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Semiconductor’s Magnetic Movie: by Douglas Kahn

The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries . All action takes place around NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratories, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries . Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers’ produced by fleeting electrons . Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?

Purchased by the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington for the permenant collection 2008.
Awarded Best Film at Cutting Edge at the British Animation Awards 2008.
Awarded Best Experimental Film at Tirana International Film Festival 2007.
Special Mention, Best International Experimental Short at Leeds International Film Festival 2008.

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Light bulb is a levitating yet powered lightbulb. It will float stably in midair and remain on for years without any physical contact, charging, or batteries. Ironically, with the levitation and wireless power circuitry both on, this entire package still consumes less than half the power of an incandescent bulb.

[youtube]XHcHG63tUqM[/youtube]

This is not a trick or a photoshop manipulation. The bulb and the casing contain hidden circuitry that uses electromagnetic feedback to levitate the bulb roughly 2.5″ from the nearest object, and uses coupled resonant wireless power transfer to beam power from the housing into the bulb itself.

Tesla invented wireless power transfer in the late 1890’s. However this effect is still largely underutilized. I wanted to explore this effect coupled with feedback stabilization of a naturally unstable object. Details in the figures highlight the embedded circuitry and techniques used to levitate and power the bulb.

For detailed pictures see Light bulb site.

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A lucky group of bonobo chimpanzees are getting an $10 million, 18-room high-tech dream dormitory outside of Des Moines, Iowa. The crib has touch screens for the occupants to “chat” with human researchers, a “web cam” to see who is outside their front door, flushing lavatories, an indoor waterfall and climbing walls. The experiment aims to see if this kind of stimulation will help them develop skills in language, art and music — and pass those skills on to future generations of chimps. I would like to see this experiment performed on American public school children.

From Mike’s list

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