FRONTLINE Special - Bush's War

Two part Frontline special “Bush’s War”

absolutely remarkable in it’s grasp of the entire picture of how and why we are in Iraq. This special will undoubtedly be viewed as the definitive account of the Iraq War.

(crooksandliars)

Absolut Machines

Cool machines music installation.



You can visit the machine in person. It is on display @
186 Orchard st
(between Stanton and Houston)
NY NY 10002

until April 25th, 2008.

Saleen S5S Raptor

Just unveiled at the New York Auto Show, the supercharged Saleen S5S Raptor ($185,000) drinks E85 ethanol and delivers 650 horsepower, a 0-60 time of 3.2 seconds, and a top speed of over 200 mph. Choose from a 6-speed manual or paddle shifting.

Michael Toschi belts

Clever design:

FIT is a molded component which creates a dynamic interface between the buckle and the strap of Michael Toschi Belts. The FIT system allows the belt to increase its circumference as it responds to load, even though the belt is fastened. FIT increases the belt's comfort by reducing bite and bind caused by common body movements.

The FIT system is not visible when the belt is worn as it is concealed behind the strap.

Michael Toschi online

Stanford researchers developing 3-D camera with 12,616 lenses

Stanford electronics researchers, lead by electrical engineering Professor Abbas El Gamal, are developing such a camera, built around their "multi-aperture image sensor." They've shrunk the pixels on the sensor to 0.7 microns, several times smaller than pixels in standard digital cameras. They've grouped the pixels in arrays of 256 pixels each, and they're preparing to place a tiny lens atop each array.

The result: an electronic "depth map" containing the distance from the camera to every object in the picture, a kind of super 3-D.

more here

(thanks kevin!)

How to hold a camera

Been discussing ways to hold a camera with a few friends. Here's an interesting approached (thx for the link Taro):

TOKYO REALTIME: update

Created a DIGG post for the new audio tour series.
DIGG THIS?

TOKYO REALTIME: KABUKICHO

Updated the teaser page for the White Rabbit Press TOKYO REALTIME series. Site should be up by end of the month.

If you have a blog of your own, it would be awesome if you'd post a link to www.tokyorealtime.com!

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Add that to the Rocket fuel, lead, germs, arsenic and pesticides found in this report:
Study Finds Safety of Drinking Water in U.S. Cities at Risk

We Come in Peace (to sell expensive handbags)

Chanel Mobile Art Container Site with artist profiles and vid

(thanks to Spencer for heads-up)

Photography as a Terrorist Activity

London's Metropolitan Police recently launched a counter-terrorism campaign that warns citizens to be on the lookout for "odd" photographers. Posters promoting the campaign present the camera as if it were a weapon. The climate in the U.K. is such that the photographers there last year organized a photographer's rights petition out of fear that public photography might become a licensed activity.

Campaign posters here

In 2004, New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority considered a ban on photography in subway stations. It dropped the idea the following year.

In 2006, Saudi Arabia lifted a ban on photography in public places to attract more tourists; some restrictions remain, however.

Somewhat related: Police in Japan have on occasion asked me and my friends to delete photos of police and their police boxes that we've taken on public streets here in Tokyo. I don't believe they have an real legal basis for that here, but a friend in Singapore tells me that photography of police in his island country is strictly prohibited.

When I added, "doesn't a free and active press play an important role in monitoring the police in a democracy?", he reminded me that there is no such thing as a free and active press in Singapore.

Surprisingly (to me), world opinion is divided on the importance of press freedom, according to a BBC World Service poll of 11,344 people across 14 countries. About 48% of respondants in Singapore supporting controls over the press to ensure peace and stability. Unfortunately Japan was not represented in those results.

the effects of expectations

Expectations have long been a topic of psychological research, and it's well known that they affect how we react to events, or how we respond to medication. But in recent years, scientists have been intensively studying how expectations shape our direct experience of the world, what we taste, feel, and hear. The findings have been surprising - did you know that generic drugs can be less effective merely because they cost less? - and it's now becoming clear just how pervasive the effects of expectation are.

The human brain, research suggests, isn't built for objectivity. The brain doesn't passively take in perceptions. Rather, brain regions involved in developing expectations can systematically alter the activity of areas involved in sensation. The cortex is "cooking the books," adjusting its own inputs depending on what it expects.

Although much of this research has been done by scientists interested in marketing and consumer decisions, the work has broad implications. People assume that they perceive reality as it is, that our senses accurately record the outside world. Yet the science suggests that, in important ways, people experience reality not as it is, but as they expect it to be.

Read the article here

Old man shoplifting make-up at PARCO

'moblogging' from my mobile phone for the first time.

The one day I don't carry my camera with me and i miss a chance to shoot the apprehension of a shoplifter in Ikebukuro's PARCO department store. I did manage to capture a single shot with my phone. I saw that this older gentleman had a few cosmetics in his pocket.
note to self: don't leave home without your camera！

Do you know HUMAX?

All clear now?