Binaural Recording!...the wonders of, maga!

Binaural recording is a method of recording audio which uses a special microphone arrangement.

Once recorded, the binaural effect can be reproduced only using headphones. It does not work with mono playback; nor does it work while using loudspeaker units, as the acoustics of this arrangement distort the channel separation.

The result is a listening experience that spatially transcends normally recorded stereo, since it accurately reproduces the effect of hearing a sound in person, given the 360° nature of how human ears pick up nuance in the sound waves.

Binaural recordings can very convincingly reproduce location of sound behind, ahead, above, or wherever else the sound actually came from during recording.

(Read more...Wikipedia & Wikimedia)



ALL RIGHT.....Now that you've been educated about it.... EXPERIENCE IT!!!
Its absolutely mind-blowing..... only one thing.....

YOU HAVE TO USE HEADPHONES!

Lighting Matches

A Virtual Haircut (you will really dig this!)

A Virtual BlowDry ;-D (after the haircut, naturally)

aand...

A woman whispering in your ears!

Instructions:
1. Use HEADPHONES ONLY.... You will NOT get the 3-D effect with speakers...at all.
2. Let it load fully. It's a really small file... just takes around 30secs.
3. After loading, hit Play & close your eyes.
4. Enjoy listening as the sounds move all over your body! :-D
(Source: Wiki- Holophonics)

Technorati Tags: binaural, recording, holophonics, audio

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright....

I just saw the most AMAZING YouTube clip.... which i have linked to below.

Definitely on of the best clips i have ever seen online!!!

It shows an actual attack by a tigress....on a mahout, sitting atop an elephant.

The incident happened in Kaziranga National Park, Assam.

A large adult tigress, suspected to be the mother of the two cubs rescued from a village adjoining Kaziranga, severely mauled the mahout of an Assam Forest Department elephant...named Joymala.

The 25-year-old mahout, who was badly lacerated, lost three fingers on his left hand. Doctors are worried about the onset of gangrene and may have to amputate his left palm.

"...As the elephant moved towards the tigress, it did a mock charge. The guard fired two blanks to discourage her and she ran away into the next field, where the paddy was thick and hid there..."

The team cautiously moved towards it and was within 20 feet where she was growling away. The forest-ranger could see her clearly and took a shot at it with the dart gun.
The dart missed her and this enraged her so much that she charged..... and took a “flying” leap on to the elephant’s head.


Vivek Menon, executive director of the WTI (Wildlife Trust of India), who recently saw the footage, said,

"...I could never imagine that a tiger could so effortlessly leap from the ground on to an adult elephant’s head, which is at least 12 feet above the ground...

...The footage showed that the mahout saw the tigress leaping and threw the metal ankush at it to defend himself. The tigress saw the ankush coming, dodged it in mid-leap and took a swipe at Pegu without actually landing on the elephant, which had stepped back..."


What now happened was even more amazing!!!

As the tigress landed on the ground Joymala (the working elephant) quickly pinned the tigress down with her left fore foot and tried to control it with its trunk. The tigress struggled under this weight for at least half a minute roaring, as other people in the vicinity shouted and fired shots in the air.

"If it had not been for Joymala, both Bodo and the guard would have been badly injured...or dead"

The tigress finally struggled loose and ran away. Meanwhile, Joymala, which was trying to aggressively chase the tigress, was calmed by the veterinarian.

A Nepali villager, victim of a tiger-attack

And here is the polar opposite...men walking amongst tigers.

Links:
A detailed article about the video: Here
The amazing Tiger Temple:  Here & Here.
An intresting story of a Aussie-soldier in the Malaysian jungles, during WW-II, who survived an attack by a man-eater: Here


P.S: The article brings to mind the English poet Blake's famous lines...

"Tiger, Tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"

Technorati Tags: kaziranga, bengal tiger, tiger, attack, wildlife

Sexy Back

I'M BACK!



I'm back to the blog after an extended absence....

during which...

i finished the impossible Bowring posting.

woolmer bought a one-way ticket.

india too.

dr. uma started acting up for a signature.

virginia tech mourned.

we got a whopper of a stipend.

the reith lectures concluded.

prostho-posting concluded without any hassles.

a birthday came and went.

the guys went on a holiday.

and an adventure.

dr. uma continues the cold war

iPod Nano arrived into possesion.

original bike papers departed from possesion.

and other stuff...



On the whole its good to be back!

"Bengalooru- We close regularly"

Living in Bangalore means that you're milieu is pretty much at the mercy of thugs. Unemployed, illiterate, lumpish men who are only looking for a chance to vent their frustrations. And there are the politicians who always around to wreak havoc with nomal life.

Twice in the past 3 weeks...violence has broken out in the city. And on the 22nd of Jan 2007 curfew was clamped in many parts of east Bangalore including Bharati Nagar, Frazer town and Commercial Street.

This after the idiocy by the cops who allowed 2 groups to meet...and clash:
One, a rally protesting the unjust killing of the 'great martyr' Saddam Hussein lead by the most excellent C.K. Jaffer Sharief....held three weeks after Saddam’s execution.
And a rally organized by the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh which was as previously planned celebrating the birth centenary of its leader M.S. Golwalkar.

Stupidity!

Technorati Tags: riots, bangalore

Sania Mirza at 1130pm, ha!

The Sony Ericsson International Tennis Open is currently going on in the city. Serena Williams was due to play...but she isn't well (Delhi-belly, i think) and so won't be playing. The only player of note, and i'm cringing while i say this, is Sania Mirza... Who' as i type this blog, has cleared the opening round of the Doubles tourney.

A few of my classmates went to see her first-round match....at the

Karnataka Lawn Tennis Association's stadium in Cubbon Park...the

opening match was held at 1130pm. That's right...1130pm, at night.





Apart from 4 women on the tennis court, the ENTIRE stadium was filled

with guys....most of them holding up cell phones, to show their friends

back in college, like me, every gravity defying bounce of Sania's

funbags. I saw the clips on my friends phone, and whoa...she's toned

and stacked. Good combo. And her sister is pretty hot too!

Sania at the Bangalore Open in 2006

She's currently WTF Rank 40 (Singles)...

...and WTF Rank 37 (Doubles).

Highest ever ranking 31 (Singles), 37 (Doubles)

Thank god she's stopped wearing those bloody retardo T-Shirts!!!!

AeroIndia 2007

(Suryakiran's paint the tricolor in the sky)

AeroIndia - India's only international Air Show, held at Air Force Station Yelahanka just got over (on the 11th). And this year was perhaps the biggest and best air-show till date.

The growth of the Indian aerospace industry, the Indian Airforce's thrust towards modernization, and the diplomatic 'fair weather' that India has been enjoying of late...all these put together brought some of the biggest and best aircraft-makers in the world to Bangalore.....foreign sellers who queued up to showcase their products.

(SKAT: SuryaKiran Aeronautical Team in action)

I'm sure a lot of good came from AeroIndia - whose prominence is growing steadily in the international circuit...and i'm sure a lot of business was done. However, as far as most of us were concerned... it was all about the aircraft on display.... which were...'da frikking bomb'!

(The lineup. What can you spot?)

The menu was absolutely mouth-watering.... the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the F/A-18F Super Hornet, both here for the first time. The new thrust-vectoring Mig 29OVT (Mig-35) over from Russia. Our very own Sukhoi's...both Su-27 and Su-30MKI. The IAF's Aerobatic Team- The Suryakiran's. The Advanced Light Helicopter- Dhruv, the SAAB Gripen, the Light Combat Aircraft- Tejas, and the Chinook, the P3C Orion, C130 Hercules amongst others.

....the IL-76 wasn't the biggest guy on the block this time- it was the USAF's monstrous C-17 Globemaster.



I actually thought i'd outgrown the days when i used to slobber over pixellated wallpapers of military-aircraft on my desktop...but when i these pics, i started slobbering all over again, hehehe...

...and so for your slobbering-pleasure, i present, the aircraft of AeroIndia 2007. Yenjai!!!

(My Favourite - Mig-29OVT, what a sexy peice of machinery)

(Watch a video of this very same fighter, the Mig-35 (Mig-29OVT), doing aerial acrobatics at the Farborough Air Show in UK)

(Refuelling over snow covered Russia)




(Skywards Mig-29)




(Mig-29's in close formation flight)

(Some actual pics from AeroIndia '07)

(The Mig-35 strutting its stuff...pulling a manouver known as a 'Tailslide')

(Same flight..moments before popping a 'Cobra'...damn! Those Ruskies know about thrust vectoring!)

(Lucky bastard...does this for a living!)

(The Tejas taxing before taking off)

(TD-2; Technology Demonstrator - 2 on Tarmac)

(Advaned Light Helicpoter - Dhruv, the Air Force version)

(Wow, near miss? Su-30MKI and Dhruv)

(IL-78MKI, Airborne refuelling tanker, based on the old IL-76)

(Good old Jaguar DARIN-II)

(The IAF's pride... the Su-30MKI goes airborne)

(Top Guns of the IAF - Squadron insignia - 28Sq "Lightnings" and 30Sq "Rhinos")

(This little bitch blew a tire while landing after a practice session)

(The Yanks' arrive: USAF F/A18C Hornet trying to patao us)

(This guy bought Corus..aand then... got invited to fly in the F-16!

Thats being fuck lucky!)

[And this is what he flew in, the Fighting Falcon...paki's have them :( ]

(The US Army Chinook chopper and the C-17 Globemaster)

(The BIG motha!..and Bangalore crowds)

(Lastly, the Swedish SAAB Gripen...contender v/s the Hornet for India's Medium Range fighter requirement)

(the usual IAF aircraft, were, obviously on display...the Mi-26, Mi-8, the Chetak, the Cheetah, the An-32, the monstrous Tu-142, the new Embraer-135 business jets for the President, the IL-76, the IL-78 tanker, the Jaguar JS-210 DARIN-II, the Mirage 2000H...so i'm not posting them)

(notable other mentions: the BAE Hawk, HAL's wierd reverse-prop driven Saras, the Dassault Falcon business jet...which are pretty sloppy to look at, ergo, no pics of these either)

Technorati Tags: bangalore, IAF, airforce, jets, sukhoi

The Kiss Of Life

I recently attended a CDE-workshop on Dental Emergencies and First Aid.


Almost all the interns from college signed up for the course, which was conducted by the Bangalore-based Nightingales Lifesaving Services...it was a 2 day course held over the weekend, and all of us were initially cribbing that we'ed have to give up our precious weekend to attend the workshop.


However, the workshop was so good and the speakers so engergetic that none of us really missed our Sunday-afternoon nap or Saturday-movie... We all sat ramrod straight, listening aptly to the Instructors explain what we should and shouldn't do in a variety of emergency situations. All this in our college's very own, A/C'fied, darkened Audio-Visual Room....in conditions where i myself have dozed off many a time.


The course was really well balanced...a bit of theory since we already had background knowledge, and an emphasis on the practicals. On the 1st day we were lectured about First Aid in varied situations...Drowning, Choking, Bites, Fractures, Falls, Burns..you-name-it.


The 2nd day focused on CarioPulmonaryResuscitation..or CPR, with each of us getting to practice on a male dummy..which funnily enough, was named Annie! We had to keep at it till we could perform CPR to the Instructor's satisfaction, both on an Adult as well Child-dummy, following which we were certified as qualified to perform CPR.


Interestingly, CPR guidelines change from country to country (European Resuscitation Council, American Heart Assoc etc...) and also undergo major technique-revisions almost every year. What that meant was that, we'ed have to get ourselves re-certified after a year.


I've always felt that it was a major lacunae in the Syllabus that neither a dental nor a medical student in India learns CPR, both as an under-graduate...and even at a Post-Graduate level! It's kinda nice to know that i now, if the need should ever arise, will be in a position to, perhaps, save someones life.


It's a nervy kind of feeling to know you can do CPR...once you are certified, you never want to be in a situation where you will have to do CPR. But at the same time, it re-assuring to know that if you are...you'll know what to do. Hopefully...

Technorati Tags: CPR, medical, heath