2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Premiere Edition

On June 30, 1953, the first Corvette rolled out from the company’s plant in Flint, Michigan. Now, the company decided to mark the 60th anniversary of the Corvette with the introduction of the 2014 Corvette Stingray Premiere Edition. The model will also mark the production launch of the seventh-generation Corvette on June 28, 2013 in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

PayPal Galactic: how we'll do business in space

In a few years when you're checking out of your room at the Space Hotel, what the heck are you going to use to tip the chambermaid? That's the type of question that a new initiative called PayPal Galactic aims to answer.

Experiment of the Day: Watch a chain of beads levitate

"Self siphoning beads" make for a fun experiment. When one end of the chain is dropped out of a cup, the considerable heft of the falling beads will drag the others out as well. Okay, that's pretty standard, but there's more: the beads actually begin to to lift out of the cup rather than simply spill over the side.

Samsung announces curved OLED for $13,000

Samsung launched its first curved OLED TV in South Korea on Thursday, just a week after announcing availability of its flat-screen OLED, the KN55F9500. But the curve will cost you, with a price of $13,000 U.S., or $4,000 more than the flat version.

The television will ship in July, and according to Reuters, the company plans to release thecurved version in other territories as well, though Samsung has yet to confirm if this includes the United States.

Device aims to eliminate multiple breast-cancer surgeries

A prototype device created by John Hopkins University grad students can enable a pathologist to inspect excised breast tissue mid-surgery to determine whether a cancerous tumor has been fully removed.

The prototype's ability to dramatically reduce the time to inspect breast tissue -- down to as quickly as 20 minutes -- could ultimately decrease, if not flat out eliminate, the need for a second operation on the same tumor, John Hopkins announced this week.

One in five women who have surgery to remove cancerous breast tissue have to go back for follow-up surgery because not all the diseased tissue is removed. That amounts to about 60,000 patients annually in the U.S.

The four grad students became aware of the problem in 2012 during the school's year-long biomedical engineering master's program, when they were tasked with designing new medical tools to address urgent health care issues. Breast cancer surgeons told the students that they are "desperate" for a tool that enables them to remove an entire tumor the first time around, student and co-inventor Hector Neira said in a school news release.

Japan's Skyfall deserted island city mapped by Street View

Google's Street View team won't stop until they map every square inch of the planet, after which it's not entirely unlikely that they'll set their sights on outer space. In the meantime, here on Earth, yet another obscure, hard to reach location has been mapped by the Street View team in Japan.

It's official: That new Terminator movie is a reboot AND a trilogy

Arnie may be back, but Terminator itself is going back to square one.

We've been hearing talk of a Terminator 5 for a little while now, but it turns out the roboapocalypse is getting a little more of a facelift than we originally thought.

The new film, which will be called simply Terminator, will be a reboot for the franchise. Not only that, but it will be the first film in a standalone trilogy. Considering that the last two Terminator films weren't exactly the most successful or well-regarded, we can't say we're surprised. In fact, we're not terribly bummed about it, either. Terminator has always been about time travel anyway, so it's not hard to imagine that messing with the space-time continuum wouldn't eventually get us right back to the beginning anyway. 

Del Toro responds to the bad buzz that Pacific Rim will be a bomb

Despite the fact that sci-fi fans are going nuts for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim, the flick is apparently tracking badly with the masses. So is the mechs-vs.-monsters epic doomed to go the way of John Carter?

Del Toro doesn’t think so, and actually addressed a thread on “bad buzz” on his studio forum. According to Del Toro, all that negative press is starting to turn around, and the film still has a great chance to be a hit.

Can Wi-Fi let you see people through walls?

It isn't exactly Superman-like X-ray vision, but cheap, low-power Wi-Fi technology is gaining more attention as a remote sensing tool.

Do you really wish you had X-ray vision? Sure, it would be fun to see what your neighbors are doing behind those walls -- until you see something you wish you hadn't.

Regardless, researchers at MIT have developed a sensing technology that uses low-power Wi-Fi to detect moving people. It follows other wall-penetrating sensor tech using radar and heavy equipment.

Meet 'The Horizon System,' Clip-Air's worst nightmare

Hot on the heels of Clip-Air, the train-meets-airplane mass transit system, a second, similar design has surfaced. If you've seen the images of Clip-Air, you'll note the tell-tale flying wing shape right off the bat. Here too are the passenger cars, carried upon the massive airliner's underbelly. And yes, the cars detach and become part of a transit system upon arrival at your destination. Just like Clip-Air.

AirBoxLab tackles the air pollution hiding in your own home

Recent pollution catastrophes like the smog bomb that hit Beijing months ago and the haze that descended upon Singapore this month have raised everyone's awareness about air quality. But despite all the smartphones and "quantified self" health trackers on the market, there remains a dearth of devices that address our new air quality concerns. 

Google Sues IRS for $83.5 Million Tax Refund!

Holy cow, suing the IRS for $83.5 million takes balls. Go get em' Google! 

Google Inc. sued the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for an $83.5 million refund, claiming it was improperly denied a deduction for a 2004 stock transaction with America Online Inc. The IRS erred in disallowing a $238.6 million deduction claimed for the difference between the price AOL paid to exercise a warrant for Google stock and the value of the shares, according to the complaint in U.S. Tax Court.

"The Last Of Us" Stole This Guy's Art

What's up with all the "The Last of Us ripped me off" stories? First it was the actress saying they ripped off her likeness, now we have this story.

"Naughty Dog seems to have known that they couldn't use the official map without paying a hefty license fee," alleges Booth, "so it looks like they just went on the Internet and found another one. Cos, you know, images on the Internet are free for anyone to use, right? Not."

Intel Labs Looks Inside the Future

Car tail lights saving lives, immersive displays allowing photos to tell their own story, personalized shopping experiences. These are just a few of the innovations presented by Intel Corporation today at its11th annual Research@Intel event, a showcase of the most innovative new research spawned from Intel's internal efforts and external collaborations. Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, kicked off today's event by highlighting some of the 20 groundbreaking research projects on exhibition today.

Adobe Hopes to Turn Pirates into Customers

This is just too funny. Why? Because up until now, Adobe has done everything in its power to make sure the opposite of this headline is true.

Rather than punishing them with enforcement actions, software company Adobe says it now prefers to deal with pirates by converting them into paying customers. "Everyone is tired of the entire concept and term ‘Anti-Piracy’, even the term ‘Content Protection’ too," Adobe’s Anti-Piracy chief Richard Atkinson says. Adobe believes that the piracy problem is in part created by the industry and that companies themselves hold the key to solving it.

Two Teens Convicted For Instagram Insults

Can you imagine if the laws were the same here? Half the country would be arrested. 

"Many think they are anonymous when they are sitting behind a computer and therefore take greater liberties than if that anonymity wasn't there," the plaintiffs' attorney, Arash Raoufi, said. "The verdict sends a signal to young people and society that this indignity culture cannot be allowed to exist. I hope it will also result in parents being more alert to what kids do at the computer," he said.

Killer Robotic Ape In Development

I, for one, welcome our new robotic ape overlords. Damn you dirty robotic apes! Damn you!

Warner Bros: Pirates Show Us What Consumers Want

It looks like Hollywood now views piracy as a "proxy of consumer demand." What ever happened to the whole "piracy is not a victimless crime" stuff?

Major content companies are beginning to acknowledge that "pirates" aren’t necessarily all evil, but actually lead the way to future business models. Movie studio Warner Bros. is among those who are starting to interpret piracy as a marker signal. "We view piracy as a proxy of consumer demand," Warner Bros. anti-piracy chief David Kaplan notes, adding that the company adjusts its legal offerings to better compete with piracy.

The 'World War Z' Ending You Didn't See

Did you hear that big sigh of relief from Brad Pitt and Paramount Pictures Sunday morning?

Despite all the well-publicized trouble – including five screenwriters, two endings, and millions over budget – Pitt and Paramount's "World War Z" cashed in at the box office this weekend, raking in $66 million domestically and $111 million worldwide – Pitt's largest opening ever.

And to add to Pitt's mirth, on the heels of the film's success, Paramount's vice chairman, Rob Moore,announced plans to develop a sequel. But odds are good it won't be the sequel that Pitt and company originally had in mind.

Men's Wearhouse: Why We Fired Zimmer

Men's Wearhouse has finally explained why it fired executive chairman George Zimmer last week, depicting the founder as power-hungry in his desire to sell the company to private investors.

"Mr. Zimmer reversed his long-standing position against taking the company private by arguing for a sale of the Men's Wearhouse to an investment group," the company's board of directors wrote Tuesday in a statement it made public.

Barnes & Noble: The Final Chapter?

The last nationwide book retailer may be writing its final chapter. Barnes & Noble's (BKS) latest quarterly sales results show a lack of foot traffic in the stores and an absence of management focus on retail that foreshadows a disappointing end for the company's 675 stores and perhaps its entire existence.

This morning the company reported a 7.4% drop in revenues and a $122 million loss for the fourth-quarter of its fiscal year. For the full year Barnes & Noble earned a mere $10 million, compared to $177 million in 2012.

B&N's disastrous focus on making Nook e-Readers is weighing heavily on the chain's operations. A 17% drop in Nook revenues and stunning $475 million loss for the device division in 2013 are hobbling the company's ability to keep its stores afloat in an increasingly tough environment for bricks and mortar stores.

Sign Language Interpreter Lydia Callis: ‘Beautiful Language That is Silent’

American sign language interpreter Lydia Callis became an overnight sensation when she worked with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg last fall during Superstorm Sandy. Though interpreting vital information for the deaf community, her vibrant nature, strong facial expressions and seemingly dramatic gestures appeared humorous to some non-signing viewers. Loads of satirical YouTube videos, a spoof on "Saturday Night Live," and a mention on "The Daily Show" soon followed.

Callis, however, was not dismayed. She has used her newfound fame to bring positive attention and advocacy to the deaf community.

"What I realized throughout all that is that the general population doesn’t know much about deafness, or deaf culture or the language, and I think that’s why it was such a novelty to everyone," she said.

US factory boss held hostage by workers in Beijing

BEIJING (AP) — An American executive said Monday he has been held hostage for four days at his medical supply plant in Beijing by scores of workers demanding severance packages like those given to 30 co-workers in a phased-out department.

Chip Starnes, 42, a co-owner of Coral Springs, Florida-basedSpecialty Medical Supplies, said local officials had visited the 10-year-old plant on the capital's outskirts and coerced him into signing agreements Saturday to meet the workers' demands even though he sought to make clear that the remaining 100 workers weren't being laid off.

Why China has a 'one dog policy'

Western human rights activists have never made much of a fuss about it, but China’s “one child policy” has a little known canine equivalent.

The “one dog policy” means what it says. In cities such as Beijing andShanghai, each household is allowed only one canis lupus familiaris.Nor are urban pet lovers allowed just any kind of dog.

“Vicious” dogs are outlawed. But so is every other dog that is likely to stand more than 14 inches high when it is fully grown.

5 reasons we're glad we refinanced to a 15-year mortgage

My husband and I purchased our home in Hudson, Wis., in 2011 with a 30-year mortgage. In the months following our move in, we found ourselves questioning that 30-year term. Currently in our 30s, it dawned on us that we would most likely have grandchildren before our mortgage was paid off. Sure, we could pay it off sooner by making extra payments each month, but we knew it would be difficult for us to follow through unless that payment was a requirement, not a mere option. We decided to reevaluate our finances and look into shortening the term of our home loan.

So in August 2012 -- just a year after buying our house -- we refinanced. We went from a 30-year 4.25 percent mortgage to a 15-year loan at 3.375 percent. Our monthly payment increased by over $350, from a principal and interest payment of $875 a month to $1,229.

This increase was not insignificant in our budget. We had to make changes in our lifestyle, including restraint when it came to purchasing things that we didn't necessarily need.

Microsoft Is Behind $700M Mystery Data Center

After a week of speculation and wild guesses, the mysterious company behind the $700 million data centerin Iowa is...Microsoft.

"Project Mountain" is an expansion of Microsoft’s existing data center in West Des Moines, pushing the company’s investment in the region to the $1 billion range, says Debi Durham, director of the state agency in charge of economic development. The Iowa Economic Development Authority board approved $20 million in tax credits for the project. The company already employs around 50 people in Iowa and plans to add at least 24 more for the new data center.

China Air-Freight Handlers at Guangzhou Airport - No Care Policy?

This was amazing to watch. I think I was the only one noticing what was happening outside the window of the plane, and this time I captured it. On a previous occasion I saw a load of Japanese sewing machines with 'this way up' and 'fragile, handle with care' stickers over the boxes also being thrown on to the conveyor. 
Lesson: Pack it well, because it wont be treated well.

Laziest worker unloads train!

Looks like this railroad worker in Russia doesn't really seem too concerned about those packages!

Dealing in myths: Debunking common car-buying advice

Humility about one’s own knowledge and abilities is the key to finding success in life. With that profound fortune-cookie philosophy in mind, let’s deal with five myths that, should you naively accept them, will prevent you from scoring a great deal when buying a new car.

And the myths we’ve chosen are just five among hundreds. A friendly Southern CaliforniaPorsche/Mercedes-Benz sales veteran—who prefers anonymity—helped us separate fact from fiction. A ­second salesperson, this one from the East Coast, also weighed in [see “On the Marks,” below]. Quoth the SoCal gent: “It’s like someone wrote a how-to-get-the-best-deal book 10 or 15 years ago and no one has bothered to update it. The business has changed.”

Made in the USA: Journey behind the label

After a manufacturing plant closed down in his hometown of Ravenswood, W.Va., resulting in 650 people losing their jobs, Josh Miller began to wonder what was really made in America anymore.

He decided to set out on a 30-day road trip across the United States in search of answers for how to revive American manufacturing - all the while trying to survive on only goods and products stamped with “Made in USA.”

“I really thought that I could take this opportunity to give the Made in America movement and these folks a voice,” said Miller, who documented his trip in a film, “Made in the USA: The 30 Day Journey.”

Miller told Top Line that the Made in America movement isn’t so much about trying to get people to buy only American-made products that might be more expensive than foreign-made ones, but it’s about finding solutions to lower the prices of American-made products.

Five Retailers Exciting Consumers, Inflaming Skeptics

They sell cropped workout pants and crop fertilizer; they serve up beer, burritos or blond highlights.

These companies have little in common, really, except that they're America’s new favorite store chains, expanding quickly throughout the country, exciting shoppers when they arrive in their town and generating lush profits along the way.

While delighting consumers with their take on the familiar presented in fresh, convenient ways, these retailers on a hot streak have also enriched their investors. Each of them is arguably in or near the sweet spot of their development. They’re large and mature enough to have perfected their store models, won widespread consumer recognition and reached sufficient scale for effective advertising strategies. They have expanded their locations by 40% to 90% since 2008, in most cases going from regional to national.

Yet their brands, so far, haven’t turned tired or over-familiar, and by their own and analysts’ estimates they are not much more than halfway to their potential size.

Hostess: Twinkies to return to shelves July 15, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) — Hostess is betting on a sweet comeback for Twinkies when they return to shelves next month.

The company that went bankrupt after an acrimonious fight with its unionized workers last year is back up and running under new owners and a leaner structure. It says it plans to have Twinkies and other snack cakes back on shelves starting July 15.

Latest bird flu strain H7N9 'kills more than a third' - June 2013

LONDON (AP) -- More than a third of patients infected with a new strain of bird flu died after being admitted to the hospital earlier this year, Chinese researchers report in a new study.

Since the new H7N9 bird flu first broke out in China in late March, the strain has sickened more than 130 people and killed 37. The World Health Organization has previously described H7N9 as "one of the most lethal influenza viruses" it has ever seen and said it appeared to spread faster than the last bird flu strain, H5N1, that threatened to unleash a pandemic.

After making some adjustments for missing data, the Chinese scientists estimated the overall death rate to be 36 percent. The outbreak was stopped after China closed many of its live animal markets — scientists had assumed the virus was infecting people through exposure to live birds.

Malibu homeowners foiled by an app to ‘free the beach’

For years, multimillionaires have been bullying beachgoers in Malibu, Calif., trying hard to keep them away from the pristine—and public—sand and surf.

The sneaky homeowners have used orange cones, phony no-trespassing signs, security guards and fake garage doors to prevent regular folks from accessing the beachfront.

One resident on Malibu Road even planted hedges to hide an accessway, said Ben Adair, co-founder of Escape Apps, which partnered with environmental writer Jenny Price to develop a new app called Our Malibu Beaches. The app shows users exactly where each public access point is along the 20 miles of Malibu coast absorbed by private development.

2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray hits 60 mph in 3.8 seconds, hunts supercars

Not that long ago, a sports car was anything that could hit 60 mph in five seconds. More advanced models have pushed that threshold to below five seconds, with the Porsche 911 able to break that speed in 4.5 seconds. Today, Chevrolet revealed the 2014 Corvette Stingray will make the jaunt in 3.8 seconds, a time that along with its other performance stats place the new Vette in elite company.



Underwater photographer Sarah Lee uses a technique known as "duck diving" to capture these stunning photos of surfers in Hawaii. Surfers "duck dive" under the water to avoid incoming waves so they can get further out to sea. PHOTOS

Oculus Rift just got its first porn title: Wicked Paradise

The Oculus Rift doesn't have a release date yet. Heck, Oculus VR hasn't even announced whatquarter they'll begin shipping the consumer version of their headsets. There are only fourplayable games out of development for the VR headset to date, but as per usual, nothing can stop the porn industry.

The game is called Wicked Paradise, and its goal is to become the world's first immersive erotic virtual reality adventure game. We're not gonna get into the particulars of the whole immersion angle right now, but suffice it to say that the game aims to offer lots of "excitement."

To ease shortage of organs, grow them in a lab?

NEW YORK (AP) — By the time 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan finally got a lung transplant last week, she'd been waiting for months, and her parents had sued to give her a better shot at surgery.

Her cystic fibrosis was threatening her life, and her case spurred a debate on how to allocate donor organs. Lungs and other organs for transplant are scarce.

But what if there were another way? What if you could grow a custom-made organ in a lab?

Chinese supercomputer named as world's fastest

BEIJING (AP) -- China has built the world's fastest supercomputer, almost twice as fast as the previous U.S. holder and underlining the country's rise as a science and technology powerhouse.

The semiannual TOP500 official listing of the world's fastest supercomputers released Monday says the Tianhe-2 developed by the National University of Defense Technology in central China's Changsha city is capable of sustained computing of 33.86 petaflops per second. That's the equivalent of 33,860 trillion calculations per second.

The Tianhe-2, which means Milky Way-2, knocks the U.S. Department of Energy's Titan machine off the no. 1 spot. It achieved 17.59 petaflops per second.

A robot that runs like a cat

Thanks to the design of its legs, which faithfully mimic feline morphology, EPFL's four-legged "cheetah-cub robot" shares the advantages of its biological model: it is small, light and runs very fast. In the long term, this type of machine, which is still in an experimental stage, could be used in search and rescue missions or for exploration.

MakerBot Acquired In $403 Million Deal

It looks like MakerBot just started 3D printing money!

In a release, the companies said it was a stock-for-stock transaction worth about $403 million, based on Stratasys' stock price as of Wednesday. Stratasys will exchange 4.76 million shares of its stock for 100 percent of MakerBot's outstanding stock. By agreeing to be acquired, MakerBot becomes part of one of the leading industrial 3D printing companies.

Video: Young Steve Jobs discusses his legacy

Now that one of technology's greatest visionaries, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, has passed away, any unexplored tidbit of information, whether it's an old email or an unseen photo, suddenly becomes a part of history to be examined.

Enjoy all 1.3 billion pixels of this impressive Mars panorama

NASA is going big. Very big. The space agency used technology from panoramic equipment and software company GigaPan to help stitch together a massive image of the surface of Mars that hits 1.3 billion pixels. The interactive view of the Rocknest landscape is courtesy of the Curiosity rover.

It took the rover's three cameras and image collection activities spread over several different days to gather all the visual data. This is the first NASA-produced image from the surface of Mars to top the 1-billion-pixel mark.

3D-printing giant bugs out of titanium... for science!

Australia is known for its overly large bugs, like the up-to-20-inch Titan stick insect. But the country also has tiny insects, like the itsy-bitsy wheat wheevil. Researchers with Australia's national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), are trying out a method of super-sizing insects through 3D printing.

Jaguar Working on a 700-Horsepower F-Type R-S Coupe



Just yesterday the upcoming Jaguar F-Type Coupe was caught testing at the Nürburgring racetrack. Now, British magazine AutoExpress is offering us some awesome news. Apparently, Jaguar is developing a 700-horsepower R-S version of the F-Type Coupe.

3D-printed room to have intricacies of cathedral architecture

Michael Hansmeyer and Benjamin Dillenburger aren't your average sculptors. They don't toil, chisel in one hand and mallet in the other, for years on end — creating a one-off masterpiece. Their art is not another in the long line of homages to the human form. Instead, they tend to focus on M.C. Escher-esque landscapes and alien constructs.

[H] Case Mod of the Day

Remember the case mod of the day (done by [H] forum member B NEGATIVE) we told you to keep an eye on? Here are a few more pictures of the mod in progress, hit the link to see the complete worklog:

Mac Pro server farm design looks like an array of laser cannons

When Apple took the wraps off its newly designed Mac Pro last week, after getting over the initial shock at the radical new design, some began to wonder what an entire server farm of the black bullet style computers might look like. Now one company has not only committed to offering such a solution, but they've gone as far as posting a design of what the new Mac Pro server array will look like.

Iron Man returns! Downey signs new 2-year deal with Marvel

Robert Downey Jr.’s status with Marvel has been in flux ever since his lengthy contract finally ran out after Iron Man 3, but Disney has just ponied up enough cash to keep him in the suit for at least a few more movies.

Physicists say they may have found a completely new form of matter

Looks like physicists may be making room for new kinds of particles soon.
Physicists working at two different particle accelerators -- the Belle experiment in Japan and the Beijing Spectrometer Experiment (BESIII) in China (pictured above) -- have indepedently found what may be a type of matter that's not only never been seen, but never been predicted: a particle made of four quarks.

There’s never been a better time to buy a laptop - June 2013

Recent havoc in the laptop industry means outstanding summer deals for consumers. How outstanding? Try Black Friday-like prices. Analysts are blaming Windows 8 for the lull in laptop sales, which will likely give tablet sales enough of an upper hand to surpass notebook shipments later this year.
“Windows 8 was supposed to give them a jump-start, but Redmond's new operating system turned out to be worse than Vista. In fact, analysts are now blaming Windows 8 for the lull in sales, Even the mighty Intel can't save the laptop industry,” says Dealnews.
They’re predicting record-breaking laptop deals, especially with back-to-school sales surfacing each week. So there's never been a better time to pounce on a deal. Prices are currently in the $350 range – and have gone as low as $299 – for an Ivy Bridge 15" Core i5-based system with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. So anything you find at or below $299 is an Editors' Choice-worthy deal.
Here’s some shopping tools – and a few deals – to help you navigate your laptop shopping.

Microsoft reverses ‘always-on’ internet, used game policies for Xbox One

Always-on? Not so fast.
In a stunning turnaround, Microsoft on Wednesday announced plans to change some of the controversial features and policies built into their upcoming Xbox One game console.
The news was first reported by Giant Bomb and later confirmed by Xbox head Don Mattrick, who posted a statement on the Xbox One website detailing changes coming to the two biggest thorns in the company’s side: required internet access for the system to work and their somewhat draconian approach to used game sales.
"Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback," he wrote. "I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One. You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world."

The most dangerous cities in America, 2013

After falling for five consecutive years, the number of violent crimes across the United States rose by 1.2% in 2012. Based on data published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the increase was even greater in some of America’s largest cities. In 2012, for the third year in a row, Flint, Michigan had the highest violent crime rate in the country.

According to the FBI, violent crime includes murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. In some cases, the cities with the highest violent crime rate, including Flint and Oakland, had high rates in all four categories. However, most of the most violent cities tend to do very poorly only in a few categories.

New tiny battery is a powerhouse for computers, robotics

Imagine a computer so small it could slip through the human bloodstream. At just a millimeter in width, a new battery built by a Harvard University and University of Illinois team is perfectly suited to be a power source for tiny computers. It is also the first battery to ever be fabricated with a 3D printer.
The team used a custom printer and ink to produce the batteries. A nozzle .03 millimeters–or 30 microns–wide deposited layers of nanoparticle-packed paste in a comb-like shape. A second printed comb nestled into the first, their teeth interlocked. These functioned as the two halves of electrodes, which conduct electricity.

Why MakerBot Is Like Apple

When we first discovered that MakerBot was looking to partner with Stratasys, I was a bit non-plussed. MakerBot, as I’ve noted before, has a certain indie cred that makes this move a bit unpalatable.
But, at the same time, it’s immensely important.
Stratasys makes expensive, industrial-quality 3D printers. They are the “big iron” of the 3D printing world. Items printed on Stratasys hardware are as solid as anything produced by, say, injection molding, and the resolution make them indispensable for engineers and designers. In short, Stratasys is making mainframes and MakerBot is making the Apple I. While I’m loath to claim that Bre Pettis is Woz (let alone Steve Jobs), he is a charismatic leader who makes 3D printing fun, something the folks at Stratasys probably could never do.

Verizon Was Ordered To Turn Over Millions of Americans' Phone Records To NSA

Conspiracy theorists across the country are probably giving each other high fives this evening. Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian has an incredible scoop: a court order from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court instructing Verizon to turn over metadata from all calls originating in the U.S. over a three-month period (ending July 19, 2013) to the National Security Agency (NSA) on a daily basis. A note on the order says it supposed to have remained classified until April 2038. It orders Verizon to turn over “all call detail records or ‘telephony metadata’ created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”
It’s worth noting that Verizon has over 100 million subscribers.
Metadata includes “originating and terminating telephone number, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number, International Mobile station Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, etc.), trunk identifier, telephone calling card numbers, and time and duration of call.” This doesn’t include the actual contents of the phone call; basically the NSA wants to be able to see which phones are calling which phones. The order also specifies that Verizon is not required to hand over the “name, address, or financial information of a subscriber or customer.” NSA would have to track down the identities associated with the numbers or the phone’s i.d. through a different database, or with another court order.

The Web Cookie Is Dying. Here's The Creepier Technology That Comes Next

It may raise hackles to think that U.S. intelligence officials might be monitoring your telephone and Internet communications, but for most of us it’s only the marketers who are really interested in our everyday online activities. And with many billions of dollars at stake, companies are increasingly turning to more sophisticated techniques to identify potential clients and deliver relevant advertising.
Many Internet advertisers rely on cookies, digital code stored on your browser. Some websites place multiple cookies when you visit, allowing them to track some of your activity over time (you can see who is tracking you by installing an application such as Ghostery or Abine’s “DoNotTrackMe”).
The problem for marketers is that some users set their browsers to reject cookies or quickly extinguish them. And mobile phones, which are taking an increasing chunk of the Web usage, do not use cookies.
To combat the cookie’s flaws, advertisers and publishers are increasingly turning to something called fingerprinting. This technique allows a web site to look at the characteristics of a computer such as what plugins and software you have installed, the size of the screen, the time zone, fonts and other features of any particular machine. These form a unique signature just like random skin patterns on a finger. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has found that 94% of browsers that use Flash or Java – which enable key features in Internet browsing – had unique identities.

How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did

Every time you go shopping, you share intimate details about your consumption patterns with retailers. And many of those retailers are studying those details to figure out what you like, what you need, and which coupons are most likely to make you happy. Target, for example, has figured out how to data-mine its way into your womb, to figure out whether you have a baby on the way long before you need to start buying diapers.
Charles Duhigg outlines in the New York Times how Target tries to hook parents-to-be at that crucial moment before they turn into rampant — and loyal — buyers of all things pastel, plastic, and miniature. He talked to Target statistician Andrew Pole — before Target freaked out and cut off all communications — about the clues to a customer’s impending bundle of joy. Target assigns every customer a Guest ID number, tied to their credit card, name, or email address that becomes a bucket that stores a history of everything they’ve bought and any demographic information Target has collected from them or bought from other sources.

Never Give Stores Your Zip Code. Here's Why

Why do merchants sometimes ask us for our ZIP code when we buy something?
I recently visited the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, an interesting addition to Sin City’s attractions. I paid my admission with a credit card, prompting the museum ticket seller to ask me: “What’s your ZIP code?”
When I paused for a moment, she added: “It’s for marketing purposes.”
As much as I had heard good things about the museum, I was unlikely to return soon as I live far from Las Vegas, so I was not anxious to receive subsequent marketing. She said it was okay not to give the ZIP code, and then addressed me by name in wishing me a good visit.
Jo Anna Davis remembers one ZIP code request that did not end well. A California victim of domestic violence who works at a group to help other victims, she guards her privacy carefully. Over the years she became a loyal customer of Ulta, the beauty care company. On one occasion she purchased a skin care kit which caused an unpleasant reaction. She brought the kit back to the store for a refund, and the clerk asked for Davis’ ZIP code to process the transaction.

Texas teacher finds, returns bank bag with $20K

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- An unemployed teacher was driving home after dropping her cat off at a veterinarian when she noticed a bag on the street. She stopped but doubted it contained anything, but soon discovered the bag was holding about $20,000.

Candace Scott said the bag had a Chase bank label, so she promptly delivered it to a nearby branch. She pound on the glass around 8 a.m. Tuesday to get the branch manager to come to the door before the bank opened for business, The Eagle newspaper reported (http://bit.ly/1bVj7OR). The banker thanked Scott for returning the cash.

"She told me I'm the most honest person in the world, and I said 'or the dumbest,'" Scott said.

Why Chrysler Backtracked on Jeep Recalls

On the surface, it appears that Chrysler did an about-face involving safety recalls on more than 1 million Jeep SUVs. But behind the scenes, Chrysler negotiated a much better deal with the government than safety regulators asked for just two weeks ago.

In early June, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officially asked the No. 3 Detroit automaker to recall up to 2.7 million Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Liberty SUVs and install a modification that would address concerns about fuel lines that could contribute to a fire in rear-end crashes. Chrysler surprised industry analysts by refusing to initiate a recall, which seemed to set the stage for high-profile litigation. Yet now Chrysler says it will issue a recall after all.

The Government Is Spying on America with Drones, Too

FBI director Robert Mueller said the government has used surveillance drones in the U.S. — though "in a very, very minimal way, very seldom" — at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. "It's very seldom used and generally used in a particular incident when you need the capability," Mueller said before the judiciary committee. "It is very narrowly focused on particularized cases and particularized needs." He said he did not know what happens to the images the drones capture.

Mueller's answer came following questioning from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who said drones were the "biggest threat to privacy" in America today. This is funny, because Feinstein had just given a rousing defense of the National Security Agency's program to collect the metadata on all phone calls made by all Americans. Feinstein is the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and since Edward Snowden leaked the NSA programs, has dismissed concerns that the government is spying on Americans. At Wednesday's hearing, Feinstein said the NSA collects "not the names, but the data. Not the content, but the data." A drone wouldn't collect the content of your conversation, either. It would only show exactly where you are and when. Which is what your phone call metadata says, too. Nevertheless, Dianne Feinstein is anti-NSA paranoia but pro-drone paranoia.

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Nokia And Blackberry Might Get Bought But Not By Huawei

Yesterday the Financial Times made quite a stir when it reported that the chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group, Richard Yu said, “We are considering these sorts of acquisitions; maybe the combination has some synergies but depends on the willingness of Nokia Nokia. We are open-minded.”

Huawei Technology in Shenzhen, China (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nokia (NOK) stock immediately reacted moving up 11% on heavy volume. BlackBerry (BBRY) stock also immediately moved up presumably on the thinking that if Huawei is interested in Nokia it may also be interested in BlackBerry. Later The Fly on the Wall attributed the move in BlackBerry to the report of Huawei’s interest in Nokia.

DISH Turns from Sprint to Clearwire

The satellite TV operator DISH Network Corp. (DISH) has decided not to pursue the acquisition of Sprint Nextel Corp. (S). In Apr 2013, DISH had made a counter bid of $25.5 billion to acquire Sprint, the third largest telecom operator in the U.S. In Oct 2012, Softbank of Japan made a $20.1 billion bid for Sprint. Recently, Softbank increased its offer price to $21.6 billion.

DISH announced that it will now focus on acquiring a 49% stake in the wireless wholesaler Clearwire Corp. (CLWR). Sprint is the 51% shareholder of Clearwire. The battle for Clearwire started in Dec 2012, when Sprint proposed a $2.97 per share bid to acquire the remaining 49% of the former. In Jan 2013, DISH offered a counter bid of $3.30 per share. In May 21, 2013, Sprint hiked its bid to $3.40 per share to ensure favorable voting. However, DISH raised its bid to a substantial $4.40 per share of Clearwire, which is 29% higher than the revised bid of Sprint.

Mark Zuckerberg Charms South Koreans With 'Proper' Handshake

SEOUL - Critics slapped Bill Gates' one-handed shake with the South Korean president in April as rude and culturally insensitive, but Mark Zuckerberg charmed the public here Tuesday with proper attire and a handshake, a slight bow included.

The Facebook CEO, 29, known for his signature zip-front hoodie and jeans, met with President Park Geun-hye to discuss South Korea's plans to raise employment by fostering start-up and venture companies.

But issues aside, the public and media here were more focused on how Zuckerberg would extent a hand for the introduction.

TWA Flight 800 crash not due to gas tank explosion, former investigators say

The producers of an upcoming documentary on TWA Flight 800—which exploded and crashed into the waters off Long Island, N.Y., on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people on board—claim to have proof that a missile caused the Paris-bound flight to crash. And six former investigators who took part in the film say there was a cover-up and want the case reopened.

"There was a lack of coordination and willful denial of information," Hank Hughes, a senior accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said on Wednesday during a conference call with reporters. "There were 755 witnesses. At no time was information provided by the witnesses shared by the FBI."