//beconfused » Science & Technology

How does optical illusions work?

Mr. Dew — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 08:47:43 +0000

Beau Lotto’s color games puzzle your vision, but they also spotlight what you can’t normally see: how your brain works. This fun, first-hand look at your own versatile sense of sight reveals how evolution tints your perception of what’s really out there.

Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see

[via justrealized]

Dr. John Taylor’s rather awesome Corpus Clock

Mr. Dew — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:43:12 +0000

What an awesome clock:

The Corpus Clock has been invented and designed by Dr John Taylor for Corpus Christi College Cambridge for the exterior of the college’s new library building.

It will be unveiled on 19 September by Prof Stephen Hawking, cosmologist and author of the global bestseller, A Brief History of Time.

The £1 million timepiece, known as The Corpus Clock, has been commissioned and designed to honour the John Harrison, who was famously the pioneer of Longitude and inventor of the esoteric clock mechanism known as a grasshopper escapement.

The clock has been designed by the inventor and horologist Dr John Taylor and makes ingenious use of the grasshopper escapement, moving it from the inside of the clock to the outside and refashioning it as a Chronophage, or time-eater, which literally devours time.

The Corpus Clock & Chronophage – Hi-Res

How to increase breasts size with a ringtone

Mr. Dew — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:18:26 +0000

Upon listening to a special ringtone by Japanese (but of course) researcher who specializes in cognitive sciences, the lady increased her breasts size by not 1, not 2 but 3 centimeters. Rei is now a proud owner of a 82.5 cm chest all thanks to the unusual ringtone.

ディスカバリーチャンネル苫米地英人

Discovery channel reports the breast enhancement techniques. Now the researcher intends to create special sounds that would encourage hair growth and stimulate love at first sight.

SingTel launching 3G iPhone on August 22

Mr. Dew — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:51:42 +0000

According to Reuters, 3G iPhones would be out in Singapore on August 22.

SingTel to launch 3G iPhone in August-source

SINGAPORE, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, Southeast Asia’s largest telecoms firm, will launch Apple Inc’s third-generation iPhone in Singapore before the end of August, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

“SingTel should be launching the 3G iPhone in Singapore before the end of the month,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The company plans to launch it in 20 more countries on Aug. 22. It has set a target of selling 10 million iPhones this year.

Source: Reuters

Want to get one?

Like Star Trek for its realism?

Mr. Dew — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:34:03 +0000

Seems like someone is clearly mistaken:

i like star trek because it’s actually pretty realistic. the technology is fiction, but it follows real physics
In Star Trek, whenever there are torpedoes or phaser fire hitting a ship, you can hear the explosions even though they’re in space. How is that “real physics?”
in space, explosions are actually louder
because there is no air to get in the way
dumbass (Source)

Imagine a film trying to be realistic and offer absolutely no sound effect in space. Probably made a pretty boring film that could’ve belong to the silent film era.

Grad student discovers ultra-efficient white-light LED

Mr. Dew — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:15:34 +0000

Grad student accidentally discovers ultra-efficient white-light LED.

White Light, Less Heat

An accidental discovery at Vanderbilt University may well be the key to making light-emitting diodes the dominant lighting technology of the century. Up until very recently, the only way to make “white” light was to add yellow phosphors to bright blue LEDs. It wasn’t quite right, though, as even the best “white” LED retained a blue tint. This week, we got the news that a chemistry grad student at Vanderbilt has stumbled on a way to make broad-spectrum white LEDs using quantum dots — and in doing so, he may well have kicked off a revolution. (Source: WorldChanging)

I hope they get this into production real soon.

Teen figures out how to decompose plastic bags in 3 months

Mr. Dew — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:26:56 +0000

Ontario high school junior Daniel Burd wanted to try to figure out if there was a way to get plastic bags to decompose faster. As it stands, it takes thousands of years for the wasteful objects to disintegrate. But by using bacteria, he figured out how to make it happen in a mere three months.

WCI student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags

Daniel Burd’s project won the top prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa. He came back with a long list of awards, including a $10,000 prize, a $20,000 scholarship, and recognition that he has found a practical way to help the environment.

He knew plastic does eventually degrade, and figured microorganisms must be behind it. His goal was to isolate the microorganisms that can break down plastic — not an easy task because they don’t exist in high numbers in nature.

It’s Coming – FULL Internet Upgrade!

Mr. Dew — Sat, 17 May 2008 16:04:20 +0000

Just got this email that promises to upgrade my internet to Web 2.0. I don’t understand the email at all. It’s spam.

Hi,

Mohd Khairul Fiqri Zainuddin just visited our site and thought you would want to see this too.

the ENTIRE Internet is being upgraded and YOU can get it at NO COST.

This summer the Internet will change to Web 2.0 functionality – WILL YOU?

$1 Million Dollars being split between all who sign-up to help spread the word!
(see site details)

I wanted to reply this:

Dear Sir,

I clicked on the link and followed the instructions but my Hotmail still looked like Mail 2002. Please advise.

I would be most glad to upgrade the internet to the latest version 2.0.

Best Regards,
Mr. Dew

Microsoft withdraws Yahoo! bid!

Mr. Dew — Sun, 04 May 2008 05:01:26 +0000

Microsoft withdraws Yahoo! bid! One of the rare news where I can put two exclamation marks instead of one.

Microsoft Withdraws Its Bid for Yahoo

The about-face followed a meeting on Saturday morning in Seattle between Microsoft’s chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, and Yahoo’s chief and co-founder, Jerry Yang, according to a person familiar with the talks.

At the meeting, which also included Yahoo’s other founder, David Filo, and a Microsoft president who oversees its online unit, Kevin Johnson, Mr. Ballmer increased Microsoft’s offer to $33 a share, or a total of about $47.5 billion, from $29.40 a share. Mr. Yang told Mr. Ballmer that Yahoo would not accept an offer below $37 a share, this person said.

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo has not moved toward accepting our offer,” Mr. Ballmer said in a statement. “After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal.”

Microsoft’s decision to walk away casts a cloud of uncertainty over Yahoo and its shareholders. The breakdown in the talks is likely to send Yahoo’s shares plunging, and Mr. Yang and his team will have to decide how to placate investors. (Source: NYTimes)

I think this is good news for Microsoft shareholders. Yahoo isn’t that worth the money to purchase, plus Microsoft has the technology, they just need to work out their visitor numbers. For Yahoo!, it perhaps it a good thing too, but I just kinda have a bad feeling that Yahoo! won’t be doing too well in the coming months to come.