Is Wi-Fi the new spy eye?
Neal Patwari of the University of Utah discovered that breathing affects Wi-Fi signal strength. Chest expansion during a breath bends the wireless signals and they lose some power. This slight drop can be measured and used to calculate your breathing rate.
Measuring someone’s breathing rate is helpful, but the use of this technology as a spy tool is where things get interesting…
Continue reading… “Wi-Fi signals may be used to track your movement inside your house”
Did you ever wonder?
The Visible Barbie Project is part of the Foundation for Unnatural Research’s long-range plan for advancing the state of human knowlege of things that no normal person would ever think to wonder about.
The project began with the acquisition of a suitable marked-down subject at a nearby toy store and ended approximately six hours later, not including the time required to pick out the bits of hair that got stuck in the bandsaw.
The cause of the subject’s markdown was unknown, but we didn’t care; all that mattered was that the gross physical anatomy of the body was intact…
Continue reading… “The Visible Barbie Project”
Art or not art?
Culture officials in Rome are mulling a ban on “living statues”, arguing that dressing up in costume and standing on the street to solicit spare change has no artistic merit.
“Living statues demonstrate no artistic activity, to the extent that they can’t be compared to mimes, and they amount to a veritable racket,” said Federico Mollicone, deputy culture chief in Rome’s mayorship…
Continue reading… “Rome considering ‘living statue’ ban”
Bubble Hotel
A series of portable hotel rooms has recently been opened in a local park in Roubaix, France. They can be rented by people who want to feel close to nature in the middle of the urban jungle. (Pics)
Continue reading… “Bubble Hotel allows guests to be close to nature”
Will rent-a-pet services take off around the world?
Guinea pigs are sociable animals and Swiss law prohibits owners from keeping the furry rodents on their own. But what happens when one dies? Don’t fret, just call Priska Küng, who runs a ‘rent-a-guinea pig’ service to provide companionship for grieving, lonely animals in the twilight of their years. She lives with around 80 of the furry, squeaky little creatures, in addition to six cats, a number of rabbits, hamsters and mice in the village of Hadlikon, some 30 kilometers from Zürich.
Küng, 41, rents out her guinea pigs, a service that has been in high demand in the Alpine nation ever since animal welfare rules were tightened up a few years ago. Switzerland has forbidden people from keeping lone guinea pigs because the animals are sociable and need each other’s company. As a result, the sudden death of a guinea pig, shocking enough in itself, can also place the hapless owners outside the law if they only had two of the pets. That is where Küng comes in…
Continue reading… “Rent-a-guinea pig service takes off in Switzerland”
Spectators watch as Jeb Corliss hurtles though the mountain’s natural arch hundreds of feet in the air
Jeb Corliss, a wingsuit pilot, has taken the sport of sky diving to new heights after hurtling through a narrow slit in a mountainside. (Pics and video)
Continue reading… “Wingsuit stuntman flies through narrow hole on side of mountain”
Acid rain does far more than burn our skin. It completely washes the color from our lives.
“If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn’t show up.” – – Dr Seuss
Continue reading… “Top 10 Photos of the Week”
How else will 3D printing change the world?
This 3D printed bicycle, exhibited at this week’s London Design Festival, is claimed to be as strong as steel. It was printed from layers of fused nylon, using a technique more commonly deployed in satellite manufacture…
Continue reading… “3D printed nylon bicycle that’s “as strong as steel””
Costs have risen dramatically for raising children.
According to the US Dept of Agriculture, the cost of raising a child in a middle-income family has increased by 40 percent over the past ten years. Every major category of child-rearing expense has seen steep increase: day-care, education, food, gas, medical insurance, and so on. At this rate, childrearing may become a luxury item for America’s increasingly wealthy super-rich…
Continue reading… “Cost of raising middle-income child in USA increases by 40% in ten years”
Plants provide yet another scientific breakthrough.
Chalk up another example of science finding inspiration in nature. The slipperiest substance in nature appears to be the lip of a deadly (to insects) pitcher plant. And a scientist has copied it…
Continue reading… “Flesh-eating plant inspires slippery science”
Is his theory out the window?
This is extremely shocking: CERN scientists using a 1300-ton particle detector have measured particles travelling faster than the speed of light. If confirmed, this discovery could invalidate Albert Einstein’s 1905 theory of special relativity and revolutionize physics.
Einstein’s theory says that there’s nothing in the universe that could travel faster than light. Now, CERN scientists believe this may be wrong according to their latest experiment…
Continue reading… “Faster than light particles could wreck Einstein’s Relativity Theory”
An amazing new find.
Chalk another one up for Google Earth seeing everything we can’t. Australian armchair archaeologist David Kennedy simply fired up the app and managed to rediscover the ancient ruins of structures that rival the Nazca lines in southern Peru.
The lines were originally discovered by British RAF pilot Percy Maitland in 1927, but this is the first time they’ve ever been seen in all their glory. Kennedy used Maitland’s photos with Google Earth to pinpoint their locations. And Google offers really the only high resolution glimpse at them that can be seen by the ordinary viewer…
Continue reading… “Google Earth reveals strange Nazca-Like ruins in Saudi Arabia”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.