Lisa McNear's blog

Laser Scanning Flyovers of NYC Will Yield Accurate 3-D Map

New York City may be on the cutting edge of cuisine and fashion, but in nerdier pursuits like cartography, NYC has unfortunately fallen behind - like, 30 years behind. But a twin-engine airplane fitted with LIDAR scanners has lately been gathering data that will close the city's map gap, creating extremely detailed digital maps of the city that will lead to better land management, inform emergency protocols, and help identify the best places to install solar panels across the five boroughs.Read More

How volcanic ash grounded almost every jet in Europe

A volcano in Iceland erupted yesterday, spewing a gigantic cloud of dust in the air, and with the wind blowing from the northwest, prompted aviation authorities to shut down airports in Britain, France, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe on Thursday. Jet engines can be severely damaged by the glassy silicate in that volcanic dust.Read More

No railings or risers, just sheets of straight modern glass on other side – but strong enough to support floating wood treads and the weight of people walking up and down them. Load-bearing glass is not new, but using them for residential interior spaces is striking.

Dornob

‘Mirror Man’ street performer at Griffith Observatory

The sight of this man made of mirrors certainly must have been a surprise for the visitors to Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. A few hours spent contemplating the far off mysteries of the universe only to have one land in front of you.Read More

Ultra Portable Drive Comes Pre-loaded with One Free Movie for Activation and Twenty Other Films for Purchase

Today, Seagate and Paramount Digital Entertainment announced their agreement to pre-load a selection of 500GB FreeAgent Go™ ultra-portable hard drives with Paramount movies. Beginning immediately, US customers who purchase specially-marked packages of the FreeAgent Go ultra-portable hard drive will be able to activate Paramount Pictures’ popular film, Star Trek (2009), for no additional fee.Read More

Ultra compact, multifunctional Pocket sized Chobi Mini Digital Camera is one of the most compact digital camera's ever! Yet it takes incredible digital photos. Chobi Mini Digital Camera can Video at 1280 x 960 pix 30 fps AVI movies and take 2048 x 1536 pix pictures.Read More

A dangerous journey is required to reach this remote restaurant on top of Mt. Huashan in Anhui Province China

Mt. Huashan, also called "the Great West Mountain," is one of China's five sacred mountains. A series of service facilities were established both on the top and at the foot of this dangerous mountain, including the Huashan Hotel, the Jinrong hotel, the Li Hua Ping Hotel and the Beifeng Restaurant.Read More

Vibrating box breaks in your stringed instruments

The ToneRite play-in device works by relieving the tensions inherit in wooden acoustic instruments. A new or even moderately played instrument has a tendancy to have a lot of individual components that resonate independantly. By transferring certain types of energy to an instrument for a period of time the ToneRite can cause the instrument to resonate as a whole and as a result your instrument becomes incredibly responsive, problem notes improve, less bow pressure is required, the sound comes more quickly with less effort and the overall quality of tone increases.Read More

The name Easter Eggers is derived from the resemblance of their colorful eggs to artificially dyed Easter eggs

Easter Egg Chickens, or Easter Eggers, are not a breed, but any chicken that possesses the "blue egg" gene and lays eggs that vary in shade from aqua blue to green, and sometimes even pink.Read More

Thousands of tourists from around the world visit Vegreville, Canada annually and marvel at the Pysanka Easter Egg. It measures 25.7 feet long, 18.3 feet wide, and stands 31.6 feet high.Read More