Beautiful story from Gastro Obscura about the South Korean women working to preserve haenyeo songs.
Haenyeo is Korean for “sea women.” On clear mornings off Jeju’s coast, you can still see them emerging from the lucid waters in their black rubber suits. Nearly 90 percent of haenyeo are over the age of 60, and many are well into their eighties. Equipped with nothing other than an ancient breathing technique called sumbisori, the women travel as deep as 32 feet into the depths for the best of what the sea has to offer: octopus, abalone, conch, sea urchins, clams and edible seaweeds.
Beautiful story from Gastro Obscura about the South Korean women working to preserve haenyeo songs.
Haenyeo is Korean for “sea women.” On clear mornings off Jeju’s coast, you can still see them emerging from the lucid waters in their black rubber suits. Nearly 90 percent of haenyeo are over the age of 60, and many are well into their eighties. Equipped with nothing other than an ancient breathing technique called sumbisori, the women travel as deep as 32 feet into the depths for the best of what the sea has to offer: octopus, abalone, conch, sea urchins, clams and edible seaweeds.
We’re constantly on the lookout for moments of zen these days, and, well, this snowflake generator absolutely fits the bill. From Vivian Wu via Flowing Data:
It takes the user input and distributes hexagons on a pinion accordingly, applies mirroring and sixfold symmetry, generates a height map, and adds lighting and refraction. This is done with a fragment shader; the snowflake lies on a plane and there is no geometry created.
We’re constantly on the lookout for moments of zen these days, and, well, this snowflake generator absolutely fits the bill. From Vivian Wu via Flowing Data:
It takes the user input and distributes hexagons on a pinion accordingly, applies mirroring and sixfold symmetry, generates a height map, and adds lighting and refraction. This is done with a fragment shader; the snowflake lies on a plane and there is no geometry created.
Today marks the start of Black History Month 2021. All through February you can check out the blog for stories and figures that honor Black History Month. We are excited to share some of our favorite African American makers, scientists, artists, hackers and more!
Since 1976, every American president has designated February as Black History Month and endorsed a specific theme.
The Black History Month 2021 theme, “Black Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity” explores the African diaspora, and the spread of Black families across the United States.
Today marks the start of Black History Month 2021. All through February you can check out the blog for stories and figures that honor Black History Month. We are excited to share some of our favorite African American makers, scientists, artists, hackers and more!
Since 1976, every American president has designated February as Black History Month and endorsed a specific theme.
The Black History Month 2021 theme, “Black Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity” explores the African diaspora, and the spread of Black families across the United States.
MIT researchers have developed a type of neural network that learns on the job, not just during its training phase. These flexible algorithms, dubbed “liquid” networks, change their underlying equations to continuously adapt to new data inputs. The advance could aid decision making based on data streams that change over time, including those involved in medical diagnosis and autonomous driving.
MIT researchers have developed a type of neural network that learns on the job, not just during its training phase. These flexible algorithms, dubbed “liquid” networks, change their underlying equations to continuously adapt to new data inputs. The advance could aid decision making based on data streams that change over time, including those involved in medical diagnosis and autonomous driving.
More than 5,000 people were arrested during massive protests in Russia this week, demanding the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, marking the second straight week of the largest demonstrations the country has seen in years. Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, spoke to NBC’s Joshua Johnson on what the protests mean for Vladimir Putin, and the future of the U.S. - Russia relationship.
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Congressional Democrats have a plan to get Covid-19 relief to Americans, vowing to pass it quickly and by any means necessary. Ten moderate Republicans requested a meeting with President Biden to pitch a slimmed-down relief proposal. NBC News’ Sahil Kapur reports.
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Jimmy DiResta had a cool idea. He created a mold for a disposable utility knife, so if he’s casting something and has a bunch of leftover resin, he can cast a disposable utility knife with the excess.
He’s planning on developing the mold into a product for sale, but you could obviously design, print, mold, and cast your own.
This project raises another great question. If you do a lot of casting and have leftover resin, what other tools and other castable objects can you create silicone molds for?
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Jimmy DiResta had a cool idea. He created a mold for a disposable utility knife, so if he’s casting something and has a bunch of leftover resin, he can cast a disposable utility knife with the excess.
He’s planning on developing the mold into a product for sale, but you could obviously design, print, mold, and cast your own.
This project raises another great question. If you do a lot of casting and have leftover resin, what other tools and other castable objects can you create silicone molds for?
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We’ve got so much happening here at Adafruit that it’s not always easy to keep up! Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered. Each week we’ll be posting a handy round-up of what we’ve been up to, ranging from learn guides to blog articles, videos, and more.
In Addition to these interpretations it would be great to touch actual 3D recreations of art. Some of those impressionist paintings are already so tactile seeming, they beg to be touched. Read more.
Floating crystals and glowing lights are a match made in heaven. This project combines a wide variety of skills and tools into one lovely project. Make a gorgeous hanging lamp with sparkly beads, glowing crystals, live edge wood and of course, lots of NeoPixels. Read more.
President Joe Biden’s racial justice and universal equity plans are explained by Fmr. Amb. Susan Rice, who is now leading these projects as the director of the United States Domestic Policy Council. In this exclusive on The Sunday Show, Rice also addresses the question of gun control activist David Hogg about the Biden administration’s plans to solve gun violence, posed earlier in this episode.
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Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh joins Ali Velshi to discuss the state of the Republican party and how it became what it is today. Walsh admits, “tea party people like me came along and we riled up those base voters and then Donald Trump came along, and he lied to them and he radicalized them and now the GOP base voter is radicalized.”
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President Joe Biden’s racial justice and universal equity plans are explained by Fmr. Amb. Susan Rice, who is now leading these projects as the director of the United States Domestic Policy Council. In this exclusive on The Sunday Show, Rice also addresses the question posed by gun control activist David Hogg about the Biden administration’s plans to solve gun violence, presented earlier in this episode.
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Now a new study combines the ancient evidence of fossil fingers and thumbs with cutting-edge computer muscle modeling to conclude that South African hominins boasted flexible, capable thumbs much like ours as far back as two million years ago. “It is remarkable that such a level of thumb dexterity, similar to that of people living today, would be observed in hominins alive two million years ago,” says Katerina Harvati, a paleoanthropologist at the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen (Germany).
Now a new study combines the ancient evidence of fossil fingers and thumbs with cutting-edge computer muscle modeling to conclude that South African hominins boasted flexible, capable thumbs much like ours as far back as two million years ago. “It is remarkable that such a level of thumb dexterity, similar to that of people living today, would be observed in hominins alive two million years ago,” says Katerina Harvati, a paleoanthropologist at the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen (Germany).
Fascinating study on artificial intelligence through the lense of chess. From TechXplore:
Since IBM’s Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, advances in artificial intelligence have made chess-playing computers more and more formidable. No human has beaten a computer in a chess tournament in 15 years.
In new research, a team including Jon Kleinberg, the Tisch University Professor of Computer Science, developed an artificially intelligent chess engine that doesn’t necessarily seek to beat humans—it’s trained to play like a human. This not only creates a more enjoyable chess-playing experience, it also sheds light on how computers make decisions differently from people, and how that could help humans learn to do better.
Fascinating study on artificial intelligence through the lense of chess. From TechXplore:
Since IBM’s Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, advances in artificial intelligence have made chess-playing computers more and more formidable. No human has beaten a computer in a chess tournament in 15 years.
In new research, a team including Jon Kleinberg, the Tisch University Professor of Computer Science, developed an artificially intelligent chess engine that doesn’t necessarily seek to beat humans—it’s trained to play like a human. This not only creates a more enjoyable chess-playing experience, it also sheds light on how computers make decisions differently from people, and how that could help humans learn to do better.
Richard Kelly’s follow-up to Donnie Darko is one of the strangest movies ever made. It’s called Southland Tales and it’s a visionary near-future pop-comedy musical that stars Stifler, The Rock, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that guy who had dinner with Andre, Avon Barksdale, and a bunch of moderately funny former SNL cast members. The whole shebang is about 3 hours long, not including the comic book prequel series. Within its bursting narrative one encounters time travel, J. G. Ballard-style automobile fantasies, prophecy, PTSD hallucinations, apocalyptic monologues, free energy conspiracies, doppelgängers, and dirigibles on fire above Los Angeles.
For all it’s incomprehensible convolutions, it somehow feels like an indispensable piece of post-9/11 pre-Obama pop art. It absolutely couldn’t exist before 2001 or after 2008.
And while Richard Kelly doesn’t seem to understand it any better than anyone else, the AV Club now has an oral history of just how this indispensable post-9/11 vision. Here’s more from the AV Club:
I’m like, “Wait a minute, what if they’re actually the same person?” And he was like, “What?!” “What if they’re the same person? That’s the twist.” And so, from there I had to reverse-engineer that twist into the story. And tie it back to Boxer Santaros. And then that kind of tied everything together, with the time rift in the energy system of this alternative fuel system, and the whole thing started to kind of make sense in my mind, this big, sprawling, interconnected story, that tied in religion and politics, and Orwellian surveillance and the impending election of 2008. It all started to sort of make sense as this big grand systemic narrative in my mind. Once I solved the mystery of the twins, everything fell into place. And I just kept building in layers of the story. I figured, “Let’s just swing for the fences.” And it just kept getting bigger and bigger.
Richard Kelly’s follow-up to Donnie Darko is one of the strangest movies ever made. It’s called Southland Tales and it’s a visionary near-future pop-comedy musical that stars Stifler, The Rock, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that guy who had dinner with Andre, Avon Barksdale, and a bunch of moderately funny former SNL cast members. The whole shebang is about 3 hours long, not including the comic book prequel series. Within its bursting narrative one encounters time travel, J. G. Ballard-style automobile fantasies, prophecy, PTSD hallucinations, apocalyptic monologues, free energy conspiracies, doppelgängers, and dirigibles on fire above Los Angeles.
For all it’s incomprehensible convolutions, it somehow feels like an indispensable piece of post-9/11 pre-Obama pop art. It absolutely couldn’t exist before 2001 or after 2008.
And while Richard Kelly doesn’t seem to understand it any better than anyone else, the AV Club now has an oral history of just how this indispensable post-9/11 vision. Here’s more from the AV Club:
I’m like, “Wait a minute, what if they’re actually the same person?” And he was like, “What?!” “What if they’re the same person? That’s the twist.” And so, from there I had to reverse-engineer that twist into the story. And tie it back to Boxer Santaros. And then that kind of tied everything together, with the time rift in the energy system of this alternative fuel system, and the whole thing started to kind of make sense in my mind, this big, sprawling, interconnected story, that tied in religion and politics, and Orwellian surveillance and the impending election of 2008. It all started to sort of make sense as this big grand systemic narrative in my mind. Once I solved the mystery of the twins, everything fell into place. And I just kept building in layers of the story. I figured, “Let’s just swing for the fences.” And it just kept getting bigger and bigger.
With all the ups-and-downs and false starts in the George R.R. Martin adaptation universe, we’re cautiously optimistic about this. Scoop vis Tor.com.
HBO’s world of Westeros might be getting even bigger. Variety reported yesterday that the network is working to develop a new series set in the same world as Game of Thrones based on George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas, which are set nearly a hundred years prior to the events in the main series.
Variety cautions that efforts on the project are in “early” development and that it doesn’t have a writer or actors signed up for it, but that it’s a high priority for HBO. Should it make its way through the development process, it would join HBO’s other upcoming Game of Throne series House of the Dragon, which is set three centuries before the main series.
With all the ups-and-downs and false starts in the George R.R. Martin adaptation universe, we’re cautiously optimistic about this. Scoop vis Tor.com.
HBO’s world of Westeros might be getting even bigger. Variety reported yesterday that the network is working to develop a new series set in the same world as Game of Thrones based on George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas, which are set nearly a hundred years prior to the events in the main series.
Variety cautions that efforts on the project are in “early” development and that it doesn’t have a writer or actors signed up for it, but that it’s a high priority for HBO. Should it make its way through the development process, it would join HBO’s other upcoming Game of Throne series House of the Dragon, which is set three centuries before the main series.
If you happen to wonder why so many recently featured LEGO models are using the banana part, it is the seed part in this year’s Iron Builder competition, where LEGO fans who participate are required to use it in their models. In this winter scene by KitKat1414, the banana makes a great tuft of wind-blown hair, but it also gives the sled runners the perfect curve. Bonus points for that stylish lens flair.
If you happen to wonder why so many recently featured LEGO models are using the banana part, it is the seed part in this year’s Iron Builder competition, where LEGO fans who participate are required to use it in their models. In this winter scene by KitKat1414, the banana makes a great tuft of wind-blown hair, but it also gives the sled runners the perfect curve. Bonus points for that stylish lens flair.
The Republican party has an extremist problem, and the face of that problem is Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Georgia congresswoman was caught on tape in 2019 harassing Parkland shooting survivor, David Hogg. Hogg sits down with MSNBC’s host of “American Voices” Alicia Menendez to discuss the incident, as well as the larger threat posed by Greene and her cohorts in the post-riot GOP.
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In recent interviews, Senator Josh Hawley has repeated his grievance that he is being "cancelled" and "muzzled." The irony of Hawley freely and openly discussing his being "muzzled" seems lost on him. Hawley seems to believe freedom of speech means he has the right to say whatever he wants, truth and facts be damned. He and other elected officials need to understand that words have consequences, especially when they lead to an attack on our nation’s Capital.
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White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy joins NBC’s Joshua Johnson to discuss the flurry of climate executive orders signed by President Biden.
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The Kitronik Breadboard Breakout for the BBC micro:bit lets you plug a BBC microbit into a standard 2.54mm pitch breadboard. Two 11-pin headers are used to make connections into the breadboard. Works with micro:bit v1, v2, CLUE, HiFive Inventor and other boards with the same edge connector.
Microcontrollers, like RP2040 at the heart of Raspberry Pi Pico, are computers stripped back to their base essentials. You don’t use monitors or keyboards, but program them to take their input from, and send their output to the input/output pins.
There isn’t much a Kano Webcam can’t do, it’s perfect for students or engineers who need to get photos of stuff on their desk. Let’s have a looksie at why it’s the perfect webcam or secondary camera for you.
Add both WiFi and Bluetooth capability to your computer super fast with this USB Bluetooth / WiFi Dongle!
This little two-faced cutie is so versatile! Its WiFi half can be used to make Internet of Things devices cable-free or we also love to take advantage of a single-board Linux computer’s USB ports to add a low-cost, but high-reliability wireless link. The Bluetooth side of things can be used for all kinds of BLE connectivity projects and devices. It’s great for when you only have a single USB port (a.k.a. Raspberry Pi A+ or BeagleBone) as there’s no need for a hub to add both types of wireless.
Plug in and glow with this incredible, ultra high density NeoPixel strip with an astonishing 332 LEDs/meter. That’s no typo, this half meter strip has 165 miniature NeoPixels crammed together and coated with a milky silicone bead to give it a smooth and continuous color gradiant
They are extremely flexible and bendy, this particular strip features a RED non-addressable LED strip with a solid chunk of translucent silicone rubber as a diffuser on top of the LEDs and then encased in a sealed silicone tube that can be cut away. They look incredible, and super easy to use, and are a great way to make your projects light up!
They are extremely flexible and bendy, this particular strip features a YELLOW non-addressable LED strip with a solid chunk of translucent silicone rubber as a diffuser on top of the LEDs and then encased in a sealed silicone tube that can be cut away. They look incredible, and super easy to use, and are a great way to make your projects light up!
They are extremely flexible and bendy, this particular strip features a Pink non-addressable LED strip with a solid chunk of translucent silicone rubber as a diffuser on top of the LEDs and then encased in a sealed silicone tube that can be cut away. They look incredible, and super easy to use, and are a great way to make your projects light up!
They are extremely flexible and bendy, this particular strip features a BLUE non-addressable LED strip with a solid chunk of translucent silicone rubber as a diffuser on top of the LEDs and then encased in a sealed silicone tube that can be cut away. They look incredible, and super easy to use, and are a great way to make your projects light up!
They are extremely flexible and bendy, this particular strip features a Green non-addressable LED strip with a solid chunk of translucent silicone rubber as a diffuser on top of the LEDs and then encased in a sealed silicone tube that can be cut away. They look incredible, and super easy to use, and are a great way to make your projects light up!
This breakout is for a fascinating chip – it looks like an SPI Flash storage chip (like the GD25Q16) but its really an SD card, in an SMT chip format. What that means is that you wire up like an SD card breakout, and use the SD card libraries you already have for your microcontroller. For example, you can use the built in SD library in Arduino, or for CircuitPython we have an sdcard library. The breakout will act just like a 512 MB sized card with FAT formatting (it’s pre-formatted).
The Kitronik Breadboard Breakout for the BBC micro:bit lets you plug a BBC microbit into a standard 2.54mm pitch breadboard. Two 11-pin headers are used to make connections into the breadboard. Works with micro:bit v1, v2, CLUE, HiFive Inventor and other boards with the same edge connector.
Microcontrollers, like RP2040 at the heart of Raspberry Pi Pico, are computers stripped back to their base essentials. You don’t use monitors or keyboards, but program them to take their input from, and send their output to the input/output pins.
There isn’t much a Kano Webcam can’t do, it’s perfect for students or engineers who need to get photos of stuff on their desk. Let’s have a looksie at why it’s the perfect webcam or secondary camera for you.
Add both WiFi and Bluetooth capability to your computer super fast with this USB Bluetooth / WiFi Dongle!
This little two-faced cutie is so versatile! Its WiFi half can be used to make Internet of Things devices cable-free or we also love to take advantage of a single-board Linux computer’s USB ports to add a low-cost, but high-reliability wireless link. The Bluetooth side of things can be used for all kinds of BLE connectivity projects and devices. It’s great for when you only have a single USB port (a.k.a. Raspberry Pi A+ or BeagleBone) as there’s no need for a hub to add both types of wireless.
Plug in and glow with this incredible, ultra high density NeoPixel strip with an astonishing 332 LEDs/meter. That’s no typo, this half meter strip has 165 miniature NeoPixels crammed together and coated with a milky silicone bead to give it a smooth and continuous color gradiant
They are extremely flexible and bendy, this particular strip features a RED non-addressable LED strip with a solid chunk of translucent silicone rubber as a diffuser on top of the LEDs and then encased in a sealed silicone tube that can be cut away. They look incredible, and super easy to use, and are a great way to make your projects light up!
They are extremely flexible and bendy, this particular strip features a YELLOW non-addressable LED strip with a solid chunk of translucent silicone rubber as a diffuser on top of the LEDs and then encased in a sealed silicone tube that can be cut away. They look incredible, and super easy to use, and are a great way to make your projects light up!
They are extremely flexible and bendy, this particular strip features a Pink non-addressable LED strip with a solid chunk of translucent silicone rubber as a diffuser on top of the LEDs and then encased in a sealed silicone tube that can be cut away. They look incredible, and super easy to use, and are a great way to make your projects light up!
They are extremely flexible and bendy, this particular strip features a BLUE non-addressable LED strip with a solid chunk of translucent silicone rubber as a diffuser on top of the LEDs and then encased in a sealed silicone tube that can be cut away. They look incredible, and super easy to use, and are a great way to make your projects light up!
They are extremely flexible and bendy, this particular strip features a Green non-addressable LED strip with a solid chunk of translucent silicone rubber as a diffuser on top of the LEDs and then encased in a sealed silicone tube that can be cut away. They look incredible, and super easy to use, and are a great way to make your projects light up!
This breakout is for a fascinating chip – it looks like an SPI Flash storage chip (like the GD25Q16) but its really an SD card, in an SMT chip format. What that means is that you wire up like an SD card breakout, and use the SD card libraries you already have for your microcontroller. For example, you can use the built in SD library in Arduino, or for CircuitPython we have an sdcard library. The breakout will act just like a 512 MB sized card with FAT formatting (it’s pre-formatted).
Martina and Hansi of NerdForge have been playing a lot of The Witcher 3 recently. This inspired their latest project, to create a set of glowing runestones (using the glyphs from the game).
They 3D printed resign blocks for the stones, molded and cast them in colored resin, created a walnut base, and installed edge-illuminating LEDs to illuminate them.
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Martina and Hansi of NerdForge have been playing a lot of The Witcher 3 recently. This inspired their latest project, to create a set of glowing runestones (using the glyphs from the game).
They 3D printed resign blocks for the stones, molded and cast them in colored resin, created a walnut base, and installed edge-illuminating LEDs to illuminate them.
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Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) joins Ali Velshi to discuss the ethics complaint she signed onto against Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz over their objections to the Jan. 6 certification of the presidential election results that coincided with the deadly riot at the Capitol. She says Hawley and Cruz “were pushing the ‘Big Lie,’” She added, “When the Republicans say ‘move on, get over it’, it is astounding to me that's the value they're espousing… that people shouldn't be accou
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SyFy’s Science Behind the Fiction takes a look at the climate engineering featured in Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer and its tv adaptation.
Both Bong Joon-ho’s 2013 cli-fi film, Snowpiercer, and the ongoing TNT television adaptation of the same name offer audiences a bleak view of humanity’s future. In a desperate attempt to combat rising global temperatures, 79 countries deploy the chemical CW7 into the upper atmosphere. The project works, only too well. Temperatures decline and keep on plummeting, plunging the planet into an ice age. Most of the life on Earth dies, save for a small remnant of humanity living aboard a globe-spanning train.
In Snowpiercer, climate engineering leads to catastrophic results. In the real world, our best bet at slowing or stopping climate change is to drastically reduce emissions. But climate engineering does offer some alternative (though less-understood) solutions.
Summon The JSON is a fantasy card-game where the creatures are based on parts of Javascript.
The creator, Tom Smykowski, claims the game “can be played by everyone. You don’t need to have any prior programming knowledge to do so.” I believe him, though when I ponder myself asking some noncoder friends “hey, want to play a Javascript card game,” I tremble to consider their replies. But maybe they’d be super into it!
Smykowski posits that the visual nature of the game would help a programmer more readily memorize the basic features of Javascript.
