Codeacademy: A resource for beginners in programming

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A new website/service has popped up, offering to teach programming skills in a “interactive, fun” and social manner. I haven’t delved into this to see it in great detail, but just perusing the lessons, it might appeal to some who might not otherwise be interested in learning to write programs.

I have a concern that the site might simply teach the skills of syntactically assembling bits of code, but forgo the deeper skills of the philosophies are designing and developing high quality software, and the parts of doing so that have absolutely nothing to do with the actual code.

Anyway, for your amusement:

Learn to code | Codecademy.

Mogees | Bruno Zamborlin

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Mogees are tiny microphones that can attach to any surface and are used to pick up vibrations made by touching, tapping, swiping or other gestures on the surface they are attached to. The applications for this are astounding to think about.

On this web site, the inventor is using the Mogee to make surfaces into percussive instruments through using audio processors to interpret what the microphone is picking up.

Pretty amazing stuff.

Mogees – Gesture recognition with contact-microphones from bruno zamborlin on Vimeo.

Mogees | Bruno Zamborlin.

Another great timelapse of the sky – Auroras!

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Another gorgeous timelapse movie of the sky and the aurora borealis. Shot in Northern Norway:

The Aurora from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

Follow on http://www.facebook.com/TSOphotography

I spent a week capturing one of the biggest aurora borealis shows in recent years.

Shot in and around Kirkenes and Pas National Park bordering Russia, at 70 degree north and 30 degrees east. Temperatures around -25 Celsius. Good fun.

via Phil Plait @ BadAstronomer blog

Amazing 3-dimensional paintings of goldfish in resin

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This is incredibly amazing painting done by Riusuke Fukahori. He is painting the goldfish layer upon layer on resin, filling in details as he builds up the painting, then pouring on another layer of resin, and painting agian. The results are absolutely incredible.

Riusuke Fukahori Paints Three-Dimensional Goldfish Embedded in Layers of Resin | Colossal.

Watch the video on the site to see how he does this. It is amazing!

Open access policy adopted – The Daily Princetonian

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Last Monday, the University formally adopted a new policy of open access for Princeton-produced scholarly publications. This policy will authorize Princeton faculty members to post their published articles on their own websites, an online University repository or other free archives for the general public.

via Open access policy adopted – The Daily Princetonian.

This is a great piece of news. Too many important scientific papers are locked away behind exhorbitant journal publishing paywalls. The scam is two-way — scholars not only have to pay to get access to other scientists’ work, they have to pay the journal publishers in order to get their own work published.

Open access means anyone can see the work, much of which is paid for with public funding in the form of government grants and such. Open access can once again permit researchers to share their findings and build upon each others’ work.

Good move, Princeton.

Grace and Diversity in Underwater Photography

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These are absolutely gorgeous photos of undersea creatures.

Photographer Mark Laita has taken his superb eye beneath the waves to focus on the extraordinary creatures who inhabit the depths of the vast ocean. The collection which came out of these brilliant images is entitled Sea, and its purpose was to show “the grace and diversity of sea creatures reflected against the surface of their world.” Laita has succeeded in bringing the wonderment of the ocean and it’s mysterious creatures to life by taking these brightly colored subjects and placing them against a stark black backdrop, which helps to intensify the viewing experience.

via Grace and Diversity in Underwater Photography.