Mangos and Peaches » Cool Stuff

Welcome Back to Aperture Science

Chris — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:04:06 +0000

Portal 2 looks like a good time.

A Surprising Truth

Chris — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:07:11 +0000

Probably one of the coolest things you’ll see all week:

So I pose the question that you should be asking yourself now: What is your motivation and purpose?

Rendezvous With Rama

Chris — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:06:16 +0000

Not an actual movie (although I wish it was!). This is a trailer created by a student based on the novel by the same name.

Rendezvous with Rama – Vancouver Film School (VFS) from Vancouver Film School on Vimeo.

The Sun. Like You’ve Never Seen Before

Chris — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 23:05:37 +0000

Demonstrating the Strength of AIA [HD Video], originally uploaded by NASA Goddard Photo and Video.

Nasa has uploaded new photos and videos from their shiny new space telescope: the Solar Dynamics Observatory. It delivers a mind-blowing image of the Sun you’ve never seen before.
You can check out more photos and videos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/sets/72157623903514852/

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Demonstrating the Strength of AIA [HD Video]

A series of movies that illustrate the power of the AIA to show regions of heating and cooling. The first movies are shown in colors from blue to red, which span temperatures from 1,000,000K to 2,600,000K. The second spans the temperatures from 2,600,000K to 10,000,000K. To convert from K to F multiply by 1.8.

Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

To read more about this movie go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/briefing-materials-20…

To learn more about the SDO mission, visit: www.nasa.gov/sdo

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation’s largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.

Color Jungle

Chris — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:37:20 +0000

I’ve been testing out my new camera and getting use to using it so expect to see more photos soon. I’m also migrating my entire photo library to Lightroom because iPhoto is starting to have trouble handling the large image catalog. So as soon as I get that up to speed I can spend less time organizing photos and more time editing/sharing them. On a quick side note, the Nikon D300 captures an exceptional image with details & colors that make me feel all warm inside. More on this later.

For now, here are some photos from a trip to Jungle Island this past Sunday:

See more photos here!

Sounds of the Universe

Chris — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:40:42 +0000

Traveled alone into the heart of the Everglades last night in a desperate attempt to escape the glow of the city lights. Found an area off the road where there was nothing to see but the flickering of stars against the blackness of space. Set-up the camera on a tripod and pointed it skyward. The shutter was set to bulb mode and the ISO was alternating between 400 & 800. Then came the hard part which was sitting back with my iPod watching as the Perseids Meteor Shower crossed the sky. It’s not everyday that there is a planned meteor shower to I took advantage.

I managed to get only 1 decent shot of the meteors crossing the sky. I think I was a little unlucky since there was an absurd amount of the meteors visible from my location. I took my chances leaving the shutter open for 3 – 5 minutes at a time happening that one would cross the lens and that it would be bright enough to appear on the exposure. Unfortunately the majority were invisible to the camera and the high ISO means the longer the shutter stays open, the more noise appears on the image. At least I was able to take some pretty cool pictures of the stars out there.

For the curious, the Earths rotation combined with an extended exposure makes the stars appear as streaks across the sky in some instances. I had read about this effect, but this is the first time I experience it. Next time I’ll bring a film camera so noise becomes less of an issue.

The Power of the Pentatonic Scale

Chris — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:11:14 +0000

Watch as Bobby Mcferrin hacks the brains of his audience members by demonstrating the power of the Pentatonic Scale. Pretty interesting stuff. The connection of music with the human brain is shared by everyone and this demonstration is a simple example of an idea that is being developed further by scientists & researchers around the world. I’m always inspired by these individuals that strive to define patterns in nature.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Deadline

Chris — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:12:42 +0000

Bang-Yao Liu created this stop-motion animation for his senior project at Savannah College of Art and Design and boy is it awesome. Half way through watching this I forgot that all the images are composed of different colored post-it notes arranged in a neat grid. Most appealing thing about this for me is the “pixel art” dynamic that this creates. Same concept as a digital pixel, only he’s using physical squares. I wonder what grade his instructor gave him for this short & sweet project.

Damien Walters is cool

Chris — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:20:28 +0000

Really, he is. The video below is his latest show reel where he, uh, shows-off all of his cool flips, jumps and tricks. This guy does stuff that you would only see in a movie or video game and makes it look easy. I’d love to be able to just be standing around in a line, waiting for something, and doing back flips like it’s all good.

Art Student Makes Car Dissapear

Chris — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:40:45 +0000

I came accross this article about a gilr named Sara Watson that dedicated three days of her life to painting an old car and blending it into the background. Needless to say the amount of patience and attention to detail here is pretty astounding. The vehicle is used as advertising by the locl recycling company that donated it. Talk about fucking greening it.