Archive for February, 2014
Tesla to Start Manufacturing Their Own Battery Packs
February 21st, 2014Via: MIT Technology Review: “[The Gigafactory] will allow us to achieve a major reduction in the cost of our battery packs and accelerate the pace of battery innovation. Working in partnership with our suppliers, we plan to integrate precursor material, cell, module and pack production into one facility. With this facility, we feel highly confident […]
Google’s Project Tango: Indoor 3D Mapping and Tracking
February 20th, 2014Because tracking you outside is so 1990s. It’s not enough for the Legion of Doom to be able to track your every move outside. It now wants to map your indoor world, in 3D, and where you are in it. NSA/NGA will love this. Coincidence: Tango: Tango (U.S.) NATO phonetic alphabet for the letter “T” […]
Inside DuckDuckGo, Google’s Tiniest, Fiercest Competitor
February 20th, 2014Via: Fast Company: “Every year, we’ve grown 200-500%,” Weinberg says. “The numbers keep getting bigger.” As of early February, DuckDuckGo was seeing more than 4 million search queries per day. One year ago, that number had just barely broken 1 million. Surprisingly, the sudden success didn’t send the site crashing down. Nor did it change […]
Some Words in Voynich Manuscript Deciphered
February 20th, 2014Via: BBC: A breakthrough has been made in attempts to decipher a mysterious 600-year-old manuscript written in an unknown language, it has been claimed. The Voynich Manuscript, carbon-dated to the 1400s, was rediscovered in 1912, but has defied codebreakers since. Now, Bedfordshire University’s Stephen Bax says he has deciphered 10 words, which could lead to […]
“Smart Cities”
February 20th, 2014Via: Fast Company: Tech giant Cisco thinks there’s something to all this talk of ”smart cities”–and that connecting roads or license plate readers to the Internet is going to be big business. In the latest installment of their ongoing expansion into the Internet of Things, Cisco recently announced an agreement with Swiss security firm AGT […]
Cambodia: Homemade Bamboo Trains
February 20th, 2014Via: YouTube: Cambodia has one rail line. It is not well built, not maintained, and generally unsafe. For that reason, Cambodia no longer operates heavy trains. The people, however, have created an inexpensive and lightweight system to travel safely on the rails. These bamboo trains are pushed by small gasoline engines, and roll on two […]
Brain Implant Lets One Monkey Control Another
February 20th, 2014Via: Live Science: In work inspired partly by the movie “Avatar,” one monkey could control the body of another monkey using thought alone by connecting the brain of the puppet-master monkey to the spine of the other through a prosthesis, researchers say. These findings could help lead to implants that help patients overcome paralysis, scientists […]
Chicago: Predictive Policing Experiments
February 20th, 2014Via: The Verge: When the Chicago Police Department sent one of its commanders to Robert McDaniel’s home last summer, the 22-year-old high school dropout was surprised. Though he lived in a neighborhood well-known for bloodshed on its streets, he hadn’t committed a crime or interacted with a police officer recently. And he didn’t have a […]
Wal-Mart Earnings Miss; Weak Outlook
February 20th, 2014Ahh, the recovery seems to be continuing apace… Via: AP: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. offered a weak profit outlook, signaling that it expects economic pressures to keep weighing on its low-income shoppers around the world. The world’s largest retailer also said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit, which covers the crucial holiday season, dropped 21 percent. Its […]
NSA Will Expand Surveillance—Because of Lawsuits
February 20th, 2014Via: The Hill: The federal government may actually expand the controversial surveillance program that collects Americans’ phone records in a bid to preserve evidence for the multiple lawsuits filed against the National Security Agency, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The decision comes despite President Obama’s instruction in a speech on American surveillance practices last […]
