Well, what do you think? :-P DIY at Simpsonize Me
Monthly Archive for July, 2007
Jennifer Lin: Magical improv from 14-year-old pianist
Check out this mind blowing video on TED featuring Jennifer Lin, a 14 year old (at the time of performance) virtuoso pianist and composer. After two jaw-dropping performances, audiences are blown away when she lets an audience member (who just happened to be Goldie Hawn) 5 random notes then improvises a beutiful song out of those notes.
More video of her in Oprah (full version)
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Seeing Manhattan From Sea Level - New York Times
Despite those conditions, demand far outstrips the number of spots available in the annual Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, which on Saturday morning will send freestyle swimmers on a 28.5-mile course around the island.
Oh man, people do craziest things. I wouldn’t want to touch East River water, let alone swim in it. Someone in the accompanying video clip mentions that one of the participants has actually ran into a torso in past events, yuck.
Why the heck does New York have steam pipes, anyway?
The reason that’s interesting, at least to me, is that this is a prime example of what’s known as combined heat and power generation. It’s an old idea, but one that’s making a resurgence as bills for all our petroleum-dependent energy sources–heating oil, natural gas and electricity–continue to climb. As we all know, the easiest way to “generate” more energy per dollar spent is simply to conserve.
You might also wonder, as I did, why the heck these pipes are pressurized even in the middle of July–clearly the steam isn’t being piped into radiators. Here it turns out that an additional cleverness has been introduced into the system: buildings in the financial district use the steam to power the compressors that run their massive air conditioning units.
Cool! Well, until one explodes…
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LOL… It applies to almost all musicians, though - Coldplay, Avril Lavign, even Randy Newman and Elton John. Radiohead is probably the only exception that I know about. In defense of the musicians, though, it must be very hard to always come up with innovative music when you have a formula that already works quite well.
I admit, I like few of Likin Park’s songs, especially In The End. Pretty funny how much it looks and sounds like the parody :D
Here goes another one of my idea I was going to patent :-(
Watch this video at 3:17 mark. Basically, my idea was to replace the rear view mirrors with a pair of external cameras and LCD monitors, which would 1) liberate car designers from the gawd-ugly bulges on the sides, and make the car more aerodynamic, and 2) eliminate dangerous blind-spots and no more “OBJECTS ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR” signs.
Some of my previous ideas:
- A service which you can call up to identify a song you’re listening to — I think a company in UK started doing this few years ago (few years AFTER I thought of it!)
- A translation service which you can send a picture of a phrase (not written in alphabet, e.g. Arabic, Korean, Chinese,…) and send you back the meaning — not sure if there is such service yet
- Safer break-lights for cars that varies in length and intensity by how much pressure you are exerting on the break-pedal — I think some Lexus and/or Toyota cars have this now
You heard it here, folks! ^^
Check out this video of an excellent talk by Adrian Hong, executive director of LiNK, in which he talks about current human rights crisis in North Korea. Guaranteed to open your eyes.
LOL. For those of you who haven’t seen the real MindFreak… youtube away But this is better than the real thing :D
Here’s an oldie but goodie :-)
(click for full-size)
(Thanks Lorraine)
Wow, this has to be one of the weirdest illusion I’ve seen.
Never you mind the naked figure. See if you can make your brain think that the figure is spinning in counter clockwise direction. Once you do though, you will have equally hard time switching back to think the figure is spinnin clockwise direction.
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SingShot - Online Singing, Karaoke, Sharing, Ratings, and Community
YouTube meet Karaoke :D
[via Slate]
FASTCOMPANY - Message in a Bottle
Continuing my armchair crusade against bottled water ^^;; Here’s one of the best, well-balanced article I’ve read on the subject. Some interesting points to ponder:
- Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on ipods or movie tickets: $15 Billion. — do you notice ipod has become an economic scale? much like Big Mac of our parents’ generation?
- Hannibal’s troops drank from Perrier Spring in 218 B.C. and was bottled in 1863 by decree of Napoleon III. Yes, French “invented” bottled water. Freedom Water from municipal water treatment plants, anyone?
- Fiji water is actually bottled in Fiji and transported to US. In fact, it’s #1 export of Fiji, surpassing sugar in 2007, yet Fiji water plant employees only 0.5% of the workforce of the sugar industry
- Leonardo da Vinci, on a break from painting, declares San Pellegrino water “miraculous.”… Pellegrino chooses its CO2 carefully–it is extracted from supercarbonated volcanic springwaters in Tuscany, then trucked north and bubbled into Pellegrino. — wow, and I thought it was just strong club soda. $2 bottle of Pellegrino sounds like a bargain for something Made in Italy, no?
Don’t miss the accompanying interactive timeline.
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