Project Daedalus
Forget about warp drives and wormholes, the Daedalus class of interstellar spacecraft could make it to a nearby star in our lifetimes, and it’s doable with near-term technology. Also, it’s huge. (Pics and video)
Continue reading… “Project Daedalus – The First Realistic Interstellar Probe”
Chemists developed a method of artificial photosynthesis, and proved it by turning gold atoms into purple-colored nanoparticles.
Professor Richard Watt and his chemistry students suspected that a common protein could potentially react with sunlight and harvest its energy – similar to what chlorophyll does during photosynthesis.
Google, the company that fought censorship in China and vowed not to censor even anti-Semitism, has begun a subtle censorship campaign of its own.
As of today, if a Google search user begins typing in a term such as “BitTorrent,” Google’s Auto Suggest feature stops listing possible terms as soon as he types the second “T” in the word. Likewise, it won’t auto-complete the pirate-familiar words “megaupload,” “utorrent” or “rapidshare.”
Continue reading… “Google Engages in Subtle Form of Censorship”
UPS saved a lot of money by eliminating left turns from its delivery routes. Would this practice be effective on a larger scale? At Smithsonian, Sarah Zielinski writes:
UPS minimizes left turns for its delivery trucks to save on fuel. (And it works, as the Mythbusters demonstrated last year.) In the 1960s, the state of Michigan designed an intersection known as the “Michigan left” that prevents people driving on side streets from making left turns onto a multi-laned divided road; if they wish to go left, they’ll first have to go right and then make a U-turn…
LOOK! Up in the sky. It’s a bird? It’s a plane?
It’s my weed bags being flung over the border!
Marijuana smugglers apparently have a problem with the US border fence near Tucson, Arizona -and those pesky border patrols. So they’ve turned to ancient technology to deliver the goods -a catapult!
Continue reading… “Mexican Drug Smugglers Catapult Weed Over Border fence into US”
25% to 35% of wounded soldiers are addicted to drugs.
Medical officials estimate that 25% to 35% of about 10,000 ailing soldiers assigned to special wounded-care companies or battalions are addicted or dependent on drugs — particularly prescription narcotic pain relievers, according to an Army inspector general’s report made public Tuesday.
Continue reading… “Up to 35% of Wounded Soldiers in Warrior Units are Addicted to Drugs”
Intel’s Paul Otellini unveils the prototype of an in-store digital billboard using facial recognition.
Odds are you will be monitored today — many times over. Surveillance cameras at airports, subways, banks and other public venues are not the only devices tracking you. Inexpensive, ever-watchful digital sensors are now ubiquitous.
Continue reading… “Digital Sensors Are Watching Us More Than We Realize”
Less than 50% of U.S. students are proficient in science.
One national “report card” on test scores, released Tuesday morning, paints a dismal picture of how well the country’s students have mastered science. Just 34 percent of fourth-graders, 30 percent of eighth-graders, and 21 percent of 12th-graders are performing at or above “proficient” in the most recent snapshot from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which gives science scores from 2009.
Continue reading… “Most Students in U.S. Are Not Proficient in Science”
Human Torch
While Marvel has made no secret that a member of the quartet, which was introduced in August 1961, would die, exactly who among the group, which included Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman and the Thing, would die has been a closely held secret, until the release Tuesday of issue No. 587.
The systems are still five to 10 years from being deployed into America’s car fleet.
Could “talking cars” save lives? A group of car companies is developing safety systems using advanced Wi-Fi signals and GPS systems that could allow vehicles to communicate with each other on the road. The cars could then send messages to warn their drivers about potential crashes.
Jeff Wysaski of Pleated Jeans wrote “Whether it’s a fat population, high rate of STDs or excessive tax rate, it turns out that every state ranks dead last in at least one unsavory category.” So he compiled a most unusual “worst of” list, featuring your favorite home state (Oh, poor, poor North Dakotans!)
Dubai’s “The World,” a collection of artificial islands designed to resemble a map of planet Earth, is reportedly sinking back into the water. From the Telegraph..
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.