The 2023 Audubon Photography Awards Zeros In on Threats to Avian Life Amid the Climate Emergency — from thisiscolossal.com by Kate Mothes
Exquisite Paintings by Lee Me Kyeoung Are an Ode to the Quaint Corner Stores of South Korea — from thisiscolossal.com by Lee Me Kyeoung and Grace Ebert
Artist Spotlight: April Kamunde — from booooooom.com
Luminous Creatures Haunt Darkened Landscapes in Hannu Huhtamo’s Dreamlike Light Paintings — from thisiscolossal.com by Grace Ebert and Hannu Huhtamo
Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro AR headset is finally here — from techcrunch.com by Brian Heater
Excerpts:
“With Vision Pro, you’re no longer limited by a display,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said, introducing the new headset at WWDC 2023. Unlike earlier mixed reality reports, the system is far more focused on augmented reality than virtual. The company refresh to this new paradigm is “spatial computing.”
Reflections from Scott Belsky re: the Vision Pro — from implications.com
Apple WWDC 2023: Everything announced from the Apple Vision Pro to iOS 17, MacBook Air and more — from techcrunch.com by Christine Hall
Apple unveils new tech — from therundown.ai (The Rundown)
Here were the biggest things announced:
Apple announces AR/VR headset called Vision Pro — from joinsuperhuman.ai by Zain Kahn
Excerpt:
“This is the first Apple product you look through and not at.” – Tim Cook
And with those famous words, Apple announced a new era of consumer tech.
Apple’s new headset will operate on VisionOS – its new operating system – and will work with existing iOS and iPad apps. The new OS is created specifically for spatial computing — the blend of digital content into real space.
Vision Pro is controlled through hand gestures, eye movements and your voice (parts of it assisted by AI). You can use apps, change their size, capture photos and videos and more.
From DSC:
Time will tell what happens with this new operating system and with this type of platform. I’m impressed with the engineering — as Apple wants me to be — but I doubt that this will become mainstream for quite some time yet. Also, I wonder what Steve Jobs would think of this…? Would he say that people would be willing to wear this headset (for long? at all?)? What about Jony Ive?
I’m sure the offered experiences will be excellent. But I won’t be buying one, as it’s waaaaaaaaay too expensive.
Ruslan Khasanov Brings Cosmic Phenomena Down to Earth in His Mesmerizing Short Film ‘Space Iris’ — from thisiscolossal.com by Kate Mothes and Ruslan Khasanov
Space Iris 8K from Rus Khasanov on Vimeo.
2022 Booooooom Photo Awards Winner: Ophe?lie Maurus — from booooooom.com
Through Gripping Photos, Ryan Newburn Captures the Depths of Iceland’s Ancient Glacial Caves — from thisiscolossal.com by Grace Ebert and Ryan Newburn
A Collaborative Photo Project Imagines a World Where Street Artists Have Free Rein — from thisiscolossal.com by Grace Ebert
Excerpts:
What would artists create if all of the world’s surfaces could become a canvas? Joseph Ford—of Invisible Jumpers fame—responds to this question in a new project called Impossible Street Art. Collaborating with eight artists including Peeta, Levalet, and Victoria Villasana, Ford reimagines the possibilities of public spaces that are otherwise inaccessible due to scale, safety issues, or restrictions.
Dozens of Photographers Gather For ‘100 For the Ocean’ to Support Marine Research and Advocacy — from thisiscolossal.com by Kate Mothes
35 Ways Real People Are Using A.I. Right Now — from nytimes.com by Francesca Paris and Larry Buchanan
From DSC:
It was interesting to see how people are using AI these days. The article mentioned things from planning Gluten Free (GF) meals to planning gardens, workouts, and more. Faculty members, staff, students, researchers and educators in general may find Elicit, Scholarcy and Scite to be useful tools. I put in a question at Elicit and it looks interesting. I like their interface, which allows me to quickly resort things.
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There Is No A.I. — from newyorker.com by Jaron Lanier
There are ways of controlling the new technology—but first we have to stop mythologizing it.
Excerpts:
If the new tech isn’t true artificial intelligence, then what is it? In my view, the most accurate way to understand what we are building today is as an innovative form of social collaboration.
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The new programs mash up work done by human minds. What’s innovative is that the mashup process has become guided and constrained, so that the results are usable and often striking. This is a significant achievement and worth celebrating—but it can be thought of as illuminating previously hidden concordances between human creations, rather than as the invention of a new mind.
Resource per Steve Nouri on LinkedIn
A museum without screens: The Media Museum of Sound and Vision in Hilversum — from inavateonthenet.net
Excerpt:
Re-opened to the public last month after five years of planning and two-and-a-half years of renovations, The Media Museum of Sound and Vision in Hilversum in the Netherlands, is an immersive experience exploring modern media. It’s become a museum that continuously adapts to the actions of its visitors in order to reflect the ever-changing face of media culture.
How we consume media is revealed in five zones in the building: Share, Inform, Sell, Tell and Play. The Media Museum includes more than 50 interactives, with hundreds of hours of AV material and objects from history. The experience uses facial recognition and the user’s own smartphone to make it a personalised museum journey for everyone.
Photo from Mike Bink
From DSC:
Wow! There is some serious AV work and creativity in the Media Museum of Sound and Vision!
Meet Adobe Firefly. — from adobe.com
Experiment, imagine, and make an infinite range of creations with Firefly, a family of creative generative AI models coming to Adobe products.
Generative AI made for creators.
With the beta version of the first Firefly model, you can use everyday language to generate extraordinary new content. Looking forward, Firefly has the potential to do much, much more.
Also relevant/see:
Gen-2: The Next Step Forward for Generative AI — from research.runwayml.com
A multi-modal AI system that can generate novel videos with text, images, or video clips.
No lights. No camera. All action.Realistically and consistently synthesize new videos. Either by applying the composition and style of an image or text prompt to the structure of a source video (Video to Video). Or, using nothing but words (Text to Video). It’s like filming something new, without filming anything at all.
FBI, Pentagon helped research facial recognition for street cameras, drones — from washingtonpost.com by Drew Harwell
Internal documents released in response to a lawsuit show the government was deeply involved in pushing for face-scanning technology that could be used for mass surveillance
Excerpt:
The FBI and the Defense Department were actively involved in research and development of facial recognition software that they hoped could be used to identify people from video footage captured by street cameras and flying drones, according to thousands of pages of internal documents that provide new details about the government’s ambitions to build out a powerful tool for advanced surveillance.
From DSC:
This doesn’t surprise me. But it’s yet another example of opaqueness involving technology. And who knows to what levels our Department of Defense has taken things with AI, drones, and robotics.
The 2023 Underwater Photographer of the Year Contest Dives into the Stunning, Heartbreaking Lives of Aquatic Creatures — from thisiscolossal.com by Grace Ebert & Co.
Image @ Kat Zhou/UPY2023
Image © Alvaro Herrero Lopez-Beltran/UPY2023
behance.net/live/ <— Check out our revamped schedule!
Join us in the morning for Adobe Express streams — If you are an aspiring creative, small business owner, or looking to kickstart a side hustle – these live streams are for you!
Then level up your skills with Creative Challenges, Bootcamps, and Pro-Tips. Get inspired by artists from all over the world during our live learning events. Tune in to connect directly with your instructors and other creatives just like you.
In the afternoon, join creatives in their own Community Streams! Laugh and create along side other Adobe Live Community members on Behance, Youtube and Twitch!
For weekly updates on the Adobe Live schedule + insight into upcoming guests and content, join our discord communities!
Inspiring Goals: Educators Share Their Vision for the Classroom in 2023 — from blog.edmentum.com
Excerpt:
We asked educators on Facebook and Twitter to share with us what their goals for the classroom are for 2023. Here are a few of our favorite responses that we think will inspire you as you set your own goals for 2023:
MAKING THE BENEFITS OF PRE-K EDUCATION LAST — from thetechedvocate.org by Matthew Lynch
Excerpt:
Pre-K education has come to the forefront recently. Earlier, a kid’s first five years of education were essentially the family’s responsibility. However, research has revealed that these first five years establish the foundation for their further development.
…
It’s worth investing your time and effort in early education programs as they offer several benefits. Pre-K learning gets the children ready for academic success and empowers them for adulthood. Children who have attended early education programs are more likely to pursue higher education and receive higher salaries when they join the workforce, thus securing a better life for themselves.
9 Tech-Friendly Hobby Ideas for High School Students That Will Help Their Career Prospects — from emergingedtech.com by Lucy Manole
Excerpt:
Hobbies and interests are great additions to your resume. They provide potential employers with a fair idea about your personality and help them understand whether you’re the right fit for the position you are applying for.
Hobbies increase your chances of employability by demonstrating your passion and dedication. They help you become more adaptable and reduce stress thereby influencing your performance at school.
Finding a new hobby can be challenging as there are so many hobbies to choose from. A hobby is something that keeps you engaged and happy in your free time. Hence, you must choose a hobby that helps you relax your mind while, ideally, complementing your existing skills. This will give you a competitive edge over others when searching for a new job.
Here’s a list of top hobbies that will boost your resume and make you more employable.
9 Hobby Ideas You Can Add to Your Resume
#1. Blogging
The School That Calls the Police on Students Every Other Day — from propublica.org by Jennifer Smith Richards, Chicago Tribune, and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica
Excerpt:
On the last street before leaving Jacksonville, there’s a dark brick one-story building that the locals know as the school for “bad” kids. It’s actually a tiny public school for children with disabilities. It sits across the street from farmland and is 2 miles from the Illinois city’s police department, which makes for a short trip when the school calls 911.
Administrators at the Garrison School call the police to report student misbehavior every other school day, on average. And because staff members regularly press charges against the children — some as young as 9 — officers have arrested students more than 100 times in the last five school years, an investigation by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica found. That is an astounding number given that Garrison, the only school that is part of the Four Rivers Special Education District, has fewer than 65 students in most years.
This year, the Tribune and ProPublica have been exposing the consequences for students when their schools use police as disciplinarians. The investigation “The Price Kids Pay” uncovered the practice of Illinois schools working with local law enforcement to ticket students for minor misbehavior. Reporters documented nearly 12,000 tickets in dozens of school districts, and state officials moved quickly to denounce the practice.
Best YouTube Math Channels — from educatorstechnology.com by Med Kharbach, PhD
Excerpt:
The list below features some of the best Math YouTube channels to help your students and kids learn math in engaging ways. I was so picky in my selection and I handpicked only those math channels that I believe would provide real educational value to students.
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There’s not a lot of research on dysgraphia yet—but here are a few signs to look out for, plus some strategies to help affected kids express themselves. pic.twitter.com/rlb9p9D8Yu
— edutopia (@edutopia) December 17, 2022
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How Inflation Is Squeezing Early Childhood Educators — from edsurge.com by Emily Tate Sullivan
Rationing heat, taking on extra jobs, dipping into savings, raising wages for staff — child care providers are using a mishmash of methods to manage rising prices and keep their doors open.
Animals of Translucent Botanics Center in Molly Devlin’s Ethereal Portraits — from thisiscolossal.com by Grace Ebert and Molly Devlin
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Top of the Stack: Colossal’s Favorite Art Books of 2022 — from thisiscolossal.com
Excerpt:
As we near the end of 2022, we’re taking a look back at the year, starting with the books we found most compelling, impressive, and inspirational. We’ve published dozens of articles on artist monographs and compendiums of broader topics across art and design and science and history over the last 12 months, and these are the 10 titles that impacted us most.
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Vital Impacts Launches a Winter Print Sale with Photos from Jane Goodall, David Doubilet, and Beth Moon to Raise Money for Conservation — from thisiscolossal.com by Grace Ebert and Vital Impacts
Making a Digital Window Wall from TVs — from theawesomer.com
Drew Builds Stuff has an office in the basement of his parents’ house. Because of its subterranean location, it doesn’t get much light. To brighten things up, he built a window wall out of three 75? 4K TVs, resulting in a 12-foot diagonal image. Since he can load up any video footage, he can pretend to be anywhere on Earth.
From DSC:
Perhaps some ideas here for learning spaces!
