[Via Danger Room]
Friday, November 2, 2007
Shock-proof jacket ensures a tasering to the face
[Via Danger Room]
Rogue vehicle leaves motorists stranded in car park
Posted Nov 2nd 2007 2:22PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Transportation
[Via TheRegister]
Tags: accident, car park, CarPark, key fob, KeyFob, mishap, parking garage, ParkingGarage, stranded
A interesting conspericy theory on the lotto.
THE LOTTERY IS RIGGED
You may have heard that you are more likely to be hit on the head by a meteorite than to win the lottery. This is certainly so. Assuming that the game is honest, the odds are roughly one in several hundred million. Even with these odds, lottery commissions are not satisfied. The lottery is rigged.
The giant multi-state and individual state lotteries are more fixed than pro wrestling. The jackpots go up and up, with no winners. People get lottery fever. Millions nationwide are willing to wait in a line just like the ones for bread in the former Soviet Union for the pipe dream of striking it rich. The rigging works like this: super computers keep track of each combination sold, and then the ping-pong balls are weighted to assure that a losing combination comes up. On rare occasions, all possible combinations are sold, and they must let someone win. Only then is the game honest.
Why? The lottery, which is a state-run version of the Mafia's numbers racket, is a great money grab scam, as long as it brings in more than it pays out. In the past, lotteries were abolished because they lost money.
The worst part of this is whom it hurts. The poor and desperate are the most common victims of lottery fever. Children go hungry and senior citizens go without their medication because of it. People prone to gambling addiction also blow huge sums.
We spoke with an employee at a state lottery agency. We can not reveal his name or even which state, as some of the same gangsters who ran the numbers racket now run the lottery, and they would kill him.
“Yes, I personally am involved in it. Lottery ping-pong balls have a small valve, like a basketball or soccer ball, only it’s very tiny, and nearly invisible. We use a hypodermic needle to inject heavier-than-air gasses such as radon into the balls we don’t want to come up. At first, we tried helium in the ones we did want to rise, but they jumped up so quickly that it was obvious. Lotteries are raking in much more than if the games were honest, and people don’t know they have literally no chance!”
“If you think about it logically, you certainly don’t play anyway. You are betting that you can predict which six of 45 or more balls are going to come out of the hopper. In some games, the order even matters! It’s a sucker’s bet, and that’s when it’s honest! Most drawings are rigged, making the odds zero in infinity! The lottery is not only a tax on people who don’t understand math; it is an unfair and unjust tax. Didn’t we have the American Revolution over taxes like that?”
You read it here first.
MIT developing carbon-free, stackable rental cars
Posted Nov 2nd 2007 11:51AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Transportation
[Via Technology Review]
Tags: carbon free, CarbonFree, city car, CityCar, concept, design, electric car, ElectricCar, mit, rental car, RentalCar, smart cities, SmartCities, stackable
Over-50s Invade the Social Networking Scene
from the old-folks-have-friends-too dept.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Patterns in Lottery Numbers
from the you're-still-advised-against-playing dept.
Masi Oka of Heroes signs up as OLPC ambassador
Posted Nov 1st 2007 11:50AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Laptops
Building a "Reference" Home Theater
from the must-have-citizen-kane-in-1080p24 dept.
Australian Army Invests in Electrical Shirts
from the shocking-sleeves dept.
Brains Hard-Wired for Math
from the easy-as-1-2-3 dept.
Math Science
mcgrew writes "New Scientist is reporting that "non-human primates really can understand the meaning of numerals." The small study of two rhesus monkeys reveals that cells in their brains respond selectively to specific number values — regardless of whether the amount is represented by dots on a screen or an Arabic numeral. For example, a given brain cell in the monkey will respond to the number three, but not the number one. The results suggest that individual cells in human brains might also have a fine-tuned preference for specific numerical values." The report itself is online at PLoS Biology, Semantic Associations between Signs and Numerical Categories in the Prefrontal Cortex."
[+] math, science, sixtynine (tagging beta)
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
How things would be different on Earth without the Moon
The eyesight of many mammals is sensitive to moonlight. The level of adaptation of night vision would be very different without the Moon. Many of these species have evolved in such a way that their night vision could work in even partial lunar illumination, because that’s when they are most active. But they can be more subjected to predators, too, so there is a balance between your ability to see and your ability not to be seen. The Moon has completely changed evolution in that aspect.Link (Via Daily Grail)Human vision is so sensitive that we are almost able to work by the light of the Milky Way. The full Moon has more light than we need to see at night. For most of our history, we were hunting and fishing or doing agriculture, and we organized our lives by using the Moon. It determined the time for hunting, or the time where we could harvest. That’s why most of our calendars are based on the Moon.
Zombie thought to really be dead
A first aid team called to the scene soon cleared up the confusion. Police told the man to remove his make-up after which he was allowed to continue his journey.Link (via Fortean Times)
Samurai costume made from Rubbermaid trash-cans
Bamboo microscopes made in India for $4
WiFi-detecting t-shirt -- Boing Boing Gadgets
NEC develops Wideband Wearable Antenna
TV's important right? Sure, now ask yourself: Is it important enough to turn your meat sack into a wideband antenna? NEC thinks so and just announced (officially, that is) its wideband wearable antenna which turns a small, flexible print substrate into a high-performance mobile antenna. The prototype is said to work equally well in open space or when operated up against the juicy impedance of the human body. NEC will be testing the first prototypes for reception of digital terrestrial broadcasts in the 470-770MHz band -- perfect for that upcoming FCC auction eh, cowboy?[Via Akihabara News]
Everex's $199 green PC: attention ignorant Wal-Mart shoppers
Make no mistake, Everex can build 'em some kind of ugly. Still, they have learned to spin their gear as green, not underpowered, which counts for something. The TC2502 gPC (that's "g" as in "green," not crap) is out cluttering Wal-Mart shelves with a low, low $199 price tag. Inside, you'll find a 1.5GHz VIA C7 CPU sitting daintily on a Mini-ITX motherboard. A Linux OS, 512MB of memory and an 80GB of disk are tossed in just for kicks. So why that huge-ass case? That's the best part. Research indicates that Wal-Mart shoppers equate the size of the system to its capability. As such, Everex swaddled all that nothingness in a 2-foot by 2-foot monument to plastic. Now go ahead, Greenpeace, we beg you, rip it apart and let us know just how much non-recyclable polymer and dangerous PVC and BFR this pup really contains.
[Via Gadget Lab, thanks Rob G.]
Google getting cozy with Verizon and Sprint for the Gphone?
The Gphone rumors have been heating up lately, and things seems like they're about to come to a boil. The Wall Street Journal, not generally known for wild rumor-mongering, is reporting that Google is in "advanced talks" with Verizon and Sprint and has made "significant progress" with T-Mobile, with an announcement of some kind due within two weeks. The news sent Google stock past $700 today, although it's still not clear if Google is simply developing its own software or going all out and doing an entire handset. Either way, it looks like Google's getting ready to make a move sometime soon, and with the amount of chatter we're hearing, it's going to be a big one.
Read
Permalink
Email this
Comments [52]
Crealev builds a levitating lamp
We haven't heard of Dutch design outfit Crealev before, but the company says it's developed a "new levitation concept which is able to produce a very high levitation height combined with a low power dissipation and excellent stability" -- and apparently the best way to show that off is this series of levitating lamps. Unveiled at last week's Dutch Design Week event, the lamps are the product of designer Angela Jansen. We're assuming they're magnetic in some way, but Crealev's website is pretty cagey with the details, only saying that it's a "proprietary technology." Either way, we want one.Read -- Crealev webisteRead -- Video of the lamps in action
The thought-controlled robotic arm
We were aware of otherwise primitive systems that had been interfaced with the human nervous system, but a freaking thought-controlled robot arm? Apparently researchers at the U of Pittsburgh were able to create a full shoulder-elbow-gripper type arm that can be jacked into a system of neural probes—the machine filters out all but the most important arm-movement neural signaling, and uses that to approximate mechanical motion with what they call a "population vector." So basically a monkey with its limbs restrained was able to pick up, hold food, and feed itself when its brain started firing arm movement commands. This is some seriously unbelievable freaky awesome advanced stuff, man.
Researchers show off robot hand neural interface
It looks like robot hands have taken yet another step into human-like territory, with a team of researchers at John's Hopkins University recently demonstrating a new neural interface that allows an artificial hand to be used to play the piano. But that's not all! In true mad scientist fashion, to actually control the hand, the researchers relied on neural activity recorded from a monkey's brain. According to MIT's Technology Review, that resulted in the fingers on the hand performing their intended movement about 95 percent of the time. While the system doesn't currently work in real time, the researchers are reportedly planning a live demonstration with a monkey within the next six months. Apparently foreseeing a potential monkey-machine rampage, however, the researchers have wisely decided to only let the monkey control a virtual version of a prosthetic arm.
Tags: monkey, robot hand, RobotHand, robotic hand, RoboticHand
Monkeys use brain power to move robotic arm
Medical researchers at Duke University said Tuesday that their recent research revealed that the brain cells of monkeys adapt when moving robotic arms as if they were their own. This follows a 2003 study that showed monkeys were capable of controlling robotic arms using only their brain, although at the time it wasn't evident that the monkeys' brain cells had actually changed. The study, which is published in the Journal of Neuroscience (some of our favourite bedtime reading), concludes that the primate brain is extraordinarily adaptable and could lead the way towards brain-operated devices for handicapped people.
Games: Today's Gamers, Tomorrow's Leaders?
slash-sa writes "Video games have become problem-solving exercises wrapped in the veneer of an exotic adventure. In today's fast and rapidly-changing business environment, the strategic skills they teach are more important than ever. From realistic battlefield simulations to the building of great nations, from fantastic voyages through worlds of mythology to conquering space, "Generation G" could well offer the answer to unlocking great 21st century strategists and leaders."
[+] games, cheetos, wishfulthinking, ender, dreaming (tagging beta)
Read More...
200 of 229 comments
games.slashdot.org
IT: One-Third of Employees Violate Company IT Policies
BaCa writes with a link indicating that a survey of white collar US workers shows that something like a third of all employees break IT policies. Of those, almost a sixth actually used P2P technologies from their work PCs. Overall, the survey indicates workers aren't overly concerned about any kind of security: "The telephone survey found that 65% of white-collar professionals are either not very concerned or not concerned at all about their privacy when using a workplace computer. A surprising 63% are not very concerned or are not concerned at all about the security of their information while at work. Additionally, most employees have the misconception that these behaviors pose little to no risk to their companies."
[+] it, security, spam, shocking, duh (tagging beta)
Read More...
114 of 132 comments
it.slashdot.org
For Bigfoot fans
http://www.nbc4.com/news/14455569/detail.html
Capsaicin Tested On Surgical Wounds
from the that-smarts dept.
The Real Mother of All Bombs, 46 Years Ago
from the things-that-go-boom dept.
First Fossil Evidence That Velociraptors Hunted in Packs
from the clever-girl dept.
British Army looks to make tanks, troops invisible
Posted Oct 31st 2007 6:50AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Transportation
[Via DailyMail]
Tags: army, battle, invisibility, invisible, military, Ministry of Defense, MinistryOfDefense, QinetiQ, tank, uk, war
Monday, October 29, 2007
Vista Sales Rate Fell Last Quarter
from the peaked-too-early dept.
Windows Microsoft
Microsoft is not directly mentioning Vista demand while they brag about how much money they made last quarter, because sales fell. "[Microsoft] shipped approximately 28 million copies of Vista in the latest quarter ended September, or 9.3 million copies per month. Though the Windows developer pointed to 27 percent growth in business licenses and noted that many home users were buying the more lucrative Vista Home Premium or Ultimate editions, the rate represents a decline from the 10 million per month reported early in summer."
[+] vista, windows, haha, microsoft, twitter (tagging beta)
Lunar Lander Challenge Ends in Fire, Disappoinment
from the fire-go-boom-boom dept.
Moon NASA
mikesd81 writes "The rocketeers at Armadillo Aerospace, thwarted by engine problems and other mechanical failures, left this year's X Prize Cup empty-handed after their spacecraft burst into flames on liftoff Sunday. An attempt on Sunday to hop from launch and landing pads ended with the MOD craft bursting in flames shortly after engine ignition. This is the team's second attempt at the challenge in New Mexico, they were the only entrant in last year's event, which they also lost. Brett Alexander, Executive Director of Space Prizes and the X Prize Cup relayed a comment from John Carmack, leader of the Armadillo team: "Today is officially a bad day when it comes to our vehicle." he last attempt to win the $350,000 Level 1 prize on Sunday ended when the MOD vehicle had an engine fire, with pieces coming off, including disconnected cabling. Clearly, there was a fire on the pad that burned for a while — but then went out. The Armadillo team called a safety emergency, requesting fire truck assistance, Alexander said."
[+] nasa, nasaftw, xprize, boom, space (tagging beta)
Wikipedia Begets Veropedia
from the and--veropedia-begat-a-ham-sandwich dept.
Human Race to split int to pretties and Uglies?
This article seems to say that we would split into two different races.
Next-gen credit cards to feature miniature displays and keypads
Posted Oct 29th 2007 8:32AM by Conrad Quilty-Harper
Filed under: Displays
[Via Bsams]
Tags: Credit Card, Credit Card Embedded Authentication Device, CreditCard, CreditCardEmbeddedAuthenticationDevice, Emue
In Some Places, Local Search Beating Google
from the think-globally-search-locally dept.