The lightweight autonomous ebees drones, developed by a company called senseFly, each spent about six hours circling the Matterhorn and photographing it from every possible angle. The fruits of their airborne labor was a collection of over 2,000 high-res photographs that were then used by a company called Pix4D to analyze and construct an incredibly detailed model of the Matterhorn composed of over 300 million data points.
via Read More → "A swarm of drones 3D-mapped the Matterhorn in stunning detail"

In theory, solar power is a great way to keep robots running indefinitely. And it’s absolutely possible to do it, provided your robot doesn’t need to do anything urgently, you have a ludicrously powerful light source, or your robot is very efficient and spends a lot of time in the sun. That last category has potential for solar powered micro air vehicles, including the University of Maryland’s Robo Raven, … Read More → "Robo Raven flies on solar power"

This is the online chat interaction between Netflix customer service representative Cap’t Mike and Netflix streaming user Lt. Norm. Obviously, Cap’t Mike really went the extra mile. 

via Geekologie

Students in Matamoros, Mexico weren’t getting much out of school — until a radical new teaching method unlocked their potential.

José Urbina López Primary School sits next to a dump just across the US border in Mexico. The school serves residents of Matamoros, a dusty, sunbaked city of 489,000 that is a flash point in the war … Read More → "How a radical new teaching method could unleash a generation of geniuses"

This excellent map shows the closest pizza chain within a 10-mile radius for every American. Now you’ll not only know which pizzeria is most prevalent in your region—always valuable information—you can also get a sense of who’ll deliver the quickest.
via Gizmodo

Continue … Read More → "A map of the closest pizza place to anywhere in the United States"

Prison parole boards are turning from intuition to computer assessments as states look to cut costs at correctional facilities, reports The Wall Street Journal. At least 15 states have begun requiring some type of risk assessment tool to help parole boards judge whether or not an inmate should be released. Many take the form of software, which may consider 50 or 100 different factors about a person before returning whether it thinks they’d be likely to return to prison during a parole period.
via The … Read More → "Prisons turn to computer algorithms for deciding who to parole"

It may be hard to believe, but it’s already been a full two years since the Space Shuttle Program completed its final mission and put its magnificent fleet of ships into retirement. The last of these to settle into its final resting place was Endeavor, and professional launch photographer Scott Andrews caught it all in this fantastic stop-action video for Time.
via Gizmodo</ … Read More → "This fantastic timelapse takes you on the space shuttle’s final flight"

The residents of Minimaforms’ Petting Zoo aren’t goats or calves, but clusters of plastic tubes that dangle from a bracket placed in a ceiling. But just like the fluffier residents of a real petting zoo, the “pets” featured in this installation react to human contact, craning their tubular bodies around as visitors to Petting Zoo & … Read More → "Robotic petting zoo replaces furry animals with inquisitive plastic tentacles"

Scientists recently discovered a new type of botulinum toxin (a.k.a. botox) that they believe is the deadliest substance known to man. Because they’ve yet to discover an antitoxin, researchers won’t publish the details of gene sequence due to security concerns—a first for the scientific community.
via Gizmodo

Read More → "The new deadliest substance known to man is top secret (for now)"

Most of the technology world is familiar with open source software and the reasons why, in some eyes, it’s more appealing than proprietary software. When software’s source code is available for anyone to inspect, it can be examined for security flaws, altered to suit user wishes, or used as the basis for a new product.

Less well-known is the concept behind open source hardware, such as Arduino. Massimo Banzi, co-creator … Read More → "Arduino creator explains why open source matters in hardware, too"