MPEG-4, Coming to a camcorder near you..

MPEG-4 Camcorders: Boom OR Bust?

At the Consumer Electronics Show this year, two companies made what seem to be the first serious attempts at MPEG-4 dedicated, tape-less camcorders. These digital camcorders claim to have advantages of high video compression, they are tightly housed within attractive, small profiles and generally are tapeless. Most of the models being introduced use either Secure Digital cards or write directly onto an internal hard drive.

Bug vision

Wired News: Bugs Taking Over Robot Guidance

“The principle is simply that, if the insect flies along a straight line, objects that are near it appear to whiz by much more rapidly in the eye than objects that are far away,” says Srinivasan. “Thus, the distance to an object can be inferred in terms of the velocity of its image in the eye — the greater the velocity, the nearer the object.”

Hey, there’s my bike..!

Abandoned Bicycles of New York
From the site:
New York has a lot of abandoned bicycles. I don’t know why. Do people forget the combinations or keys to their locks? Do they forget they had a bike? Most of the bikes pictured here are pretty cheap bikes. Some of the bikes appear to have been abandoned long ago. Consider this ever-growing photo album a way to remember those forgotten bicycles.

What is the story behind Love Canal?

Love Canal
From the site:
Love Canal is a neighbourhood in Niagara Falls, New York. The nickname “Love Canal” came from the last name of William Love who in 1896 began digging a canal connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Erie (bypassing Niagara Falls) in order to serve as a water power conduit. It was never completed but the Hooker Chemical Company, located west of the canal, had the ingenious idea of turning the uncompleted canal into a dumping ground for the chemical by-products of its manufacturing process.