Link Round-Up: Year End 2012

New Year's Eve atop One Times Square by Anthony Quintano

Internet:

• The 10 most popular Reddit posts of 2012
• The 10 Most Popular Google Doodles of 2012.
• The 54 Best Tumblrs Started In 2012.
• The Best New and Short Webcomics of 2012
• The Funniest Law Blogs of 2012.
• List Of The Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Greg Rutter does it again with his “Definitive List Of The Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet In 2012 Unless You’re A Loser His other two previous lists can be found here and here. Always an entertaining way to burn an afternoon or two. 

Link Round-Up: December 28, 2012

10 Tricks to Make the Lazy Cook’s Food Taste Better

I don't know why this is filed under humor, because it's brilliant: How to Hack Chipotle!

Jewel in the Night is the first song recorded on the International Space Station. Colonel Chris Hadfield's companions in space are both also musicians.


Piñata cupcakes at La Receta de la Felicidad.

For Zelda Day, some points of interest regarding Zelda II, the black sheep of the Legend of Zelda series of video games:

• Here is a remake of the beginning of Zelda II (including the first dungeon) in 3D. Requires Unity.
• The Cutting Room Floor notes there were a lot of changes between the Japanese Famicom floppy disk and US ROM versions of Zelda II.
• Here is a no-glitch, no-tool-assisted playthrough speed run of the game, skipping several key items, finished in 1:05.44.
• There is a notable glitch in the game, where the Fairy spell can easily be used to warp to other places anywhere you can jump off screen or there's an elevator. A lot of people don't know the Fairy spell can also be used to pass through locked doors.
• A bit of engrish in the game's translation, "I AM ERROR," gave rise to a minor meme.
• The site www.secrettoeverybody.com provides images and quotes from across the first four games, including the above and the game's weird ending message.

Video Distraction: Cat Scared Mario Jump

Cat Scared of Mario Jump

Via: Cheezburger (of course)

Tech Links: December 28, 2012

The Art of Everything by Michael B. Myers Jr.

There’s a whole lot of shit Rocket Science ain’t, but thanks to this informative Venn Diagram I’ve learned that actual Rocket Science suggests real rocket ships and I’m assuming science is involved too somehow.

Business

Big Questions Hang Over Yahoo at CES: Mayer set to get some of her first face time with major digital agencies

The master map of all game companies and their connections

Lecture: Holland vs the Netherlands

The Difference Between The Netherlands and Holland

Photo: Lujiazui Pedestrian Bridge

Lujiazui Pedestrian Bridge

Situated 20 feet above the street, the foot bridge has multiple entrance and exit ways to connect offices and other buildings. Beautifully designed, the bridge has become a popular tourist attraction in China. It’s always something special when form meats function in a beautiful way.

Link Round-Up: Christmas 2012

5 Life-Saving Techniques for Surviving a Garden Gnome Attack During the Holidays. With a book giveaway!

8 Truly Strange Christmas Customs and 7 Strange Christmas Traditions. Maybe you'd like to include these in your holiday festivities!


10 Fascinating Facts About Christmas

The 19 Best Secular Christmas Songs

25 cats in, on and under Christmas trees

Amazing Perth Christmas Lights 2012 "Gangnam Style"

Great Design: Rolls-Royce Coupe

Rolls-Royce Jonckheere Aerodynamic Coupe II Concept by Ugur Sahin Design

  

Link Round-Up: December 21, 2012

Via: Reddit

5 Things You Should Make Instead of Buy

27 Everyday Things You Never Knew Had Names. Next time you’re at a coffee shop, ask for a Zarf.

How to Survive Being Homeless. Not fun to think about, but it can happen to anyone.

List Of The Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Greg Rutter does it again with his “Definitive List Of The Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet In 2012 Unless You’re A Loser His other two previous lists can be found here and here. Always an entertaining way to burn an afternoon or two.

Things From Thomas More's Utopia That Have Come True Today

This biodegradable urn turns into a tree after you die.

Lecture: The Chemistry of Snowflakes

The Chemistry of Snowflakes by BytesizeScience

The shape of a snowflake is due to the changing condition of the air through which it falls. Who knew?

Featured Site: The Internet Map

The Internet Map is a bi-dimensional presentation of links between websites on the Internet. Every site is a circle on the map, and its size is determined by website traffic, the larger the amount of traffic, the bigger the circle. Users’ switching between websites forms links, and the stronger the link, the closer the websites tend to arrange themselves to each other.

It encompasses over 350 thousand websites from 196 countries and all domain zones. Information about more than 2 million links between the websites has joined some of them together into topical clusters.

Lecture: The Internet will Transform Government

How the Internet will (one day) transform government

In this TED talk, Clay Shirky explains  how democracies can take a lesson from the Internet both in terms of transparency as well as in drawing upon the knowledge of their citizens.  Shirky argues that the history of the modern world could be rendered as the history of ways of arguing, where changes in media change what sort of arguments are possible — with deep social and political implications.

Photo: Nature’s Night Light

Nature’s Night Light

Sometimes known as the sea-firefly, Vargula hilgendorfii is a species of ostracod crustacean that only inhabits coastal waters off Japan. It is a nocturnal creature that rarely grows longer than 3 millimetres, with a beautiful transparent shell—but it’s best known for its bioluminescence. When disturbed, it secretes a luminous blue substance through a process similar to many other bioluminescent creatures: a chemical reaction of the substrate luciferin and the enzyme luciferase. The maximum wavelength of its light depends on the pH and the salinity of the water, and varies between 448 and 463 nanometres—meaning that the light is coloured various shades of blue. In World War II, the Japanese collected these creatures and crushed them in sand and water to produce their blue luminescence, which ingeniously served as light for soldiers to read maps and messages at night.

Chirstmas Link Round-Up: December 17, 2012

Chemistree, a Christmas tree made out of chemistry lab equipment.
Photographed at the Avans University of Applied Sciences
Via: Reddit via Neatorama

25 Amazing Gingerbread Houses. They're all technically houses, but that's all they have in common.

After many years of installing a cut Christmas tree in the main public square of Brussels, Belgium, the tree this year is artificial, abstract, and electronic. Not all of the locals are pleased.

The Bacon Lovers Gift Guide.

Beautiful Buildings Made from Ice and Snow. They don't last long, but for a short time they are pure magic.

The History of Christmas Carols. No other holiday has enough music to run radio stations 24/7 for a month.

A London chef is preparing the world's most expensive Christmas dinner. The complete feast for four will cost $200,450, and doesn't sound all that appetizing.

Molecular Genetic Analysis of a Christmas Carol.

Thinking about buying a Christmas Stand? Appartment Therapy has a nifty guide.

The Traditional Christmas Peppermint Pig. Hit it with a hammer!

Tech Links: December 14, 2012

Science is interesting

Business

7 Habits of Web-Savvy Entrepreneurs

The first 20 employees at Google and what they’re doing now.

Entertainment

10 Geeks You Should Know

Featured Site: Exobrain

Atlas Obscura is your guide to the world’s most curious places. In an age where everything has already been explored and there seems to be nothing new to be discovered, the Atlas celebrates a different way of looking at the world. If you’re searching for miniature cities, glass flowers, books bound in human skin, gigantic flaming holes in the ground, bone churches, balancing pagodas, or homes built entirely out of paper, the Atlas Obscura is where you’ll find them. The Atlas is curated by Joshua Foer.

Recipe: Elven Lembas Bread

Elven Lembas Bread

• ¼ Cup Sour Cream
• ¼ Cup Lemon Juice
• ½ Cup honey 
• 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour (or whole wheat for healthier version)
• Zest of 2 Lemons
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 Stick of Cold Butter (4 oz)

Video Distraction: Mech Bass

MechBass

Via: Hack A Day

James McVay put together this automated bass player for an engineering honors project at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Watch it play the Muse song "Hysteria."

Link Round-Up: December 13, 2012

Furby Warning

Turns out Furbies are modeled after the Mogwai from Chinatown, and if you get them wet or let them eat past midnight, you'd best be ready for shit to get real.

25 Amazing Gingerbread Houses. They're all technically houses, but that's about all they have in common.

Candied salted bacon "We want to warn you ahead of time that it will take all of your strength to not eat the entire pan before it all cools. It's just as tasty cold mind you, but while warm it's a perfect food that will take you away to your happy place. If you claim to not have a happy place, the warm candied, salted bacon will provide one for you." Now what else can we do with it? Bite-sized Bacon Caramels and Candied Bacon Fudge perhaps? (Not to be confused with Bacon Caramels and Bacon Caramel Fudge).

The History of Christmas Carols. No other holiday has enough music to run radio stations 24/7 for a month.

Molecular Genetic Analysis of a Christmas Carol. 


NASA has released an updated set of Earth at Night images, obtained via the Suomi NPP satellite's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). A set of images is available on Flickr. Hemispherical shots are also available for Americas - Africa and Europe - Asia and Australia (be sure to check out the wildfires throughout the Western Australian Desert). Official NASA Release includes animated rotating earth and further explanations.

This is a video of a game which replicates Portal's physics system in 2 dimensions on the TI-83 graphic calculator. The game was developed by a 20 year old student studying game design. A download link is available here.

Tech Links: December 13, 2012

Policy Advisory

Business

Inside An Amazon Warehouse

Tim Cook's Freshman Year: The Apple CEO Speaks Prior to his death on Oct. 5, 2011, Steve Jobs made sure that the elevation of Tim Cook—his longtime head of operations and trusted deputy—to Apple chief executive officer would be drama-free. “He goes, ‘I never want you to ask what I would have done,’” recalls Cook. “‘Just do what’s right.’ He was very clear.”

Video: An Animated History of Nintendo

Paris designers Anthony Veloso and Quentin Dron of Retro Game Addict created this great animated Nintendo History timeline that takes us on an artistic journey from the Game & Watch handheld (1980) to the Wii U (2012).

Lecture: Can Science Save Us?

Can science save us? from UniversityOfBristol

An intriguing question and discussion from University of Bristol scientists. Mankind has utilized science and technology to both aid and hinder life on Earth. And in many areas, from poverty to climate change, we have the opportunity to make a real difference using the knowledge stored inside our collective brains.

Video: An Animated History of the iPhone

CNET UK created this wondeful animated history of the iPhone dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs.

The iPhone might be at the cutting edge of technology but it took a long time and many innovations to get there, take a trip through history and explore the people and technology that contributed to the iPhone becoming what it is today.

Photo: Penumbral Lunar Eclipse over Baku

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse over Baku

A total penumbral eclipse is a lunar eclipse occurs when the moon becomes completely immersed in the penumbral cone of the Earth without touching the umbra. The umbra, penumbra and antumbra are the names given to three distinct parts of a shadow, created by any light source. For a point source only the umbra is cast.

Science: China to grow vegetables on Mars

China prepares to grow vegetables on Mars:

"Chinese astronauts are preparing to grow fresh vegetables on Mars and the moon after researchers successfully completed a preliminary test in Beijing, state media reported.

Four kinds of vegetables were grown in an “ecological life support system”, a 300 cubic metre cabin which will allow astronauts to develop their own stocks of air, water and food while on space missions, Xinhua news agency said Monday.

The system, which relies on plants and algae, is “expected to be used in extra-terrestrial bases on the moon or Mars”, the report said.

Participants in the experiment could “harvest fresh vegetables for meals”, Xinhua quoted Deng Yibing, a researcher at Beijing’s Chinese Astronaut Research and Training Centre, as saying.

Humor: Look at this Instagram

Look at this Instagram (Nickelback Parody)

Video Distraction: Fall Time-Lapse

Fall from Jamie Scott

"One of the most striking things about New York City is the fall colors and there's no better place to view this then Central Park. I chose 15 locations in the park and revisited them 2 days a week for six months, recording all camera positions and lens information to create consistency in the images. All shots were taken just after sunrise."

Link Round-Up: December 6, 2012

Free Antistress Art by Fra Biancoshock

Discussion: Should Science Majors Pay Less for College Than Art Majors?

Infographic: NASA's Mighty Saturn V Moon Rocket Explained

Felix Salmon on why pumpkin is the new bacon. The weird thing about pumpkin’s rise to baconlike ubiquity is that pumpkin, on its own, is not a very appetizing food at all. A dense and stringy fruit, it needs the accompaniment of a lot of sugar and spices before it becomes particularly palatable.

Gentlemen with bowler hats on beaches

Strange, Beautiful and Unexpected: Planned Cities Seen From Space

Take a tour of the Chicago Loop and discover its beautiful architecture.
 
 You Built What?!: A Tesla Coil Gun That Produces Foot-Long Sparks

Video Distraction: Spider Web Weaving

Timelapse: une araignée tisse sa toile from Jean-Michel

A spider making his web. 1h30 shooting, one picture every four seconds. Shot with Nikon D4 and timelapse function...

Lecture: The Power of Outrospection

RSA Animate - The Power of Outrospection

Introspection is out, and outrospection is in. Philosopher and author Roman Krznaric explains how we can help drive social change by stepping outside ourselves.

The RSA is a 258 year-old charity devoted to creating social progress and spreading world-changing ideas. For more information about our research, RSA Animates, free events programme and 27,000 strong fellowship, visit thersa.org

Link Round-Up: December 5, 2012

The Starbucks is closed, but the Wifi is working.

  

Infographic: Solar Eclipses: An Observer's Guide

Video: Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney. Epic Rap Battles Of History

100,000 Stars is a new experiment for Chrome web browsers (or any other WebGL browser like Firefox or Safari) that lets you interactively explore the Milky Way galaxy with your mouse and scroll wheel.


How to Choose the Perfect Board Game

Ph.D. students explain their research using interpretive dance, results are awesome

Unemployed? Why spend a year at Disneyland? A Guy, A Girl, And 366 Straight Days At Disneyland.

Wired tells the story of an old encoded manuscript, the effort to crack it, and the secret occult society that it revealed.

Tech Links: December 5, 2012

Business

Maybe Don’t Tweet About Your Insider Trading Because the FBI Is Watching

Entertainment

Simple Desks: A frequently updated collection of beautifully minimal desks and workspaces, interspersed with occasional musings on minimalism, productivity, design and technology

Photo: Absolute Towers

"Absolute Towers" by Roland Shainidze

Mississauga, Ontario

Video Distraction: Landings at an Airport

Landings at San Diego Int Airport Nov 23, 2012 from Cy Kuckenbaker

All landings at San Diego Int Airport on Black Friday Nov 23, 2012 between 10:30am and 3:00pm

Video Distraction: Further Up Yonder

"Further Up Yonder" by Giacomo Sardelli

"I wanted to use pictures taken from the International Space Station to tell a story and share the message sent by the astronauts who worked on the station in the last 11 years.

They are working to open a Gateway to Space for all humankind, but people on Earth must understand that they have to get rid of the concept of borders on our planet if they want to follow the astronauts to new worlds in outer space. While the cosmonauts speak a day passes on Earth, from dawn to sunset, until the Gateway opens with a burst of light. The ISS then gains speed and goes faster and faster, the astronauts are leaving our planet which they see spinning faster and faster, merging earth, oceans and people together, ready to follow them, Further Up Yonder."

Photo: Decay

"Decay" by Matthias Haker

Tech Links: November 23, 2012

Billionaires' Basements: the luxury bunkers making holes in London streets. A new billionaires’ craze for building elaborate subterranean extensions is making swiss cheese of London’s poshest streets – but at what cost?

Entertainment

Every Gesture Used to Beat Angry Birds Visualized on Paper

Instant Google Street View. Type something (slowly) and teleport around the world.

Nuclear Power Plant Simulation Game

Taliban accidentally CCs everybody on its mailing list

Internet

Google and Bing autocomplete what they think they know what you're thinking. Sometimes they get it wrong. "People who study online behavior also say the autocomplete feature reveals broader patterns, including indications that the questions people ask of search engines often veer into the sensitive and politically incorrect." There's even a Tumblr devoted to Google Poetics.

In an attempt to make itself less desirable to copyright infringers, starting November 27, RapidShare will begin capping non-paying users at 1 gigabyte of outbound downloads per day. (Paying users will have 30 gigabytes.) Meanwhile, controversial Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is planning a January debut for his new Mega service - which plans to insure itself against litigation by having all hosted material encrypted by the uploader's browser before transmission.

What does proper authorization to access a computer system mean? Robert Graham of Errata Security writes about the recent conviction of Andrew Auernheimer (aka weev) for “hacking” AT&T. Two years ago, weev discovered a bug in AT&T's website that exposed the email addresses of customers with iPads. According to weev, the flaw was reported as per responsible disclosure practices by first informing AT&T before bringing it public. However the FBI investigated and arrested him under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). On 20th November 2012, he was found guilty of identity fraud and conspiracy to access a computer without authorization.

Reading & Discussion

Mr. Fix-It: The engineering mentality

What does proper authorization to access a computer system mean? Robert Graham of Errata Security writes about the recent conviction of Andrew Auernheimer (aka weev) for “hacking” AT&T. Two years ago, weev discovered a bug in AT&T's website that exposed the email addresses of customers with iPads. According to weev, the flaw was reported as per responsible disclosure practices by first informing AT&T before bringing it public. However the FBI investigated and arrested him under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). On 20th November 2012, he was found guilty of identity fraud and conspiracy to access a computer without authorization.

Resources & Utilities

Responsify is a browser based tool, which allows you to create your own responsive template. Think of it as a foundation for you to build upon. You can customise the grid to suit your content, rather than trying to make the content fit the grid.

Science

David Brin points to Asteroid belts at just the right place are friendly to life -November 6, 2012 , saying "This combination is calculated to be rare, in perhaps just 4% of solar systems. That rarity offers yet one more new, rather daunting candidate for the Fermi Paradox."

XKCD explains explains the major parts of the Saturn V rocket.

Software

The Frightening Things You Hear at a Black Hat Conference

Technology

Five years ago today Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.com released the Amazon Kindle, a move that would revolutionize the publishing industry. While often controversial, most recently for its international tax avoidance schemes, Amazon has been very successful and has made millions for its founder. What has Bezos done with some of his tax-free millions? Well for one, he launched and landed a rocket vertically.

Video Distraction: World's Biggest Pile Of Leaves

World's Biggest Pile Of Leaves

17 feet tall. 60 feet around. Over 1,000 bags and 1 BIG JUMP!

Photo: Rare Fire Rainbows

Rare Fire Rainbows: It looks like a rainbow on fire but these circumhorizontal arcs aren’t rainbows. They are caused by light passing through high-altitude cirrus clouds. The sun has to hit the clouds at precisely 58 degrees and have just enough crystals in order to form in the sky.

Video Distraction: China Time-Lapse

Guangzhou'2012

Photo: Trains Photos

Trains Photos by Zong Qin

Art: The Litter Bug

"The Litter Bug" by Mark Oliver

"Arthropod sub-species of the Insecta class. A creature whose instinctual and physical qualities have adapted so uniquely to the modern urban environment that it has rendered itself, by nature of camouflage, virtually invisible in it’s normal habitat.

When seen in isolation ‘Litter Bugs’ appear to be composed of everyday ‘found’ objects."

Tech Links: November 16, 2012

The history of the scroll bar

This graphic shows the evolution of the scrollbar from Xerox Star (1981) to OS X Lion (2011).

Business

Are ‘second-hand e-books’ possible?

Taxing Amazon: An investigation

What's It Like To Work For Tim Cook? A Former Apple Sales Exec Dishes

Entertainment

Writing Poems With Google

Gadgets

"The Surface's Keyboard Cover Is Literally Coming Apart at the Seams."  (Hard to believe, coming from the company that invented the red ring of death.)

Reading & Discussion

How a Robot Will Steal Your Job

I Am A Terrible Programmer. Some words of wisdom from Dan Shipper: "Like most things in life, the answer to what a good coder is, is somewhere in between the guy who wants to get it out fast and the guy who wants to make it beautiful."

No one disputes that the information age raises serious concerns where our civil liberties are concerned, but the ACLU takes paranoia to new heights when it imagines what it might be like to Order Pizza in the future.

Resources & Utilities

Sanebox Is Priority Inbox for Gmail Done Awesome

Tutorials

How to Commit Internet Suicide and Disappear from the Web Forever

How to: sell your old gadgets online

Two guides to actually keeping online communications secret.

Lecture: To Live Forever - or Die Trying

TEDxManitoba - Robert J. Sawyer: To Live Forever - or Die Trying

Photo: Space Project

"Space Project" by Vincent Fournier
Photographed at various international space centers.

Lecture: What’s Missing from High School Physics

Open Letter to the President: Physics Education

Physics forms the backbone of our understanding of the universe, but our high school physics curriculum are more than a little lacking when it comes to things from the past 150 years.

Photography: European Southern Observatory

Check out Wired’s gallery In focus: European Southern Observatory celebrates 50-year anniversary for some amazing images from one of the world’s leading astronomical institutions.

Video Distraction: Watch Our Story In One Minute

Watch Our Story In One Minute, a mesmerizing tapestry of footage tracing the cosmic and biological origins of our species, all sewn together to the sounds of original music by MelodySheep.

Gadgets: Bat Hangers

Bat Hangers by Veronika Paluchova

Photo: Last Launch

The Sweet Escape by Richard Silvera

Merchandise: Headphone Splitter

Robot Headphone Splitter

 Price: US$16

A robot can be an especially helpful fellow. This little silver guy wants to facilitate the GROOVE in your friendship and love. Turn up the jams and share music with a friend thanks to his mad earphone splitting skills. Compatible with any standard device with a 3.5 mm headphone socket such as MP3 players, PDAs and computers. Eyes of the robot are the headphone sockets. Includes key chain attachment for on-the-go. 1.5"

Snippet

“Either way, it would mean that the Universe is fundamentally nonlocal, in the sense that every bit of the Universe can be connected to any other bit anywhere, instantly. That such connections are possible defies our everyday intuition and represents another extreme solution, but arguably preferable to faster-than-light communication. “Our result gives weight to the idea that quantum correlations somehow arise from outside spacetime, in the sense that no story in space and time can describe them.” 

—	Researchers look beyond space and time to cope with quantum theory, Physorg, Oct 28, 2012

Tech: A biology-friendly robot programming language

A biology-friendly robot programming language:

For researchers in the biological sciences, however, the future training of robots has been made much easier thanks to a new program called “PaR-PaR” (Programming a Robot). Nathan Hillson, a biochemist at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), led the development of PaR-PaR, a simple high-level, biology-friendly, robot-programming language that allows researchers to make better use of liquid-handling robots and thereby make possible experiments that otherwise might not have been considered. “The syntax and compiler for PaR-PaR are based on computer science principles and a deep understanding of biological workflows,” Hillson says. “After minimal training, a biologist should be able to independently write complicated protocols for a robot within an hour. With the adoption of PaR-PaR as a standard cross-platform language, hand-written or software-generated robotic protocols could easily be shared across laboratories.”

Source: Kurzweil

Great Design: Room in a Box

  

Save The Food From The Fridge by Jihyun Ryou

“Observing the food and therefore changing the notion of food preservation, we could find the answer to current situations such as the overuse of energy and food wastage. My design is a tool to implement that knowledge in a tangible way and slowly it changes the bigger picture of society. I believe that once people are given a tool that triggers their minds and requires a mental effort to use it, new traditions and new rituals can be introduced into our culture.”

Architecture: Floating Observation Deck

Architecture firm SOM has proposed adding a floating observation deck that slides up and down the sides of two new skyscrapers. The moving deck is one of several public realm strategies that the firm is promoting for the 100-year-old station, following an invitation from the Municipal Art Society of New York to re-think the spaces in and around the building. SOM suggests that the hovering deck would improve the quality of the public space around the building by offering an “iconic landmark” with a 360-degree panorama of the city skyline.

Architecture: Dubai International Airport

Dubai International Airport Terminal 3

Garhoud, United Arab Emirates

Photographer: Alisdair Miller

Tech: Feds Stay Ahead of the Robo-Car

Feds Try to Stay Ahead of the Rise of the Robo-Car:

"Google and several automakers are creating a future in which we’ll cede control and let the robot drive. It’s a brave new autonomous world, with Google having logged over 300,000 miles in its fleet of autonomous hybrids, and Audi, BMW and General Motors all racing to bringing the technology to market. But with great changes comes greater regulation, and after recent legislation making autonomous cars legal in California, Nevada and Florida, federal regulators are attempting to stay ahead of the rapid rise of the robo-car. 

At a forum in Washington, D.C., NHTSA Administrator David Strickland laid out the agency’s wide-ranging and far-reaching intentions to implement testing and ultimately draft rules for autonomous vehicles. And at an event in Detroit last week, NHTSA’s director of crash avoidance and electronic controls research, Tim Johnson, announced that the agency will conduct a two- to three-year, $1.75 million research project in conjunction with Virginia Tech to study the real-world implications of autonomous vehicle technology."

Source: Wired.com

Infographic: Greek Myth Family Spiral

A family tree diagram of the entire Greek mythology

Tech Links: October 19, 2012

China “Apple Store” is Being Real Honest

Business

Hunting season is now open on software patents, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Stack Exchange and Google are teaming up to make it easy for geeks to shoot down overbroad and ridiculous patents. Thanks to a change in patent law that went into effect this month, third parties who think a patent application is flimsy or invalid due to previous art or obviousness can now file evidence and comments to the USPTO, starting Thursday morning. Previously, it was illegal for the USPTO to take outside parties comments into account when evaluating a patent application.

Verizon draws fire for monitoring app usage, browsing habits: Verizon Wireless has begun selling information about its customers' geographical locations, app usage, and Web browsing activities. The company this month began offering reports to marketers showing what Verizon subscribers are doing on their phones and other mobile devices, including what iOS and Android apps are in use in which locations.

Video Distraction: City Rising

"City Rising" by Tom Ryaboi

Video Distraction: ISS Startrails

ISS Startrails - TRONized from Christoph Malin

"This Video was achived by "stacking" image sequences provided by NASA from the Crew at International Space Station. These "stacks" create the Star Trails, but furthermore make interesting patterns visible. For example lightning corridors within clouds, but they also show occasional satellite tracks (or Iridium Flashes) as well as meteors - patterns that interrupt the main Star Trails, and thus are immediately visible.

The many oversaturated hot pixels in some of the scenes are the inevitable result of high ISO settings the Nikon D3s in ISS-use are pushed to for keeping exposure times short (owed to the dramatic speed the ISS travels). As there are no dark frames or RAW data currently available, hot pixels are not easy to remove.

Thanks a lot to my favourite bad Astronomer, Phil at BadAstronomy for first posting the film.

Finally, please also be aware of Light Pollution one can see in many of these scenes! In the US join darksky.org for preserving the night skies for our children!!"

Lecture: The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics

Serge Haroche and David Wineland were awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday. They share the prize for independently developing methods to study particles of light…without destroying that light, which is usually what happens when it is observed. (For the record, other particles are relevant as well, but let’s just keep it simple and suggest that we’re talking about photons.) Their invention is clever and interesting, but can be hard to grok for the non-scientist.

Tech: Live2D

Live2D - Interactive 3D animation of 2D images

Live2D, developed by Cybernoids, is the world’s first drawing technology to enable 3D rendering of 2D images. This technology supports a variety of portable consoles and smartphones, and Live2D is already being utilized for games that take advantage of the unique characteristics of hand drawn artwork.

“In 3D, the unique attractions of 2D art like Osamu Tezuka’s can’t be rendered properly. But with Live2D, we’ve worked to enable smooth 3D motion using entirely the original 2D drawings. So, this system makes the graphics appear exactly as the creator intended.”

“When the face turns sideways, you can show perfectly how the eyelashes and eyes move. You can also use the tools to work more easily and efficiently. This can be done in all kinds of ways, with all kinds of emphasis, depending on what the creator wants to do. This technology is an extension of drawing, so it works best if the creator has a good artistic sense.”

Source: diginfo.tv

Architecture: Namaste Tower

Namaste Tower

Mumbai, India is about to unveil a gorgeous new skyscraper to the world. Designed by Atkins Design Studio for W Hotel, the Namaste Tower aims to become a landmark structure, representing the burgeoning economic and cultural significance of India. The 62-story, 984-sq-ft tall building, which is currently under construction, will include a hotel, office and retail space. The traditional Indian greeting of “Namaste,” where the hands are clasped together, is the inspiration for the design of the tower. In Sanskrit “Namaste” means I bow to you.” It has a spiritual significance of negating one’s ego in the presence of another.

Lecture: Can We Have Brain-to-Brain Communication?

Can We Have Brain-to-Brain Communication

Some people think that the next big innovation in the coming decades is not going to involve the Internet because we can actually connect computers to the human mind. Therefore, Michio Kaku says this brain-to-brain communication would involve not just the exchange of information, but also the transmission of emotions and feelings, "because these are also part of the fabric of our thoughts."

Architecture: Radisson Blu Hotel

Radisson Blu Hotel, Berlin

At first glance this may look like just another luxury hotel but once you enter it, you’ll discover the worlds largest cylindrical aquarium. 82-feet high in the heart of the hotel’s lobby atrium the AquaDom holds one million liters of saltwater and is home to many species of tropical fish. The AquaDom is maintained by the Sea Life Berlin, which is located right next to the hotel. Sea Life Berlin houses 30 freshwater and saltwater tanks, which are home to thousands of sea dwellers.

Gadgets: Lockitron

Lockitron - Let Your Friends in from Anywhere

Lockitron installs in seconds over your current lock. It's incredibly easy to invite family, friends and guests to your Lockitron. Lockitron is compatible with any smartphone thanks to our mobile website. Older phones can use Lockitron through simple text message commands.

Gadgets: Working NES Zapper

NES Zapper Modded into Working Laser Gun

The geniuses over at North Street Labs have made the dreams and wishes of gamers real by turning an old NES Zapper light gun into a working dangerous laser gun.  The gun was modded to fit a 2W+ blue laser that could fit your needs for popping balloons, providing a useful tool for a meeting / presentation or even burning a hole in pesky dogs that attempt to mock your duck hunting skills.