Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Wal-Mart Seeks to Test Drones for Home Delivery, Pickup
October 26th, 2015Via: Reuters: Wal-Mart Stores Inc applied Monday to U.S. regulators for permission to test drones for home delivery, curbside pickup and checking warehouse inventories, a sign it plans to go head-to-head with Amazon in using drones to fill and deliver online orders. The world’s largest retailer by revenue has for several months been conducting indoor […]
Google Turning Its Lucrative Web Search Over to AI Machines
October 26th, 2015Via: Bloomberg: Google has been one of the biggest corporate sponsors of AI, and has invested heavily in it for videos, speech, translation and, recently, search. For the past few months, a “very large fraction” of the millions of queries a second that people type into the company’s search engine have been interpreted by an […]
Morocco Poised to Become a Solar Superpower with Launch of Desert Mega-Project
October 26th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: Guardian: When the full complex is complete, it will be the largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in the world , and the first phase, called Noor 1, will go live next month. The mirror technology it uses is less widespread and more expensive […]
Robot Builder Designed for Construction Sites
October 22nd, 2015Via: Reuters: Zurich-based architects and roboticists have created the In-situ Fabricator, an autonomous construction robot capable of laying bricks into pre-programmed structures. Designers at the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication laboratory believe a future generation of the robot could be used widely on building sites.
Flite Test Guys Build “Back to the Future” USA TODAY Drone
October 21st, 2015By the way, if you’re interested in r/c aircraft, or have children who are, Flite Test is fantastic. Via: Flite Test:
Paralyzed Man’s Arm Wired to Receive Brain Signals
October 21st, 2015Via: MIT Technology Review: Scientists at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio say they’ve used electronics to get around a paralyzed man’s spinal injury, permitting him to use an implant in his brain to move his arm and hand. The test represents the first time that signals collected in the brain have been conveyed directly […]
New York City’s X-Ray Vans
October 20th, 2015Via: The Atlantic: Dystopian truth is stranger than dystopian fiction. In New York City, the police now maintain an unknown number of military-grade vans outfitted with X-ray radiation, enabling cops to look through the walls of buildings or the sides of trucks. The technology was used in Afghanistan before being loosed on U.S. streets. Each […]
In Nigeria, Solar-Powered Fridges at Outdoor Markets Save Food From Spoiling
October 20th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: Gizmodo: In developing countries, an unbelievable 45% of food goes bad because of a lack of cold storage. It’s an especially big problem during transportation from farms to outdoor markets, where food sits in the scorching sun for hours on end. But one startup […]
Government of South Korea and Samsung Developing Robots to Manufacture Consumer Electronics
October 19th, 2015Via: The Korea Herald: South Korea’s government said Monday that it will join forces with Samsung Electronics Co. to develop precision manufacturing robots that could open new horizons for the local manufacturing sector. The plan calls for 16.75 billion won ($14.8 million) worth of taxpayers’ money to be invested in the next three years to […]
Social Skills Are Last Line of Defense for Humans Seeking Work
October 19th, 2015Via: Bloomberg: David Deming, an associate professor of education and economics at Harvard University, has found that jobs requiring social interaction are growing relative to work that doesn’t, and such skills may offer some protection from robotic takeover. Certain high-level professions that demand technical expertise and low-skill work that can be done by a greater […]
