Over the past 13 years, Marshall created HowStuffWorks from scratch and then helped grow it into the company that it has become today – a site with almost 20 million unique visitors a month. As the company’s founder, Marshall has also made hundreds of television, radio and print appearances on behalf of HowStuffWorks. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Modern Marvels, CNN and Good Morning America, among others. He has authored four books for HowStuffWorks. Marshall also pioneered HowStuffWorks’first podcast as well as HowStuffWorks’first blog, both of which have been extremely popular with fans.

Please join us in thanking Marshall for his contributions to HowStuffWorks and wishing him well in his future endeavors.

We started with five simple questions:

* How can organic, self-built slums be turned into livable housing?
* What might a house-for-the-poor look like?
* How can world-class engineering and design capabilities be utilized to solve the problem?
* What reverse-innovation lessons might be learned by the participants in such a project?
* How could the poor afford to buy this house?

The goal is to design, build, and deploy a simple dwelling which keeps a family safe from the weather, allows them to sleep at night, and gives them a little bit of dignity. If we can give the poor a chance to live safely and build an inclusive ecosystem of services around them which includes, clean water, sanitation, health services, family planning, education, and micro enterprise, maybe we can start reducing the disease of poverty. By helping create this ecosystem, we believe companies can make money while providing services needed by the poor at an affordable cost. The poor deserve a chance, a real chance, to make it out of poverty.

We have looked at several ideas in this arena in the A Different Way to Build a House series. Several examples:
- A different way to build a house #53 – inexpensive housing for the developing world
- Foam and steel construction makes a quick, inexpensive, super-efficient house
- Build yourself an Earthship for an ultra-sustainable green lifestyle
- An inexpensive home using recycled wood and natural materials
- A different way to build a house #61 – Building a house for $3,500

See also: Can a $300 House Save 2 Billion People Living in Poverty? [PICS]

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According to the video: “This whole amazing process – the bits coming together to produce a recognizable human face – happens in the womb between two and three months.”

Other people see the Philtrum as a place for adornment, as seen here:

It is also a part of the lip augmentation process:

If you don’t like the length of your philtrum, you can have it shortened with a lip lift:

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GE and EADS to Print Parts for Airplanes – “GE is starting a new lab at its global research headquarters in Niskayuna, New York, that’s devoted to turning three-dimensional printing technology into a viable means of manufacturing functional parts for a range of its businesses, including those involving health care and aerospace. The company aims to take advantage of the technology’s potential to make parts that are lighter, perform better, and cost less than parts made with conventional manufacturing techniques….”

Apple is world’s most valuable brand – “Apple has overtaken Google to become the world’s most valuable brand with an estimated brand value of more than $153bn, according to new rankings published on Monday…” See also: Apple usurps Google as world’s most valuable brand

Sony is not: Sony Networks Lacked Firewall, Ran Obsolete Software: Testimony – “Sony could have prevented the breach if they’d applied some fundamental security measures such as deploying network firewalls and using fully updated Web applications, according to testimony before a Congressional committee….”

Solar Fire Breakthrough – “We are adopting the Solar Fire concentrator technology as our official solar energy platform. OSE and Solar Fire are entering into partnership – with a single purpose of creating a state-of-art, replicable, open source platform for solar concentrator power applied to electricity, space heating, and process heat. Prototyping done already by Solar Fire indicates that electrical production can be attained by such a system at a $0.5-$1 system materials cost per peak watt – if combined with a modern steam engine as the heat engine. This is about a factor of 10 lower than photovoltaics….”

An update on Coreboot – “AMD recently released coreboot for the AMD Opteron™ 4100 Series processors (the C32 socket) along with support for the SR5600 series of chipsets. In addition, AMD is working on completing the final piece of support for our AMD Opteron processor family and is planning on releasing coreboot support for the AMD Opteron 6100 Series (the G34 socket) in the not too distant future. AMD is also in the final process of releasing support for the AMD 785E/SB8xx (SB820M and SB850) chipsets. Once these are released, all current embedded processors and chipsets in production will have support in the coreboot community….”

Ubisoft Releases New Developer Diary for its Upcoming God Game, From Dust – “Ubisoft has released a brand new trailer for its upcoming god game, From Dust, where players are given the tough task of controlling nature and shape the destiny of the people on the planet….”

The future of old – If you’re 30 now, what can you expect at 80? – “It used to be that we knew what old age looked like. You’d work your way through adulthood, punch out as soon you turned 65, and spend the rest of your days sitting on porches, playing bridge, and golfing. And while there was a nightmare associated with old age as well — think warehouse-style nursing homes and dull, segregated retirement communities — you entered the final stage of your life expecting, probably correctly, that it would not be a long one. It’d be over before you got too sick and, perhaps more importantly, before you got too bored….”

Quake shifted Japan; towns now flood at high tide – “When water begins to trickle down the streets of her coastal neighborhood, Yoshiko Takahashi knows it is time to hurry home. Twice a day, the flow steadily increases until it is knee-deep, carrying fish and debris by her front door and trapping people in their homes. Those still on the streets slosh through the sea water in rubber boots or on bicycle….” See also: Fukushima Groundwater Contamination Worst in Nuclear History

How to float large ships

How Three-Dimensional Transistors Went from Lab to Fab – “Getting the promising three-dimensional device design out of the lab and into production took about a decade. Intel hasn’t disclosed many of the details of what fab upgrades are necessary to make the new transistors, but based on the fact that no new materials or machines are apparently required—and the marginal increase in production cost of 2 to 3 percent promised by the company—the changes appear to be minor. The company has said that making the three-dimensional channels only involves an extra etching step….” See also: Intel’s New Tri-Gate Ivy Bridge Transistors: 9 Things You Need to Know

Engineers Patch a Heart: Tissue-Engineering Platform Enables Heart Tissue to Repair Itself – “Researchers at Columbia Engineering have established a new method to patch a damaged heart using a tissue-engineering platform that enables heart tissue to repair itself. This breakthrough, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is an important step forward in combating cardiovascular disease, one of the most serious health problems of our day….”

Blogger announces own death after battle with cancer – “A Canadian man who blogged about his battle with cancer has died, but not without leaving a post-mortem message. “Here it is. I’m dead,” read the last internet post of Derek K. Miller, who died last week after more than four years of blogging about his struggle with colorectal cancer….”

Cereal Killer: Climate Change Stunts Growth of Global Crop Yields – “The people of the world get 75 percent of their sustenance—either directly, or indirectly as meat—from four crops: maize (corn), wheat, rice and soybeans. The world’s rising population—now predicted by the United Nations to reach 10.1 billion by century’s end—has been fed thanks to rising yields of all four of these crops during the past century. Humanity’s predilection for burning fossil fuels, however, is now contributing to the slowing of such rising yields, cutting harvests of wheat 5.5 percent and maize 3.8 percent from what they could have been since 1980, according to a new analysis of yields….”

Microsoft Has the Wal-Mart Disease – “For the first time in 20 years, Apple’s quarterly profit exceeded Microsoft. Thus, on the face of things, the companies should be roughly equally valued. But they aren’t. This week Microsoft’s market capitalization is about $215B, while Apple’s is about $365B – about 70% higher….”

5 Shocking Ways You Overestimate Yourself – “Have you ever sat next to the smelly guy? Did you ever wonder why nobody tells him that he smells, or why he can’t smell himself? Doesn’t he notice people getting up and changing seats when he sits down? How can he live his whole life being unaware of a flaw that is readily apparent to a total stranger 10 seconds after they’ve met?”

Drone’s 2D photos converted to make 3D models – “You swoop over the countryside like a bird in flight, the buildings and fields passing in a blur as you flick back in time between one month and the next. But this isn’t just another upgrade to Google Earth. You created this yourself just 30 minutes ago using a small, cheap drone that took a series of simple photos while airborne. This is the idea behind Pix4D, a new spin-off from EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, which is stitching together thousands of 2D photos to create complex 3D models that are navigable over time….”

Steve McQueen’s Jaguar XKSS – “Steve McQueen’s love of fast cars and motorcycles is legendary, one of his favourite cars was the Jaguar XKSS of which he loved so much that after selling it in 1969 he re-bought it in 1977 and kept it until his untimely death a few years later…”

Smartphones: The Most Pervasive Interruption Technology Ever – “Over the past few years, excitement has been growing for the idea of an “everything device” that you carry in your pocket. Why carry many separate physical and electronic devices for your phone, address book, calendar, planner, GPS, books, magazines, etc.? An iPhone, Blackberry, or Android-based smartphone will do it all. There’s just one problem. Interruptions…”

Startups Exposed: The Anatomy of a Newborn Tech Company

5 reasons Abbottabad was a great hideout – “Over the past week, I’ve heard many commentators assume that bin Laden’s mansion in Abbottabad must have stuck out like a sore thumb. But I can tell you from frequent visits to the city and from extended conversations with family and friends in Abbottabad that this is not the case. Here are 5 reasons why…” See also: US Says It Wants Access To Bin Laden Widows

Killing Bin Laden: The President’s Story, Part 1 – “In his first and only interview since the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama talks to Steve Kroft about the intelligence and preparations leading up to the operation in Pakistan….”

The Unwisdom of Elites – “The past three years have been a disaster for most Western economies. The United States has mass long-term unemployment for the first time since the 1930s. Meanwhile, Europe’s single currency is coming apart at the seams. How did it all go so wrong? “

Welfare drug test bill heads to Fla. Gov. Scott – “Applying for welfare benefits in Florida? Soon you’ll need to get drug tested. A measure requiring the tests passed the Senate on Thursday and is headed to Gov. Rick Scott, who called it one of his legislative priorities. “It’s fair to taxpayers,” Scott said after the vote. “They’re paying the bill. And they’re often drug screened for their jobs. On top of that, it’s good for families. It creates another reason why people will think again before using drugs, which as you know is just a significant issue in our state.”..”

Housing crash is getting worse: report – “If you thought the housing crisis was bad, think again. It’s worse. New data just out from Zillow, the real-estate information company, show house prices are falling at their fastest rate since the Lehman collapse… “

Point: US ranks 17 as clean tech producer, China is No. 2 – “Denmark earns the biggest share of its national revenue from producing windmills and other clean technologies, the United States is rapidly expanding its clean-tech sector, but no country can match China’s pace of growth, according to a new report obtained by The Associated Press…”

Counterpoint: China Talks A Green Line While The U.S. Walks One – “In 2009, despite no cap-and-trade law, no carbon tax and no major reductions mandated by our EPA, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 7.1%, more than in any year in the record that begins in 1949. Meanwhile, China’s increased at near-record levels. What gives? Our nonpartisan Energy Information Administration cites three causes for what happened here: “an economy in recession, a particularly hard-hit energy-intensive industries sector, and a large drop in the price of natural gas that caused fuel switching away from coal to natural gas in the electric power sector.”…”

In a genetic research first, researchers turn zebrafish genes off and on – “Mayo Clinic researchers have designed a new tool for identifying protein function from genetic code. A team led by Stephen Ekker, Ph.D., succeeded in switching individual genes off and on in zebrafish, then observing embryonic and juvenile development. The study appears in the journal Nature Methods….”

“artificial, engineerable, animal chloroplasts”: coming soon to a laboratory near you! – “As many of you are no doubt aware, both mitochondria and chloroplasts are thought to have come to us via microbial endosymbiosis (that is one cell living within another) with prokaryokes. Some photosynthetic bacteria eons ago found itself nestled inside another cell, realized it was a pretty sweet place to call home, and viola – a new cell organelle was born. OK fine, that is a bit of an oversimplification. The endosymbiotic theory is a bit more complicated, but that’s the general idea. The details of how a symbiont over time could lose its unique identity and became a part of the host itself are keys that would unlock many evolutionary mysteries… mysteries that if we could understand them could allow us to better understand evolution, and possibly to engineer symbioses of interest. …”

Heart attack at Bondi Beach (cadiac arrest)

Graphene optical modulators could lead to ultrafast communications – “Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have demonstrated a new technology for graphene that could break the current speed limits in digital communications….”

TalkTalk offers centralised website blocking – “Internet provider TalkTalk is to give customers the option of filtering malicious or offensive material out of their broadband service. The company claims it is the first major ISP to offer centralised blocking at server level. As well as stopping malicious software, parents will be able to prevent their children accessing adult material….”

Amazon Cloud Player Quietly Begins Working On iOS Devices! – “Back in March, alongside the roll out of Amazon’s new cloud-based music upload/player service, we noted one glaring problem: it didn’t work on iOS devices. You might think this had to due with Flash or another technology that iOS wasn’t compatible with, but it wasn’t. It looked like something else was simply blocking it from working. Well, good news. That’s no longer the case….”

Twitter and Facebook Both Quietly Kill RSS, Completely – “Last year I shared how Twitter was moving more and more towards a closed, less-standards oriented model of sharing content as they upgraded their design to bring more people to the Twitter.com website. At that time, they removed the prominent RSS icons and made it only possible to access an RSS feed for an individual by logging completely out of Twitter, and visiting that individual’s profile page….”

Mexico’s failed war against the drug gangs – “On Sunday thousands of Mexicans marched in the capital, Mexico City, to demand an end to the “war on drug trafficking” launched by President Felipe Calderón. They view it is an absurd war that has cost 40,000 lives. Similar protests were held across the country….”

[[[Interesting Reading #746 – Eee Transformer, DARPA Star Trek, Sitting Can Kill You, SlutWalking, Bioprinting and much more!]]]

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He says: “This is going on wardlow avenue out in front of my house. I thought it was an earthquake at first and ran outside when my house started to shake.”

So why are they doing this? They are using thumper trucks and doing a seismic survey to map underground layers and structures. This video offers a nice visualization of the process:

The thumper trucks generate the sound waves. The geophones pick up the vibrations.

See also:

The thumper trucks create small earthquakes, and in many towns a small earthquake is discouraged for two reasons: 1) they are disruptive, and 2) they often precede fracking operations. This article describes a typical situation:

Seismic testing generates waves of concern

“They create earthquakes underground.” That’s how one official described the activity of thumper trucks, though their actual mission is to engage in seismic testing to help drilling companies understand the makeup of the various layers of materials deep underground.

Essentially, thumper trucks come equipped with a large metal foot, which stomps on the ground. The action creates seismic waves that bounce off the rocks below and are then recorded and measured by instruments on the ground. This information is then sold to drilling companies to help determine the best place to drill for gas or oil.

The Town of Tusten is holding a public hearing on September 29 to hear comments about whether the town should declare a six-month moratorium on seismic testing on the roads of Tusten.

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One relatively inexpensive way is to start by driving a kart, as seen here:

Here is a 13-year-old who has been successful in carting:

A nice introduction to a kart and track can be found here.

The second way would be to go to a school like the Skip Barber racing school and learn to drive an open-wheel race car or an MX-5. The following video describes how to climb the professional ladder:

The MX-5 series:

Here’s another way to do it if you are well-off financially. In this documentary, a guy named Jack Atley “saves all his money, travels across the world” and drives a real Formula 1 car. It’s fascinating:

Part 2

One other way is described here – Practice on video games and then transfer your virtual racing knowledge to the real world:

Today’s Inspirational Moment

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Let’s say you are going to use a shotgun for hunting. A typical shotgun shell shoots a small handful of pellets. You pick the size of the pellets based on the size of what you are hunting. This is an excellent video shows you different pellet sizes, all the way from bird shot up to a single one-ounce bullet:

The range of stuff that you can put in a shotgun gets einteresting when you consider what you have here. A 12-gauge shotgun shell has a pretty big capacity. The shotgun itself is essentially a smooth-bore mini cannon. Basically anything that can fit in the shell can be shot from the cannon.

Would you like to shoot fire from a shotgun? There are shells for that and they are startling. They contain magnesium pellets:

Looking for something less lethal? Here is a beanbag round weighing 40 grams:

This video shows a person being shot with a beanbag.

The slug shot from the shotgun can contain an explosive charge that detonates downrange, as shown here:

Flares (e.g. for boating) can fit into shotgun shells as shown here:

Even a Taser high-voltage energizer and its battery has been miniaturized to fit inside a shotgun shell, as shown here:

If you put small steel darts inside a shotgun shell you have what is called a flechette round. A “strung buck” round is two large balls connected together with a wire. The following video shows what flechettes and strung buck ammunition does to ballistic gel:

See also these ammo demonstrations:

Would you like to experiment? What would you like to load into a shotgun shell? Here’s how to load one:

More info:
- Weapons – The XM-25 rifle has programmable bullets that explode automatically at a set distance
- Military shotguns

PS – Tim on Facebook pointed me to a site called TheDepartingShot.com, which will package ashes of a deceased pet in a shotgun shell. More info in this video:

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Apple could adopt ARM for laptops, but why would it? – “The Apple/ARM rumor du jour is that Apple will transition its entire portable Mac line to ARM-based CPUs, dropping Intel altogether. Sources speaking to Semi Accurate claim this is a “done deal,” and the move should happen by 2013, when a 64-bit ARM A15 core becomes available. While a future generation of Apple’s A5 processor could make some sense for something akin to the MacBook Air, the claim that Apple will ditch Intel wholesale for ARM just doesn’t add up….”

What you should know about iTunes’56-page legal terms – “During Saturday’s White House correspondents dinner, “Saturday Night Live’s” Seth Meyers jokingly scolded members of Congress for passing legislation they might never ever read. And he did so using a tech metaphor. “I think you guys vote on bills in the same way the rest of us agree to updated terms and conditions on iTunes,” he said. If you’ve spent any time downloading music, apps or other stuff from iTunes, you know what Meyers is talking about: Those messages from Apple that pop up on your laptop, iPad or iPhone and say, “iTunes Terms and Conditions have changed. Before you can proceed you must read & accept the new Terms and Conditions.” …”

We’re Being Spied on, Thanks to Facebook – “Julian Assange came out and said what everyone knows: Facebook and other social networking schemes are used as intelligence gathering mechanisms by most spy and police agencies around the world. The joke of it is nobody cares that this is happening. Well, you should care, a little….”

Seagate introduces 1TB per platter external hard drives – “Seagate has announced the world’s first 3.5″ external hard drive with 1TB platters. The move represents a 30% increase in storage capacity over the previous limit of 750GB per platter. The first product to be launched is the 3.5-inch Barracuda desktop hard drive with 3TB of storage on 3 disk platters, offering greater storage for photographers struggling with the space demands of video, and making it easier to establish large-capacity RAID arrays for data security….”

What Happened to Air France Flight 447? – “The vanishing of Flight 447 was easy to bend into myth. No other passenger jet in modern history had disappeared so completely — without a Mayday call or a witness or even a trace on radar. The airplane itself, an Airbus A330, was considered to be among the safest. It was equipped with the automated fly-by-wire system, which is designed to reduce human error by letting computers control many aspects of the flight. And when, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the ocean, Flight 447 seemed to disappear from the sky, it was tempting to deliver a tidy narrative about the hubris of building a self-flying airplane, Icarus falling from the sky. Or maybe Flight 447 was the Titanic, an uncrashable ship at the bottom of the sea….”

Sitting Can Kill You – “Well, it’s official: Sitting all day is bad for you. It makes you fat. It makes you weak. It makes you more likely to keel over dead. How do we know? Because “inactivity researchers” have finally cracked the code…”

E Ink Has Screens That Crumple Like Paper – “A Kindle’s one thing, but what about clear digital displays you could mash around like a plastic bag? Bendable screens have long been a tech prototype phantom, but E Ink’s got the goods – and it could actually be useful!”

Mars The Wonderworld: We’re Just 3.5 Billion Years Too Late! – “Evidence is mounting that Mars was once a wet and warm world, similar to the early Earth. What went wrong with the Red Planet — is it possible that future explorers may find fossils from a more habitable time — indeed did microbial life survive until the present time?”

SlutWalking gets rolling after cop’s loose talk about provocative clothing – “When a police officer from Toronto went on a routine visit to Osgoode Hall Law School to advise the students on personal safety, little did he know that he would unwittingly inspire a movement that has caught fire across Canada and the US. “You know, I think we’re beating around the bush here,” Michael Sanguinetti began, blandly enough, as he addressed the 10 students who turned up for the pep talk. Then he said: “I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised.”..” Seem also: Cop’s rape comment sparks wave of ‘SlutWalks’

Scammers Swap Google Images for Malware – “A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a single tainted digital image may be worth thousands of dollars for computer crooks who are using weaknesses in Google’s Image Search to foist malicious software on unsuspecting surfers….”

Stealth craft in bin Laden raid has Nevada ties – “Radar-evading technology for the mysterious helicopters that carried out the U.S. special operations raid of Osama bin Laden’s walled compound in Pakistan was spawned in the early 1990s at the classified Area 51 installation in Southern Nevada, according to sources close to the black projects facility…” See aqlso: Osama Bin Laden Raid: Al Qaeda ‘Playbook’Revealed

The Little-Known Agency That Helped Kill Bin Laden – “President Obama’s first brush with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was ignominious. Out for lunch in May 2009, at a Five Guys burger franchise in Washington, the new President started to shake the hands of other customers, TV cameras in tow. Then he turned to men with government ID badges….”

Download dilemma – “THOUGH they pay way too much for their web connections and put up with wimpy broadband speeds compared with people elsewhere, the vast majority of Americans have at least been able to download all they can eat from the internet for a fixed monthly fee. Throughout North America, internet service providers (ISPs) have tended to shy away from the kind of monthly download limits and metered pricing widely accepted elsewhere. On May 2nd, however, the country’s era of carefree internet surfing began finally to draw to a close. One of the leading carriers, AT&T, announced that, henceforth, it was introducing monthly data caps on subscribers using its fixed-line connections (as it already does with its mobile services). Those exceeding the data ceiling would be charged accordingly….”

Will Internet TV Kill Cable? – “What happens when content is separated from the means to distribute it? Your cable company would rather not find out….”

Japanese company introduces irresistibly cute mind-controlled ‘cat ears’(w/ video) – “In a bit of science mixed with whimsy, a Japanese company has created a set of electromechanical cat ears that can be worn on the human head and manipulated with nothing but the mind. Called the necomimi (a combination of the Japanese words for cat and ear) and looking very much like the ears that come with a cat costume, the ears respond to thoughts or mood by means of a sensor on a second small band pressed against the forehead; they can stand straight up when the wearer is concentrating, or wriggle and turn slightly when amused, or lay flat when tired or bored, demonstrating what the company calls, an ability to reveal emotion…”

Darpa’s Star Trekking Endeavor – “The Defense Advanced Resarch Projects Agency is at it once again, devising outlandish programs to try and generate research activities in the space domain. Today, Darpa issued a request for information for what it calls the “100 Year Starship Study.” According to Darpa, the goal is “to develop a viable and sustainable model for persistent, long-term, private-sector investment into the myriad of disciplines needed to make interstellar space travel practicable and feasible.”..”

‘Swiss cheese’design enables thin film silicon solar cells with potential for higher efficiencies – “A bold new design for thin film solar cells that requires significantly less silicon – and may boost their efficiency – is the result of an industry/academia collaboration between Oerlikon Solar in Switzerland and the Institute of Physics’photovoltaic group at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic….”

Bioprinting:

Gaddafi forces spread land mines in Misrata – “Gaddafi forces have been bombarding Misrata’s port almost relentlessly over the past few days. Now, evidence has been gathered of a new type of weapon used in their attempts to close the port and sever Misrata from its only lifeline; Grad rockets that deploy antitank land mines…”

Kung-fu bots kick ass at RoboGames – “Brute force, rather than finesse, is usually the order of the day when robots slug it out, using flamethrowers and chainsaws to destroy their opponents….”

One-way sound walls proven possible – “Imagine a room where a band is playing and the neighbours can’t hear the music, but if someone outside the room is talking, the musicians can hear it. The concept – a kind of one-way mirror for sound – seems imaginary, but two Italian scientists recently pushed this kind of sound manipulating technology closer to reality….”

A scary development in rootkits – “Rootkits typically modify certain areas in the memory of the running operating system (OS) to hijack execution control from the OS. Doing so forces the OS to present inaccurate results to detection software (anti-virus, anti-rootkit)….”

Oil falls again, gutted in record weekly drop – “Oil fell on Friday to cap a frenzied trading week that sliced prices by a record of more than $16 a barrel on demand worries and a move by investors to slash commodities exposures….” See also: Panic in the Pits: Silver Plunge Spreads to Oil, Copper

Boeing 747-8 performs ultimate rejected takeoff – “In April, a fully-loaded 747-8 Freighter with worn-out brakes attempted an aborted takeoff on a California runway. The rejected takeoff or maximum brake energy test is one of the most dramatic for a new airplane….”

Airplane taking off

What’s Your (Geek) Sign?

The Life of an Ant

Researchers propose ‘whole-system redesign’of US agriculture – “Transformative changes in markets, policy and science, rather than just incremental changes in farming practices and technology, will be critical if the United States is to achieve long-term sustainability in agriculture, according to a nationwide team of agriculturists that includes a University of California, Davis, animal scientist….”

Why Facebook + Skype Is Not a Bad Idea – “Did you hear that both Google and Facebook are looking to either partner with Skype or simply buy it? Funny, because back in the day when Skype was in play (before it was acquired by eBay), Google had a chance to buy it, but Larry Page and Sergey Brin nixed the idea….”

Meet DOCSIS, Part 1: the unsung hero of high-speed cable Internet access – “The ideal way to build a national broadband network for access to the Internet would be with a high-bandwidth, bidirectional cable running to each individual household. But sometimes you have to work with what you’ve got, and in America, what we have are cable TV networks. These networks have the bandwidth, but not the bi-directional part—they weren’t originally intended for two-way communication. Worse, the cables for many neighbors all connect together, so it’s not possible to send a signal to just one household. And yet, cable companies manage to provide 100 Mbps bandwidth to their broadband customers using this flawed infrastructure, and they do it without compromising the preexisting cable TV service. The tech behind this magic trick goes by the name of DOCSIS, which stands for Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications….”

Learning how the brain does its coding – “Most organisms with brains can store and process a staggering range of information. The fundamental unit of the brain, a single neuron, however, can only communicate in the simplest of manners, by sending a simple electrical pulse. The challenge of understanding how information is contained in the pattern of these pulses has been bothering neurobiologists for decades, and has been given its own name: neural coding….”

Some black holes may be older than time – “An intriguing new hypothesis suggests some black holes could have formed before the formation of our universe. The work by Professor Bernard Carr from Queen Mary University in London and Professor Alan Coley from Canada’s Dalhousie University, examines a cosmology in which the universe goes through cycles of birth and death….”

Heidelberg Man Links Humans, Neanderthals – “The last common ancestor of humans and Neanderthals was a tall, well-traveled species called Heidelberg Man, according to a new PLoS One study….”

GOP Debate Excerpts — Paul, Santorum, Pawlenty On Health Care – “The first Republican debate among some of the presidential contenders included some questions about the health law, the role of the federal government, medical malpractice and Medicare. These excerpts of the debate include answers from Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty…..”

FR-900 Tape Drives and Lunar Orbiter Featured In Ampex Readout Newsletter April 1967 – “Preceeding our men on the Moon, are three unmanned missions that are mapping possible landing areas, testing surface strength and composition, and establishing the launch, guidance and navigation technology, for a successful manned excursion. Ranger (now completed) and Surveyor are managed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Overall Lunar Orbiter management is by the Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory provides tracking and data acquisition support for the Orbiter program….”

Point: Sen. Rockefeller Announces Anti-Online-Tracking Bill – “The head of the Senate’s powerful commerce committee said Friday he’ll introduce a bill that forces online advertising and tracking companies to let users easily opt out of online tracking….”

CounterPoint: Google, Facebook: “do not track” bill a threat to California economy – “Google and Facebook are warning legislators of dire consequences if California passes a “do not track” bill. The proposed law would require companies doing online business in the Golden State to offer an “opt-out” privacy mechanism for consumers….”

56% of Americans have Internet data caps; FCC asked to investigate – “Two prominent Washington DC tech policy groups have asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Internet data caps in the US—with a special focus on AT&T….”

Computer Scientists Induce Schizophrenia in a Neural Network, Causing it to Make Ridiculous Claims – “Researchers testing mental illness figured out how to induce schizophrenic symptoms in a computer, causing it to place itself at the center of crazy delusions, such as claiming responsibility for a terrorist bombing. The results bolster a hypothesis that claims faulty information processing can lead to schizophrenic symptoms….”

Sleep-deprived brain cells take tiny catnaps – “Scientists may have found an explanation for all those slip-ups we make when we haven’t gotten enough sleep. A new study shows that even when we feel wide awake, regions of our brains may be opting to go offline in a sort of rolling blackout similar to what the electric company does when demands for power spike….”

Business Photos from Google

All Signs Point to Hidden Ocean on Saturn Moon Titan – “A huge ocean of liquid water may indeed slosh about beneath the frigid surface of Saturn’s moon Titan, according to new evidence collected by a NASA spacecraft. …”

Study links autism risk to season of conception – “Researchers have found a clear correlation between the month a child was conceived and their risk of being diagnosed with autism. The team from the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, reviewed the birth records of more than 7 million children born in the 1990s and early 2000s. They found those children in the study who were conceived in winter had a significantly higher risk of being diagnosed with autism…”

In an improbable corner of China, young scientists are rewriting the book on genome research. – “The world’s largest genome-mapping facility is in an unlikely corner of China. Hidden away in a gritty neighborhood in Shenzhen’s Yantian district, surrounded by truck-repair shops and scrap yards prowled by chickens, Beijing’s most ambitious biomedical project is housed in a former shoe factory….”

Airship ‘Sky Tugs’ordered from Lockheed for Canadian oilfields – “The famous P-791 prototype airship – built last decade for a military transport programme which eventually came to nothing – is to give birth to new, mighty commercial versions of itself with Canadian financial backing….”

You’re Looking Very Well: the Surprising Nature of Getting Old by Lewis Wolpert: review – “One of the many virtues of Lewis Wolpert’s excellent investigation of “the surprising nature of getting old” is that he does not treat the elderly as an undifferentiated blob, distinguished only by different degrees of dependency, deafness, cantankerousness, technological incompetence and resistance to novelty….”

Drug offers hope for treating muscular dystrophy – “A drug that can boost muscle strength in mice shows promise as a possible treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, research suggests. The work could one day lead to a daily pill to treat all patients with the muscle-wasting disease, say Oxford University scientists….”

‘Monstrously big ant’fossil found in Wyoming – “Giant ants the size of hummingbirds traversed the Arctic during warm periods, a new study finds….”

Spitzer Detects Shadow of ‘Super-Earth’in Front of Nearby Star – “NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected the crossing of a solid planet in front of a star located at only 42 light-years in the constellation Cancer. Thanks to this detection, astronomers know that this “super-Earth” measures 2.1 times the size of our Earth. This is the smallest exoplanet detected in the neighborhood of our Sun….”

Easily distracted people may have too much brain – “Those who are easily distracted from the task in hand may have “too much brain”. So says Ryota Kanai and his colleagues at University College London, who found larger than average volumes of grey matter in certain brain regions in those whose attention is readily diverted….”

Prism 200c Through-Wall Radar Backpack Clearly Designed For Cool, Nonchalant Spies – “Cambridge Consultants’ Prism through-wall radar product line has been around for a few years now, but the latest version, the 200c pictured above, is one of the more inconspicuous iterations. Using ultra-wideband signals the device is able to see through walls made of wood, concrete or bricks and provide a 3-D view of human movement and positions from front, side and overhead angles, making it easier to determine a threat situation before entering a building….”

The dis-assembly line: Artist’s bizarre images of household objects tumbling through the air – “Tumbling through the air, these are household items as you’ve never seen them before. From an alarm clock to a classic typewriter, to a 35mm camera, photographer Todd McLellan has laid bare the inside inner-workings of iconic design pieces. Laying each one out in an orderly fashion, the Toronto-based artist photographed the static de-constructed objects from above for his ‘Disassembly Project’….”

Solar-powered SOFT Rockers charging station double as a lounge chair – “This is a piece of outdoor furniture gadget freaks, party lovers and the green-minded would love to have in their backyard. The MIT SOFT Rockers are clean energy charging stations disguised as outdoor rocking lounge furniture. You can relax with your near and dear ones, and recharge your electronic devices at the same time. MIT Professor Sheila Kennedy and her team at Kennedy and Violich Architecture have created the SOFT Rockers. The SOFT Rocker, with its lighting loops at night, is sure to set the perfect ambiance for a playful, rejuvenating experience….”

[[[Interesting Reading #745 – Synthetic Blood, Amazing dashboard, Human cat ears, 4,000 MPH vactrain and much more!]]]

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This leads to the obvious question: where do you get a balloon like that? Here is one place:

Cloud Buster balloons

[[[Jump to previous Funny...]]]

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The first line of the video is so simple, but also mind-blowing:

This little device is the prototype version of a Raspberry Pi computer. It is a little tiny device that is a computer on a USB stick. It’s got HDMI at one end and USB at the other end and the idea is that you plug it into an HDMI TV, you can plug in a USB keyboard and use it as a computer to be able to learn programming, to be able to runTwitter, Facebook, whatever. And also to understand the whole process of programming.

The website for the device is:

Raspberry Pi Foundation

According to the web site, these are the specs for this tiny computer:

* 700MHz ARM11
* 128MB of SDRAM
* OpenGL ES 2.0
* 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
* Composite and HDMI video output
* USB 2.0
* SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
* General-purpose I/O
* Open software (Ubuntu, Iceweasel, KOffice, Python)

This is more enough to run Linux. The first ASUS Eee netbook computer (the machine that launched the whole netbook craze) also used Linux and it had an Intel Celeron processor running at 630 MHz.

Is there anything like this in the marketplace? The GumStix is probably the best-known PC-on-a-USB-stick computer:

Gumstix Products

The difference is that all of their computers cost more than $100. Here is something else very small, but again it is $150:

Tiny $150 PC Fits in a Power-Plug

The key thing with the Raspberry Pi will be the price point. It helps that David Braben, the person behind it, has a reputation. This article talks about his background

David Braben is a very well-known game developer who runs the UK development studio Frontier Developments, but is just as well known for being the co-developer of Elite.

Over his career his studio has brought us the Rollercoaster Tycoon series, Thrillville, Lost Winds, and most recently Kinectimals. In the background, however, Braben has been trying to tackle another problem: getting programming and general learning of how computers work back into schools.

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