nice compact camera ... and for a reasonable price!

A New Path

As of around 1400 today, I'm now enrolled in a Graduate Diploma in Education, via distance learning, through the University of New England.

You may know, gentle reader, that it has been a long time plan of mine to teach mathematics, either at high school or TAFE.

Well, I decided a few weeks ago that it was time to start working towards that goal. Of course, as usual, I'd left it far too late and the only course that was still accepting applications was UNE's.

I then discovered that although applications hadn't closed, one component of the course, a residential school, had already happened ... back in January! The lecturer who told me that said it was a mandatory component and I should wait until 2009. So, I gave up at that point.

However, I got a call from someone at the admissions centre yesterday. It turned out that while the other person wasn't completely wrong, they hadn't told me the whole story. Having missed that component just means I can't finish the diploma in one year; it doesn't stop me from doing some of the other subjects.

So, to cut a long story short, I'm back studying again, which I love, and am happily strolling down the path to a new career.

As to when I'll actually leave computing and move on to teaching, who knows ... I'm sure that decision will be mainly based on how painful (or wonderful!) prac teaching ends up being :-).

Ouch!

As the voice over on this video says, one would imagine that a Karate expert has hands made of steel ... slow motion tells the true tale!

Thanks to Neatorama.

A Slightly Expensive Watch

A Tourbillon is a mechanical watch with a mechanism that accounts for the effects of gravity, in order to provide amazing accuracy.

As one would imagine, because of the clever technology and the level of craftsmanship required to build them, these watches can be quite expensive.

However, I was still flabbergasted when I heard the price of the one pictured here.

It's from a range called Defy Xtreme, made by a company called Zenith . If this post from Cool Hunting is accurate, it costs over half a million dollars!