murphy

Artist creates new batch of 'porn for the blind'

Toronto artist Lisa J. Murphy believes we live in a highly sexualized world that often leaves the visually impaired behind. So she decided awhile ago to do something about it.

Last year, Murphy's book "Tactile Mind," which featured several nude, 3D pictures of men and women along with braille descriptions, gained new life in the media, two years after its release. Last week, the artist released four new images, including one featuring a woman's legs in stiletto shoes, as well as "a photograph of a woman's behind...wearing soft pink" panties.

The original book comes with the hefty price of $225, and the new set of images, titled "Tactile Atelier Bookmark," cost $100, according to Murphy's Web site. In an interview with AOL News, she says the process of creating the images takes up to 50 hours for each, and therefore the high price tag for the unusual art--or porn, depending on your point of view--is justifiable.

"I took photographs of my friends in lingerie, blew up the images, and hand-sculpted them into clay," Murphy told AOL News. "Then I made thermoform copies. I ran the plastic myself through my thermoform machine at home, so each one took awhile to make."

The hardest of the four images in her latest batch of creations, Murphy said, was the female behind. … Read more

Scientists edge closer to printing human tissue

A new technology early in clinical trials could make it possible for doctors to use specialized 3D printers to fabricate new human tissue based on a patient's own cells.

Known as commercial bioprinting, the technology from San Diego start-up Organovo starts with cells from adipose tissue--essentially body fat--or bone marrow and is intended to use those cells as the basis for making new tissue.

As of right now, the benefit for humans is still years away, perhaps as many as four, said Organovo CEO Keith Murphy. And when and if the company's technology gets certified and hits the market, it will probably have limited application: most likely, the technology could be used at first mainly for crafting very small areas of tissue or new blood vessels.

But even those limited applications could mean, for example, that doctors may eventually have the ability to intervene in cases where, for example, a patient has a blocked or damaged blood vessel, and potentially prevent what might otherwise result in a forced amputation. Similarly, someone with damaged nerves could have a gap in a nerve bridged using regenerated cells printed by Organovo's machine.

Doing something like making a new liver is still a long way off. … Read more

Blogging for dollars: Church-state line still valid?

When Ted Murphy started PayPerPost (now called Izea) in 2007, he immediately raised hackles by proposing that companies pay bloggers to post items about their businesses.

ReadWriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick described Izea as a "Search Engine Optimization scam that threatens to torpedo the reputation of the already widely questioned blogosphere. It may also be a perfectly fair way for small time bloggers to make a living, depending on who you ask."

"None of us are pure and there are few firm lines established regarding what is and is not acceptable when you're trying to make money … Read more

Column: Will you be ditching your antivirus app anytime soon?

For the last few months, I've been hearing some well-regarded security people tell me they are considering ditching their antivirus protection all together. They haven't done it, but these individuals feel the days of having a special application scan to remove malware on your desktop are numbered. Malware has changed, but the applications to ferret them out have not.

Antivirus programs, as we know them today, are based on 20-year-old technology of pattern matching. Pattern matching may have worked in the days of the Micheangelo virus and even as recently as Netsky, but methodically matching each and every … Read more

Security Bites 108: Understanding white listing

To put it simply, the concept of "white listing" is to define a set of software, a set of vendors, and allow only those trusted applications or files from those vendors to run on your machine. If a file or application is not approved, it will not run. This is the opposite of how we've blocked malware from our machines in the past.

In 2007, Symantec detected more than 1 million viruses, with two-thirds created within the calendar year. Loading 1 million antivirus signatures or even a percentage of that if generic signatures are used is a … Read more

TechCrunch polls readers on potential advertiser

The conversational nature of blogs allows editors to ask their readers to weigh in--even decide--issues that affect the publication. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Michael Arrington at TechCrunch empowered his readers to determine whether the site should accept advertising from Izea. Arrington agreed to abide by the results of the poll. After 24 hours, voting concluded with just under 3,500 people taking part.

Traditional news outlets often establish a wall between the editorial and advertising departments to maintain editorial independence. In other words, the people who line up advertisements have no say in the content, and the editorial staff is completely removed from deciding which advertising clients to engage. Of course, such an arrangement is all but impossible for most blogs and other small publications. These small outlets often have a staff of one, and even with a half-dozen at the helm it may not make sense to dedicate an entire employee to handle advertising.… Read more

The Ferrari of high-end speakers

Ezra Dyer's Ferrari F430 road test in the July 1 "Automobiles" section of the Sunday New York Times had me drooling. The lucky bastard didn't just get to tool around in the dream machine, there was something about the way he gushed about the 479 horsepower V-8's "high-pitched, hard edged wail that's unlike anything else you'll hear from a car with license plates," and later on rhapsodized about the car's ability to deliver a "supersonic whip crack from the exhaust that prompts you to look in the mirror to … Read more

TV hides the bed, and vice-versa

Remember the TV that hides under your bed? Well now we have a bed that hides under your TV.

It's not an exact opposite, however, because this bed is actually vertical when in hiding. As BornRich points out, the flat TV appears when the Murphy bed folds into its upright position, exposing an underside that looks remarkably like a wall unit. But we're not sure how comfortable we'd be swinging our TV set around like this every night, not to mention the fact that we'd never be able to doze off while watching Letterman.

Neither concern … Read more

The RoboCop of motorcycles

This mechanical beast looks like a cross between extreme motocross and RoboCop. It goes by the appropriately incendiary name of the "Detonator" V4 6.0, with the numbers standing for a 6-liter, 4-cylinder engine contained in its block housing. Yet the most outrageous feature of this conceptual piece of hell on wheels is not the horsepower, but its steering mechanism: an electromagnetic sled controlled by two independent handlebars, according to Gizmowatch, which is complemented by a glass tube radar system to help navigation. Although it exists only in the minds and sketchboards of Daniel Simon Studio, we vote … Read more