You know, sometimes you come across something that really makes you appreciate human ingenuity and dedication to a project. This isn't one of those.

What you're looking at it is a 17,000 push-pin mosaic mural, a product of three revisions and a total of two and a half semesters of work. The final revision took a whopping two months of work by the CIS Student Association at the University of the Fraser Valley, and it's currently sitting in the Student Computing Center over there.

17,000 push-pins, wow -- impressive work! And, whether you like the piece or not, I think we can all agree that these kids should be expelled for ganking office supplies. Hit the jump for several more of the craziness (including an in-progress shot), along with a link to the Flickr gallery.

Oh sure, there's bound to be some protrusion when shoving a retro console into a gaming handheld, but inelegant styling was a way of life for Sega back in the mid-90s. Modder Chris Koopa has achieved the impossible by stuffing an Atari 2600 (or the important parts, anyway) along with 40 games into a hacked up Game Gear and enabling it to operate for nearly a full workday with just five AA batteries. And yeah, there's totally a 2600 cartridge slot to allow for playback of original titles. You know you're oddly interested in seeing more, so tap the read link for a few shots from the rear / side.

[Via technabob]

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Atari 2600 stuffed into Game Gear, Sega Nomad seen casting envious glances originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Greg Parker is a professor of electronics at Southampton University. He's also a wizard. Like his co-author Noel Carboni. Real wizards, capable of obtaining some images that rival the best of Hubble's and giant Earth-based telescopes using less than $15,000 in equipment and more patience than any money in the world could buy. Their magic: A refrigerated CCD chip, a rotating dome, and some smart post processing in Photoshop.

galleryPost('refrigeratedcamera', 8, 'Star Vistas');

These images will be part of Star Vistas, a book that will be published next year and will collect all their photos of space, taken since they met online four years ago. The two alien Peeping Toms started to collaborate online in 2004. Neil—a Photoshop wizard with an astronomy inclination—helped Greg post-process his images of M33, which is a member of our local group of galaxies along with Andromeda (M31, who they also got in their book) and our very own Milky Way.

Greg uses a 28 cm Celestron NExtar 11 GPS reflecting telescope with Hyperstar lens, an optical assembly that attaches to the telescope secondary mirror, turning it from a slow f10 to an ultrafast f2 astrograph. This system is not designed for the human eye, so he got a matching Starlight Xpress SXV-H9C one-shot color CCD camera.

To increase the performance of the camera, he had to get rid of the noise in the sensor, which is produced by heat during long exposure times. This is achieved by installing a solid-state refrigeration system, which lowers the temperature of the CCD to 55º F less than the ambient temperature.

In addition to this, there is a last ingredient in the recipe: Parker moves the dome in his observatory by hand ever half hour, to adjust to the rotation of the Earth, which results in a moving sky.

In other words: Magic. [Star Vistas via Daily Mail]

By allowing its snooty customers to manipulate the snooty Microsoft Surface interface with their snooty fingers, BMW has officially become the first car maker to offer the touchscreen tech to a worldwide car-buying audience. Impressed? Me neither, but that's just because I'm a low-paid writer who's insanely jealous of anyone driving a car that's hotter than my 2006 Mercury Milan. So, basically everyone.

As you can see in the video, there's nothing ground-breaking here, save for some fancy cars and interactive swatches for interior and exterior colors (the software was developed by Vectorform for BMW, btw). If you're up for a stiff German guy reading off a cue card, though, then by all means clicky clicky. [BMW Blog, Thanks Haratiu!]

Windows only: Selecting blank media would seem to be a straight forward affair. You discover a certain brand works great for your purposes so you plan to buy more in the future. Simple! The label wrapped around the spindle of DVDs you just purchased doesn't tell the whole story however. While there are dozens and dozens of DVD brands, there are only a few actual manufacturers. If you're looking for that perfect burn and want to take another step towards becoming a blank-media connoisseur, DVD Identifier will help you dig beneath the labels and find more detailed information about your media. No need to waste burn time if you know the discs are low quality or won't be accepted by a finicky console or DVD player. For an interesting, albeit slightly dated, look at media quality and the varied labels of disc media check out the guide to high quality recordable DVDs. DVD Identifier is freeware, Windows only, and works on CD, DVD, HD DVD, and BLU-RAY media.

Is this tire really the "Holy Grail of Eco-Transportation," as Treehugger believes? Maybe. Time will tell if the electric engine inside the Active Wheel from Michelin will catch on and further drive down the cost of electric vehicles. For now, let's delve deep into this tire-motor combo, and you can decide for yourself if it has what it takes to kill the gas-guzzling combustion engine for good.

The wheels, while still in development over at Michelin, already have a vehicle ready to receive them. Called the Heuliez Will, this tiny tot from Opel doesn't look like much, but it has it where it counts, and might produce an offspring that, in a galaxy far, far away, makes the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. Or requires no gasoline to run. Probably the latter.

Even more impressive is the notion that in-wheel motors would free up space in the front or rear of the vehicle. This model also eliminates the need for other notorious space hogs like transmissions and exhaust systems. More room means more freedom for tomorrow's automobile designers, and cooler cars for we consumers. (*fingers crossed* anyway).

The target price for the Opel right now is about $24,000-37,000, which puts it in line with the upcoming so-called savior of Detroit, the Chevy Volt. Testing on the Opel has already begun, with an official consumer roll out expected by 2011. Active Wheels are also expected to come standard on the Venturi Volage sometime in 2012. [Michelin via Treehugger]

The global recession has sparked riots at the Nerf factory in Dongguan, South China, but there are as-of-yet no reports of any Vulcan GF-25 cannon discharges. In fact, no foam weaponry of any kind was brandished during the tussle, which came to a head following layoffs and unpaid wages.

And unlike the riots that took place in Wal-Mart and Toys R Us stores in the States last Friday, there were no reports of fatalities. Just general bedlam:

The workers battled security guards, turned over a police car, smashed the headlights of police motorcycles and forced their way through the factory's front gate, Guo said. They went on a rampage in the plant's offices, damaging 10 computers, the company said.

Below is that oldie but goodie Nerf office war video, because it's awesome.

null - Watch more free videos

[AP via Boing Boing]

A life cluttered with possessions is such a common state of affairs that George Carlin once based a well received comedy routine around the absurdity of the accumulation of material goods. Over at the financial blog The Simple Dollar, Trent decided to stare down his pile of goods through the belly of a suitcase. What if he needed to move on with his life with nothing more than a suitcase to haul his loot? What would make the cut? What if the suitcase became a perpetual litmus test?

If you carry it further, why not simply apply the “suitcase test” to every purchase that you make? If it’s not something that will fit in your “suitcase” - basic clothing, basic toiletries, cooking supplies, and a small number of splurge items - don’t buy it, or at least strongly consider not buying it.

After applying the suitcase test to the contents of his house, he and his wife went on to unload a considerable amount of their belongings with eBay sales and donations to Goodwill. What items would make the cut if you conducted your own suitcase test? If you think the suit case method a bit too extreme, start cutting down on your clutter by adopting the one in two out habit. Photo by Phineas H.

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Two gay penguins at Polar Land in Harbin, China have been stealthily stealing eggs from straight couples and replacing them with rocks. Brilliant!

But the deception has been noticed by other penguins at the zoo, who have ostracized the gay couple from their group. Now keepers have decided to segregate the pair of three-year-old male birds to avoid disrupting the rest of the community during the hatching season. "One of the responsibilities of being a male adult is looking after the eggs. Despite this being a biological impossibility for this couple, the natural desire is still there," a keeper told the Austrian Times newspaper. "It's not discrimination. We have to fence them separately, otherwise the whole group will be disturbed during hatching time," he added.

Not discrimination my ass. Next thing you know the couple won't even be allowed to marry. Seriously, I have had it up to here *raising arm as high over head as possible* with this nonsense. Penguins are people too, you know? And wow, my pits smell like chili-dogs with lots of chopped onion. Fucking love those things. Gay penguins too. Pittsburgh, eh, not so much. Gay penguins steal eggs from straight couples [telegraph] Thanks to Matt, who allegedly saw a turtle threesome at the zoo once.