Archive for November, 2007
Chuck Keen
A favorite from the crew at Alaska Robotics:
Can’t believe i haven’t posted this before now!
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Better be good to Amazon or…
Just in time for holiday shopping, the USPTO has awarded Amazon a patent for Generating Current Order Fulfillment Plans Based on Expected Future Orders, which explains how to use modeled net present value to adjust an order’s delivery date favorably or unfavorably based upon expectations that the customer will have high-profit orders in the future. So don’t blame Santa if that special gift isn’t under the tree on Christmas morning, kids – it could just be dear-old-Dad’s low NPV score!
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Tag : trailer
[thinfilms] is in post-production for a feature documentary about the game of Tag.
a trailer for the film is now on youtube. if you’ve contributed to the film in any way, please know what it means to us – this is a labor of love that represents over 120 hours of footage featuring interviews with people of all ages and cultures describing the game, its countless variations and the ways in which they shape who we are and everything we do. the making of this film has indeed been a remarkable journey and it couldn’t have come this far without all of you. Thank you.
meanwhile, keep an eye peeled for an update about the full release coming in 2008.
we trust this finds you well and enjoying some play time every day, nurturing the whimsical spirit that Tag brings out in each of us.
sincerely,
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Liquid TV
Some of you may remember far back enough to when MTV actually had cool programming on.
For instance, Liquid TV, which featured the work of a broad range of animators and filmmakers. My friend Jason sent this along earlier this morning – a great blast from the past:
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Arpeggi
many of the tunes on the new radiohead album are not new but have just taken time to render themselves onto an album. one of my favorites is many years old.
this is not the best quality but here’s where it premiered: in london at the ether festival:
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AngryAlien
This has been around for awhile but it’s a keeper!
The funny folks over at AngryAlien have been making parsed remakes of popular films starring bunnies:
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The Man Who Knew Too Much
While travelling in Switzerland, the child of a well-off couple is kidnapped. She is held to ensure that her father does not reveal what he knows about a planned assassination. Since they can’t talk to the authorities, the parents plan to begin the search for their daughter on their own.
This is the original, British-made movie from 1934 and is now in the public domain. After coming to the United States, Alfred Hitchcock produced a remake of this movie in 1956 starring James (Jimmy) Stewart and Doris Day. The remake remains under copyright.
I actually enjoy the original more!
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Producer: Ivor Montagu
Production Company: Gaumont British Picture Corporation, Ltd.
Audio/Visual: B&W, mono
Keywords: Hitchcock; 1930s
here’s the opening 10 minutes of the film:
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Arrrrrrrgh!!!
it’s not as silly as it sounds : piracy has exploded in the waters near Somalia where this past week US warships have fired on two pirate skiffs and are currently in pursuit of a hijacked Japanese-owned vessel. At least four other ships in the region remain under pirate control and the problem appears to be going global: The International Maritime Bureau is tracking a 14-percent increase in worldwide pirate attacks this year.
And although modern-day pirates enjoy collecting their fare share of booty [they have a soft spot for communications gear] they’re just as likely to ransom an entire ship. In one particularly sobering case, hijackers killed one crew member of a Taiwan-owned vessel each month until their demands were met.
For years now, law enforcement agencies across the high seas have proposed robotic boats, or unmanned surface vessels (USVs), as a way to help deal with 21st-Century Black Beards. The Navy has tested at least two small, armed USV demonstrators designed to patrol harbors and defend vessels. And both the Navy and the Coast Guard have expressed interest in the Protector [pictured above], a 30-ft.-long USV built by BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Israeli defense firm RAFAEL.
The Protector, which comes mounted with a 7.62mm machine gun, wasn’t originally intended for anti-piracy operations. But according to BAE Systems spokesperson Stephanie Moncada, the robot could easily fill that role. “Down the line, it could potentially be modified for commercial use as well,†she says. Instead of being deployed by a warship to intercept and possibly fire on an incoming vessel, a non-lethal variant of the Protector could be used to simply investigate a potential threat.
A favorite tactic of modern-day pirates is to put out a distress call, then ambush any ships that respond. The unmanned Protector could be remote-operated from around 10 miles away, with enough on-board sensors, speakers and microphones to make contact with a vessel before it’s too late.
Shiver me timbers!
Pirates aren’t what they used to be, anyways.
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