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Archive for November 6th, 2009
From:
ScienceStuff Blog
A New Ocean is Ripping Through Ethiopia
November 6th, 2009 by Sarah Dowdey
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Thought the “Seven Seas” were static? Nope, they’ve gone through many incarnations since the ancient Greeks started grouping their local bodies of water into one convenient moniker. European explorers expanded the definition a bit to include a wider sampling of world waters, and today we’d probably list the Arctic, North and South Atlantic, North and South Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans in the big seven — if we used the phrase at all.
But it turns out, there’s a new ocean in the making, rending the African continent right through the middle of Ethiopia.
From:
ScienceStuff Blog
Invasive Species Tire of Bad Press; Sue
November 6th, 2009 by Allison Loudermilk
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Invasive species are gotten tired of all the bad press and have finally appealed to the U.S. judicial system for respite. Until I read Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow’s “Don’t Sweat the Invasion” post on Slate, I, too, was a hater. In my defense, as an amateur gardener and resident of the South,* it’s hard to like kudzu or English ivy — both notorious invasive plant species in the Southeastern U.S. — when they maintain a death grip on your tulip poplar.
From:
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet Blog
Where to See the Sun Rise
November 6th, 2009 by Amanda Arnold
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My bed is pushed up against my bedroom window, and I keep my blinds up all night. That’s so that in the morning, when the sun comes up, I can roll my head back and look up at the sunlight coming through the leaves in the trees that canopy my building.
From:
TechStuff Blog
BlueBeat Forced to Stop Selling Beatles’ Catalog
November 6th, 2009 by Chris Pollette
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A California company called BlueBeat has been selling MP3 tracks for 25 cents each and streaming them for free. Online music retail is pretty much old news, though the price point is low enough to attract attention. But as Macworld’s Jonathan Seff wrote, the site is also selling the Beatles’ catalog — without a license. Seff pointed out that the site’s terms of use say that if users feel that the music posted to the site has been uploaded in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, then they can contact the people running the site to have it removed.
There’s also a warning, Seff said, that false accusations can be penalized under the DMCA.
Well, apparently EMI, the company that owns the rights to the Beatles’ catalog, filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement and had a temporary restraining order granted to stop the site from continuing its business.
From:
How-to Stuff Blog
How to Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth…in Spanish
November 6th, 2009 by Cristen Conger
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While chatting with a friend the other day, our conversation meandered its way to the subject of idioms. Specifically, how it’s virtually impossible to literally translate idioms into different languages and have any hope of conveying the original meaning. When learning a new language, slang and idioms are generally things that you pick up along the way once the linguistic puzzle pieces start fitting together snugly in your brain.
But since it’s Friday and I scarcely have time to become multilingual before the weekend commences, I decided to explore how different figures of speech change and shift in different languages. So for fun, take a gander at this sampler platter of select idioms and how their meanings translate in other languages and cultures.
From:
FanStuff Blog
Want a w00tstock near you? Demand one.
November 6th, 2009 by Tracy V. Wilson
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While I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I briefly wandered in range of a cell phone tower and got a text message from my globetrotting brother, sent the night before. He said he might be going to W00tstock, and my response was not entirely kind. I’d been following the news about W00tstock — a three-night geek spectacular featuring Wil Wheaton, Paul and Storm, Adam Savage, and a range of special guests — since it was first announced. But since I live out on the East Coast, I didn’t, until that moment, know anyone who was actually going. I instantly went from being vaguely jealous of random, unknown people to being insanely jealous of my brother.
The awesome thing about W00tstock — aside from the fact that it happened — is that it was released under a Creative Commons license, and lots of technophiles were there. That means that if you, like me, were forced to resign yourself to living vicariously through your sibling instead of attending the show, you can still see a lot of what went on with minimal effort, like a search for W00tstock at YouTube.
From:
BrainStuff Blog
Get ready for the humanoid robot olympics in China
November 6th, 2009 by Marshall Brain
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It’s true – we are about to see the birth of an Olympics for humanoid robots:
China plans for humanoid Olympics
The international event will be held in the city of Harbin and will see robots take part in 16 different events.
Robots will be able to compete in familiar Olympic sports such as athletics as well as those more suited to machines such as cleaning.
Entry to the competition will be restricted to robots resembling humans. They must possess two arms and legs. Wheels are banned.
Harbin is located here:
What kind of events could robots partake of at the olympic level?
There’s Cycling:
Track:
Soccer:
Baseball:
Volleyball:
The robots have a ways to go before reaching human performance, but each year they get better.
Robots already have several other competitive events that don’t discriminate against wheels:
- Federation of International Robosoccer Association
- Robocup
- Roboexotica (for cocktail robots)
- FIRST Robotics (although these robots are not autonomous)
More info:
- Fascinating to watch – the precision of today’s robots
- How robots work
- How ASIMO works
From:
High Speed Stuff Blog
High Speed Stuff Wrap-up: Signs of Engine Trouble and the Bloodhound SSC
November 6th, 2009 by Scott C. Benjamin
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I intend to keep it a little more brief than usual today, so here’s what Ben and I have been talking about on our High Speed Stuff podcast over the past week…
From:
BrainStuff Blog
Invention – The virtusphere is a giant human virtual reality hamster wheel
November 6th, 2009 by Marshall Brain
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The virtusphere is designed to let you experience a place by walking through it in virtual reality. It is a sphere big enough to stand up inside of – like a giant hamster sphere – along with a virtual reality headset. As you walk in the sphere, you move through the virtual environment. Reuters gives you a tour of the Virtusphere here:
See also:
The alternative approach is the 0mni-directional treadmill:
[[[Jump to previous invention - Inflatable seat belts]]]
From:
TechStuff Blog
Podcasting and Artificial Intelligence on TechStuff
November 6th, 2009 by Jonathan Strickland
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It’s been another busy week in the TechStuff labs here at HowStuffWorks.com. Chris and I are working on the preliminary design of our TechStuff Automaton. After much debate, we decided the name “Killbot 2000″ had a slightly negative connotation. The current working title of the project is now “Sir Hugs-A-Lot.” I’m not certain that we’ve added quite as many spikes and lasers as we’ll need but it’s still early in the project.
Between our plans for world domination and eating lunch at the local pizzeria, we managed to record and publish some episodes of TechStuff this week.
