During a recent trip to Hay-on-Wye — a magical small town with around 30 new and used bookshops — I picked up two 1970s books by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace, the kings of trivia lists. The two volumes of The People’s Alamanac are billed as “the first reference book ever prepared to be read for […]
First the Kindle brand, then the new Kindle Fire TV, and now…a smartphone! Amazon is rumored to be releasing a new smartphone by the end of June. Seattle and San Francisco have reportedly been shown demo versions by the company. Features include a screen that appears to be three-dimensional without special eyeglasses, similar to a […]
An MIT student is working on a way for unmanned drones to recharge their power supply by perching on power lines like a bird. Joseph Moore may have to get his skates on if he wants to make something of the idea however: it’s recently emerged that the Air Force Institute of Technology is working […]
The pattern of veins in the human hand is unique to everyone on Earth — like fingerprints — except it can’t be forged. Fredrik Leifland realized this, and while studying engineering at Lund University in Sweden a few years ago, “he got the idea to use vein-scanning for point-of-sale payments,” according to PC Magazine. His […]
The man who revolutionized the way hard drives work has been awarded the Millennium Technology Prize, an honor awarded only every second year. Stuart Parkin received the prize of one million euros (approximately US$1.39 million) from Technology Academy Finland, a partnership of industry and government in the country. It’s sometimes described as the tech equivalent […]
Amazon has released a new Roku-slash-Apple TV-like product. Here’s Gary Busey with more. http://youtu.be/HHoNQrxG_8M [Amazon Fire TV / Source: YouTube]
Doctors in the Netherlands at University Medical Center Utrecht say they have successfully implanted a 3D-printed skull into a young woman. The 23-hour surgery occurred three months ago, according to NBC News, but details are just being released, as the woman, 22, is recovering extremely well. While her name has not been released, she apparently […]
Captain Raymond “Jerry” Roberts, the last survivor of the team that cracked a German encryption during the second world war, has died aged 93. Roberts didn’t work on cracking Enigma, arguably the better-known of the German encryptions. Instead his work at the top secret Bletchley Park center in England was based around cracking the Lorenz […]
Venture capitalists have invested £3 million (around US$4.8 million) in a business that uses a wireless-connected collar to tell when cows are in heat. Keeping track on when individual cows are in oestrus (heat) can be a complex affair with large herds. Mistakenly think a cow is in heat and you not only waste efforts […]
Now that thing has to be one of the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen. And the fact that it can follow you with its gaze makes it even worse. Acclaimed artist Jordan Wolfson’s imagination brought this animatronic figure to life with a little help from his friends at Spectral Motion. The piece is currently being […]