Why do we like an original painting better than a forgery? Psychologist Paul Bloom argues that human beings are essentialists — that our beliefs about the history of an object change how we experience it, not simply as an illusion, but as a deep feature of what pleasure (and pain) is. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2011, July 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Duration: 16:17.)
Also,check out his Q&A related to this topic here: [Q&A with Paul Bloom]
An interesting piece of story from NPR about current state of affairs in the patent world – patent trolling. Something from the article that brings out the essence of the issue in the buzz created by various tech companies suing one another.
“…All the big tech companies have started amassing troves of software patents — not to build anything, but to defend themselves. If a company’s patent horde is big enough, it can essentially say to the world, “If you try to sue me with your patents, I’ll sue you with mine.”
It’s mutually assured destruction. But instead of arsenals of nuclear weapons, it’s arsenals of patents….”
More of the article here: [The Link]
Audio podcast from thisamericanlife.org: [Audio Podcast]
An excellent tutorial from Phototuts+ about how to use various light sources to paint a landscape with light in photography. The article gives tips about various light sources to use (flash, gels, torch…etc) and also about color temperatures.
More info here: [The Link]
My own attempt at light painting using a flashlight/torch, candle and a laser pointer.
Pixiq
via Why you should take photos in RAW.
You can say a lot about whether you should be shooting in JPG or TIFF or RAW, but ultimately, for most photographers, the argument is very simple indeed:
With most people carrying some kind of camera that can capture video (mobile phones, compact cameras…etc) are we going towards a surveillant society? An interesting article from TechCrunch on this issue. When taken to its logical conclusion… the article summarizes as follows:
“It’s not an idea that’s easy to get used to, but neither was the idea of widespread instantaneous photography in the late 19th century. The fact is it’s happening, and to pretend otherwise only retards progress. In 10 years, the idea that you’re not being recorded at all times when outside your home (in any populated area, anyway) will be as quaint as the idea now that you can maintain any kind of meaningful anonymity while availing yourself of modern banking, social internet, and mobile phones. A world where fear of persecution, accident, and injustice are unfounded is a fine dream, but that’s not the world we live in, nor the world we’re approaching. Our society will be a surveillant society; it’s up to us to make that a virtue, and not just another fear.”
Hmm.. I am not sure I can warm up to such a scenario.
More of the article here: [The Link]
Here is a cool piece of technology from Oblong for the way we work and collaborate. The interface is gesture based. Perhaps this is in a good direction to start working away from typical cubical styles. Not sure if this can work for all types of jobs (e.g. development work), but still I can imagine a lot of work places being like this in the future. Here is a demo of Oblong’s interfacing.
g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.
More of the coverage of the tech from Techcrunch: [The link]
Film rolls are now gone into pages of history of photography. Photographer Steve McCurry was given the last production film roll and he took some iconic photographs to mark the end of film rolls.
This is the last image that he took from this roll.
A statue in a cemetery in Parsons, home to the last photographic lab in the world that developed Kodachrome film, July 2010. [image source: Steve’s Blog]
Read more about this in his blog here: [Steve’s Blog]
View all the images from that roll @vanityfair mag: [Slide Show]
The study of quantum mechanics has helped to explain a number of strange physical phenomena and is a tool for scientists to study the world at the smallest scale. For decades there’s been a healthy amount of skepticism about the role of quantum mechanics in biological processes. Recent scientific findings, though, are pointing to quantum mechanics’ important role in various fundamental functions of life on Earth. Nature News published a story summarizing the latest in the study of quantum biology, including speculation about what it could all mean in understanding the living world and how it could benefit man made technology of the future.
Read on at Nature News: Physics of life: The dawn of quantum biology…
