Get Ready For UHD-TV – “UHD will come in two resolution levels: 7680 x 4320 pixels (8K) and 3840 x 2160 pixels (4K) and provide four to 16 times the resolution of Blu-ray or 1080p high-def. And “22.2 multichannel three-dimensional sound.”"

Intel’s CULV Laptops: Thin, Light & Cheap – “CULV, which stands for consumer ultra low voltage, isn’t a new technology for Intel. In fact, these processors commanded high premiums two years ago and were found in ultraportables that range upwards of $2,000. With CULV, Intel merely re-branded these processors, created new ones in the process, and began selling them in laptops that are less than an inch thick, average 13-inch widescreens, and don’t necessarily include optical drives. Most compelling of all, CULV laptops cost between $600 and $900 and delivered great battery life…”

How to tell if your robot really loves you – “Anyone watching the TED video below, will see that David Hanson’s robot heads look and act human. They recognize and respond to emotion, and they make amazingly realistic expressions of their own. The technology to give robots human-like capabilities for body movement is also coming along quite impressively…”

Leaked Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Threatens To Destroy Internet As We Know It; Buh-Bye YouTube, Flickr, Blogger, Et. Al….

Baguette Dropped From Bird’s Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really) – “The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine…”

Smart spectacles aid translation – “Spectacles that can provide subtitles have been created by hi-tech firm NEC…”

Poll: Almost half of Americans reject swine flu vaccineDespite a rising nationwide toll of sickness caused by the H1N1 flu virus and an intensive push by the government to have people vaccinated for it, almost half of Americans say they aren’t likely to get the vaccine, according to a new McClatchy-Ipsos poll…”

Pet cat in U.S. catches swine flu – “A cat in Iowa has tested positive for H1N1 swine flu, the first time a cat has been diagnosed with the new pandemic strain, the American Veterinary Medical Association said on Wednesday…”

New Digital ‘Electronics’ Concept May Continue Moore’s Law – “Computers of the future could be operating not on electrons, but on tiny waves traveling through an electron “fluid,” if a new proposal is successful. The new circuit design, recently introduced by Dr. Héctor J. De Los Santos, CTO of NanoMEMS Research, LLC, in Irvine, California, may be a promising candidate to replace CMOS-based circuits, and ultimately continue the circuit density growth described by Moore’s Law. ..”

US Uses Less Water Now Than 35 Years Ago – “This news is particularly relevant heading into Copenhagen…for those who think conservation of any kind is impossible or unattainable or out of keeping with American goals…”

Mapping the Mammal Takeover – “If you were to construct a family tree vast enough to link all mammals—from the duck-billed platypus to Homo sapiens—put it on a time line, and shape it into a circle, this is what it would look like. A team of researchers compiled data from 4,500 existing mammal species—99 percent of known mammals alive today—and charted their evolution over 170 million years. Time begins at the center of the circle and moves out toward the present day (indicated along the circumference). This chart shows that the extinction of dinosaurs wasn’t key for the diversity of present-day mammalian evolution, that rats aren’t just pests (they’re survivors), and that humans aren’t all that special…”

Scots Aim Lasers at Landmarks – “What results should be the most complete and precise three-dimensional models ever of the site, millions of times more detailed and accurate than the best photographs or films, precise down to the tiniest fraction of a millimeter…”

A black hole engine that could power spaceships – “
Artificially generated black holes could provide us with the power to make inter-solar travel a possibility. New research shows how strapping a black hole to your starship might just give you the juice to get to Alpha Centauri…”

Half-Life Visuals Supercharge Sci-Fi Short Escape From City-17 – “The brothers launched Escape From City-17 in February, hoping to attract lucrative TV commercial work by showcasing their visual effects talents. Instead, the short found instant traction among videogame fanboys, paving the way for a feature film project and two more installments of a projected Half-Life trilogy…”

PayPal woos developers with $150K challenge – “PayPal has been making a big deal about convincing developers to build cool applications using its global payments platform. Today it added a little more incentive, by announcing the PayPal X Developer challenge, where the creators of the most innovative payments apps will receive a total of $150,000 in cash and waived PayPal transaction fees…”

http://www.popsci.com/science/gallery/2009-10/best-medical-images-2009 – “The stunning winners of the Wellcome Image Awards…”

Clive James isn’t a climate change sceptic, he’s a sucker – but this may be the reason – “My fiercest opponents on global warming tend to be in their 60s and 70s. This offers a fascinating, if chilling, insight into human psychology…”

The Connected Car – “The introduction of the Chevy Volt and other electric vehicles will require a vast ecosystem of entrepreneurial businesses…”

[[[Jump to IR #356]]]

The first innovation in seat belt design in many years is on its way:

Ford says inflatable seat belt improves safety, comfort, too

The belts expand like an air bag in the event of a crash and distribute the force of the impact across a wider area of the passenger’s chest.

In the video you can still see one of the most pressing problems with seat belts – head motion. The following video explains that 25% of the money paid by insurance companies for injuries has to do with whiplash injuries:

One way to fix that would be to have all of us wear helmets with HANS devices installed, as shown here:

Maybe we see that next year.

[[[Jump to previous invention - zinc-air batteries can store three times the energy of a lithium-ion battery]]]

Electric cars are taking off, as seen with this collection of electric concept cars at the Tokyo Auto Show:

The cars come in all shapes and sizes, but here is one that is following what appears to be a unique path:

F1 designer unveils electric car

This is the T27. It is intended as a “city car” with a top speed of 60 MPH and a range of 100 miles. It has a number of innovative features designed to cut costs and weight, but two of the most important are these:

1) It contains few (no?) stamped metal parts. If you go to a traditional auto factory, the stamping presses are huge and incredibly expensive, as are the stamping dies. By doing away with them, the manufacturing process is simplified. In the following video, you get a sense of the size of a stamping press:

Instead of stamping the parts, “All the parts are designed by computer and welded together rather than being stamped out of metal sheets.”

2) The car is very light without compromising safety:

Its predecessor, the T.25, weighs 600kg – half the weight of an average small family car.

“Cars don’t tend to be heavy because of safety; they tend to be heavy because of luxury,” added Mr Bott.

“The tubular frame of the T.27 is designed to absorb energy. It will pass all the relevant safety tests.”

If this works out, it could mean that perhaps many smaller car manufqacturers could sprout up to build electric cars.

The first is free, inspired by the 2D shooters of the Galactica era but with customization:

Red Fluxion

The guy who wrote the game is taking feedback in this thread

The second has a free demo:

Gatuitous Space Battles

It’s a strategy / management / simulation game that does away with all the base building and delays and gets straight to the meat and potatoes of science-fiction games : The big space battles fought by huge spaceships with tons of laser beams and things going ‘zap!’, ‘ka-boom!’ and ‘ka-pow!’. In GSB you put your ships together from modular components, arrange them into fleets, give your ships orders of engagement and then hope they emerge victorious from battle (or at least blow to bits in aesthetically pleasing ways).

This is what the game looks like when you play it:

[[[Jump to previous game - A huge word puzzle]]]

Find out what Google knows about you on its servers (assuming you have a Google account for something like GMail, Blogger, YouTube, etc.):

Google Account Dashboard

As described here:

It would be nice if every web site offered this service at a standard URL. Imagine if Facebook had this feature, for example.