Wednesday, June 30, 2004
BBC NEWS | Technology | Webcam lets users eyeball others: "Instant messaging could get a lot more interesting if webcam technology by Microsoft gets the go-ahead.
i2i, in development at Microsoft Research labs, Cambridge UK, is a two-camera system which follows a person's movement.
It uses specially-developed algorithms to fuse what each camera sees to create an accurate stereo 'cyclopean' image. "
i2i, in development at Microsoft Research labs, Cambridge UK, is a two-camera system which follows a person's movement.
It uses specially-developed algorithms to fuse what each camera sees to create an accurate stereo 'cyclopean' image. "
Making the grandest tour
The Tour de France is the most arduous of the world's sporting events. Riders cover more than 2,000 miles in three weeks at an average speed of around twenty-eight miles per hour. The race can seem more like a test of simple endurance than a display of athletic prowess. The sheer physical effort involved makes it easy to write about its champions in terms of epic poetry.
The race defies ordinary explanation. It is a team sport in which an individual wins. It is an athletic event that actually harms the athletes? bodies. (Racers cannot consume enough food to replace the 6,000 or so calories burned off by each day's stage. Most finish the race with less muscle mass than they began with.) The race's founder, Henri Desgrange, wanted it to be so tough that there would be only a single finisher. He never got his wish, but the sport he set in motion takes such a savage toll on its riders that studies show that the life expectancy of a professional cyclist is barely more than fifty years
Robert Messenger
The race defies ordinary explanation. It is a team sport in which an individual wins. It is an athletic event that actually harms the athletes? bodies. (Racers cannot consume enough food to replace the 6,000 or so calories burned off by each day's stage. Most finish the race with less muscle mass than they began with.) The race's founder, Henri Desgrange, wanted it to be so tough that there would be only a single finisher. He never got his wish, but the sport he set in motion takes such a savage toll on its riders that studies show that the life expectancy of a professional cyclist is barely more than fifty years
Robert Messenger
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Monday, June 28, 2004
No Laughing Matter - The Graham Norton Effect is a raunchy, unfunny mess. By Dana?Stevens: " The overall effect (the, um, Graham Norton effect?) is that of being trapped at a raucous, superficial get-together with a bunch of coked-up strangers who are talking over each other in that drugged-out, manic way. You can almost feel the postnasal drip. I'm sure I have been, in some small way, forever sullied by the experience of watching The Graham Norton Effect. But if even one person out there avoids turning it on next week, my sacrifice will not have been in vain. "
Dana Stevens of Slate sticks it to Graham Norton. My sentiments exactly.
Dana Stevens of Slate sticks it to Graham Norton. My sentiments exactly.
Los Angeles Times: Rich Taste in a Poor Country: "Rich Taste in a Poor Country
North Korea's enigmatic leader Kim Jong Il demands the finest food and drink. But while he indulges, his countrymen starve."
North Korea's enigmatic leader Kim Jong Il demands the finest food and drink. But while he indulges, his countrymen starve."
Commentary - Is the Musical Comedy Dead?: "Nearly every successful musical written between 1943 and 1964 was influenced by the example of Oklahoma! From this perspective, it is no accident that On the Town (1944), Carousel (1945), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Kiss Me, Kate (1948), Guys and Dolls (1950), The King and I (1951), My Fair Lady (1956), The Music Man (1957), West Side Story (1957), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), and Hello, Dolly! (1964), all of which have been revived one or more times on Broadway, now constitute the bulk of the musical-comedy repertory."
Telegraph | Arts | The bombs that walk and talk: "This book starts with a tantalising promise: the study of the human body as a weapon of war. Man's ingenuity enables him to turn almost anything into a weapon. Famine and disease have been used as weapons of war as have the sermons of holy men and the charms of beautiful women."
Foreign Policy: Imperial Amnesia I have only read the first page of this. Must get back to it as a corrective to Niall Ferguson.
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