Futurist Thomas Frey: When Hurricane Katrina hit the city of New Orleans the US Post Office was faced with a major dilemma. For countless centuries, the modus operandi for the post office was to deliver mail to a location, and the individuals who lived at that location would stop by and pick up their mail. But following the hurricane, the floods had destroyed all of the “locations”.
Treebot
Treebot is a robot that was designed to climb trees. The robot was designed by a team at The Chinese University of Hong Kong for the express purpose of shimmying up trees autonomously, figuring out the best route up a trunk using built-in touch sensors. (video)
TVGuardian
There have been tools over the years for skipping the sexy or violent parts of movies, or sanitizing the bad words coming from your TV’s speakers. But HDTV viewers who didn’t want to restrict viewing to G-rated shows remained exposed to nasty curse words and other offensive language. Until now. (Videos)
Continue reading… “TVGuardian – Bad Language Filter for Your HDTV”
NHTSA to propose a requirement that all new vehicles contain an event data recorder.
Officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are considering to require that all new cars must have an event data recorder inside the vehicle.
Continue reading… “National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Considers Black Boxes in All Cars”
There’s a right and wrong way to implement gamification beyond just slapping badges and points on your site.
Gamification, or the use of game mechanics in non-gaming contexts, has quickly made its way into the lexicon of the marketing and tech world. Companies in every industry imaginable are trying to tap into this powerful new strategy for influencing and motivating their customers, employees and fans.
Continue reading… “Three Key Strategies to Gamify Your Website Beyond Badges”
According to a recent article on PennLive.com, when you type ‘airline’ and ‘revenue guarantee’ in a major search engine and you’ll find articles about airports nationwide that have used and are using revenue guarantees to expand or preserve air service.”
Continue reading… “Cities Offer Revenue Guarantees to Persuade Airlines to Expand”
“The sooner you advertise here, the better”
Interbest, the advertising agency Y&R Not Just Film Amsterdam, used a male stripper to build awareness of their billboard visibility. The billboard campaign can make anyone driving by want to start a business and pay for billboard space. Interbest’s billboard campaign has the following tagline: “The sooner you advertise here, the better” and they have created a lot of buzz since the man on the billboard is wearing less and less clothes each day. (Pics)
Continue reading… “Interbest Uses Hairy Male Stripper to Sell Billboard Space”
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in China.
China is starting to see the costs of its rapid march towards industrialization. Air pollution from heavy industry, coal-fired power plants, and numerous factories have saturated the air and now cancer has officially become the number one cause of death. Almost 25% of deaths in China are now attributed to cancer. The Earth Policy Institute gleaned as much from China’s own Ministry of Health — and tragically but unsurprisingly, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in China.
36.9 million Americans would fail a driving test if taken today.
More than one in five Americans — some 36.9 million — are not fit to drive and would fail a driving test if asked to take one today, according to a new survey of the nation’s drivers.
The new species of cockroach likes to crawl up grass, has been nicknamed a leaproach.
In Africa scientists have discovered a new species set to send shudders around the world – jumping cockroaches.
Continue reading… “‘Leaproach’ – World’s Only Jumping Cockroach Discovered in Africa”
The enhancer often used in Chinese food could impact leptin.
MSG, the flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate is most often associated with Chinese food and after-dinner headaches but it may also be enhancing waistlines, a new study finds.
Continue reading… “MSG Has Been Linked to Unexplained Weight Gain”
This NASA illustration photo shows stars that are forming in a dwarf starburst galaxy.
A 22-year-old university student from Australia has solved a problem which has puzzled astrophysicists for decades, discovering part of the so-called “missing mass” of the universe during her summer break.
Continue reading… “22 Year Old College Student Finds ‘Missing Mass’ of the Universe”