From this:

To this:

The 4,000-square-foot Wing House, as it has become known, is made from an old plane that was 230 feet long, 195 feet wide and 63 feet tall, but cost David barely nothing. The plane had enough raw materials — 4.5 million of them — to help build most of the entire home. And it seems as though Hertz … Read More → "The Wing House: a home built out of an old 747"

Want proof that we’re living in the future? How about this: as of yesterday, there’s now a commercial spaceport with a fancy new passenger terminal open for business in New Mexico that’ll give anyone who can afford it rides into space.

“Commercial space terminal” is one of those things that you find in science fiction books. Like, it’s one of the ways you know you’re reading something futuristic: someone has to … Read More → "Virgin Galactic dedicates America’s first commercial spaceport"

Once a secret project, Google’s autonomous vehicles are now out in the open, quite literally, with the company test-driving them on public roads and, on one occasion, even inviting people to ride inside one of the robot cars as it raced around a closed course.

Google’s fleet of robotic Toyota Priuses has now logged more than 190,000 miles (about 300,000 kilometers), driving in city traffic, busy highways, and mountainous roads with only occasional human intervention. The project is still far from becoming commercially viable, but Google has set up a demonstration system on … Read More → "How Google’s self-driving car works"

There’s a good article over at Wired on the life of Dennis Ritchie. 

The tributes to Dennis Ritchie won’t match the river of praise that spilled out over the web after the death of Steve Jobs. But they should.

And then some.

“When Steve Jobs died last week, there was a huge outcry, and that was very moving and justified. But Dennis had a bigger effect, and the … Read More → "Dennis Ritchie: The Shoulders Steve Jobs Stood On"

Nanotechnology has long been heralded as the next generation in medical technology – scientists are currently working on nanobots able to diagnose and heal the body from the inside. With that in mind, researchers from the University of British Columbia believe they have found a way to propel nanobots through the human body – by creating strong and flexible artificial muscles. via Inhabitat

The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver has delivered its usual array of outrageous audio gear, but this shockingly priced turntable would have to go pretty high on anyone’s list.

The Onedof One Degree Of Freedom turntable was designed by NASA award winning aerospace engineer Aleks Bakman, and includes some unusual features. The self-centering 50-lb platter uses a liquid suspension to damp resonances, while the platter itself is filled with some kind of damping … Read More → "This turntable costs as much as a house"

Matt Taibbi has an interesting article on his blog at Rolling Stone: Why Occupy Wall Street Is Bigger Than Left vs. Right

Check out the Green Machine. This is definltely not the one the neighbor kid had when I was growing up. This version sports a Harley-Davidson V-twin Evo engine and will go 50mph, has a six-speed transmission, and a range of 400 miles. Sure, it’s expensive ($75,000) but look at that color!

via Uncrate

It is now possible for the first time to determine how much solar energy a particular roof will receive during the year. via the engineer

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The size of computer chips has been shrinking at a rapid pace over that last decade or so. While that gives us awesomely compact and capable devices like tablet PCs and smartphones, the issue is that we’re coming up on the the logical end of this advancement; soon we won’t be able to shrink things any smaller.

Scientists at Northwestern University have not found a way around this problem exactly, but they have been developing a nanoscale material that could allow chips to become more powerful and more efficient without necessarily making … Read More → "New nanoscale material could allow computer chips to rewire themselves"