This is a fantastic video of a new system that allows tracing something you have video of from multiple angles to make a textured 3D object. It's similar to the 3D cloud from tourist photos, but subtly different.

I think we can look forward to having this available everywhere all the time in the not very distant future.

http://www.youtube.com/v/z4obTZV2QEM&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

A fantastic video that highlights the evolution of robotics. Some of the later clips are rather creepy, especially the synchronized dancing and the emotional expressions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq1vjdGpMwI

A huge white 'V' shaped slash has appeared in Venus' southern hemisphere clouds. In the past, it's been established that the brightest spots on Venus are pure sulfuric acid. Presumably it could be the result of a volcanic eruption. On the other hand, it would have to be a very massive explosion to project gas so high into the atmosphere.

http://invaderxan.livejournal.com/100528.html

I just saw a fantastic link to a team of people who are using publicly available photographs to make 3D reconstructions of places. It works best on places that have lots of pictures taken of them, like Rome, but there is some other excellent work on other places like Dubrovnik working from fewer photographs.

The videos are simply jaw dropping. I saw some of their earlier work on generating 3D from photographs, but the scale and power of this work is amazing. It won't be long before the whole world is a 3D model.

Just remember, on Venus thousands of mites all around you are doing this work all of the time…

http://grail.cs.washington.edu/rome/

Another great link from this team. Video + photos + 3D = wow

http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/videoenhancement/

via www.metafilter.com

So, we just had a solar eclipse here in Taiwan - perhaps 85% occlusion at the maximum. I made a nice window pinhole projector so my students could take a good look at it safely.

Of course, I was just done telling the kids exactly why it was dangerous to look at the sun and what it would do to you if you did (burn an eclipse shaped pattern in your retina) when two of my coworkers step out and, in full view of the kids, take a good look at the sun. Not too long. Buut.

Anyways, that temptation to look into the sun - when you can probably get away with it - is universal. Of course, not everyone gets away clean.

With that said, here's some more good reasons niot to look into the sun too hard. Metaphorically speaking.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5122859998068380459