As I’m sure you all know by now, Leonard Nemoy has passed away earlier today. In honor of this great man, here’s some advice he sent to a troubled young lady in the May 1968 issue of the teen magazine FaVE. (second part below, in the middle column.)
[Source: My Star Trek Scrapbook | Via]
Check out this awesome project where college kids at the University of Central Florida are building 3D printed arms and giving them to kids in need for free. Insurance companies usually do not pay for prosthetic arms for children since they cost over $40,000 and the kids outgrow them in a period of about 6 months. Please consider donating a small (or LARGE!) amount to the project!
A prosthetic hand for a child can cost $40,000 and up. Albert Manero and his team at Limbitless 3D prints bionics for $80-$400 and donates them at no cost to children in need all over the world. See how you can help.
I look at the Photomath app, and I get very sad. Not that it will make future generations stupid or any such nonsense. No, I am mad that it didn’t exist while I struggled through algebra. That was essentially a semester I spent barely treading water, and knowing this would exist one day would’ve eased that struggle a bit. All you do is take a photo of the math problem and the app does all the work. A thing of true beauty.
From TechCrunch:
The app has accumulated 11 million downloads on iOS and Windows Phone, and people are still using it. In January alone, it was used to solve 8 million math problems. And now, it is available on Android. It is still free and should resonate well with high school kids who have a cheap Android phone.
So it is exactly what you think it is, and if you are as old as me, you are probably as sad as me this didn’t exist when you needed it most. Good to know future generations will be spared the true horror of algebra, though.
Tags: app, ease of use, math, numbers, photomath, photomath app, Science, solve problems, trick
A fungus is to duet with a piano at an upcoming arts festival. The Physarum polycephalum mold responds to music in what the pianist calls a creative way.
It’s the work of Professor Eduardo Miranda, who specialises in the crossover between music and science, His previous work includes a collaboration between a traditional string quartet and four computers generating music from brain information via electrode caps. Another project included a computer playing a piano not by striking the keys, but by remotely activating electromagnets placed inside the piano to directly vibrate the strings.
Miranda’s latest project, titled Biocomputer Music, involves growing cultures of the fungus on a circuit board. The resulting mold is able to contribute to the performance because it has the same electrical property as a memristor: its resistance changes over times based on the voltage that passes through it.
The mold forms part of the biocomputer, which as with the previous project, activates the electromagnets to vibrate the strings. The performance will be based around a call and response pattern. The idea is that Miranda will play a prepared sequence of notes, which are fed into the biocomputer. The computer will try to repeat it, but it will differ in two ways.
Firstly the sound will be different because the strings are directly vibrated, creating an effect the BBC describes as ethereal. Secondly, there’ll be some variation in the notes and pitch because of the effects of the mold’s varying resistance.
Miranda will then in turn respond to the biocomputer’s output, setting up a lengthy sequence of exchanges. Exactly how the music will develop should fall somewhere between controlled and predictable, and completely random.
Biocomputer Music from Eduardo Miranda on Vimeo.
The wonderful thing about the medium of animation is, even though it caters to kids visually, animated movies can be aimed at adults and children. Not all animated films feature cute, fuzzy animals getting into hilarious hi-jinx. Some feature them being ripped apart and raging war against one another, like Watership Down. Something I touched on as a writer many years back. Flavorwire has a piece touching on some of the same themes:
This week, the Criterion Collection releases Watership Down, Martin Rosen’s 1978 adaptation of Richard Adams’ novel. It’s one of the few animated films in the collection to date, but don’t go gathering up the kids, movie nerds — from the moment little Fiver gets his apocalyptic vision, wherein “The field… the field… it’s covered with blood!,” it’s very clear that this is one cartoon that’s not for the kiddies. But it’s also a terrific movie, reminding us that too often, the seemingly malleable form of the animated feature film is consigned to family entertainment and left there. Here are a few notable exceptions.
I can clearly recall how badly Watership Down messed me up when I went into it expecting cute animals singing, but it also changed my life. And in turn, changed how we look at animated films forever.
[Image and story via Flavorwire]
Tags: adults, animated, animated movies, cartoons, hand drawn, kids, movie, movies, watership down
It is with great sadness that I have to announce that Mr. Spock, also known as Leonard Nimoy in this reality, has passed away this morning in his home in Bel Air, California, from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 83 years old. Apart from his acting career, Nimoy was also a poet, a director, a professional photographer, and at one point in his life, a soldier in the US army.
Here is his last tweet, which dates back to Monday the 23rd.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP
— Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) February 23, 2015
His granddaughter, Dani Nimoy, has made the following statement on twitlonger.com a little earlier today:
Hi all, as you all know, my Grandpa passed away this morning at 8:40 from end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was an extraordinary man, husband, grandfather, brother, actor, author-the list goes on- and friend. Thank you for the warm condolences. May you all LLAP. – Dani
Rest in peace Mr. Spock, you will never be forgotten.
[Photo source: Beth Madison (CC BY 2.0)]
The Smartest of us call it “Gameception.” It is when you are playing a video game only to stumble on another and different video game INSIDE that other video game. Often times, you can play it, too. Yes, you can play the video game that is inside the video game you are playing. That is like reading a book and a mini book falls out that has nothing to do with the original book, yet you read both.
Here are the top 5 games in other games.
[image via rockpapershotgun, story via Zoomin.TV]
Tags: game inside other games, gamer, games within games, IGN, list, nerds, video games
That is the most awesome sticker of all time! I want one too!
[Source: Lunar Baboon | Like Lunar Baboon on Facebook | Follow Lunar Baboon on Twitter]
A funny comic by Julia Lepetit from Dorkly illustrating how various nerdy experience can change over time. The top panel? Yep, that used to be totally me.
[Source: Dorkly]
So there is a ‘thing’ going around the interwebz right now about mixing coke with milk and what happens as a result. I, myself, am not sure it is something I would ever want to do, but apparently it is the “Coke and Mentos” of 2015.
It is a reaction of the Phosphoric Acid contained in the coca cola to the milk. Phosphoric Acid molecules attach to the milk giving them more density and separate out while the remaining liquid that makes up the milk and coca cola now being lighter floats on top. The solid matter is basically milk that has been curdled by the addition of the more acidic soda.
Would you do it? Have you done it? Want to try it? Take to the comments and let us know how that turned out for you.
[Story via i09]
Tags: coke, coke with milk, food, food hack, gross, hack, milk, reaction, Science, wow
