I particularly like the paintings on the ground that give depth, like you’re falling into a mouth or a bowl of soup.
Continue reading “21st century modern art – graffiti – 26 beloved pieces”
21st century modern art – graffiti – 26 beloved pieces
Now playing on YouTube – pay-per-view shows
When I think of pay-per-view my mind automatically races to all the Wrestlemania’s and Royal Rumble’s I watched as a kid. With this new announcement by YouTube there is a chance they will be returning:
YouTube is adding monetization options to its live streaming platform, including the ability for publishers to charge for live events. The new feature was announced on YouTube’s publisher blog Tuesday.
YouTube has been experimenting with pay-per-view for select publishers. Making the option more widely available could make YouTube’s live streaming more attractive to other sports and entertainment publishers.
Of course, YouTube isn’t the only one to offer paid live streaming: Ustream and others have been offering publishers a way to charge for events for some time.
learn more – GigaOm
I was able to find a pay-per-view event on YouTube, a UFC fight for $44.99:
The most highly-anticipated light heavyweight title fight of all-time comes to Atlanta on Saturday, April 21st, as UFC 205-pound champion Jon “Bones” Jones defends his crown for the third time against former title holder “Suga” Rashad Evans. They once were friends, but now the time has come for them to settle their grudge in the Octagon once and for all.
YouTube opens Partner Program so everyone can make money from their videos
Ever thought of being a movie star or perhaps an internet-sensation?
Well, YouTube just opened it’s doors to you. They have a Partner Program designed to turn you into a skilled creator of popular videos, and get paid for it too:
YouTube has now announced that its expanding the eligibility to the program across the twenty countries that it’s available in, meaning it’s not just those with the popular videos who are invited to join the scheme.
The YouTube Partner Program is currently available in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States.
“We’re excited to provide more creators with the opportunity to become partners and have access to programs and resources to help them be successful on YouTube,” said YouTube in the announcement.
Prior to this, the program was only open to producers of the most popular video content, who could gain additional privileges and choose to run advertising on their videos in return for a share of the spoils. But now it’s open to anyone who’s up for making some dollars from their finely crafted videos.
via The Next Web
So break out your talented toddlers, dogs, and cats, but beware of the coming onslaught of video-advertising.
For delivery only – photos/video of Space Shuttle being attached to Boeing 747
At the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, initial mating of space shuttle Discovery and the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is complete in the mate-demate device. The device, known as the MDD, is a large gantry-like steel structure used to hoist a shuttle off the ground and position it onto the back of the aircraft, or SCA.
The SCA is a Boeing 747 jet, originally manufactured for commercial use, which was modified by NASA to transport the shuttles between destinations on Earth. This SCA, designated NASA 905, is assigned to the remaining ferry missions, delivering the shuttles to their permanent public display sites.
NASA 905 is scheduled to ferry Discovery to the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17, after which the shuttle will be placed on display in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
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Following delivery of Discovery, NASA 905 will ferry Enterprise from Udvar-Hazy to the Intrepid Museum in New York City. Endeavour is scheduled to be similarly moved to the California Science Center in Los Angeles later this year.
Learn more on the video from This Week in NASA:
A ton more picture are available at NASA Media Gallery
Hybrid surgery, a major new medical trend, reduces need for cutting open
This reminds me of Star Trek as we discover new ways to heal patients without cutting them open. This method involves half-surgery and half-minimally-invasive techniques that also take much less time:
They performed a unique, high-risk hybrid procedure that combined minimally-invasive method with traditional surgical techniques. They stopped the massive balloon-like aneurysm, replaced a failed heart valve, repaired another valve and also closed a hole in Patricia Crawford’s heart.
Now, just a few weeks since the successful Feb. 7 procedure, Crawford is much more active and energetic, and only taking medications for her heart. Most importantly, she no longer needs a heart-lung transplant.
Such hybrid surgeries are the start of a major medical trend, said Dr. Jamil Aboulhosn, director of the Ahmanson-UCLA Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center.
“We’re able to do more for high-risk patients like Patti than ever before. We’re performing more creative procedures that blend traditional surgery and minimally-invasive techniques to help patients who previously had few or no options.”
Dr. Hillel Laks and the operating room team started with traditional surgical methods, placing her on the heart-lung machine and opening the aneurysm by her heart.
Aboulhosn then employed the hybrid intervention by using a new balloon-mounted “melody valve” to replace her failing pulmonary valve and to close the hole in her heart. These two procedures, which normally would take more than an hour to complete surgically, only took 10 minutes thanks to the less-invasive valve-replacement technique.
learn more – UCLA Today
Scientists build first working quantum network – mind-bogglingly powerful
Scientists at the Quantum Dynamics division of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching, Germany announced Wednesday that they have built the very first, elementary quantum network comprised of a pair of entangled atoms that transmit information to each other via single photons.
That and a couple of bucks will get you a cup of coffee, plus anything from a perfectly secure data exchange system to the massive scaling via distributed processing of the already mind-bogglingly powerful, if theoretical, potential of a standalone quantum computer.
These are indeed heady days for the pioneers of quantum computing, with each news cycle seemingly bringing forth a major breakthrough in a subatomic frontier that appears poised to revolutionize how our calculating machines deliver us everything from satellite mapping to LOLcats.
Building it was the hardest part:
…had to figure out a means of exercising “perfect control” over all the components in their quantum network, which first meant getting the two atoms that make up the network’s receptor nodes to somehow stay stationary, because a couple of free-floating atoms wouldn’t be able to communicate with the photons relaying information between the two very efficiently.
The team was able to fix their atoms in optical cavities, basically a couple of highly reflective mirrors a short distance from each other, by means of fine-tuned laser beams.
keep reading – PC Mag
Video of Sicily’s Mount Etna erupting with lava flows and steam sprays
April 13, 2012 – Europe’s highest active volcano, Italy’s Mount Etna, erupted again this week. The eruption, which spewed blood-red molten lava and grey and white ash into the air, is the 24th in a series that started in January 2011.
A decade ago the volcano was at it again, this time more serious. Several thousands residents were forced to evacuate. Tom Pfeiffer was there, 800 meters away in February 2000, during one of the eruptions and described it for us.
From Scientific American:
After a few minutes, the first red spots began dancing above the crater, rising and falling back into it. The explosions grew stronger, first slowly, then with breathtaking speed, throwing bombs more than 1,000 meters above the rim. Soon the volcanic cone surrounding the crater was covered with glowing rocks. At the same time, a fountain of lava started to rise from a fracture on the flank of the cone. Several other fountains rose from the crater and formed a roaring, golden curtain that illuminated the scene like daylight. Some larger lava bombs crashed into the snow not far from us, but we felt secure in our viewing position. The fountain was nearly vertical, and a strong wind carried the mass of glowing lapilli and ash gently away from us.
// Thx to Seth Goldstein
We all pay taxes – Barack & Michelle made $800k, donated $170k, & paid $160k in taxes
As we all get finished with our taxes so do the President and First Lady. It turns out that the Obama’s came in with a 20.5% tax rate on income of $789,674 (married filing jointly), including donations worth $172,130.
The bulk of that income came from presidential salaries, $394,821, and book sales, $441,369.
In 2010, their income was $1.7 million with the increase due to book sales, and in 2009, it was more than $5.5 million from book sales and Barack’s Nobel Peace Prize award money.
In comparison, Mitt Romney pulled in an estimated $20.9 million in 2011, and is paying a %15.3 tax rate on that. It seems that both our politicians are paying lower rates than average Americans.
Facebook and Google enter first stage in, The War of the Numbers
The war over “number of users” is heating up for Google and Facebook. In the past, Facebook was able to dominate headlines by going real big, billions of this or that. The latest data:
- 845 million monthly active users at the end of December 2011.
- Approximately 80% of our monthly active users are outside the U.S. and Canada.
- We had 483 million daily active users on average in December 2011.
Don’t you love all of the caveats in that!
80% of the 845 million are not in the U.S., and half of them could be once-a-month visitors.
Don’t worry, Google is firing back with their own incredibleness. In the last few months, it was leaked that Google+ reached “100 million active users”, with CEO, Larry Page, confirming it on April 5, 2012.
Then, barely a week later, Larry Page comes back with a near doubling of that number:
Google CEO Larry Page delivered some updates on Google+ during Thursday’s conference call, saying that over 170 million Google users have now upgraded to Google+, which presumably means that they have activated their Google+ profile.
via Janko Roettgers
Funny, how those numbers keep shooting up and the language gets fuzzy. At least Facebook says daily or monthly, Google is saying neither.
Of course, Google is famously vague on everything competitive, knowing that the key to building an advantage is to prevent others from knowing about it.
You can bet that this is just the beginning of the War of the Numbers. With so much at stake (billions in stock, employee headhunting, advertising dollars, hearts and minds) you can bet on this continuing to escalate.