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Month: October 2020

Peel P50

Peel P50

A while back Top Gear reviewed the world’s smallest car: the Peel P50.

But did you know that they are still being made and you can actually buy and own a brand new, street legal Peel P50? While they run £8,250 in the UK, US buyers can purchase an all electric one for a mere $1,100.

Not only that, but they are re-manufacturing a number of other tiny cars in the line – with a whole host of colors and features. There is a Cabrio version that is a convertible, a Trident that has a classic 60’s era bubble dome cockpit, and even build-it-yourself kits.

P50 Cabrio

P50 Trident
P.50 Kit reproduction replica peel p50 mk1 isle of man top gear capri blue
Build it yourself kit!

Head on over to https://p50cars.com and see if one suits your fancy!

IMMERSIVE LIGHTFIELD VIDEO WITH A LAYERED MESH REPRESENTATION

IMMERSIVE LIGHTFIELD VIDEO WITH A LAYERED MESH REPRESENTATION

I worked with a little bit of early lightfield photography back in the day. Looks like they’ve expanded and possibly found an interesting VR application. These researchers present a system for capturing, reconstructing, compressing, and rendering high quality immersive light field video. 

Here’s the Siggraph paper and some more examples:
https://augmentedperception.github.io/deepviewvideo/

How the Charles Bridge was constructed

How the Charles Bridge was constructed

The Charles Bridge is a historic, gorgeous bridge that crosses the Vltava (Moldau) river in Prague. I was fascinated by it and the whole city of Prague when I visited.

Its construction started in 1357 under King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. It stands today – which means it has seen an amazing amount of history.

The associated video collection on the channel also goes through how the bridge was constructed – and has videos of other historic Prague buildings.

High Altitude Penitentes

High Altitude Penitentes

Snow can get funny at high altitudes and on mountains. It can be powdery soft, squeeky and crunchy, wet and gummy, or even form strange shapes depending on pressure, humidity, temperature, and a host of other conditions. It’s one of the fascinating parts I love about climbing mountains.

In the high Atacama desert, Penitentes, or nieves penitentes (Spanish for “penitent-shaped snows”), are snow formations found at high altitudes. They take the form of elongated, thin blades of hardened snow or ice, closely spaced and pointing towards the general direction of the sun.

The name comes from the resemblance of a field of penitentes – a crowd of kneeling people doing penance. The formation evokes the tall, pointed habits and hoods worn by brothers of religious orders in the Processions of Penance during Spanish Holy Week. In particular the brothers’ hats are tall, narrow, and white, with a pointed top.

These spires of snow and ice grow over all glaciated and snow-covered areas in the dry andes above 4,000 metres (13,000 ft).They range in length from a few centimetres to over 5 metres (16 ft).

Penitentes up to 15 metres (49 ft) high are suggested to be present in the tropics zone on Europa, a satellite of Jupiter. According to a recent study, NASA’s New Horizons has discovered penitentes on Pluto, in a region informally named Tartarus Dorsa

03/2024 Update:

There are similar rock formations in the extreme areas of Russian Siberia in the Ulakhan-Sis Mountain Range.

Whimsical Furniture Flashbacks

Whimsical Furniture Flashbacks

I’m pretty sure I’ve met Dust Furniture‘s Vincent Leman back in the day when he was using a studio right next to the computer shop I worked at in Brookston, Indiana. His company makes very Disney-esque style whimsical furniture pieces that would also look just as at home in a Tim Burton feature.

I hadn’t thought of his work in years, yet ran across a pintrest pic of the stacked cabinet and it all came back. Great to see he’s still at it and doing well.

John Robertson’s Dark Room improv

John Robertson’s Dark Room improv

John Robertson is here to guide you through an adventure of expertly crafted chaos and anarchy. And in the end, eeeeeverybody plays!

YOU AWAKE TO FIND YOURSELF IN A DARK ROOM is a live action video game that has the audience trapped in an interactive, retro gaming nightmare; choose an option, find a way out, and escape The Dark Room! If you succeed, you’ll take home £1,000… but if you fail, YOU WILL DIE!

Watch more of his stuff on his Twitch channel

The man that lives at Narita Airport

The man that lives at Narita Airport

Most people have heard of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, the Iranian refugee who was forced to live in the departure lounge of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport from 1988 until 2006. His story was made into a book and then the 2004 Tom Hanks movie The Terminal. This is not that story.

Instead, this is set in Japan about a very different man. One I am almost certain I taxied right past in one of my trips to Japan.

Takao Shito is a farmer living in the Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Japan. Unlike other farmers who left when the airport was built in the 1960s, he chose to stay and continue to cultivate his farmland. He’s been offered the equivalent of $1.5 million USD – but refuses to leave the land his family farmed for 100 years. It’s a rare an interesting view into land rights disputes and Japanese culture.

And when I say he lives right in the middle of the airport – I mean it. Here you can see the red spot exactly where his farm is located on the north end of the terminals right between the terminals and runway 34R.

Other info:

https://www.odditycentral.com/news/farmer-lives-in-the-middle-of-japans-second-largest-airport.html