Panic Attack 2009! is a 5-minute short directed and animated by Uruguayan producer Fede Alvarez with a total budget of $300. And thanks to this video, Mr. Alvarez was apparently able to secure a $30 million deal with Hollywood. Hmmm, doesn’t that remind anyone of Neill Blomkamp‘s story? Anyways, here’s Panic Attack 2009!, for your viewing enjoyment.
Five Innovations that Will Change Cities in the Next Five Years
Today, IBM unveiled a list of innovations that have the potential to change how people live, work and play in cities around the globe over the next five to ten years: Cities will have healthier immune systems. City buildings will sense and respond like living organisms. Cars and city buses will run on empty. Smarter systems will quench cities’ thirst for water and save energy. Cities will respond to a crisis — even before receiving an emergency phone call. [Source: IBM]
[Via [H]]
Console modification not just for game piracy
It appears as if the field of science and technology is the next great battleground for the games console war. Following creative uses for the Xbox 360 and PS3, two scientists have developed new ways to use the Wii’s controller.
Hydrologist Willem Luxemburg and physicist Rolf Hut, both from the Dutch university Delft, showed off their work to the American Geophysical Union this week. Wired magazine reports that they both took advantage of the Wiimote sensor which can detect movement to closer than the nearest millimeter.
Hut created a relatively simple wind sensor: nothing more than a pole with the sensor from the Wiimote at its top. Luxemberg created a solution to a more complex problem: measuring evaporation, which normally requires equipment costing more than $500. To make things even more complex, he tried to find a method of doing so on a large body of water such as a lake.
His solution involves putting a LED on a floating device (a toy boat in the demo) and then pointing the Wiimote at it. The movement of the sensor tells you how high the water level is and thus indicates evaporation. The real beauty of the system is that the remote can take data from up to four LEDs, meaning much more accurate results without drastic increases in costs.
The pair believe that with a longer battery life and a way of storing data locally, the controller could be used for a much wider variety of purposes, particularly if you also make use of the in-built accelerometer.
Earlier this year, medical researchers revealed they are using the graphics chip from an Xbox 360 to investigate a heart condition. The parallel processing capability of the chip makes it ideal for simulating the way electrical signals move around damaged cells. Because the sheer number of cells means the number of possible routes is enormous, a standard computer chip which could only simulate and calculate one route at a time would take too long to make the work viable.
And in late 2008, security researchers used 200 PS3s to prove that the encryption system then used by Verizon, which had originally been thought to be so complex that it was unimaginable a machine could ever crack it, had now been made obsolete by increased computing power.
[Picture source: Make]
Ok, Let’s Enhance That…
Crime dramas and other TV shows can sometimes be a bit boring. But someone on YouTube decided that it might be fun to “enhance” them. Check it out:
Clash of the Titans Trailer #2
The first trailer was ok, but the second one is totally epic. Check it out:
Clash of the Titans is an upcoming 2010 fantasy film which is a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, itself loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. The film is directed by Louis Leterrier and stars Sam Worthington. Filming began in April 2009 for release on March 26, 2010.[1] The music will be composed by Craig Armstrong.[2] Matthew Bellamy of Muse has also stated that he will be working on the music.
Don’t forget to hit the full screen button after pressing play!
Don’t Step in the Hot Mag.ma!
By Jimmy Rogers (@me)
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
When social media first emerged, it was more or less a chaotic system where the most popular content floated around through many, many blogs and websites. Nowadays, though, a majority of that content is hosted on the “big names” of video storage: YouTube, Vimeo, and others. This makes finding cool new videos more predictable, but you still have to jump from one site to another to get everything.
Magma is trying something new. Instead of trying to convince content producers to host everything on their site (a battle most everyone loses to YouTube), they simply use the pre-existing embeddable players from each big site and put everything together in one place. This has been tried before, but what makes Magma special is ability for users to create their own accounts, share a feed of favorite videos, and follow what other users are watching. If you’ve ever used YouTube’s profile and “friending” features you’ll understand why there’s some space for improvement.
Personally I’m interested in Magma, not only because of all the potentially great community tools available, but also because of who’s responsible for it: Rocketboom. I’ve been watching Rocketboom’s video podcast for YEARS and, in my opinion, they really “get” the web as a social space. Watching the following video, they really convinced me that there is a hole in the heart of the web into which Magma fits perfectly.
Already I’ve found myself using the easy bookmarklet almost daily. I like how it can even recognize videos embedded in regular blogs! If you’d like to follow me on there, check out my page on Magma.
What do YOU think of this new social network? Will it soar or flop? Leave a comment!!!
All Hail Vectron! [Video]
By Vectron’s kindly claws, a lot of religions have probably started in a similar way, don’t you agree?
[Via VideoSift]
Ever Wonder What English Sounds Like to Foreigners?
By Jimmy Rogers (@me)
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Well you could ask our French-speaking blog boss, Yan, for his take…but why waste a perfect opportunity to watch a viral video?
This crazy song was written by Adriano Celantano in 1972 to show English-speakers what they sound like to un-comprehending foreigners. If you kind of zone out and let your mind go, you might actually mistake it for English. That’s because the song is composed of English phonemes (the sounds that make up our language) that have been jumbled up into jibberish.
How did this video strike you? Let us know in the comments!
[via Boing Boing]
FCC wants universal broadband, universal accessibility and universal boxes
The Federal Communications Commission has unveiled some of its ideas for strengthening the US broadband network to help the economy. The changes could include subsidies to improve provision in rural areas, measures to improve accessibility for people with disabilities, and a one-box solution to rival cable and video-on-demand services.
The report issued this week (PDF file) is only a preliminary set of ideas and is designed to promote discussion. The final plan is to be published in February and will detail how the FCC intends to use funding provided for broadband from the economic stimulus package passed earlier this year.
One of the main proposals is for the government to build broadband networks in areas where current providers don’t think it is profitable to do so. Under the plan, the money for this would come from the Universal Service Fund. This money, which comes from a levy on phone lines, is currently used to ensure everyone in the country has access to phone service.
The plan also deals with disability issues when accessing internet services, though it appears this will be merely through promoting better designed websites and more equipment such as screenreaders, rather than any legal changes or increased funding.
There may also be more details available to customers about the performance of rival broadband providers, the idea being that this will increase the likelihood that people will jump ship to get the best service.
Another goal is to finally settle an ongoing debate about the best way to use the wireless spectrum. This could involve reallocating the frequencies used by TV broadcasters where wireless internet services could use the space more efficiently. It could also mean finding ways to take advantage of currently unused “white noise” between frequencies which are already allocated.
Perhaps the most radical measure is to overhaul the way people get set-top boxes. At the moment most viewers either rent a box from a cable or satellite provider or receive it free with their subscription. The FCC believes this provides no incentive for manufacturers to produce better quality boxes with innovative features. Its proposal is to force all service providers (including those offering video-on-demand) to make their technology available so that firms can produce and sell boxes which are compatible with all TV and internet services.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (pictured) said reaching the plan’s aims would be a taunting task: “But its difficulty merely increases the urgency of advancing now toward our ultimate goal of creating a ubiquitous broadband infrastructure that addresses the growing costs of digital exclusion and that will allow every American to enjoy the extraordinary benefits that high-speed Internet access can provide.”
A Fabulous Journey Through The Known Universe
We’ve posted similar videos a few times here on Geeks are Sexy, but nothing as cool or as awesome as this one.
The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.
Now please, after hitting play, do yourself a favor and be sure to select the full screen option on the bottom right of the video player below.