Additive manufacturing, or its more commonly-referred to description as 3D printing, has been in the news a lot over the last few weeks, with stories about varied uses such as printing musical instruments, plastic magazines for rifles, and moonbases for European space missions. Now, a joint venture between academics at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University and private […]
The guessing game is on for what’s going to happen in Star Trek Into Darkness from all the numerous previews, trailers, and sneak peeks of said movie. Somehow, the Enterprise will have to crash and stay hidden in the Pacific Ocean. Somehow, Benedict Cumberbatch will manifest some kind of healing powers (or the power of convincing […]
“It’s crap.” That was the candid response of one eminent scientist towards Henry Markram’s Human Brain Project (HBP) at a meeting of the Swiss Academy of Sciences last January. The meeting was ostensibly reviewing the progress of high-performance computing in the neurosciences. For Markram, it felt like the inquisition. But on Monday it seemed like Markram’s […]
Butler’s Wharf lies on the south bank of the Thames, just to the East of Tower Bridge. One hundred years ago, tea clippers unloaded crates of tea from China and India, a commodity that made many investors rich and cemented the reputation of the Brits as a nation of tea drinkers, exchanging gossip over the […]
Israel-based ebook site Total Boox is introducing a new business model based on charging consumers by a per-page-read basis for the books they purchase. Company CEO Yoav Lorch believes this business model appeasl to readers, publishers, and writers, describing the per-page system as a “powerful marketing channel” to access new readers and increase revenue by […]
Today, in Bexar County, home to San Antonio, Texas’s lovely second city, they’re getting ready to open the United States’s first fully electronic public library. The new system will allow patrons to download thousands of e-texts from their homes. This digital library will also have a bright, shiny new high-tech central library branch where […]
“The only person who could ever miss with this gun would be the sucker with the bread to buy it.”– Peter (Ken Foree), Dawn of the Dead (1978) TrackingPoint, the Austin, TX-based manufacturer of high-end rifles for wealthy hunters has introduced its Precision Guided Firearm (PGF) to the public. Using technology based on the tactical […]
The future America is an irradiated wasteland. On its east coast, running from Boston to Charlotte, lies Mega-City One — a vast, violent metropolis where criminals run rampant. The only force of order lies with the urban police force called Judges who have the powers of judge, jury, and executioner for every crime — littering, […]
Part two – be sure to read “The Future’s Bright! The Future’s Danish?” before you dive in. You’ll be glad you did. America is a great and blessed nation, abundant in natural resources, purple-capped mountain majesties, swaying fields of wheat, and whatever other romanticized notions you want to paint your wagon with. What it also […]
You know how everything is Japan is way cooler (see: giant robot)? The folks over at Salad, or Particle At Rest, have developed a new amenity designed to reduce a common health risk associated with riding trains: boredom. Lush landscapes of rolling hills and grand blue skies won’t feel so drab thanks to an interactive […]
