Looks like a winner!
UK’s Kingston University design student Lee Wei Chen realized that the skills he developed playing a lot of video games are practically useless in real life, so he set out to do something about it.
Behold, the washing machine/arcade combo, where the likelihood of getting your clothes cleaned depends on your ability to play the game…
Continue reading… “Washing machine and arcade combo”
This weekend NASA published an awesome time-lapse flyby of planet Earth taken from the International Space Station. Awesome, but jerky—until now. Someone interpolated the original frames to achieve this smooth as silk motion film. It’ll leave you stupefied…
Continue reading… “This fluid fly-by video shows astonishing view of Earth”
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”
Scientists have just created the antimagnet.
Scientists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona designed a magnetic cloak that’ll both shield an object from an outside magnetic field and prevent an internal one from leaking out. It’s an antimagnet and it’ll have various military and medical applications.
The antimagnet uses a superconducting material that blocks the internal magnetic field of an object and several dampening layers to block the effect of the superconductor on the external magnetic field. Sounds complicated, and it is, but it could save your life some day…
Continue reading… “Scientists design a novel magnetic cloaking device”
Creative and functional artwork.
Wind-powered karaoke? Only in Shanghai would such a thing exist. These colourful pavilions were initially built as an art installation — one of many themed pavilions in a new waterfront park created for Shanghai’s 2010 World Expo — but now they have been torn down, except these Skittle-like structures. Currently, these neon-bright pavilions are utilized by city residents for leisure activities such as karaoke, games, picnics and music — all powered by the wind turbines spinning above each pavilion…
Continue reading… “Shanghai Park’s Pavilions are wind-powered urban leisure spots”
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”
If you live in the US and think the internet speeds are as fast, you may be surprised to find out that the country is actually ranked 26th in a list of average global download speeds. In the eye-catching infographic below the US (outside of Google’s offices that is) looking like a digital laggard, but who could be sitting pretty at the top?
Digital download delivery company Pando surveyed about 35 petabytes (a petabyte is 1000 terabytes) of data from 27 million downloads from 20 million computers in 224 countries, and found that South Korea has the world’s fastest internet service, in terms of download speed. The country averaged download speeds of 17.62 Mbps. Compared to the download speeds in the US, 4.93 Mbps, South Korea is lightning fast…
Continue reading… “US download speeds ranked at just 26th in the world”
A gun is a gun is it not?
There’s an interesting back-and-forth going on at Thingiverse, a site founded by Makerbot to share 3D projects. Two designers have made two parts for the AR-15 rifle platform. The first part is a standard rifle magazine complete with spring but the second part is AR-15 lower receiver.
Why are these parts important? Well, the magazine is just on the edge of Thinigverse’s implied (but not concrete) “no weapons” philosophy but the lower receiver is something else entirely. It is the only part of the AR-15 that you need a license to buy. Here’s what the creator, KingLudd, has to say about it…
Continue reading… “Is printing a gun the same as buying a gun?”
Parkbud for iPhone: The Beautifulest Way to Remember Where You Parked
Agh, where did I park my car again? Oh noes! Did I fill up the meter enough? Maaan, where can I even park? I know my forgetful self is always asking those questions over and over again but with Parkbud, I won’t ever have to again.
What’s it do?
Parkbud bills itself as a Car Locator and Parking app, which means it’ll help you remember where you parked your car. Just fire up the app and Parkbud will remember where your car is located through GPS with one click…
Continue reading… “Parkbud for iPhone: The beautifulest way to remember where you parked”
That’s a net gain 6,700 jobs in one year!
Don’t let the Solyndra talk fool you: The clean energy sector is still booming. And even booming industries — maybe especially booming industries — see a fair share of once-promising companies go belly up. It’s unfortunate that the Obama administration once touted Solyndra as an example of the fast-growing renewable power sector, but its bankruptcy is a poor reflection of the industry’s health as a whole. In fact, renewable energy remains one of the few sectors to see consistent growth over the last couple years.
A new report highlights that health, revealing that the solar industry employs over 100,000 people, and added over 6,700 jobs in the last 12 months alone…
Continue reading… “U.S. Solar Industry now employs 100,000 people, grew 6.8% since August 2010”
Go Go Google Wallet!
“Whoa, how did you do that?” I didn’t say anything when the clerk at Duane Reade—or was it Walgreen’s?—asked me how to pay. I just smashed my phone into the PayPass terminal. Money poured out of my Nexus S, and into somebody’s corporate coffers. Magic!
But then I still had to tell the dumb credit console whether I was paying debit or credit. And then I had to wait for my receipt to print out, all ten miles of it. Which made my attempt at being a mysterious stranger with mysterious magical technology quickly disappearing into the night fail miserably since it would’ve been mad awkward to stare directly into each other’s eyes for 45 seconds without saying a word.
Continue reading… “Google Wallet: Is this the future of money?”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.