On Monday around 7pm, 37-year-old Colorado Springs resident Lucas Hinch took his Dell XPS 410 out into the alley behind the building where he lives and runs a homeopathic herb store, pulled out his 9mm handgun, and put eight bullets through the PC, in cold blood.

The Dell, it seems, had been causing Hinch trouble in recent months and gave him a blue screen of death for what turned out to be the final … Read More → "Man puts 8 bullets in his Dell, tells police it’s worth the ticket"

Perth, Australia-based photographer Ryan Chatfield was recording aerial footage of Perth’s City Beach when his brand-new camera drone ran low on batteries and began an automatic descent toward the waves below. What followed was a mad 100-yard dash that required Chatfield to clamber over a rock jetty and into the ocean. He managed to catch the drone when it was about a foot from the water. Then he endured a good flogging by a wave as … Read More → "Photographer catches his camera drone moments before it crash-lands in the ocean"

These are tiny 3D printed versions of hearts and lungs, which work just like the real thing.

Created by researchers from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the pale gray objects mimic the heart and the dark one apes the liver. They’re … Read More → "These 3D printed organs beat just like your heart"

Japan has again demonstrated its prowess in high-speed rail travel with its state-of-the-art maglev train setting a world record of just over 600km/h (373mph), just days after it broke its previous 12-year-old record.

The seven-car maglev – short for “magnetic levitation” – reached a top speed of 603km/h on Tuesday during what officials described as a “comfortable” zip along a test track near Mount … Read More → "Japan’s maglev train breaks world speed record with 600km/h test run"

Norway will shut down FM radio in the country beginning in 2017, Radio.no reports. The Norwegian Ministry of Culture finalized a shift date this week, making it the first country to do away with FM radio entirely. The country plans to transition to Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) as a national standard.

A statement released this week by the Ministry of Culture confirms a switch-off … Read More → "In 2017, Norway will be first country to shut down FM radio"

Toshiba has just installed Aiko Chihira, a humanoid greeter robot, at Tokyo’s Mitsukoshi department store. The kimono-clad automaton will guide you around the shop while it blinks and smiles — at once helpful and, as you can see above, a little creepy. It can’t respond to questions yet (don’t yell at it over a faulty product), but it’s capable of handling both spoken and signed languages.
via Read More → "Toshiba’s humanoid retail robot is ready to greet you"

The folks at Disney have been exploring some really interesting techniques for fabrication. Their latest is this interesting method of 3D printing with fabric.

The process is best described as an automated system for assembling laser cut layers of fabric. Their machine resembles a tiny assembly line more than a standard 3D printer.

First, a vacuum platform holds a roll of fabric with the bottom exposed. A laser cuts the … Read More → "Disney 3D prints with fabric, makes soft interactive toys"

This is some remarkable footage from the remotely operated underwater vehicle Hercules of a sperm whale that comes to investigate the bot off the coast of Louisiana. The robot is about 2,000 feet down at the time of the encounter, significantly shallower than a typical sperm whale dive (around 4,000 feet) and nowhere near their max depth (over 10,500 feet).
via Geekologie

… Read More → "Stunning footage of sperm whale checking out underwater robot at 2,000 feet"

Last February, a research vessel towing four hydrophones sailed through Antarctic waters to listen for whale signals. Researchers found one particular signal, known prosaically as Antarctic BW29, as quite strange. They picked it up on 14 separate occasions, but Antarctic BW29 did not perfectly match any known species.

For example, the peak frequency was too high … Read More → "A strange whale sound recorded in Antarctica could be from a new species"

As created by Reify’s 3-D printing programs, Wagner’s “Ride Of The Valkyries” twists in aggressive blue jags, Gordon Lightfoot’s “Spin Spin” swirls in diminishing circles, and Nick Drake lyrics swell into an asymmetrical growth. Reify’s program translates sound waves into computer code and code into molds, materializing songs into works of art using 3-D printers.
via Read More → "A New York company materializes songs as 3-D printed sculptures"