GeigerCounter

Cyborgs are the Future

gejiangeiger — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 03:41:13 +0000

The technology required to create superhuman cyborgs is no longer the distant dream of sci-fi fanatics. Japan already has a fully operational robot suit. The latest version of the suit is called HAL 5 (HAL stands for “hybrid assistive limb”).

HAL 5 is a 15 kilogram battery powered exoskeleton suit that detects nerve signals and amplifies muscular strength. Anyone who wears the suit could potentially lift 10 times the weight they normally could.

HAL 5 units will be available for purchase starting next year. Production will be limited to only 20 units in 2007 and 400-500 units in 2008. Yoshiyuki Sankai, professor at Tsukuba University and developer of HAL, says “Humans may be able to mutate into supermen in the near future.”

TechEBlog – Top 5 Future Technologies

Gizmodo - Japanese Robot Suit

Earthtimes.org – Robot suit to assist Japan’s elderly as early as 2008

Trailer Remix Mash-ups

gejiangeiger — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 03:31:13 +0000

Mash-ups are using preexisting video footage to create something new, like remixing music or using photos to make a collage. Mash-ups are totally open ended and can be whatever you want to make out of it. Nonetheless, certain styles of mash-up have developed.

My favorite is the trailer “regenrefication” mash-up, or trailer remix, where footage from and existing movie is taken rearranged and made into a trailer of a completely different genre than the original motion picture.

Here are some of the noteworthy trailer mash-ups I found…

Must Love Jaws

10 Things I Hate About Commandments

Brokeback to the Future

The Ring: Recut

The Fast and the Curious

West Side Story: Redux

Mount Brokeback

Shining

Saw 3: Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Mel Gibson’s Signs (of Antisemitism)

…A bunch more trailer remixes can be found at iFilm’s Trailer Remixes .

Super Bowl Commercials

gejiangeiger — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 09:02:32 +0000

Once again, another Super Bowl is over and the time has come to recap the game and talk about all the exciting parts. Well…to be honest, I didn’t really pay to much attention to the game. I never really do. this is the one football game I see a year. However, I do enjoy watching Super Bowl commercials. Here are my top 10 favorites from this year (in no particular order)

Doritos:

Snickers:

Taco Bell:

Garmin: (**My Personal Favorite**)

E*Trade:

FedEx:

Bud Light:

FedEx:

GM:

Sprint:

E*Trade:

Ok, so I posted 11 videos instead of 10 videos. Anyways, you can see the rest of the Super Bowl commercials at YouTube’s SuperVote.

Boston Panic caused by Mooninites

gejiangeiger — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 10:58:47 +0000

What? The Mooninites, my favorite characters on the TV show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, caused a riot? Now, I admit that in the show ATHF the Mooninites occasional get into trouble and are up to no good, but causing areas of Boston to be shut down?

As part of a viral marketing stunt, 38 blinking Mooninite signs were placed around the city of Boston. In response panic spread throughout the city, parts of Boston were closed down and bomb squads began searching the city. Next, after discover that the signs were actually ATHF advertisement and not terrorist bombs, the city of Boston demands an apology from Turner Broadcasting Inc., the company that owns Cartoon Network on which ATHF is aired, for what they are calling “a terrorist hoax.”

Can we say overreacting? I mean almost any high school student, college student, or anyone else under 30 should be able to recognize the signs as being the Mooninites, or at least realize that a bunch of cartoon-style blinking lights are some type of advertisement stunt or art statement.

Come on what did the Mooninites ever do to you?

Media: point the finger at yourself

Young Bostonians think city overreacted

2 Accused of hoax that panicked Boston joke outside court

Great Wall of China Slideshow

gejiangeiger — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 05:24:39 +0000

Here’s a little slide-show of the Great Wall of China I made with pictures I took over the summer and a demo of Soundslides which is a nice little program for creating slide-shows. This is my first attempt at using it and its only a demo version, but if I got the full version and put a little more time into it, I’m should I could make some pretty sweet little slide-shows.

Northfield — Darfur documentary at NHS

gejiangeiger — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 05:12:05 +0000

I submitted the following article to the Northfield, MN, local citizen journalism website Northfield.org.

Darfur documentary to be shown at High School

The Northfield High School auditorium has been book on February 19th for the showing of a Darfur related documentary. The auditorium has been booked by students at Carleton College in order to promote awareness of the Darfur crisis in Sudan, and give the Northfield community a chance to learn more, ask questions, and donate. There will be a documentary screening, a panel, and a donation table. More information will be available closer to the date. For more information about the genocide in Darfur and what you can do to help now, go to genocideintervention.net.

50 hits

gejiangeiger — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 04:03:31 +0000

When I started this blog earlier this year for a class I never expected anyone outside of the class to see it. I definitely didn’t expect to get 50 hits, especially in less than a month. On January 4 I started GeigerCounter and made my first post and today, January 30, I reached 50 hits. Wow! 50 hits in 26 days… I never saw that coming.

Northfield — Where are the Cows?

gejiangeiger — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:07:24 +0000

The followings is an article I submitted to Citizen Journalism site Northfield.org about Northfield, MN, and the city’s motto “Cows, Colleges, & Contentment”

Where are all the Cows?

I always enjoy returning to campus after winter break. Each little landmark I pass brings me one step closer to Carleton College. The first is Exit 69, next is the Northfield sign followed by the Malt-O-Meal factory, then finally I catch a glimpse of Carleton and I’m back.

Recently, I was thinking about the Northfield sign and slogan, “Northfield – Cows, Colleges, and Contentment.” I’ve seen the colleges, and Northfield’s community seems pretty content, but where are the cows? I headed over to the Northfield Historical Society to see if I could find an answer to this question.

As it turns out, the motto was originally coined in 1914 after winning first prize in a Commercial Club-sponsored contest. At the time Northfield was known as the Holstein Capital of America.

The first purebred Holsteins arrived in the Northfield area in 1889. The man responsible for bringing Holsteins to the area was William F. Schilling. He had his own nationally-known herd at the Spring Brook Farm. In the early 1900’s the herd averaged 410 pounds of butter per cow annually. W. F. Schilling also played an important role in organizing the Twin City Milk Producers Association. In many ways Northfield, MN influenced the dairy industry and brought about changes in milk production.

By 1916 there were 261 herds of purebred cattle in the Northfield area, but where are they now? Are there still cows in Northfield? Where did they go? I found some answers at the Historical Society, but I still haven’t found any cows.

Life Caching

gejiangeiger — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 07:12:07 +0000

“Life Caching: collecting, storing and displaying one’s entire life, for private use, or for friends, family, even the entire world to peruse.” [Trendwatching]

A myriad of new gadgets from camera phone to video phones to lifeblogging software is making life caching possible.

Hyper-local Journalism

gejiangeiger — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 07:41:43 +0000

Assignment #5

Citizen Journalism becomes journalism on the hyper-local level, when citizens of a community become their own journalist they write about local matters in that community. I went and searched for 5 solid examples of citizen journalism and found a bunch. Here are just some of the sites I found.

DeepBlog.com: Citizen Journalism – Local News and Information Blogs — this site is a good resource for finding sites in your area. It lists citizen journalism sites and blog by region (Asia, Europe, Australia, Canada, and the US – eastern, western, central) so you can find information that matters to you.

iTalk News — a site where anyone can post news and the news is then read and rated by other users of the website.

OhmyNews — this citizen journalism site is based out of Korea, but also contains a good international section for global news and events.

And since I am a Minnesotan kept an eye out for examples of citizen journalism pertaining to MN.

MNspeak.com — “Twin Cities: all day, all night” Whats going on in Minesota’s Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Northfield.org — Citizen produced community news based out of Northfield, MN. The same small Minnesota town that is home to both Carleton College and St. Olaf College.

An Inconvenient Truth

gejiangeiger — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 05:33:06 +0000

I just saw Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth and I believe this is something everyone needs to see.

Global Warming is a real problem that we as human beings need to step up to the plate and take responsibility for. The problem is our collective fault and we have the means with which to fix it. An Inconvenient Truth did a good job pulling together a lot of facts and information, of which many of us were already aware, into a concise and effective 100min film. I highly recommend, if you haven’t already, viewing this documentary, or, if have already seen it, getting a group of family and friends together and watching it. You can also find more information about An Inconvenient Truth, and global warming and what you can do, at www.climatecrisis.net/

GeigerCounter move

gejiangeiger — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:21:16 +0000

geigercounter.wordpress.com is now the official location for the blog GeigerCounter, previously found at gejiangeiger.wordpress.com all posts have been transferred to this location and deleted from the previous site