I wonder how easy a cheap, low tech version of this would be to make. A camera staring at the underside of a clear gel with an incredibly thin layer of opaque reflective pigment on top of it could pick up and translate a depth map if the surface were evenly lit.
I wonder what office could officiate the official announcement that cell phones are killing bees. I would assume this would be some kind of department of natural resources or environmental protection agency, yes? This office would not likely be the trashy British tabloid the Daily Mail, right?
I'm not quite clicking with the design. I'd figure you'd need at least the wing span of an ultralight to get that off the ground, plus a bit more for the weight of its fully paneled body. I'm just not seeing how you fit an engine and enough fuel for a reasonable flight in that package. The doubled wings buy you a little span, but it just doesn't seem to have enough surface area.
I'd rather the headline read "hasn't popped" versus "never popped". It implies there's some force keeping the high heel bubble (whatever that may be) from popping in perpetuity, and seems to draw a connection to the education bubble doing the same.
This is like an article in 2007 reading "The High-Hell Bubble never popped, and the Housing Bubble may not either."
That is exactly what he claimed -- that the situation with high heels is in a stable equilibrium. Barring some kind of outside influence, stable equilibria remain in their state indefinitely.
But the author doesn't state why that equilibrium cannot change. He states that is hasn't, which is different.
It's the difference between a double blind experiment and an epidemiological survey. One attempts to isolate a mechanism that is predictive, another attempts to explain historical trends.
A speculative bubble is not an equilibrium. It will inflate and pop all on it's own accord. The housing bubble inflated and popped without any underlying changes in fundamental factors (e.g. population).
In contrast, a Nash Equilibrium based on signalling will inflate and remain until some fundamental factors change. Women will continue to wear high heels and people will continue getting unnecessary education until these activities stop being a means of obtaining status.
This seems to be too simple and straightforward to be true. Also, the promise of a follow up video with no link to a description or more of the author's work is a bit suspicious. You seldom get this brand of hack without having a handful of projects you're proud of and make a website for first.
Still, it would be lovely if this turns out to be true. Stuffed with potential.
It's completely news to me, but I don't have strong ties to the infosec world. This could be standard practice as far as I know.
Is it usual to find analysis/info traders doing this brand of malicious software injection? Are a portion of active worms and rootkits used today derivations of tools built by infosec companies?
I posted some advice in the replies on his wordpress. I'll repost it here as I think it applies to anyone in the making/programming/mathematics venn.
Although I think you could conquer art as a lasting business it's difficult to simply pick up as a stopgap measure. It takes time to build up an audience, figure out promotions, weigh out the cost of merchandise, and tour the right conferences. However, once all the proper mechanisms are in place it can develop into a really rewarding career.
You might consider joining the http://100kgarages.com/ 100k Garages Network to contract out some time on your equipment as a short term solution. I've been selling through Etsy and producing work on commission for a few years. It takes time to ramp up, but promoting through MAKE magazine, BoingBoing, and various geek and maker magazines is easy if you make things that capture geek imaginations. Writing Instructables and giving talks at Makter Faire and Hack Labs are both ways of giving your work a long tail that brings in a steady stream of visitors.
http://www.pacificpuzzleworks.com/ Lee Krasnow is an inspiring example of a successful home maker. He produces intensely mathematically driven complex wooden puzzles. He makes them with such precision and skill that he can charge a fairly high price on each and make a decent living out of the affair. I feel the same about http://www.taomc.com/ Bruce Shapiro, http://www.arthurganson.com/ Arthur Ganson, and http://oilpunk.com/ John Saurriuguarte. http://sternlab.org/ Becky Stern makes her living through a combo of writing for MAKE and beautiful crafty projects. http://adafruit.com Limor Fried, better known as Lady Ada, spun out her hacker electronics kits into a thriving business.
With your skills a career in interaction design (at a place like http://tellart.com/ Tellart, http://www.wetdesign.com/ Wet, http://tangibleinteraction.com/ Tangible Interaction, etc.) might be a solid fit. Doing a combo of engineering, fabricating, and design is a mighty force for companies that produce one-offs like conference booths, promotional sculptures, art installations, lobby displays, signs, and interactive advertisements. I've done little jobs for Tellart for years and it's always rewarding.
Your work is impressive and I'd like to see more, bigger, and more impossible varieties of it. Please get in touch if you'd like to chat about more possibilities, places, and art.
Excellent job.