Take a look at this computer-controled Etch-A-Sketch that writes out the time every minute, then automatically flips to clear itself and then records the new time. I’d like to see a more detailed drawing of what time it is (the simple outline of the line seems a bit plain to me, and also a bit small for the size of the screen), but then again, I’ve never tried to program anything like this, and its probably more complicated then I think. Either way, its a cool use for a etch-a-sketch.
I’m not going to list reasons why you should wear your seatbelt. I’m simply going to show you what happens when you DON’T wear your seatbelt.
If you’d like to have an impression of your face on the steering wheel at 30mph, thats up to you.
And, if you must have them :
In 2005, 43,443 people were killed in the estimated 6,159,000 police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes, 2,699,000 people were injured, and 4,304,000 crashes involved property damage only.
It is estimated that seatbelts saved 15,632 lives in 2005.
(NHTSA)
Seventy-three percent of the passenger vehicle occupants who were in a fatal crash in 2002 and were restrained survived; of those who were not restrained, only 43 percent survived. [NHTSA, Traffic Safety Facts 2002, October 2003]
In fatal crashes, 73 percent of all vehicle occupants who were totally ejected were killed. Only 1 percent of restrained occupants were ejected. Safety belts are effective in preventing total ejections. [NHTSA, Traffic Safety Facts 2002 - Overview, July 2003]
In 2000, safety belts prevented nearly 11,900 fatalities and 325,000 serious injuries, saving $50 billion in medical care, lost productivity, and other injury-related costs. [NHTSA, Economic Impact of Crashes, May 2002] In the year 2000, the total economic cost of motor vehicle crashes in the United States was $230.6 billion. This represents an amount equal to 2.3 percent of the gross domestic product, or $820 for every person living in the United States. [NHTSA, Economic Impact of Crashes, May 2002]
The lifetime economic cost to society for each fatality is over $977,000. Over 80 percent of this amount is attributable to lost workplace and household productivity. [NHTSA, Economic Impact of Crashes, May 2002]
[Ed. comment - Even if YOU wear your seatbelt, and your buddy DOESN’T]
Overall, those not directly involved in crashes pay for nearly three-quarters of all crashcosts, primarily through insurance premiums, taxes and travel delay. In 2000 these costs, borne by society rather than by crash victims, totaled over $170 billion. [NHTSA,Economic Impact of Crashes, May 2002]
Ever wondered what the code to a computer virus looks like?
Neither have I. But this guy has taken the actual source code of common computer viruses and turned it into a visual image of each computer virus.
I’d like to know more about how he did it, but the article doesn’t say, it just includes some very cool pictures.
No….it doesn’t remove all the noise that you hear while you’re trying to concentrate, although that would be REALLY nice. This little program removes digital noise from photographs. This is really obvious when you’re either taking a photograph at high zoom (when camera starts digital extrapolating) or when you’re taking photos at night and you have a high ISO on. Its all the little red and yellow dots that appear over the image. This program learns as it fixes noise and removes it to provide a much cleaner image. Now…sadly, this thing is one of the few programs that is posted at flashladybug that…isn’t free However, you can clear up a few photos using the trial edition which is for 15 days, or buy the full version for 20 bucks. Still kind of sad that it isn’t free. I had expected the standard edition to be free and the profession ed to be paid…but such is not the case. Check it out: Imagenomic
In a slightly random departure of our normally scheduled/planned tech news…we broach upon…food. I understand that El Bulli has been out there for years, but this is the first time I personally have heard of this restaurant. Of course, it would help that I am not in habit of regularly checking world-renowned restaurants…but…
El Bulli is a restaurant in Catalonia, Spain. Its a very small restaurant. It only serves 8000 people a season. With a small catch. More than 800,000 want to be served. What’s special about this place? Well…its run by Ferran Adria, who is perhaps the best chef out there, and probably a genius. Food genius What they do is innovate on food. Instead of making, say, extremely good pork chops, or any particularly good “normal” food, they and i quote “deconstruct” popular dishes and remake them. Each season, they create a new course list and last years menu included, snow balls that were stuffed with strawberries, tangerine/carrot whipped fluff, and other interesting things that I just really can’t describe. For this….check out the video: El Bulli on Youtube Also…despite the overwhelming popularity of the restaurant, Adria continues to run at a loss, for the 8th year in a row, with cost per diner at exactly 250 euros. Hey…if you can get a spot…250 euros isnt that bad for a 30 course dinner that spans 4 hours
So, there’s graffiti, and then theres graffiti. You have the interesting things that people put on the walls, and then you have random scribbles. We now bring you a different class of graffiti.
Behold…graffiti that contains “Born to be root”, “Loading Please Wait”, and, a printer that paints on sidewalks?
After the jump, theres a small gallery of true geek style graffiti, and then a new approach. This new approach uses a “printer” like device to print graffiti. This can print it on the roads using washable paint, or on walls. It’s an interesting little piece of hardware, check it out at Web Urbanist
