Archive for August, 2014
DARPA Uses Preteen Gamers to Beta Test Tomorrow’s Military Software
August 15th, 2014Via: Vice: Sieg Hall doesn’t look like much from the outside. Located at the University of Washington, the building was constructed in the 1960s, when it was a focal point for Vietnam-era antiwar protests. Before renovations were carried out it had become so dilapidated that students had a tradition of taking home chunks of rock […]
The Kilobot Project: A Low Cost Scalable Robot System for Demonstrating Collective Behaviors
August 15th, 2014Here’s one for your This-Will-End-Badly file folder. Via: Harvard: In current robotics research there is a vast body of work on algorithms and control methods for groups of decentralized cooperating robots, called a swarm or collective. These algorithms are generally meant to control collectives of hundreds or even thousands of robots; however, for reasons of […]
Biological Effects of Fukushima Radiation on Plants, Insects, and Animals
August 15th, 2014Via: PhysOrg: Following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown, biological samples were obtained only after extensive delays, limiting the information that could be gained about the impacts of that historic disaster. Determined not to repeat the shortcomings of the Chernobyl studies, scientists began gathering biological information only a few months after the disastrous meltdown […]
Only 11 Countries in the World Are Free from Conflict
August 15th, 2014Via: Independent: With the crisis in Gaza, the rise of Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria and the international stand-off ongoing in Ukraine, it can sometimes feel like the whole world is at war. But experts believe this is actually almost universally the case, according to a think-tank which produces one of the world’s leading […]
Humans Need Not Apply
August 14th, 2014Via: CGP Grey: Research Credit: P7y845W4
Ferguson: Molotov Cocktails, Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets
August 14th, 2014This thing doesn’t seem to be going away. Via: Guardian: Heavily armed police in Missouri fired teargas and rubber bullets to force hundreds of protesters out of the centre of Ferguson on Wednesday, as the crackdown on demonstrations over the killing of an unarmed 18-year-old intensified on their fourth night. Dozens of officers, some carrying […]
Facebook to Track Users Across Devices to Study Shopping Habits
August 14th, 2014In other news, resolution of Google satellite imagery could soon double. Via: Bloomberg: Facebook Inc. (FB) will let advertisers know where a promotion was first viewed and when it led to a purchase by tracking users between their electronic devices, a tool that may reignite privacy concerns. Marketers will be able to see the number […]
Could Hemp Nanosheets Topple Graphene for Making the Ideal Supercapacitor?
August 13th, 2014Via: American Chemical Society: As hemp makes a comeback in the U.S. after a decades-long ban on its cultivation, scientists are reporting that fibers from the plant can pack as much energy and power as graphene, long-touted as the model material for supercapacitors. They’re presenting their research, which a Canadian start-up company is working on […]
MonsterMind: NSA’s Cyberwar Bot
August 13th, 2014Via: Wired: Edward Snowden has made us painfully aware of the government’s sweeping surveillance programs over the last year. But a new program, currently being developed at the NSA, suggests that surveillance may fuel the government’s cyber defense capabilities, too. The NSA whistleblower says the agency is developing a cyber defense system that would instantly […]
Using a Tactic Unseen in a Century, Countries Cordon Off Ebola-Racked Areas
August 13th, 2014Via: New York Times: The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is so out of control that governments there have revived a disease-fighting tactic not used in nearly a century: the “cordon sanitaire,” in which a line is drawn around the infected area and no one is allowed out. Cordons, common in the medieval era of […]
