visioneros.com

Here’s a quick look at the “SixthSense” prototype, the wearable gesture interface designed by Pranav Mistry. This device uses a webcam, microphone, mini-projector and smart phone and will eventually be the size of a silver dollar and will radically change the way we interface with technology.

Pranav Mistry is a Research Assistant and PhD candidate at MIT Media Lab. His vision stems from the practical everyday needs of the masses. He has been experimenting with existing devices and finding unique uses for them. His “Sixth Sense” wearable gesture interface is the result of years tinkering with devices, like taking apart a computer mouse he developed an inexpensive controller. He used a webcam (camera) he removed the microphone and using a mini projector he can use a piece of paper as a computer monitor. His gesture recognizing software makes the whole thing work like magic. Pranav is recognized as one of the most important inventors of our time and has offered details of some of this inventions as open source, so that people all over the world can start developing new ways of using technology. Website: www.pranavmistry.com

Getting into our privacy booth on wheels, we believe to be independent. But it seems this so called “independence” comes with a price. The U.S. lost $78 BILLION dollars due to traffic congestion in 2005. U.S. citizens pay $164 BILLION dollars for traffic accidents every year, with the tragic loss of over 40,000 lives each year due to traffic accidents. We are slaves to our cars like a deadly addiction. Our current system is not efficient. Other countries have already started using high speed rail systems which offer efficient mass transportation using clean energy alternatives. Our traffic engineers should be diligently working on plans to build mass transportation systems that would cost less than $25 million per mile, to be able to compete with current automotive road building costs. The more advanced countries have rail systems running at speeds of 300 MPH, but systems could be designed to run at 450 MPH. It’s not to late to enter the race.

Imagine the shock of the first European explorers going to India and seeing it’s splendor. Europeans were raised to believe they were the greatest and that their history, culture and scientific achievements were the finest in the world. Well, we will try to ignore the time when they believed the earth to be flat and that they did not discover America (since people where already living there), but stumbled into it while trying to find a better trade route to India. Recent archaeological discoveries and historical facts are now being presented to dispel centuries of deceit started by the British, and to expose it as a deliberately scheme to impose the Christian religion, as the Spaniards did with Latin America.

Discoveries of Indus Valley Civilization and the Harappan Civilization have unearthed important breakthroughs that put historians which participated in this plot to shame. Here is Part 1 of 3 episodes.

Jyothi Raju is a 23 year-old from Chitradurga, Karnataka in India is a building climber. He says the locals call him Koti Raju (Monkey King), a name he got when he started observing and imitating the movements of monkeys in the area. He gets inspired by watching Spiderman movies. Koti has developed incredible climbing skills and hopes to get government sponsorship to develop and teach this sport to others.

A recent U.N. (United Nations) report described how the livestock industry’s misuse of resources makes it the NUMBER ONE CAUSE of GLOBAL WARMING. Not only this, but it is one of the top ten items on the list of problems contributing to world hunger. The amount of grains needed to produce a pound of meat greatly outweighs the end product, it is an expensive product destined to a small percentage of the world’s population.

Here’s an intelligent look at the situation by Professor Donna Quesada, this first part of the video has a quote from Paul MacCartney and his views on the vegetarian lifestyle.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
-Albert Einstein

You’ve heard the buzz about eating OMEGA 3 fatty acids most commonly sold as fish oil, but what if you’re a vegetarian? Well, they are also found in Flax Seeds and Hemp Seeds which also contain OMEGA 6. The “Nutiva“ company offers several products such as “Organic Shelled Hemp Seeds“ which offer more valuable nutrients and Omega 3 fatty acids than their fish oil counterparts for about the same price. Just another reason to support the industrial hemp growers.

Some years ago, I met a builder who told me about this method of contruction, using long sandbag tubes which are filled with a mixture of dirt and small amount of cement. I found this instructional video from calearth where architect and author Nader Khalili explains their Superadobe building method.

Ever since the days of being the mad scientist/sound wizard with “Roxy Music” the English art rock band, Brian Eno (Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno) has been an inspiration to many artists, musicians, sound engineers & composers. His experimental approach is in the line of composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen & John Cage, challenging the way music was perceived, written and recorded. Well known for his “sound treatments” modulating instruments with electronic devices and synthesizers, he has collaborated with artists like Genesis, Ultravox, Television, Talking Heads, , John Cale, David Bowie, Robert Fripp, U2 and many others. Wiki has an good bio on his work.

Artscape – Brian Eno In Conversation 2009 from Johnny Darko on Vimeo.