Reactions to story from Neatorama

• 

  Grass Photography Grows Your Snapshots [Not So Digital Cameras]

  http://gizmodo.com/391220/grass-photography-grows-your-snaps...
  63 days ago in Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide · Authority: 22,058

  Photosynthetic photography is by no means a new technique, but it's certainly new to us. By placing a "canvas" of grass in a darkroom and shining light on it that first passes through a film negative, artist/scientists have been able to tweak
• 

  Neatorama

  http://surfnsharewacky.blogspot.com/2008/07/neatorama_07.htm...
  12 days ago in Surfnshare: Wacky · Authority: 30

  h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} Neatorama Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey’s Grassy Photograph Posted: 06 Jul 2008 01:49 AM CDT UK artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey took advantage of the natural photosensitive nature of grass to use them as pixels in what we can only call a "photograss." CR Blog has more on this particular set of photos, commissioned by HSBC in partnership with the 2008 Wimbledon Tennis Championships: “When grass gets plenty of sunlight, it produces chlorophyll and therefore turns green – but the less light it receives, the more yellow the colour is,” explains JWT art director Mark Norcutt of the process used to make the work. “Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey discovered that by projecting a bright black-and-white negative image onto a patch of grass as it grows (in an otherwise dark room), they can use the natural photosensitive properties of the grass to reproduce photographs. From a distance it looks like any other monochrome photograph (albeit with a slightly unusual tint); up close, it looks like perfectly ordinary grass. But even individual blades sometimes have a range of hues, as any given cell can respond to the amount of light it receives.” Link - Thanks sadtomato! Previously on Neatorama: Photosynthetic Photography: Pixels are Blades of Grass, also by the two artists. Couch Went Lawn Chair Ballooning Posted: 06 Jul 2008 01:48 AM CDT Just because earlier attempts of lawnchair ballooning went so well (the first one by Larry Walters, ended up with an arrest, fame, lost of fame, and then suicide; the second one by Brazilian priest Adelir Antonio de Carli ended up with him missing and presumed dead), Kent Couch decided to try it himself. Couch (I know, I know) rode a green lawnchair with 150 helium-filled party balloons from central Oregon all the way to Idaho: Couch kissed his wife and kids goodbye, and patted their shivering Chihuahua, Isabella, before his ground crew gave him a push so he could clear surrounding light poles and a coffee cart. Then, clutching a big mug of coffee, Couch rose out of the parking lot of his gas station into the bright blue morning sky, cheered by a crowd of spectators. [...] Said his wife, Susan: "He’s crazy. It’s never been a dull moment since I married him." Link - Thanks Geekazoid! Photo: Jeff Barnard/AP Found: Video of Conan O’Brien’s Harvard Class of 2000 Commencement Speech Posted: 06 Jul 2008 01:47 AM CDT We’ve posted about Harry Potter’s author J.K. Rowling’s commencement speech to Harvard grads before on Neatorama - this time it’s Conan O’Brien’s turn. Here’s a clip and transcript to Conan’s commencement address for Harvard’s Class of 2000: I’ve dwelled on my failures today because, as graduates of Harvard, your biggest liability is your need to succeed. Your need to always find yourself on the sweet side of the bell curve. Because success is a lot like a bright, white tuxedo. You feel terrific when you get it, but then you’re desperately afraid of getting it dirty, of spoiling it in any way. I left the cocoon of Harvard, I left the cocoon of Saturday Night Live, I left the cocoon of The Simpsons. And each time it was bruising and tumultuous. And yet, every failure was freeing, and today I’m as nostalgic for the bad as I am for the good. So, that’s what I wish for all of you: the bad as well as the good. Fall down, make a mess, break something occasionally. And remember that the story is never over. Link - Thanks Will! Chronotopic Anamorphosis Posted: 06 Jul 2008 01:45 AM CDT Belo Horizonte of the Marginalia Project explains what “Chronotopic Anamorphosis” is all about: The image is digitally manipulated by fragmenting it into horizontal lines and then combining lines from different frames in the display. The result is a distorsion of the figures caused by their motion in time, or, as Brazilian researcher Arlindo Machado calls it: chronotopic anamorphosis. The last segment of the video is the coolest one, hit play or follow the link to the Vimeo video. Link - via Furl Say Hello To HAL Posted: 05 Jul 2008 07:46 PM CDT Allow me to introduce you to HAL - the “Hybrid Assistive Limb” from Cyberdyne. HAL, is a robotic suit or rather exoskeleton that can be worn by humans to potentially give them superhuman strength by multiplying the users strength by a factor of 2 to 10. Created by Prof. Yoshiyuki Sankai of Tsukuba University of Japan the HAL robotic suit is able to detect minute bio-signals on the skin when sent from the nervous system to the muscles which are then read by a computer system and translated into movement by the power units. After receiving the signals the power units on the arms and legs are then activated to mimic the movement of the limbs. Will we see these HALs being used on our streets soon? Perhaps in the near future, however, at the moment the HAL is touted for use in Japan only. A quick look at HAL’s product page offers some insight on what exactly the suit could be used for: HAL is expected to be applied in various fields such as rehabilitation support and physical training support in medical field, ADL support for disabled people, heavy labour support at factories, and rescue support at disaster sites, as well as in the entertainment field. Currently, at the cutting edge of cyborg technology, HAL, could potentially create the watermark that could lead to further studies and applications of robotic suits to help us in our day to day activities. And in those special circumstances help rescue and support services in saving lives and in helping those in need. I hope that we’ll see more HAL like suits in the near future as it could only lead to better things. YouTube - [Link] Cyberdyne - [Link] Language That Has No Words for Numbers Posted: 05 Jul 2008 01:22 PM CDT Can you imagine a language without any word for "one" or any other numbers? Aren’t numbers so important that life would be nearly impossible if you don’t have words to express them? Apparently not, as scientists found one such number-less language: The team, led by MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences Edward Gibson, found that members of the Piraha tribe in remote northwestern Brazil use language to express relative quantities such as "some" and "more," but not precise numbers. It is often assumed that counting is an innate part of human cognition, said Gibson, "but here is a group that does not count. They could learn, but it’s not useful in their culture, so they’ve never picked it up." The study, which appeared in the June 10 online edition of the journal Cognition, offers evidence that number words are a concept invented by human cultures as they are needed, and not an inherent part of language, Gibson said. Link (Photo: Edward Gibson) U.S. Economy Sucks, So Illegal Immigrants Are Goin’ Home! Posted: 05 Jul 2008 01:21 PM CDT Here’s an unexpected side effect of the economic downturn in the U.S.: more and more illegal immigrants are going back to Mexico! According to informal surveys by the Mexican consulate in Dallas, most of those wanting to return to Mexico cite the sudden scarcity of jobs, fear of deportation and uncertainty about obtaining legal resident status any time soon. In the last few years, and particularly the last few months, Mr. Sánchez struggled to find work. His earnings dwindled as his children grew up and their needs multiplied. "People like me, if you don’t work one day, you worry about how to feed your family the next day," he said. "We as immigrant workers never have stability, even if the economy is doing well. Imagine how things are now." Also, he said, there is growing anti-immigrant sentiment that he would rather not experience anymore. "Those of us who live here live depressed all the time, in hiding," he said. "They don’t like us here, and those who love us and whom we love are far away. I prefer to go back, even if it means living in poorer conditions." Octavia Rivera López of the Dallas Morning News reports: Link Nanotube Radio Posted: 05 Jul 2008 01:20 PM CDT Image: Zettl Research Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and UC Berkeley (my alma mater, yay!) have just created the world’s smallest radio: from a single carbon nanotube! The single nanotube serves, at once, as all major components of a radio: antenna, tuner, amplifier, and demodulator. Moreover, the antenna and tuner are implemented in a radically different manner than traditional radios, receiving signals via high frequency mechanical vibrations of the nanotube rather than through traditional electrical means. We have already used the nanotube radio to receive and play music from FM radio transmissions such as Layla by Eric Clapton (Derek and the Dominos) and the Beach Boy’s Good Vibrations. The nanotube radio’s extremely small size could enable radical new applications such as radio controlled devices small enough to exist in the human bloodstream, or simply smaller, cheaper, and more efficient wireless devices such as cellular phones. Link Anger Management Gas Station Posted: 05 Jul 2008 01:19 PM CDT Photo: Bobak Bakhtiari When it comes to gas prices, Tanforan Shell gas station (in San Bruno, California - I used to live near there!) owner Bobak Bakhtiari feels your pain. So he installed a dunk tank to let his customers vent their frustration on a man dressed as in Shell uniform! Here’s an interview with Bobak (who also happens to be an anger management counselor) by Weekend America’s John Moe: Moe: Gas prices are high everywhere — what are you doing about it that’s unique? Bakhtiari: We’ve installed a dunk tank about 10 days ago and every Saturday, there’s live music and dunking going on. Who is in the dunk tank? Who do the customers have an opportunity to dunk? A Shell employee — someone dressed up either as a corporate Shell employee or a typical cashier. And what are the rules to that? Do you get a free softball toss with every fill-up? Or can anybody just walk up to the gas station and do it? Well it’s been going well with anybody just walking up to the station and doing it. They each get three tosses. If that doesn’t help, we also offer an express rant, where if they can creatively rant about gas prices they can receive a free express car wash. Cashiers are trained to really encourage all forms of expression during the rant. Well, except for throwing a chair through the window. Link - via metafilter Got a Job in San Francisco? No Housing Assistance For You! Posted: 05 Jul 2008 01:18 PM CDT A couple of days ago, I posted about Replate, a movement in San Francisco to help feed the homeless that stirred an interesting discussion on Neatorama. San Francisco, bless its heart, spends hundreds of millions of dollars trying to help and house the extremely poor - but it ignores a large segment of its population who committed the big mistake of … getting a job. C.W. Nevius, a columnist for San Francisco Chronicle, wrote: A family of four that makes more than $24,850 - which is 30 percent of San Francisco’s average median income - will be unable to find any subsidized housing, according to local experts. Instead, the family can either cram into a tiny studio or flee the city - along with the better-paid teachers, firefighters and police officers who have already done so. Unfortunately, all of these people made a single, critical mistake: They got a job. In a system set up to lend a hand to those well under the poverty line, someone forgot to factor in the price of living in San Francisco. The San Francisco branch of ACORN, a national grassroots organization of low- and moderate-income people, says that 80 percent of those who receive subsidized housing in the city are making $17,400 or less for a one-person household. So if a person finds a job at the city’s minimum wage ($9.36 an hour) he’s almost certainly out of luck when it comes to the city’s vaunted housing assistance programs. Working a 40-hour week for 52 weeks a year, he will make over $19,000. Too much to get help. Ask Jackie Phillips, a lifelong Bayview-Hunters Point resident whose son’s family, including three children, recently moved in with her. Their problem? Both her son and his wife work. "Their income is not low enough to qualify for the programs, but not high enough to buy at market rate," Phillips said. "So we’re saying: Be all you can be, but don’t be too much, or you will have to move out." Link Super Chuck Norris Bros. Posted: 05 Jul 2008 11:32 AM CDT WeGame link Chuck Norris is the baddest video game character ever! And he has the weapons to prove it. I’m surprised this wasn’t created years ago. (via Unique Daily) Wear Your Helmet! Posted: 05 Jul 2008 11:04 AM CDT 11-year-old Savannah Haworth was riding her bike home when a car ran over her arm, shoulder and head! She was taken to a hospital, but suffered only minor scrapes and bruises. The helmet she was wearing bore the brunt of the impact and shattered into pieces. Savannah’s parents Harvey and Gillian believe if their daughter had not been wearing the protective head gear, she would now be dead. Accounts manager Harvey said: ‘Without her helmet Savannah would have sustained serious head injuries or would have been killed. She’s been a very, very lucky girl.’ Link -via Unique Daily I Met the Walrus Posted: 05 Jul 2008 11:02 AM CDT (YouTube link) In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Directed by Josh Raskin with illustrations by James Braithwaite and Alex Kurina. -via Viral Video Chart You are subscribed to email updates from Neatorama To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.Email Delivery powered by FeedBurner Inbox too full? Subscribe to the feed version of Neatorama in a feed reader. If you prefer to unsubscribe via postal mail, write to: Neatorama, c/o FeedBurner, 20 W Kinzie, 9th Floor, Chicago IL USA 60610
• 

  "Grass Photography"

  http://grismeri.blogspot.com/2008/05/grass-photography.html
  60 days ago in The Fat Lady Singeth... · Authority: 1

  courtesy of Gizmodo Grass Photography Grows Your Snapshots Photosynthetic photography is by no means a new technique, but it's certainly new to us. By placing a "canvas" of grass in a darkroom and shining light on it that first passes through a film negative, artist/scientists have been able to tweak the chlorophyll levels of blades of grass and create living photographs. Their permanence is fleeting, but the effect is quite remarkable. This piece is Mother and Child, below is Sunbathers. It's like the world's most hardcore Chia Pet. [Viewing Space via Neatorama]
• 

  Grass Photography Grows Your Snapshots [Not So Digital Cameras]

  http://www.bloggadgets.nl/?p=491
  62 days ago in blogGadgets.nl · Authority: 3

  Grass Photography Grows Your Snapshots [Not So Digital Cameras] posted by Gizmodo.com 17th, 2008 Photosynthetic photography is by no means a new technique, but it’s certainly new to us. By placing a “canvas” of grass in a darkroom and shining light on it that first passes through a film negative, artist/scientists have been able to tweak the chlorophyll levels of blades of grass and create living photographs. Their permanence is fleeting, but the effect is quite remarkable. This piece is Mother and Child, hit the jump for Sunbathers. It’s like the world’s most hardcore Chia Pet. [Viewing Space via Neatorama] Source: Gizmodo.com Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. No CommentsGadget news
• 

  Grass Photography Grows Your Snapshots [Not So Digital Cameras]

  http://www.bloggadgets.nl/?p=458
  62 days ago in blogGadgets.nl · Authority: 3

  Grass Photography Grows Your Snapshots [Not So Digital Cameras] posted by Gizmodo.com 17th, 2008 Photosynthetic photography is by no means a new technique, but it’s certainly new to us. By placing a “canvas” of grass in a darkroom and shining light on it that first passes through a film negative, artist/scientists have been able to tweak the chlorophyll levels of blades of grass and create living photographs. Their permanence is fleeting, but the effect is quite remarkable. This piece is Mother and Child, hit the jump for Sunbathers. It’s like the world’s most hardcore Chia Pet. [Viewing Space via Neatorama] Source: Gizmodo.com Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. No CommentsGadget news
• 

  Photosynthetic Photography: Pixels are Blades of Grass

  http://lanalog.blogspot.com/2008/05/photosynthetic-photograp...
  62 days ago in Anything & Everything · Authority: 4

  That’s not a just any blurry photograph - in fact, it’s not made from either computer pixels or grains of silver halide, but blades of grass! Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey of Santa Barbara Museum of Art created photosynthetic "photograph" by letting different amount of lights through on a field of growing grass. Link, Via: Neatorama WebUrbanist has a neat post about 6 other examples of bizarre art using grass, moss, and greenery: Link
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  PHOTOSYNTHETIC PHOTOGRAPHY TAKES SNAPSHOTS BY GROWING THEM [NOT SO DIGITAL CAMERAS]

  http://friendzmania.com/blogs/?p=2028
  63 days ago in Mobile Blogs · Authority: 20

  PHOTOSYNTHETIC PHOTOGRAPHY TAKES SNAPSHOTS BY GROWING THEM [NOT SO DIGITAL CAMERAS] May 16th, 2008 Photosynthetic picturing is by no effectuation a newborn technique, but it’s sure newborn to us. By placing a “canvas” of gage in a darkroom and sunshiny reddened on it that prototypal passes finished a flick negative, artist/scientists impact been healthy to draw the chlorophyl levels of blades of gage and create experience photographs. Their length is fleeting, but the gist is quite remarkable. This example is Mother and Child, impact the move for Sunbathers. It’s same the world’s most expressed Chia Pet. [Viewing Space via Neatorama] Posted in Gadgets, Art, Digital Cameras, Culture, grass, not so Digital Cameras, photosynthetic photography | No Comments »
• 

  GRASS PHOTOGRAPHY GROWS YOUR SNAPSHOTS [NOT SO DIGITAL CAMERAS]

  http://friendzmania.com/blogs/?p=2031
  63 days ago in Mobile Blogs · Authority: 20

  GRASS PHOTOGRAPHY GROWS YOUR SNAPSHOTS [NOT SO DIGITAL CAMERAS] May 16th, 2008 Photosynthetic picturing is by no effectuation a newborn technique, but it’s sure newborn to us. By placing a “canvas” of gage in a darkroom and sunshiny reddened on it that prototypal passes finished a flick negative, artist/scientists impact been healthy to draw the chlorophyl levels of blades of gage and create experience photographs. Their length is fleeting, but the gist is quite remarkable. This example is Mother and Child, impact the move for Sunbathers. It’s same the world’s most expressed Chia Pet. [Viewing Space via Neatorama] Posted in Gadgets, Art, Digital Cameras, Culture, grass, not so Digital Cameras, photosynthetic photography | No Comments »

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