Canon develops world’s largest CMOS sensor, shoots 60fps video in moonlight – “Did you ever think that you’d see a CMOS sensor measuring 202 x 205 mm? That’s 7.95 x 8.07 inches to our fine imperial friends. Its impressive size — about 40 times larger than Canon’s largest commercial CMOS sensor — translates to staggering light-gathering capabilities…”

Advances Offer Path to Further Shrink Computer Chips – “In one of the two new developments, Rice researchers are reporting in Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society, that they have succeeded in building reliable small digital switches — an essential part of computer memory — that could shrink to a significantly smaller scale than is possible using conventional methods…”

Behind The Bidding War: The Real Reasons Why HP And Dell are So Desperate For 3Par – “First Off, Is 3PAR Really THAT Unique? Yes and no. 3PAR is a classic disruption play, its value proposition based on the premise that unused storage is wasteful—often times just 10% to 25% of allocated disk space is actually used…”

Is Black Mesa the ultimate Half Life mod? – “Black Mesa is an ambitious mod to recreate Half Life in the latest Source Engine – and it goes way beyond a mere mod… Half Life is one of those rare games that’s as much an historical event as a genre-defining moment in gaming. It’s one of those things that many people can remember perfectly, including what they were doing when they first played, where they were – we were writing a preview for PC Authority when we received the first 20 per cent of the finished game from then unknown developer Valve. And we finished it one massive, jawdropping session.”

Why believers in immortality must read Super Sad True Love Story – “Transhumanists! Singularitarians! Listen up! You who harbor a fervent faith in science’s imminent transformation of our frail, fleshy selves. The conquest of all our physical and mental ailments, cancer, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, depression, senescence—death itself. You who exult over every “breakthrough” in nanotech, biotech, neuro-prostheses, artificial intelligence bearing you closer to eternal life. You must read Super Sad True Love Story (Random House, 2010) by Gary Shteyngart. Normal people should, too, but believers in immortality have the most to gain, because Shteyngart’s novel is a marvelous, black-comedy send-up of their dreams…”

Headphones Design: 100% Tangle-Free, Sport-Zip Earbuds – “We may have wireless (almost) everything these days, but still-wired ear buds are about as portable as most personal audio equipment gets – which brings us to the ever-present problem for pro, amateur and audiophile alike: tangled headphone cords that lead to loose wiring at best and entirely broken audio connections at worst…”

Now you can snoop on your kids – “This is huge. We are starting to see consumer device management as a new category. It is relatively easy (starting with our Android DM client, for example) to put together a parental control service. I know plenty of parents who would love to be able to stop their kids data plan when it goes above the cap. Or to know where they are if the phone is on (and where they went). I know, I know, snooping on your kids is not the way to make them grow and feel independent. Still, most parents believe they need it…”

Gmail Priority Inbox

Digg: Amazon Manager Will Take the Helm, Try to Save Site From Tides of History – “Can Digg remain relevant, much less grow beyond tens of millions of tech fans it has visiting it today? New CEO Williams is not taking on an easy job. There was a time when a site where users voted for what news should be on the front page was a radical proposition. That time has passed, but Digg has smart people working for it, tens of millions of readers and continued opportunity to innovate and thrive…”

Former Digg Engineer: Digg v4 Is Here To Stay – “Social news site Digg is currently in the particularly bloody throes of its fifth user revolt and, unlike revolts one through four, we’ve heard that Digg is absolutely positively not capitulating to users on this one…”

TWiT 263: Done Hoeing :

Medical Student Won’t Perform Pelvic Exams on Anesthetized Patients – “All women in the OB/GYN department at most teaching hospitals and hospitals affiliated with a medical school are. If you’re anesthetized and you’re in the OB/GYN department, you probably have had students practice pelvic exams on you regardless of what you’re in the hospital for – even if the procedure you need doesn’t require a pelvic exam!”

Monsanto Uprooted :: Germany Bans Cultivation of GM Corn – “Germany has banned the cultivation of GM corn, claiming that MON 810 is dangerous for the environment. But that argument might not stand up in court and Berlin could face fines totalling millions of euros if American multinational Monsanto decides to challenge the prohibition on its seed…”

Insect Eggs Look Amazing Up Close (Pics) – “Insect eggs are neat, but we had no idea they looked this neat. Gizmodo points us to a phenomenal slideshow of insect eggs photographed from and ant-eye view, making the less-than-2-millimeter eggs look other-worldly. Using a scanning electron microscope, National Geographic and Prüftechnik Uri and School of Applied Sciences, FHNW, show us what the beginnings of life look like for bugs…”

Reading, Writing, and RFID Chips: A Scary Back-to-School Future in California – “According to a story from the Associated Press, the students will wear a jersey at school that has the RFID tag attached. The tag will track the children’s movements and collect other data, like if the child has eaten or not. According to a Contra Costa County official, this is a cost-savings move, as teachers used to have to manually keep track of a child’s attendance and meal schedule…”

Japanese man calculates Pi to 5 trillion digits on homemade computer – “A Japanese man has broken the world record for calculating the value of Pi, reaching 5 trillion digits on a computer that he built himself…”

Can Apple maintain the iPod’s relevance? – “Long before the iPhone, the iPod was the device that helped transform Apple from computer company into a consumer electronics company. But today, the ubiquitous music player has become less relevant to the company that essentially owns that product category…”

5 unbelievably cool research facilities

This page shows a scale model of the solar system

Copepods in NYC tap Water!

Heaps of Fossils From Evolutionary ‘Big Bang’ Discovered – “One of paleontology’s most revered fossil sites now has a baby brother. Scientists have discovered a group of astonishing fossils high in the Canadian Rockies, just 40 kilometers from the famous Burgess Shale location…”

Artificial right arm, Europe, 1850-1910 – “Made from steel and brass, this unusual prosthetic arm articulates in a number of ways. The elbow joint can be moved by releasing a spring, whereas the top joint of the wrist allows a degree of rotation and an up-and-down motion. The fingers can also curl up and straighten out…”

Samsung Epic 4G vs Fascinate, Vibrant, & Captivate: Total Cost of Ownership – “If you’re interested in grabbing some of the current leading Android-powered smartphone, and you’re mulling over which device to get from which carrier, have no fear, BillShrink is here to help you. Check out our total cost of ownership and feature comparison graphic below to figure out which cell phone, and what cell phone plan works best for you!”

Peel P50 TopGear’s Jeremy Clarkson drives the Peel P50

‘Greener’ than expected – “It is not an easy task to compare the environmental effects of battery powered cars to those caused by conventionally fuelled automobiles. The degree to which manufacture, usage and disposal of the batteries used to store the necessary electrical energy are detrimental to the environment is not exactly known. Now, for the first time, a team of Empa scientists have made a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) or ecobalance of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, in particular the chemically improved (i.e. more environmentally friendly) version of the ones most frequently used in electric vehicles…”

Assessing America’s ‘imperial adventure’ in Iraq – “”This,” a leading American supporter of President George W Bush wrote in a British newspaper back in February 2003, just before the invasion of Iraq, “is our imperial moment”. He went on to argue that the British had no right to criticise America for doing what they themselves had done so enthusiastically a century before. But America’s imperial moment did not last long. And now, seven years later, the US is criticised for just about everything that happens here…”

The virtual revolution – “Often, it can be difficult to effectively summarize the massive influence that the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) has had on human culture and modern life. The story is so complicated, the players involved so numerous, and the implications so abstruse that it seems too arduous a task for any individual to tackle alone. This is where Aleks Krotoski steps in…”

The Rise of the Anti-Facebooks – “Facebook is dominating social media in almost every country where it hasn’t been banned, and the six-year old site shows no signs of slowing down. It’s creeping across generations, replacing things like the phone book and introducing tools the masses had no idea they needed. It’s also indoctrinating the world into adopting the Mark Zuckerberg Values of “openness,” “sharing” and “living your whole life on the Internet.” Those values have lead to a cultural movement. But here comes the resistance: a wave of social networking sites that define themselves in opposition to Facebook…”

[[[Jump to - Interesting Reading #565 – Huge ePaper screens, Superefficient LCDs, Amazing BEAR robot, Backscatter vans see all and much more…]]]

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