Tag Archives: Science and Technology
resonance
Rotary behaviours emerging from vibrating powder. The rotation is reversed at different frequencies. I expect something similar is at work to the “fountain” audio visualiser in iTunes, and I would assume, elsewhere.
Foolproof
American Scientist Online – Foolproof — Mathematical proof is foolproof, it seems, only in the absence of fools I was a teenage angle trisector. In my first full-time job, fresh out of high school, I trisected angles all day long … more…
Airship Aircraft Carrier, 1934
Found whilst prowling the archives of Modern Mechanix The post this belongs to is actually about the futuristic wonder that was air-conditioning, but my eye was caught by the cover illustration. Isn’t this a marvel? Solar-powered, too. Completely preposterous, of … more…
Top Choons in the Zone
I’m long averse to the Guardian’s arts pages, especially the music reviews, but I happened to find myself at the bottom of a workmanlike but deeply uninteresting music column just now, and there was this: A survey of Last FM … more…
Antikythera Mechanism, revisited
It must be Enigmatic Box Day or something. News of the latest round of forensic investigation of the Antikythera Mechanism (blogged previously) has been released all over the place today, and confirms that the device was almost certainly used to … more…
Mechanical Fractals
Revisiting Jack Cooper’s galleries of fractal images, which I blogged not all that long ago. The “mechanical” fractal galleries contain works which do not immediately suggest fractal generation, but rather structural or architectural forms. Some of them seem to imply … more…
Space mirrors could create Earth-like haven on Mars
New Scientist on one of the many grand schemes floating about which might play a part in the colonisation of Elsewhere: Mirrors in orbit around Mars could create Earth-like conditions on a small patch of the planet’s surface, according to … more…
Fractal animations by Jack Cooper
A spot of eye candy for a quiet autumn day: There’s quite a few more on YouTube, and there are higher quality mpg animations at Fractal Animations.
Jeff Han on TED Talks
Jeff Han, an HCI research scientist at NYU, demonstrates a multi-touch interface-without-interface at TED Talks. This stuff is coming along a little faster than I thought… (thanks, Rich)
Battlestar Galactica
I don’t think I’ve ever posted a declaration of besottedness before here — at least, not about anyone living — but since there’s an actual story that hangs off it, I better declare an interest right from the start: Katee … more…