A good explanation of the POSIT algorithm for beginners…used it in my final year project to find a mapping between 3D data obtained from the Kinect and the 2D projection from a pico projector.

The World Reimagined – Sized by population – A snap from PeterMain – Forrst

Over the years there have been many attempts to locate the remains of Noah’s Ark on Mt Ararat, as well as several dubious claims of discovery. Rather than a specific location, the Bible says the ark came to rest on the “Mountains of Ararat”, while in Quranic tradition, the summit is identified as Mount Judi. Today’s Mt Ararat was originally called Mount Masis, and attained the new name from being the highest peak of the Armenian Highland, and therefore the most likely place for the ark to come to rest.¹

The general area in which the ark may be located covers eastern Turkey, Armenia, northern Iraq and northern Iran. Unless a boat can be found atop or very high up a mountain, the only other acceptable means for identifying Noah’s Ark would be its dimensions – and only if enough of it had survived.

Most people who have searched for the ark have been motivated by their religion, and most non-religious scientists would presume the story of the ark is just a myth. Those who believe that every word of the Bible is true will accept that a flood can cover every mountain in the region of Mt Ararat. Scientists know that such a flood is geologically impossible, based on the amount of water that exists in the world today (see below). But what if the truth lies somewhere in-between… a true survival story that was exaggerated for religious purposes? I believe I have come across a possible Noah’s Ark - and it is not a ship.

Noah’s Ark Was A Bunker?.

Damn You Auto Correct! » Cat’s Out Of The Bag.

In 1965 Richard Feynman, prescient as always, prophesied that science would reach its impasse. “The age in which we live is the age in which we are discovering the fundamental laws of nature, and that day will never come again.” After the great truths are revealed, Feynman continued, “there will be a degeneration of ideas, just like the degeneration that great explorers feel is occurring when tourists begin moving in on a new territory.”

Indeed, by 1970s, the researchers have already mapped out the entire universe, from the microrealm of quarks and electrons to the macrorealm of galaxies and quasars. Physicists have shown that all matter is composed of a few elementary particles ruled by a few basic forces. Scientists have also woven their knowledge into an impressive, albeit incomplete, narrative of how we came to be. The universe exploded into existence 15 billion years ago, give or take five billion years, and is still expanding. Some 4.5 billion years ago, the detritus of a supernova condensed into our solar system. During the next few hundred million years, single-celled organisms bearing an ingenious molecule called DNA emerged on this planet. These primordial microbes gave rise, by means of natural selection, to an extraordinary array of more complex creatures, including Homo sapiens.

 

Everything that could be discovered has been discovered; everything that needed to be explained has been explained; there is nothing left for science to do but to slowly decay or, as Feynman would put it, “degenerate.” Case closed.

via My Blackberry Is Not Working! – The One Ronnie, Preview – BBC One – YouTube.

What Americans do have however, is one place with a different culture. A place with a history of innovation and success in technology. A place that attracts not just technologists but the capital that they need. A place where someone like Steve Jobs could grow up and meet Steve Wozniak.

I don’t think producing more Science and Technology graduates is going to be enough by itself for Ireland to emulate Silicon Valley. Sure there are plenty of R&D and other high-skilled opportunities in the Irish operations of US companies.  But how many Irish engineers take their bonus (or severance payment) and sink it into a garage startup?  Who are the angel investors who encourage and support them?  How do we develop a culture of try, fail, and try again?  Do we need more technology graduates, or more imagination?

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity (Registration Number 1129409) which exists to promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing.

 

We plan to develop, manufacture and distribute an ultra-low-cost computer, for use in teaching computer programming to children. We expect this computer to have many other applications both in the developed and the developing world.

 

Our first product is about the size of a credit card, and is designed to plug into a TV or be combined with a touch screen for a low cost tablet. The expected price is $25 for a fully-configured system.

 

Provisional specification

• 700MHz ARM11
• 128MB or 256MB of SDRAM
• OpenGL ES 2.0
• 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
• Composite and HDMI video output
• USB 2.0
• SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
• General-purpose I/O
• Optional integrated 2-port USB hub and 10/100 Ethernet controller
• Open software (Ubuntu, Iceweasel, KOffice, Python)

Mona Simpson is a novelist and a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. She delivered this eulogy for her brother, Steve Jobs, on Oct. 16 at his memorial service at the Memorial Church of Stanford University.

Rendering Synthetic Objects into Legacy Photographs from Kevin Karsch. Will be presented at SIGGRAPH Asia 2011.