Tag Archives: Prism

LEGO Prism & Spectrum Concept: Newtonian Playset

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In the late 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton used prisms to show that visible light is made up of seven different-colored bands, repurposing the Latin word “spectrum” to group those colors. In 1973, Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis appropriated the prism and the spectrum for Pink Floyd’s album The Dark Side of the Moon. That artwork proved to be so popular even people who have never listened and will never listen to Pink Floyd can’t help but blurt out “Dark Side of the Moon anyone?” when they see a prism and the visible spectrum. But LEGO Ideas member grobie87 doesn’t care about any of that. He made this set because he loves that the phenomenon is a fusion of science and art.

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Grobie87 says he found both the spectrum and the prism challenging to recreate with LEGO. For the spectrum, he ended up going with thick bars for the seven colors. When viewed from the front, they look like they’re fanning out, but they’re actually mounted on top of each other. For the prism, he chose to make the left and right sides snap-on pieces on hinges, instead of having them snap to each other and to the prism’s faces.

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Grobie87 also came up with a minifig called Roger Waters Roy G. Biv to accompany the set.

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Despite appealing to physics and science nuts, LEGO enthusiasts, prog rock nerds and the Church of the Dark Side of the Moon Anyone Sayers, it’s amazing that as of this writing, grobie87’s proposal hasn’t garnered even a tenth of the required 10,000 votes for it to have a chance at becoming an official LEGO set. Let’s change that, shall we? Yes, we’ll say it. All together now: “Dark Side of the Moon anyone?”

CD Case Hologram Projector: The Future Was Here All Along

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You can buy specially constructed prisms that turn a mobile device – or any small display for that matter – into a hologram-like projector. But you can save a few bucks by making one out of a CD case instead.

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The materials needed for this hack are commonly found, and it involves simple cutting and taping so anyone can do it. Mrwhosetheboss actually got the idea from fellow YouTuber American Hacker, but the former’s instructions are much clearer.

As mentioned in the video, the display will work only with videos or images made specifically for such a prism. I’m not sure if Holho’s mobile apps will work with it, but they’re free so you might as well give them a shot.

[via Viral Viral Videos]

A Periscope for Cyclists: Pedi-Scope

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Mike Lane’s Pedi-Scope is a simple analog device that will free cyclists of squealing from their neck pain. Squeaking from the freaking. Oinking from the boinking. The Pedi-Scope straps to the front of your bicycle and shows the view up front on a horizontal glass display, letting you see what’s ahead while you’re looking down.

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Mike says he’s an avid cyclist himself but was getting sick of the neck and shoulder pains arising from the normal riding position. Sure, he could put his head down, but then his entire body would be in danger. When he saw a pair of prism glasses online, the idea hit him. His prototype is actually made from the prisms inside a couple of prism glasses, hence the fragmented display. The final version of the Pedi-Scope will have one long prism.

I think it’s a good solution to the problem, though if you ask me it needs to be bigger or at least magnify the reflection. But if you’re sold, you can pledge at least $39 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive a Pedi-Scope as a reward.

[via Gadgetify]

Prismatic Perfection

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The Prism table tells a story. No matter what angle you look from, it will always show you something new! Like a prism refracting light, this table takes lines of color, emerging from a single bar, and stretches them across its frame. By weaving and twisting its linear geometry, the internal structure transforms from point to point. The maze of mixing colors creates surfaces that together form a beautiful whole.

Designer: Maurie Novak

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(Prismatic Perfection was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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  3. Prismatic Light Sculptures

    






NYT: NSA monitors, graphs some US Citizens’ social activity with collected metadata

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Just how does the NSA piece together all that metadata it collects? Thanks to "newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials," The New York Times today shed light on how the agency plots out the social activity and connections of those it's spying on. Up until 2010, the NSA only traced and analyzed the metadata of emails and phone calls from foreigners, so anything from US citizens in the chains created stopgaps. Snowden-provided documents note the policy shifted later in that year to allow for the inclusion of Americans' metadata in such analysis. An NSA representative explained to the NYT that, "all data queries must include a foreign intelligence justification, period."

During "large-scale graph analysis," collected metadata is cross-referenced with commercial, public and "enrichment data" (some examples included GPS locations, social media accounts and banking info) to create a contact chain tied to any foreigner under review and scope out its activity. The highlighted ingestion tool in this instance goes by the name Mainway. The NYT article also highlights a secret report, dubbed "Better Person Centric Analysis," which details how data is sorted into 164 searchable "relationship types" and 94 "entity types" (email and IP addresses, along with phone numbers). Other documents highlight that during 2011 the NSA took in over 700 million phone records daily on its own, along with an "unnamed American service provider" that began funneling in an additional 1.1 billion cellphone records that August. In addition to that, Snowden's leak of the NSA's classified 2013 budget cites it as hoping to capture "20 billion 'record events' daily" that would be available for review by the agency's analysts in an hour's time. As you might expect, the number of US citizens that've had their info bunched up into all of this currently remains a secret -- national security, of course. Extended details are available at the source links.

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Via: The Verge

Source: New York Times

NSA accused of hacking into India’s nuclear systems

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Uhoh NSA allegedly hacked into India's nuclear systems

According to Edward Snowden's cache of documents, the NSA has been delving deeper into India's servers than many could have imagined. The Hindu is reporting that, in addition to the usual PRISM snooping, the agency also vacuumed up data on the country's nuclear, political and space programs. The newspaper says it has a document, entitled "A Week in the Life of PRISM reporting," which allegedly shows that discussions between high-ranking politicians, nuclear and space scientists were being monitored in "real-time." The revelation comes a few months after Kapil Sibal, India's IT chief, denied that any such surveillance was being undertaken. Who knows? Maybe he was spending so much time on his other projects that he missed the clues. For its part, the US has insisted that its hands are clean in India. Back in June, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the US doesn't look at individual conversations but instead "randomly surveys" data in order to discover communications that are "linked to terrorists."

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Via: The Register

Source: The Hindu