Thatfeller's Finds: March 2009

30.3.09

Completely Outrageous

This is completely outrageous. I love it.

23.3.09

The Evils of Turkey Bowling!

Leslie Pool and Mercy Jones warn against turkey bowling. Will Leslie give in to the craze?

17.3.09

Microsoft's five minute video on what the year 2019 will look like is pretty amazing. I want to live in this world. GIVE IT TO ME NOW. The clip was shown at Wharton Business Technology Conference and it's called 2019. My own enthusiasm aside, it looks like Microsoft's interpolating various research technologies like Surface and who-the-hell-knows-what else into showing surfaces that can be manipulated, electronic paper, crazy video cellphones, touchscreen/remote-control walls and amazing handheld wands. As Arthur C. Clarke says, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," and this shit is magic.

16.3.09

Are You Smarter Than a Chimpanzee?

I don't think so. Chimp Ayumu touching numbers 1-9. Chimp in Japan is touching numbers 1-9 on a touchscreen with help of an very nice photographical memory!

Here's the ABC News report:

11.3.09

Museum Dinosaur

Moving to weekly.

9.3.09

Stairway to Heaven

This is from their reunion tour a couple of years ago.

Here's the original 1971 version:

And here's an interview with the boys from back in 1970:

8.3.09

6 years old when he hurt his leg

"This man fell out of a tree when he was 6 years old and had been limping in constant pain for 41 years. Our team met him at a clinic in Cuenca, Ecuador and spent a good deal of time praying for him. By the end of it he was literally jogging in place and half dancing as all his pain had left."

7.3.09

Mozart without a Musician

Technology is an amazing thing. This is a nice performance of Mozart, but no human beings were involved: computers read the sheet music, played the piece, imitated the piano, and provided the ambiance. You can hear some glitches near the end; I think the computer's page-turner was slow.

The producer says, "I bought a copy of the sheet music for this piece then input the notes into Sibelius. A MIDI file was then exported from Sibelius and imported into Reason. From there I added a couple of effects and tweaked the MIDI data a little bit. The pics are scanned copies of the sheet music set to a transparent Mozart background."

6.3.09

Tiniest Jet

BD-5 The smallest jet plane ever made. Crew: one, pilot

Length: 12 ft to 13.5 ft w/stretch kits (3.88 m to 4.11 m)
Wingspan: 14 ft to 21 ft 6 in (4.26 m to 6.55 m)
Height: 5 ft 2 in (1.6 m)
Empty weight: 358 lb and up (178 kg)
Loaded weight: 700 lb to 1100 lb (340 kg to 530 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 1100 lb (530 kg)
Maximum speed: 300+ mph (500 km/h)
jet Range: 300+ miles (500 km)
jet Service ceiling: 23,000 ft (7,010 m)
Rate of climb: 4,000 ft/min (1,219 m/min)

5.3.09

Personal Amphibious Airplane

It runs on unleaded gas, gets better gas mileage than many cars on the road. It can take off from and land on water or land. It fits on a trailer. I want one!