“If you thought slow-mo videos of watermelons being exploded by bullets and chubby, jowled faces recoiling from slaps was as good as it gets, think again: MIT Media Lab has created a camera-and-laser rig that’s capable of capturing one trillion exposures per second; fast enough to visualize the speed of light and to see the effect of photons as they collide with surfaces.”
“First of all, let’s clarify what the NASA budget is. Do you realize that the $850 billion dollar bailout, that sum of money is greater than the entire 50-year running budget of NASA?
And so when someone says, “We don’t have enough money for this space probe,” I’m asking, no, it’s not that you don’t have enough money, it’s that the distribution of money that you’re spending is warped in some way that you are removing the only thing that gives people something to dream about tomorrow.
You remember the 60s and 70s. You didn’t have to go more than a week before there’s an article in Life magazine, “The Home of Tomorrow,” “The City of Tomorrow,” “Transportation of Tomorrow”. All of that ended in the 1970s. After we stopped going to the Moon, it all ended. We stopped dreaming.
And so I worry that the decision that Congress makes doesn’t factor in the consequences of those decisions on tomorrow. Tomorrow’s gone. They’re playing for the quarterly report, they’re playing for the next election cycle, and that is mortgaging the actual future of this nation, and the rest of the world is going to pass us by.
”
(Source: kateoplis)
“We built our key duplication software system to show people that their keys are not inherently secret. Perhaps this was once a reasonable assumption, but advances in digital imaging and optics have made it easy to duplicate someone’s keys from a distance without them even noticing.”
23andMe Sends Wrong DNA Test Results To 96 Customers
It’s hard to overstate how disturbing receiving the wrong DNA results can be. One customer, writing on 23andMe’s community forums after receiving the results, recounted her experience in a post titled “Results in, my son is not my son?“. Here’s an excerpt:
I checked my son’s and it stated that he was a carrier for hemochromatosis, I was upset. How could he be a carrier and we weren’t. Well my husband’s result’s weren’t in yet so I would wait and see. Still upset I checked family inheritance and noticed my daughter shared with me, and then I checked my son’s. He was not a match for any of us… A month before my son was born two local hospitals had baby switches. I panicked and I checked over and over… Later I found my son in my bed asleep and hugging my pillow. He did not go to school today, he said he was sick. I told him it’s a mistake.
Fed's Bernanke doesn't see double-dip recession
Given that he didn’t see the first recession, is this good news or bad news?
Ok, I had nothing to write about today. G.19 showed total consumer credit expansion, but revolving credit contracted at a rapid clip.
Comments like this from Bernanke are completely meaningless. I don’t know exactly where the line is but there comes a certain level of public power where you just can’t say that bad things are likely because it will make them more likely, a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bernanke is absolutely on the side of the line where this applies. This is why the videos of public figures in major political positions from 2006-2008 saying everything will be ok aren’t as interesting as people make them out to be. So Hank Paulson saying we’re going to be ok: he has to. Ben Stein saying everything is fine: go back to being an actor because this economist thing isn’t working out. Tim Geithner or Ben Bernanke says a double-dip hasn’t started yet but is likely: stock market crash.
Future Helmet Creates a Stink When You Crash
A team of researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg has been testing out a new manufacturing process that injects microcapsules filled with a odor-causing oil into the materials that go into a helmet. When the protective layer is cracked, you’ll be able to big up a smell coming from your helmet. It’s proportional, so a big crack will let off quite the stink.
“Cyclists often replace their helmets unnecessarily after dropping them on the ground, because they cannot tell whether they are damaged or not,” Dr. Christof Koplin, a research scientist at the IWM, said. “The capsules eliminate this problem. If cracks form, smelly substances are released.”
found via laughingsquid:DVICE:physorg
Rather than going back to the drawing board every few years, iRobot has made subtle improvements on a basic design that leaves much to be desired. The Roomba you could buy today cleans in the same way that the Roomba did seven years ago. Why? Because iRobot is spending their time making some cool army and healthcare bots, not innovating the Roomba. That’s why a new company can come along and take advantage of the seven years of lost chances. That’s why Neato is going to explode onto the scene.
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Using this technique and its laser, the XV-11 is able to constantly find its position in the context of the room, and its able to compensate for changes in the environment. When you walk through a room the XV-11 is cleaning, it knows to avoid you. It can also avoid obstacles you place in its way and will go back and clean areas that become open when an object is removed. While you may be inclined to challenge the robot’s skills by maniacally placing chairs in its way, the intended application is that the robot can clean an entire area using straight lines and with a minimum of overlap.
