Jan Keromnes

“It has taken four highly qualified engineers and a bunch of integral equations to figure it out, but we now know how cats drink.” (the New York Times)

Yesterday, Perdo M. Reis and Roman Stocker from the MIT, together with Sunghwan Jung (Virginia Tech) and Jeffrey M. Aristoff (Princeton) solved the mystery. They say that the cat’s lapping method depends on its instinctive senses of gravitational force and inertia. The 1m/s speed of the animal’s tongue allows it to lap 4 times per second, making the process too fast for the human eye to see.

Here is how it works:

• First, the cat touches the surface of the liquid with the tip of its tongue
• Its tongue then races back at such speed that the liquid is pulled up into the air
• When it reaches its highest point and starts to fall, the cat catches the liquid in mid air and gulps it down

(I invite you to read the full article on the MIT’s website.)

A few weeks ago, I found this 3D demo reel made by a Russian design studio called “Aero Creative Agency”, where they demonstrate their modelling skills applied to advertising. The video features inspiring 3D design:

They say that every idea starts on a sheet of paper. This is the main idea behind World of Paper, a short video showing a complete city made exclusively of bescribbled notebook sheets. Just another creativity trigger.

While watching Mozilla’s new smartphone concept, I played around with YouTube’s 3D possiblities. Not having red/cyan glasses around, I went for the “cross-eyed” option. It kind of works well in normal size, and even better in expanded size (no way to get an image in full screen). You have to get used to it, but it’s a neat do-it-yourself 3D technology!

Now it’s your turn: can you see it in 3D?

Here is an already old video for those who didn’t get the chance to see it, where Microsoft offered us “a glimpse ahead” on new productivity concepts. It’s funny to see how the world has evolved in one year: I was not half as impressed rediscovering it now as when I first watched it last year. Today, this kind of technology almost feels natural!

Google is making lots of money. Every day we hear about them buying start-ups with great potential (or even wind-mill farms for that matter). At Wall Street, the colorful internet giant ended the third quarter of 2010 with $33.4 billion in cash, his stock now approaching a $200 billion market valuation, almost catching up with Microsoft’s $218 billion.

Now here’s a question I hear a lot around me these days: “How in the world can they possibly earn that much?” And it’s a good question – one I couldn’t answer better than with a hesistant: AdSense? So I did what most made sense to me. I googledit…

Apart from the world-famous AdWords program (first place positioning for specific keywords, Google’s main source of revenue according to wikipedia), the company seems to be omnipresent in the world of business solutions, with a plethora of various services including AdSense (custom advertising for webmasters), Analytics (reports on marketing campaigns and websites), Website Optimizer, Webmaster Central, Places Earth and Maps (geospatial internet positioning for enterprises), Enterprise Search, Checkout, Base, Apps, DoubleClick, plus brand new social services like Friend Connect… short, Google has sought out every single need typical to an enterprise, and responded to it with a handy and easy-to-use service. Together with an unrivaled talent for communication and advertising, the guys at Moutain View placed their products in every business, accessing to a state of monopoly – it’s like Microsoft’s operating system, which is installed on approximately 90% of computers.

Here come a few words from Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, Vint Cerf.

I recently remembered these words when I discovered that Google was testing around with ultra-high speed broadband in Stanford’s residencial subdivision. Lucky students!

Suit up!

Here at INSA, a bunch of us celebrated the international Suit up day, when every one suits up in honor of Barney Stinson (one of the main characters on the CBS television series How I met your Mother), who almost exclusively wears suits.

Alexis JOSSINET and Jan KEROMNES

Happy 42, everyone!

Today’s date is 10/10/10, which is the binary form of 42! In order to celebrate this unique day in a century, I invite you to watch this short extract of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, where this whole 42-mania actually came from.

Howdy, World!

This is the first post of my blog, and subsequently the first post of the category I called Inspiration. I want it to be a compilation of creativity triggers, such as mind-blowing videos, striking pictures, singular thoughts, unique concepts or viral ideas.

Here comes a peculiar video called Artificial Paradise, INC. by Jp Frenay. The 3D and sound effects are terrific, and I find the featured visual concepts simply amazing. Short, the perfect video to start my category with. Have fun watching it!