182nd birthday of Eadweard J. Muybridge today

London: The 182nd birth anniversary of Eadweard J. Muybridge, the British
photographer of Dutch ancestry is being celebrated here on Monday.

Muybridge was born at Kingston upon Thames, England on April 9, 1830. He immigrated to the US, arriving in San Francisco in 1855, where he started a career as a publisher’s agent and bookseller. He left San Francisco at the end of the 1850s, and after a stagecoach accident in which he received severe head injuries, returned to England for a few years.


Muybridge began to build his reputation in 1867 with photos of Yosemite and San Francisco (many of the Yosemite photographs reproduced the same scenes taken by Carleton Watkins. Muybridge quickly gained notice for his landscape photographs, which showed the grandeur and expansiveness of the West, published under his pseudonym Helios. In the summer of 1873 Muybridge was commissioned to photograph the Modoc War, one of the US Army’s expeditions against West Coast Indians.

In 1872, former Governor of California Leland Stanford, a businessman and race-horse owner, had taken a position on a popularly-debated question of the day: whether all four of a horse’s hooves are off the ground at the same time during the trot. Up until this time, most paintings of horses at full gallop showed the front legs extended forward and the hind legs extended to the rear.Stanford sided with this assertion, called “unsupported transit”, and took it upon himself to prove it scientifically. Stanford sought out Muybridge and hired him to settle the question.

In later studies Muybridge used a series of large cameras that used glass plates placed in a line, each one being triggered by a thread as the horse passed. Later a clockwork device was used. The images were copied in the form of silhouettes onto a disc and viewed in a machine called a Zoopraxiscope. This in fact became an intermediate stage towards motion pictures or cinematography.
Galloping horse set to motion using photos by Eadweard Muybridge.

In 1877, Muybridge settled Stanford’s question with a single photographic negative showing Stanford’s Standardbred trotting horse Occident airborne at the trot. This negative was lost, but it survives through woodcuts made at the time. By 1878, spurred on by Stanford to expand the experiment, Muybridge had successfully photographed a horse in fast motion.

Another series of photos taken at the Palo Alto Stock Farm in Stanford, California, is called Sallie Gardner at a Gallop or The Horse in Motion, and shows that the hooves do all leave the ground simultaneously — although not with the legs fully extended forward and back, as contemporary illustrators tended to imagine, but rather at the moment when all the hooves are tucked under the horse as it switches from “pulling” with the front legs to “pushing” with the back legs.[10] This series of photos stands as one of the earliest forms of videography.

Eventually, Muybridge and Stanford had a major falling-out concerning his research on equine locomotion. Stanford published a book The Horse in Motion which gave no credit to Muybridge despite containing his photos and his research, possibly because
Muybridge lacked an established reputation in the scientific community. As a result
of Muybridge’s lack of credit for the work, the Royal Society withdrew an offer to fund his stop-motion photography.

Muybridge subsequently filed a lawsuit against Stanford, but lost the dispute.

Eadweard Muybridge returned to his native England for good in 1894, published two further, popular books of his work, and died on 8 May 1904 in Kingston upon Thames while living at the home of his cousin Catherine Smith, Park View, 2 Liverpool Road.




Google has also celebrated the 182nd anniversary of the birth of Eadweard J Muybridge.

A printer from the ... future

See What You Print to see what prints

Printers and fax is probably the most boring peripherals without many "trinkets" above to attract our attention and deal with them is likely to disappear in the coming years.

But a concept printer, «See What You Print», can actually bring the printer to the 21st century and the touch screen!

Watch the video and you will understand:

Study: Some cartoons are bad for children's brains

Some children's television shows may be bad for young kid's brains according to a new study about watching cartoons. It appears that children may not concentrate and focus very well after watching fast-paced programming.
Researchers from the University of Virginia showed 60 4-year olds a 9-minute chunk of what they call an "animated kitchen sponge" cartoon. The experts then tested the children's memory and thinking skills and compared their scores to other youngsters, who had watched a slow-paced educational cartoon or drew pictures with crayons and markers.

The pre-schoolers who watched the fast-paced shows did much worse on the thinking tests than those in the two other groups, who scored about the same. The researchers suspect that the brain gets overtaxed or tired from all of the stimulation from the fast-paced cartoons leading to lower scores.

But what this means for children long term is still an open question. Several other studies have found a link between heavy television viewing and problems with children's attention spans, especially in young children, while others have not. Some researchers are concerned, however, because the ability to concentrate and not get distracted often shapes how well children do in school. Preschoolers watch at least 90 minutes of TV a day, according to the study, but other researchers estimate young kids watch between two and five hours of TV daily.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends (AAP) parents "limit children's total media time (with entertainment media) to no more than 1 to 2 hours of quality programming per day" and "discourage television viewing for children younger than 2 years" entirely.

This new study is published in the journal Pediatrics, which is a publication of the AAP.

"We can't tell you definitively from a scientific standpoint what the long-term effects are, but this one small study - if it's confirmed - is suggestive that this could be a real problem," explains Dr. Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at the University of Washington in Seattle and author of an editorial in Pediatrics.

Christakis and other researchers say, that when children's brains, which are still developing, are bombarded with too much stimulation, it can interfere with their ability to learn to focus properly. He suggests that parents keep an eye on what their children are watching.

"The point of this study and a lot of other research in media is that what your kids watch is as important as how much they watch. It's not just about turning off the television, it's about changing the channel," says Christakis.

Nickelodeon, owned by Viacom International, which produces the cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants," released the following statement to CNN when asked about the study. "Having 60 non-diverse kids, who are not part of the show's targeted demo, watch 9 minutes of programming is questionable methodology. It could not possibly provide the basis for any valid findings that parents could trust." It pointed out that the SpongeBob cartoon is designed for 6- to 11-year-olds, not 4-year olds, like the children used in the new study.

But Christakis says the research methodology is solid and though the study is small, its design is stronger than previous research and the findings are significant.

"The important take home message here is that the content of viewing actually matters. Many, many parents have rules about the quantity of programming their children watch but far fewer have restrictions on what they watch," says Christakis.


SpongeBob Sings Tik Tok - Ke$ha by CAMILOO7

World Clock

The watchmaker Vacheron Constantin has developed a clock that shows both the 37 time zones.
Called «Calibre 2460WT» and a wind-up clock with 40 hours per winding.
The choice of time zone can be done in two ways.
[watch the video]

Found a star that shouldn't exist!

Team of European astronomers discovered for the first time a star in our galaxy that theoretically should not exist, because it consists almost entirely of hydrogen and helium and contains minor amounts of other heavier chemical elements and minerals. The unusual recommendation that puts the "forbidden zone", based at least what is known about star formation, but which perhaps should be revised now.


The discovery, led by Elizabeta Cafu Observatory of Paris and the Centre for Astronomy, University of Heidelberg, which appeared in the journal "Nature", was made using the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory in Chile.

The very faint star in the constellation Leo, according to the measurements so far, has the least amount of chemical elements heavier than helium (ie metals) than any other star has been studied so far. The ratio of metal inside is at least 20,000 times smaller than that of our sun. Its mass is less than our own sun and its age is estimated to be over 13 billion years, ie very old.


Another strange thing is though that this lightweight star has no virtually no lithium, whereas in an ancient star, with a composition similar to that of the universe shortly after the "Big Bang" should be a greater quantity. It is thus a mystery what happened to lithium. Scientists do not preclude finding other such strange stars and are already planning future investigations.

The spider is aged

Left, the web of a spider aged 17 days.
Right, the clumsy essay of a middle-aged 188 days (Source: Mylene Anotaux)
Like the grandmother who can not see anymore to knit with crochet, the spiders
get older they lose their talent to weave perfect, geometric tissue, note biologists.

The study of elderly arachnidon could reveal evidence for human aging, French researchers reported at the conference of Society for Experimental Biology, held this year in Glasgow.

The team Milena Anoto at the University of Nancy studied the spider Zygiella x-notata (inset left), an ordinary occupant of European homes with a maximum lifespan of about a year.

This species is known for their complex, often perfect their tissues, where the silk fibers are always equal distances and angles.

But when the spider beyond middle age, the weavings are starting to show holes and geometric variations.

The differences are obvious if one compares the tissues of a spider 17 days and a middle-aged couple of the same kind of 188 days.

The researchers suspect that, like humans, the nervous system of spiders degenerates over time.

Further studies may reveal the exact mechanism of this phenomenon and could provide new data on the effect of aging on human behavior.

Dolphins prey fish to hide in shells

In general, it is smart move by the fish to hide in an empty shell when threatened by hungry dolphin. However, this tactic does not work for most fish that live in the Bay Shark Bay, Western Australia.

There's a group of dolphins have learned to push the shells in the water, forcing fish to 'heroic' expense. The behavior of these dolphins observed Swiss and Australian scientists, who say impressed.

Dolphins put the muzzle to the opening of the shell, barring the exit of the fish. Then, reaching the surface, shake the shell until the fish to fall out when it becomes an easy prey. Never before had seen such behavior from dolphins.

Volcanoes of Titan containing water

Space device Cassini revealed the strongest evidence yet for the existence kryoifaisteion the surface of Titan, moon of Saturn. The kryoifaisteia are volcanoes instead of glowing, molten, molten rocky material shoot Ice, nitrate and other volatile compounds.

Since Titan's surface temperature is -180 º C, the water temperature just above freezing is warm in relation to the environment.

Since 2004, the space unit flew repeatedly over the Sotra Facula, giving scientists the opportunity to acquire three-dimensional image of the region. Reflect the existence of a mountain side with at least three major volcanoes and mountains where two in a clearly visible a crater.

The mountains create a whole mountain range of several hundred meters on the slopes of which appear in the volcanic material has subscribed. So far it has recorded a volcanic eruption.

Discovered over the ... underworld

A tunnel 120 meters full of symbols that led to the burial chambers and a "representation of the underworld" found ...
archaeologists in the ancient city of Teotihuacan through radar equipment

It took a highly developed technology and nearly two millennia to reveal one of the biggest secrets of ancient America. Archaeologists have discovered the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico "a representation of the underworld" through radar equipment: a tunnel 120 meters full of symbols that led to the burial chambers and which remained hidden for nearly 1,800 years.
The researchers went to just seven first steps of the tunnel, but the radar showed that a length of 120 meters. Archaeologists believe that it is a passage that leads to three rooms and will probably help to explain the beliefs of the ancient Mexican civilization. The tunnel is 13 meters below the surface, was accidentally discovered for the first time in 2003, when heavy rain triggered a small hole in the ground. So far it has discovered no monarch tomb near the city of Mexico, but believe that will change.
"At the end of the tunnel there are several booths where possible to keep the remains of rulers of Mesoamerican Civilization" says Sergio Gomez Tzavez, an archaeologist at the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico. "If confirmed, it will be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 21st century world."
"We know that Teotihuacan was built as a replica of what they regarded as the world as a universe," says archaeologist. So, imagine the tunnel as a representation of the underworld. " The Teotihuacan, the great pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, is constructed as a maze of palaces, temples, villages, workshops, markets and malls. It is believed that the city was built around 100 BC and it was up to the 8th century.

According to archaeologists, it is the city with the greatest influence proispanikis North America, with a population of 200,000 people at its peak. Only 5% of Teotihuacan has been excavated, although it is more than 100 years of research.
Before entering the researchers in the tunnel last November, a small remote-controlled robots with built-in camera, the first to explore the antiquities of Mexico, investigated the tunnel, entering through a small hole, while thermal imaging has been used, like those before A few days uncovered 17 hidden pyramids, 3,000 villages and 1,000 burial sites beneath the surface of the land of Egypt.
Now working in about 300 people, descended from three stairs into the depths of the tunnel and who have concluded that at some point, around 200 to 300 AD, was a deliberate attempt to block the entrance, placed there as rocks and debris coming from a ruined temple.

Posted by 9MOHAMED0 on Monday June 6, 2011

Closer to 'read' minds

The science fiction movies are now a reality, since scientists in America have managed to find a way in the future, "read" the ...
brain.
An important prerequisite is to have a brain and mind because we clot in brainless many levels!


Discovered method, which followed the deeper parts of the brain, the way he forms words and smiles so give hope to people why disability, can not speak.

Scientists from the University of Washington, who belonged to the group named 'Innovation and Technology, Neuroscience, found that every word and sound, causing a different reaction in the brain and thus believe that the future will allow a computer to read the thought . It used special electrodes in the brain and found that regions associated with specific words and sounds.

Led by Director of the University, the Eric Leuthardt, the team studied four people suffering from epilepsy and 64 electrodes implanted in each. Original purpose, says Mr. Leuthardt, was to find the causes of epilepsy, and parts of the brain responsible for it. In the course of their research, realized that every word you put four people to tell the brain to affect the different electrodes. They concluded, that the future will create a computer that will allow through the brain, people who can not talk, to consult with their thinking.

In an interview in «Sunday Times», the Leuthardt said that "The brain is not the black box that we all think, but something more affordable. I do not think I can read through someone's mind, but I have evidence that this is possible "

Posted by 9MOHAMED0 on Monday, May 30, 2011

What lies beneath Antarctica?

Worrying figures come to light ancient secrets hidden in the subsoil of the giant continent, and a satellite detected a structure beneath the ice of Antarctica 12,000 years old!
At least that is supported on ....
publication of the European Union Times, which speaks of an ancient construction or device that is buried under tons of ice of Antarctica, which was discovered in April 2001 from a spy satellite.

The U.S. military immediately denied the reports and the media "comply" with the requirements of.

Reports, however, still leaking about a secret program of excavations, which began immediately after the discovery.

"If it is something constructed by the U.S. Army, then violating the international Antarctic Treaty. If not, then it is a building at least 12,000 years, the period covered by the Antarctic ice. It is therefore the oldest structure built by man on the planet, "said a source close to Nicole Fontaine, who was president of the European Parliament, when it was discovered the building.

Posted by 9MOHAMED0 on Sunday, May 22, 2011

They found''habitable''planet?

One of the planets revolve around the dwarf star Gleeson 581 can be "habitable" with a climate that allows the presence of liquid water and the existence of life, says a study ...
published by a team of meteorologists.

Astronomers have long been considering whether some of the nearly 500 exoplanets have been discovered so far could host life.

The rocky planet Gleeson 581d is seven times larger than Earth, "could be the first potentially habitable planet ever found, said in a statement the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) of France.

The Gleeson 581d detected in 2007 and is 20 light years (or 9.5 trillion kilometers) from our solar system. Then the researchers thought that it is "cool" to be deemed "habitable", ie have the surface of liquid water.

The exoplanet orbits a red dwarf, a star not too hot. For this reason it takes three times less energy than the Earth. It is also likely to show permanently on one side of the star and the other is always in the dark.

Despite these drawbacks, the Gleeson 582d may have a "greenhouse effect" by allowing it to have a warm climate, so as to form oceans, clouds and rain, the state CNRS.

The radiation of the star Gleeson 581, though less strongly than the Sun, probably penetrates deeper into the planet's atmosphere and warm, even in "dark" side. The Gleeson 581d is probably immersed in a reddish twilight, and has dense atmosphere, a thin layer of clouds.

Verification of the General Theory of Relativity

Experimental verification of two phenomena associated with the General Theory of Relativity reached a century after the formulation of the theory!
The success belongs to the Gravity Probe B satellite of the American Space Agency (NASA) and the team of Francis Everett Stanford University, who from
analysis of satellite data, as reported in their publication in the journal Physical Review Letters, were able to confirm the geodetic effect (that is, spacetime is distorted by large objects) and that spacetime is due to rotate and the rotation of the Earth.
The experiment started in 2004 by entering the satellite into orbit and begin the measurements of displacements in the four axis gyro fixed point the IM star of the constellation Pegasus.
The measurements were difficult because the shifts were very small, the order of a few milliseconds of arc.