The Gulf of Mexico oil leak is spilling 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean. If the Exxon Valdez spilled about 250,000 barrels of oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska, then how long will it take that to reach the level of the Exxon Valdez spill? Visual Economics answers that question and several others in a new infographic about the oil spill.
You may have heard about BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico over the past few days. This is a visual representation of just how much it’s costing BP (and the rest of the world).
Astronaut Soichi Noguchi has taken yet another picture from the International Space Station. Instead of breathtaking or beautiful, this picture is taken of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA’s Goddard Flight Center has released its latest visualization of sea surface winds from space.
Satellite data can be used to observe the dramatic ebb and flow of the our planet’s water system from space. The SeaWinds Scatterometer instrument on the QuikSCAT satellite captures the always moving and complex sea surface. The mission has also provided critical information for monitoring, modeling, forecasting and researching our atmosphere, ocean and climate.
By any measure of success, the 10-year-old QuikScat mission is a unique national resource that has achieved and far surpassed its science objectives. Designed for a two-year lifetime, QuikScat has been used around the globe by the world’s operational meteorological agencies to improve weather forecasts and identify the location, size and strength of hurricanes and other storms in the open ocean.
credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
EnergyAuthority has a pretty infographic detailing common electricity drains in the home and offers solutions to reduce your electric bill. No surprise that Heating & Cooling make up an average 45% of your bill, but I was surprised to see that a Washer & Dryer are equal to Hot Water (electrically heater water, anyway).
The graphic uses information from the 2009 Consumer Reports study. See full-size after the break.
Cellphones.org has a new infographic that gives you a brief history on CellPhones, and walks you step by step through the entire process of initiating a call.
We use our cell phones all day, every day, but did you ever wonder what is really going on when you make or receive a call? Of course there are towers that we see dotting the landscape and it’s obvious that they make this all possible, but exactly how? Here is a detailed look at how cell phone calls actually work.
If you grew up on Transformers and still managed to find the new movies entertaining, then a new video game from Activision might be right up your alley. Take control of your favorite Autobots and Decepticons in a new action shooter game, and blast your friends and enemies with the head-to-head multiplayer modes.
Transformers: War for Cybertron challenges players to become the ultimate weapon as a TRANSFORMERS character in the final, epic war that will determine the survival of their entire race. Armed with a diverse arsenal of lethal, high-tech weaponry and the ability to instantly convert from robot to vehicle at any time, players will engage in heart-pounding battles on land and in the air in this gripping, 3rd person action shooter set in the TRANSFORMERS’ war-ravaged homeland. Complete with several multiplayer modes, Transformers: War for Cybertron allows gamers to play through story missions with their friends in drop in/drop out online co-op, and also create their own TRANSFORMERS character for competitive head-to-head multiplayer modes, choosing among four distinct character classes, personalizing its look and selecting from a huge variety of weapons, skills and abilities.
Autodesk and NVidia have once again collaborated to bring NVidia CUDA acceleration and PhysX physics simulation to the Autodesk Softimage 3D modeling and animation suite.
“By integrating CUDA and PhysX technologies into the new release of Softimage, Autodesk has opened up a new world of creative options for content creation professionals,” said Jeff Brown, general manager, Professional Solutions Group, NVIDIA. “With Quadro professional graphics, artists using Softimage can now achieve a higher level of realism, by adding physical simulations to their work.”
Primarily these new features are targeted towards users working in game development scenarios, offering improved interactivity and realistic effects. Full press release after the break.
Gimp has had CS5′s “Content Aware Fill” option for some time through a plugin named ‘Resynth’. The two algorithms vary in their implementation and effectiveness, and UltraDownloads.com ran both of them through a series of tests to gauge the effectiveness. Ranging from the fairly basic (above) to more complex tests, it’s interesting to see the unusual differences between the algorithms.
While neither tool emerges as the clear victor, each tool seems to excel in a certain area. Read the translated version of the page for the full scoop.
A certificate of deposit, or CD, is an investment in which you give a bank or other lender a set amount of money for a certain time period. This time period could range from 6 months to several years. At the end of the term, the bank will return your money with interest. In the meantime, you get to pay the taxes on interest that you have earned, but do not have access to. Visual Economics takes a look at certificates of deposit in their latest infographic.
Here’s a crash course on Certificates of Deposit, what they do, and how you can use them to make money.
A surprising new piece of hardware from AMD combines their FirePro cards with the TeraDici PCoIP technology to offer high-end Dual-Screen FirePro quality graphics to remote visualization systems a’la Thin Client Solutions.
The demonstration in the video is across a room, but the technology supports longer links via WAN or VPN solutions. The various parts of the technology are nothing new, but this is the first time I’ve seen a major player (AMD/ATI) integrate it all into a single-card solution so simple to use.
EnergyAuthority has a pretty infographic detailing common electricity drains in the home and offers solutions to reduce your electric bill. No surprise that Heating & Cooling make up an average 45% of your bill, but I was surprised to see that a Washer & Dryer are equal to Hot Water (electrically heater water, anyway).
Cellphones.org has a new infographic that gives you a brief history on CellPhones, and walks you step by step through the entire process of initiating a call.
Autodesk and NVidia have once again collaborated to bring NVidia CUDA acceleration and PhysX physics simulation to the Autodesk Softimage 3D modeling and animation suite.
VizWorld.com 
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