Inside Amazon’s Very Hot Warehouse
Amazon.com did not create the notion of buying things online, but it has done more than any other retailer to move the experience into the mainstream. It has exceeded its customers’ expectations so often it must constantly struggle to top itself. “At first people were incredulous that the mouse on their computer was connected to their doorbell,” the Amazon executive Russell Grandinetti said recently. “Now they say: ‘It’s been 12 hours. Where’s my stuff?’ ”
All that stuff doesn’t magically fly to your house, even if the goal is to have it seem that way. Continue reading »
Fantastic Chromatic Typewriter
This is modified 1937 Underwood Standard typewriter, created by artist Tyree Callahan. This is fantastic – type as you draw! Please, let Tyree to win, vote for him, – just read his Facebook for details. Continue reading »
Nano Hummingbird
Named one of the “50 Best Inventions of 2011” by TIME Magazine.
AeroVironment is developing the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) under a DARPA sponsored research contract to develop a new class of air vehicle systems capable of indoor and outdoor operation. Employing biological mimicry at an extremely small scale, this unconventional aircraft could someday provide new reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities in urban environments. Continue reading »
Art of Science 2011 Gallery
The Art of Science exhibition explores the interplay between science and art. These practices both involve the pursuit of those moments of discovery when what you perceive suddenly becomes more than the sum of its parts. Each piece in this exhibition is, in its own way, a record of such a moment.
This is the fifth Art of Science competition hosted by Princeton University. The 2011 competition drew 168 submissions from 20 departments. The exhibit includes work by undergraduates, faculty, research staff, graduate students, and alumni.
The 56 works chosen for the 2011 Art of Science exhibition represent this year’s theme of “intelligent design” which we interpret in the broadest sense. These extraordinary images are not art for art’s sake. Rather, they were produced during the course of scientific research. Entries were chosen for their aesthetic excellence as well as scientific or technical interest.
The magnetic field of the Earth has reversed its polarity several hundred times during the past 160 million years. Polarity reversals are known to be strongly irregular and chaotic, and the reversal durations are relatively short (typically a few thousand years) compared with the constant polarity intervals between reversals.
This image shows a simple deterministic model illustrating the geomagnetic reversals. The model is based on the non-linear interaction between two magnetic modes (dipole and quadrupole) and one velocity component of the Earth’s core flow, and the image shows typical trajectories in the 3D phase space. The corresponding strange attractor reproduces irregular reversals between two symmetrical states. (Christophe Gissinger / Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences/ Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory) Continue reading »
T-Brain by Toyota
Toyota Boshoku Corp.’s concept vehicle T-Brain is displayed during the press preview of the Tokyo Motor Show. The show opens to the public this weekend. (AP)
Skeleton Key
This Skeleton Key is a highly versatile precision mini-tool made in the USA by Triple Aught Design from a solid 6AL-4V Titanium billet. There are two variations available – Spanner and E-Key. The Spanner version is specialized for Strider pivots and our E-Key version is for electronic locks that usually require coins to unlock. Both variations are capable of removing a pestering nail or opening a cold drink. This tool will surely become an instrument for every day carry. Continue reading »
iPhone Alarm Dock
That’s no ordinary cell phone you’re using. It’s a space age, multi-tasking, micro-computing, futuristic wonder. But once they’re out of your purse or pocket, too many iPhones become nothing more than fancy paperweights. Continue reading »
The Space Hotel
Like a scene from Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, it looks like there’s a UFO landing in this forest. But far from being an opportunity to meet E.T. or the martians, it’s actually a place to sleep. That’s because the bizarre retro-looking 50s-style flying saucer situated near the town of Harads, Sweden, is actually a HOTEL. (Daily Mail Reporter) Continue reading »
Robot Guards will soon begin Patrolling South Korean Prisons
Robot guards with sensors to detect abnormal behaviour will soon begin patrolling South Korean prisons to ease the burden on their human counterparts. A group of scientists has developed the robot warders which can connect prisoners with officers through a remote conversation function. The robots – 1.5 metres (five feet) high and running on four wheels – will mostly be used at night. The robots’ sensors will enable them to detect abnormalities such as suicidal behaviour and violence and report it to officers in charge. (EPA/YONHAP)
Recycling Grandma’s Replacement Parts
An employee of OrthoMetals separates parts for recycling on a conveyer belt in a warehouse in Zwolle, eastern Netherlands, on Nov. 14. Imperishable body parts are recovered from the ashes of cremated people, and precious metals are also recovered by the crematoria and offered to the family or placed in the urn. (Peter Dejong / AP) Continue reading »
Want to Join the Jet Set? Water-Powered Jetpack Propels Fliers up to 30ft into the Air… but it still Costs $230 a Go
For years their use has been limited to the rich and famous or wealthy James Bond enthusiasts.
But walking on water with a jetpack is now one step closer thanks to a device which uses water from the ocean to propel users across the waves.
The $94,000 Jetlev uses jet stream technology to propel fliers up to 30ft in the air by sucking up water in a huge hose from the ocean and blasting it back out of the pack.
Flying without wings: The Jetlev jetpack propels fliers up to 30ft into the air by sucking up ocean water and powering it back through the pack. (Chris Parsons / Mail Online) Continue reading »
NASA Releases Sharpest Ever Moon Map
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) science team has released the highest resolution near-global topographic map of the Moon ever created. Though the Moon is the Earth’s closest neighbor, yet knowledge of its morphology is still limited. “Due to the limitations of previous missions, a global map of the Moon’s topography at high resolution has not existed until now,” said NASA while releasing the map.
LRO’s Wide Angle Camera and the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument will help scientists portray the shape of the entire Moon at high resolution accurately.
Click image to zoom.
Tiny Critter Becomes a Big Wheel
An extreme close-up of a type of rotifer known as Floscularia ringens has won first prize in the 2011 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition, which showcases photos and movies of life science subjects. The image was the top selection out of more than 2,000 entries in this year’s contest — and it earned the photographer, Charles Krebs, $5,000 worth of Olympus imaging equipment.
NASA: Spectacular Images from Space – Galaxy Encounter, Flooding Thailand, and 12-Billion-Year-Old Stars
This NASA MODIS Rapid Response Team image obtained November 4, 2011 shows dust as it blew over the Gulf of Alaska in early November 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on November 2, 2011. Blowing toward the south-southwest, the dust plume remains discernible for roughly 100 kilometers (60 miles). The dust emerges from the Copper River Valley, which zigzags through the glacier-rich Chugach Mountains. The slow movement of glaciers over bedrock grinds the rock into glacial flour. This fine sediment is easily lofted into the air by winds blowing through mountain valleys. This image also shows swirls of iridescent green in the waters along the shore. The bright green probably results from sediment and phytoplankton. Dust can fertilize phytoplankton, prompting big blooms, but the microscopic organisms also thrive in high-latitude seas especially near coastlines, without dust. (Jeff Schmaltz / NASA via AFP – Getty Images) Continue reading »
Inside Opower’s Arlington Office: A robot, a Scooter and Many, Many Couches
Anybot at rest at Opower‘s Arlington office. (Jeffrey MacMillan / For Capital Business) Continue reading »
The Wizard of Robots
Virginia Tech professor Dennis Hong has made an international name for himself — and Tech — by inventing humanoid robots whose abilities defy imagination.
Hong, director of Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, squares off against CHARLI-2 on the field. Designing a robot that can find and kick a soccer ball is believed to be the ultimate challenge in robot design. (Dustin Fenstermacher / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) Continue reading »
iPad2 Halloween Costume
A description of a relatively simple Halloween costume using 2 iPad2s to make it look like you have a huge hole in your torso. You’ll also need a MiFi hotspot (if you don’t have a WiFi network available where you want to use the costume). Basically you start a FaceTime chat between the iPads and then tape one to your front and one to your back. Add a little red paint and you’re good to go. It’s supposed to look like you have a gaping hole in your torso. If you spend more time than I did on the blood and the flesh part and lining up the iPads it could look pretty cool.
The Other Me
Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro (right) sits next to the Geminoid HI-2 robot, a tele-operated robot that looks exactly like himself in Kyoto, Japan. Ishiguro is director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University. (Barcroft Media)
NASA Turns to Exploring Our Planet With a New 3D Map
Mount Whitney, California; The 3D map is produced from images taken by the ASTER camera aboard Nasa’s Terra spacecraft. The 3D effect is created by taking ‘stereo pairs’ of two slightly offset images. Continue reading »
World’s Most Expensive Campervan Up For Sale
The Marchi Mobile EleMMent Palazzo is the world’s most expensive motorhome, up for sale with a price tag of $3 000 000. Continue reading »
eBay And Jonathan Adler Launch The Inspiration Shop In NYC
A general view of the eBay and Jonathan Adler Inspiration Shop on Park Avenue on October 20, 2011 in New York City. (Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images North America) Continue reading »
Robotic Exoskeletons Help The Paralyzed Walk Again
Engineer Thomas Dwyer exhibits the new Bionic Exoskeleton with Amanda Boxtel, who is paralyzed, during its launch at the Excel Centre in London. The bionic device developed by Ekso Bionics is a wearable, battery-powered, robotic exoskeleton, designed to aid wheelchair users and those who have suffered from spinal chord injuries to stand and walk. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Continue reading »
Steve Jobs iPhone 4 Hard Case Covers on Sale. WTF?
iPhone 4 hard case cover with portrait of Steve Jobs are on sale on October 9, 2011 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province of China. (ChinaOut) Continue reading »
A Piano Playing Robot
The world’s fastest piano player has been unveiled – a robot with nineteen fingers. The robot – called Teotronico – has nineteen digits because it is the exact number needed to play any melody or song. Teotronico’s robotic hand technology enables him to play the piano faster than any human possibly could. He can also distinguish between the speed of key change as well as play a drum machine and sing – the only robot in the world who can do all those things at the same time. (Paul Andrews / PacificCoastNews) Continue reading »
Police Find Semi-Submersible Watercraft Intended for Cocaine Smuggling in Colombia
Police officers walk next to a seized homemade fiberglass semi-submersible during a presentation to the press in Puerto Escondido, Colombia, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011. According to police, the semi-submersible was seized from drug traffickers during an operation in Puerto Escondido Monday. (William Fernando Martinez / AP) Continue reading »
