PaperTab: Revolutionary paper tablet reveals future tablets to be thin and flexible as paper.
As MG Siegler said:
We’re getting closer to the Harry Potter animated newspaper.
PaperTab: Revolutionary paper tablet reveals future tablets to be thin and flexible as paper.
As MG Siegler said:
We’re getting closer to the Harry Potter animated newspaper.
Ink for iOS
Ink is a canvas for instantly capturing a rough sketch or back-of-a-napkin idea. The only features are smooth ink on soft paper with built-in sharing. True to our philosophy: Feature number one should always be as few features as needed to perform the primary purpose.
Great app.
Ink for iOS
Ink is a canvas for instantly capturing a rough sketch or back-of-a-napkin idea. The only features are smooth ink on soft paper with built-in sharing. True to our philosophy: Feature number one should always be as few features as needed to perform the primary purpose.
Great app.
Smart guns don't kill the wrong people
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. You all heard that. But it’s like saying: toasters don’t toast toast, people toast toast – which is untrue.
A big element has been missing in the new gun control debate that is taking place in the USA. What about technology?
Technology exists, or could exist, that would make guns safer. The idea of a safe gun might seem to be the ultimate oxymoron: guns are designed to kill. But something missing from the gun-control debate that has followed the killing of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., is the role of technology in preventing or at least limiting gun deaths.
Biometrics and grip pattern detection can sense the registered owner of a gun and allow only that person to fire it. For example, the iGun, made by Mossberg Group, cannot be fired unless its owner is wearing a ring with a chip that activates the gun.
Smart guns don't kill the wrong people
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. You all heard that. But it’s like saying: toasters don’t toast toast, people toast toast – which is untrue.
A big element has been missing in the new gun control debate that is taking place in the USA. What about technology?
Technology exists, or could exist, that would make guns safer. The idea of a safe gun might seem to be the ultimate oxymoron: guns are designed to kill. But something missing from the gun-control debate that has followed the killing of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., is the role of technology in preventing or at least limiting gun deaths.
Biometrics and grip pattern detection can sense the registered owner of a gun and allow only that person to fire it. For example, the iGun, made by Mossberg Group, cannot be fired unless its owner is wearing a ring with a chip that activates the gun.
How smartphones are rewiring your brain
I am flying. No plane, no wings, just me soaring over rooftops with a mild flip in my belly as I dip closer to the grid of city streets. I lean to the right to curve past a skyscraper, then speed up and tilt left to skirt by a tree. There has been an earthquake and I am looking for a lost child who is diabetic and needs insulin.
This is not a dream. I am awake, wearing my normal clothes – no cape or leotard – standing squarely on both feet in a room of the virtual reality laboratory at Stanford University.
About 70 test subjects have done the same simulation, half of them flying in a virtual helicopter, the other half granted the virtual superpower of flight. Half from each group have a mission: find and save the lost child.
A fascinating and thorough piece on how gadgets are deeply modifying the way our brains work with empathy and human interaction by April Dembosky for the Financial Times.
This is what happens after the test:
After the simulation, head gear returned to a hook on the wall, a researcher reaches for her clipboard to ask a few questions. She accidentally knocks over a tin of pens. In sociology studies, this is a classic trick for measuring altruistic intent. The test subjects who flew Superman-style rushed to help clean up the spill. They responded four seconds faster and picked up two more pens on average than the helicopter passengers.
“If you are flying, you feel very powerful, so the sense of having power made people more generous, more altruistic,” says Robin Rosenberg, a clinical psychologist in San Francisco who helped design the study, accepted for publication in the e-journal Plos One. “It could also be that the desire to be helpful was directly related to conscious or unconscious associations to Superman,” she adds.
Conclusion:
There is growing concern that our emotional and empathetic pathways are being eroded by all the screen time. We spend so much time on our computers and gadgets that we are starting to think like them. Brain circuits are being rewired to accommodate these tools of modern life. We process more bits and bytes of information, and we are quite fast at it. But there could be a trade-off – our motivations to act like Superman are diminishing.
How smartphones are rewiring your brain
I am flying. No plane, no wings, just me soaring over rooftops with a mild flip in my belly as I dip closer to the grid of city streets. I lean to the right to curve past a skyscraper, then speed up and tilt left to skirt by a tree. There has been an earthquake and I am looking for a lost child who is diabetic and needs insulin.
This is not a dream. I am awake, wearing my normal clothes – no cape or leotard – standing squarely on both feet in a room of the virtual reality laboratory at Stanford University.
About 70 test subjects have done the same simulation, half of them flying in a virtual helicopter, the other half granted the virtual superpower of flight. Half from each group have a mission: find and save the lost child.
A fascinating and thorough piece on how gadgets are deeply modifying the way our brains work with empathy and human interaction by April Dembosky for the Financial Times.
This is what happens after the test:
After the simulation, head gear returned to a hook on the wall, a researcher reaches for her clipboard to ask a few questions. She accidentally knocks over a tin of pens. In sociology studies, this is a classic trick for measuring altruistic intent. The test subjects who flew Superman-style rushed to help clean up the spill. They responded four seconds faster and picked up two more pens on average than the helicopter passengers.
“If you are flying, you feel very powerful, so the sense of having power made people more generous, more altruistic,” says Robin Rosenberg, a clinical psychologist in San Francisco who helped design the study, accepted for publication in the e-journal Plos One. “It could also be that the desire to be helpful was directly related to conscious or unconscious associations to Superman,” she adds.
Conclusion:
There is growing concern that our emotional and empathetic pathways are being eroded by all the screen time. We spend so much time on our computers and gadgets that we are starting to think like them. Brain circuits are being rewired to accommodate these tools of modern life. We process more bits and bytes of information, and we are quite fast at it. But there could be a trade-off – our motivations to act like Superman are diminishing.
Football, identity and racism in Europe
Last week, the Milan AC soccer team walked off the pitch after some supporters of the opponents “yelled abuse at black teammates”. Why does this happen in Europe, during sport matches?
Celestine Bohlen has a thorough look at the issue:
There it is, “identity,” a word that gets flashed like a red card as people struggle to determine what it means to be French, Belgian, British or Russian in an era of large-scale immigration, and economic globalization.
The problem is that this debate typically turns defensive, with identity defined in narrow, exclusive terms. The issue may be a reflection of a popular uneasiness over waves of new arrivals from abroad, but the terms of the discussion are rarely about integration, or tolerance.
In France, then-President Nicolas Sarkozy started a febrile — and largely futile — debate on the state of the nation’s identity in 2009. It was a flop right from the start as critics questioned the usefulness of any discussion set in motion by a presidential decree.
Football, identity and racism in Europe
Last week, the Milan AC soccer team walked off the pitch after some supporters of the opponents “yelled abuse at black teammates”. Why does this happen in Europe, during sport matches?
Celestine Bohlen has a thorough look at the issue:
There it is, “identity,” a word that gets flashed like a red card as people struggle to determine what it means to be French, Belgian, British or Russian in an era of large-scale immigration, and economic globalization.
The problem is that this debate typically turns defensive, with identity defined in narrow, exclusive terms. The issue may be a reflection of a popular uneasiness over waves of new arrivals from abroad, but the terms of the discussion are rarely about integration, or tolerance.
In France, then-President Nicolas Sarkozy started a febrile — and largely futile — debate on the state of the nation’s identity in 2009. It was a flop right from the start as critics questioned the usefulness of any discussion set in motion by a presidential decree.
How to tell directions using your shadow, from a lovely vintage illustrated guide to maps and globes
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How to tell directions using your shadow, from a lovely vintage illustrated guide to maps and globes
How to survive in the wild with a broken mobile phone
Life-saving advice from Creek Stewart in Wired:
Stewart broke open an iPhone, a Motorola Droid and a Blackberry Curve, and Samsung and LG flip-phones; each has a reflective surface behind its screen. “These metal pieces make incredible signal mirrors that can reflect the Sun’s rays towards a rescue plane,” says Stewart.
The jumble of wires in a mobile phone can be used to short-circuit its battery. “If you touch the battery’s plus and minus end with a wire, the wire turns red hot,” says Stewart. The thinner the wire, the quicker it heats up. It can then be used to ignite flammable materials such as wood or dry leaves.
How to survive in the wild with a broken mobile phone
Life-saving advice from Creek Stewart in Wired:
Stewart broke open an iPhone, a Motorola Droid and a Blackberry Curve, and Samsung and LG flip-phones; each has a reflective surface behind its screen. “These metal pieces make incredible signal mirrors that can reflect the Sun’s rays towards a rescue plane,” says Stewart.
The jumble of wires in a mobile phone can be used to short-circuit its battery. “If you touch the battery’s plus and minus end with a wire, the wire turns red hot,” says Stewart. The thinner the wire, the quicker it heats up. It can then be used to ignite flammable materials such as wood or dry leaves.
Acceptance of evolution, by country.
Just keeping looking towards the bottom to find the US. We’re second least-believing, just ahead of Turkey.
From National Geographic, via DailyKos
[gallery]
Acceptance of evolution, by country.
Just keeping looking towards the bottom to find the US. We’re second least-believing, just ahead of Turkey.
From National Geographic, via DailyKos
Saul Bass’ advice to design students: learn to draw.
Saul Bass is the guy who designed these logos, so listen to him, design students.
Saul Bass’ advice to design students: learn to draw.
Saul Bass is the guy who designed these logos, so listen to him, design students.
America's real criminal element: Lead
In recent years, we’ve seen a pretty steady drop in serious crime in many American cities. There are several theories to explain the drop – better policing strategies, shifting demographics, economic ups and downs – but none of them seems to provide a full and consistent explanation. In Mojo, Kevin Drum thinks he may have found the villain behind crime (and lower IQs and ADHD): Lead. “When differences of atmospheric lead density between big and small cities largely went away, so did the difference in murder rates.”
Here is the Mojo article.