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Viral videos and Internet memes, by nature, come and go pretty fast. The web’s attention span is pretty low. Some memes that have endured the test of time are the Hitler ‘Downfall’ videos, which have been linked to anything from banned Xbox 360 Live accounts to the Apple iPad. Literally, hundreds of parody clips have been made using the… (read more)

MediaInfo supplies technical and tag information about a video or audio file. This is a free software (free of charge and free for access to source code, GPL or LGPL licence).

What information can I get from MediaInfo?

• General: title, author, director, album, track number, date, duration…
• Video: codec, aspect, fps, bitrate…
• Audio: codec, sample rate, channels, language, bitrate…
• Text: language of subtitle
• Chapters: count of chapters, list of chapters

What format (container) does MediaInfo support?

• Video: MKV, OGM, AVI, DivX, WMV, QuickTime, Real, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DVD (VOB)…
  (Codecs: DivX, XviD, MSMPEG4, ASP, H.264, AVC…)
• Audio: OGG, MP3, WAV, RA, AC3, DTS, AAC, M4A, AU, AIFF…
• Subtitles: SRT, SSA, ASS, SAMI…

What can I do with it?

• Read many video and audio file formats
• Multiple means to view information (text, sheet, tree, HTML…)
• You can customize theses views
• Exporting possibilities: text, CSV, HTML…
• Graphical Interface, or Command Line, or DLL
• Integration with MS-Windows shell (drag´n´ drop, and Context menu)
• Internationnalization: any language diplay on any version of your Operating System
• Localization capacities (but volonteers needed)

What’s New in version 0.7.31:

• SCTE 20 closed caption support
• Difference between width/height in the container and in the raw stream
• AVC: GOP structure
• MXF: more raw stream formats are detected (MPEG-4 Visual, A-law…)
• DV: Better detection of DVCPRO 50 and 100
• DV: less files without the right extension wrongly detected as DV

Homepage: http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/
Download: MediaInfo_GUI_0.7.31_Windows_i386.exe
File Size: 1.87MB

Related posts:

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Best Freeware Blog | Buy Laptop | Business Software Reviews | astaga.com lifestyle on the net

by Julian Ku

Belgium and France are both considering laws to ban the wearing of full-face veils in public. According to Amnesty International, such bans would violate international human rights law.

“A general ban on the wearing of full face veils would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who choose to express their identity or beliefs in this way,” said Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International’s interim secretary general.

“At the same time the Belgian authorities must make sure that all women who chose to wear the full veil do so without coercion, harassment and discrimination.”

Under U.S. constitutional law analysis, such a ban would have serious trouble under the Constitution’s Free Exercise of religion clause, especially because it seems aimed pretty directly at the religious practice of a single group. (Are yamakas in public next?)  But it would depend on the secular purpose of the law, which I don’t know much about.

Under, say, Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which both France and Belgium are parties, there seems to be a pretty serious conflict  since it guarantees a right to religious practice (emphasis added).

1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.

And then there is the European Convention on Human Rights, Art. 9(1) (emphasis added):

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.

So maybe Amnesty has a point. I suppose there might be a decent argument that the full-face veil is simply not a manifestation of a religious belief through practice and observance. Or that there is a strong public need to ban this practice. But there seems a clear basis for a challenge under the ECHR at least.  But I am far from an expert in this area, and would encourage any readers with better knowledge of the facts behind the bans, or with knowledge of how Article 9(1) has been interpreted, to comment.

It’s just as well Fifth Gear is still around to give us some serious car test drives, picking up where TopGear has left off (and gotten a little crazy). Besides, we like the woman’s driving style, not that we’re biased or anything. Here Fifth Gear checks out the Porsche Boxster Spyder, describing it as a purist Porsche model where they’ve done the research on how to get it lighter.

While we question whether as a driver you’d actually notice the 0.2 seconds acceleration difference the 80 kg less makes, overall the Boxster Spyder is old-school Porsche sports driving style. It’s basically a pared-back driving machine, so if you wanted a Sunday car drive where you can sing along to the radio, this is not for you (the stereo system has been removed and is now available as an add-on).

The debate over whether you can really drive this with the roof on seems to have been resolved. We had originally suggested that the Porsche Boxster Spyder was strictly for fair weather driving, and while you can have the roof closed, the video does show how noisy and uncomfortable the ride can be at just over 60 miles an hour. If you’re a Mediterranean customer and can be guaranteed plenty of sun in your summer, the wind-in-your-hair pure sports machine could be just for you. Perhaps not recommend for Britain’s less clement weather… See the video for all the details.

From Miroslav Bárta

ISBN 978-80-87025-26-0, 112 pages
Publisher: Dryada: Prague
Publication date: April 2010
Author: Miroslav Bárta, photographs Martin Frouz

The origins of ancient Egyptian civilisation have been attracting the attention of archaeologist ever since the beginnings of Egyptology more than 200 years ago. This book presents a new and original interpretation of the rock art in Egyptian Western Desert which is of a key importance for our understanding of the roots of ancient Egyptian civilisation. Indeed, her very origins can be most likely dated to the 6th millennium B.C. In this time and the centuries to follow the paintings in the Cave of the Swimmers known from a blockbuster English Patient and in the Cave of Beasts discovered only few years ago were created. These caves are located in a distant and hardly accessible part of Egypt, on the border of Egypt, Libya and Sudan.

The rock-art preserved in these caves features several unique motifs that will become cornerstone of ancient Egyptian iconography and mythology. Among them may be named the motif of the sky goddess and the earth god, prototypic representation of an ancient chieftain in the much later pharaonic guise or the concept of cave creatures protecting the entrance to the Netherworld.

During the Fifth and Fourth millennia B.C. the vast areas of Western Desert suffered from a major depredation of climate that most likely caused a gradual evacuation of the region and instigated appearance of permanent settlements in the Nile valley which led to genesis of ancient Egyptian culture. The present study aims to present a theory according to which at least some parts of the discussed rock art in the Western Desert was created by an ancient mind that later on contributed to the intellectual emergence of ancient Egyptian civilisation in the Nile valley.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

3DS

Press Release.

One of the world’s largest Egyptology databases, the Giza Archives Project, will be the first to benefit from the power of interactive, immersive and multi-platform 3D experiences for both the scientific community and the general public

Paris, April 21st, 2010 – Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D software solutions and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), one of the world’s most important encyclopedic art museums, today announced that they will join forces in a strategic innovation partnership to bring the power of industrial and experiential 3D to the domain of archaeology.

The Giza Archives Project is a digital initiative, housed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It is supervised by Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian, the MFA’s Giza Archives Director and Philip J. King Professor of Egyptology at Harvard University. The Project aims to “assemble and link” the world’s archaeological information on the Egyptian Pyramids at the Giza Plateau. In the last decade, it has digitized historic expedition photographs, excavation diaries and field notebooks, maps, plans and sketches from the ancient tombs and pyramids at Giza. The result is the largest database and Web site ever assembled relating to the Giza Plateau (www.mfa.org/giza). Most of the archaeological documents and photographs had been assembled over forty years of excavation by Egyptologist George Reisner (1867–1942), one of the prominent founding fathers of modern scientific archaeology who led the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition in Egypt. In a unique international collaboration, the Giza Archives Project partners today with all of the world’s institutions that house major collections related to Giza.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Come on, ‘fess up. Which Chinese is obviously so delusional he thought that what the public really needed was a Vaio P clone, complete with chiclet keyboard and pink satin casing? I guess the Vaio P 2 hasn’t appeared yet… More »

Since I missed Tuesday’s installment of “I tried something new” #foodrevolution due to the fact that I was laptop-less due to web viruses, I’ll share today with something kinda weird.

Lemongrass is one of my favorite ingredients in Thai and Vietnamese food. The folks and I were shopping at Costco the other day and I saw a jug of Naked brand juice in Citrus Lemongrass flavor, and was both intrigued and excited, so I got one to try as I’ve never seen a juice with lemongrass in it at your typical suburbia market.

What’s even more intriguing about this juice is that apparently it doesn’t exist on the Naked Juice website nor does it appear anywhere on Google search. I’m scratching my head. I am even more perplexed as you can clearly see, I did buy a bottle. So oh well, let’s just pretend the juice exists shall we because I did drink it.

The Naked juice is  made of orange juice, apple juice, lemon juice, and lemongrass extract. The nice thing about the juice is that there are no added sugars which is good because this juice is sweet on its own. One 8oz serving of the Citrus Lemongrass does have 24g of sugar which is almost at my daily goal of 25g of sugar/day, so I’m not going to be drinking this stuff everyday.

And the taste…

As for the taste, I’ll say it’s interesting. My first reaction was that it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t omg-I-love-this-stuff. Over the last few days, the juice has grown on me. What I found a bit off was that the orange juice and lemongrass seem to be fighting with each other a bit to see who can be the dominant flavor, and in the end neither win. Perhaps that is why the juice doesn’t exist anywhere.

I do think that this juice would make for an awesome mixer in cocktails because the lemongrass will give the drink an interesting twist. In fact, this Citrus Lemongrass could make for an exotic Mamosa for Sunday brunch, or as a different twist in any drink that calls for plain orange juice. Here’s over 1,000 cocktail recipes with OJ in it. I’d pour in some Amaretto straight in for a tasty happy hour drink.

If you’ve seen this juice in a store, tried it, or seen it online, do let me know.

Real Clear Arts (Judith H. Dobrzynski)

Before going to the press preview this morning for Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs, which will open at the Discovery Center Times Square on Friday, I had never seen Zahi Hawass in action. But now I know why Hawass, the Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has been so good at elevating the profile of Egyptian antiquities, claiming and repatriating artifacts from Western museums, raising money for archaeology and museums in Egypt, getting very good press in the process, etc. Too good, sometimes.

He’s a charmer, story-teller, teaser and advocate par excellence. Relating a tale about flying back to Cairo on Egypt Air with a coffin recovered with the help of Homeland Security officials here, he said a woman near him, learning that the coffin was in the plane’s cargo area, got the willies. “Don’t worry,” he told her, “If there had been a curse, I’d have taken Lufthansa.”

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

We head to New Orleans this week, which means good eats and plenty of birdies to go around (your winning score should be in the -13 to -15 range). Let’s check out this week’s form:

A-List: It’s a bit of a ghost town in this slot, with only ten players to choose from (Steve Stricker was a late WD). … I’ve been chasing the Steve Marino first win for a while, and he was in the hunt here last season (T5, two shots back). He’s got a full and consistent stat profile; I fully expect that his second win will come a year or less after the maiden victory. … We haven’t seen Bubba Watson since the Houston event earlier in April, so sharpness cold be a factor. He made a run in New Orleans three years ago (tying for fifth), but nothing happened for him the last two visits (T70, cut). … Stephen Ames is one of the bigger names in this field but he’s had trouble getting adjusted to TPC of Louisiana layout (two trunk slams, after a history of New Orleans success on other courses). … Scott Verplank was rolling along merrily until last week’s surprising missed cut at the Verizon Heritage. He’s cashed in two stops at this particular course, but no deep runs yet. I’m still going to use him off of back class, but I’m hoping my starter can go all four rounds. … Picks: Marino, Verplank.

B-List: Charles Howell III was just one shot off the lead here last year and Louisiana homeboy David Toms was two shots back, good reason to dial both of them up here (even with Toms battling some injury issues). … K.J. Choi faded after a hot start last week and he’s playing for the fifth time in six weeks. He saw this course for the first time last year, finishing T24. … Brian Davis‘s classy move last week buys some cred in this space, and his play before the controversial ending gets him on my sheet. He’s got some experience over the layout (T19, T33) and I like that his scoring average is better than what the component stats would suggest.

Sergio Garcia remains on Pianow suspension until further notice. It’s also his debut at this event, and that’s never a good thing to speculate on. … Could this be the spot for a Briny Baird surprise win? He ran T12 back in 2008 and he’s quietly been in the Top 20 in two of his last three starts this year. … Daniel Chopra has good history at this event (34, 33, 15, MC, 9, 34) but his 2010 resume takes him off my list pretty quickly (nine starts, two cashes). … Picks: Howell, Toms, Davis, Baird.

C-List: Jerry Kelly isn’t getting a lot of fantasy pub this week, but why not? He won here last year. He’s made seven cuts in a row, with three six-figure checks. No need to overthink it, he’s a smart play. … Mike Weir is still putting well, but the rest of his game is a mess right now. I need a show of good faith first. … Justin Rose has played at TPC of Louisiana twice – a missed cut last year and a T17 back in 2005. But based on what I’ve seen from him recently (three deep runs in his last four events on our side of the pond) I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. … Tim Petrovic won here in 2005, but he’s currently sitting 180th on the money list (just three cuts made). No need to get cute, you have better options. … Ben Crane has settled into a solid if unspectacular groove since his win in January. He’s made five cuts in a row, nothing worse than T36 and nothing better than T24. I suppose that makes him a safe play here, but I’d like to swing for more upside. … Picks: Kelly, Rose.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have built a device that produces highly focused, high-amplitude acoustic signals dubbed “sound bullets.” Called a nonlinear acoustic lens, the device could produce acoustic images superior to conventional medical ultrasound imaging, probe for damage in the interior of nontransparent objects like bridges, ship hulls, and airplane wings, and be used to develop non-invasive scalpels – although there’s no word on whether it will enable the development of sonic screwdrivers…
Continue Reading ‘Sound bullets’ aim to improve on ultrasound imaging

Tags: Acoustic,
Imaging,
Medical

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• Holograms you can feel

Forbes (Review by Hannah Elliott)

Cleopatra: A Biography
By Duane W. Roller (Oxford University Press, $16.47)

Forget what you think you know about Cleopatra. She wasn’t a voracious seductress who led men to their doom. She never wore bangs à la Liz Taylor circa 1963. And she almost certainly didn’t die by the bite of an Egyptian snake.

That’s the premise of Duane W. Roller’s Cleopatra: A Biography, a bare-bones approach to understanding the last ruler of the 270-year-old Ptolemaic dynasty and the only woman in classical antiquity who ruled with complete autonomy.

If you’re looking for romance-novel details of the Mark Anthony-Cleopatra VII affair, keep looking. Roller, a professor emeritus of Greek and Latin at the Ohio State University, makes it abundantly clear that his goal is to create a portrait of the infamous queen that is based “solely on information from the ancient world.”

That means forgoing all input from Shakespeare, Massenet and Hollywood. It makes for a somewhat dry read–navigating through Ptolemaic genealogies, recounts of political posturing with obscure satraps and discussions of ancient Roman land disputes won’t keep the casual reader engaged.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

According to the Neil Young album title, rust never sleeps. In construction, rust damage can be insidious – especially in infrastructure like concrete bridges where rust can have fatal consequences if the steel in bridges fails. But detecting rust before it’s too late has been an ongoing challenge for engineers and scientists. Experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS have developed an early-warning system for rust. By installing sensor-transponders into in the concrete to measure the extent of corrosion, engineers are being given a vital heads-up…
Continue Reading New rust sensor could lead to safer bridges

Tags: Concrete,
Construction,
Fraunhofer

Related Articles:

• Self inspecting bridges could save lives
• Waterproof, recyclable concrete – just add Hycrete
• CIRT provides more punch for urban search and rescue
• New ‘green’ geopolymer concrete delivers win-win for industry and the planet
• Bendable concrete
• New real-world load monitoring system

Egypt at the Manchester Museum

From Luxor to London: An exhibition of drawings and prints by Adele Wagstaff at the Petrie Museum, UCL April 13-June 26, 2010

A collection of drawings and prints inspired by reliefs, monuments and sculpture in Luxor, Thebes and the Petrie’s own collection in London. Many of the drawings and prints are inspired by the Hatshepshut Temple in Deir el-Bahri as well as the Luxor Museum.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Asharq Alawsat (Zahi Hawass)

Around forty years ago, the Egyptian government approved sending 55 of some of the rarest artefacts belonging to the boy king Tutankhamun [to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the US] that were discovered by the British archaeologist Hayward Carter on November 4, 1922. Even though this pharaoh ruled Egypt for less than nine years and died before he could prepare a tomb suitable for someone of his status in the same way his pharaonic ancestors did, over five thousand artefacts were found in his tomb and are still attracting the world’s attention and stealing the hearts of those who view them.

Back to the story of King Tutankhamen’s first exhibition in the US, the artefacts were displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and despite that the museum made millions of dollars from donations to the museum and from the catalogues and souvenirs that were sold, Egypt made no financial profits from it. However, we cannot deny the tourist and promotional gains as a result of King Tut’s presence in the US.

Now that we know all the facts, the exhibition of Tutankhamen is back once again in New York City after 40 years. This time, the wonders of King Tut will not be displayed at the Met but in a special display hall in New York. This is because the Metropolitan administration insisted it would not pay Egypt for the exhibition based on the pretext that entry to the museum is usually free, despite the fact that we know no one is allowed to enter the Met unless a donation is made and about other considerable financial profits as mentioned above.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Heritage Key

Anubis is the jackal-headed god for the afterlife and mummification, who is seen as a key figure for a Pharaoh to pass into the afterlife. The jackal was associated with associated with death and burials in Ancient Egyptian time for their reputation of scavenging human corpses and eating their flesh. It was common practice to place a figure of Anubis near the entrance of a tomb, and for the priest to don an Anubis mask during the embalming process. This is also one of the reasons the Anubis was selected to sail into New York’s harbour to promote the upcoming King Tut exhibit!

The Anubis Shrine and “Anubis Fetishes” are two artefacts found inside King Tut’s tomb which honour the god, and are now held in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo where they have been photographed by Sandro Vannini. Brought online by Heritage Key, the beautiful details of both these fine artefacts can be appreciated from the comfort of your own computer!

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Rome celebrated its 2760th birthday on April 21, 2007, marking Romulus’ founding of the ancient city in 753 B.C. This creation story is not precise, and it is more a legend, than a historical fact.

** Maurice **

As part of Rome’s birthday bash, all museums are free to both tourists and local residents, Italy’s national postal service created a special commemorative stamp for the occasion, street performers and musicians filled the city centre and various outdoor exhibits sprung up in the busiest sections of Rome.

Italy’s capital even has a birthday song written for the occasion called “Felix Dies Natalis, Roma!” In many ways, the celebration is also an opportunity to welcome the warmer weather of the spring and it is a great time to enjoy outdoor events.

Rome’s birthday has been celebrated for many years and even during the days of Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship. During this period, the celebration was also seen as a fascist labour day.

Google has been getting a lot of flack for its supposed disregard of user privacy. The Google Buzz fiasco is still fresh in everyone’s mind and privacy regulators, especially in Europe, are increasingly critical of Google. But it goes both ways, when it suits them, governments will forget all about user privacy. Google, jus… (read more)

InfoZine

A spectacular 2,300-year-old collection of funerary objects from an Egyptian tomb will be the centerpiece of new Egyptian galleries that open May 8 at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Among the objects is an elaborately decorated, 7-foot inner coffin designed for an Egyptian noblewoman, Meretites.

The new galleries give viewers a panoramic look at works created by artists and craftsmen in the ancient civilizations of the Near East, Egypt, Greece and Rome. The Meretites collection, acquired by the Museum in 2007, will be featured at the entrance of the new galleries. Members of the press are invited for an exclusive preview of the new galleries at 10 a.m. Friday, April 30.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

CRI English

Eight priceless pieces of ancient Egyptian antiquities will be on display in Shanghai World Expo which will run from May 1 to Oct. 31, said Lotfy Abdel el-Hamied, head of the Foreign Exhibitions Committee in the Egyptian Museum.

“The eight artifacts will be displayed in Shanghai Expo for six months,” Abdel el-Hamied told Xinhua on Monday.

He also asserted that the artifacts date back to different ancient pharaonic dynasties, adding that the oldest piece is the Gold Broad Collar of Ahhoptep with Hawak End-Pieces made in dynasty 18 (1550-1525 B.C.).

“Ancient Egyptians thought that this Gold Broad Collar was protecting the mummies and helping them come back to life,” Abdel el-Hamied said.

Moreover, he said that the most charming one is the Gold Mask of Sheshonq which dates back to the 22nd dynasty (890 B.C.) and was found in 1939 in Tanis Royal Tombs in Delta, northern Cairo.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes