Quite a few sites picked up on this picture recently - a pair of robot hands each fixing the other - this is just one.
In addition to being quite interesting the picture is an homage to the work of Dutch artist M C Escher and his 'Drawing Hands' lithograph. Here are some Escher links :
Can you tell what is shown in the picture below?
. . . . . probably not.
In fact it is part of the human body - the liver.
It is from a set of pictures drawn by Fritz Kahn which show the body as a machine - this part would be a chemical processing plant.
You can see many more pictures of the human body in the US National Library of Medicine's Dream Anatomy site.
The iPhone is the 'gadget' that quite a few people want (or already have) right now.
The next two links provide opposing views of this device :
- 10 things to love about the iPhone
- 10 things to hate about the iPhone
Personally, I won't be getting one. Partly due to the actual cost and partly as a result of the overblown hype surrounding it.
What hype? For one, the naming by 'Time' magazine of the iPhone as "invention of the year".
An invention needs to be something radically new not just a development - even quite a major development - of an existing device. By their definition the car would be re-invented everytime a new model was announced - clearly very silly.
This article in Tech Digest took me back.
Why? This was my first mobile phone back in 1994.
Cutting edge at the time, it was one of only two on the market with vibrating ringers - a feature I considered essential if I was going to carry it in school.
It was also - again, for its time - very small.
Mazes continue to enthrall - both those who create them AND those who try to solve them.
This one in California was recently given record status by the Guinness Book of Records.
The three figures shown in the picture were each created from a single sheet of paper folded.
Astounding.
Read about it here. And there's more here about the creator, Eric Joisel.
Gracenote provide databases that are often used by music-playing software and hardware to help identify the music and list the artist and tracks.
It means they have a good idea what people are listening to - all over the world.
Their interactive map lets you see what other people are putting in their machines right now.
Mercedes-Benz museum has a very neat system to get rid of smoke in the event of a fire.
They create their own tornado - indoors.
It has been recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the most powerful tornado generated artificially.
There is a nice video to go with this when you reach the target site.
