Hasta La Ideas

Clever camerawork captures endangered polar bears on their trek across the Arctic tundra

Innovative wildlife filmmaker John Downer uses covert digital technology to bring human audiences astonishingly close to the most reclusive wild animals. With elephants and tigers as previous subjects, Downer’s latest offering is focused on the beautiful but endangered maritime species in Polar Bear: Spy On The Ice.

Downer employs three types of cameras to track the lives of two mother bears as they lead their clubs across Arctic Norway in search of seal hunting grounds for the den’s survival. Not letting any of the frozen conditions get in the way of filming, the three cameras each offered a unique way of capturing the bears. The Snow-cam, disguised as a lump of snow, was equipped with four-wheel drive and tundra wheels to get across land and ice. The Blizzard-cam is rigged with propellers, allowing it to reach speeds of 37 mph, while the Iceberg cam was thoroughly waterproofed to maneuver between sheets of ice and under water to capture the polar bears swimming under the ice.

The cameras didn’t always blend into the Arctic’s barren environment though, and late last year an adult male polar bear smelled a ruse, discovered he was on candid camera, and destroyed more than $200,000 worth of equipment with his mighty paw. Fortunately secondary cameras caught the entire act, showing the bear’s impressive cunning and stupendous strength.

As the Arctic ice recedes the show offers a glimpse into a disappearing world that scientists fear could be lost forever this century. The one-hour special has already aired on BBC but will premiere stateside this week on Discovery’s Animal Planet at 10pm (EST) Thursday, 10 March 2011.

Small batch HDTVs from a company subverting the mass-production model

If there’s such a thing as an artisanal television brand, NuVision is it. The makers of high-caliber flatscreens steer clear of mass production, preferring instead to individually source their materials and limit their quantity in favor of maintaining the finest quality. I’ve been testing the Superslim55 for the last few months and have been really impressed with the contrast, color quality and overall visual performance.

Their manufacturing process is akin to that of assembling a hand-crafted watch. NuVision chooses software complementary to the hardware components carefully culled from a variety of high-end suppliers and painstakingly calibrates both grayscale and color using a Tristimulus Colorimeter. Proprietary “videophile” algorithms lead to seamless motion and natural general performance, and an automatically adjusted LCD backlight according to the onscreen imagery lends itself to an incredible sense of depth. Not only do slimmer-than-super-slim profiles allow NuVision televisions to blend neatly into their surroundings, but the recently introduced U Color Service provides users the option of selecting the TV’s bezel color, matchable to any paint, swatch, or shade in the Pantone scale.

NuVision televisions also represent the best in green technology. The use of LED means that their TVs require 40% less power than comparable CCFL models and are both mercury and lead-free, but NuVision takes eco-friendly a step further by using only recyclable materials in their products, removing and recycling the televisions at the end of their life-spans. A two-year in-home warranty guarantees unparalleled service with the purchase of any NuVision HDTV.

The full line of NuVision electronics sell on their site. They are meant to be procured through high-end audio-visual specialists and as such, the set-up can be a little complicated for the sub-technophile, but the picture quality is well worth the effort.

Une mise en image percutante par la créatrice Beth Fulton dénoncant le média TV, en s’inspirant d’un poème du scénariste et réalisateur Todd Alcott sur le monde de la télévision. Une libre interprétation à découvrir en vidéo dans la suite de l’article.

Previously on Fubiz

• Horizont – Stas Chepurnov
• Sony – Eye Candy
• TV Shows by Gavin Bond

Fresh from winning the 2010 TED Prize, the U.K.’s most lovable chef Jamie Oliver is tackling America’s relationship to food on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, his ABC show premiering tonight. With the new series he hopes to change the way Huntington, West Virginia eats. Deemed the most unhealthy city in America based on obesity-related deaths and disease rates, Huntington shows the rip tide of unhealthy eating that Oliver hopes to change.

The accompanying book to the T.V. program and Jamie’s ideas, Jamie’s Food Revolution centers around his idea that you only need to know how to cook five recipes to instigate your own personal revolution and eat better.

Oliver, who rose to fame as “The Naked Chef,” applies the same straightforward approach as a chef and cultural influence, with the idea that if you “teach people about food and they will make better decisions.”

Despite Oliver’s enthusiasm and dedication to both good food and good living, the stories in the series illustrate just how difficult such this change can be.

In the show, Oliver brings an assortment of fruits and vegetables to a first glade classroom in Huntington. They easily identify french fries, but struggle to place potatoes, tomatoes, broccoli and eggplant. This clear disconnect between fresh food and its overly processed mutations startles Oliver. The show chronicles these and other revelations as the chef attempts to educate and inform Huntington’s families and children about wholesome food. “Jamie’s Kitchen” plays a big role, providing residents with free education and cooking classes.

The effort and show follows Oliver’s similar program in the U.K., Ministry of Food, which sought to examine and revamp British school lunches. The results of his hard work? The U.K government allotted extra money toward their lunches, changed their nutritional requirements. and created a new initiative to champion fresher food. And, in what is perhaps the most symbolic accomplishment, all U.K schools now serve organic milk nationwide. By contrast, much of the milk consumed by American schoolchildren has added sugar, flavorings and is heavily processed.

Jamie hopes the show and cookbook will help spark change on a national level as well by educating people about the Child Nutrition Act, which is currently being rewritten. The goal is to help change these guidelines for school lunches to reflect healthier nutrition and fresher foods.

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution begins tonight at 8/7 central on ABC, and runs for six weeks. Says Oliver in his TED speech, “I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

Une belle campagne d’image pour la célèbre marque Sony, présentant le système des nouvelles télévisions full-HD. Un travail du studio Superfad, organisé en trois parties : la naissance, l’explosion et la libération des couleurs. A découvrir en vidéo dans la suite de l’article.

Previously on Fubiz

• Sky HD Campaign
• Sony Bravia NX Series
• Sony Australia Campaign