Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

US download speeds ranked at just 26th in the world

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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…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Business, Corporate Manipulation, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Education, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Latest News

Patent Trolls costing an astronomical $500 Billion

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Another reason the patent system is so difficult.

Last month, Google stepped up to defend Android coders against notorious patent troll Lodsys. Apple fought the company a few months earlier on behalf of iOS developers. Patent reform is a hot topic right now, especially after President Obama just signed legislation that means the U.S. is shifting to a “first to file” (over “first to invent”) system. This won’t help much with the patent troll situation, which Boston University researchers James Bessen and Mike Meurer say have cost publicly-traded defendants $500 billion since 1990…

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Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Artificial blood vessels made on a 3D printer

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Tissue engineers create artificial blood vessels on a 3D printer.

Tissue engineers are building a handful of new body parts, from intestines to tracheas  — but progress on larger organs has been slow. This is mainly because tissues need nutrients to stay alive, and they need blood vessels to deliver those nutrients. It’s difficult to build those vascular networks, but now a team from Germany may have a solution: Print some capillaries with a 3-D printer.

 

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Analysis, Brain, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Yawning cools your brain: study

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People yawned almost twice as much in winter, when their body temperature was higher than the air around them.

The brain is like a computer and works best when it is cool, but putting too great a strain on it can lead to overheating which reduces its ability to process information. Yawning is not just a sign of tiredness or boredom – it is the body’s method of keeping our brain cool, scientists have found.

Great New Product, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

‘Living Skin’ – ultra-realistic prosthetic limbs that have freckles, hairs and even tattoos

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Touch Bionics has recently introduced a new photographic system that is designed to precisely match a prosthesis to a person’s skin tone.

Touch Bionics, a prosthetic technology company, has unveiled an ultra-realistic range of limbs with features such as freckles, hairs and even tattoos.

 

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Great New Product, Nanotechnology, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

NeverWet – revolutionary new product that repels liquids

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NeverWet™ coatings are a featured product at the DaVinci Inventor Showcase 2011

NeverWet™ coatings are Superhydrophobic and Oleophobic. Water on NeverWet™ surfaces sits as an almost perfect sphere. Water beads “glide” over the surfaces like a skate gliding over ice, with almost no surface friction. Superhydrophobic surfaces such as the leaves of the lotus plant have surfaces that are highly hydrophobic, i.e., extremely difficult to wet.  “Oleophobic” (from the Greek (oleo) “oil”) refers to the physical property of a molecule that is repelled from oil.

 

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, New Viewpoints

Is printing a gun the same as buying a gun?

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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…

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Analysis, Animals, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Medical Breakthrough, New Discoveries

Shark steroids can prevent human viruses

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A Dogfish Shark.

The steroid squalamine, found in dogfish sharks, has been found to fight viruses that are difficult or impossible to treat once transmitted to humans. Squalamine is a potential cure-all remedy than may even have the potential to cure cancers and protozoan infections. Discover summarizes the find as such..

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App, Entertainment, Human Behavior, New Viewpoints

Parkbud for iPhone: The beautifulest way to remember where you parked

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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…

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Analysis, facebook, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

More than a third of all digital photos taken in a year are on Facebook

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The volume of photos on Facebook are 10,000 times larger than the Library of Congress.

One picture may be worth a thousand words, but Facebook photos could be worth 140 quadrillion words, which is equal to 140 billion photos — more than a third of all digital photos taken in one year.

 

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Analysis, Big Problems, Latest Trend

Beware red light camera scam steals your identity

red light camera

This new scam will have you seeing red.

Some people may manage to escape the fines from traffic light cameras but most of us simply pay up without thinking about it or questioning whether the charge is valid.  Tricky scammers are taking advantage of that lazy human tendency, making a handful of money and stealing identities in the process.

 

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