databeautiful

From:
english.kbs.co.kr

date: Friday, November 14, 2008 16:11:02

DMZ to Become Worldwide Environmental Attraction

Reports find the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating South and North Korea has a well-preserved ecology, containing organisms even on the verge of extinction.

A joint inspection team comprised of officials from the Ministry of Environment and various other organizations completed comprehensive research of the DMZ for the first time in 50 years.

Around 180 organisms, 13 of which are national treasures or rarities, were discovered.

The team said the DMZ could become a worldwide attraction with its combination of wetlands, grasslands, valleys and organisms.

The government plans to use data gathered from the research to create an ecological park near the heavily fortified zone, after which Seoul will request UNESCO designate the area a biosphere reserve.

( Reported by KBS WORLD Radio. )

photo by hiro oshima

JOB VOYAGER

A striking interactive visualization of the shift from pre-industrial to industrial to service/knowledge society using US census data.
Source code is available.

code.google.com/creative/radiohead/

“Radiohead released a new video for its song “House of Cards” from the album “In Rainbows”. No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.”

All data used to make the video is offered for download so people can create their own visualizations. As of today, House of Cards YouTube group features 82 user videos.

Congratulations to the brilliant Aaron Koblin (who got his MFA at Design | Media Arts department at UCLA) for this milestone project!