An awesome phd program by Zdenek Kalai, very worth watching.
Predator – open source AI 3D object tracking with just a webcam
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Daily Archives: April 15, 2011
European Court of Justice To Outlaw Internet Filtering; Esp. For Copyright Enforcement
It looks like where copyright goons and the NL are failing by wanting to turn our society into a surveillance society, the unelected EU Court may come to citizens’ rescue:
Advocate General Cruz Villalón considers that the installation of that filtering and blocking system is a restriction on the right to respect for the privacy of communications and the right to protection of personal data, both of which are rights protected under the Charter of Fundamental Rights. By the same token, the deployment of such a system would restrict freedom of information, which is also protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The great internet censorship firewall of… The Netherlands!
Without any judge or court of justice having to ‘interfere’, the NL department of justice is going to just filter out access to sites they don’t like. Because that’s never gone wrong before and no-one has ever misused that power. Not only are they going to do that, but in the process they’ll be spying on all their citizens’ net access, which is a bit like opening every single letter sent before delivery. Welcome to Soviet NL. The secretary of state for Justice, mr Fred Teeuven, refused to allow any of the free speech interest groups (such as TV or bits of freedom) entry to the press conference when he made this announcement.
Nederlands downloadverbod is websitefilter | Webwereld.
Solar power without solar cells: A hidden magnetic effect of light could make it possible
A dramatic and surprising magnetic effect of light discovered by University of Michigan researchers could lead to solar power without traditional semiconductor-based solar cells.
The researchers found a way to make an “optical battery,” said Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics.
In the process, they overturned a century-old tenet of physics.
“You could stare at the equations of motion all day and you will not see this possibility. We’ve all been taught that this doesn’t happen,” said Rand, an author of a paper on the work published in the Journal of Applied Physics. “It’s a very odd interaction. That’s why it’s been overlooked for more than 100 years.”
Light has electric and magnetic components. Until now, scientists thought the effects of the magnetic field were so weak that they could be ignored. What Rand and his colleagues found is that at the right intensity, when light is traveling through a material that does not conduct electricity, the light field can generate magnetic effects that are 100 million times stronger than previously expected. Under these circumstances, the magnetic effects develop strength equivalent to a strong electric effect.
via Solar power without solar cells: A hidden magnetic effect of light could make it possible.