I’ve been reading Distrust That Particular Flavor, the fantastic collection of nonfiction essays, including some never-before-printed ones, by the great novelist William Gibson. In the introduction, in discussing what makes great fiction, Gibson articulates one of the most fundamental principles of creativity — and, like all great insight on writing, at the heart of it is … Read More → "William Gibson on cultivating a “personal micro-culture”"

This is a wonderful collection of black-and-white newsreel footage, assembled by the company that invented the newsreel, showing a montage of early helicopter prototypes in all their wacky and frequently-terrifying glory.
via Make

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… Read More → "The world’s first helicopters"

Pivothead’s entry into the small market of sunglasses with built-in video cameras threatens to knock much of the competition into a cocked hat this April, thanks to its ability to capture 1080p video. The glasses additionally include an 8 MP stills camera, a 44.1 kHz microphone, gyroscopic image stabilization and continuous auto-focus.
via Gizmag

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If you can’t play an instrument but still want to rock ‘n’ roll, you can always become an expert air guitarist. The only problem is, air guitars don’t exactly rock the house. Now there’s a way to play an actual guitar using air, and you still don’t need to know a single chord.
via DVICE

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… Read More → "Finally, a real air guitar that actually plays music"

Educational video games are an important part of video gaming history. I mean, how many of us grew up without playing a little Math Blaster, or Reader Rabbit, or OutNumbered!? Of course, these are generally aimed at children, but with Rock Band and Rocksmith endeavoring to teach people of all ages to actually play instruments, we’re seeing the educational spectrum really open up. What better time for Code Hero, a game that strives to teach you to … Read More → "Code Hero teaches you to code video games from inside a video game"

Stochastic computing is one of logic’s little gems. Its advantage is essentially that it makes multiplication as easy as addition. 

That’s significant. Imagine adding 0.4397625 and 0.8723489. It’s a calculation you could do in your head in a few seconds. But imagine multiplying those two numbers instead. That’s still something you could do in your head but I bet you’d feel happier reaching for a calculator.

Conventional computers have a … Read More → "A stochastic computer, designed to help an autonomous vehicle navigate, outperforms a conventional computer by three orders of magnitude"

Paleontologists at Drexel University are using a 3-D printer to turn fossilized dinosaur bones into robotic dinosaurs, how freaking awesome is that! This team of paleontologists was fed up with using the traditional tools of the trade, which include things like plaster, burlap, and pickaxes. These guys wanted something modern to give them a better understanding of how dinosaurs lived and moved.
via Slash Gear

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One of the most fascinating subjects in all of medical science is neuroscience. The study of the brain has made a lot of advancements throughout the years, especially with the help of increasingly sophisticated computer research. One of the area of most interest is in mental illness, where there is still a flurry of questions about what the best treatment is, if it’s curable, and how to approach patients … Read More → "Neuroscientists say computers can reverse schizophrenia"

Basically, microscale 3D printing the same way a popup book creates a three-dimensional shape.
via Make

… Read More → "Building a robotic bee with MEMS 3D printing"

A robotic fish has sailed across an aquatic uncanny valley by tricking real fish into following it upstream.

The feat could lead to better understanding of fish behavior and perhaps some means to divert them from environmental disaster scenes.

“Although some previous works have successfully investigated the interactions between live animals and robots or animal-like replicas, none of these studies have … Read More → "Real fish welcome robotic overlord into their school"