Digital goods have costs.
IT professionals are finding real problems with the idea that storing and distributing digital goods is a trivial, simple matter, adds nothing to their cost, and can be effectively done by amateurs.
Continue reading… “The storing and delivery of digital goods not easy and not free”
Prosthetics of the future may draw their power from juices in the brain.
These days, the most advanced robotic prosthetics take their commands from the brain. And pretty soon, they may be drawing their power from juices in the brain. Cerebrospinal fluid, that is. Electrical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing a novel platinum-coated fuel cell that runs off the glucose found in bodily fluids. Their specific aim is to implant the fuel cells in liquid pockets of the brain and use them to run low powered components in a neural prosthetic. They described a prototype this week in the journal PLoS One.
Continue reading… “Prosthetics of the future will be powered by bodily fluids”
Geopark: Stavanger, Norway
When an entire school building is covered with astroturf it is a lot more fun. Or when an abandoned oil rig is turned into a playground. Architects and educators are finding new ways to engage kids in learning, and the results are out of this world. (Pics)
Continue reading… “8 amazing schools, playgrounds and libraries of the future”
Data shows clearly that we are not even close to the all time peak of misuse of prescription stimulants by high-school students.
According to a front page story in Sunday’s New York Times, there’s an epidemic in America’s selective high schools: high-achieving students under pressure to succeed are increasingly abusing stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall, which they consider as essential as SAT tutors for getting into an Ivy League college. But the data from national surveys on stimulant use tells a very different story.
Continue reading… “Is there really an epidemic of teens taking ADHD drugs to get good grades?”
It is a lot harder these days than it used to be for Americans to improve their circumstances. One of the most distressing aspects of the state of the US economy is the decrease in social mobility. In other words, if Americans are born poor, they’re overwhelmingly likely to stay poor.
Feature phones are not the future. Of course that verges on tautology; of course everyone will have a smartphone, until everyone has something smaller and better and even more integrated into the fabric of our lives, like Google Glasses or cybernetic jawbone/retinal implants or whatever Charles Stross dreams up next. But when, exactly?
Continue reading… “Most Africans will have smartphones within 5 years”
41% of young adults between age 19 and 29 failed to get medical care in a recent 12-month period because of cost.
There are millions of young adults who are skipping necessary care and treatment because of rising health care costs in the U.S., according to a new report released on Friday.
Continue reading… “41% of young adults skip health care as medical costs rise”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtjT95YqKkw&hd=1[/youtube]
The potential of government making health information as useful as weather data felt like an abstraction two years ago. Healthcare data could give citizens the same “blue dot” for navigating health and illness akin to the one GPS data fuels on the glowing map of geolocated mobile devices that are in more and more hands.
Continue reading… “Mobile health apps just the beginning of the disruption in healthcare”
The GoGoLink app for the Chevrolet Spark links a smartphone to the touch screen in the dash.
General Motors will soon be making a novel offer to please it’s customers who are clamoring for more features in their cars by giving them less.
Continue reading… “Merging drivers smartphones and dashboards”
Authorities are doing their best to clamp down on the internet.
Bill C30, the sweeping Canadian warrantless Internet surveillance bill, is back from the dead. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews (who declared that opposition to his bill was tantamount to support for pedophiles) has been working behind the scenes to resurrect his legislation, joining forces with the US government in the name of “perimeter security.” This proposed deal would expand the warrantless surveillance to US authorities, who could also access Canadians’ private information…
A simple revolutionary new design changes the package experience.
If you’ve ever marveled at how easy it is to open a padded shipping envelope thanks to its built-in rip cord that tears through the material, you’ll instantly understand why this enhanced roll of packing tape is pure genius…
Continue reading… “The greatest innovation in packing tape since the sticky side”
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Well, maybe it does
Quote of the Day: “Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God’s final word on where your lips end.” – Jerry Seinfeld