Items of Interest

Softday Uisce Salach

Art-Science duo Softday have launched a new community art project called Uisce Salach (Dirty Water) based on water analyses from domestic water supplies from the River Liffey, its tributaries in Dublin City and from Dublin Port. The project will synergise science and arts practice using water sampling and creative technology, developing new thinking and new meaning around the sustainability of water resources.

Innovation

Life

Science

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Virgin Galactic Space Ship Two

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This week, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo successfully reached space during a test flight that reached a maximum altitude of 82.7km above the earth. The video posted by Richard Branson on Twitter shows a view of earth from the cockpit.

Innovation

Space

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Plant Power

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Researchers at the Centre for Micro-Bio Robotics of IIT in Pontedera in Italy have discovered that certain plants generate electricity when touched that can power up to 100 LEDs (150V) per leaf. The leaves gather electric charges on their surface as a result of contact electrification and transmit the current directly to the stem of the plant, which can then be harvested. the researchers built a hybrid Nerum oleander tree with artificial leaves that touch the natural leaves and generate electricity.

Innovation

Science

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Wes Bos Flying a Drone with React & Node.js

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Javascript internet extraordinaire Wes Bos posted 2 videos (part 1, part 2) last week showing him working on controlling a DJI Tello drone with React and Node.js! The videos were made to help promote a new Drone giveaway by IBM developer.

Innovation

Tech

Web Dev

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The Sound of Wind on Mars

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Two vibration sensors on NASA's InSight Mars Lander captured a recording of vibrations caused by wind on the red planet, blowing 10 to 15 mph. This video has raised the sound of the wind by 2 octaves to make it more audible.

Space

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Microsoft Edge On Chromium

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Microsoft have announced plans to rebuild their Edge browser on the open source Chromium Web rendering engine. The new Edge will be available on the older Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems, as well as on Mac OS!

Web Dev

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Swansea Laptop Orchestra at GowerHaus

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This week The Swansea Laptop Orchestra performed The Alphabet Song at a slot in the GowerHaus Swansea College of Art showcase event in the Round Reading Room. Check out some photos from the set here.

Music

Photo

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Portrait Mode AI On Google Pixel

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This is an intesting post on the Google AI Blog describing how they achieve portrait mode on the Google Pixel 3 with one camera. Using a CNN, sharpness depth cues within the image can be combined with the shape estimation of everyday objects as components of the AI that runs on the phone using Tensorflow light to accurately produce blurred background for portrait mode.

AI & ML

Photo

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52 Things Learnt in 2018

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Tom Whitwell has an interesting list of 52 facts he learned in 2018 published on Fluxx Studio Notes, such as taht Peppa Pig tattoos are big in China and that only 100 of 1000 crosswalk buttons in New York city are functional.

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24Ways Web Dev Advent Calendar

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24ways have created a web development Advent calendar and are releasing some really interesting articles in the run up to Christmas like how best to secure your website or how to create your first Chrome extension.

Web Dev

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