Zoom, zoom, zoom on H2O.
While we are busy trying to create and market the perfect electric car, the Japanese have gone the extra mile and plan to mass produce a car which runs primarily on water. What do you think, will this car be a viable alternative to gas and electric vehicles?
Unlike other electric cars, the Genepax car does not require that batteries be recharged and has no emission…
Some lifeguards’ salaries, benefits and overtime pay topped $200,000.
When Aurora Toussaint takes her disabled son to the sun-kissed beaches of Newport Beach, California she knows that the lifeguards who watch from their towers will be there in seconds should anything go wrong.
Continue reading… “Anger Swells Over Lifeguards’ High Pay in California Beach City”
Anti-Piracy measures in New Zealand could change its libraries forever.
Governments around the world are trying to figure out ways of cutting down on piracy. Some governments have already implemented controversial monitoring and three-strike rules. Such rules may look like they solve the issue in theory, but its a very different outcome in practice.
France was one of the first places to attempt to implement the three-strike rule, which sees an Internet connection represented by an IP address monitored through an ISP. If an infringement is identified a strike is given, get three strikes and the connection is terminated and/or you face prosecution or fines. However, it never made it past the French National Assembly…
But that same system has made it into law for New Zealand, and will be turned on come September…
Continue reading… “Anti-Piracy Measures Could See NZ Libraries Switch Off Internet Access”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ6UHFIbFyc[/youtube]
Futurist Thomas Frey at the TEDx University of Chicago event
Futurist Thomas Frey: We are a very backward looking society.
We’re very backward looking in that we’ve all personally experienced the past. As we look around, we see evidence of the past all around us. The past is very knowable, yet we will spend the rest of our lives in the future.
My job as a futurist is to help turn people around and give them some idea of what the future holds.
Continue reading… “TEDxUChicago 2011 – Thomas Frey – Communicating with the Future”
Google’s filler ads when they are out of inventory
If you are a avid reader of blogs like I am, you have probably started seeing an increase in the number ad blocks inviting people to advertise on Google. These “filler ads” show up for a number of reasons such as bringing in more advertisers. But more often, it would appear, its because the giant ad company is out of inventory. Here is what we found out from some of our contacts within the company.
Continue reading… “Is Google Running Low on Ads?”
Here’s one way to bring location-based checkins to the masses — use them to shave off a few dollars at the gas pump…
Continue reading… “Foursquare Checkins Get Customers Gas Discounts”
While Sony is busy pointing the finger at the hacker group Anonymous for the on-going PSN and SOE hacks, Anonymous has problems of its own. This weekend AnonOps, an IRC network where some of the members congregate and plan operations, found itself under a denial-of-service attack. That attack finally ended with a number of its IRC servers being taken over.
The culprit: one of their own, a former IRC Operator (IRCop) named “Ryan.” Depending on who you believe, Ryan was power-hungry and wanted control over AnonOps for himself, or he was tired of the autocracy of the few Anonymous members who made up the group’s loose leadership structure…
Continue reading… “Anonymous Infighting”
Engineering students at Harvard University have developed a cell phone app that, when paired with an ordinary metal detector, can be used effectively to detect land mines. Instead of just beeping when it passes over a metal object, these enhanced metal detectors present the shape of the object found below ground…
Continue reading… “App for Detecting Land Mines”
Who likes their tap water nice and fiery? I know I do — I simply won’t drink any water that doesn’t catch fire when held over an open flame. That’s why I drink all my water from underground aquifers that have been contaminated by hydro-fracking operations. Yes, a scientific study, the first of its kind, has discovered a link between flammable drinking water documented in communities around the nation, and everyone’s favorite method of extracting natural gas from the ground…
Continue reading… “New Study Traces Flammable Drinking Water to Fracking”
The Western Sugar Cooperative is claiming that the two are in fact very different. It recently filed suit against sugar refiners for misleading consumers in calling HFCS corn sugar, according to the Des Moines Register and as discussed on Food Politics. “The lawsuit names as defendants Archer Daniels Midland Co., Cargill Inc., and other major corn syrup processors as well as the Corn Refiners Association.”
So, is it fair to call HFCS sugar? Not according to the Western Sugar Cooperative…
Continue reading… “Sugar Sues High Fructose Corn Syrup”
In case you missed it (and you certainly may have in the midst of other current world affairs) it’s Hemp History Week. The second annual one in fact. I imagine most readers don’t need much convincing that the US ought to legalizeindustrial hemp production–remember, though it’s perfectly legal to important hemp products into the US, it’s illegal under Federal law to grow hemp–so I won’t regale you with all the reasons I think hemp prohibition (alongside marijuana prohibition) is, to be blunt, moronic…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PspagsTFvlg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Tactile communications: it may not sound too exciting, but it’s precisely the field of research that produced a device which lets users “transmit the feeling of a kiss” long-distance.
The Kajimoto Laboratory at the University of Electro-Communications has created a device which consists of a hardware receptacle which is placed into the mouth, and software that remembers the movements of your tongue and sends them to the other connected device, which moves accordingly.
Of course, there’s more to a kiss than just the movement of the tongue, and the folks from Kajimoto plan to recreate them all…
Continue reading… “Finally, You Can Kiss People Over the Internet”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.