iPhone-controlled beer cannon is the robot friend of our dreams
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
World's oldest human remains claimed in Israel
From: http://www.physorg.com/
EnlargeA handout photo made available by Tel Aviv University spokesperson office shows the Qesem Cave near Rosh Haayin, in central Israel, where human teeth were found. According to Researchers from Tel Aviv University they have uncovered finds that indicate the existence of modern man (Homo sapiens) in Israel as early as about 400,000 years ago.
Israeli archaeologists have discovered human remains dating from 400,000 years ago, challenging conventional wisdom that Homo sapiens originated in Africa, the leader of excavations in Israel said on Tuesday.
Avi Gopher, of Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology, said testing of stalagmites, stalactites and other material found in a cave east of Tel Aviv indicates that eight teeth uncovered there could be the earliest traces so far of our species.
"Our cave was used for a period of about 250,000 years -- from about 400,000 years ago to about 200,000 years ago," he told AFP.
"The teeth are scattered through the layers of the cave, some in the deeper part, that is to say from 400,000 years and through all kinds of other layers that can be up to 200,000 years. The oldest are 400,000 years old", he added."
Enlarge
"Our cave was used for a period of about 250,000 years -- from about 400,000 years ago to about 200,000 years ago," he told AFP.
"The teeth are scattered through the layers of the cave, some in the deeper part, that is to say from 400,000 years and through all kinds of other layers that can be up to 200,000 years. The oldest are 400,000 years old", he added."
Enlarge
A handout photo made available by the Tel Aviv University shows human teeth found in the Qesem Cave near Rosh Haayin, in central Israel. According to researchers from Tel Aviv University they have uncovered finds that indicate the existence of modern man (Homo sapiens) in Israel as early as about 400,000 years ago.
That calls into question the widely held view that Africa was the birthplace of modern man, said Gopher, who headed the dig at Qesem Cave. "It is accepted at the moment that the earliest Homo sapiens that we know is in east Africa and is 200,000 years old, or a little less. We don't know of anywhere else where anyone claims to have an earlier Homo sapiens," he said.
Gopher said the first teeth were discovered in 2006 but he and his team waited until they had several samples, then conducted years of testing, using a variety of dating methods, before publishing their findings.
Digging continues at the cave, the university said, with researchers hoping to "uncover additional finds that will enable them to confirm the findings published up to now and to enhance our understanding of the evolution of mankind, and especially the appearance of modern man."
(c) 2010 AFP
Gopher said the first teeth were discovered in 2006 but he and his team waited until they had several samples, then conducted years of testing, using a variety of dating methods, before publishing their findings.
Digging continues at the cave, the university said, with researchers hoping to "uncover additional finds that will enable them to confirm the findings published up to now and to enhance our understanding of the evolution of mankind, and especially the appearance of modern man."
12 Totally Awesome (Yet Free) Photography Apps For Your iPhone
By AN Ja
Smashing Apps has been featured at Wordpress Showcase. If you like Smashing Apps and would like to share your love with us so you can click here to rate us.
No matter how many applications you have installed on your iOS device, you are always on the lookout for the next free and fun iOS app and specially for photography apps that may help you capture and edit your photos taken from your iPhone. Thanks to countless iOS developers you have a plethora of such apps to choose from. To save your time that would otherwise be spent on searching for these apps, we present a wonderful list of free and useful iOS applications for photography fans.
You are welcome if you want to share more photography apps for iPhone that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter as well.
LEGO Photo
Here’s an app to immortalize your favorite things and those special moments in LEGO form. Just point the camera, snap a pic, press the button, and watch the masterpiece build.
Panorama Free
Now you can take spectacular panoramic photos with your iPhone camera. This simple, easy to use camera app will allow you to take professional panoramic photos of anything you want.
Camera Fun
If you want to have fun with your iPhone camera, you can put Photoshop lens onto your iPhone camera and have a blast watching the world differently using Camera Fun.
Crop for Free
Crop for Free is a simple yet useful app for your iPhone because most of the time you would need to use any complex app for simple task like cropping the images.
PhotoChop
You can make hilarious pics of your friends in unbelievable places like put them next to a charging bear, friendly sumo etc.
Colorize
This app will help you recolor your photos by brushing with your finger to create amazing new artwork and effects. Create things like multicolored apples, blue lions, green polka dot strawberries, and so on. Your imagination is the
only limit.
HDR for Free
HDR (High Dynamic Range) images use a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. Basically, for us non-technical folk, it makes images look sweet! Those lame and vanilla looking outdoor photos will look awesome.
Color Splash Free
Color Splash Free lets you quickly and easily give photos a dramatic look by converting them to black and white, while keeping your chosen details in color.
MyEyes Free
My Eyes allows you to easily switch the eyes in your image and create new looks by choosing from different color, silly, and unique eyes. Have fun creating new images of yourself, your friends, or even your pets.
FilterFX for Free
Filter FX is an application that allows the user to enhance their photos using different filter effects. You will love this app if you like using the filters on photoshop, lightroom, camerabag, etc
Live Effects Cam
Live Effects is an advanced real-time camera application that lets you view fun, crazy and sometimes artistic effects live through your iPhone or camera equipped iTouch.
Most Popular…
Adobe Photoshop Express
Adobe Photoshop Express software lets you use simple gestures to quickly edit and share photos from your mobile device. Enjoy having your photo and video library right in your hand, without wasting your device’s valuable storage space. But the dropbacks of Adobe Photoshop Express are that most of the above effects can not be acheived with it.
Mortal Kombat Returns
From: http://furiousfanboys.com/
I don’t know about you, but during the 90s I played a lot of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Mortal Kombat 3; even more than the Street Fighter games. Ever the last decade, however, the series has seriously lost its way and become a real joke. In fact, aside from Mortal Kombat vs. DC (which is considered MK8) not many people can name off Mortal Kombats 5-7. Well, now with Warner Brothers Games owning the franchise, and the Chicago-based development team re-branded Netherrealm Studios; things may be looking up for the fighting series.
This April a rebooted Mortal Kombat is due out for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (with a PC version a remote possibility). The game is going to focus on the classic characters from MK, MK2, and MK3 and is promised to be a return to traditional 2D gameplay, although with current three-dimensional graphics. The HP, LP, HK, LK controls are being replaced with a Tekken-style system where each button corresponds to an arm or leg. And the online system is planned to be extremely robust with a lot of attention paid to recreating the competitive nature of the old arcades.
The game is coming out in a standard edition, and there will be two different special editions. There’s a Kollector’s Edition that includes a Scorpion statue and art book, and a Tournament Edition that comes with a pretty nice arcade stick that almost looks like it was ripped out of an old Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet. The Kollector’s will go for $100 while the Tournament will set you back a whopping $150, but some people feel that’s worth it for an arcade stick.
Restaurant With Robot Waiters Opens In China!
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At Dalu Robot Restaurant, a hot pot joint in China, you'll never have to tip the server or worry that he sneezed into your soup. The new eatery, which is coincidentally owned by a man who also heads up a robotics firm, is using C3PO-like bicycling robots to serve its customers. A few others look like R2D2, running along tracks.
But if you're expecting 4-star restaurant treatment, these aren't the droids you're looking for. They don't serve you so much as just stop long enough so that you can pluck off what you ordered from a tray.
Another video after the jump!
The restaurant also has creepy-looking humanoid robots that are made to dance and entertain. Since these haven't yet traipsed pass the "uncanny valley", they aren't exactly as charming as Summer Glau.
Still, the whole thing sounds a lot more sanitary than these monkey waiters (see below).
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20 psychedelic strains of Star Wars-themed marijuana
(image via lookingthemoon)
Despite Carrie Fisher's recent acknowledgment of cocaine on the set of The Empire Strikes Back, we're pretty sure that everyone on the right side of the Force would tell you to just say no to drugs. (With the exception of Han Solo, who'd probably tell you're to just say no to smuggling drugs on any ship other than the Millennium Falcon.)
However, if you were a medicinal marijuana patient in Southern California in 2010, then chances are your dreadlocked "budtender" sent you home with at least a gram of Skywalker OG. (We'd like to see Lucasfilm deal with THAT little nug of copyright infringement!)
In fact, throughout 2010, a slew of Star Wars-themed strains of cannabis were circulating throughout California, most of them ending with OG, a reference to the fact that they're crossed with Ocean-Grown Kush, a particularly potent strain of the famed Afghani marijuana.
As it turns out, Star Wars and cannabis have gone hand in hand for decades. Yeah, don't act like you're surprised. For your consumption—but only if you're a card-carrying patient—we present these 20 different varieties of marijuana named inspired by Star Wars.
1. Starwarz
A long time ago, in a Dutch city far, far away ...
Bud fact: "Starwarz" is what Gerrit, founder of Holland-based Magus Genetics, named his cross between the Sensi Star and Warlock strains (Star-War, get it?).
2. Skywalker
Bud fact: The Dutch Passion Seed Company (the same Amsterdam company responsible for the "Strawberry Cough" strain Michael Caine grew in Children of Men) crossed two of its award-winning strains to produce, Skywalker, which it hoped would be "one of the best indicas in the world."
3. Skywalker OG
Dude, where's my X-wing?
Bud fact: One of the more prevalent strains in California at the moment is Skywalker OG, which is Skywalker crossed with a OG Kush.
4. Purple Skywalker
"But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some ... yeah, err ... power converters!"
"You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done."
Bud fact: Skywalker was also crossed with Purple Kush to create, you guessed it, Purple Skywalker.
5. Master OG Wan Kenobi
Help me, Obi Wan, you're my only toke.
Bud fact: This cross between Master Kush and Skywalker OG hybrid was sold as the "Special Reserve" bud at California Caregivers Alliance in 2010.
6. Yoda OG, 7. OG Master Yoda, 8. Yoda's Breath
Doobie or doobie not, there is no try.
Bud Fact: We've also heard of OG Master Yoda and Yoda's Breath, but, as near as we can tell, they're names for the same strain.
9. Jedi OG
Succumb to the power of the Dankside!
10. Han Solo OG
"What an incredible smell you've discovered!"
How's this for a scruffy-looking nerfherder: According to Strainreviews.net, Han Solo OG has "a little bit of a cat piss smell odor to it" and "tasted a bit like a burnt match."
11. Chewbacca
Pack it, Chewie!
Bud fact: According to the UrbanDictionary.com Chewbacca is "Very high strain of marijuana that some don't even consider to be part of the Cannabis family it's so potent." There seems to be little evidence that such a strain exists, though in 2006 one grower named his home-grown hybrid "Chewbacca" on account of how hairy the nugs are. A "Chewie" is also a joint laced with cocaine.
12. DarkSide (Granddaddy Purps)
Never underestimate the power of the THC.
13. Darth Vader
I find your lack of rolling papers disturbing.
14. Death Star
Credit: Kindreviews.comIt's as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced ... but in a good way.
Bud fact: According to Colorado Alternative Medicine, Death Star's "fragrant smell translates to its taste as well, and the hits are mind-numbingly dense."
15. Death Star Hash
It's unclear whether Death Star Hash is concentrated Death Star, or whether it's just the Emperor's second attempt after the ultimate party foul.
16. Jedi Death Star, 17. Jedi Storm Trooper
These aren't the buds you're looking for.
18. R2-D2, 19. C-3PO
Luke: This R2 unit has a bad motivator, look!
Uncle Owen: [to Jawa] Hey, what are you trying to push on us?
According to Nature's Medicine in Boulder, Colo., C-3PO is "was named after its intentions. If you enjoy thinking creatively and want to become an inter-galactic language expert—these buds are for you." R2-D2 is a hybrid found in Santa Ana, Calif.
20. Jawa
Reportedly bred in the mountains of Colorado, Jawa derives its name from its parents, a Jamaican Pine strain and a Maui Wowie.
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