Apple has built a new iTunes store that is much more efficient. Click the Welcome image, it will open in a web preview first, in the past iTunes would open directly and there wasn’t a web page preview. This gives a viewer the chance to look around before launching iTunes, which is excellent.
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After 15 years of rumors, researchers made public fossils from a 4.4 million-year-old human forebear they say reveals that our ancestors were more modern than scholars had assumed, widening the evolutionary gulf separating humankind from apes and chimpanzees.
You’ve got to see highlights of the extensive fossil trove, a female skeleton a million years older than the iconic bones of Lucy, the primitive female figure that has long symbolized humankind’s beginnings. One million years more human history? This throws a serious curve ball into the entire theory of human existence. Could there be even older human existence? Could ‘yo mama’ be the oldest? This is NOT the old human ever, because who was her mama?
An international research team led by paleoanthropologist Tim White at the University of California, Berkeley, unveiled on Thursday remains from 36 males, females and young of an ancient prehuman species called Ardipithecus ramidus.
Unearthed in the Awash region of Ethiopia starting in 1994. The creatures take their scientific name from the word for “root” in the local Afar language. They aren’t the oldest known fossils of hominids — as prehuman species and their relatives are called — but constitute the most complete set discovered so far.
Read on, see a slide show and interactive graphics via Wall Street Journal:
Continue reading about Shocking New Light on Humankind - WSJ
Shipwrecks have captured the imagination of scuba divers with each person alone with their thoughts to wonder what may have happened, who was on board, how many died, and if other divers may have tempted the interior to find a watery grave since. Most wrecks are as safe as underwater safety can be, and most divers use extreme caution when entering a ship’s interior, totally aware of what could be. This wreck is mostly skeletal with very few interior spaces to explore, but that doesn’t diminish the experience.
Choose the 640 or 960 HD clips, or better yet jump to our HD PodCast on iTunes for the best viewing experience.Music by Garry Lee Rosenberg, appropriately titled; Sea Anemone.
Apple Computer - is well known for excellent engineering and that has never been more apparent than inside the multi-core Intel architecture inside the newest Mac Pro dubbed Nehalem. As a government contractor I have the honor of providing products and services within my specialties. Mac systems for video production is one of those areas. I just finished rocking out two (2) systems which are loaded to the gills. I’d like to tell you where they are going, but if I told you I’d have to kill ME!
Two identical systems to the one I have in my own studio and so I was entrusted to configure them for the military with components and software that would make anyone squeal with glee. Did I mention 16GB of RAM? Ya, that too, however this system has three RAM channels and share across all processors. Adding RAM to slot 4 will reduce the bandwidth speed on channel three and the RAM in slot four by half. This can be a negative for programs like Color, Motion, but the full rack-o-RAM is a positive for running multiple programs at the same time. I will be curious to performed the bench tests with 12GB; my system has 16GB installed. Get the scoop from the source: “INTEL”
Phantom HD GOLD - A camera specifically designed for demanding cinematographer.
Vision Research introduces the second-generation Phantom® HD GOLD. There are over 100 Phantoms in constant demand at major rental houses.
This camera is not a high-speed camera in the traditional sense, but an instrument that gives the cinematographer 35mm depth of field either at HD or 2K resolutions with stunning results. The Phantom HD GOLD combines the visual quality of high-definition imaging with ultra-high frame rates in a exquisite specialty camera.
When it’s TOO FAST TO SEE, TOO IMPORTANT TO NOT SEE.
A sense of time: Combine 35mm visual quality with super fast frame rates and extremely fast exposure and you’ve got a single camera for all shooting needs.
When your imaging requirement is a feature film or network broadcasting of rapidly moving sport events, commercials, music videos, nature documentary, monitoring a rocket launch, or innovative creative work on a specialty film project, the flexible and virtually limitless control of the Phantom will provide unforgettable, unmatched footage. Accepts 35mm PL-mount lenses and can use a Nikon F-mount.
Phantom HD GOLD allows any frame rate, from 1 to 1,000, in increments of one. Shift the frame rate to move the scene into a futuristic viewpoint. Or shift the frame rate a lot and the scene becomes a long-passing moment in ultra- slow motion. The camera’s shutter is variable to 1/500,000 of a second to combine with radically adjustable framing rates for seamless control of the duration, speed and time of a story element. The Phantom can be configured for “live” broadcast , NFL, or studio production with continuous video outputs (720p, 1080p, 1080i). Multiple triggering and recording modes are tailored to application including pre-roll.
See recent projects captured with a Phantom [ jump to view ]
The Phantom HD GOLD is available with 32 Gigabytes of internal memory, but this is just the start of methods to capture and store work. Hot-swappable, non-volatile, solid state recorders; Phantom CineMags, are low profile modules that mount snugly to the top of the camera body to store 256 or 512 Gigabytes each.
Too bad more television shows are not produced for young kids. I hear complaints from parents who state most children programming is animation cartoon based. One DVD called The Reef has animated fish, but they don’t teach anything about the Ocean. The fish character speak English, have human-like roles, engage in social situations about every aspect of life with little to nothing about the reef or fishes. Have you ever seen a fish talk? So what is the educational message?
How about a television show about the Ocean in a format kids can enjoy? Young kids can’t experience the reef so let’s bring the reef to them.
Perhaps there is enough kids programming to satisfy the federal mandate, but few are designed to engage kids with science on their level or drive them to the local 
aquariums. Just more of the same after school cartoons. Boring…
With the exception of the host, this is a concept for kids. Unfortunately I missed the awesome opportunity to attend this year’s National Geographic Producers Workshop @ WGBN Boston. Gives my team a year to wait and hope we are selected next time. What a team!
Best view is the HD PodCast on iTunes: “CLICK” or try the pop-up player.
The second video is seven minutes filled with fun and laughs.
Hey Kids, grab your mask and flippers: Play Now | Play in Popup Octopus, Angels, Hammerhead, and Ziggy the Monster: Play Now | Play in PopupVideo Podcast - While researching the Hawaiian monk seal for a potential documentary with NOAA I stumbled on the ugly exploitation of sharks in the region. It is shocking to realize with all the research on sharks shark tours are becoming an even MORE popular visitor attraction. A recent scuba-moron to Oahu’s North Shore called it ‘exhilarating’. With an attitude, “I just wanted to do it once.” They headed for the hotel with a small polite group of Native Hawaiians on their heels. They were explaining to the fat backsides that Hawaiians consider the shark to be ancestral Gods. Feeding them for entertainment is disrespectful to their culture. Heck, it’s disrespectful to all things in the Ocean, in food chain and the ecological balance. Hawaiians and Hawley alike want the operators to stop.
[caption id="attachment_582" align="alignright" width="280" caption="No food today? Let's head to the beach for a bite."]To be clear: There is nothing wrong, in fact it is smart to use a shark cage. It is very wrong when a dive operator is feeding sharks for people in a cage.
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Surfers and environmentalists fear the tours will teach sharks to associate people with food. When the sharks don’t find tourists in the little ‘happy meal’ steel cage what do you think will happen next? While the tourists watch the news from the Lazy Boy some surfer or diver will be missing a limb. The sad part is sharks don’t even like the taste of human, but when confused and taunted the shark will snap and strike at anything.
Sharks sit at the APEX of the World Food Chain. Sharks will gather in areas of tour feeding. The additional shark population will also create great competition for natural prey and cause stress or deplete other marine life in the process. But that’s of little concern to the impatient tourist who wants a rush right now. Want a rush? Go down without a cage, see how a shark reacts to a hand full of chum. Oh, that isn’t as pleasurable? The disrespect may seem temporary by the ‘only once’ gang o’ fools but the damage lives on long after the thrill is gone.
Joe Pavsek, owner of North Shore Shark Adventures, said, “If you read the law, you’ll understand that I’m not breaking any laws.” (Dhaaaa, why am I an idiot?) Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Joe Pavsek then revealed this jewel, “We don’t have to feed the sharks. We do it for the customers.” That’s why Joe is an idiot. What would be wrong with the anticipation that you might be lucky and see a shark? Not stimulating enough for an over-stimulated couch potato. The same potatos think they are great athletes because of their dozens of hours with a video game.
More than 400 Hawaiian residents packed a town hall meeting and successfully launched the anti-shark tour movement. State lawmakers have vowed to draft legislation to shut down the tours. Listen to world renowned underwater photographer Stephen Frink has to say about the state of this magical animal.
For the record: Federal law clearly prohibits feeding sharks 200 miles off Hawaii to include the Pacific territories and Samoa. The only exceptions are made for fishermen who harvest them for food, and scientific research for the benefit of the shark.
Ever hear of unintended consequences? Joe is dead wrong and needs to be stopped before someone innocent is declared dead right.
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YOU CAN make a difference. We are urging people to report child abuse if the see it, sense it or know it. Help kids and families get education and support to stop the cycle of violence that child abuse causes.
LVHD produced a 30-second awareness campaign for the task force. Music and lounge act provided by Garry Lee Rosenberg really draws attention in a new way to an old problem. He uses a classic song with a snappy melody and adds a lyrical twist to create an original timeless message. Sticky Message stays with you.
A couple quick videos showing the modular design, quality engineering, and ease of access inside our brand new Mac Pro 8-core Nehalen machine. [Click the image to see this machine on Apple's web site.]
The machine formerly known as “The G5″ has plenty of life now serving as our audio workstation, so our audio workstation is capable of posting HD should we need it, while providing a nice step up in sound design.
Mac Pro 8-core look inside: Play Now | Play in Popup Mac Pro upgrade and install: Play Now | Play in Popup###
Continue reading about Inside the Mac Pro 8-core 2.93 “Nehalen” processors
The latest and greatest at that time from Apple wasn’t super impressive. His project was built on the Apple architecture; 1028 machine networked processors; they too were using Ultra-SCSI 320 dual channel RAIDs for super computing. I was impressed. At that time he spoke of the future, he told of an 8-Core system; code name “Nehalem”. He also told me I should shave my soul patch and get in shape. Can you imagine?
Spring is in the air. Summer around the bend. Video at the end of this post! It won’t be long until I will try to squeeze one more year out of that wetsuit. Either way I need to get in shape for the scuba season. This is also a good time to GREEN UP around the house and rethink our personal consumption of material and space.
Reuse - no explanation necessary.As you use up a spring cleaning product consider replacing with friendlier products or better yet; make you own household cleaner.
Sweep out the garage and get rid of old paint cans, motor oil, propane tanks which are potential bio-hazards. They may require a call to your municipal recycling agency. You may have to drop the junk off, but hey - who had the stuff in the garage in the first place?
Click to continue reading "Always Ready"
small shark clip: Play Now | Play in Popup iPod shark clip: Play Now | Play in Popup HD shark clip: Play Now | Play in Popup
Legendary Photographer Stephen Frink on Sharks: 
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