Humans have discovered and stepped on almost every swath of terrain on the planet, yet there are still places that have not been explored. Modern spelunking expeditions are unlikely to produce such fantastical results as Jules Verne's "A Journey to the Center of the Earth", but there are still some stunning sights to behold. Here are nine amazing caves from around the world that will make your jaw drop.
The Eisriesenwelt, 40 kilometers south of Salzburg, Austria
Patch Adams, M.D., author and founder of the Gesundheit! Institute, addressed the Transform 2010 Symposium sponsored by the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation. For more information on Transform, go to http://centerforinnovation.mayo.edu/transform/
Heart over head. Inclusion over ego. United by passion, we go all in.
New commercial for Adidas, featuring Justice's new track, "Civilization".
Buy it on April 4th on iTunes! -- http://www.facebook.com/etjusticepourtous
Video directed by Romain Gavras.
Also, featured on www.nvrmndclothing.com
If you are not watching The Celebrity Apprentice yet, well, what are you thinking? Do you like things that are great? You do. I figured as much. Well, then start watching this thing. For everyone else who is already on board - welcome. Let’s talk about it.
The task this week is actually kind of clever - the teams are sent to write and illustrate a children’s book based on a member of the team. The team then has to then perform the book for a packed house of 4 and 5 year olds. This is what Gary Busey looked like during the performance.
The men’s story was, obviously, about Lil’ John and something about him making friends. I think. Sounds right. The women had a hard time. They elected Lisa Rinna project manager even though she completely didn’t want to do it. The women decided the story would be about Latoya Jackson being a lion who couldn't roar. Latoya Jackson who, apparently is NOT an alien. Really?
Marlee Matlin wanted to add a deaf element which Dionne Warwick would have nothing to do with so she started on a hate-filled rant against deaf people. This was how mad Marlee Matlin was.
The fight prompted some woman named Nene Leakes, who is on Celebrity Apprentice for some reason, to say what was almost the line of the night. Regarding Dionne - "It's hard to have an argument with someone who is 70 years old. It just don't look right." AAAAAAAAAAH!
I say "almost the line of the night" because it would be eclipsed later on by Donald Trump in the boardroom who says apropos of nothing "You know, I like Lisa's lips much better now than I did a year ago." This of course regarding Lisa Rinna and her now less enhanced lips.
Another amazing moment came when Gary Busey stepped off a time machine and appeared as Gary Busey from 25 years ago.
What? That's Donald Trump's son? I had no idea. I thought it was Gary Busey from 25 years ago. My bad.
Anyway, the guys won. They were great. Everyone referred to Meat Loaf as "Meat" which is always hilarious. Donald Trump said things like "I think you made a great choice" and "You're Fired!"Lisa Rinna was sent home which was sad because Star Jones and Dionne Warwick were absolutely HORRIBLE people. Just really mean spirited and catty. Star Jones may be evil.
Oh yeah and Gary Busey picked his nose while some guy watched.
Google has released a major update to its iPhone app, giving it a new design, new features and even a new name.
Google Search for iPhone, formerly Google Mobile, features a brand-new interface for searching the web and accessing apps. The mobile search interface is now more like the regular Google.com interface. The mobile search app also includes quick access to Voice Search and to Google Googles, which lets users conduct searches via photo.
The biggest update to the Google Search app is a new search toolbar that is accessible by swiping from left to right. Google.com users will immediately recognize this toolbar. It’s almost identical to the left-hand column that appears on all Google Search result pages. Users can access news, image, shopping, video, blog, discussion, social, and place searches from the new search toolbar — thus dramatically improving the usefulness of Google’s iPhone app.
The new app includes another feature: the ability to pick up where you left off. If you get dragged into a series of phone calls while in the middle of a search, you can simply return to the page you were visiting by tapping the lower half of the page. The app also includes the familiar hotlist of Google’s mobile web apps, from Gmail to Google Earth.
In short, the app is a dramatic improvement from the previous version. It is faster, more intuitive and includes a deeper stable of mobile search features. Our only complaint: given that we’re in the fourth generation of iPhone, Google really should have released this app a long time ago.
. Foo Fighters have announced they will release a special covers album for Record Store Day. The vinyl-only disc, titled Medium Rare, will be out April 16th at participating record stores. This special album comes only four days after the Foos will release their seventh LP, Wasting Light, on April 12th. .
The album will offer 13 cover tracks, including new renditions of Cream’s “I Feel Free” and Prince’s “Darling Nikki.” Many of the tracks have previously been released in various fashions, however this is the first time all the covers will be available on one album. The record will also include previously unreleased covers of Thin Lizzy’s “Bad Reputation” and The Zombies’ “This Will Be Our Year.” .
To find out more about Record Store Day, the annual celebration for people that still buy actual albums, go here. You can find a complete list of participating stores where you can snag a copy of Medium Rarehere. .
Check out the complete tracklisting below. .
1. Band On The Run (Paul McCartney and Wings)
2. I Feel Free (Cream)
3. Life Of Illusion (Joe Walsh)
4. Young Man Blues (Mose Allison)
5. Bad Reputation (Thin Lizzy)
6. Darling Nikki (Prince)
7. Down In The Park (Gary Numan)
8. Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty)
9. Danny Says (The Ramones)
10. Have A Cigar (Pink Floyd)
11. Never Talking To You Again (Husker Du)
12. Gas Chamber (Angry Samoans)
13. This Will Be Our Year (The Zombies)
Since its launch in 2000, Zipcar has shaken up the car rental market and grown to include more than 550,000 members in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Its main selling points? The ability to reserve vehicles by the hour instead of by the day and the convenience of pickup locations all over major metropolitan areas. Similar services now include the nonprofits CityCarShare, I-Go Carsharing, and e-Go Carshare.
Now, new services are taking this model a step further. Instead of using a fleet of Zipcars, RelayRides, WhipCar, Spride Share, and Getaround allow car owners to rent out their vehicles to their neighbors when they’re not in use.
“Economically, it makes a ton of sense for both sides,” says Shelby Clark, the chief executive officer of RelayRides, which currently operates in Boston and San Francisco. “People underestimate how much it costs to own and maintain a vehicle.” AAA’s 2010 “Your Driving Costs” study revealed that that the owners of average-sized sedans spend more than $8,000 a year to own and operate their vehicle. Minivan owners spend more than $9,000 a year!
These sites allow car owners to offset some of these costs through rental fees. Owners get pricing guidelines based on their car’s year, condition, location, and other factors, but they ultimately set the hourly rate themselves.
For car renters, those rates can sometimes be lower than services like Zipcar. Tom Wright, cofounder of the UK-based WhipCar, says borrowers are motivated by cost and environmental factors. “Since they can use cars that are affordable and close to them, it doesn’t require extra cars and allows them to make better use of existing assets,” he says.
Many borrowers also appreciate that their money is going to a neighbor instead of a company, says Clark. Many of RelayRides’ car owners also offer special features like GPS, bike racks, CD collections, or even homemade cookies left in their vehicles.
But do the savings outweigh the safety and insurance risks?
As you can imagine, screening drivers and vehicles is a high priority for all of these sites. Wright says WhipCar conducts three-way conference calls with driving applicants and the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the UK equivalent of the RMV) to ensure that the person has a spotless driving record. WhipCar also requires that vehicles be no older than eight years and checks if the vehicle has been stolen or involved in accident. Other sites have similar policies, and some allow the owner and the driver to rate the experience afterwards based on the caliber of the vehicle and the driver.
Like Zipcar, peer-to-peer car sharing sites bear the cost of gas and auto insurance. In the case of RelayRides, drivers over the age of 21 are insured by RelayRides’ $1 million liability insurance policy but are liable for a $500 deductible (Clark says this ensures that they treat vehicles as their own). Drivers are also responsible for paying any parking or traffic tickets issued during their rental period. Getaround has very similar insurance policies.
Though car owners are not liable for accidents that occur while their car is being rented, some auto insurance companies are squeamish about personal car sharing. But state legislatures are, in some cases, taking the side of the consumer: California recently passed a bill on car sharing that makes it illegal for auto insurance companies to void the policies of car owners who rent out their vehicles. The state of Oregon is considering a similar bill.
Car owners outside of California and Oregon would be wise to check their auto insurance policy before renting out their vehicle. However, with growing environmental and cost concerns associated with cars, other states may pass car sharing legislation in the future.
Clark sees this as just one example of the sharing economy. “Society is increasing rejecting traditional forms for ownership,” he says, pointing to Netflix as an example. “In the nineties, everyone had these giant bookcases of VHS tapes. But at the end of the day, I didn’t really want to own all these movies, I just wanted to watch them. It makes sense to access that movie whenever you need it. The global economic crisis has forced people to take a step back, and realize that ownership might not make sense.”
After all the horror we are seeing these days, after the continuous bad news, I think it's time for some mind- and spirit-cleansing beauty. Something to remind us that humans and nature can sometimes produce awe-inspiring things. Like this video.
The Cassini spacecraft reached Saturn in 2004, sending the clearest images of the most striking planet in the Solar System. Working at home, Stephen Van Vuuren used those photos to create the most hypnotizing space film I've seen. There is no CGI and no 3D models in these images. Just images from NASA. Jump to 0:56 for the final result of his work, so far.
Stephen took the approach and orbit photos, painstakingly cropping, scaling, and putting them together in an IMAX-quality film. Tens of thousands 5,600,000-pixel video frames in full 32-bit natural color. He is still working on it. When he's done, I want to see this big. [Thanks Karl!]
With the launch of the iPad 2, Apple unveiled a new Digital AV adapter that takes content from your tablet device and lets you send it to your HDTV via HDMI. The dongle is compatible both the iPad and the iPad 2, but its functionality is boosted by Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR SGX 543MP2 GPU on Apple’s second generation tablet device. While the original Apple iPad lets you stream videos and photos from your tablet to your HDTV, the iPad 2 lets you mirror content. Mirroring lets you send anything displayed on your tablet over to your HDTV. Mirrored content can include presentations, documents, photos and even games.
The folks over at TouchGen took a closer look at this mirroring functionality and were impressed with its capability. Games optimized for the second generation Apple iPad, like Infinity Blade and Real Racing 2, were ported to a 50-inch HDTV with surprising clarity and speed. They claim it is console quality and people would not know the game was coming from an Apple tablet instead of an Xbox 360 or PS 3. The only drawback is the 4:3 ratio of the tablet output that is letter-boxed on the large screen TV.
Thanks to some video work from TouchGen, you can check out these games in action below. With the souped up graphics and dual-core processor of this latest tablet offering, is Apple narrowing the gap between mobile gaming and console gaming?
[Via TouchGen]
PURCHASE, NY — PepsiCo announced a response to Coca-Cola's PlantBottle, but unlike Coke's bottle, which is only 30 percent plant-based at the time, Pepsi says its will be completely derived from plants.
Pepsi will make its bottles out of switch grass, pine bark and corn husks, and like with Coke's PlantBottle, they're using natural materials to make PET plastic, so it can be recycled along with their current petroleum-based plastic bottles.
The beverage giant hopes to also use orange and potato peels, oat hulls and other agricultural byproducts from its Tropicana, Quaker and other operations in the future to make the bottles.
Pepsi will do a pilot run of the plant-based bottles in 2012, followed by commercialization based on the results of the test run.
While Coca-Cola beat Pepsi to putting out drinks in bottles made from plants first, Pepsi has the chance to put out the first recyclable bottle derived entirely from plants by a major company.
Coca-Cola's PlantBottles, which are also being used for Heinz ketchup and Odwalla juices, are still 70 percent petroleum-based. Scott Vitters, the company's global director of sustainable packaging, wrote in a GreenBiz.com post last year:
Our PlantBottle packaging is made by converting natural sugars found in plants into a key ingredient for making PET plastic. For those who want the technical specifics, we've innovated a way to develop plant-based MEG, a key component in PET plastic. PlantBottle is up to 30 percent plant-based because MEG is 30 percent of the total composition of PET plastic by weight. We still have more work to do to crack the code on a plant-based TA, which is the other 70 percent of PET plastic, but we know it is feasible.
Many of the most awe-inspiring caves formed along the shores of oceans and lakes. Also known as littoral caves, these geological wonders are carved into rocky coastal cliffs through long-term wave action along weakened fault lines in cliffs.
In addition to spelunking, sea caves provide ample recreational opportunities for kayaking, swimming, free diving, scuba diving and more. While many of these caves are found in the craggy coastlines of Europe, some of the largest sea caves in the world — such as California's Painted Cave and Oregon's Sea Lion Cave — can be found on the rocky Pacific coast of the United States.
Smartphones and iPads, while providing an overall immersive experience, can still seem pretty alienating because most of us pore over them without any consideration for the world around us. They can foster a very isolated media experience, as our attention is focused specifically on a device that, at its core, was never designed to accommodate more than one user at a time. Conversely, they also provide great multimedia and interactive access to digital film and images. Could these small devices be somehow brought together to not only enhance their display capabilities, but also offer a more shared experience? The folks over at the MIT Labs have offered a quirky solution to this problem.
Using simple browser-based technology they have created the Junkyard Jumbotron, which allows users to cluster a group of screen-based devices (including smartphones, tablets, and laptops) to form a larger screen. After bringing up a unique URL on each device, one takes a photograph of all the screens, which is then analyzed by special software that maps out the location of each screen in relation to the others. Then the image can be transmitted to multiple devices at once, creating a fragmented, mosaic-like effect.
Not only does the Junkyard Jumbotron increase the size of a photograph, it also allows for zooming and panning, which subsequently moves the images on all the screens at once. Although the technology is only used for images so far, we can’t help but think about what it would be like to view video in the same way. While the boundaries of each display don’t make for the most unified experience, the effect could be appropriated for aesthetic purposes by an enterprising artist. It would also make for a neat party trick with a group of smartphone-toting friends.
As St. Patrick's Day draws near, many of you may be anticipating a nice chilled glass of Guinness, complete with a creamy foam head. But if you're not propping up a bar in Ireland, and are instead pouring your beer out of a can at home, that long-lasting head can only be produced with the help of a plastic widget.
Simply pouring a carbonated beer, such as a lager, from the can into a glass is enough to generate a head. But this is not the case for stouts, which are infused with nitrogen bubbles, rather than carbon dioxide, in order to create their uniquely smooth texture. The small plastic widgets in each can of stout contain pressurized nitrogen, which is released once the can is opened, triggering some of the dissolved nitrogen in the beer to bubble up into a head.
Using applied mathematics, including the ideal gas equation and a fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme with a timestep of 10-3, however, a team from the University of Limerick in Ireland recently discovered that microscopic plant fibers made of cellulose, such as cotton, can also froth up a stout.
In a paper publishing their findings earlier this month, the Limerick mathematicians conclude:
A typical pouring time for a stout beer is 30 seconds. In this time about 108 postcritical nuclei must be released. A single fibre produces one bubble every 1.28 seconds. Therefore about 4.3 × 106 fibres are needed. If each fibre occupies a surface of area λ2 then the total area that must be occupied by fibres is 8.3 × 10-4 m2.
Or, in plain English, embedding a 1 inch square of food-safe biodegradable cellulose fibers in a Guinness can would produce a perfect creamy head, doing away with the need for plastic widgets altogether. And although the technology is a long away from the shelves yet, removing plastic from our food chain is certainly something to drink to. Images: (1) Courtesy of Michael Devereux/Mathematics Applications Consortium for Science and Industry, via Wired, still showing how pockets of air trapped in tiny cellulose fibers, each between 10 and 50 microns wide, help nitrogen and carbon dioxide bubble out; (2) the Guinness widget (cc) by Flickr user slworking2, via Wired.
The iPad is definitely a well-liked gadget, and now parents with autistic children have one more reason to like this handy little tablet: it may help reduce the number of violent meltdowns their children experience each day. According to experts, the iPad actually can reduce the symptoms of the disorder by helping kids deal with life's sensory overload.
The Holmquist family can tell you first-hand what the iPad has done for their autistic 3-year-old son Hudson. After a school therapist suggested the family buy an iPad, the Holmquists decided it was worth a try. Now that the family has been using the iPad for a little while, they'll tell you it is a miracle device.
Hudson was diagnosed with autism in 2010. Before the iPad, he had several violent meltdowns a day. Now, after using the iPad, he has fewer violent meltdowns. According to mother Laura Holmquist, "The iPad has given us our family back." She continued saying, "It's unlocked a new part of our son that we hadn't seen before, and given us insight into the way he connects with his world."
You may be surprised to learn that autism experts aren't surprised by this. In fact, the iPad has been gaining recognition for helping autistic children since it first came out in 2010. Certainly part of the attraction is the number of child-friendly educational apps available. Another key reason why the iPad works so well for autistic children: it lacks a keyboard and mouse. Without these peripherals, there is less distraction for the children.
Given the fact that other tablets have similar functionalities (and lack of peripherals), we have to think other tablets could help autistic children as well. Could it be that we'll see more tablets in schools and other educational environments? Time will tell.
Photo: Susan Poag via The Times-Picayune
Scientists at the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans have made a genetic-breakthrough of the most adorable proportions -- successfully producing two endangered kittens via in vitro fertilization. With sperm taken from a male African black-footed cat in 2003, the team inseminated an egg in 2005. The embryo remained frozen until last December, when it was finally transferred to a surrogate female named Bijou. Less than three months later, the tiny, fluffy duo were born.
In addition to being one of the world's most threatened species of feline, African black-footed cats are also among the smallest. A fully grown adult will typically be just a fraction of the size of a regular house-cat. Less than 50 specimens are known to exist on the planet -- and 19 of those are housed at facilities in the United States. Experts say that they face threats from weary farmers who try to poison them and from human expansion in their native habitat.
This first successful birth from frozen embryos, however, offers hope for conservationists that the diminutive cats will avoid extinction.
"They haven't reproduced well in captivity at all. This is really prevention, for the future, keeping species from going extinct," says Betsy Dresser of the Audubon Nature Institute. "They're so low in number. If we don't do something, we're going to lose them."
Photo: Susan Poag via The Times-Picayune
A report from The Times-Picayune provides more details on how advances in genetics can help save species like the African black-footed cat:
A goal of the research is to learn how to use much more plentiful domestic cats as surrogate mothers and then spread the technique to other institutions and zoos so the population of the compact, wild cats can be rebuilt and reintroduced in conservation areas, Dresser said.
"We don't know what the future holds for many of these species," said the facility in a news release. "But we do know that by preserving DNA and working on protocol for creating pregnancies and producing babies through cryo-preservation and surrogate mothers, we are giving these species a shot at survival even when their numbers dip to dangerously low levels."
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.”
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.
Advertisement
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.
.
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.
After all the 
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 
.
Posts
