In our endeavor of mapping the world, there has been a good number of inventions and developments that would keep us amazed for the rest of our lives.
The history of panoramic photography is quite an interesting one, and has referents from the very beginning of Photography. From the first 1843 hand-cranked camera, with fixed-lens, and a 150° field of view, to the full rotation of the Panoscan, there is an enormous list of devices, apparatus, machines, and general concoctions that were developed in the race for a perfect experience of a panorama.
Nowadays, some of the most interesting panoramas I have seen are made with the Gigapan, and through the 360-degree panoramic images. Both systems are quite different, and are experienced differently too. The 360 panorama places segments of images taken within an imaginary three-dimensional sphere, so we are able to look anywhere within it. The Gigapan system is just a stitching of a number of high-res images on a flat surface, without three-dimensional distortion. It is done with such accuracy that you are able to zoom in to a very close distance, often discovering interesting features in the panoramas. Both systems yield very interesting results.
Have you ever wonder what it should be like to have eagle eyes?
Gigapan images are created using a robotic camera mounted on a tripod and software developed by Carnegie Mellon University and NASA Ames Research Center. The Gigapan system can be combined with web mapping services to give detailed views of geographic features. It enables even inexpensive digital cameras to take hundreds of overlapping digital images that are then programmatically stitched together into a single panoramic image. Because each image can be composed of billions of pixels, the resolution is astounding. Gigapan images can be panned and features zoomed to amazing detail not available on ordinary digital images. And all for under eur400.
If you already enjoyed the pleasures of traveling with Google Earth, try now to enable the Gigapan layer.
Some cool imagery includes:
Sliabh Liag, Donegal, Ireland.
Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland.
Machu Picchu, Peru.
Lugano, Switzerland.
And of course:
President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address
Demotix is a citizen-journalism website and photo agency.
Imagine a community driven news agency that allows you to share your story, in photos or videos, and market it to the mainstream media. That is Demotix.
“Demotix was founded with two principles at its heart – the freedom of speech and the freedom to know. Its objective is nothing if not ambitious – to rescue journalism and promote free expression by connecting independent journalists with the traditional media.”
Basic, non-exclusive rights to your photos will sell for anything between $150 and $3,000 USD. Non-exclusive rights to your video: $500-1,000/minute. Exclusive rights: whatever we can get. And some photos and videos can go for $100,000s. In all cases, you get exactly 50% and you retain the copyright.
STOP SELLING STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY AND START SELLING YOUR TRUTH
It was a great night and one that change how news are experienced. I had on my Mac ABC news live, UStream, Twitter-election US, and Twitterrific. On my telly, I was swapping channels from CNN, RTE, Sky News, to FOX. But it was an amazing experience just being able to heard the voices of loads of people through Twitter, that had previously reported live the results from their own neighborhoods, cities and states. I think Twitter changed for ever how we experience ‘the event’, on real time and hyper-commented.
So now I wonder, how will I experience the Inauguration Speech? on Twitter and Current
Follow the Inauguration Speech, and make it yours
Head to Current and learn more: “Current & Twitter have teamed up again. We’re adding your real-time Twitter messages (“tweets”) over our live broadcast of Barack Obama’s Inauguration.”
We are all living in a giant cosmic hologram. I told you. And it is not digital, it is analog. I recommend you to read this article if you have a minute or two. Otherwise, see if this excerpts motivate you to do so.
“Our everyday experience might itself be a holographic projection of physical processes that take place on a distant, 2D surface”
“If space-time is a grainy hologram, then you can think of the universe as a sphere whose outer surface is papered in Planck length-sized squares, each containing one bit of information. The holographic principle says that the amount of information papering the outside must match the number of bits contained inside the volume of the universe.”
“Since the volume of the spherical universe is much bigger than its outer surface, how could this be true? Hogan realised that in order to have the same number of bits inside the universe as on the boundary, the world inside must be made up of grains bigger than the Planck length. Or, to put it another way, a holographic universe is blurry.”
“If you lived inside a hologram, you could tell by measuring the blurring,”
“Confirming the holographic principle would be a big help to researchers trying to unite quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of gravity. Today the most popular approach to quantum gravity is string theory, which researchers hope could describe happenings in the universe at the most fundamental level. But it is not the only show in town. “Holographic space-time is used in certain approaches to quantising gravity that have a strong connection to string theory,” says Cramer. “Consequently, some quantum gravity theories might be falsified and others reinforced.”
“Hogan agrees that if the holographic principle is confirmed, it rules out all approaches to quantum gravity that do not incorporate the holographic principle. Conversely, it would be a boost for those that do – including some derived from string theory and something called matrix theory. “Ultimately, we may have our first indication of how space-time emerges out of quantum theory.” As serendipitous discoveries go, it’s hard to get more ground-breaking than that.”
Update:Some great compilations of various reports from kottke.org ‘Hudson River plane crash’, including a terrifying video of a similar incident, and in Flickr. On other media:
That is the real NEW in this event: Twitter is worth. It is an incredible tool for communicating as it happens. You just can not be a photographer, a journalist, an academic, or just a citizen, and not know about Twitter.
A peek at the upcoming design documentary “Objectified”, by Gary Hustwit, the director of “Helvetica”. The trailer features the voices of Jonathan Ive, Andrew Blauvelt, Marc Newson, and Karim Rashid. The song is “I Like Van Halen Because My Sister Says They Are Cool” by El Ten Eleven.
Objectified premieres at film festivals and events worldwide starting this March, more info here:http://www.objectifiedfilm.com
About the film
Objectified is a feature-length independent documentary about industrial design. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. It’s about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them.
Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?
After an ill-fated insurgency against the Cuban government in 1953, in which he was nearly killed, Fidel Castro returned via the Cuban Revolution to become one of the most notable political figures of the 20th century. A vociferous opponent of the United States, a staunch critic of the capitalist model, and an oft-cited prophet of the Latin American Left, Mr. Castro’s legacy will likely inspire mixed feelings of admiration, fear, and disdain.
Got this brochure on the snail-mail recently. I cant help but wonder “why? why now?”, do they know something I dont? Most likely. I, in any case, feel now very well prepared, thanks to this piece of reading. Its a pity it is just an introduction…
Incidentally, www.emergencyplanning.ie
