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The secret life of machines, on Google video. A great educational TV series. Via Dan’s Data, who also links to the series 1, 2, 3 homepages.

It doesn’t matter too much if you think you’re not interested in the particular machine, there’s still always something interesting covered in each snacky 25-minute episode. The sewing machine episode, for example, looks briefly at cams and stepper motors.

I expect if you can find them on bit torrent — as the author Tim Hunkin encourages — you’ll get better quality copies than these google versions which have been compressed a little too much to do justice to their visually-detailed subject matter.

A levitating wirelessly powered lightbulb, and lots more background, including cool movies.

Here’s an MIT lab and a nuts and volts article on magnetic levitation.

This is by Jeff Lieberman, apparently one of the scientists on BBC2’s “Battle of the Geeks”.

More such “kinetic sculptures” at bea.st.

Jeff also has some nice photography, including high-speed stuff and info on how to double-trigger. This one of coloured chalks exploding, puts me in mind of the toryglen sony bravia ad (“the making of” is necessary to avoid the latter being perceived as unimpressive CGI.

Wikipedia entry on the Pioneer plaque, the pictorial message by Carl Sagan sent into space on the spacecraft Pioneer 10, 11.

History, Symbology (what all the stuff means), and Criticism.

“almost none of the human scientists that were shown the message were able to decode all of it.”

New ASIMO (Dec. 2005) - Running at 6km/h (00:35).

ASIMO site

How Stuff Works: How ASIMO Works

via Airbag.

18 Tricks to Teach Your Body - “Soothe a burn, cure a toothache, clear a stuffed nose…”. A bunch of hacks mostly for fixing problems with your body.

via Anarchaia.

Bonanza of articles and interviews on communication | MetaFilter

DigitalSpirit - Emetteur FM. It’s in french, so you get great lines like “Après insolation, révélation, gravure, grattage, gommage et étamage à froid (ouf)”. Or you can let google take the fun away with an automatically translated version.

via MAKE: Blog.

techdirt: don’t take my picture “Some Georgia Tech researchers have come up with some technology that detects the presence of digital cameras then shoots a targeted beam of light at them to prevent them taking any legible photos.”

full article at zdnet.

The 28 Hour Day.

Self-reconfigurable modular robot. docs and videos. via notio.

Why does uncooked spaghetti snap into more than two pieces when bent?

“[It] baffled the late, great Richard Feynman. […] Now, however, two French scientists believe they have cracked the dry pasta problem.

“The team points out that the motivation for this research extends far beyond the kitchen. The brittle steel struts in skyscrapers, buildings and bridges can fragment by similar mechanisms, so this research can have practical implications in helping to make structures safer.”

via metafilter.

New Scientist: The clock that wakes you when you are ready via BoingBoing.

See also: bio alarm clock (here), normal circadian rhythms (here), Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (elsewhere).

Circadiana: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sleep (But Were Too Afraid To Ask). Great essay. Via boingboing.

More violent societies have more left-handers, hinting that lefties thrive in environments where fighting is important “While there is no suggestion that left-handed people are more violent than the right-handed, it looks as though they are more successfully violent.”

via kottke’s remaindered links.

Wired News: Sleep Disorders Traced to Genes.

See also: bio alarm clock (here), normal circadian rhythms (here), Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (elsewhere).

Halfbakery: bio alarm clock, at the halfbakery. Not half-baked at all. An idea that occurs to most people who have a problem getting up in the morning. The idea is that your alarm clock monitors you to judge how dreadful your’re going to feel if you wake up at the present moment, and tries to pick a good moment. Perhaps it is monitoring if you are in REM sleep, for example.

Don’t know why such a device is not on the market yet, especially, as a comment on a similar idea points out, as someone already has a device for measuring rem sleep that is faily non instrusive, fits over your wrist and clips to two fingers!. Here’s google on that device, called Watch PAT 100.

Perhaps there’s still a pc on the other end of the line. If the alarm clock has to get a little smart, it may as well export the patterns for analysis.

New Scientist Lastword:

What causes the noise when you crack your knuckles or any other joint?

What’s the basis for the claim that the key or pitch of a piece can have a profound bearing on the mood conveyed?

Why tapping a shaken soft-drink can may prevent a soaking.

An Intuitive Explanation of Bayesian Reasoning

“The University of Tokyo has developed the illusion of invisibility, under the name of ‘Optical Camouflage.‘ The system is remarkably simple - you have a mix of light-sensitive and light-emitting devices attached to an adapted reflective surface. The devices are hooked to a computer, which simply projects on each side whatever is on the opposite side. The result is more of a translucent look, than real invisibility, but the potential is there.

via slashdot.

“NTT DoCoMo has created a wristwatch phone that uses its owner’s finger as an earpiece.” - bbc article.