Google Wallet: Is this the future of money?

googlewallet_0111111

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.

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Sleepbox – a tiny sleeping capsule for airport travelers

sleepbox

Sleepbox

One of the worst  things about flying is having transfers at airports. Trying to get a quick power nap in airport seats is tough to do, especially with all the noise around you. Enter the Sleepbox — a personal, rentable, portable box with a bed and outlets to juice up your gadgets. (Pics)

 

 

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Microbiology puzzle solved by online video gamers

foldit

Model of a protein as seen in Foldit

In an experiment called CASP9, scientists were struggling to map the structure of M-PMV, a protein involved in a virus that causes a form of simian Aids. In that experiment and others, the search had been going on for more than a decade. But the solution was not found by a laboratory but the players of an online puzzle game.

Earth’s ‘missing’ heat may be hiding deep in oceans

oceans

The world temperature should have risen more than it did but where was the heat going?

The mystery of Earth’s missing heat may have been solved: it could lurk deep in oceans, temporarily masking the climate-warming effects of greenhouse gas emissions, researchers reported on Sunday.

 

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Babies can learn to concentrate by playing brain-training games

brain training computer games

Improved focus helps children to learn skills and acquire language, and the brain is at its most adaptable early in life.

Scientists say they have found the first evidence that infants as young as 11 months can be taught to focus attention, making it easier for them to learn new skills.

Dean Kamen files patent application for an inflatable, illuminated wind turbine

inflatable-wind-turbine

Another new invention from Dean Kamen.

Inflatable wind turbines may not be an entirely new idea, but prolific inventor Dean Kamen has detailed one of a slightly different sort in a recently published patent application. In addition to generating energy for general use, the turbine would also be able to power a set of LEDs adorning the turbine itself, which could be used to display advertising or other information using a persistence of vision effect…

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How 72 bags of cocaine fit in a drug smuggler’s belly

cocaine

Medical images showing bags with cocaine inside the gastrointestinal tract of a 20-year-old Irish national arrested by police at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

 A graphic reminder of just how far drug smugglers will go to elude law enforcement to get their product over the border is seen in these guesome images. The images, which show an arrested man’s digestive tract that is literally stuffed with dozens of thumb-sized bags of cocaine, are also testimony to how far the digestive tract can expand.

 

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