Bubbles, much like political promises, are only seconds away from being hot air again!
Quote of the Day: “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Google’s quest to popularize self-driving cars
How a self-driving car sees the world.
At about 8am every morning, Anthony Levandowski gets into the driver’s seat of his white Lexus for his daily commute to work. Most of us perform this routine five times a week, 50 weeks out of the year. But, Levandowski’s commute is different. He has a chauffeur and it’s a robot.
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How Americans spent their money in 2012
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has recently released their data on consumer expenditures for 2012. For the poor, food, clothes, and housing account for more than 60 percent of all spending. The rich have more left over for leisure, insurance, and savings.
232 million people live outside their home country
Nearly two-thirds of all international migrants live in Europe and Asia.
New data released by the United Nations shows that 232 million people, or 3.2 percent of the world’s population, live outside of their countries of birth. This global diaspora has big implications as countries try to balance growth with unease over outsiders. So where are all of these people anyway? And are they helping or hurting their new homes?
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Cancer care in the U.S. is failing
Communication is the key when it comes to cancer care.
A new report has been released recently by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) on the state of cancer care in the United States. The IOM is a non-profit, non-governmental advisory group. To get on one of their advisory boards you have to be a national, if not international, expert in whatever field is being studied. According to the cancer advisory board, the state of cancer care in the United States is abysmal.
Life as a Teenager in 1994, 2014, and 2034 – What a difference a generation makes! – Part 2
Futurist Thomas Frey: Our teenage years have always been a time of great awkwardness, super hormones, and bad decision-making. But lately these years have moved even further down the path of supreme weirdness.
Patent system gets streamlined makeover
Margaret Focarino, Commissioner for Patents, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) was in a state of crisis in 2009. There was a huge backlog of pending patent applications and it was growing. The process for reviewing patents had not changed in decades and was out-of-date. Employee job satisfaction was low and the longstanding distrust between management and the patent examiners union was ever-present.
Book Mountain: A stunning glass-enclosed library
MVRDV, a Rotterdam-based company, has just completed the ‘book mountain + library quarter’ centrally located in the market square of Spijkenisse, the Netherlands. It houses a mountain of bookshelves and is contained by a glass-enclosed structure and pyramidal roof with an impressive total surface area of 9,300 square meters. Corridors and platforms bordering the form are accessed by a network of stairs to allow visitors to browse the tiers of shelves. A continuous route of 480 meters culminates at the peak’s reading room and cafe with panoramic views through the transparent roof. Any possible damage caused to the books by direct sunlight is offset by the expected 4 year lifespan of borrowed materials. (Photos)
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NASA plans to grow vegetables in space
NASA is organizing the Vegetable Production System (VEGGIE) program that will send packs of seed material to the ISS.
When humans begin colonizing space there is one challenge we’ll be facing, how to get food to those colonies. The idea of farming in space is hardly a new one. Astronaut Don Pettit successfully grew a zucchini, broccoli, and sunflower on the ISS, but NASA is now researching how vegetables may be grown in space for consumption.
Top 4 trends shaping the future of design
4D Printing by MIT
The Innovation by Design competition by Fast Company drew more than 1,200 entries from big firms and tiny studios. The 54 finalists take on audacious challenges–illuminating four key priorities for the next wave of innovation.
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FINDER can detect heartbeats hidden beneath rubble
FINDER was created to detect a human heartbeat buried beneath 30 feet (9 meters) of crushed material.
Search and rescue teams immediately set out to find victims trapped beneath the wreckage of trapped buildings caused by natural disasters or human-made catastrophes. During these missions, time is imperative, and the ability to quickly detect living victims greatly increases the chances of rescue and survival.
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The world’s weirdest vehicles
Here is a vehicle for all couch potatoes out there: the Couch Bike
Some cars can be made without wheels, tracks or skis (and still get places just fine, thank you), others may not even require an engine, while some vehicles are so strange that can hardly be called “cars” anymore. On top of all that, some car designers must have something against drivers, judging by profoundly befuddling and non-user-friendly setups they come up with. In most cases, though, these experimental machines do get around quite well (sometimes even more efficiently than traditional vehicles), and almost certainly turn into prized collection items. (Photos)
