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Graphics, Hardware, Science pixels
Take each one of the planets, and assign a note to each of them. Then have them orbit the sun. Every time they repeat the orbit, play their unique note. That makes for some interesting music that sounds very similar to a music box. It takes a long time for Pluto to make it all the way around, so you can speed up the tempo a bit. Luke Twyman designed this Adobe Flash program, and you can find it at his website.
A simple ambient musicbox, with sounds generated using the orbital frequencies of our solar system.
via : Information is Beautiful
Graphics infographic
Nvidia has been in the news lately with the release of their GeForce GTX 480 and 470 graphics cards. One of the things that we have said about these cards is that they seem to be designed more for general purpose computing on graphics cards (GPGPU) than for gaming. Sure, they perform well at gaming, but they rock at GPGPU.
Nvidia has posted an article on using GPGPU on their graphics cards to speed up weather forecasting. Imagine what they could have done with the latest GeForce GTX 480 cards. Now if they could only make accurate weather forecasts.
A research group led by Professor Takayuki Aoki of theTokyo Institute of Technology has succeeded in 100% utilization of GPUs in the next-generation weather forecasting model, codenamed ASUCA, currently being developed by the Japan Meteorological Agency. ASUCA has a similar feature set to WRF, but because it is fully GPU-optimized, ASUCA runs 80 times faster than weather models running on CPUs alone or on CPU/GPU combinations. In short, it is the fastest solution available today.
Thanks to NVIDIA Tesla and CUDA parallel processing architecture, ASUCA simulates a 6 hour event (with 2km mesh size in a 3164x3028x48 grid) in 70 minutes on 120 GPUs, a calculation that would have taken 5600 minutes using CPUs.
via nTersect Blog – Tokyo Tech Weather Forecasting Model Gets 80X Perf Boost Through GPU Acceleration.
Science cuda, gpgpu, nvidia
ABC’s ‘V’ returns from hiatus tonight, with special effects provided by Zoic Studios. This season focuses more closely on Anna and the aliens, with several new scenes inside the Mothership.
Zoic’s creative director, Andrew Orloff, discussed his excitement for the upcoming episodes: “It’s a big season, with a lot of surprises and a lot of new stuff. We’re spending a lot more time on the mothership,” says Orloff. “We’re getting a lot more into Anna, and the Vs and what they are really up to. We can’t give away too much, but there’s a lot happening, and a lot more to the visual effects — it’s going to be very cool. We’re continuing with the virtual set work we’ve been doing, and the virtual prosthetic work.”
Read the full release after the break. If you haven’t followed V, the entire first season is available on iTunes 
.
Read more…
Graphics tv, v, vfx, zoic
Are you a true Twitter user? Do you have at least 10 followers? Do you follow at least 10 people? Have you tweeted at least 10 times? Then you are a true Twitter user. However, only 21% of the people using Twitter are true Twitter users, so that makes you an elite person. Doesn’t it?
Take a look at the infographic to the right to see other facts about Twitter. My favorite? The graph that shows 49% of all twitter accounts were created between November 2008 and April 2009.
Read more…
Graphics infographic, social media, twitter
A neutron star is one type of star that forms after the collapse of a massive star during a supernova. Such stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons, hence the name. A pulsar is a neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. This beam can only be seen when it is pointed towards earth, sort of like the lighthouse effect.
NASA has released a composite image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope. The image shows the white pulsar in the middle surrounded by dust from the supernova event.
In this image of G54.1+0.3, X-ray data from Chandra are shown in blue, and data from Spitzer in green (a shorter wavelength) and red-yellow (a longer one). The white source near the center of the image is a dense, rapidly rotating neutron star, or pulsar, all that remains of a core-collapse supernova explosion. The pulsar generates a wind of high-energy particles — seen in the Chandra data — that expands into the surrounding environment, illuminating the material ejected in the supernova explosion.
via NASA – Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust.
Science astronomy, nasa
Sufferers of March Madness may be able to temporarily alleviate their symptoms by firing up Google Earth and checkout out the newly added Sketchup models of 14 of the arenas.
Here at the SketchUp office, we gathered 14 models of the arenas and added them to a Featured Collection. These models are located all over the country, and largely created by users like you. Especially cool is the model of the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City, where you can fly inside and see the interior of the model! Both the Edward Jones Dome and the HSBC Arena are great examples of high quality photo-texturing, and the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis was created using Google Building Maker.
via Official Google SketchUp Blog: Tour the March Madness arenas in 3D.
Graphics google, google earth, sketchup
Derri Hasmi is an Indonesian graphic designer that has created a very interesting infographic on pollution and wasted energy in the United States, and around the globe. My favorite part is where he compares the amount of energy released by one match (1 BTU) to the total energy used by the United States (99.89 quadrillion matches). While listing the sources for his data makes the graphic a bit wordy at the bottom, I appreciate that he cites his sources.
via : Flickr
Graphics infographic
No homeowner wants unnecessary energy consumption in their home. Of course, it’s bad for the environment for energy to be wasted, but more importantly to most it’s bad for the wallet.
A new infographic from WattBot.com analyzes 4 home across the US and offers various options for improving energy efficiency, depending on the regions. The takeaway: There is no 1-part magic solution that applies to everyone.
See the full graphic after the break.
Explore Your Neighborhood – Clean Energy Maps – Wattbot.com.
Read more…
Graphics energy, infographic
The Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, is an Emission Nebula in the Milky Way. This nebula is four times larger than the Orion nebula. It is located between between 6,500 and 10,000 light years from Earth. However, it is found in the night skies of the southern hemisphere. The Hubble Telescope’s 423 million pixel image of this nebula has been displayed on the TACC Tiled Display.
NASA has released a new image of the Carina Nebula. This time, instead of just a gorgeous image, they have added tactile feedback. Different portions of the image are embossed with lines, dots, partial bubbles, and other markings. This allows visually impaired people to see the image with their hands. What a cool idea!
The raised arcs, lines, dots, and other markings in this 17-by-11-inch Hubble Space Telescope image of the Carina Nebula highlight important features in the giant gas cloud, allowing visually impaired people to feel what they cannot see and form a picture of the nebula in their minds. Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Mutchler (STScI/AURA) and N. Grice (You Can Do Astronomy LLC)
via NASA – Exploring the Carina Nebula by Touch.
Science astronomy, nasa
VizWorld.com 
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