Assume most games are gaffed. Gaffed is carnie speak for rigged. Gaffs in midway games lie on a spectrum that ranges from “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” to downright criminal. Most gaffs don’t make the games impossible to win. They just make you work harder. For example, it’s common knowledge that the basketball rims at carnival free throw shooting games are usually smaller than regulation-size and bent into an … Read More → "Beat the carnies: the secrets to winning 5 popular state fair games"

A couple of years ago, the Willow Garage robotics company gave ten of its PR2 robots away to deserving research groups. The idea behind the project was that these groups would use the PR2s for robotics research, then share their discoveries with each other, thus advancing the field farther than would be possible if they each had to build their own unique robots from scratch. Now, a similar but unrelated project is underway, and this time the robots … Read More → "Open-source project intends to advance robotic surgery"

The Gibson Firebird X is the first digital guitar that even the most fervent analog luddite won’t write off as a gadgetar. Lots of guitar technology claims to offer you infinite sounds and disappoints. This is what infinity feels like.
via Gizmodo

Read More → "Gibson Firebird X hands-on: the first digital guitar you won’t hate"

Haiti bound pilot Dr. Richard McGlaughlin was flying with his daughter in his Cirrus SR22 on a trip to volunteer his services at a medical clinic. After departing Florida, McGlaughlin says he noticed the oil pressure dropped slightly while flying at 9,500 feet. A few minutes later the engine had stopped completely. He and his daughter were now flying a glider over the blue waters of the Bahamas.

An experienced pilot, McGlaughlin immediately established a slower air speed … Read More → "Pilot uses airplane parachute after engine quits over Bahamas"

This map is the result of years of research by NASA, the National Geological Survey, and the U.S. Forest Service. It shows, in staggering detail, the total of woody biomass (read trees) across these United States. Presenting the entire nation at a 30 meter resolution, with 4 pixels representing an acre land, it’s one amazing map. While impressive in its own right, this tree map aims to help keep a record of the amount of … Read More → "A map of all the trees in the U.S."

The unmistakably jarring sound of an iPhone marimba ring interrupted the soft and spiritual final measures of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 at the New York Philharmonic on Tuesday night. The conductor, Alan Gilbert, did something almost unheard-of in a concert hall: He stopped the performance. But the ringing kept on going, prompting increasingly angry shouts in the audience directed at the malefactor.

After words from Mr. Gilbert, and what seemed like weeks, the cellphone owner finally silenced his device. After the audience cheered, the concert resumed. Internet vitriol ensued.

< … Read More → "The cell phone that stopped the NY Philharmonic"

Manned surveillance missions are critical to obtaining useful intelligence. But sending a soldier into sensitive areas can often be too dangerous. Scientists are developing robots that could do the job. Last spring, the Advanced Technologies Laboratory at Lockheed Martin unveiled a prototype that uses sensors to model its environment, detect potential threats, calculate lines of sight, and locate good hiding places.
via PopSci</ … Read More → "Next-generation surveillance robots can analyze their environment"

From an interview with top chess player Magnus Carlsen.

He is by his own admission a chess genius, weaned on computers, a supreme expert on openings, and the hardest worker amongst the top players. Actually, when you have gone through this remarkable ChessPro interview with Magnus Carlsen – which you must – you will recognize that all of the fairly plausible claims in our initial statement are false – in fact the opposite is true.

More here ( … Read More → "Having preferences means having weaknesses"

If you just can’t keep up with what Mars is doing these days due to the hustle-bustle of your awesome, exciting, too-busy-for-Mars lifestyle, has NASA got the thing for you. Presenting: AniPhone app that sends new pictures of Mars directly to your phone, so you can still be that amateur Martian hunter you’ve always wanted to be, while being an adult and grabbing a coffee on the way … Read More → "NASA app sends new pictures of Mars straight to your Phone"

Summer interns at the Open University’s computer science department created this interactive punching bag, then figured out how to play Ode to Joy on it.
via Boing Boing

Continue reading about it here

… Read More → "Arduino-controlled interactive punching-bag"