MetaFilter posts tagged with radar

Technology for helicopter parents

desjardins — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:51:56 -0800

Your mother has eyes in the back of her head. Chicago Public Schools sends parents a text message when their child is not in class or the kid's grades slip. Mayor Daley attends a demonstration. Chicago is not the only school district to use this technology. It's used in Calloway County, Kentucky. Memphis, Tennessee, and Saratoga Springs, New York, to name a few. It's not just used for monitoring your kids' grades. In San Antonio, you can also monitor the presidential propaganda that's fed to your kids! But what if you want to monitor the text messages your kids receive? Radar alerts you when a "suspicious" person texts, calls, or emails your kid.

"For the rest of the evening my name will be Violetta."

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:23:35 -0800

Radar magazine: Secrets of a hipster hooker.

Oddstrument

Upton O'Good — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:36:56 -0800

Oddstrument is a blog about unusual musical instruments and other interesting acoustic technologies.

The Man Who Invented Stereo

rongorongo — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:10:27 -0800

In a single 1931 document, electrical engineer Alan Blumlein patented stereo records, stereo movie sountracks and surround sound. His equipment was used to make some of the first stereo recordings at EMI's Abbey Road studios - several decades before the technology came into popular use. Blumlein went on to pioneer 405 line TV (the first wholly electronic format which won out over John Logie Baird's rival system) and to produce the equipment that made the first outside TV broadcast possible. At the outbreak of World War 2 he was a key architect of the secret H2S radar project. Unfortunately he was killed in a plane crash while testing the technology and the whole incident was kept secret. Hence he remains an obscure figure despite his achievements. A recent BBC Radio 4 program contains a lot of the archive stereo footage and tells his story.

Only God Can Judge Me

spec80 — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:37:51 -0800

Quiz: Who is more homophobic? Religious zealots or Rappers?

Get your wand off my lawn

chinese_fashion — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:48:56 -0800

Kevin Colvin may have gotten busted, but his generation is taking over. Millenials are everywhere -- and while some people welcome our bright-eyed, tech-savvy overlords, Gen-X is steadfastly unimpressed

TV as RADAR

odinsdream — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:36:26 -0800

TV as RADAR. Other odds-n-ends available at the main site.

ZOMBIE BOOB TUBE TELEVISION

Sticherbeast — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:43:16 -0800

They claimed they would destroy all television with their business. $100 million and one cast member of First Kid later, all they had were massive amounts of failure, tremendous parties with Bryan Singer, and many, many, many allegations of sexual molestation. Now they hide in the Spanish Riviera and hire Chinese sweatshop workers to mine for World of Warcraft items. Check as well the original 2000 LA Times expose on the company, to say nothing of the "gay pedophile version of Silver Spoons" which remains their finest artistic achievement. via boingboing I also thank who I assume is MeFi's Own meehawl's link to this summary of the events. (NSFW)

Israel pwns Syrian RADAR with US-supplied infowar software

scalefree — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:31:36 -0800

Report: Israel 'blinded' Syrian radar. After Israeli missile strike on Syria confirmed by both sides, the question remains – how did Israel's non-stealth jets infiltrate Syrian airspace undetected? US aerospace experts tell Aviation Week magazine that Israel used new US-developed technology that lets users invade and manipulate enemy communication networks.

The Worst Colleges In America

Sticherbeast — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:09:40 -0800

Radar picks the worst colleges in America. At least one of the picks is rather dubious, although I suppose being the "worst" Ivy League is a position of some note, and another one of the picks was where my school's valedictorian went. Either way, it's always nice to see the Moonies somersaulting into otherwise non-Moonie related stories.

Radar images of earth

Glow Bucket — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:08:22 -0800

High resolution images of Earth. The German satellite TerraSAR-X was shot into space on June 15, and already four days after sent some beautiful pictures back to Earth. Pictures are described in German, but you'll figure it out.

Microwave Cookery

Chinese Jet Pilot — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:15:00 -0800

The cavity magnetron is the secret weapon that saved Britain in World War II. In 1946, Dr. Percy Spencer stood too close to a magneton and invented the microwave oven.

A behind-the-music style look at the people behind embarrassing internet video memes

mathowie — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:05:19 -0800

The Prisoners of YouTube is a pretty good longish article on all the reluctant internet video celebs, including Star Wars Kid, Afroninja, the Numa Numa Kid, and more. It's an interesting look at the downside of unwarranted attention and how a few people have turned these embarrassing moments in the sun to their advantage.

The DEW Line

Durhey — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:19:07 -0800

Tales from the DEW Line. In the mid-50's, the Distant Early Warning, or DEW Line, a series of radar stations along the 69th paralell, began scanning the arctic skies for signs of soviet bombers. Though cut off from direct contact with civilization, and often hoping that nothing would happen, staffers of these remote outposts still found plenty worth writing about or photographing (1, 2, 3).

Prank Calling the Army

P-Soque — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 22:19:05 -0800

The President's call for a troop surge in Iraq will likely be a headache for military recruiters, who have already had to relax standards to (barely) meet their quotas. But just how desperate are they for warm bodies? Radar prank called recruiting stations around the country disguised as a veritable Breakfast Club of misfit would-be soldiers, all dramatically unqualified or unattractive for service in some way. The resulting transcripts are hysterically funny (the writer poses as a flamboyantly gay man, a mama's boy, a martial arts freak, a junkie, an IBS sufferer and a lobotomy patient). The recruiters turn out not to be quite as sleazy as you might imagine, but the conversations are priceless.

Money for nothing, and bombs for free.

delmoi — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 17:08:00 -0800

Getting rich by getting it wrong How the elite pundits who pushed the war profited in money and prominence, despite being completely wrong. Mean while many pundits who opposed the war from the start were sidelined.

Waalsdorp Museum

mr_crash_davis — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 11:46:57 -0800

"From the first world war until the 30's air acoustics played an important role in the air defence. Air vehicles carrying a weapon could not be located from the ground e.g. at night time or under cloudy conditions. As radar was still to be discovered, vision had to be supplemented by hearing using the sound of the engines."

Absolutely, positively getting there overnight

schoolgirl report — Mon, 15 May 2006 12:30:43 -0800

FedEx Thunderstorm Deviations. "FAA radar track sequence of a bank of FedEx aircraft getting into Memphis as thunderstorms pass over the airport" (Google video). I'm having Rip Off flashbacks.

Echoes From The Sky

basicchannel — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 23:52:53 -0800

First built in the 1920's, and predating the use of Radar in World War II, early warning "sound mirrors" were used to provide some means of detecting incoming enemy aircraft. First used in World War I to listen for Zeppelins, their vestigial remnants dot the English coastline. The bizarre legacy of the sound collectors lives on through some decidedly nerdy enterprises.

srboisvert — Wed, 29 May 2002 11:06:41 -0800

How busy is LAX? Take a look! Zoom out to 96 Miles and it looks like a busy anthill.

quonsar — Wed, 10 Apr 2002 19:24:48 -0800

The Wildlife Art of Radar O'Reilly
Gary Burghoff is a star of many art forms who has expanded his multi-faceted career to include that of wildlife artist.

vbfg — Mon, 03 Sep 2001 05:34:32 -0800

More NMD to make you nervous. If you're in an area about to be vapourised then you are safe. If you live anywhere else you are not. I live about half a blast radius away from one of the radar stations in the UK (it doesn't look like that picture anymore - some of the golfballs are now pyramids). From direct assault I maybe won't be hit but the bombs falling out of the sky on their way from Iraq to New York are pretty much going to land on my head. Cool.