Scale of the Universe

[Thanks to TidBITS]

Scale of the Universe, interactive demonstration on NASA. (Requires Flash.) That is fun.

After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses

After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses, article.

244 years in continual publication!! And the digital age has ended it. If that doesn't illustrate the power and pervasiveness of digital publication...

“It’s a rite of passage in this new era,” Jorge Cauz, the president of Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., a Chicago-based company, said in an interview. “Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continuously updated, it’s much more expansive and it has multimedia.”

You can't argue with that, a paper book is a bitch to update! Especially one the size of EB. Whereas any bit of a web site can be updated in minutes. And these days, data and knowledge changes so fast, that nothing is too fast.

A mobile studio

It seems Cali Lewis is moonlighting with some outside gigs (Her normal one is at geekbeat.tv). The web may, historically viewed, still be in the Gold Rush age, but people still have to work hard.

I think this is an interesting look at how a lean and mean mobile video studio can be run.

Now, at first I had imbedded the video, but it has the irritating trait that it starts playing automatically every time you load the page. This would be particular irritating when it's lower on the page, and you have no clue where the sound is coming from. So I'll make do now with a link, watch it here.

George Carlin - Saving the Planet

[Thanks to Anna]

The man had guts.



I like the idea that maybe we are here just because the planet needed plastic but could not make it on it's own.
I just wish most plastic bags weren't friggin white, it really looks ugly in amongst the browns and greens and in photos (it always blows out the highlights!).     :-)

The new Olympus OM-D (updated)

[Thanks to Bert]

Update:
His series has been updated with a final segment, about street photography.
Look at the picture below. I think it's a good picture (rare, good use of foreground blur), and also a good example of the usefulness of the touch-and shoot screen on this camera. Normally a camera focuses somewhere in the center. May with one which has face-recognition you would actually get focus on this lady. But another way is, with cameras which have it, to touch the screen live where you'd like to focus, and the camera shoots instantly (if that feature is turned on).

You might think that it would make for camera shake. But I find that with a bit of attention, it's not hard to hold the camera still while doing this.
--
I must admit I'm pleased to see this new camera arrive. I admit love compact cameras like the Olympus Pen, but one has to admit they are not really substitutions for professional cameras in some situations. This new one uses the same lenses, M4/3, of which some really good ones are coming out now, and it's more hardy, faster, has more features, better sensor, all around it's just a powerful camera, while still being smaller and lighter than traditional SLR cameras. I think something like this will be the new level of work cameras very soon.

Photo blogger Robin Wong has tested the interesting new Olympus OM-D EM5 camera. Video and article.
See video here with comments on dynamic range and high ISO capabilities. Both seem to be very good. (See video low on the page, he claims clean ISO 6,400!) (Almost a full stop improvement every year, this is astounding. In the film days it was maybe a stop per 20 years.)

... From the simplicity of his methods of work (no tripod, small hand-held flash), he is really getting great results. He praised Olympus' new 5-Axis Image Stabilization system, which also stabilizes the screen and viewfinder when using Live View, this was not before possible with body-based stabilization.

Another review:

Notice the touch-shutter. You just touch on the tiltable screen where you want to focus, and if you've selected it, it shoots too. And it shoots immediately, the focus is so fast. This is similar to the Panasonic GH2, I think it's great. 

Snow art as exercise

[Thanks to Tommy]

Apparently Simon Beck's motivation for walking for hours to create these kewl snow artworks is exercise.
Some are the size of three football fields!
What I wanna know is how does he plot them so precisely? ... Aha, apparently he uses surveying techniques. Impressive.

Talking Heads: Papa Legba

And the version from True Stories (an old fave movie) (though this is hardly representative):