Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Software Mines Science Papers to Make New Discoveries
November 26th, 2013In other news: Majority of Landmark Cancer Studies Cannot Be Replicated. Via: MIT Technology Review: Software that read tens of thousands of research papers and then predicted new discoveries about the workings of a protein that’s key to cancer could herald a faster approach to developing new drugs. The software, developed in collaboration between IBM […]
Cicada 3301
November 26th, 2013Via: Telegraph: For the past two years, a mysterious online organisation has been setting the world’s finest code-breakers a series of seemingly unsolveable problems. But to what end? Welcome to the world of Cicada 3301. Wikipedia: Cicada 3301 Similar: OTP22: Calling the ‘Beautiful Minds’ of Cryptogon [OTP22 is very active with many unsolved puzzles.]
Britain: £150 Cosy Cob Home
November 26th, 2013If this sort of thing calls to you, see: The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage by Ianto Evans. Via: Daily Mail: Smallholder Michael Buck spent eight months constructing the house using the ancient technique of cob – building with a mixture of sand, clay, straw, water and earth. […]
‘If our mechanical doubles make us paranoid, we may need to think again.’
November 26th, 2013Via: Telegraph: Researchers have tried to find the cause of the uncanny valley. One of the most interesting insights has come from an international team led by Ayse Pinar Saygin of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Saygin and her team conducted an experiment scanning the brains of 20 subjects aged 20 to 36 […]
How ‘Swarm Robots’ Are Learning from Insects
November 26th, 2013Via: CNN: In the dystopian future imagined within the popular Terminator franchise, robots learn to think, self-replicate and eventually kill their human masters. While this bleak vision assumes a number of seemingly distant technological and political developments, some ideas currently driving robotics research may, for some, bear an uncomfortable resemblance to those of the 80s […]
Snowden’s “Doomsday” Cache
November 26th, 2013Via: Reuters: British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a “doomsday” cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud. The cache contains documents generated by the NSA and other agencies and includes names of U.S. and allied intelligence […]
Screen Time Again Linked to Kids’ Extra Weight
November 25th, 2013Shocker. Via: Reuters: Children and teenagers who spend lots of time in front of screens – especially TVs – tend to gain more weight as they age, according to a new study. The findings are consistent with research suggesting all that idle sitting and exposure to advertisements may fuel poor eating habits (see Reuters Health […]
U.S. Army Awards Grants for 4D Printing Research
November 24th, 2013Via: Live Science: The 3D printing revolution shows no signs of letting up, and now has made its way on to the next dimension. The U.S. Army Research Office has awarded $855,000 to three universities to make advances in 4D printing, which is the ability to 3D-print objects that can change their shape or appearance […]
NSA Infected 50,000 Computer Networks with Malicious Software
November 23rd, 2013Via: NRC: The American intelligence service – NSA – infected more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide with malicious software designed to steal sensitive information. Documents provided by former NSA-employee Edward Snowden and seen by this newspaper, prove this. A management presentation dating from 2012 explains how the NSA collects information worldwide. In addition, the presentation […]
This Massive Robot Could Soon Join Marines on the Battlefield
November 23rd, 2013Via: Defense One: The future doesn’t always arrive with a gasp and a boom like Skynet inTerminator. No, sometimes it’s more like Office Space. At least that’s the idea I get watching this video of the Marines’ testing the Legged Squad Support System. DARPA built the LS3 to act as an autonomous pack horse that […]
