Hasta La Gadget!

Google’s been hard at work over the past 18 months on something not many of us have been paying attention to lately: art. Specifically, the search giant has hooked up with 17 art museums around the world to offer tours of their internal galleries, using its familiar Street View tricycles, while also doing high-res images of 1,061 artworks that may be viewed on the newly launched Art Project web portal. Also there, you will find 17 special gigapixel images — 7,000-megapixel versions of each participating venue’s proudest possession. The resulting level of detail is nothing short of astounding and we’ve got videos of how it’s all done after the break.

Continue reading Google Art Project offers gigapixel images of art classics, indoor Street View of museums

Google Art Project offers gigapixel images of art classics, indoor Street View of museums originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 06:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Project Buran was the USSR’s answer to NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia. Unlike its highly decorated American counterpart, however, this child of the 1970s produced only one unmanned space flight during its operation and was ignominiously shut down by Russian authorities in 1993. The remains of this most ambitious (and expensive) effort are still around, however, and have now taken on a layer of rust, weeds and general decay that would make any post-apocalyptic set designer swoon with admiration. It’s as beautiful as it is sad, this gallery of failed human endeavor, and you can see it in full at the link below.

Continue reading Visualized: the fate of the most ambitious Soviet-era space exploration project

Visualized: the fate of the most ambitious Soviet-era space exploration project originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 02:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The US Library of Congress hasn’t been shy about embracing the modern age of digital media, though in this case it’s having to deal with some decidedly lower-fi data storage. Universal Music Group has announced it’s donating over 200,000 master recordings of early 20th century music to the Library, which will be cataloged and digitized — for future safekeeping and in order to be streamed online starting in the spring. It doesn’t seem, however, that the intellectual property rights will be passing with these recordings, as the press release states this agreement continues the Library’s “unprecedented authority to stream commercially owned sound recordings online.” Either way, it’s good to know that the original copies of works by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Billy Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald will reside in the hands of an organization dedicated to their preservation. Full press release follows after the break.

Continue reading Library of Congress receives 200,000 vintage master recordings from Universal, will stream them online

Library of Congress receives 200,000 vintage master recordings from Universal, will stream them online originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ancient acoustic engineers used stucco, drugs, and architecture to rock and confuse audiences originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did you know that it takes nearly seven and a half million pounds of thrust to get a Space Shuttle off the ground and into the final frontier? NASA opts to generate that power by burning through 1,000 gallons of liquid propellants and 20,000 pounds of solid fuel every second, which as you might surmise, makes for some arresting visuals. Thankfully, there are plenty of practical reasons why NASA would want to film its launches (in slow motion!), and today we get to witness some of that awe-inspiring footage, replete with a silky voiceover explaining the focal lengths of cameras used and other photographic minutiae. It’s the definition of an epic video, clocking in at over 45 minutes, but if you haven’t got all that time, just do it like us and skip around — your brain will be splattered on the wall behind you either way.

Continue reading NASA’s Space Shuttle launch videos are spectacularly incredible, incredibly spectacular

NASA’s Space Shuttle launch videos are spectacularly incredible, incredibly spectacular originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Dec 2010 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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