Posts Tagged ‘digital’
Friday, November 5th, 2010
Our California Academy of Sciences will start showing Life: A Cosmic Story November 6, 2010 in Morrison Planetarium.
“Narrated by two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster, Life begins in a grove of towering redwoods, majestic emblems of Northern California. From there, the audience “shrinks” dramatically as it enters a single redwood leaf and then a redwood cell, learning that despite their unique appearance, redwoods are composed of the same basic molecules as all other organisms on Earth. After this opening statement of shared ancestry, the audience launches on a journey through time, witnessing key events since the Big Bang that set the stage for life.”
People, including a bunch of 8th-graders from Lawton Alternative, were gasping at the opening scene during the sneak peek yesterday. It’s like the superest super IMAX theater you could imagine.
The screen under the big dome is big, big, big:
Click to expand
See, Jodie Foster has been into this kind of stuff for a while:
All the deets:
LIFE: A COSMIC STORY OPENS ON NOVEMBER 6, 2010 IN MORRISON PLANETARIUM. Narrated by Jodie Foster, the second all-digital show produced by the California Academy of Sciences is a high-speed ride through the history of life
SAN FRANCISCO (October 5, 2010) — How did life on Earth begin? This tantalizing question forms the basis of Morrison Planetarium’s upcoming show, Life: A Cosmic Story, which will premiere on November 6, 2010. Located inside the California Academy of Sciences, the Morrison has transported audiences to the far reaches of the Universe and back since its opening in 2008. Like the inaugural show Fragile Planet, Life takes audiences on an immersive, all-digital journey, featuring visualizations based on the latest scientific data.
“The show’s core concept is that all life on Earth is related, having evolved from a common ancestor,” says Ryan Wyatt, Director of Morrison Planetarium and Science Visualization. “Taking an even longer view, we see that life’s origins begin with dark matter and the first stars—our pedigree is actually 13.7 billion years in the making.”
Narrated by two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster, Life begins in a grove of towering redwoods, majestic emblems of Northern California. From there, the audience “shrinks” dramatically as it enters a single redwood leaf and then a redwood cell, learning that despite their unique appearance, redwoods are composed of the same basic molecules as all other organisms on Earth. After this opening statement of shared ancestry, the audience launches on a journey through time, witnessing key events since the Big Bang that set the stage for life. The first stars ignite, galaxies coalesce, and entire worlds take shape. On the early Earth, two scenarios for the dawn of life are presented—one near a turbulent, deep-sea hydrothermal vent, and the other in a primordial “hot puddle” on a volcanic island. From these microscopic beginnings, life transformed the entire Earth as it evolved and diversified: filling the atmosphere with oxygen, turning the continents green, and altering global climate patterns. The 25-minute show ends with a review of geological evidence and the connectedness of all living things on Earth.
Ever more deets, after the jump.
(more…)
Tags: 2010, A COSMIC STORY, bay area, california, California Academy of Sciences, California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park, county, digital, Director of Morrison Planetarium, golden gate park, Jill Tarter, Jodie Foster, life, LIFE: A COSMIC STORY, Morrison Planetarium, NASA Astrobiology Institute, November 6, Planetarium, Ryan Wyatt, San Francisco, Science Visualization, SETI, show
Posted in museums, science | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
Our California Academy of Sciences will have a new treat for you starting in November, 2010. Check out the deets, below.
See, Jodie Foster has been into this kind of stuff for a while:
All the deets:
LIFE: A COSMIC STORY OPENS ON NOVEMBER 6, 2010 IN MORRISON PLANETARIUM. Narrated by Jodie Foster, the second all-digital show produced by the California Academy of Sciences is a high-speed ride through the history of life
SAN FRANCISCO (October 5, 2010) — How did life on Earth begin? This tantalizing question forms the basis of Morrison Planetarium’s upcoming show, Life: A Cosmic Story, which will premiere on November 6, 2010. Located inside the California Academy of Sciences, the Morrison has transported audiences to the far reaches of the Universe and back since its opening in 2008. Like the inaugural show Fragile Planet, Life takes audiences on an immersive, all-digital journey, featuring visualizations based on the latest scientific data.
“The show’s core concept is that all life on Earth is related, having evolved from a common ancestor,” says Ryan Wyatt, Director of Morrison Planetarium and Science Visualization. “Taking an even longer view, we see that life’s origins begin with dark matter and the first stars—our pedigree is actually 13.7 billion years in the making.”
Narrated by two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster, Life begins in a grove of towering redwoods, majestic emblems of Northern California. From there, the audience “shrinks” dramatically as it enters a single redwood leaf and then a redwood cell, learning that despite their unique appearance, redwoods are composed of the same basic molecules as all other organisms on Earth. After this opening statement of shared ancestry, the audience launches on a journey through time, witnessing key events since the Big Bang that set the stage for life. The first stars ignite, galaxies coalesce, and entire worlds take shape. On the early Earth, two scenarios for the dawn of life are presented—one near a turbulent, deep-sea hydrothermal vent, and the other in a primordial “hot puddle” on a volcanic island. From these microscopic beginnings, life transformed the entire Earth as it evolved and diversified: filling the atmosphere with oxygen, turning the continents green, and altering global climate patterns. The 25-minute show ends with a review of geological evidence and the connectedness of all living things on Earth.
Ever more deets, after the jump.
(more…)
Tags: 2010, A COSMIC STORY, bay area, california, California Academy of Sciences, California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park, county, digital, Director of Morrison Planetarium, golden gate park, Jill Tarter, Jodie Foster, life, LIFE: A COSMIC STORY, Morrison Planetarium, NASA Astrobiology Institute, November 6, Planetarium, Ryan Wyatt, San Francisco, Science Visualization, SETI, show
Posted in museums | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
I’m not exactly sure what you people are worried about with the new SmartMeters from our corporate overlords at Pigs, Giraffes, and Elephants. One issue is radiation. Really? Can a frequency make you sick?
“Hart says the electromagnetic frequency, the EMF, which is used to remotely send information from the SmartMeter on the side of your home to PG&E can make people sick.”
I don’t think so, pardner. Anyway, concerns persist over the electromagnetic fields surrounding these rigs. So, PG&E is taking steps today to make sure you get all the paliative cliches you can handle. Read all about what they’re going to do after the jump.
Now, the other issue people seem to have is meter accuracy. So, get ready for the Old vs. New side-by-side test results.
Some Californians have two meters metering just to prove that SmartMeters work:
Seems pretty close to me but, as always, You Make The Call:
Data ending 8/10/2010
Data ending 8/3/2010
Data ending 7/27/2010
Data ending 7/20/2010
View results archive
All right, all the deets of SmartMeter Best Practices after the jump.
(more…)
Tags: 2010, analog, bay area, best practices, california, digital, frank chu, legacy, mcallister, microwave, pg&e, protest, Public Utilities Commission, PUC, radiation, rf, San Francisco, side-by-side, smart meters, smartmeters, state, test, van ness
Posted in paranormal | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
Or, How to Beat Comcast.
Seems as if Tim Redmond is just a tiny bit irked with Big Cable these days. So much so, that he even complained directly to Comcast’s Big Guy, Brian Roberts.
Artist’s conception of the leader of our TV monopoly:
(It must be a hard knock life listening to people complain about their TV service…)
The thing is that the last thing monopolies want to do is hire more people. So, you need to think before you let Comcast waste your time and money. Here are four options:
1. Avoid that service center down on Portola. Comcast’s other office in the inner, Inner Richmond District is a veritable ghost town of lonely employees yearning for the company of customers needing help. Check it out at 3732 Geary Blvd (between Arguello Blvd & 2nd Ave). You’ll be in and out in no time – that’s much better than the old days when you had to wait all day for a “trained” tech to come out.
2. Cancel Comcast and get a dish. I don’t know how it works or which system is better, but it couldn’t be worse than Comcast, right? Certainly would be cheaper and you wouldn’t be giving your hard-earned to a monopoly.
3. Cancel Comcast and just use rabbit ears. I’ll tell you, my Sony is approaching two decades of service and it displays that digital TV just fine. I mean, if your show isn’t on channels 2, 4, 5, 7, or 9 it’s just not worth watching, right? Comcast wants you to think you need cable TV but you don’t need cable TV. Try a Comcast vacation for 30 days and then you’ll wonder why you ever gave those melon-farmers $1000 (after taxes!) a year.
4. Threaten to cancel Comcast and have them lower your bill to less than $30. Here’s what you do, love. Just ring up (877) 870-4310 and tell them you don’t want cable no mo. (This is a lie, but that’s O.K.) They’ll ask you why and then you’ll tell them that you just got laid off or something. Then it’s name-your-price time, baby. Have them throw in a digital box, free HBO, I don’t know, whatever. They’ll lower your bill wayyyyyy down for six months or a year or whatnot. Then it’ll be time to call them up all over again. Easy peasy. As they say, Asking Comcast To Lower Your Bill Results In Comcast Lowering Your Bill. But of course, you don’t just ask, you tell them you can’t afford it and you want to cancel.
Am I saying that you’re a sucker if you don’t call up Comcast right now at (877) 870-4310 and threaten to cancel? Yes. Yes I am.
Choose or lose.
Tags: arguello, bay guardian, box, brian roberts, cable, center, CEO, Comcast, digital, geary, portola, service, television, tim redmond, TV, Writer
Posted in crime, TV | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
I’ll tell you, I worked at a bank back in the day, back in the pre-digital camera era, and I’ll tell you, there’s no way a typical analog camera would get this kind of image of an alleged bank robber. Particularly since the old-school cams had to be tripped manually when the time came, owing to the expense of film.
But these days, digital cameras is everywhere.
Anyway, if I were this fellow, I’d leave town, for a while anyway.
Click to expand
All the deets straight from the SFPD FB:
SAN FRANCISCO POLICE SEEK PUBLIC’S HELP IN LOCATING SERIAL BANK ROBBERY SUSPECT (10-039)
San Francisco police are seeking the public’s help in locating a bank robbery suspect who has robbed four downtown San Francisco banks since March 22. In three of the incidents, the suspect approached a bank customer already at the teller window and placed a knife to the customer’s throat. While holding the knife, the suspect demanded and was given currency from the teller. The suspect then fled the bank. In one of the three incidents, the hostage victim suffered a non-life-threatening knife wound.
The first incident on March 22 occurred at Citibank, 1801 Van Ness Avenue. There was no customer threat or weapon used in this incident. Two days later, on March 24, the suspect entered the East West Bank at 743 Washington Street and held a knife to the throat of an Asian male customer at the teller window. On April 2, the suspect went into the Wells Fargo Bank at 1160 Grant Avenue and again held a knife to the throat of a customer, an Asian male. This was the incident in which the customer was injured.
On April 5, the suspect entered City National Bank, 150 California Street, stood behind a 90-year-old Hispanic female customer at the teller window, and held a knife to her throat. After demanding and receiving currency, the suspect fled the bank. The victim was not injured.
The suspect is described as an African-American male, 30-40, 6’, 175 lbs, black hair with mustache and goatee. The suspect wore a dark baseball cap in each incident. Surveillance photos of the suspect accompany this press release.
Anyone with information regarding the suspect is urged to contact Inspector Phillip Wong, Criminal Investigation Unit, 553-1201, to call the Confidential Tip Line, 415-575-4444, or to use Text-a-Tip by typing TIP411 or 847411 in the “To” field and “SFPD” in the text field.
For more information, please contact the Media Relations Unit, 553-1651
Tags: 10-039, 1160 Grant, 150 California, 1801 Van Ness, 2010, 22, 553-1201, 553-1651, 743 Washington, 847411, analog, april, asian, ave, avenue, bank, baseball, cap, cash, Citibank, City National, Confidential, Confidential Tip Line, currency, customer, demanded, digital, downtown, East West, goatee, hostage, Inspector, knife, Line, march, media, Media Relations, Media Relations Unit, mustache, phillip, Phillip Wong, phone, photo, relations, robber, robbery, San Francisco, SFPD, street, Surveillance, suspect, telephone, text, Text-a-Tip, throat, Tip, TIP411, wells fargo, Wong
Posted in crime | No Comments »
Friday, February 12th, 2010
The Winter Olympics are going to get going tomorrow after tonight’s ceremony, but San Francisco doesn’t have an NBC affiliate so there you go. (I think the closest city of license for NBC is Fun Jose or Fresno or someplace Down South.) Here’s the rule – if you can’t see Mount San Bruno from your residence, chances are your rabbit ears won’t either.
All right then, you can always keep up at nbcolympics.com, and at the same time get your fill of ads for WalMart and the 2010 Census.
Or, alternatively, you can check out the less spammy website of the United State Olympic Committee complete with all the Web 2.0 connections you kids crave.
Your choice.
via Robert Sanzalone
Tags: 2010, antenna, canada, digital, KNTV, mount, mountain, nbc, Olympics, san bruno, San Francisco, san jose, TV, Vancouver, whistler, winter
Posted in sports, TV | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Like these guys.
It would take forever to make it up the stairs to the top of controversial landmark Sutro Tower, so a swaying elevator car is the preferred method.
Click to expand to get a closer look at a sunnier, more colorful San Francisco:
Take the tour.
Tags: 11, 12, 14, 2, 2009, 29, 30, 34, 4.4, 41, 42, 45, 5, 65, 66, 7, 9, ABC, analog, analogue, antenna, antennae, antennas, association, auxilliary, AZT, bay area, broadcast, c. w., cable, cbs, digital, dt, DTV, elevator, Forest Knolls Neighborhood Organization, forrest, Forrest Knolls, Forrest Knolls Neighborhood Organization, fox, gump, High, hill, home, Improvement, inc. sutro tower inc, incorporated, ion, KBCW, KDTV, KFSt TEL, kgo, KKPX, KNTV, KPIX, kqed, KRON, KTNc, ktvu, low, Midtown Terrace, Midtown Terrace Home Owners Association, mount, nbc, neighborhood, nimbies, nimby, nimbys, Owners, pbs, power, radio, re-scanning, red, rescanning, San Francisco, scan, scanning, stairs, sutro, sutro tower, television, tons, twin peaks, Twin Peaks Improvement Association, UNI, white, workers
Posted in architecture, TV | 3 Comments »
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Not that you’d really be able to tell, though. Sutro Tower Inc. has just finished a project that had some of the digital TV broadcast antennas (not “antennae” – that plural term is only used for bugs in our silly English language) gaining a higher altitude.
Not much howver, maybe a seven-percent increase, max. Does that make a big difference? No, not for most people, but at least STI is trying.
Here’s the antenna of KPIX-TV (OMG, that’s the home of Eye on Blogs – big ups, Brittney Gilbert!) a way up top, like 1700 feet above sea level. Now Channel 5 is as high as possible:
Click to expand
The Future is Now, and what’s labeled “CURRENT” is history:
From this:
To this:
Well, they were still wrapping the KPIX, KRON, KTVU antenna assembly, but you get the idea.
So it looks like we’re all set with the Great Digital TV Conversion of 2009. As long as Sutro Tower doesn’t get hit by a shooting star….
…we’ll be all right.
Tags: 11, 12, 14, 2, 2009, 29, 30, 34, 4.4, 41, 42, 45, 5, 65, 66, 7, 9, ABC, analog, analogue, antenna, antennae, antennas, association, auxilliary, AZT, bay area, broadcast, c. w., cable, cbs, channel 2, channel 4, channel 5, channel 7, chronicle, Chronicle Publishing, clarendon, conversion, Cox Broadcasting, digital, dt, DTV, emf, Examiner, Forest Knolls Neighborhood Organization, forrest, Forrest Knolls, Forrest Knolls Neighborhood Organization, fox, gump, High, hill, home, Improvement, inc. sutro tower inc, incorporated, ion, KBCW, KDTV, KFSt TEL, kgo, KGO-TV, KKPX, KNTV, KPIX, kqed, KRON, KTNc, ktvu, law school, low, Midtown Terrace, Midtown Terrace Home Owners Association, mount, nbc, neighborhood, nimbies, nimby, nimbys, Owners, pbs, Peace and Love and Noticing the Details, pelosi, power, radio, re-scanning, red, rescanning, ronald, San Francisco, scan, scanning, Stephen R. Barnett, STI, sutro, sutro tower, Sutro Tower Inc, television, tons, tower, TV, twin peaks, Twin Peaks Improvement Association, UNI, USF, Westinghouse Broadcasting, white
Posted in TV | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
San Francisco’s famous Sutro Tower (owned by Sutro Tower, Inc., the buyer-offer and $hutter-upperof San Francisco’s mid-town NIMBYs) has a new look for Fall.
Here’s Before (a way back in August 2009)…
…und jetzt After, the way it looks these days (when being buzzed by a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 NG heading to El Lay, camera right, see it?)
Click to expand
Très chic! Non?
Now, she’s all set for the next meteor shower:
Courage.
Tags: 11, 12, 14, 2, 2009, 29, 30, 34, 4.4, 41, 42, 45, 5, 65, 66, 7, 9, ABC, analog, analogue, antenna, antennae, antennas, association, auxilliary, AZT, bay area, broadcast, c. w., cable, cbs, change, digital, dt, DTV, east, Forest Knolls Neighborhood Organization, forrest, Forrest Knolls, Forrest Knolls Neighborhood Organization, fox, gump, High, hill, home, Improvement, inc. sutro tower inc, incorporated, ion, KBCW, KDTV, KFSt TEL, kgo, KKPX, KNTV, KPIX, kqed, KRON, KTNc, ktvu, low, Midtown Terrace, Midtown Terrace Home Owners Association, mount, nbc, neighborhood, nimbies, nimby, nimbys, north, Owners, pbs, power, radio, re-scanning, red, rescanning, San Francisco, scan, scanning, south, stack, sutro, sutro tower, television, tons, twin peaks, Twin Peaks Improvement Association, UNI, west, white
Posted in TV | Comments Off
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Oh man, it was on last night at Embarcadero One’s LandMark Cinema in the Financial District. But you can see for yourself tonight for just $15 at 6:00PM.
If you are into video games, this is a Good Deal, is all I have to say. I’m not going to spell it all out for you [cough SWAG!, cough MINI SLIDER BURGERS!], I’m just saying you’ll get your money’s worth for both the experience of it and the takeaways.
The Sony 4k digital projector’s output is just beautiful. I don’t know much about latency and refresh rates ’n stuff, but this is the best looking “video monitor” I’ve ever seen.
Here’s a photograph of the computer / movie screen. Where are the pixels? No pixelization that I could see. (Don’t try this at home with your own PC screen.)
And hey, is Uncharted 2 a game changer for Sony?
Only Time Will Tell.
Tags: 4k, digital, Embarcadero, games, naughty dog, projection, sacramento, San Francisco, Sony, street, theatre, uncharted, uncharted 2, Video
Posted in games | Comments Off
