Uncategorized

I found Ishikawa Komuro Lab, part of the University of Tokyo, through one of their YouTube videos (of course). The first video I found was an demonstration of ScoreLight, which is a laser that follows contours and produces sound that changes with curvature and other properties of the curves. There are a lot of movies and demos on their website.

The Khronos Projector is another project that is also very interesting. It uses a touch screen as an interface to a video so that where you touch the screen the movie advances through time.

Here are videos of some of their other research.

I recently saw the trailer for Iron Sky. The movie is a Finnish sci-fi comedy about Nazis that escape to the dark side of the moon in 1945 and plan to invade Earth in 2018. It is made by the same people who made Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, a sci-fi comedy where the Star Trek and Babylon 5 worlds collide. I hope Alamo Drafthouse picks up Iron Sky when it is released (approx. late 2011). If you want the production companies to distribute Iron Sky in Austin, you can demand the movie on their website – www.ironsky.net.

Here is the second trailer for Iron Sky.

Victory is mine, victory is mine. Great day in the morning, people, victory is mine. I drink from the keg of glory. Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land. I have finally finished my Masters of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. I shall be known hence forth as Master Yin, god among mortal men.

In the story’s world, everyone would have a life score. People would get positive points for good actions and awards (i.e. perfect attendance award) and negative points for bad actions. The scores would be displayed on badges worn at all times. The scores could be given by a computer system or the government. Instead of a class system based on birth or wealth, it would be based on one’s score. People with high scores get perks and more authority. The plot could be based on someone finding out about corruption in the point giving system in the government or hacks of the computer.
A religion could be based on the system. You get into heaven if you have a minimum score and hell if you have a low or negative score. There could also be a purgatory for low scores. There would also be tiers in heaven and hell.
The scores would probably have to be normalized for age so an older person doesn’t automatically have a higher score. It wouldn’t be proportional since age should count for something.
Maybe points can be converted into money or yearly tax deduction.
The government could be harsh and kill anyone whose score goes below a certain level (i.e. -50). You would probably get a warning in the mail saying, “Warning: Your score has fallen below acceptable limits! Please do good deeds to raise your score.” Of course this means that you can murder someone and get away with it as long as you do enough good deeds.