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Launch of secret US space ship masks even more secret launch of new weapon – “Somewhere above earth is America’s latest spaceship, a 30ft craft so classified that the Pentagon will not divulge its mission nor how much it cost to build…”
Electric Motorcycles Buyer’s Guide – “When it comes to electric propulsion, motorcycle companies are way ahead of carmakers. While electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf are still in the development phase, there are around a dozen credible e-bikes on sale today that offer a lot more than just green credentials: near-silent operation, running costs that amount to pennies per week, low insurance rates, little maintenance and uniquely fun performance…”
Santa Clara County police now looking into the lost iPhone prototype – “About eighteen seconds after word got out that a prototype of Apple’s next iPhone had been lost, found, and then subsequently sold to Gizmodo (for somewhere around $5,000), commenters and pundits everywhere started asking: is all this legal?” See also: The police get involved in the lost iPhone case
IBM Uses 3D Nanotip Based Patterning That Made 5 billion Times Smaller Scale Model of the Matterhorn – “This is huge. IBM is using nanotip fabrication at 15nm resolution now. The nanotip fabrication is faster than ebeam lithography, higher resolution than ebeam and cheaper. They can go to higher resolution. Sounds like 1 nanometer resolution is possible as that is the scanning accuracy. they etched a 25 nm high Matterhorn to 5 billion times smaller scale in 3 minutes. They can do 3D work. IBM is the developer so this will not languish for lack of resources…” See also: IBM Draws A World Map 1000 Times Smaller Than A Grain Of Sand
Don’t talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking – “THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact…”
Revealed: Image of the ravaged young man who became the first person in the world to undergo a full face transplant – “The nose is gone, the jaw has been blown away, and where the mouth should be there is only a gaping hole and scar tissue. This is a Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) of the young man who made medical history last month when he became the first person in the world to undergo a full facial transplant – taken before his life-changing surgery…”
Clever train doesn’t stop at stations:
Guiding a car with your eyes, not hands – “Tired of spinning that steering wheel? Try this: German researchers have developed a new technology that lets drivers steer cars using only their eyes…”
The Changes at Facebook: The Good, The Bad and The Very Ugly – “As Facebook closes in on half a billion users, it’s clear that it is a behemoth in the web world, arguably on par with Google, Microsoft and Apple in terms of sheer reach. And the changes announced at Facebook’s f8 developer conference seems to suggest Zuckerberg & Co. are intent on integrating themselves more and more tightly into the internet at large…”
TR10: Solar Fuel – “When Noubar Afeyan, the CEO of Flagship Ventures in Cambridge, MA, set out to invent the ideal renewable fuel, he decided to eliminate the middleman. Biofuels ultimately come from carbon dioxide and water, so why persist in making them from biomass–corn or switchgrass or algae? “What we wanted to know,” Afeyan says, “is could we engineer a system that could convert carbon dioxide directly into any fuel that we wanted?” “
Found: The Future of Children’s Books – “What do you think our world will look like in 10, 20 or 100 years? We need your help creating a new artifact from the future for every issue of Wired magazine. Each month, we’ll propose a scenario and ask for your prognostications…”
Cleanternet – for a cleaner and safer Internet (Parody):
Epic Fail: How the photographers won, while digital rights failed – “How did the music business end up with a triumph with the new Digital Economy Act? How did photographers, whose resources were one laptop and some old fashioned persuasion, carry an unlikely and famous victory? How did the digital rights campaigners fail so badly?”
If You Don’t Lose Weight Your Finances Will – “You’ve heard the studies that show better looking people earn more. Being thin helps too. A study by the Ohio State University Center for Human Resources Research found that the obese accumulate only about half the net worth of non-obese Americans, and gender and ethnicity make a big difference. Overall, a one-point increase in body mass index dropped net worth by $1,300…”
The Busted Homes Behind a Big Bet – “It was a dizzyingly complex transaction, involving 90 bonds and a 65-page deal sheet. But it all boiled down to whether people like Stella Onyeukwu, Gheorghe Bledea and Jack Booket could pay their mortgages. They couldn’t, and Mr. Paulson made $1 billion as a result.”
Video: Shell makes a Nissan 370Z for the Invisible Man to showcase lubricants – “Shell’s commissioned ad agency JWT to create a spot showing off the wondrous properties of Shell’s Helix lubricants. JWT then commissioned Asylum Models and Effects to create a transparent Nissan 370Z out of Perspex…”
Concert pianist plays iPad onstage – “One of the world’s foremost concert pianists has taken the iPad to a place it has surely never been. Yes, away from the thighs, where the device so often rests…”
DARPA Tested Hypersonic Glider Related to Quick-Response Global Strike System, and Then Claims to Have Lost Contact with It – “There has been a lot of coverage of the launch of the X-37b, but as the right hand was waving at us, did you notice what the left hand was up to? The same day, the U.S. launched a Minotaur rocket that reportedly carried a Hypersonic Test Vehicle, which is a test platform for the Prompt Global Strike program. This is from DARPA…”
Attenborough: Amazing DIY Orangutans – BBC Earth:
Google Sued Over Search Suggestion – “Google on Tuesday was sued in a Wisconsin court for allegedly violating the privacy rights of Beverly Stayart, an animal rights activist and the CFO and director of business development at Stayart Law Offices, the firm filing the complaint…”
What Danger Do Blippy and Swipely Pose to Amazon? – “The social buying site Blippy is part of what one might call the Internet’s “Too Much Information Movement,” which I write about in Friday’s paper. The start-up, based in Palo Alto, Calif., allows people to link their credit cards and e-commerce accounts to its site, so those people can share with friends and strangers everything they buy — from dinner at a local restaurant to their cosmetic surgery….”
HTC Droid Incredible Smartphone – “The highly anticipated HTC Incredible was well worth the wait. This miniature powerhouse not only looks prettier than a stack of Monets, but also smokes most smartphones when it comes to performance…”
5 Reasons Cellphones and Mobile VoIP Are Forging an Unlikely Truce – “The carriers’ old thinking was: “Mobile VOIP could threaten our voice business.” Their new thinking: “Who cares when there’s so much money to be made on data?””
Steve Wozniak On Apple Security, Employee Termination, and Gray Powell – “During last week’s iPhone leak saga, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, reached out to us with a story: The morning of the iPad launch, an engineer showed Woz an iPad for two minutes. For this he was fired…”
Rules of Engagement: Six Things Not To Do on Twitter – “You may have heard the term ‘Facebook is serious business’. Originally meant as a joke, it sure isn’t anymore; social networks like Facebook and Twitter are becoming the backbone of communication for human beings as a whole, even surpassing phones in their usefulness…”
New ultracapacitor material could be fabricated directly on chips and solar cells. – “Energy storage devices called ultracapacitors can be recharged many more times than batteries, but the total amount of energy they can store is limited. This means that the devices are useful for providing intense bursts of power to supplement batteries but less so for applications that require steady power over a long period, such as running a laptop or an engine…”
Inside the stadium during demolition
Word War III: Google vs. Governments – “In how many ways did Google respond to this week’s letter (PDF) from the data protection authorities of nine countries criticizing the company’s approach to privacy?”
Car that drives itself gets closer to reality – “Cars that can stay in a motorway lane without the help of a human driver are being developed by researchers at North Carolina State University…”
Giant deep sea jellyfish filmed in Gulf of Mexico – “Remarkable footage of a rarely seen giant deep sea jellyfish has been recorded by scientists…”
Natural History Exhibit Asks: ‘What Does It Mean to Be Human?’ – “When scientists announced earlier this month they had discovered the fossils of what appears to be a new hominid species dating back almost 2 million years ago, it sparked new excitement — and debate — among researchers about our ever-growing understanding of the connections between our ape-like ancestors and the earliest human-like species…”
Dual Drill Designed for Europa’s Ice – “A mole-like thermal drill designed to cut through the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa could be on a future mission slated for launch in 2020…”
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