The galaxy is teeming with organic matter

Recent research is coming to the conclusion that, during specific parts of their life-cycle, stars generate large amounts of organic matter and send them careening through the interstellar medium. This is a huge new piece of information to finding the beginnings of life on Earth. For a time now, it has been believed that life on Earth was seeded by meteorites containing the necessary building blocks for life. How those compounds showed up on space rocks has been a big open question in the theory.

Now this is camera magic...WOW

There are not too many products that come out these days that truly make me catch my breath. Finding new technology is more of a hum-drum hobby than an adventurous search into the unknown. Today, however, I really had a "WOW" kind of moment.

The Lytro camera debuted today and this little stick of a camera, called a light-field camera, produces some astounding results. Try out the demo below by clicking on the person in the background and then clicking on the bike tire in the foreground. Amazing!

How does it work? Well, that can be a little complicated as this involves some physics that are foreign to your own experience with light. First off, the camera is not just collecting light like a normal camera. Instead, a light-field camera is capable of recording, in addition to color and intensity, the vector direction of the rays of light. Knowing how all of the light made its way to your camera allows for a computer to manage focus using software. A normal camera uses hardware to focus in on one direction of light. The light-field camera captures all the possible focusing configurations. With this ability you can focus on any part of an image long after it was taken. In addition, you can then refocus the image as many times as you like.

Also, as you can see above, these images can be embedded on any website, even your Facebook wall.

More photo fun: https://www.lytro.com/living-pictures/

How does a self-driving car make decisions?

A self-driving Golf Cart too! Just first two minutes.

Flavors.me is a beautiful and highly usable way to set up your personal page

I was just checking out this website, flavors.me, and it is one of the coolest, sexiest places to host and design your personal information page. The design here is truly phenomenal. Simple, one-step sign-up and a clean interface provide an experience that is clear and straightforward while allowing for a lot of customization. Speaking of customization, if you want to add an even more unique look beyond what is available in the free version, you can upgrade to their premium service for just $20/year. It includes more fonts, SEO metadata, the ability to re-route from a custom domain, analytics and more.

Get the whole scoop in the following video.

WebGL provides a seamless Google Maps experience

WebGL allows web developers to build interactive 3D graphics within a modern browser (Chrome/Firefox). It basically allows websites to use your graphics card just like a desktop app or video game would. If you have a compatible browser and video card, you can head over to Google Maps and enable a WebGL experience. Using vector graphics, Google Maps with WebGL seamlessly zooms in and out without waiting for image tiles to load, transitions from maps to satellite images is snappy and swooping around the map in three dimensions feels natural.

This is how the future of web applications is going to look. Fast, reliable and nearly indistinguishable, in experience and performance, from their desktop counterparts.

See the video below for a demo.

Chrome Remote Desktop BETA now available

New Chrome App allows you to gain remote access or share access with any computer running the Chrome browser and this new app. It is fantastically simple in that you generate an access code and then use that code to access your computer (or someone else's, think of providing support to family/friends). Do note that Google has splashed BETA in big red letters all over this app so use with caution.

Chrome Remote Desktop BETA

Get notified, or don't, on Google+

Google just rolled out the ability to customize your notifications settings even further than before. Limit notifications to specific circles, individuals or let the spam train ride. With a precipitous drop in activity since Plus went to open beta, Google needs to entice users back in with every little feature they can eek out.

More: Google+ Now Let’s Users Customize Who They Receive Notifications From [News]

GM gets into the car-sharing game

While I am about as far as you can get from the cities that support GetAround, a peer to peer car-sharing program, I am still a member and actively watch their progress. This sort of thing seems to make a lot of sense to me but I am somewhat skeptical about its adoption by the general consumer. I think people are still a bit suspicious about an internet company getting them rental cars from strangers. However, GM hopes to eliminate that fear by incorporating RelayRides, a new start-up similar to GetAround, into their OnStar service. In my opinion, this should alleviate consumer skepticism as OnStar is already a very well trusted brand.

Read more: TechCrunch - Car-sharing Startup RelayRides Partners With GM

A theater's last show goes on...

View of the Paramount Theatre from the balcony. afterthefinalcurtain.net

I love the way once beautiful things look as they decay from neglect and the burden of time. After the Final Curtain is a great photo blog showcasing American theaters that have been abandoned.

This is the future?

FINALLY!

Japanese toilet motorcycle runs on human waste

You are only human

"Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy of the interposition of a deity, more humble and I think truer to consider him created from animals" -Darwin





I think some might not agree with me or Sagan and that is okay. Humanity is complicated and the Universe is vast in its mystery. We are only trying to understand in the way that makes the most sense to each of us.

UPDATE: I just had to add this...

"I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in this mysterious Universe without having any purpose." - Feynman

Peel a head of garlic...FAST!

I LOVE garlic. Any method to, quickly, get more of it in my dishes is much appreciated.
Image from JJ Harrison
Check it out!

Are you alive? PassMyWill Entails Your Social Identity to Your Friends

Know someone who died recently from your friends list on Facebook? Having a dead person in your friends list can be odd when you still see their automatic postings from various QOTD, Astrology and Reader Apps that make it appear as though they are living. Sure, you could remove them but, somehow, it seems wrong to toss a life away into forgetfulness through the, usually passive-agressive, method of removing "friends." They died, its probably not their fault.

PassMyWill is a service that will monitor your social activity. If you don't post anything, it will try to contact you via email. If that fails, it will send a list of logon credentials (that you put together ahead of time) to a list of people of your choosing. The idea is that you trust those individuals enough to do something nice with, your now ironic, social media presence. Perhaps a memorialization or, if your the joking type, some kind of silly, from the dead, social networking. 

It is a decent idea, but not without some concerns. I don't think this can actually differentiate from automatic app posts and real human posts. Security is another concern. Your friends will need a security key to access the passwords once you pass away. However, many are still uncertain about whether the system is easily tricked into distributing your passwords unintentionally.

Furthermore, there are easier and more sensible ways to accomplish this task. Unless you are a sad and pathetic internet troll who has no friends and has been shunned by all family, you will likely be able to include something in your will, or your security deposit box at the bank, that someone you care about will be able to access. If you haven't thought of that in this day and age it might be time to formulate some kind of plan. If you are like me, your partner should know how to access your social accounts (unless you are a sneaky sneak with things to hide). If you don't have someone close to you, include it in your will to have your accounts deleted by the executor. Just be sure to update it whenever you change your passwords.

Read More: TechCrunch - PassMyWill is a will for your online assets and passwords