New gold for a scary new world
"Divisible gold 'Combibar' can easily be broken into one gram pieces and used as payment in emergency." Continue reading →
How a $5 gravity-powered LED could revolutionize cheap lighting
"An LED light that runs on rope pulls and gravity has been developed, which could be good news for developing countries without access to stable lighting. GravityLight, a crowdfunding campaign and product created by British designers Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves, allows a cheap LED kit to run for up to thirty minutes — for free — through no more than a three-second pull on a rope. The energy source after this? Something free that everyone has access to — gravity." Continue reading →
Policing in Prince George’s County, Maryland
"Other Maryland students were roughed up and badly injured by the police after the basketball game. At least three were knocked unconscious; two of them required medical care. Nine students (in addition to Mr. McKenna) received a total of $1.6 million in settlements from the county stemming from police violence. In the absence of video evidence in those cases, the officers who used Maryland students as punching bags faced no disciplinary consequences." Continue reading →
Potential of 3D Printing Technology
"Mark Niu travels to Silicon Valley, where companies are trying to perfect 3D printing technology." Continue reading →
Verizon Patent Helps Deliver Relevant Ads By Eavesdropping Conversations
"Verizon's technology can work a variety of ways. For starters, it can listen in on conversations - whether it be with someone else in the room or on the phone - and pick out keywords that would aide it in its duties. In reality, it's simple stuff in this day and age, but that doesn't make it any less off-putting. Imagine arguing with your significant other and then seeing marriage counseling ads on the TV - or better, cuddling and then seeing ads for contraceptives! These set-top boxes can also be configured with infrared sensors that draw outlines of inanimate objects in the room along with pets." Continue reading →
Scientists say ‘robot boy’ can be built within nine months
"Robotics engineers say that they can build a humanoid robot 'boy' that will help with everyday tasks within nine months. The childlike 'Roboy' will have special artificial muscles and tendons, and is designed as a companion and helper for sick and elderly patients. A team at the University of Zurich’s Artificial Intelligence Lab, headed by professor Rolf Pfeifer, has enlisted up 15 project partners and more than 40 engineers in the creation of what they hope will be the most advanced humanoid robot ever built. Pfeifer said that the team hope Roboy will be a model for 'service robots' that work alongside humans." Continue reading →
Better Than Human
"Imagine that 7 out of 10 working Americans got fired tomorrow. What would they all do? It’s hard to believe you’d have an economy at all if you gave pink slips to more than half the labor force. But that—in slow motion—is what the industrial revolution did to the workforce of the early 19th century. Two hundred years ago, 70 percent of American workers lived on the farm. Today automation has eliminated all but 1 percent of their jobs, replacing them (and their work animals) with machines. But the displaced workers did not sit idle. Instead, automation created hundreds of millions of jobs in entirely new fields." Continue reading →
Blind juggling robot keeps balls in the air for hours
"Researchers at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control (IDSC) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich have created a juggling robot, the so-called 'blind juggler,' which, in spite of its lack of visual sensors, is capable of flawlessly juggling a ball or balls for hours. The robot was designed by Philipp Reist and Raffaello D’Andrea and uses only mechanical sensors in its paddle, which is slightly curved. The robot registers nine different aspects of each bounce of the ball, including speed, angle and spin." Continue reading →
Double-barrelled 50 kW German laser weapon shoots down drones and mortar rounds
"German defense contractor Rheinmetall has shown off a new two-part laser system with a combined output of 50 kW, capable of shooting down drones and intercepting mortar rounds in mid-flight. The high-energy laser (HEL) weapon consists of a 30 kW primary laser mounted on a rotating turret and a 20 kW secondary beam for targeting stationary objects. In tests conducted in late November, the beams combined to slice through a 15mm steel girder at a distance of roughly 1,000 yards, while the 30 kW laser on its own was able to intercept a drone moving at more than 110 mph." Continue reading →
NYPD to Start Searching Internet for Pre-Crime Shooters
"Big brother just gets bigger and bigger. They take advantage of any event to grow. The NYPD intends to create algorithms that scan the text of conversations in chat rooms, social media and emails for clues on potential ‘apolitical or deranged killers’. NYPD Police Chief Raymond Kelly said in a statement: 'The goal would be to identify the shooter in cyberspace, engage him there and intervene, possibly using an undercover to get close, and take him into custody or otherwise disrupt his plans.' This is particularly bizarre since it appears that Adam Lanza, the shooter at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, didn't leave any kind of Facebook or Twitter clues." Continue reading →
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