The Lumpen Proletarian

Discovering Two Screens Aren’t Better Than One - NYTimes.com

A once-confirmed two-monitor user decides to turn off one screen and learns how to battle the temptation of email and YouTube.

The utter collapse of human civilization will be ‘difficult to avoid,’ NASA funded study says | National Post

The only two scenarios that do not kill everyone, in fact, are the ones in which birth rates are either strictly controlled or 'resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion'

Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem - NYTimes.com

In start-up land, the young barely talk to the old (and vice versa). That makes for a lot of cool apps. But great technology? Not so much.

The Young, Tattooed, Obsessive Fans Roaming Disneyland | VICE United States

Disneyland's social clubs are made up of young people so in love with the amusement park that they've tattooed themselves with its logos. They've been accused of smoking weed and starting fights, but

Earth has a secret reservoir of water, say scientists - Yahoo News UK

'Earth has a secret reservoir of water, say scientists' on Yahoo News UK. A hundred and fifty years ago, in "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", French science-fiction forerunner Jules Verne pictured a vast sea that lay deep under our planet's surface.

My Life as a Retail Worker: Nasty, Brutish, and Poor - Joseph Williams - The Atlantic

After veteran reporter Joseph Williams lost his job, he found employment in a sporting-goods store. In a personal essay, he recalls his struggles with challenges millions of Americans return to day after day.

The ‘Boys’ in the Bunkhouse - NYTimes.com

For decades, dozens of men with intellectual disabilities lived in an old schoolhouse and worked in a turkey plant. No one knew just what they endured.

Tutankhamun’s Blood — Matter — Medium

Why everyone from the Mormons to the Muslim Brotherhood is desperate for a piece of the Pharaoh

Downfall Of A Pool Hustler - Digg

The legendary pool professional’s career declined so severely that he now performs trick shots for free in Queens.

The Longest Garden Path Joke About Women Drivers - Digg

Reginald D. Hunter is one of those rare sorts of stand-ups who can take a premise you think has been driven into the ground, and use it to make you reconsider a lot about yourself.

James Wood · On Not Going Home · LRB 20 February 2014

Arctic thaw significantly worsens global warming risk - environment - 18 February 2014 - New Scientist

As Arctic sea ice retreats, the Earth's ability to soak up the sun's heat is boosted by twice as much as we thought, compounding the greenhouse effect

James Lovelock: 'enjoy life while you can: in 20 years global warming will hit the fan' | Environment | The Guardian

The climate science maverick believes catastrophe is inevitable, carbon offsetting is a joke and ethical living a scam. So what would he do, asks Decca Aitkenhead

Humans of New York Part III - Imgur

Imgur is home to the web's most popular image content, curated in real time by a dedicated community through commenting, voting and sharing.

Too poor for pop culture - Salon.com

Where I live in East Baltimore, everything looks like "The Wire" and nobody cares what a "selfie" is

Testicular time bomb: Older dads' mutant sperm - health - 20 February 2014 - New Scientist

Every man's sperm is fighting an evolutionary civil war – and over the years, it ups the risk of fathering a child with a genetic disorder

The Fall Of Intrade And The Business Of Betting On Real Life

There's always been a thin line between investing and gambling, and one firm turned the concept into a multimillion-dollar industry until...

Inside City’s Water Tanks, Layers of Neglect - NYTimes.com

Many of New York City’s iconic water towers have not been cleaned or inspected in years, and regulations governing the tanks are rarely enforced, an examination shows.

Nissan's Crazy-Powerful New Engine Weighs Just 88 Pounds | Autopia | Wired.com

Anyone can build a small engine. Hell, Ford's tiniest Ecoboost engine has the displacement of a soda bottle. And now Nissan's managed to build a wee little engine that puts out a stunning 400 horsepower with just three cylinders. And at 88 pounds, you could use it as part of your CrossFit regimen.

Audi Funds Bio Gasoline Technology | MIT Technology Review

Startup Global Bioenergies uses genetic engineering to avoid one of the costliest steps in biofuel production.

Zo vaar je een flinke boot het land op | Flabber

De M/F Ostend Spirit was niet meer nodig en mocht worden gesloopt. Dat slopen gebeurt aan land, dus moet het ding daar wel nog komen. Gelukkig had de

Startup Begins Making a Battery for Renewable Energy | MIT Technology Review

Aquion has started production of a low-cost sodium-ion battery aimed at making renewable energy viable.

Small Alberta town gets massive 1,000 Mbps broadband boost - Technology & Science - CBC News

Ultrafast internet speeds that most Canadian city dwellers can only dream of will soon be available to all 8,500 residents in a rural Alberta community for as little as $57 a month, thanks to a project by the town's non-profit economic development foundation.

How 'Friends' Created a Generation of Neurotic, Self-Obsessed Idiots | VICE United States

Twenty years ago last month, a new sitcom debuted. It was supposed to catch some of the heat that Seinfeld had generated, some of that post-Woody Allen, New York-y neurotic humor about relation…

The future of jobs: The onrushing wave | The Economist

IN 1930, when the world was “suffering…from a bad attack of economic pessimism”, John Maynard Keynes wrote a broadly optimistic essay, “Economic...

Technology and jobs: Coming to an office near you | The Economist

INNOVATION, the elixir of progress, has always cost people their jobs. In the Industrial Revolution artisan weavers were swept aside by the mechanical loom. Over the...

You Will Never Be As Smart As This Kid Who Reinvented The Sandbag - Digg

Watch Peyton Robertson's entry video in the 2013 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge. Peyton went on to win the grand prize of $25,000.

Dana Goodyear: The Valley-Fever Menace : The New Yorker

Every year, there are some hundred and fifty cases of coccidioidomycosis, otherwise known as valley fever, or cocci, a disease caused by inhaling the microscopic spores of Coccidioides immitis, a soil-dwelling fungus found in Bakersfield, California. Cocci is endemic to the desert Southwest and to the semi-arid parts of Central and South America. Digging stirs it up, and dry, hot windy conditions, a regional feature intensified by climate change, disperse it. In recent years, infections have risen dramatically. Officials at the Center for Disease Control call it a “silent epidemic,” far more destructive than had been previously recognized. There is no vaccine to protect against it and, in the most severe cases, no cure.

De special effects van The Wolf of Wall Street | Flabber

Wie The Wolf of Wall Street heeft gezien, heeft vast niet het idee naar een special effects heavy film te hebben gekeken. Toch is er genoeg

This Nigerian doctor runs his hospital on corn cobs and used bike parts | Public Radio International

At rural hospitals in Africa, you'll often see high-tech medical equipment discarded and unused. In places where electricity is unreliable and spare parts are unavailable, expensive devices can quickly become worthless. So Dr. Oluyombo Awojobi designs and builds his own low-tech devices to keep his hospital running.

Is Your Refrigerator Running? - Modern Farmer

Why overreliance on refrigeration is making us less safe.

Banished for Questioning the Gospel of Guns - NYTimes.com

A longtime columnist for a gun magazine questioned when the regulation of guns became infringement of the right to bear arms. He was quickly fired, squelching any debate.

Designing the Next Wave of Computer Chips - NYTimes.com

Scientists are looking for new ways to make computer chips and investigating materials that can self-assemble.

Why it's difficult to tell a Canadian accent from a Californian one - The Week

Not so easy, eh?

Bitcoin-Mining Chips, Gear, Computing Groups: Competition Heats Up - Businessweek

Battery Advance Could Help Solve Renewable Energy Intermittency | MIT Technology Review

Low-cost materials could make storing hours of power from a wind farm economically feasible.

Open source DIY electric car can be built in less than an hour : TreeHugger

Could this open source vehicle usher in a new era of DIY electric cars?

Is our tech making the world too complex? – Samuel Arbesman – Aeon

Human ingenuity has created a world that the mind cannot master. Have we finally reached our limits?

Killing With Kindness - NYTimes.com

On Oahu, one man is clearing the way for native plants and animals to thrive.

Soylent solution: Will this distasteful but nutritionally complete food make your kitchen obsolete? | National Post

After the revolutions of organic, slow food and molecular gastronomy, Soylent's adherents are gleefully predicting the end of food, at least proper food

War Shelters, Short-Lived Yet Living On - NYTimes.com

In the 1940s, R. Buckminster Fuller converted grain bins into emergency housing. For a long time it seemed they had disappeared from the earth, but at least a dozen have survived in New Jersey.

Brainlike Computers, Learning From Experience - NYTimes.com

The new computing approach is based on the biological nervous system, specifically on how neurons react to stimuli and connect with other neurons to interpret information.

A quick tour of Tesla's electric car factory in California (video) : TreeHugger

Curious to see how Tesla makes its electric cars?

Here be Fusion | Wavewatching

BBC News - Cash machines raided with infected USB sticks

Researchers at the hacker-themed Chaos Computing Congress reveal how thieves used infected USB sticks to steal cash from ATMs in Europe.

How to Send Estonian Vodka Through the Pneumatic Internet | Threat Level | Wired.com

HAMBURG – Since late last week, this city’s conference center has been invaded by Chaos Computer Club projects of extremely weird character: buzzing flying things, pixelated art, hacker kimchi, 3-D printers, and much more. But standing out above all of them – and weaving through and around them – has been a network of yellow drainage tubing that snaked around the building and through its halls, occasionally emitting a buzzing noise as something whizzed overhead through a tube.

Pollution Rising, Chinese Fear for Soil and Food - NYTimes.com

Anxiety is growing in China about contaminated soil in the country's agricultural centers and the potential effects on the food chain.

Boost Satellite Bandwidth and End Jittery Videos | MIT Technology Review

Satellite companies see promise in new technology to double bandwidth.

▶ Energy Transitions - YouTube

Energy transitions: a future without fossil energies is desirable, and it is eventually inevitable, but the road from today's overwhelmingly fossil-fueled ci...

Processors That Work Like Brains Will Accelerate Artificial Intelligence | MIT Technology Review

Microchips modeled on the brain may excel at tasks that baffle today’s computers.

Into the Bitcoin Mines - NYTimes.com

In a bunker in Iceland, powerful computers are whirring 24 hours a day — and extracting an invisible currency.

Paul Piff: Does money make you mean? | Video on TED.com

It's amazing what a rigged game of Monopoly can reveal. In this entertaining but sobering talk, social psychologist Paul Piff shares his research into how people behave when they feel wealthy. (Hint: badly.) But while the problem of inequality is a complex and daunting challenge, there's good news too. (Filmed at TEDxMarin.)

Scientists Turn Their Gaze Toward Tiny Threats to Great Lakes - NYTimes.com

Scientists have worried about plastic debris in the oceans for decades, but focused on enormous accumulations. More recently, the question of smaller bits has gained attention.

DeLorean's Next Radical Idea Was This Never-Before-Seen Engine

The DeLorean name is one of the most famous -- and infamous -- in the automotive world. DeLorean is so associated with his movie star car and his trial for cocaine trafficking that it's easy to forget what a remarkable engineer he was. Until you see something like these long-hidden sketches. Then it all makes sense.

Accused of Harming Bees, Bayer Researches a Different Culprit - NYTimes.com

The maker of a pesticide linked to the die-off of honey bees sees a different threat -- varroa mites -- and is working to find a remedy.

How radioactive poison became the assassin’s weapon of choice — Matter — Medium

TUCKED INTO THE Millennium Hotel on London’s Grosvenor Square, the Pine Bar is a place of hush and shadows. Dark wood pa…

Wynne government intends to take control of executive salaries away from resistant OPG | National Post

'I’m deeply concerned about what seems to be the culture in that organization,' said Premier Kathleen Wynne, describing it as resistance to change

Strange bedfellows: Could injecting electricity into the natural gas pipeline be the key to storing renewable energy? | Financial Post

A very old scientific concept being applied in a very new way promises to blow open what has become a persistent problem in recent years

Apocalypse, New Jersey: Matt Taibbi's Dispatch From Camden, America's Most Desperate Town | Culture News | Rolling Stone

The first thing you notice about Camden, New Jersey, is that pretty much everyone you talk to has just gotten his or her ass kicked. Detroit's Debt C

Make Ionocraft/Ion Wind Spinning Disks - YouTube

Making and demonstrating ionocraft in the shape of disks and using ion wind to spin around on a rotor. To power them I use my homemade high voltage DC power ...

A Guerilla Mobile Network Springs Up in Indonesia | MIT Technology Review

With Swedish telephone numbers and a tree-bound base station, a remote Indonesian village runs its own telecommunications company.

Video of a helicopter harvesting Christmas trees in Oregon - Boing Boing

Smartphone Cameras Could Provide Precise Location Fixes Indoors | MIT Technology Review

Street View-style imagery of interior spaces lets mobile devices locate themselves more accurately than is possible with GPS.

The microhydro plant

setting up a microhydro installation

The Not-So-Simple Life by Whitney Light Narratively - Narratively: Human stories, boldly told.

The farm-to-table frenzy has thousands of urbanites trading in their desks for the idylls of agriculture. But one eager young couple learns the hard way that organic utopia is easier dreamed than achieved.

Purifying Water With Nanotech - IEEE - The Institute

Members are working on ways to make water potable

Vitamins’ Old, Old Edge - NYTimes.com

From the beginnings of life roughly four billion years ago, they have played a central, necessary role. In fact, early life forms used to be veritable vitamin factories.

Airplane enthusiast builds life-size replicas out of scrap metal - The Globe and Mail

The joke around Ian Baron’s home is that after he restored eight Model A Fords, his wife Luverne insisted “no more cars.” So Mr. Baron moved on to building model planes. Not small scaled-down versions, but life-size replicas.

How U.S. reshoring will force Canadian manufacturers to innovate — and change the very nature of the sector | Financial Post

U.S. companies are bringing a new kind of manufacturing back to North America -- one that's highly innovative, streamlined and technical. But will Canada's manufacturing sector be able to keep up?

Gulag Ink - An FP Photo Essay | Foreign Policy

Cornstalks Everywhere But Nothing Else, Not Even A Bee : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR

You can go to almost any cubic foot of ocean, stream, coral, backyard, ice shelves even, and if you look, you'll find scores of little animals and plants busy making a living. But here's a place — a beautiful, bountiful place — that when you look close — is a desert.

Worst-Case Scenario for Oil Sands Comes to Life, WikiLeak Docs Show - Bloomberg

InsideClimateNews.org -- As environmentalists began ratcheting up pressure against Canada's tar sands three years ago, one of the world's biggest strategic consulting firms was tapped to help the North American oil industry figure out how to handle the mounting activism. The resulting document, published online by WikiLeaks, offers another window into how oil and gas companies have been scrambling to deal with unrelenting opposition to their growth plans.

The Internet mystery that’s baffled the world: Is Cicada 3301 a puzzle, a treasure hunt or some ‘nefarious’ recruitment test? | National Post

For two years, a mysterious online organization has been setting the world’s finest codebreakers a series of seemingly insolvable problems. But to what end?

Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android - NYTimes.com

Led by Andy Rubin, who built the Android software, Google has acquired seven companies with hopes to automate manufacturing and even rival Amazon in retail delivery.

MIT Actually Reinvented The Wheel - Digg

The Copenhagen Wheel is actually totally brilliant.

The World's Largest Mega-Ship Launches for the First Time | Autopia | Wired.com

Take the Empire State Building, lay it on the ground and add another 150 feet. Then put it out to sea. That's essentially what Shell did today with the launch of the 1,601-foot Prelude mega-ship.

There’s a Reason They Call Them ‘Crazy Ants’ - NYTimes.com

What if you discovered an invasive species that seems drawn to electricity -- in your outlets, appliances, laptops and TVs -- and no one would listen?

New Microbiome Startup Seres Health Is Developing Bacteria-Filled Pills to Treat Diseases | MIT Technology Review

Delivering healthy bacteria in a pill could help patients harboring out-of-balance microbial communities.

Intimidating German Shepherd guard dog dances to '80s Europop - Boing Boing

This Clever Calendar Visualizes Why Winter Is So Damn Cold | Wired Design | Wired.com

This circular calendar has a novel way of showing how the solar cycle varies across the year.

The Ideal English Major - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Look beyond yourself to become yourself.

Silicon Chasm | The Weekly Standard

Read conservative news, blogs and opinion about California, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Wage Disparity from The Weekly Standard, the must read magazine available in online edition.

The Old Dominion | The Washington Post

The Old Dominion

This Is the Man Bill Gates Thinks You Absolutely Should Be Reading - Wired Science

Ding Ding Ding! Video Poker 'Hackers' Cleared of Federal Charges | Threat Level | Wired.com

Two gamblers who took advantage of a software bug to win a small fortune from casino video poker machines will enjoy Thanksgiving this year without the threat of federal prison hovering over them like a carving knife.

Chris Hadfield: We Should Treat Earth as Kindly as We Treat Spacecraft - Wired Science

Bad at Reading Maps? Maybe Your Brain Just Needs Better Maps - Wired Science

Michelle Steilen shows off her Bones Bearings - Boing Boing

A Startup Envisions a Low-Power, Long-Range Internet of Things | MIT Technology Review

A startup called Iotera wants to let you track your pets, your kids, or your belongings without relying on commercial wireless networks.

Dodge Centennial: How To Build A Car And A Car Company, In Three Notebooks | The Truth About Cars

The Dodge brand's centennial celebration began this week with the announcement of special 100th Anniversary Editions of the Dodge Challenger and Charger.

When We Lose Antibiotics, Here's Everything Else We'll Lose Too - Wired Science

The world's food supply depends on Morocco. Here's why | GlobalPost

If hostilities renew between Morocco and Western Sahara rebels, production of a key mineral used in fertilizer would stall. Farmers on every continent could feel the pain.

BBC News - Aluminium: The metal that just keeps on giving

Aluminium is everywhere - cans, planes, computers and windows - yet two centuries ago the stuff was completely unknown to humanity.

This Is What It's Like to Be Poor

Poor people, generally, make bad decisions—bad in the sense of their long-term physical, mental and financial welfare. But their bad decisions aren't the reason for their poverty. They're caused by it.

Derelict in Detroit, and Hard to Sell - NYTimes.com

Two winning bidders failed to complete the purchase of a long-abandoned Packard plant on 40 acres on the city's east side, but a third bidder could still come through.

The Condo Game - Doc Zone

Star Trek, post-scarcity and DRM - Boing Boing

These Photos Are Actually Paintings | Raw File | Wired.com

For decades, Louis K. Meisel has been collecting, selling and promoting a group of artists called the Photorealists. He’s also produced four different books that document this art movement. The last and final segment of the series, Photorealism in the Digital Age, was released this year.

For residents of Leamington, tomatoes are in their soil – and in their blood - The Globe and Mail

With the Heinz factory closing, Leamington residents fear the small Ontario town will die

Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future — Medium

A few years ago, I started looking online to fill in chapters of my family history that no one had ever spoken of. I reg…

New Method of Cancer Treatment Tested - Stephanie Lee Cancer Profile - Esquire

Read the latest most-talked-about stories from Esquire magazine � from exclusive celebrity interviews to political features.

Retrotechtacular: [Zoltán Bay’s] Moon Bounce Coulometer Signal Amplifier

In the years before World War II it was theorized that shortwave radio waves could propagate through the ionosphere relatively undisturbed and allow for a signal to be bounced off the moon and returned.

Boeing Adds Tiny Holes to Its Biggest Plane to Boost Efficiency | Autopia | Wired.com

Boeing's new 777X is getting a lot of attention for its composite wing with folding tips and its super-efficient engines, but one of the airliner's most innovative features are the tiny holes in its tail that smooth airflow and improve fuel efficiency.

The Rat Hunters of New York by Melissa Cronin Narratively - Narratively: Local stories, boldly told.

The city that never sleeps is home to untold millions of four-legged vermin. Richard Reynolds and his band of bloodthirsty terriers are determined to sniff them out one-by-one.

Epigenetics continues to be just freaking nuts - Boing Boing

CBC's flagship news program sold favorable coverage to the Harper government, then lied about it - Boing Boing

The 40-Year Slump

Working in India, I learned a phrase I’d like to spread to the rest of the world - The Globe and Mail

I feel it is my duty – nay, my privilege – to present it

The secret world of cargo ships - The Week

On a modern shipping vessel, what's in the hold is unknown — even to the people moving it

As unions lose power, Canada gets the blue-collar blues - The Globe and Mail

In manufacturing, forestry, mining, transportation and other sectors, the relentless drive to create more efficient companies has led to the elimination of hundreds of thousands of high-paying unionized jobs. That may have been necessary to stay competitive – but it’s also a major reason for the rise in income inequality in Canada

An Accidental Cattle Ranch Points the Way in Sustainable Farming - NYTimes.com

The TomKat Ranch sells grass-fed beef, but it began as a way to try to get carbon back into the soil.

A Jolt to Complacency on Food Supply - NYTimes.com

The negative effects of global climate change on agriculture are expected to get worse, experts say, raising deep concerns about the global food supply in the decades to come.

What does New York's trash tell us about people? : TreeHugger

Who cleans up after us? That's a much more complex social question than might seem. This fascinating TED talk walks us through the maze of an answer.

Soul on Fire | VICE United States

California’s Conservation Camp program is a huge but little known joint venture between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency. The pro…

This Impeccably Designed $20,000 House Could Soon Be Yours | Co.Exist | ideas + impact

For years students at Auburn University's Rural Studio have been building cheap houses for impoverished locals. Now their designs are going mass...

You Are Made of Waste - Issue 7: Waste - Nautilus

You may think of yourself as a highly refined and sophisticated creature—and you are. But you are also full of discarded, rejected,…

Russian Police Choir Covers 'Get Lucky' - Digg

The Russian Police Choir is just better at life than you are. Deal with it.

Lavatory Laboratory - Issue 7: Waste - Nautilus

Our humble toilet has shaped civilization. Starting in 19th-century Britain, it spread throughout the industrialized world, eliminated…

3-D printer by Sask. man gets record crowdsourced cash - Saskatchewan - CBC News

A Saskatchewan man who has developed an affordable 3-D printer has attracted worldwide attention and over $700,000 in crowdsourced funding.

You Are Not So Smart 011: Hazel Markus and The Influence of Where You Live on How You Think - Boing Boing

A Radiance All Their Own - NYTimes.com

Europeans are endlessly inventive when it comes to radiator design. Why are Americans lagging behind?

Steam engine tech could bring cost of solar energy storage down to $100/kWh : TreeHugger

An old-fashioned technology could enable low-cost solar energy storage, at a fraction of the cost of batteries.

Generating Geothermal Power from Carbon Dioxide | MIT Technology Review

A startup is trying to demonstrate that carbon dioxide can be used to make clean geothermal power economical and far more widespread.

Opinion: The most unequal place in America - CNN.com

Dreams can fade quickly for many in Lake Providence, Louisiana, where the level of income inequality is greater than in any county or parish in the U.S.

Nuclear Fusor | MAKE

Nuclear fusion is the process of squeezing two atoms together so tightly that their nuclei fuse, creating a heavier atom…

Antibiotic Overuse on Farms: Is the Opinion Tide Turning? - Wired Science

Meet the American Nomads of Walmart's Plentiful Parking Lots | Raw File | Wired.com

The two seaprate Walmart parking lots in Flagstaff, Arizona are well-known stop offs for travelers. This past summer photographer Nolan Conway spent several days making a series of portraits of both the overnighters and the people who sometimes stay longer and make these asphalt grids a temporary home.

Suburban outlook undergirds Ford Nation's support: Hume | Toronto Star

Rob Ford's supporters have a qualitatively different experience than those who inhabit "old" Toronto, which translates to little interest in civic issues.

Meet “badBIOS,” the mysterious Mac and PC malware that jumps airgaps | Ars Technica

Like a super strain of bacteria, the rootkit plaguing Dragos Ruiu is omnipotent.

Do It Yourself Nuclear Fusion

By far the coolest projects we see are those dealing with high voltages and deep vacuums. Vacuum tubes of all types fall into this category, as do the electron microscopes we see from time to time.

Start-up Profile: Shapeways Brings 3-D Printing to the Masses - IEEE Spectrum

A new 3-D printing facility in New York City brings the Dutch spin-off closer to its customers

Inside the World of the Double-Crossing Fake Hitman

Jeanne Marie Laskas rides shotgun with a fake killer for hire and witnesses firsthand how to take down the people who pay for murder

How to Get an A- in Organic Chemistry - NYTimes.com

A pre-med student conquers orgo, that most dreaded of courses, and discovers why the subject matters. It's more than knowing how to draw arrows.

Using Chaos Theory to Predict and Prevent Catastrophic 'Dragon King' Events - Wired Science

Electric Fields Could Clean Up Power Plants | MIT Technology Review

ClearSign’s pollution-reducing technology could help power plants burn less fuel and make more money.

Keeping Up Carrie Street - Video - NYTimes.com

Carrie Street resembles many blocks in Detroit, with residents like Broderick Hunter trying to maintain community and security amid blight.

MIT Wristband Could Make AC Obsolete | Wired Design | Wired.com

A team of students at MIT is working on a prototype wearable that asks one important question: Why heat or cool a building when you could heat or cool a person?

Oorlogsschip versus gigantische golven | Flabber

Het geweld in deze video komt niet van oorlog, maar van de natuur. Een oorlogsschip beukt en dreunt namelijk door golven zo hoog als flatgebouwen en

Stanford Startup Claims Solution to Longstanding Wireless Riddle | MIT Technology Review

A Stanford startup’s new radio can send and receive information on the same frequency—an advance that could double the speed of wireless networks.

Cell-Free Bioengineering Technology for Cheaper, Greener Chemicals | MIT Technology Review

Biotech startup Greenlight Biosciences has a cell-free approach to microbial chemical production.

The Decline of Wikipedia: Even As More People Than Ever Rely on It, Fewer People Create It | MIT Technology Review

The community that built the largest encyclopedia in history is shrinking, even as more people and Internet services depend on it than ever. Can it be revived, or is this the end of the Web’s idealistic era?

Cracking GSM with RTL-SDR for Thirty Dollars

Theoretically, GSM has been broken since 2003, but the limitations of hardware at the time meant cell phone calls and texts were secure from the prying ears of digital eavesdroppers and all but the most secret government agencies.

Researchers tout electricity storage technology that could recharge devices in minutes

Silicon-based supercapacitor could change way electricity is stored

Are prennial plants the crops of the future? : TreeHugger

Mark Bittman's lasted coloum explores the potential for Perennial polysystems, or in other words, crops that don't need to be planted every year.

A revolutionary new eco-material gets a Kickstart : TreeHugger

A revolution in sustainable materials could be in the making, with a little help from the crowd.

3D Printed Cutaway Jet Engine Sounds Great

Thanks to the wonders of 3D printing, you can now have a 3D printed a jet engine of your very own. Unlike jet engines we've seen before, this one comes with no chance of the operator getting burned to a crisp. [Gerry] is a self-proclaimed “broken down motor mechanic” from New Zealand.

Robot city: how the machines are driving Pittsburgh's future | The Verge

After more than a century, steel production in Pittsburgh is all but over, leaving in its wake industries based on higher education, health care, academic research, and robots. Lots of robots. And...

The ocean is broken - Yahoo News Canada

From Yahoo News Canada: A sailor takes in a terrifying view of the Pacific ocean: barren, and filled with floating trash.

TOXIC: Garbage Island | VICE Canada

VBS sets sail for the North Pacific Gyre, the collecting point for an entire ocean’s worth of trash and possibly the single most polluted place in the history of ti

Open-source recycling machine lets you recycle and make your own plastic products (Video) : TreeHugger

Hoping to give plastic recycling a boost, this designer has created a prototype that could allow people to recycle and produce plastic products locally.

A Cheap, One-Armed Robot to Work with Humans | MIT Technology Review

A mobile, one-armed robot that costs $35,000 is headed for research labs and maybe even some workplaces.

CAN Hacking: The In-vehicle Network

Last time, we discussed how in-vehicle networks work over CAN. Now we’ll look into the protocol and how it’s used in the automotive industry. The Bus On the hardware side, there’s two types of CAN: differential (or high-speed) and single wire.

CAN Hacking: Introductions

We’re introducing a new series on CAN and automotive hacking. First, we’ll introduce CAN and discuss how in-vehicle networks work. In 1986, Bosch introduced the Controller Area Network protocol. It was designed specifically for in-vehicle networks between automotive controllers.

Retrotechtacular: Steam Locomotive Contruction in the 1930′s

Here's a fascinating look at high-tech manufacturing in the 1930's. This week's Retrotechtacular features the building of a steam-powered locomotive.

Starpath glow-in-the-dark spray coating will light up roads in the UK : TreeHugger

The coating will be bright enough to replace street lights in some areas.

Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed

We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. And it’s the 40-hour workweek that keeps us that way.

Video: How the GE Jenbacher Engine grows tomatoes | Financial Post

Ontario’s Great Northern Hydroponics employs a natural gas engine to heat its greenhouse and generate electricity while using CO2 byproducts for tomato plant fertilizer

Why Do Autumn Leaves Change Color? - Instant Egghead: Scientific American Video

News videos covering science, health and technology at Sciam.com

The Writer Automaton, Switzerland

A 240 year old doll that can write, a clockwork creation by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a Swiss watchmaker

Open Book: A Good Day’s Work, by John DeMont | National Post

What we lose as the milkmen, blacksmiths and railroad engineers are replaced by a society of ‘monkey work’

Dave Bidini: Iqaluit, frozen melting pot of the far north | National Post

Iqaluit is a place where a multitude of solitudes meet

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