The launch will be tied to a promotion done in conjunction with NBC's Celebrity Apprentice reality show. You may recall that last year, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the parent of 7Up, used the same show to launch limited runs of Diet Snapple Trop-a-Rocka Tea and Snapple Compassionberry Tea. Apparently the folks at DPSG found that platform successful enough to continue with rollouts.
We've also heard that Snapple's sponsorship of one of BevReview's favorite reality shows, The Amazing Race, will be used to introduce new flavors Papaya Mango Tea and Diet Papaya Mango Tea later this month.
The introduction of a limited time lemon-lime product that uses "real sugar" should provide a nice comparison product to Pepsi's Sierra Mist Natural. While we like the sugar Sierra Mist, we do agree that something in the taste just seems a bit… off.
We couldn't turn up any trademark filings or early packaging art on 7Up Retro, but keep your eyes open! Remember we're just an e-mail, tweet, or Facebook post away!
Remember that awesome trailer for J.J. Abrams' upcoming secretive project Super 8? The movie has been so under wraps that we don't even really know what it is about yet. Well, the investigative team at ReelzChannel found a clue hidden within the trailer for the summer flick.
A url is hidden in the camera lens in the trailer, s8editingroom.com, a website apart from the official website for the movie — www.super8-movie.com.
The website reveals some seemingly "lost" footage of scientists talking about an (alien?) experiment.
For fans of Abrams, the secrecy around the movie can be frustrating but in an era where leaked pics, scripts, and video hit the net long before a movie's release, it is kind of refreshing to be completely in the dark about one of the most highly anticipated movies of the summer.
What we do know about the movie is that it takes place in the summer of 1979 in a small Ohio town where a group of kids witness a train crash. Shortly after, unusual disappearances and inexplicable events begin to take place in town. Abrams has called Super 8 his homage to the Steven Spielberg, who is a producer, movies of the 1970s.
We still have a long way to go until the movie's June 10 opening. We can only wait and see what other breadcrumbs Abrams leaves for us.
While biking is becoming more popular in U.S. cities — L.A. is adding 1,600 bike lanes, Chicago has a new bike plan, and Portland has 17,000 daily commuters — Europe has some amazing biking cities of their own. The Ecologist has come up with the 10 best biking cities in Europe (in no particular order):
-Lyon, France
“With its charming twisty lanes and dedicated bike routes, Lyon is a cyclists’ paradise.”
The city’s bike sharing program, Velo’v has over 300 stations throughout the city.
-Rome, Italy
“Cycling is by far the best bet for seeing the sights close to the Tiber, where a picturesque route runs from the Ponte Sublicio to the Ponte della Magliana.”
-Basel, Switzerland
“Featuring street lanes geared to cyclists and dedicated left hand turns to make crossing the road safer, Basel tops the list of cities to cycle in Switzerland.”
-Berlin, Germany
“Thanks to the combined efforts of Allied air raids and the Communist predilection for destroying picturesque old buildings and replacing them with big, brash new ones, Berlin’s streets are wonderfully wide, which makes it easy to get around by bike.”
-Trondheim, Norway
“With its picturesque setting on the shores of the cerulean Trondheimsfjord, Norway’s fourth largest city has built a reputation for bicycling brilliance thanks to innovations such as the Trampe bicycle lift which takes the effort out of pedaling uphill.”
-Paris, France
“While the many hazards of the Place de la Concorde aren’t the greatest advertisement for cycling in Paris, once you’re a safe distance from the city’s infamously crazy drivers – on the pavement in other words – then cycling in Paris can be a real pleasure.”
-Barcelona, Spain
“Surprisingly, given Spain’s reputation for endangering the lives and limbs of cyclists thanks to its motorists’ penchant for going everywhere at top speed, Barcelona has 50,000 regular cyclists and that figure is increasing daily.”
-Copenhagen, Denmark
37 percent of all Copenhageners bike a total of 1.2 million kilometers each day.
“The Danish capital has been quietly turning itself into one of the best biking cities in the world; a fact revealed when the International Cycling Union gave it the first ‘Bike City’ award last year.”
-London, England
The city is working to build 12 biking “superhighways” — there are already two — and increase biking by 400 percent from 2000.
“Cycling in London used to be pretty dreadful thanks to an unfortunate combination of rain and aggressive drivers but since the first two Barclays Cycle Superhighways launched last summer, things have become a little easier.”
-Amsterdam, Netherlands
There are 600,000 bikes in a city of 750,000.
“Thanks in part to the narrow streets in the medieval city center, cycling is by far the most efficient way to get around.”
Watch this inspiring video of Amsterdam’s biking community:
If there’s one thing the Kinect is good for, it’s facilitating interesting and downright clever hacks. Obviously. If you thought I was going to say ‘gaming’, you’re not a gamer.
In any case, check this out. London Hackspace has developed what they’ve dubbed the Evil Genius Simulator – a device which uses a Kinect to monitor the motions of the aspiring genius’ hands. The higher they’re raised (ideally accompanied by maniacal laughter) the more lightning that jumps between two Tesla coils set up behind it all. This is nothing if not a lesson in basdassery.
I dunno how comfortable I’d feel turning my back to two operating Tesla coils, but the dramatic effect is anything but un-awesome. Imagine this thing weaponized. Exo-skeleton-clad supersoldiers of the future shooting lightning from their hands.
All thanks to Microsoft.
Editor's Note: This is part of our ongoing news coverage of Japan's earthquake and nuclear emergency.
Japan's earthquake will be a major test for search-and-rescue robots like Quince, developed by Chiba Institute of Technology roboticists, shown here during a demonstration.
Japan's leading experts in rescue robotics are deploying wheeled and snake-like robots to assist emergency responders in the search for survivors of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck the country last Friday.
Details are still scarce, but I've gotten word that at least two teams plan to use their search and rescue robots, one team in Tokyo and another in or around Sendai, the city that suffered the most damage in the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami. I'm waiting confirmation about a third team, also in Tokyo. (There is no information about the presence of robots at Japan's troubled Fukushimanuclear power plants, though that would be an ideal application for teleoperated repair and inspection robots.)
She reports that Dr. Tadokoro is "en route" to Sendai, where he lives, with the Active Scope Camera, a remote operated 8-meter-long snake-like robot that carries a scope camera and can slither through small spaces. According to Dr. Murphy, it's "possibly the most capable robot for tight spaces." At the same time, Dr. Koyanagi will use an agile robot called Quince, which has tank-like tracks and is capable of driving over rubble and climbing stairs, around his home area in Tokyo.
Here's a video of the Active Scope Camera:
Here's a video of Quince:
Dr. Murphy, an IEEE Fellow whose team has taken robots to disaster sites like the World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001 attacks and New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, tells me that robots have been used in at least one previous earthquake, the 2010 Haiti disaster. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, she says, used a SeaBotix underwater remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, to investigate bridge and seawall damage as part of the U.S. assistance to the Haitian government.
For a disaster like the Japan quake, she says several types of robots could prove useful, including:
• small unmanned aerial vehicles like robotic helicopters and quadrotors for inspection of upper levels of buildings and lower altitude checks
• snake robots capable of entering collapsed buildings and slithering through rubble
• small underwater ROVs for bridge inspection and underwater recovery
• tether-based unmanned ground vehicles like sensor-packed wheeled robots that operators can drive remotely to search for survivors
As it happened, Japan's leading rescue robotics experts, a cadre led by Dr. Tadokoro, who heads the International Rescue Systems Institute, were actually in the United States when the earthquake hit! The 21 faculty and students and their rescue robots were in Texas participating in an exercise and workshop that CRASAR organized. The group headed back to Japan on Friday as soon as they heard the news.
Dr. Murphy, who leads the volunteer search-and-rescue robotics group Roboticists Without Borders, part of CRASAR, says the Japanese welcomed her group's assistance; she's now on standby awaiting a formal request. CRASAR's robotic arsenal includes the AirRobot and iSensys helicopters, a VideoRay ROV for underwater inspection, a AEOS water vehicle with a sonar suited for bridge inspection, and several ground robots like the Inuktun VGTV, a tracked vehicle that can change its shape. Like most search and rescue robots, the systems the Japanese are deploying are designed to go where humans can't easily reach. According to a 2007 paper, the Active Scope Camera is a snake-type of robot whose body is covered by "cilia," small filaments that vibrate, allowing the robot to crawl at a speed of 4.7 centimeters per second, climb over obstacles, follow walls, and make turns in tight spaces.
Quince is a mobile robot equipped with four sets of tracked wheels, some of which can move up and down to allow the robot to negotiate obstacles. It carries cameras as well as infrared and carbon-dioxide sensors for detecting the presence of survivors trapped under rubble.
Our thoughts go to the Japanese people affected by this tragedy. We hope emergency personnel can locate all survivors as fast as possible -- and if robots can help, great.
Image: Chiba Institute of Technology; videos: DigInfo and Chiba Institute of Technology
Cuttino Mobley retired from the NBA as a New York Knick in 2008 because of a chronic heart condition. Now he wants to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Rhode Island, where he starred for the University of Rhode Island before being drafted by Houston in 1998. In a profile by the Providence Journal-Bulletin, Mobley stated that he wants to open a "wellness center" in Warwick, RI, because he "wants to help people." He is one of the 18 applications under consideration for opening a dispensary in Rhode Island, which legalized medicinal marijuana for chronic pain in 2009. The state will license three of the 18 applicants. More about why the ex-baller wants to become a greenepreuer and open a dispensary below, via the Providence Journal:
It was about what he wants to do with the rest of his life. “I want to help people,” he said.
He knows that innumerable people have helped him along the way, from Max Good at Maine Central, to Jim Harrick at URI, who gave him confidence, assistant coach Bill Coen, who made him start to believe in his talent. It’s also the way he was raised, his version of spirituality, the sense that you help others when you can. So he helps fund an AAU team in Philadelphia. He built a basketball court in Africa. He helps out his old high school. He has a foundation in Philadelphia that helps single mothers and homeless kids.
“You get it after a while,” Mobley said. “You know what you’re supposed to do.” One of the things he wants to do now is start a wellness center in Warwick, one that will be allowed to dispense medical marijuana. He says he got interested in the field of wellness both through his own medical condition and those of other people close to him, and adds that the health field is one of the fastest growing in the country.
The plan also is to get more involved in Rhode Island, this state that helped him at a vulnerable time in his life, this state that saw him go from a young, unstructured kid to someone who grabbed the basketball dream and has made the most of it. This state that he feels has tremendous potential, a future he wants to be part of.
“I’ve done well,” he said, “and I want everyone to do well. Let’s all do well together.”
The reformed group - now called Sublime With Rome - has signed to Fueled By Ramen
By Andy Greene
Legendary Los Angeles ska punk band Sublime have signed to Fueled by Ramen, and this summer will release their first LP since original frontman Bradley Nowell died in 1996. The group - now billed as Sublime With Rome - features surviving members Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson alongside twenty-two year old Rome Ramirez, who joined the reformed group in 2009.
The band is currently cutting the disc at Sonic Ranch studio in El Paso, Texas with producer Paul Leary, who worked with the band on their self-titled 1996 LP. “Everything’s been going amazing in the studio," Ramirez said in a statement. "The music has been coming along great, and we’re confident that we’re making a record that will stand the test of time. We can’t wait for the fans to hear it, and are already planning a world tour to bring it to them live.” Details of the tour will be announced shortly.
After Nowell's death in 1996, Wilson and Gaugh carried on for five years as Long Beach Dub Allstars. Meanwhile, Sublime's legacy grew as teenagers across the country discovered the band's music. Sublime tribute bands began attracting gigantic crowds, and in 2009 Wilson and Gaugh recruited Ramirez began performing as Sublime until Nowell's estate filed a laswuit claiming they didn't own the rights to that name. The matter was quietly settled last year, and Sublime began performing again - only this time under the moniker Sublime with Rome.
The Nowell estate bears no grudge. “Sublime with Rome earned the fans' approval with their live performances by showing it was never about replacing or forgetting Brad - it was about celebrating the music," Nowell's widow Troy Nowell-Holmes said in a statement. "And now the next chapter begins. Rome is such a great songwriter and with Bud and Eric's amazing talent to back him up, Sublime with Rome will thrive and shine in its own right. I can't wait to hear the new material because I know how talented they all are.”
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As entertaining as they are, unfortunately portable media players cannot handle all media types you throw at them. Unless there comes an all-format-accepting portable media player, we have to use video conversion software to transform our media type before our iPhones and iPods can play them.
For my fellow iPhone and iPod owners who are looking for a competent yet free software solution for video conversion, here are 5 of the best options available online. I am sure that you will find them as useful as I did.
FreeStudio is DVDVideoSoft’s handy video conversion freeware that will excellently suit iPhone and iPod video conversions. The application is compatible with Windows computers and facilitates various video format conversions. While its download size is quite high – 58MB – the features surely justify it.
In addition to iPods and iPhones, Daniusoft Video Converter Free also supports video conversions for PSP, Zune, and other cell-phones and portable media players. The download is 12MB, much smaller than the abovementioned program. Supported media formats include AVI, MP4, WMV, MOV, MPEG1, MPEG2, FLV, MP3, WAV, and WMA. You can install Daniusoft Video Converter Free on your Windows computer.
Any Video Converter Free is a personal favorite of mine because it excellently blends functionality with an appealing user interface. A wide variety of media formats are supported and converting video for your iOS device will be very easy. You can control advanced conversions options as well such as video and audio bitrates.
Quick Media Converter comes in the setup size of 28MB. Along with supporting video conversions between various file formats, it provides a progress bar with each conversion process so you know how much of the process has completed and how much is left.
Although Format Factory does not offer the prettiest user interface, it does offer the most functionality out of the other entries in this list. Supporting media conversions between various video, audio, and image formats, Format Factory can quite easily become your default media conversion application. The program has a setup file size of 38MB.
photo: iPad_2
The usual frenzy broke loose as soon as Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPad 2 — and on March 11, the first day it went on sale, lines at Apple stores were epic as usual.
If you’re one of the 15 million people who bought an iPad last year — and are among the early adopters who patiently waited for hours yesterday to get the new one — you may be wondering how to swap your old tablet out for the shiny new iPad 2 without taking a huge loss. Here are some tips for finding good trade-in deals:
Compare Buyback Sites
Depending on the condition of your iPad, various websites offer different buyback values. With a few minutes of research, you could squeeze an extra $50 or more out of your old gear, so our first tip is to make sure to compare options.
NextWorth.com, a consumer electronics upgrade and trade-in company, is one of several sites offering cash for first generation iPads with light wear, and competitive deals for heavier wear. At NextWorth.com, you can see exactly what cash amount you’re going to get for your iPad, and what percentage of the original retail value. NextWorth’s trade-in prices as of 2/23/11 for light wear were:
NextWorth partners with Target, so you can walk in to your local Target store and receive cash back for your first generation iPad rather than through the website. If you aren’t looking to upgrade to the iPad 2 with the cash you get back, you can instead receive a prepaid Target gift card for in-store credit.
If your iPad is in near-perfect condition, you can get $300 for a 16GB Wifi model at Gazelle.com. For slight wear and tear, such as light scratches, however, NextWorth’s $255 trade-in beats Gazelle’s cash offer of $240.
Ebay, the world’s most popular online auction website, is definitely a viable option for selling your iPad and getting an aggressive deal. Thousands have already put their first generation iPads up for bid, and even with the new overload of inventory, some are selling for as high as 80% of their original price. Your success will depend both on the condition of your iPad and how lucky you are with bidders. The outcome of an auction is hard to judge, so Ebay lets you set a minimum amount you will accept.
If you haven’t bought or sold through the e-commerce company Amazon, here’s a little tid-bit on why the site is so popular: Amazon carries its own inventory, but also offers new, used and refurbished products sold through private owners. Buyers can look up all the details they need on the product’s capabilities and condition, and then buy the item through private sellers at lower-than-retail prices. You can piggyback off of Amazon’s reputation and sell your iPad by undercutting Amazon’s price when you list your iPad there.
If you’re thinking about selling your iPad at either eBay or Amazon, it helps to have positive reviews to gain customer credibility and therefore get the most cash for your used gadget. But even if you’re new to the sites, you can still get great deals.
Consider selling locally
The flood of iPad supply in online secondary markets has pushed resale prices down already, even just a day after the iPad 2 announcement. If you wait too long to sell, you may not get the deal you want, due to continued price drops. However, many consumers prefer to buy used electronics locally, where they can test them out for themselves before handing over cash. An excellent alternative to selling your iPad on eBay, Amazon, NextWorth, or other sites is to list it on Craigslist or other local classifieds in your area. You’ll be able to set your own price and possibly squeeze a little extra out of your old tablet. Consider marking up the price a bit to compensate for shipping no longer being a factor.
If all else fails, iPad 1 is still as capable as it was when you bought it (assuming you haven’t been using it as a frisbee). Even if you do nab iPad 2, your original tablet can be used in a variety of clever ways, such as a secondary screen for a laptop. Shoot, velcro it to a treadmill or the back of a car seat. But if sell you must, be strategic about comparing the going rates at different marketplaces, and do it fast before your tablet is worth only as much as the apps you’ve bought!
Shane Snow is Editor-in-chief and cofounder of Contently.com, which contributed this post exclusively for Mint.
The Spider-Man franchise re-boot The Amazing Spider-Man is the first movie to use the TS-5 Handheld Beamsplitter Rig from 3ality Digital. 3ality Digital’s camera platforms and stereo image processors were developed to enable both scripted and live entertainment. The camera systems automatically align and correct mechanical and optical imperfections, using artificial intelligence and image processing. The systems feature semi-automatic setup and alignment, as well as S3D metadata output.
"We tested virtually every product on the market and chose 3ality Digital because we were impressed by the compact size of the TS-5," said Spider-Man director of photography John Schwartzman. "You don't get the unwanted shadowing effects during shots that sometimes appear using other 3D rigs, and the lens changes only take a few minutes," he added. "We wanted a rig that would not only deliver the best quality and performance but also one that wouldn't delay the production, so we have all the benefits of a 3D picture and we're shooting to a 2D schedule."
The CEO and founder of 3ality Digital, Steve Schklair, explains that the advantage of 3ality’s TS-5 cameras is that the business case for shooting in 3D works when studios can film on the same timing schedule as when shooting in regular 2D. As a result, 3ality is now attracting interest from the television industry for shooting episodic TV shows in 3D. A one-hour TV show can be shot in the usual 2D schedule of nine days with a 3ality Digital rig, giving it a significant advantage over its competitors.
The Amazing Spider-Man is due for release in 2012. [viaThe Hollywood Reporter]
Earlier this week we posted a rumor that the first full trailer for J.J. Abrams' Super 8 would be attached to prints of Battle: Los Angeles, being released this weekend. While we didn't know if it would come in the form of a pirated video or official release, we knew that one way or the other the trailer was going to hit online quickly. Lucky for us it was the latter.
Paramount has released the first trailer for the sci-fi film, due out on June 10th. As per the official synopsis released earlier tonight, the film is about a group of kids who, while making a movie with a super 8 camera, witness a train crash. Suddenly, weird occurrences begin to spread around the small town and the answer may rest in what escaped from that cargo train.
Check out the trailer below. For more of the latest on Super 8, keep up to date with the Blend Film Database.
With the Jewish festival of Purim coming up later this month, Yeshiva University a cappella group The Maccabeats have released a Purim song to the tune of Pink's pop hit "Raise Your Glass." Unlike many other spoof video creators, these guys can actually sing.
Sure, it's a bit of edu-tainment, because you'll learn the story of Esther foiling Haman from exterminating the Jews, but it's also totally catchy and well-produced. If the Maccabeats look familiar, it might be because you know them from their Hanukkah-themed version of Taio Cruz's "Dynamite."
Griffin have produced a very original looking product, with their custom-built digital stylus and Crayola ColorStudio HD. This new digital play experience is made especially for the Apple iPad, and is aimed squarely at young kids who either have an iPad of their own or parents kind enough to share theirs.
Crayola ColorStudio HD is a combination of the Crayola iMarker and the ColorStudio HD App. The iMarker is a specially made digital stylus that can act like a marker, a crayon, a pen, or a paintbrush, allowing kids to paint, draw, and color in a variety of ways.
The application can distinguish between pen and finger input, and automatically changes the way it works depending on the input method. Along with the multiple drawing features, the Crayola ColorStudio HD also combines with animations, music, sound effects, and visual special effects.
The application that comes with the stylus is aimed at young kids, with a large built-in library of art that comes in a number of themed environments. Some of the themes include undersea, jungle, and playtime activities, with various activities available in each setting. Some examples of the kids of activities on offer include Musical Dot 2 Dot, Color By Numbers, and many other immersive games.
Completed drawings and artworks can be saved in many ways once they have been completed, with printing, email, and Facebook posting all available directly from the app. Apple iOS 4.2 or later is required to run Crayola ColorStudio HD, as – of course – is access to an Apple iPad device.
The Crayola ColorStudio HD looks like a fun way for young kids to spend some time, and may become an absolute lifesaver for many parents on long car journeys or plane trips. There is no release date or price announced just yet.
Last year we here at Geek.com had a short obsession with wingsuit skydiving.The extreme activity pairs two awesome pastimes–jumping out of planes and wearing multicolored jumpsuits–into one incredible experience. Make sure to go back and check out that video if you want to be amazed by the jumpers’ accuracy and willingness to spit in the face of death.
The wingsuit fliers have continued working on their craft since then. In a recently posted video we can see that production values are up, the fliers are jumping in teams, and making they are even making formations. Jeb Corliss’ video makes this one look downright relaxing, but we still get a glimpse at the awesome control the wingsuits give the divers; their stability in the air is really fantastic.
The video’s maker, Richard Schneider told me the video above was filmed almost entirely with a Contour HD helmet cam. He recommends the Contour HD for its shape which he considers safer, thanks to less possible “snag points” where a parachute or cord could catch while being deployed. (The other popular camera with this sort of activity is the Go Pro.)
Side note: check out the propeller blades at 0:40. Their super fast motion combined with the sensor on the camera makes them look like they were made of rubber. They appear to be flopping sideways as they spin around. It’s probably the least cool thing in the whole video, but I do appreciate how the tech interacts with activities like this one.
From Vimeo: Helmet cam footage from wingsuit flights at the edges of the United States, including California (Lake Elsinore), Florida (Zephyrhills), Nevada (Mesquite), and Puerto Rico (Vega Baja). The last scene was from a vertical formation record organized by Flock University, 25 expert wingsuit fliers exiting from two airplanes.
See more footage of the 25 wingsuit vertical diamond record: vimeo.com/19552772
Wingsuit Pilots: Justin Shorb, Douglas Spotted Eagle, Matt Santa Maria, Joel Hindman, Joshua Sheppard, Abe Sheppard, James Raimar, Brian Voils, Tim Hedderich, John Kallend, Zach Schroedel, Alex Scheidt, Jason Carter, Kyle O’Donohue, Scott Callantine, Brian Snarr, Andreea Olea, Simon Repton, Ralph Kubicsek, Ben Lowe, Savage Sac, Cate Flies, Rick Hough, Greg Drogaline, Scott Bland, Michael Swearingen, Ryan Maher, Mike Masheff, Nick Wright, Dennis Sattler, Scotty Burns, Jt Valente, Jeff Donohue
Primary footage captured and edited by Richard Schneider, Lake Elsinore parachute deployment scene captured by Douglas Spotted Eagle.
Music: Undenied by Portishead & The Funeral by Band of Horses.
Brazilian gardener Maria Rodrigues de Aguiar Farias, 53, shows off penis-shaped passion fruit growing in her backyard.
A vine producing penis-shaped passion fruit has been discovered by a gardener in the Brazilian city of San Jose de Ribamar, in the country’s north. Normally round, the fruit is native to South America and its tart pulp can be found flavoring everything from sweet desserts to caipirinhas, the Brazilian national cocktail.
Although none of the penis-shaped variety are ripe yet, the woman who grew them, Maria Rodrigues de Aguiar Farias, 53, told the news site G1 so many visitors want to see the plants that she’s started charging admission.
"I charge two reals to look, 15 for taking photographs, and 20 to shoot video," she said. (That's a little over $1 to see, $9 for a snapshot and $12 for video).
A local government plant expert has examined the fruit and pronounced it healthy, G1 reported. While it remains to be seen how good the plant’s pulp tastes, the shape itself shouldn’t be a reason to shy away, said Marcelo Cavallari, with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation.
On the contrary.
“It's pretty big, it's pretty thick,” Cavallari said. “It may even reach 15 to 20 cm in length.”
Um, PETA? You might have a problem with this. It's a DIY kit that turns the average cockroach into a remote controlled toy. No kidding. Remember that whole flying cyborg beetle thing we told you about a couple years ago? Well, apparently the technology (er, sort of) is making its way into bug-infested living rooms.
I don't have anything against cockroaches -- I think they're amazing creatures. So to see one being remote controlled like this was actually a bit disturbing. So you can only imagine how the most serious animal activists among us might feel.
The kit comes from Backyard Brains, and it's a fairly simple set-up. The armor you put on the bug sends electrical pulses to the antennae nerves of the roach, which tells it to turn either left of right.
Apparently it only works on about 25% of roaches -- they must be smarter than we think. Once Backyard Brains get this kink worked out, they'll launch the device into beta mode. That is, unless PETA says something about it first.
Lenovo, the world’s fourth largest manufacturer of personal computers, a multinational corporation with principal operations based in China and Head Quarters in USA, has built the world’s first eye-controlled laptop, using eye tracking technology from Tobii. Tobii Technology is a manufacturer of hardware and software solutions for eye tracking.
The company was founded by three Swedish entrepreneurs; John Elvesjo, Henrik Eskilsson and Marten Skogo, in 2001 and has continuously shown very rapid year-to-year revenue growth -- in 2007, Tobii was awarded a prize as Sweden’s fastest growing technology company by Deloitte.
What exactly does this technology mean, in plain English? Tobii’s eye-control tech allows users to do things like select, point and scroll, these are things you’d traditionally do with a mouse or track pad. Even more, the developers say that there are already games that are available and which can be played with the eyes only.
Nonetheless, Lenovo and Tobii are on the edge of revolutionizing the notebooks market with this unthinkable product. As the company states: “The laptop is a fully functional conceptual prototype and an important breakthrough for Tobii in its mission to bring its eye tracking technology to serial production and consumer products.” Watch the video below to get a better understanding of what exactly an eye-control laptop really means.
Also, texts can be made to automatically scroll upwards or return downwards as the user reads them by using their eye movement. This is possible due to small infrared camera incorporated in the laptop that track eye’s positioning. But, there’s a fear that this technology will put our eyes to a higher stress. Will the Lenovo-Tobii partnership manage to pass over this issue?
The official representatives of the companies affirm that this technology isn’t very hard to understand and use, as it may seem at first sight. Even if the eye-tracking technology gives the user the chance to do with his eyes things he’d normally do with a mouse, this doesn’t mean that it totally replaces those devices.
“More than anything else, the Tobii laptop prototype is proof that our eye tracking technology is mature enough to be used in standard computer interfaces. To reach a state where the technology is part of the average computer, we need to make it smaller and cheaper. We believe that this can be realized in a couple of years by partnering with the right manufacturer,” comments Henrik Eskilsson, CEO of Tobii Technology.
“On the one hand, we have Lenovo, a great partner, representing industry-leading expertise in computer manufacturing and hardware development. Tobii, on the other hand, has the world’s leading eye tracking technology and unique expertise in eye tracking and eye control interfaces. We are very happy with the outcome of this collaboration,” Henrik Eskilsson concluded.
The CBS network has experienced a huge blow to their comedy line up with the unexpected termination of “Two and a Half Men” (Charlie and Chuck, can’t we all just get along?). Therefore, they’re trying to solidify their other winning comedies by locking them into contracts and extending their deals. “How I Met Your Mother” has officially been renewed for another two seasons.
“We are so proud of this show and all of its creative and ratings achievements,” said CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler. “HIMYM’s brilliant producing team continues to find inventive ways to tell funny stories that stir pop culture conversation; it has become a go-to destination for top guest stars and its amazing ensemble cast brings to life characters that audiences want to hang out with every Monday night.”
The show is currently in its sixth season, and has continued to be a ratings success for the network. In terms of critical achievements, co-star Neil Patrick Harris has been nominated for four consecutive Primetime Emmys for his role as Barney, the womanizer on the show.
This is great news for the series, the cast, and the fans, but how long are people expected to wait before they find out who this kid’s mother is? It’s moments like these, that make us happy that we never got fully invested in the show.
Things are moving along at a nice clip in the world of biofuel research, so it seems like news of another “breakthrough” is barely enough to provoke a yawn. Well, this latest piece of news sure stands out from the crowd. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has just announced that a research team headed up by the Department’s BioEnergy Science Center has developed a cost effective method for converting woody plants straight into isobutanol, which can be used in conventional car engines just as gasoline.
Biofuel and Green Jobs, Too
In his announcement, Chu was quick to point out that biofuel production has the potential to create new jobs in rural parts of the country. Though some of those jobs might come from putting more farmland into production, the most important thing about DOE’s new isobutanol process is that it does not necessarily rely on new agricultural production. Aside from cultivated biofuel crops, it can use the woody waste from other crops including wheat and rice straw, corn stover, and lumber waste. Handling, transporting and refining these wastes is probably where a good deal of the new employment would occur.
Biofuel, from Farm to Gas Tank
Scientists from the BioEnergy Science Center (an offshoot of DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory) worked with researchers from the University of California to develop a new strain of the microbe Clostridium celluloyticum. As its name implies, C. celluloyticum is a natural at breaking down cellulose. The problem is that different species can only produce certain aspects of the process, so the new strain combines those various talents in one microbe. The result is a process that breaks down plant matter and produces isobutanol in one relatively inexpensive step, in contrast to the multi-stage process demanded of conventional biofuel production.
Green Jobs for Microbes
Non-edible woody plant matter is a potential biofuel gold mine, but until now the problem has been to find low cost, energy efficient ways of breaking down the cellulose – the “wood” part of the plant cells – to get at the soft innards that can be converted to fuel. Microbes have proved up to the job, and that’s just one example of their role in new green tech. They’re also being put to work cleaning up polluted sites, powering fuel cells, and even transforming wastewater into bioplastic.
Image: Cylinders and beakers by Horia Varlan on flickr.com.
Traffic. Just the mention of the word makes some city folk cringe, and for most everyone, it turns a good day into a bad one. It's a dreadful thing, and it's something that some people have to deal with on a daily basis. But technology has been coming to the rescue lately, with many personal navigation devices adding real-time traffic alerts to keep motorists from falling into nasty log-jams that are near impossible to escape.
Google is a bit behind when it comes to that, but when the app is free, who could complain? Google Maps 5.2.1 introduces a killer new feature: real-time traffic alerts. The new version of the app has the ability to route users around traffic, and with over 35 million miles driven by Google Maps Navigation users every single day, it should end up being quite effective. The traffic data is crowdsourced; if you're using Google Maps Navigation to get around, your velocity and location can be recorded and sent to show others in general how fast a given road is.
You don’t have to do anything to be routed around traffic; just start Navigation like you normally would, either from the Navigation app or from within Google Maps. Before today, Navigation would choose whichever route was fastest, without taking current traffic conditions into account. It would also generate additional alternate directions, such as the shortest route or one that uses highways instead of side roads. Starting today, our routing algorithms will also apply our knowledge of current and historical traffic to select the fastest route from those alternates. That means that Navigation will automatically guide you along the best route given the current traffic conditions.
Sounds like a total winner to us, and we hope it spreads to more navigation systems soon. Thanks again to Google for pushing competition.
Stevo Poulin is a problem. Although he's only 8-years-old, this champion wrestler from Schuylerville, New York has become the latest YouTube phenomenon thanks to a two-minute video that features the pint-sized grappler destroying hapless opponent with the same raw power and electric intensity as Brock Lesnar. Sporting a serious Mohawk and surprising strength, Poulin already has a clear grasp on all the basics of mat wrestling. But what sets this elementary school assassin apart is his ability to intimidate. Watch the way the little man bounces on his feet before the match starts like he's trying to suppress his desire to prematurely pounce on his opponent and be thankful that you never ran into a kid like Stevo Poulin when you were in second grade.
(Discussion on Reddit)
One of the things I’ve often heard while living in the European Union is the meme that only 10% of Americans own a passport. (This assertion is usually followed by the quazi-urban legend that George W. Bush never had a passport before becoming president. This I’ve never been able to prove or disprove any satisfaction)
Such a low number wouldn’t have surprised me. After all, the United States is nearly thrice the size of the EU and borders only two foreigncountries, while the EU is made of 27 countries and – depending on how you want to count them – borders another 19.
I wondered aloud about this in my previous post, ‘Work in Progress: The United States Explained‘ and a commentor, Alison, was nice enough to bring this data set about passports from the ever-awesome data.gov to my attention.
The data was only for the past four years, so I had to do some estimates based on issue rates and the 2000 census numbers, but the result is the above infographic and the table below:
State
Population with Passport
NEW JERSEY
68.36%
DELAWARE
67.05%
ALASKA
65.01%
MASSACHUSETTS
63.42%
NEW YORK
62.47%
CALIFORNIA
60.19%
NEW HAMPSHIRE
59.39%
CONNECTICUT
58.50%
WASHINGTON
57.28%
VERMONT
56.32%
MARYLAND
56.21%
MINNESOTA
56.14%
COLORADO
54.88%
RHODE ISLAND
54.40%
FLORIDA
52.83%
ILLINOIS
52.06%
MAINE
51.62%
ARIZONA
51.24%
HAWAII
49.94%
UTAH
49.36%
VIRGINIA
49.16%
TEXAS
48.80%
NORTH DAKOTA
48.30%
NEVADA
46.84%
MONTANA
46.63%
PENNSYLVANIA
45.11%
WISCONSIN
43.70%
OREGON
43.39%
MICHIGAN
42.89%
WYOMING
41.40%
IDAHO
41.24%
IOWA
39.34%
NEBRASKA
38.97%
GEORGIA
38.73%
KANSAS
38.18%
SOUTH DAKOTA
37.69%
NEW MEXICO
37.11%
OHIO
35.71%
MISSOURI
35.32%
NORTH CAROLINA
34.18%
OKLAHOMA
33.23%
INDIANA
32.73%
SOUTH CAROLINA
32.09%
LOUISIANA
29.47%
TENNESSEE
28.78%
ARKANSAS
25.14%
ALABAMA
25.03%
KENTUCKY
24.94%
WEST VIRGINIA
20.43%
MISSISSIPPI
19.86%
(If you’re the kind of person who really cares about the details, you can see all the calculations on my United States data spreadsheet – please let me know if there are any errors)
DreamWorks Animation has decided to let us in on their theatrical plans for the next three years. The studio has announced their release schedule that’s booked all the way up to 2014, and features several anticipated tentpoles. Some of the notable films on the list include the Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots,How to Train Our Dragon 2, and the Robert Downey Jr. voiced Mr. Peabody & Sherman. Check out the roster…
Nov. 4, 2011:Puss In Boots (Chris Miller director; Joe Aguilar and Latifa Ouaou, producers)
June 8, 2012:Madagascar 3 (Eric Darnell, director; Mireille Soria and Mark Swift, producers)
Nov. 21, 2012:Rise of the Guardians (Peter Ramsey, director, William Joyce, co-director; Christina Steinberg and Nancy Bernstein, producers)
March 1, 2013:The Croods (Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, directors; Kristine Belson and Jane Hartwell, producers)
June 7, 2013:Turbo (David Soren, director; Lisa Stewart, producer)
Nov. 8, 2013:Me and My Shadow (Mark Dindal, director; Melissa Cobb and Teresa Cheng, producer)
March 21, 2014:Mr. Peabody & Sherman (Rob Minkoff, director; Jason Clark and Denise Nolan Cascino, producers)
June 20, 2014:How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Dean DeBlois, director; Bonnie Arnold, producer)
We forgot all about Madagascar 3! Granted we love the franchise, but the fact that a third one was on the horizon completely slipped our minds. In terms of the non-sequel projects, we’re interested in seeing Mr. Peabody & Sherman. Anything with Robert Downey Jr. deserves a little bit of attention.
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Trent Reznor may have claimed retirement from Nine Inch Nails, but it sounds like the recent Oscar winner is already preparing to revitalize the act that made him famous. Reznor posted a lengthy blog on the NIN forum this week discussing his future plans and clarifying a few misunderstandings. .
“The three columns of things I’m currently funneling music into – HTDA, NIN and film work – I believe will start to make more sense to you (and me) as everything unfolds,” he wrote, referring to his new band How To Destroy Angels. “By having a few different outlets for my work I’m finding more inspiration within each one. No, Nine Inch Nails is not dead and I plan to focus on that next.” .
He added, “Perhaps I misspoke on the red carpet or wherever it was I said the new How To Destroy Angels record is finished – it is not. We’ve been working since last summer on it and are due to mix it this summer for a fall release. We’ve spent a lot of time experimenting and finding our own sound and identity this time around and we’re very happy with the results.” .
Renzor is also confirmed to be scoring David Fincher’s upcoming film-adaptation of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which will be out late this year. “Atticus [Ross] and I are hard at work scoring David’s next film, which will be opening this Christmas,” Reznor wrote. “We’ve been composing quite a bit of music for this and have just begun to see some of what’s been shot. Trust me when I say this film (and of course the music!) will not disappoint.” .
As for that other project Reznor is said to be doing? It’s apparently true. He will be scoring and appearing in the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter — which was supposed to be a surprise. “The idea was a cameo-esque role that would be kept under wraps and be a surprise around opening night,” Reznor wrote. “I was considering this when I awoke a few days ago to the news I am now STARRING in ALVH (which is obviously not true). Fuck. We both apparently forgot the internet existed AND THERE ARE NO SURPRISES anymore.”
Need your slice of awesome today? Then check out this truly astonishing picture of a detached prominence off the limb of the Sun:
Holy wow! Click to ensolarnate. And I mean it: you want to see the bigger version of this.
This picture was taken by Alan Friedman, who is no stranger to this blog: his picture of the boiling Sun last year was hugely popular, and so amazing I featured it as one of my top pictures of 2010.
And with this he’s done it again… and maybe even topped it.
Alan used a filter that lets through only a very narrow wavelength of light emitted by hydrogen (called Hα for those of you keeping track at home), so this tracks the activity of gas on the solar surface. He also inverts the image of the solar disk (makes it a negative) to increase contrast. Somehow this adds a three-dimensional quality to the picture, and reveals an amazing amount of texture. I swear I had a rug in my bedroom growing up that was this texture (though somewhat cooler and less burny).
The scene-stealer is that detached prominence off to the left. That’s the leftover material ejected from the Sun by an erupting sunspot (you can see other sunspots in the picture as well). The gas is ionized — a plasma — and so it’s affected by magnetic fields. The material follows the magnetic field of the Sun in the explosion, lifting it off the surface and into space. Sometimes it falls back, and sometimes it leaves the Sun entirely. In this case, Alan caught some of the material at what looks like the top of its trajectory.
The beauty of this picture belies its violence and sheer magnitude: the mass of material in a prominence can easily top 10 billion tons! As for size, see that dark elongated sunspot near the base of the prominence, just to the right of the bigger, speckly one? That spot is roughly twice the size of the Earth.
Yegads.
Making this even more amazing, these images are taken with a 90mm telescope — that’s a lens not even 4 inches across! Superior optics, a good mount, and a steady hand can do wonders.
You really need to go and see the rest of Alan’s photography at his site, Averted Imagination. His photos of the skies are surpassingly beautiful.
For millions of consumers, credit debt is a burden, as is dealing with credit companies. From rate hikes to hidden fees creditors have historically been in control. In 2009, President Obama signed the CARD Act, which established regulations for companies charging consumers.
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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
Like most search and rescue robots, the systems the Japanese are deploying are designed to go where humans can't easily reach. According to a 
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