YouTube - Festo Aqua Penguin
Posted on April 23rd, 2009 by admin
It wasn’t until I saw the eyes that I realized what I was looking at.
I’m still digesting this one folks, I have nothing more to say right now. Just enjoy the show.
Carry on.
It wasn’t until I saw the eyes that I realized what I was looking at.
I’m still digesting this one folks, I have nothing more to say right now. Just enjoy the show.
Carry on.
Possibly overshadowed by some other films in the headlines Taken is well worth some attention. While not well received by the critics, no surprise given that it’s an action film and thus has the deck stacked against it, many viewers have enjoyed it very much.
Me included.
The preview pretty much hooked me from the get go, which is pretty rare these days. It was short, simple, to the point and positively chilling. An awful lot of that can be attributed to Liam Neeson, one of the better actors we have in the world right now.
The premise of the film is pretty simple; Our hero, the devoted father, has retired from his “company” job to be nearer to his daughter, who’s living with with our heroes ex-wife and super rich new husband.
Daughter takes a trip to Europe where, while on the phone with daddy, she is kidnapped. Woe be to the kidnappers daddy’s former “company” job was as some sort of highly skilled covert operations style government agent.
What ensues is a fun, messy, surprisingly smart for the genre, action adventure rescue story. Liam Neeson does a great job as the ruthless, avenging father. Determined to get his daughter back no matter what the cost we are treated to a string of fights, car chases and tense stand offs.
There is certainly a lot of predictability in the show but not enough to make it waste of time. Far from it there are enough turns and surprises to keep it interesting. Probably the most redeeming aspect of the movie is how, for the genre, believable and smart it is.
I’ll leave it at that because if I start saying more I’ll start spoiling aspects of the film better left for your own viewing. Fortunately by the time you read this the film will probably be available on disk. So add it to your queue and enjoy.
Notes from Knut: The SunCat Batteries - DIY prototypes
Excerpted from the blog post:
“At home i always have some batteries lying around, either rechargeable or normal ones. Usually they are empty, but i’d like them to be always fully charged. I could use a normal charger and there is a lot of solar devices that charge rechargeable batteries. I wanted it simpler; why hasn’t anyone made a battery with integrated solar cells? The idea of the "SunCat" batteries where born.”
This quote, titles and associated ideas are the property of the original poster. I make no claims to ownership or involvement and wish him the best of luck in his endeavors.
Please visit the original post to read the whole article and see some pictures of the prototype.
It seems like such a simple idea. Has no one thought of this before? I’ve seen bags and backpacks with solar cells, I even have a small solar “pod” with interchangeable charging tips to power a variety of small electronic devices.
With the increasingly cheap availability of the technology why not package rechargeable batteries with their own solar panel? Some of the comments on Knut’s post are less than polite but others make the point that this is a fabulous idea. There may be some issues with the design but it’s an initial concept that the guy put together, pretty much off the top of his head. A little more development and I think he’ll be onto something very cool.
This is just such a cool video that it must be shared.
Thanks to Overwatch from memepunks for this find.
Moving from water power to steam power, Steampunk is the next “thing” in genre related work. While it’s not a new concept the theme is starting to become much more visible in books, comics, games and music. While this band is a new find for me they have been around for a while now. Please check out Abney Park for some great visuals and some great music.
It will be no surprise I have done nothing with the podcast or blog for a very long time now.
That’s the nature of school I guess. If you don’t know me personally then you may not know I am working on my Masters in Social Work.
I am still working at my regular job, working in my internship and taking classes. The end result is not a lot of time. So the podcast had to be put down for a while. I still intend on starting it up again after I graduate but that will be a while yet.
On the other hand it takes far less time to write blog entries. So in the interest of continuing to share “stuff that’s neat” I’ll drop some posts here from time to time.
So if you are reading this welcome or welcome back.
Carry on.
I’m pretty sure that most of you listen to podcasts. What I’ve become curious about is what types do you listen to and why?
I encourage you to send friends who don’t listen to SciFi Dig here as well. I’m not looking for a broad statistical sample but the more answers I get the more informative this process will be.
So here are my questions:
1) Do you listen to podcasts purely for the entertainment value?
2) Do you listen to any podcasts that are related to your job?
3) Do you listen to any podcasts that are school related for you, i.e.: podcasts about your field of study or podcasts from specific classes?
4) About how many podcasts do you subscribe to?
5) How many hours a day do you listen to podcasts?
For anyone interested in helping me collect some number data I also have a survey set up.
This info is only for my own curiosity. I’ll share the raw data with anyone who is interested in the numbers and posts here but I’m not selling it or committing nefarious acts with peoples info.
Again, I wont share any contact information from anyone who responds but the data is available to anyone who is curious.
Thanks in advance to everyone who responds.
Carry on.
Welcome to another issue of Signal and Noise.
I dedicate the show to talking about, and teasing the listener with clips from, the movie Jerome Bixby’s The Man from Earth.
I really liked this move, the story it tells, the concepts it discusses, pretty much everything about it.
From the web site:
“An impromptu going away part for professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious and intense interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he is an immortal who has walked the earth for 14,000 years.”
Go rent it.
Now.
Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth
David Lee Smith as John Oldman
Tony Todd as Dan
John Billingsley as Harry
Ellen Crawford as Edith
Annika Peterson as Sandy
William Katt as Art Jenkins
Alexis Thorpe as Linda Murphy
Richard Riehle as Dr. Will Gruber
Jerome Bixby at imdb
and at Wikipedia
The promo in todays show is for the audio book Forever Fifteen by Kimberly Steele.
Home page
At podiobooks
Powered armor for the military. Iron Man might be closer than you think.
Pixie dust for the medical world - the good and the not so.
Answers to old questions plus a new one to consider.
The Japanese exoskeleton I mentioned is called the HAL-5, Hybrid Assistive Limb
CORRECTION:
In the show I referred to an article in the March 2008 issue of PopSci. It’s actually the May 2008 issue.
Carry on.
I’m wiped out today but there’s another short show in place.
Carry on.
