March 11, 2008
The Buddha Machine is Curious, Confuses
The Buddha Machine is a little plastic box that plays music.Specifically, FM3 constructed nine drones, varying from two seconds to 42 seconds, which repeat endlessly in the listener’s ear until the “track” is switched to the next drone (or the two AA batteries run out).
The machine has its own built-in speaker, in case one would like to fill a room with the drones, but there is also a headphone jack for more personal meditative experiences. There’s a switch on the side that allows for traversal of the tracks, and a DC jack (though an adapter is not included) for those who would like the Buddha Machine experience be truly endless.
In a way, it’s like the cheapest pre-loaded IPod you’ll ever be able to buy."
(via Internet Jesus tweet, pop matters, FM3)
Posted by Groonk at 04:57 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Art, Music, Research, Technology
March 05, 2008
People are Fasting from Technology
I almost ignored this. Something drew me back and figures it'll be worth remembering later.
Another round of technology-overload-phobia is sweeping the net, this time in the form of fasting.
Not like this is a new concept or anything. The phrasing of Technology Fast couldn't be ignored.
(via buzzfeed)
Posted by Groonk at 05:25 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Research, Technology
March 03, 2008
Heat Ray Burns Reporter, Raises Hopes
(via gizmodo)
Posted by Groonk at 02:42 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, Tesla, War
February 27, 2008
The Wind will Kill You if You Let It
News about it: Minister demands explanation for windmill collapse
Extras:
- The tower of the mill was 60m high
- Wind speed was probably around 30 m/s
- You can see a truck at the base of the mill, but nobody was hurt. The mill had been evacuated 400m in each direction.
(via bunny, destructive you tube)
Posted by Groonk at 04:00 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, Versus, World
February 19, 2008
Verva Vie Sports Gauntlet: Must Have. Give it to Me Now!
Du Nguyen Tran read my mind. He created something pretty darn neat.
The Vie (pronounced vee, French word for life) is a sports glove, of which the main objective is to incorporate today’s technologies to enhance human performance and safety via a simple human-machine-interface. The Vie is aimed towards those who keep active by running/walking but its features can easily be spread to other sports. The Vie is a typical health monitor that also uses GPS technology to do such things as map jog routes, rendezvous with friends, send out emergency distress beacons and more. To keep the sport natural, the input is made via a unique, single hand control interface.[...]
Jogging and other sports, like bike riding, usually require the freedom of both hands. The interface needed not only to be simple but flawlessly controllable with one hand. Influenced by sign language and communication through hand gestures, the Vie uses strain gauges embedded in the glove to receive input commands from each individual finger. Each finger corresponds to an icon on the E-ink screen and the act of tapping is the selection. The result looks like you are typing or playing the piano, in mid air. Miniature motors then also provide tactile feedback, to feel that you have actually pressed a key, as well as OLEDs to give visual feedback. This can be personalized by programming your own shortcuts through menus made up of a combination of few finger strokes. An interaction with a device that is so intuitive and natural, you will know it like the back of your hand.
(via grinding.be)
Posted by Groonk at 08:31 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Just Freaking Neat, Research, Technology, The Future
February 16, 2008
One Day, Your Jacket will Power your iPod / Pacemaker / Pocket Vibrator
Scientists in the US have developed novel brush-like fibres that generate electrical energy from movement.
Writing in the journal Nature, the team say that the materials could also be used in tents or other structures to harness wind energy.
"Our goal is to make self-powered nanotechnology," Professor Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology and one of the authors of the paper told BBC News.
(via bbc news)
Posted by Groonk at 08:23 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, The Future, USA
The Rinspeed sQuba Makes James Bond Blush with Anticipation
Things you should know:
- The car goes under at 2:30.
- It is not fake as far as I know.
- I needs me one...NOW.
(via geekologie, submerged You tube)
Posted by Groonk at 07:47 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, The Future, Video
February 02, 2008
Nikola Tesla. He Saw Machines Swirling in His Head
The Groonk Nation admires most things Tesla, mad genius that he was. Others are talking about him now. Others are writing books with detailed history.
Studio 360 is podcasting about it all.
(via coilhouse)
Posted by Groonk at 08:39 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Podcast, Streamed Goodness, Technology, Tesla, The Future
January 29, 2008
Ambient Intelligence (AmI): Our Houses will Talk to Us. Tell Us Useful Things.
Things I look forward to seeing.
Ambient Intelligence is a key component in the next epoch of mobile and wireless communication systems.[...]
However, the enabling technology that provides systems with information to allow for Ambient Intelligence has been neglected and currently consists of many independent modes of input, mainly relying on active user interactions or specialised sensor systems gathering information.
Tangible results of the SENSEI project are: 1) A highly scalable architectural framework with corresponding protocol solutions that enable easy plug and play integration of a large number of globally distributed WS&AN into a global system -providing support for network and information management, security, privacy and trust and accounting. 2) An open service interface and corresponding semantic specification to unify the access to context information and actuation services offered by the system for services and applications. 3) Efficient WS&AN island solutions consisting of a set of cross-optimised and energy aware protocol stacks including an ultra low power multi-mode transceiver targeting 5nJ/bit. 4) Pan European test platform, enabling large scale experimental evaluation of the SENSEI results and execution of field trials - providing a tool for long term evaluation of WS&AN integration into the Future Internet.
(via grinding.be)
Posted by Groonk at 01:43 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, The Future
January 26, 2008
Self-Assembling Bionic Eyes are Here, Finally
Sporting circuits a few nanometers thick and grain-of-sand-sized light-emitting diodes, the lenses have full Count Zero potential. They're also the product of some ingenious hackery: since contact lenses are delicate and circuit manufacture is hot and toxic, the researchers designed each component to attach itself only to certain other components. Their powder of circuits and diodes literally self-assembled into gadgetry when sprinkled onto the lens plastic.
So how long do geeks have to wait? According to the press release, a stripped-down display with just a few operational pixels could be available "fairly quickly." More complicated lenses will take longer, but for good reason: they'll be wireless-enabled and powered by a combination of radio waves and solar energy.
Oh, crap. DOKTOR SLEEPLESS just came to mind. Newsfeds, TV, and porn fed straight to my lenses are dancing about my dreams. I'm pretty sure it's not the first ficitonal use of that idea. It's the most recent on my mind.
(via wired)
Posted by Groonk at 08:22 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, The Future
January 24, 2008
Ring Gun: Small. Stylish. Old. Deadly?
Also, it won't pass through Airport Security.
Duh.
Also of interest:
Watch Gun
Crucifix Gun
a fucking Hand Canon!
(via curio&antik, gizmodo)
Posted by Groonk at 02:02 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Religion, Research, Technology, USA
January 23, 2008
Space Ship Two: Taking Rich Bastards Into Space by 2009
SpaceShipTwo is what the passengers will actually ride in, and White Knight Two is the launch vehicle that carries it to a high altitude before releasing the rocket. (It takes less energy to launch from 50,000 feet than from the ground). The design is a little bit different than the initial SpaceShipOne and White Knight One. Both are all carbon-composite vehicles, and are designed with an open architecture so that in the future other companies can use it as a foundation to create space vehicles for unmanned missions. White Knight Two is a double-hulled launch plane with four engines from Pratt & Whitney.
Intial flight price: $200,000. To which Branson says:
Within five years of launching, we hope that price will come down dramatically. We accept that $200,00, even though the dollar is not worth much anymore, is still too expensive for the majority of people.
Techcrunch provides a brief history lesson, "a trans-Atlantic flight in 1939 between New York and England cost the equivalent of $47,000 in today’s dollars. That was one-way and coach."
So the future of space travel is heading in a direction anyways.
(via buzzfeed, techcrunch )
Posted by Groonk at 01:34 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, The Future
January 20, 2008
Japanese Cell-Phone Novelists get a bit of Cred
Five of the top 10 best-selling novels in Japan last year began as novels written on cellular phones, mostly composed on keypads by young women and read by others on their mobile phones, the New York Times reported.[...]
Would-be novelists are paid only if their novels are reproduced and sold as traditional books, not when readers access their works online, the newspaper said. One such novel, "If You," was the No. 5 best-selling novel last year with 400,000 copies, the Times said, citing book distributor Tohan.
Posted by Groonk at 09:34 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Books, Only in Japan, Technology
November 26, 2007
The Future is Here and it Brought Giant Spinning Blades
Giant Spinning Blades!
Magnetic levitation is an extremely efficient system for wind energy. Here's how it works: the vertically oriented blades of the wind turbine are suspended in the air above the base of the machine, replacing the need for ball bearings. The turbine uses "full-permanent" magnets, not electromagnets — therefore, it does not require electricty to run. The full-permanent magnet system employs neodymium (”rare earth”) magnets and there is no energy loss through friction. This also helps reduce maintenance costs and increases the lifespan of the generator.Maglev wind turbines have several advantages over conventional wind turbines. For instance, they’re able to use winds with starting speeds as low as 1.5 meters per second (m/s). Also, they could operate in winds exceeding 40 m/s. Currently, the largest conventional wind turbines in the world produce only five megawatts of power. However, one large maglev wind turbine could generate one gigawatt of clean power, enough to supply energy to 750,000 homes. It would also increase generation capacity by 20% over conventional wind turbines and decrease operational costs by 50%. If that isn’t enough, the maglev wind turbines will be operational for about 500 years!
Posted by Groonk at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, The Future
November 14, 2007
What Ever Did People Do with 5 KB of RAM?
A strange museum where facts on old computers live.
(random find)
Posted by Groonk at 04:34 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Research, Technology
November 10, 2007
Real Life Halo Warthog vs a Warehouse
But the real question is: how does one make a real Halo Warthog?
(via dans blog)
Posted by Groonk at 07:24 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Funny, Technology, Versus, Video
October 29, 2007
Cell Phones are the Ghosts in Your Pants
"It started happening about three years ago, when I first got a cellphone," says Canadian Steven Garrity, 28, of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. "I'd be sitting on the couch and feel my phone start to vibrate, so I'd reach down and pull it out of my pocket. But the only thing ringing was my thigh."[...]
Some who experienced recurring phantom vibrations wondered whether the phenomenon had physical roots: Was it caused by nerve damage or muscle memory?
But experts say the false alarms simply demonstrate how easily habits are developed.
Psychologically, the key to deciphering phantom vibrations is "hypothesis-guided search," a theory that describes the selective monitoring of physical sensations, says Jeffrey Janata, director of the behavioral medicine program at University Hospitals in Cleveland. It suggests that when cellphone users are alert to vibrations, they are likely to experience sporadic false alarms, he says.
"You come armed with this template that leads you to be attentive to sensations that represent a cellphone vibrating," Janata says. "And it leads you to over-incorporate non-vibratory sensations and attribute them to the idea that you're receiving a phone call."
So I'm not crazy then?
(via digg and usa today, of all places)
Posted by Groonk at 06:19 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Research, Technology
October 02, 2007
The Future of Cell Phones: A "Finger Joint" Keypad
Your eyes don't deceive you. That woman is using a light emitting keyboard to dial phone numbers on her hand. Not quite a rocket pack but as wearable technology goes, it's alright.
Having trouble tracking down the source link for this article. Google searches only pull up one blog after another reporting on its wonders. And yet I can't find the wonderful source...hmmm.
Other areas of light emitting keypads: MARISIL
(via yanko design)
Posted by Groonk at 03:29 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Research, Technology
September 15, 2007
World's Largest RC Craft Flys Around a Bit
Watching it take off is the coolest thing. That's if you're into aviation like I am. It's little more than a passing fancy these days.
On one special day my life will onace more be filled with flying awesome. That'll be the day I can re-afford lessons.
(via live leak)
Posted by Groonk at 10:34 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, Video
September 10, 2007
Solar Power Plane Record
A lightweight, solar-powered plane built by British defence and security technology company QinetiQ has broken a world record for unmanned flight by staying aloft for 54 hours, the firm said Monday.The Zephyr, which has an 18-metre (59-feet) wingspan and weighs just 30 kilogrammes (66 pounds), smashed the previous best of 30 hours 24 minutes by nearly a whole day, flying to a maximum height of 58,355 feet.
It then flew a second time, again beating the previous benchmark set by a jet-powered US Air Force plane six years ago with a time of 33 hours 43 minutes to a height of 52,247 feet.
(via yahoo)
Posted by Groonk at 12:22 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
August 13, 2007
Human 2.0 or The Technological Singularity
Yes, it is more than a MI:3 MacGuffin.
Yet another documentary I don't have time to lay eyes on.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BywCMkbG-Jg2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmzPHzu7RlI
3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Go3Thymuo
4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xLYI3Q6BcI
5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyRiizhPrvE
6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f48NT73ex2o
you can also read Ray Kurzeils "The Singularity Is Near" (http://www.kurzweilai.net/)
and about AI development: http://www.novamente.net , http://www.numenta.com
(via The convulsing Engine)
Posted by Groonk at 02:16 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Books, Research, Technology, Video
July 25, 2007
The Tesla Sports Cars a Reality this Fall
It's electric and it's expensive.
The Green Folk will love/hate it.
The Detroit Carmakers will hate/love it.
Bottom line: it will be a shit-disturber. Much like Tesla himself.
(via buzzfeed)
Posted by Groonk at 04:38 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, Tesla
July 18, 2007
Virtual Un-Damming
Thanks to sophisticated new computer modeling techniques, a series of dam removal projects planned throughout the United States can be attempted with a realistic look at the results.
(via wired)
Posted by Groonk at 08:42 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
April 28, 2007
Mad Aerial Skills = Thrust Vectoring Technology
(via warren ellis and Sukhoi SU-30 youtube)
Posted by Groonk at 08:57 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, Video, War
April 24, 2007
Jake Gyllenhaal Sums Up ZODIAC with Cell Phones
"Well, I actually believe that this film [Zodiac] is - you're probably going to look at me like I'm a madman - but I think it's about the advent of the cellphone. It would be a 25-minute movie if there were cellphones in the 70s. Because all the things that go wrong, if there had been a means of communication on your person that had been as quick as text message or a phone call, I think they could've solved this. This movie is a lot about the lack of technology."
The strange thing is I had those exact thoughts while watching ZODIAC. The 70s cellphone. The apparent lack of technology in 70s crimefighting. Yeah, I thought my angle was crazy til he said the same thing.
(via ontd and the guardian)
Posted by Groonk at 07:57 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Interviews, Movies, Research, Technology
April 14, 2007
Researchers Want to Kill Internet Start Over from Scratch
The Internet "works well in many situations but was designed for completely different assumptions," said Dipankar Raychaudhuri, a Rutgers University professor overseeing three clean-slate projects. "It's sort of a miracle that it continues to work well today."No longer constrained by slow connections and computer processors and high costs for storage, researchers say the time has come to rethink the Internet's underlying architecture, a move that could mean replacing networking equipment and rewriting software on computers to better channel future traffic over the existing pipes.
Even Vinton Cerf, one of the Internet's founding fathers as co-developer of the key communications techniques, said the exercise was "generally healthy" because the current technology "does not satisfy all needs."
There's no evidence they are meddling yet, but once any research looks promising, "a number of people (will) want to be in the drawing room," said Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor affiliated with Oxford and Harvard universities. "They'll be wearing coats and ties and spilling out of the venue."
(via yahoo news and digg.com)
Posted by Groonk at 06:38 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
April 12, 2007
VSI Creates HMDS: The F-35's Precision Hi-Tech Fright Mask
The HMDS provides critical flight information to the pilot throughout the entire mission. In addition to standard HMD capabilities, such as extreme off-axis targeting and cueing offered on VSI's other HMDs, Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) and Display & Sight Helmet (DASH), this system fully utilizes the advanced avionics architecture of the F-35.
The HMDS provides the pilot video with imagery in day or night conditions combined with precision symbology to give the pilot unprecedented situational awareness and tactical capability. Also, by virtue of precise head tracking capability and low latency graphics processing, it provides the pilot with a virtual heads-up display (HUD). As a result, the F-35 is the first tactical fighter jet in 50 years to fly without a HUD.
"Since the F-35 has no HUD, providing virtual HUD capability has become a mandatory requirement, entailing precise head tracking and display operation near zero latency. We are proud to be a key partner to the F-35 industrial and government team," said VSI President Drew Brugal.
(via medicmike and rockwell collins press release)
Posted by Groonk at 05:32 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, War
April 08, 2007
HOWTO: Catch a MacBook Thief
A person's Black Apple MacBook was stolen recently. The thieves played around with the MacBook's Photobooth. The thieves don't know that their faces were automatically sent to Flickr.
UPDATE: Possibly a hoax. Possibly not. -> boingboing
(via ponzu, digg, The Wanted Set)
Posted by Groonk at 07:38 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Flickrlicious, Technology
March 13, 2007
Bracelet Phone Pushes the Boundaries of Style
The bracelet vibrates slightly when it receives messages, then you can easily take it off from your wrist and press the keystroke which looks like a diamond. To pick up or make a telephone call is just that easy. The whole process makes your own personality outstanding and looks very elegant at the same time.
The wireless headset should be a combo tongue stud and, a quite obvious, ear stud. Also, other piercing vibrating jewelery could be attached wherever you please.
(via yanko design)
Posted by Groonk at 04:19 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
Americans are Getting Paid to Watch TV
In the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) plan, each household can claim two $40 coupons that they then can use toward the purchase of a set-top box that can translate digital signals so television shows can be viewed on analog TVs."The transition from analog to digital television is a historic change and brings with it considerable benefits for the American consumer," Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez said. "The coupon program is designed to help ease the transition to digital TV. Not only will the transition help expand consumer choices, but more importantly, the digital transition will enable more efficient use of the nation's airwaves, providing new advanced wireless services and increased public safety services for all Americans."
Call me when you're ready to buy my widescreen plasma(or LCD) television.
(via yahoo news)
Posted by Groonk at 04:19 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, USA
March 09, 2007
The Navy Wants to Make Enemies Sick
I see the board meeting now:
Q. Navy, how do I weaponize puke?
A. With a Vomit Gun, silly boy.
Yes, Invocon Inc., funded by a Navy contract is developing a weapon that can shoot invisible beams through walls and cause people to get dizzy and fall over. The beam can also cause motion-sickness that can induce vomiting. The gun shoots RF energy that excites and interrupts a human's hearing and equilibrium. This gun isn't really being developed as a way to harm individuals, but just to incapacitate people and embarrasses them if they vomit easily from motion sickness.
Bowel Disruptors are but a tissue wipe away.
God help all idiots who cross my path when that happens.
(via the engine, gizmodo)
Posted by Groonk at 03:02 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, War
February 28, 2007
Tesla coil Anti-Car Theft Device Made of Awesome and Win. And Electricity.
If Tesla were alive today, he'd zap our enemies with his hand-held death ray, power America's iPods remotely with his stabby thoughts, then run into a locked kitchen to have supper away from prying eyes.
He'd do all that and make this sweet ass anti-car theft system out of a coil that bears his name. Like Australian Peter Terren did above.
(via the newly smooth looking geekologie)
Posted by Groonk at 07:19 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Just Freaking Neat, Technology, Tesla
February 24, 2007
Power Jacket: The Inflatable Exoskeleton
You heard me: inflatable power suits!
Japanese electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industrial unveils the prototype model for a "power jacket" to help patients recover from partial paralysis during rehabilitation, at the Home Care and Rehabilitation Exhibition in Tokyo.
(via igargoyle, less cool looking suit)
Posted by Groonk at 09:41 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Only in Japan, Research, Technology
The Future of Graffiti? LASERs!
Boston PD, please make a note. The public now has the ability to paint on the sides of buildings with light. Your world may never be the same.
(via The Engine, laser tagged YouTube, graffiti research lab, how it works)
Posted by Groonk at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Just Freaking Neat, Marketing, Research, Technology, Video
February 20, 2007
Future Fridge is a Tree House
The Tree House Fridge, a concept design created by Yanko Design, has separate "branches" for storing meat, cheese, produce and other categories.Choose a particular compartment, and the item you want practically flies into your hand.
Yanko explains: "It is a fridge design, combining with a tree branch shape storage system and several single fridges, which tried to bring the memory of tree house in our childhood to the kitchen in daily life. One fridge has holes and pattern on the door as a fruit shelf. People can pick up a fruit from a tree. Another is like a bird house. Doors can slide away when a hand is placed in front of it. It's funny how one can draw out an egg from a bird's nest. There is also a special device designed at the foot of the door, when people step on it, a wheel with small motor will slide the door open."
(via wired gadget lab)
Posted by Groonk at 08:21 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
February 13, 2007
Northern California has World's Largest, Wettest Hole
It's located at Monticello Dam and is the largest morning glory spillway in all the world.
That's right. It's a giant glory hole.
(fogonazos link via pentacleus)
(I translated and "Fogonazos: Asombros diarios" means "Flashes: daily Astonishments. feel my Web Crawling Power)
Posted by Groonk at 05:06 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Funny, Technology, World
February 05, 2007
The Amazing Foldy Chair is Always in Flux
What it lacks in information it more than makes up for in visuals:
(via boingboing , glumbert.com)
Posted by Groonk at 03:35 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
January 24, 2007
RFID Tatoos for Cattle and People
Life has become like a Jessica Alba-less DARK ANGEL:
Somark Innovations announced this week that it successfully tested biocompatible RFID ink, which can be read through animal hairs. The passive RFID technology could be used to identify and track cows to reduce financial losses from Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease) scares. Somark, which formed in 2005, is located at the Center for Emerging Technologies in St. Louis. The company is raising Series A equity financing and plans to license the technology to secondary markets, which could include laboratory animals, dogs, cats, prime cuts of meat, and military personnel.Chief scientist Ramos Mays said the tests provide a true proof-of-principle and mitigate most of the technological risks in terms of the product's performance. "This proves the ability to create a synthetic biometric or fake fingerprint with biocompatible, chipless RFID ink and read it through hair," he said.
Co-founder Mark Pydynowski said during an interview Wednesday that the ink doesn't contain any metals and can be either invisible or colored. He declined to say what is in the ink, but said he's certain that it is 100% biocompatible and chemically inert. He also said it is safe for people and animals.
(via information week, warren ellis)
Posted by Groonk at 01:36 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
January 18, 2007
R2D2 TV Projector is a Feisty One
Know this: I understand how unforgivingly geeky this R2D2 TV projector looks to the rest of the world. I get that. But you should also know that the damn thing would look best in my sweet home entertainment room. The one that lives in my head. The R2 projector only has an 800x600 wide screen. What's with that? Bump up that res, Master Geeks and I'll happily give you my booze money for the next decade.
The Millenium Falcon remote is a bit much, though. I've lost countless get-laid points by wanting the TV droid. I don't need to fall into monkhood by owning a remote that can do the kessel run in record time.
Ah, hell.
(via scifi tech and switched-on google video)
Posted by Groonk at 02:31 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Just Freaking Neat, Marketing, Technology, Video
January 10, 2007
Space Marines would Excel at "Bug Hunts"
The proposal, part of the Corps’s push toward greater speed and flexibility, is called Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion, or Sustain. Using a suborbital transport—that is, a vehicle that flies into space to achieve high travel speeds but doesn’t actually enter orbit—the Corps will be able, in effect, to instantaneously deliver Marine squads anywhere on Earth. The effort is led by Roosevelt Lafontant, a former Marine lieutenant colonel now employed by the Schafer Corporation, a military-technology consulting firm working with the Marines. Insertion from space, Lafontant explains, makes it possible for the Marines—typically the first military branch called on for emergency missions—to avoid all the usual complications that can delay or end key missions. No waiting for permission from an allied nation, no dangerous rendezvous in the desert, no slow helicopter flights over mountainous terrain. Instead, Marines could someday have an unmatched element of surprise, allowing them to do everything from reinforce Special Forces to rescue hostages thousands of miles away.
(via popular science)
Posted by Groonk at 08:48 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, War
People Love to Hide Stuff
A sidenote to the Hidden Passageways site mentioned earlier.
TV Coverups hides your plasma screen from looky loos while, simultaneously, making you look super cool and ultra pretensious.
(via tv coverups)
Posted by Groonk at 08:12 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Research, Technology
January 05, 2007
Celebrities Like to Make Shit Up
The only thing weirder than realizing the famous fancy themselves master inventors is trying to figure out how to categorize that weirdness. Then it gets even stranger. A click to the source of these curiosities reveals it's the result of Google's new Patent Search feature.
- Eddie Van Halen, Musician. Patent #4,656,917 — Musical instrument support
- Zeppo Marx, Actor/Comedian. Patent #3,473,526 — Cardiac pulse rate monitor
- Harry Connick, Jr., Musician/Actor. Patent #6,348,648 — System and method for coordinating music display among players in an orchestra
- Penn Jillette, Magician. Patent #5,920,923 — Hydro-therapeutic stimulator (for, um, sexual stimulation)
- Michael Jackson, Singer. Patent #5,255,452 — Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion
- Julie Newmar, Actress (“Batman” TV Show). Patent #3,914,799 — Pantyhose with shaping band for cheeky derriere relief
- Jamie Lee Curtis, Actress. Patent #4,753,647 — Infant garment
The above image is from the Penn Jillette idea. Heh, a bathtub vibrator. I thought they already invented that one and called it a jacuzzi.
(via ontd and ironicsans)
Posted by Groonk at 10:52 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Google-fied, Technology
December 15, 2006
Next Stop, the Terahertz Barrier
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have again broken their own speed record for the world’s fastest transistor. With a frequency of 845 gigahertz, their latest device is approximately 300 gigahertz faster than transistors built by other research groups, and approaches the goal of a terahertz device.[...]
With their latest device, Feng and his research group have taken the transistor to a new range of high-speed operation, bringing the “Holy Grail” of a terahertz transistor finally within reach. Faster transistors translate into faster computers, more flexible and secure wireless communications systems, and more effective combat systems.
In addition to using pseudomorphic material construction, the researchers also refined their fabrication process to produce tinier transistor components. For example, the transistor’s base is only 12.5 nanometers thick (a nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or about 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair).
(via engadget and news bureau UI)
Posted by Groonk at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
Organic Transistors are the Key to Cheap Electronic Paper
Researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles, published a study Wednesday illustrating that single-crystal organic transistors can be mass-produced with a new technique. Typically, high-performance organic transistors are set by hand, making them rare in electronics manufacturing."This work demonstrates for the first time that organic single crystals can be patterned over a large area without the need to laboriously handpick and fabricate transistors one at a time," Zhenan Bao, associate professor of chemical engineering, said in a statement. The study was published in the December 14 issue of the journal Nature.
The researchers devised a method of printing patterns of transistors on surfaces like silicon wafers and flexible plastic. The method begins with placing electrodes on the surfaces of these materials wherever they want a transistor, then producing a stamp (with the desired pattern) out of a polymer called polydimethylsiloxane, a common silicon-based polymer. Following that step, researchers coat the stamp with a crystal growth agent called octadecyltriethoxysilane, and a vapor of the organic crystal material causes the single crystals to grow. A transistor is formed when those crystals bridge with the electrodes.
Posted by Groonk at 07:23 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Research, Technology
December 07, 2006
The Ancient Computer Reveals more Secrets
I've read the articles and watched documentaries on this and other items like it for quite some time now. The more I learn about ancient civilizations and cultures, the more I realize they did have technology to be reckoned with. It's easy for us to think of them as simple people with simple desires but that's really a limited view. They had desires and the technology just as we do.
It's funny that the average American history class skims over all the good stuff and only does it's best to turn you into a living recorder. They make you spit out dates and times like that is what's important. And that couldn't be furthest from the true.
Or maybe I just had a shitty public school experience. I am one of legions no doubt.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Imagine tossing a top-notch laptop into the sea, leaving scientists from a foreign culture to scratch their heads over its corroded remains centuries later. A Roman shipmaster inadvertently did something just like it 2,000 years ago off southern Greece, experts said late Thursday.
They claim to have identified a handful of puzzling metal scraps found in the wreck as the earliest known mechanical computing device that pinpointed astronomical events.
Only the first clockwork devices appeared more than a thousand years later in western Europe.
"It was a pocket calculator of the time," said astronomer John Seiradakis.
(via myways news and 7d)
Posted by Groonk at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Research, Technology
James Kim 1971 - 2006
I've been so wrapped up in my own stuff, I just didn't know about this. I watched his segments on Tech TV when Tech TV was good.
Again, I didn't know him personally. And again, I am saddened by the tragedy.
James Kim was a respected expert on cutting-edge digital devices, an owner of a trendy clothing store and a lover of the futuristic-sounding music known as electronica.
The body of the 35-year-old Kim was discovered Wednesday in a rugged wilderness area in southern Oregon. He had set out across snow and ice with only tennis shoes to protect his feet. He had eaten little in the seven days since his car got stuck.
"Anyone that knows James will tell you that he would do anything to protect his family," said Jason Zemlicka, a friend of 10 years and former co-worker. "I know him, and he must have believed he was going to get somewhere."
The path James Kim took has been mapped on Google Earth.
(via ponzu and cnet's tribute site)
Posted by Groonk at 09:01 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, People Who Died, Technology, USA
Xerox Now Works for Inspector Gadget
Xerox has created the temporary document paper. The ink fades in 16 to 24 hours.
That's right, Chief, no more of those exploding documents, to extremely unfunny effect, for you. But the Office Porn Guy(there is one required for every office you know) and the practical jokers are rubbing their hands with anticipation.
The experimental printing technology, a collaboration between the Xerox Research Centre of Canada and PARC (Palo Alto Research Center Inc.), could someday replace printed pages that are used for just a brief time before being discarded. Xerox estimates that as many as two out of every five pages printed in the office are for what it calls "daily" use, like e-mails, Web pages and reference materials that have been printed for a single viewing.
(via geekologie and xerox press release)
Posted by Groonk at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
November 17, 2006
They Have The Technology. They Have Rebuilt Him.
BBC News Producer Stuart Hughes lost his leg to a landmine in Iraq.
Recently, he got an upgrade:
Every evening, before I switch off the bedside light, I take my right leg off and plug it into the mains. I am a below-knee amputee. I lost my leg in 2003 after stepping on a landmine while covering the war in Iraq for BBC News.
A few weeks ago, I became one of the first people in the UK to be fitted with the world's first "intelligent" prosthetic foot.
The word "bionic" inevitably conjures up memories of the 1970s TV series, the Six Million Dollar Man. Unfortunately, my prosthesis doesn't enable me to leap over a wall with a single bound or run faster than a speeding bullet.
Rather, it uses sensors and a built-in microprocessor to mimic some of the actions of a human foot. The Proprio Foot is one of a new range of bionic artificial limbs designed by Ossur, a prosthetics company based in Iceland.
(via warren ellis)
Posted by Groonk at 04:53 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, World
October 20, 2006
Scientist Make a Thing Disappear
They've come a long way since March 2005.
The new work points the way for an improved version that could hide people and objects from visible light.
Conceptually, the chance of adapting the concept to visible light is good, Schurig said in a telephone interview. But, he added, "From an engineering point of view it is very challenging."
The cloaking of a cylinder from microwaves comes just five months after Schurig and colleagues published their theory that it should be possible. Their work is reported in a paper in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
"We did this work very quickly ... and that led to a cloak that is not optimal," said co-author David R. Smith, also of Duke. "We know how to make a much better one."
Viewers can see things because objects scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye.
"The cloak reduces both an object's reflection and its shadow, either of which would enable its detection," Smith said.
The cloak is made of metamaterials, which are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite.
In an ideal situation, the cloak and the item it is hiding would be invisible. An observer would see whatever is beyond them, with no evidence the cloaked item exists.
(via yahoo news)
Posted by Groonk at 12:29 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Science, Technology
October 18, 2006
Flash Earth Sees Planet Through Many Eyes
Flash Earth combines other map apps(lke google, microsoft, NASA and yahoo) into one mashup of a map service.
I tried to zoom in on Baghdad with NASA's daily updated map but the image was incomplete. So was the city of Huntsville.
Hutsville and Iraq are obfuscated. How strange.
Posted by Groonk at 11:00 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Apps, Flash, Technology
Ms Dewey is Chock Full of Bitchtitude
Ms Dewey is the latest attempt to anthropomorphize the web. I'm not sure why a body would need a search engine to question and ridicule their every click. Is it some perverse need to feel married without the peskiness of a warm body nearby?
Fuck if I know.
Personally, I like my women sassy and my search engines cold to the click. That way my nights are entertained and my web research blissfully quiet.*
(via geekologie and the paraphrased wisdom of Dominar Rygel XVI)
Posted by Groonk at 10:22 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Flash, Technology
October 12, 2006
Tech Geeks Debate the Google/YouTube Deal
"The community is very honest," says Supan, laughing at her understatement. "That's the beauty of the community -- everyone has a voice."
Luke Barats, who with his comedy partner Joe Bereta has parlayed their popular YouTube sketch videos into a pilot deal with NBC, is happy for YouTube's creators. His concern, though, lies with increased advertising.
"If the advertising is kept as unobtrusive as possible, I doubt there will be much backlash from the YouTube community," says Barats. "The fact of the matter is that YouTube still offers a great product -- a widely used embeddable player that works on both PC and Mac."
Stern fears an increase in advertising will take up precious space on YouTube's home page, which lists featured videos.
"In order to become widely popular on YouTube, it's almost imperative that you get featured on the front page," says Stern, 28. "YouTube has already begun selling off its top front page real estate to advertisers and Google, one of the top internet advertising brokers, is not going to make matters any better."
Of course, more ads. I suppose the deal could work for You Tube, if Google leaves their basic operations alone.
Is nice to see Barats and Baretta got a comedy pilot from all this.
(via wired news)
Posted by Groonk at 11:05 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
October 07, 2006
T-Mobile to Send Mixed-Signal Phone
The only difference is that the call is then transmitted using VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, the technology used by Internet phone companies such as Vonage Holdings Corp. (VG)
T-Mobile has previously acknowledged it was testing UMA, which can help ease the burden on the limited call capacity of a cellular network while also providing users a stronger wireless signal when they're inside a building.
Dotson said the company will offer handsets comparably priced to cell phones but declined to say how much the service will cost.
(via my way news and 7d)
Posted by Groonk at 03:09 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
October 02, 2006
Hug Shirts: Share Your Love Remotely via Bluetooth
The Hug Shirt (F+R Hugs) is a shirt that allows people to exchange the physical sensation of a hug over distance. Embedded in the shirt there are sensors that feel the strength of the touch, the skin warmth and the heartbeat rate of the sender and actuators that recreate the sensation of touch, warmth and emotion of the hug to the shirt of the distant loved one.
The Hug Shirt is a Bluetooth accessory for Java enabled mobile phones. Hug shirts don’t have any assigned phone number, all the data goes from the sensors wirelessly to your mobile phone and your mobile phone delivers the data stream to your loved one phone and seamlessly is transmitted Bluetooth to the other person’s shirt (sounds complex but the operation takes the same few seconds it would take to send an SMS, or text message). You will be able to send hugs while you are on the move, in the same way and to the same places you are able to make phone calls (Rome to Tokyo, New York to Paris).
Where are the Hug Pants? Scotch guard enhanced, of course.
Or Hug Shoes? That way folks could discover what it's like walking a mile in them.
Let's flip that idea completely. Hate Shirts. Send shocks of snideness from across the country. Or give that despised one the taste of sharp needles up and down their spine.
This gift would only be good once, so you'd have to make that one time count. Unless you're an S&M freak.
If that's the case, you'd be in hog heaven.
(via rocketboom and CuteCircuit)
Posted by Groonk at 06:27 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
August 31, 2006
NASA to Return to Moon by the Time I'm Old, Grey and Crapping in Adult Diapers
Jesus fuck, NASA. It's not like you haven't been there before. Think of it like Yellowstone Park. You've been there once and want to go back, wholeheartedly, to re-enjoy the splendor.
The moon is not New Jersey. Stop treating it as such.
NASA announced Tuesday that its new crew exploration vehicle will be named Orion.
Orion is the vehicle NASA's Constellation Program is developing to carry a new generation of explorers back to the moon and later to Mars. Orion will succeed the space shuttle as NASA's primary vehicle for human space exploration.
(via nasa.gov)
Posted by Groonk at 01:38 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Science, Technology
Auxetic Substances get Thicker when Stretched
They're like The Hulk. Except, stronger/madder = thicker/stretchy.
When a usual material is, for example, hit by a ball, the material "flows" outward from the impact zone making the point of impact weaker. However, in auxetic materials, the matter "flows" inward, thus strengthening this zone. Such materials would be advantageous for bulletproof vests. Auxetic materials also provide interesting possibilities for medical technology. The introduction of implants such as stents to hold open blood vessels would be easier if, under pressure, the device would get thinner instead of thicker in the perpendicular direction.
(via b55seddel)
Posted by Groonk at 12:59 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Science, Technology
August 28, 2006
To Be "Spider Jerusalem" is an Honor
Geek tech gossip site Valley Wag created a new award in honor of Transmet's Spider Jerusalem. They say, "It's hard to make a world of chips and software exciting without sounding like a Wired cub reporter or a BusinessWeek bubble-blower."
The first award goes to Wall Street Journal's Jason Fry. "He sums up the frustration of so many former tech news fans when he introduces a story about private space travel by lamenting the fall of the brave space-scientist archetype."
Spider Jerusalem award: The best blurb in journalism
C'mon, kid: Your square-jawed rocket engineers of future histories past are now tattooed, pierced software engineers coding social-networking sites.
--Jason Fry "Wall Street Journal"
(via warren ellis)
Posted by Groonk at 03:02 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Blogged, Quotables, Technology
August 25, 2006
Nerdgasm Command and Control
(via ponzu)
Posted by Groonk at 11:11 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Research, Technology
August 23, 2006
Freestanding Mobile Freedom Means Never Being Far from that Box of Cereal
A concept wheelchair that stands upright.
Make the sucker transformable and you're onto something.
(via the cool hunter)
Posted by Groonk at 08:43 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
August 15, 2006
FYI: Liquid Explosive Detection is Feasible and Already Available
Homeland security analyst Brian Ruttenbur of Morgan Keegan also points out that the technology still produces a relatively high number of false alarms.
For those reasons -- and because there still has not been a successful attack using liquid explosives -- Ruttenbur believes the TSA won't be pressed to overhaul the current screening regimen.
(via wired news)
Posted by Groonk at 03:22 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology, USA
August 11, 2006
Sleep on a Bed of Force for Around $1.54 Million
A young Dutch architect has created a floating bed which hovers above the ground through magnetic force and comes with a price tag of 1.2 million euros ($1.54 million).
"No matter where you live all architecture is dictated by gravity. I wondered whether you could make an object, a building or a piece of furniture where this is not the case -- where another power actually dictates the image," Ruijssenaars said.
Magnets built into the floor and into the bed itself repel each other, pushing the bed up into the air. Thin steel cables tether the bed in place.
"It is not comfortable at the moment," admits Ruijssenaars, adding it needs cushions and bedclothes before use.
The artist says that people with piercings can sleep on the bed with no problem but suggests they don't slide underneath for fear of the metallic area in question getting pulled towards one of the magnets.
(via rocketboom and warrenellis)
Posted by Groonk at 02:16 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Technology
July 27, 2006
Proof the Universe Hates Us Very, Very Much
(via neil gaiman)
Posted by Groonk at 08:13 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Marketing, Technology, Weird
$100 Laptop Crusade Sallys Forth
All the hoo-ha over the $100 laptop and whether it's feasible and such continues.
What I find interesting is, most of the naysayers have made money off of what was considered at the time to be impossible. What? they get a little comfortable in the system, they become above the little guy?
If the $100 laptop is on the level. At least they are trying something. That's more than I can say for those kids who have the money to do the same.
...it promised to outsell every other laptop in the world in just a few years. Oh, and one more thing: The machine would need to cost one-fifth the price of the cheapest laptop at Wal-Mart. The Media Lab dubbed the project One Laptop per Child, but everyone else knew it simply as "the $100 laptop."
Behar was skeptical at first. And who wasn't? After Negroponte announced the plan at the World Economic Forum in January 2005, the critics descended: Most scientists said a $100 laptop was unbuildable, many development experts said it was out of touch with the needs of poor communities, and a good number of educators wondered about giving computers to kids who go without modern textbooks. Steve Jobs dismissed the idea as "a science project." Intel's chair, Craig Barrett, called it "a gadget." Bill Gates mocked the idea of its battery-charging crank. Behar saw their point. "I grew up as a designer in Silicon Valley," the Swiss-born Behar says, "but I'm not one who sees computing as the remedy for everything."
There was something about the project that appealed to him, though, something that almost sounds like nostalgia. "Computers were supposed to be a democratizing tool. You used to see that boundless optimism from Silicon Valley hardware companies. I'm not sure it's still there," he says. "One Laptop per Child is the first thing I've seen in many years that is in line with the original goal of the PC."
Ok...off the soapbox.
(via wired news)
Posted by Groonk at 09:45 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Technology, World
July 23, 2006
LED Throwies Morph into Readable Graffiti
LED Throwies have morphed. I first saw throwies on 02/17/2006 Rocketboom, throwies are now something that I can get on board with.
Inside, the secret is learned.
(via youtube)
Posted by Groonk at 09:32 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Technology
July 02, 2006
The Turnover E-Reader is a Lesson in Simplicity
According to designer Timothy Yeoh, "Turnover is two pages with infinite possibilities - you can lose yourself in any number of worlds." Touch the on button for a few seconds to bring up the book select menu and use the scroll wheel to select the book or quickly skip to the desired page. Touchscreen capability lets you bend the corner to toggle bookmarks on or off, with a bookmark symbol on the page for easy reference when scrolling through.How long since the birth of e-readers has it taken for some guy to make one look like an old fashioned book. 5 years? More? I'm telling you, sometimes the corporate schmucks have the foresight of a fox in a henhouse.
(via geekologie)
Posted by Groonk at 09:10 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Just Freaking Neat, Technology
The Pattern Clock Knows You are a Lazy Ass
When the word genius was created, this invention is what they used as a description. I've gone through many a way to fool myself awake. Some examples:
Problem
I set the clock ahead 10 or so minutes.
Solution
I end up doing that quick math in my head at 7 in the morning. And if you knew me and math, you'd know that was a feat in itself.
Problem
I place the clock 10 feet from my bed.
Solution
I use my bo to kung fu the hell out of the snooze button.
Problem
The Pattern Clock makes me actually think in order to turn it off.
Solution
I'm not sure what I'd do when faced with a clock that tricks me awake. Either I'd abide and recognize it's superior intelligence or I'd throw the thing out a high window. Again this would be a feat since I live on the bottom floor.
(via geekologie)
Posted by Groonk at 08:51 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Just Freaking Neat, Technology
June 08, 2006
Tennessee Athletes have Sight Enhancing Contact Lenses
The article originates from Brentwood,Tennessee which is not far from my humble abode. And by not far I mean a 2 hour tour.
When Camille Walters plays soccer, her normally brown eyes have a spooky red tint.
The 15-year-old wears tinted contact lenses that block certain wavelengths of light and help athletes see better. Oh, and they look cool, too.
"It gives me more confidence because you feel intimidating and bigger and stronger, kind of an ego-booster," said Walters, who plays for Father Ryan, a Catholic high school in Nashville, Tennessee.
Walters and a growing number of other athletes are wearing the MaxSight lenses, which were developed jointly by Nike Inc. and contact lens maker Bausch & Lomb Inc.
The lens -- large enough to extend a ring around the iris -- comes in two colors: amber and grey-green.
The amber lens is for fast-moving ball sports, such as tennis, baseball, football or soccer. Grey-green is better for blocking glare for runners or helping a golfer read the contour of the ground.
Professional athletes tested the lenses last year before they were rolled out for general sales.
One athlete claimed it was, "like wearing sunglasses outside."
(via digg)
Posted by Groonk at 02:03 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Health, Science, Technology
June 07, 2006
MASHUP: The DeLorean Mac Mini Movable Beast
There's certainly a lot of Back to the Future news bandying about the great sub-conscious lately. From ebay auctions to, well, the encore presentations I play in my mind from time to time.
Ryan Brandys put a Delorean and a Mac-Mini together to create a movable drive in theatre. Apparently, the rear engine style of the DeLorean made it an obvious choice to host the movie-on-the-go idea. Which, in theory, means that old school Punch Bugs are ripe for the pimping. Think vintage Bumblebee or Herbie the Love Bug with sticky floorboards and steamy windows.
I could make some lame joke about going 88 mph or obvious comment about the lack of flux capacity. I could but I won't. Today I take the high road.
(via engadget)
Posted by Groonk at 12:05 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture,