Jan 07
When it comes to imaging microscopic objects, you have to make a decision: do you want high resolution images of stationary objects, or coarse images of moving ones? Fortunately, X-ray holography means that may not be the case much longer.
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Dec 10
Unless you’re an invertebrate, you probably have a skeleton. But even though we all have these bony structures holding us together, we still find skeletons kind of creepy. French artist Chris Panda seems to have an obsession with skeletons, having created a series of illustrations which let us see the bones of cartoon, video game, and pop culture icons.
The image of Sylvester with Tweety Bird in his stomach is pretty amusing, and Batman looks quite majestic, but Ariel’s skeleton put me in the mood to eat fish for dinner tonight. Is that wrong?
The series of images includes everyone from The Legend of Zelda’s Link, to Fionna and Cake from Adventure Time to Popeye. But the most disturbing image of all has to be this one of Miley Cyrus twerking with Beetlejuice. That’s even harder to look at than the original – now that’s an accomplishment.
Check out the entire series of illustrations over on Chris’ Facebook page.
[via ufunk via Who Killed Bambi via Laughing Squid]
Jun 21
Man, I haven’t seen a good X-Ray weapon since Mars Attacks. Two upstate New York men have been arrested for attempting to build and sell an X-ray weapon. I guess they weren’t very smart.
54-year-old Eric J. Feight and 49-year-old Glendon Scott Crawford were apprehended after they separately approached both a Jewish group and a Klu Klux Klan member in order to hopes raise funds for their remote-controlled super weapon of doom. The X-ray weapon was designed to beam lethal doses of radiation at their targets. The idea is that you beam them full of radiation and soon after they die.
This story plays out like some kind of parallel world Breaking Bad plot. Crawford is reportedly an industrial mechanic for GE in Schenectady, and Feight was an outside contract engineer the same company. A high-tech Walt and Jesse. The device wasn’t completed when the pair was arrested so I guess Jesse screwed up as usual.
[via Dvice]
Mar 27
Now you can find out who played that guy Raylan Givens just shot down on Justified without frantically searching the internet while pausing the show.
Mar 27
Amazon intros X-Ray for TV, helps you remember those ‘Game of Thrones’ actors
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Amazon’s continuing the steady X-Ray takeover of media today by extending the feature to its TV selection. The latest implementation of the concept, which has already made its way to the company’s e-book offerings, offers up similar functionality to its movie counterpart, harnessing IMDB data to offer up contextual information on actors. The feature’s available as of today for “most popular TV shows” on the company’s Instant Video offering (some of which are also a part of its Prime video selection). And it’s a solid list, too, including: Justified, Downton Abbey, The West Wing, Sons of Anarchy, Falling Skies, American Horror Story, Grey’s Anatomy, Doctor Who, The Walking Dead, Lost, Glee, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. More info on the feature can be found below.
Filed under: Amazon
Mar 27
Amazon Adds X-Ray to TV Shows To Tell You What You’re Watching While You Watch It
Posted in: Today's Chili
Amazon X-ray—the Kindle Fire feature that knows everything piece of information about a movie you’re watching while you watch it—is expanding to TV shows. More »
Mar 27
Amazon Expands X-Ray Feature To TV Shows On Kindle Fire And Wii U With Data From IMDb
Posted in: Today's Chili
Amazon just announced that it is adding its X-Ray feature to TV shows. The feature already worked with movies thanks to data from IMDb, but the company will now use this very same data for other video content. The entire Kindle Fire family will receive the feature and the Amazon Instant Video app on Wii U will get is as well.
As a reminder, X-Ray allows you to discover more about the content you are reading or watching. It first appeared with books — it shows you the different characters, where they appear in the book and how they are related to the story. Then Amazon added X-Ray to movies back in September 2012. In that case, watchers can instantly know the name of an actor in a scene. IMDb is owned by Amazon, allowing the Kindle team to tap into a very comprehensive movie database. As IMDb provides data for TV shows as well, adding TV shows to X-Ray was just a matter of time.
The idea is to make the video experience unique on Amazon’s devices, making people want to buy those tablets or download those Amazon apps and stay in the Amazon ecosystem. It’s been known that Amazon doesn’t make much profit from selling hardware. Instead, it wants people to use the Kindle Fire tablets to buy content.
Of course, the X-Ray feature only works with videos you buy or rent from Amazon Instant Video or videos from the Amazon Prime collection. X-Ray could be one of those little features that make you choose to watch a movie or TV show on Amazon over Netflix or iTunes.
In addition to providing the X-Ray feature to Kindle Fire users, the feature will make its way to Amazon Instant Video’s Wii U app. This fact shows that what matters for Amazon is that people consume content from Amazon, even if it’s not on an Amazon-branded device. X-Ray for movies and TV shows may eventually come to Android and iOS as X-Ray for books is already available in many Kindle apps.
X-Ray is more important than you may think at first. If the experience is not compelling enough, customers will neglect their tablets and Amazon won’t make any money from those users. That’s why Amazon cut the price of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ as well from $299 to $269 for the base model. It’s still the best way to tap into Amazon’s ecosystem. Amazon now wants to get the best tablet they can make in everyone’s hand so that people can start reading and watching content — Amazon’s content.
Mar 19
Sometimes you just feel like time is getting away from you. But no matter how hard we try, time keeps marching on. While most of us probably don’t need a reminder that we’re getting older and older, sometimes it’s good to have a tangible reminder so we live each day to its fullest. That’s the aim of this watch, which serves as a constant reminder of our gradual march towards the grave.
The Time is Short watch features an image of a wrist wearing a small analog watch, but when you turn the watch over, it turns into a skeletal image of that same wrist and hand. While it’s at it, the watch transforms from a black background to a white one.
The watch is also perfect for radiologists, doctors, anthropologists and morticians. The Time is Short watch is made from brushed stainess steel and has a black silicone band, and sells for $129.95(USD) over at Gadgets and Gear.
Mar 16
Nobody likes a snoop. But if you’ve somehow managed to come up with a reason to justify why you need to go snooping into someone else’s mail, then this little can of Envelope X-ray Spray might help you out. I think the name of the product says it all, actually.
Some people advise holding a sealed envelope over steam to open the adhesive, so you can check the contents of the envelope without damaging it in the process. But if boiling water is a task you find too tedious and risky, then this spray is your next best alternative. Even though the makers of the X-ray Spray insist that it won’t damage or discolor the envelope or its contents, you can never be too sure – so use it at your own peril.
Basically, spraying this “magic fluid” (likely some kind of alcohol and propellant) over the envelope will make that area less opaque. It kind of looks like you got it wet with water, only it’s not water.
Each can of Envelope X-Ray Spray retails for $15(USD). Use at your own risk – tampering with US mail is actually a Federal offense.
[via Geekologie]
Mar 09
Kinect’s potential for gaming might not have been thaaaat great, but its applications for other things, like cheating at pool and medicine, have been pretty impressive. The team at Microsoft Research Cambridge, for instance, have rigged one up to peek inside skulls and look at brains with kindasorta x-ray vision. More »
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