Chinese Military base in Google Earth
If any of previous entries regarding cool findings in Google Earth were not enough to convince you to use Google Earth, then here is one more proof of cool things to find in Google Earth satellite images.
Recently a geek browsing the Google Earth found of a huge military terrain map in China of a disputed border area between India and China. The story was even given coverage by ABC News. So, what can you un-earth in Google Earth?
More about un-earthing the Chinese military base @ ABC News
Tech Bikini warns of excessive UV
Although Tracking down women’s fashion and swim wear isn’t one of my interests, yet this techie bikini did get my attention. To be honest, I want to buy anything which comes equipped with with an LCD screen or digital meter; and this bikini got one.
The company’s SmartSwim Ultra Violet bikini features a digital UV meter built right into the garment. The idea is to warn the wearer about the dangers of sunburn and how long you should stay in the sun without getting hurt.
With interest in the risks from skin cancer high, this little number should sell well. But mysteriously the company that was selling these suddenly vanished from face of the earth. So, at least the idea is there for others to follow.
More about the UV bikini @ The Inquirer
The vanished UV bikini manufacturer @ Ottawa Citizen
Geforce 7600 card that support HD-TV
MSI has just unveiled the NX7600GT Diamond Plus graphics card, which features 256MB of GDDR3 memory @ 1400MHz, a single dual-link DVI-I, and HDMI audio/video outputs, supporting video resolutions up to 1080p—perfect for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats. It goes on sale later this month, priced at $200-$250.
More details on this middle-stream 3D card @ Daily Tech
5 Weirdest Bicycles
TechEBlog has combined a list of top 5 weird bikes. Now these are both cool and weird. The bikes include “Chainless bike”, “Electric-Human hybrid bike”, “Sideways bike”, “Jet-turbine bike” (One of my friends in engineering university always wanted such a thing, although he wanted jet-powered roller skates – I think he didn’t like his body parts being in one place).
So, you get the idea about what to expect from this list. Real cool photos of these bikes are also included in the article. So, do check it out:
Top 5 strangest Bikes @ TechEBlog
Real Mutants possible
A scientist has been experimenting with half-human and half-animal mutation and even half one animal half another animal breeding. But this raises many strong moral objections to creating what fiction has termed as “mutant” entities. New Scientist reports:
The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics advocates banning embryos containing human and animal genetic material and cloned embryos created by combining human cells with cow or rabbit oocytes, something Wilmut wants to attempt in order to study motor neurone
Wow now this would be interesting, what if people do get mutated with frogs (frog man?), spiders (Spiderman), wolves (wolverine) and then there would be female mutants yes bat-women, cat-women. And then allow them to mate…. and we would would a whole lot of weirdos have little girls hopping with spider legs and large bat wings, I don’t think they would have a chance of becoming Miss Teen USA now would they. So, that proves why this mutant research is no good. hmm! damn! that mean no chance for me to join the X-men!
More about actual research @ New Scientist
De-Blurring Photos
And while talking about innovation in photo technology here is another one. I kept telling a friend of mine that one you degrade quality of anything, resize photos to smaller size or reduce bitrate of audio/video. Then you cannot bring it back to better (or even original) quality. But things are about to change with this technique.
The technique is based on an algorithm that deduces the path that a wobbling camera took when a photo was shot, then uses that path to reverse much of the resultant blurring. The method isn’t a miracle cure, but researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Toronto have used it to significantly help a wide variety of sample images.
According my personal observation the result is slight improvement over “sharpness” filter available in Photoshop / Paintshop pro, but the technique used to accomplish this is far superior than standard filters and plugins. Which means there is lot of room for improvement and there may come a time when this is done in realtime in cameras. You take picture and whatever wobbling or motion was there would be cleared out automatically.
Details and sample photos available @ Cnet news
Documentary: US "War Crimes" in Iraq
Although worlds attention is targeted towards Israel/Lebonan conflict only, but the atrocities in Iraq are far worse. This documentary is collection of facts from history, interview with marines who have been in Iraq and based on army footage tells story of terrorism U.S. army did in Iraq.
The video starts from the Vietnam war and some footage which was very later on found in archives showing the destruction of common villagers and fires caused by Napalm bombs. The fire spread from these bombs were worse as they burnt the skins of people till they gave up on life. Later UN banned such weapons. And the documentary shows such events in which U.S. is repeating this in Iraq through Phosphorus grenades which burn the skins of women and children.
The atrocities are so cruel that the marine interviewed agrees that before landing the “terrorist” age allowed for shooting were 18 to 65, but their US forces did so cruel acts that even children of age 10 were forced to pick up arms to take revenge and then the army shot such kids too.
Watch the complete documentary and open your eyes to reality @ Google Video
Beautification Algorithm
Yesterday I posted about Britney Spears pre-photshopped photos. And you all may know that each photo of models/celebs must be tweaked “a bit” (ok! “a lot”) before printing. Well what if you had the same technology in your camera, and it beautified you automatically?
Tommer Leyvand, a researcher at Tel Aviv University in Israel, has done just that. Leyvand has developed a new algorithm that can improve the looks of human faces in photos so they appear as better versions of themselves.
The technology, called a “digital beautification” algorithm, apparently makes tiny adjustments to the distances between hundreds of different facial features, according to the report. That way, it can alter the person’s appearance only subtly in a matter of minutes.
Learn more @ New Scientist
Pong with a twist
There are just so many Pong variations available both online and offline, that one just cannot seem to set one’s mind on which one is better. Well to me, most of them just turn out the same. But a recent pong game gave me more than that twist and that is what is known as innovation.
This pong game called “Insane Orbs” has few extra things popping up in playing field after your first score. These may be random moving blocks that deflect the ball back, or gravity fields which can throw or suck ball towards themselves, giving an unexpected motion to the ball. Further bring in the PacMan which will try to catch the ball (dot) and and then release it in any direction he wants. Your pong pedal comes with firing capability to throw such things and obstacles away and confuse the opponent. There is no stopping in between the game, the level keeps changing automatically to keep things frantic.
Try out “Insane Orbs” yourself @ 2FlashGames
Head-cut-dog stays alive
This video is said to be from 1940s era of Russians scientist experimenting with a dog. They cut off his head and artificially kept his head alive. The dog moved his tongue etc well but couldn’t bark because of no lungs.
This is claimed not to be an artificial movie. I think it is said that BBC did the coverage of the story too. The procedures are attested to in numerous books and medical papers, with some sources providing detailed technical information on the operations shown in the film.
Watch 20 minutes of real horror @ YouTube
