I am sorry for the lack of recent posts. This trend is set to continue as I’ll be away over the next week. Normal service should resume before September.

Apologetically,
Splasho

I’ve seen a similar video to this before but was unable to track it down. A stroboscope is used to control the apparent rate of falling drops, slowing them down and then reversing them. I particular like the fact that they interact with the drops.

Goggles is a very enjoyable flight simulator using Google Maps images. I flew over my house!

Find out.

I’ve just created a conveyor belt which shows the rate at which babies are being born around the world - more than four each second. It’s amazing to contemplate. You can also enable an option to display the continent on which they were born and watch Asia grow. It uses data provided by the United Nations.

I’ve always wanted to write code with the function MakeBaby().

Update: this may also be of interest.

I was watching BBC News 24 when I noticed an entertaining technical problem. Michael Meacher was being interviewed “Live from Westminster” and the backdrop, as if to prove this, was a view fo London and Big Ben. Suddenly though, rather embarassingly the background ghosted and then died, showing us that Mr. Meacher was actually sitting in some little studio.

The BBC quickly cut away to stock footage of Iraq. The presenter never mentioned the glitch. (Note that the figure on the right is a hand-signer added over the top who is supposed to be there).

Pictures and video:

Jeremy Paxman, the presenter of Newsnight, a well known British television programme, showed his disapproval of a decision to replace the financial data at the end of the programme with a weather forecast by parodying the weathermen. The fun starts at about 1:37 on this Real video (context). The clip is from Have I Got News For You.

Provided 4791 (and counting down) more people sign up to this pledge, I will be one of the six thousand people linking arms to express my opposition to the new rules which resulted in someone being fined for reading the names of Iraqi civilians at the cenotaph.

The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) bans the right of protest (unless it is cleared by a commissioner 6 days in advance) within a 1km radius of the UK’s seat of government. The area covers the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street, most government ministries, St Thomas’s Hospital, part of the South Bank and Lambeth Palace.

As such the zone presents a threat to freedom of speech in that it prevents people’s voices being heard by those who make our laws. Since it would be illegal to protest about this the zone, the pledge aims to organise a 100% legal protest just outside the zone.

NB: This isn’t a petition, only sign the pledge if you can attend (for a start you need to live in the UK)

The Age Project is a rather interesting idea. It enlightens the guessers who are likely to get better and better at identifying age as well as the submitter, who finds out how old people secretly think they are. I guess you have to be prepared for an answer you don’t expect, or want though. The other problem is that submitters might be lying about their age and simply want to know how old other people think them.

It’s still a great idea though! You could even submit pictures of yourself in different clothes and see which looks youngest!

As you may remembered, I once had my account banned from Digg. Someone else has had the same luxury recently, after posting a pretty funny and definitely harmless joke on Digg and Reddit. His post is also now unlisted anywhere on Digg.

I think this post from the editor of newsnight highlights an important issue in the blogosphere.

I recently came across a comment claiming Jeremy disliked recording his weekly podcast. I posted a response and the blogger seemed appalled - “the BBC’s watching us - spooky” was his reply. But if you write something about us on the internet surely I have every right to read it and respond - that’s not spooky.

What could be more boring than watching water evaporate (timelapse)? You could watch grass grow in real time!