My first trademark

The logo I designed for GreenPrint is now an officially registered trademark!

Beautiful flying machine

This helium hybrid flying machine is just fantastic. The Air_ray resembles a slightly overweight mantaray, and flys by flapping it's flexible wings, the video shows just how elegant this method of locomotion is. The Air_ray is a one off prototype and only useful in big indoor spaces, but I would love to see this flying around sports stadiums and shopping malls. Link - Video

Speedy...

The internet in my hotel room is 20mbps, nice!

My toilet has a standby button...

and a remote control My room in its entirety, yes I can touch both walls at the same time. The bed is slightly too short, but very firm and comfortable.

Technorati Tags: tokyo, travel

The silent cell phone

Everyone in Japan has a cell phone, and most often they are in peoples hands, but so far I have yet to hear one ring and seen very few people talking on them. Most people appear to be typing/reading on their cell phones. The form factors are generally different as well. In a land know for its miniaturization of technology, they are huge by the standards of the west. You don't see many razr sized phones, just flips with huge screens and a multitude of opaquely labeled buttons. In the UK there has been a debate about extending cell phone coverage into the underground, the principal concern being its very annoying hearing everyone shouting, " I am in the tube". On my 90 minute ride from Narita airport, not one cell phone rang and I am pretty sure no one used it for voice comms. This despite the fact that about 50% of the people on the carriage had their phones open and in their hands.

The blandest food in the universe?

I have jsut been served this ice cream bar on a Northwest Airlines flight to Tokyo. It is a very strong candidate for the blandest food in the universe. There are no flavours present at all, you can only distinguish between the biscuit and the ice cream because one is cold and one is slightly crunchy. This foodstuff is an insult to the evolutionary wonder that is the taste bud. By the looks of the numbers of uninshed one littering the cabin I am not alone in my opinon.

Seen in Restaurant

Unattended children will be given a shot of espresso and a free puppy

A brief history of the metre

Lovely infographic showing the history of the metre, and the wonderful factoid that the country I am currently residing in is one of only three in the world that don't use the metric system. Try and name the other two. Link

Fabulous image resizing demo

This is a great demo showing an entirely new method of image resizing, called retargetting. It maintains the content of the image whilst changing its shape. When people say that we dont need more powerful computers I look at applications like this that are enabled by both our understanding of the mathematics of images and the ready availability of cheap powerful computers. There are some great examples in the video.

Technorati Tags: image processing, design, science

Second part of Dawkins - Enemies of Reason is up

This time focusing on medicine... Its a good program and the alternative practitioners came across as evasive. However, I don't think Dawkins really challenges them on their systems of belief, particularly those that should know better like the doctors. There are so many absurd moments, Deepak Chopra is particularly great, when he admits that he uses Quantum Mechanics as a metaphor because scientists have co-opted the word Quantum, oh the irony. Great Review of it over at Respectful Insolence one of my favourite medicine blogs.

Technorati Tags: Dawkins, Reason, science

Open letter to Palm

Engadget has written a great open letter to Palm. Discussing the failure of the company to continue innovating. Palm in my mind is a classic example of a company that when small and nimble managed to produce breakthrough products that defined a marketplace. As they have grown they have become more conservative unable to look beyond the vision of their original product. Its a good read, and mostly offers positive suggestions as to how Palm can build great products. Unfortunately I don't think that they will be able to change direction in time. The graphic shows just how little palm has evolved in 7 years. Compare this to the cell phone market at large and its a shocking indictment of the lack of innovation at Palm. Link

Excessive Executive Pay Infographic

This is a great interactive infographic illustrating the disparity in executive pay to the average employees pay in the USA over the last 30 years. Hopefully more comment on this to come. Link

Jesus Spam wonderfully done.

Keepon:Dancing robot

Designed as a non-verbal dance orientated plaything to study how children interact with it. It has a pair of camera in its eyes and a microphone in the nose. The researchers originally showed a video of KEEPON dancing to the Spoon track, "I Turn My Camera On". The video was a huge youtube hit and the Band have now made KEEPON the star in their latest video. KEEPON may just be the cutest thing in the world, and I for one am very happy that there are scientists out there making such fantastic creations. The original video is here. and the new video Don't you Evah is here: more on the Robot and its creators here

Google spam filter gone mental

Googles spam filter seems to have gotten rather too aggressive of late. Pretty much every email from a new contact is being sent straight to the spam box. It's getting ridiculous and I am now spending way too much time searching though heaps of fake watches, cialis and bored 18 year olds looking to "talk" to find important emails.

Ikea Thumb

I think I have discovered a new systematic type of injury. It is commonly acquired from assembling cheap furniture with the poor quality tools that are provided. I call it Ikea; Thumb.

Dawkins: Enemies of Reason Pt: 1

Dawkins first episode of his two part series is available on Google Video. Dawkins is the standard bearer for reason in a world that appears to be falling into primitive superstitions.

The age of endarkenment

Great colum in the Guardian science section on the rise of dogma, irrational belief and the devaluing of truth. This is a subject passionately close to my heart, I have argued often that we appear to be entering an age of unreason, where dogma and belief matter more than truth.

David Colquhoun puts it better than I

A minor aspect of the endarkenment has been a resurgence in magical and superstitious ideas about medicine. The existence of homeopaths on the high street won't usually do too much harm. Their sugar pills contain nothing and they won't poison your body. The greater danger is that they poison your mind.

It is true that consulting a homeopath could endanger your health if it delays proper diagnosis, or if they recommend sugar pills to prevent malaria, but the real objection is cultural. Homeopaths are a manifestation of a society in which wishful thinking matters more than truth; a society where what I say three times is true and never mind the facts.

If this attitude were restricted to half-educated herbalists and crackpot crystal gazers, perhaps one could shrug it off. But the endarkenment extends to the highest reaches of the media, government and universities. And it corrupts science itself.

Even respectable newspapers still run nonsensical astrology columns and respected members of parliament seem quite unaware of what constitutes evidence. Conservative MP David Tredinnick advocated homeopathic treatment of foot and mouth disease and Lord Hunt, as health minister, referred to 'psychic surgery' as a "profession" in a letter written in response to question by a clinical scientist.

Link to full article

Remarkably prescient video by Cheney in 1994 on Iraq

If only he had listened to his own advice.

Off to Japan

Looks like I am headed to Tokyo, something I have wanted to do for a long time. I will be there for a week training our Japanese distributor on the intricacies of GreenPrint.On the same day I learn that I am headed off I came across this remarkable video of a wave pool in Japan. It's the holiday season there now and things can get pretty busy...