Archive for April, 2011

The Art of Data

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

This short films goes into the creative process behind IBM’s data visualization campaign from last year. The artist’s take on how data is translated into code, animation and emotion is pretty superb. By shifting our awareness to the unseen spectrum of information that constantly surrounds us, we slice through the 3rd dimension and enter the invisible landscape.

And here’s the final product: Data Baby.

IBM has also put out some very good videos on the future of data. IBMer Jai Menon explains how recognizing patterns in data allows accurate predictions of future trends. A technology familiar to ALTA’s webbot project and the Twitter prophecy meter.

And as a final tie-in here’s a short video about IBM’s collaboration with NASA and 250,000 web volunteers to create Galaxy Zoo, a project classifying the shapes of the hundreds of thousands of galaxies captured by the Hubble telescope.

0

Fluid Mechanics

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

The medium is the message.

Neo-platonic, semi-permeable, transmographying meta-balls, what is your Message?

Fluid Mechanics from CAOH on Vimeo.

0

Ley Lines, Sacred Geometry and Brainwave Entrainment

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Jim McElwee from the Unexplainable Store has put together a pretty decent video tying together aspects of geomancy with brainwave entrainment meditation to explore new frontiers of consciousness. The video production values aren’t great but the information is well presented and highly prescient.

0

SETI Offline and the First Crop Circle of the Year

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Carl Sagan’s ghost will surely make his wrathful presence known over the outrageous shutdown of the SETI Program.

SETI, the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, has spent the last 50 years scanning the galaxy for signs of intelligent communication. Because of budget cutbacks SETI can no longer afford it’s operating costs.

If you’d like to do something about it make a donation to SETI.

Although this is a huge hit for science and our lonely planet, it may also be an indicator that we as a species are being prepped for full disclosure.

We may not have to search for extra-terrestrial life because it may already be here.

With the sadness of SETI’s “hibernation” there is some good news.

The Allen array is not the only radio telescope facility that can be used for SETI searches. But it is the best; elsewhere, scientists have to borrow time on other telescopes.
Meanwhile, other SETI projects will continue, such as the SETI Quest Explorer, an application that allows citizen scientist volunteers to look for patterns from existing data that might have been missed by existing algorithms. Through a new partnership with Galaxy Zoo, this project runs in real time, so discoveries can be followed up on immediately.

Meanwhile on the local end of the spectrum, we are blessed by the first crop circle of the year!

Although we might not have the ability to communicate with “them” on their turf they sure as hell can communicate with us.

Keep watching the skies!

0

Water Changes Everything

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

This short video by Jonathan Jarvis is an excellent example of motion graphic design for a good cause. Jonathan Jarvis is also the brilliant mind behind the Crisis of Credit Visualized and the New Mediators.

The New Mediators from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

0

Pale Blue Dot

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Carl Sagan and animator Adam Winnik team up to make a wonderful partial perspective vortex on what Earth is all about.

Pale Blue Dot – Animation from Ehdubya on Vimeo.

via Kuriositas

0
Tags: , ,
Posted in Art, Video |

The Mystical Mouthwork of Beardyman

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

An amazing vocalist, beatboxer, satirist and badass, Beardyman is here to entertain.

Check out his soundcloud for more music.

1

Bucket of Truth

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

This video is a compilation of all the most unique UFO sitings from the past couple of years. It’s a fairly long video but is incredibly helpful if you need to catch up on the massive amount of strange things appearing in the sky.

“Whoever shall look into the Bucket of Truth shall know unmitigated, unadulterated, immutable truth.”

via Disinfo

1
Tags: , ,
Posted in Editorial, Video |

The Future According to Google

Monday, April 18th, 2011

XKCD has an excellent timeline of the next century as determined by Google prophecy.

The good news? Jesus and Atlantis return to Earth…fairly regularly. Humans will domestic and have sex with robots, Cyprus will achieve its goal (?), and a 14 bladed razor is on the horizon.

The bad news? Printed newspapers may become obsolete and in 2051 the atmosphere will finally escape it’s terrestrial bounds and re-merge with space.

The mixed news? Dogs driving cars by 2053.

0

The Church of Data

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Leave it to Sweden to be the front runners in developing a religion devoted to sharing Data. The Church of Kopimism (Swedish language website) is the religious analogue of the Swedish Pirate Party.

Founded by 19-year-old philosophy student, Isaac Gerson, this brand new church believes that copying and the sharing of information is the most beautiful thing in the world. To have your information copied is a token of appreciation, say the church, a sure sign that people think you have done something good.

“In our belief, communication is sacred. Communication needs to be respected. It is a direct sin to monitor and eavesdrop on people. Absolute secrecy is holy in the Church of Kopimism.”


The church has its own set of axioms, most of which revolve around free access to knowledge and the sharing of information. They include:

# Reproduction of information is ethically right.
# The flow of information is ethically right.
# Remix Spirit is a sacred kind of copying.
# Copying or remixing information conveyed by another person is an act of respect.

0