The Tzu Chi Foundation – the world’s largest Buddhist charity

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/30/tzu_chi_foundation/

What a great look into something that I imagine most of the world has never ever heard of.  A charity where the vast majority of it’s members never get paid, not built to further a religious ideal (“bible = food” – Southpark) but strictly meant to help by doing things that actually matter.

I love that they start the only recycling program in all of Taiwan with nearly 4000 plants country wide now.  A charity that looks at what needs to be done and does it, not simply doing what will garner the most attention and press.  This makes me think of them as a charity for the planet as well as for the people

A movie about the life of the woman(Dharma Master Cheng Yen) who founded this organisation needs to be made me thinks

And Jace hall has played it which I think makes his experience more rare than Neil Armstrongs.. Who would have ever thought that 3D Realms was actually working on something for the past 12 years but apparently it is true. Now whether or not they are going to let anyone else play it is another matter

www.laservuetv.com

I’ve been following Laser TV technology for some time now and for a bit there I was convinced this was all Vaporware.  Years of promises and nothing to show for them.  Well that is all changed now with the release of Mitsubishi’s ‘LaserVue’ TV.  The 65-inch LaserVue (L65A90) TV features 500 nits of brightness; 1080p resolution; smooth 120Hz technology; x.v. Colour; and comes with 3D-ready viewing capabilities and a full stereo range of sound with built-in speakers. The 10-inch-thin unit is also designed for both wall-mount and floor standing situations.

LaserVue Laser TV greatest strength comes from taking the world’s purest light source and pumping out twice the color1 of many of today’s HDTVs. Laser beams provide an extensive range of rich, complex colors, insane clarity, and immersive depth of field. LaserVue smashes the old standard for large screen television by delivering unimaginable color, all the while using 33% the power of an LCD and 25% the power of a comparable plasma. Even cooler is the fac that these beasts come 3D-ready and each of the 3D Ready large-screen DLP HDTV’s feature a slim design, lightweight construction, and energy efficient operation.  Apparently The first 3D content will be PC video games, followed by movies, then later sporting events and television sitcoms or other broadcasts.

Technical Details:

Technical details LaserVUE:

• Weight: 130 pounds (65-inch)
• Brightness: 500 nits
• Color Gamut: BT.709 (a standard for color measurement in televisions) approximately 200-percent
• 3D Capability: REALD (3D) chip
• Power Consumption: < 200 watts
• Viewing Angle: 160 degrees
• Other Features: Smooth 120hz and x.v. Color
• LaserVue Owners Guide L65-A90
  
• LaserVue Specifications L65-A90
• LaserVue Dimensions L65-A90

References:

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/gadgetreviews/multimedia/2008/11/pr_10best?slide=5&slideView=3

http://www.laservuetv.com/home.php

http://gizmodo.com/376852/mitsubishi-kuro+killer-laservue-tv-arriving-late-summer-new-best-tv-ever

http://www.homegoodsonline.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2755&Itemid=2

http://www.oled-display.info/mitsubishi-laser-tv-laservue

My father sent me this video today and while most of the stuff you take for granted there is something powerful seeing it all at once and having it strike home just where we are going and at what speed.  Karl Finche and colleagues put this study together to show just where are world is, how fast it got here and where it is going.  Plus it has a wicked Fat Boy Slim song in the background so you just can’t go wrong

I believe you can find more videos similar to this titled ‘Shift Happens’

Being a Vegan it takes something really special to move me about a talk about eating meat, let along something like Foie Gras, but this actually did it..

TV is EVIL

An interesting article on physorg.com goes into detail about the watching habbits of happy vs unhappy people from a study done by the University of Maryland.  The study looks at the watching habits during a financial crisis and even likens the Television viewing habits to that of a person suffering from addicition problems:

Martin likens the short, temporary pleasure of television to addiction: “Addictive activities produce momentary pleasure but long-term misery and regret,” he says. “People most vulnerable to addiction tend to be socially or personally disadvantaged. For this kind of person, TV can become a kind of opiate in a way. It’s habitual, and tuning in can be an easy way of tuning out.”

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.physorg.com/news145901411.html

http://www.zamzar.com/

Found this today via a wired blog article as I needed some conversion work done..  Apparently Kword is supposed to be able to import PDF files and then save to .doc however it kept on crash over and over again so I reverted to an online method.. I definitely thought that I would have to go through a ton of sites before I found that was decent and could support my two 10MB PDF files for conversion but Zamzar did the trick and is pretty slick too!

So my wonderful father was over at 11 this morning and we started to Tile the ensuite.. Should prove to be fun as he was only here for 3 hours or so and we got a fair bit done, tomorrow will be more cutting of tile and fine tuning everything.. Hopefully we can be grouting wednesday

Rael got the living room ceiling painted as well as the bathroom ceiling, first house I have been in without a white ceiling and it looks great – will post some pics tomorrow

Installing the dining room lamp was the fun part.. So we get the lighting stuff from ikea and I have installed ceiling lights before and it isn’t a biggie. I mean turn the breaker off who cares, there is no danger.. Well Ikea + 1979 wiring is fun.. The wire colors in our ceiling are Red Black and Biege, the Ikea wires are Black, White and Green/white.  In the end the White went to the red, the black went to the beige and the green was just the ground so it got screwed to the ceiling mount.  The really fun part was by the time we figured out which wires went where the sun was down and I couldn’t see which breaker switch to throw to turn off the lights, so I just ended up throwing a bunch and hoped for the best   Still alive so it turned out pretty good

Now I am settling in wth a nice pot of Coffee, a few soundtracks(Ghost in the Shell, Gears of War2, and Mass Effect) and I am ready for my 10 hour work day to begin   Already pumped out an industrybroadcast.com article, so far so good   I just have to wait for my dark mistress caffeine to really start kicking my ass into high gear

Ha, you can call me Mr. Alliteration.

Found a great article on Wired today detailing the secret services use of directed energy weapons to protect the president..

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/presidents-secr.html

Super Sweet

In all fairness for my rant on Apple I figured I would put up an internet oldie that just never gets old

Every OS has it’s downsides just seems that Apple’s is a little more Orwellian