Hasta La Gadget!

When Curiosity came burning through Mars’ atmosphere two-and-a-half years ago , it marked the planet with its landing, and the impact of shedding its sky crane, heat shield, backshell, and parachute . But the planet is recovering, obscuring the scars with unending wind and dust.

Read more…

They say that one day machines could replace humans in terms of jobs and to a certain extent, some of that is already true. For example some machines have replaced the need for humans in a factory’s assembly line, and in the future the job of delivery people could also be replaced by drones, but what about machines replacing animals?

No, we’re not talking about Sony’s beloved Aibo, but rather a drone that can actually be used to help herd sheep together, much like how a sheepdog would. This was done recently by sheep farmer Paul Brennan who figured out how he could use a drone to help herd his sheep together and move them from one field to the other without much effort.

Dubbed SHEP the Drone, it seems that the sound emitted from the drone during the operations was enough for the sheep to want to get away from it. Could drones potentially replace the need for sheepdogs? Speaking from an efficiency point of view, we don’t see why not, however a sheepdog has more than one use and is a great companion to people as well, so unless you have absolutely no need for a dog, then perhaps using a drone could be an alternative. In the meantime you can check out the drone in action in the video above.

This Drone Can Herd Sheep As Well As A Sheepdog

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

The OnePlus Two is a handset that many users are looking forward to, and thanks to a new report additional specifications of the handset has surfaced. According to the new rumors, word on the street has it that the OnePlus Two could come with what they are calling a “laser focus” fingerprint technology.

It is unclear as to what this means but basically fingerprint scanning technology could be embedded in the OnePlus Two’s home button. Perhaps it’s just a more accurate/faster way of scanning fingerprints, but we guess we’ll just have to wait and see. The rumors are also claiming that the front of the handset also looks like the Oppo Find 7 which means that OnePlus could be keeping the design changes to a minimum from its predecessor.

The OnePlus Two’s specs have been rumored about for a while now. So far we have heard that it could come with a 5.5-inch QHD display and will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset which could be pretty impressive. It is also rumored to pack a 3,100mAh battery under its hood which is a slight increase over the 3,000mAh in the OnePlus One.

The company had previously promised that the successor to the OnePlus One would “surprise” people and we are certainly hoping that they will be able to deliver. The handset is also expected to be officially announced sometime in September.

Rumored OnePlus Two Specs Include Laser Focus Fingerprint Tech

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

NASHUA, N.H. — When he’s out on the campaign trail in public view, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) likes his hair gel extra-shiny, his wife and two adorable daughters close to his side, and a microphone attached to his body at all times.

The former college debate national champion knows a little something about presentation, and image-crafting was entwined in every movement he made during his first swing through New Hampshire as a newly minted presidential candidate on Friday and Saturday.

At times, he risked laying it on a little too thick.

During his first appearance at a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Merrimack, for instance, Cruz was already decked out in a headset microphone as he waded through a crowd of supporters who wanted to talk to him one-on-one for a few moments before he took the stage.

New Hampshire voters are used to seeing presidential candidates try to ingratiate themselves with locals by wearing plaid shirts, sweater vests and all other manner of hokey adornments, but the effect of Cruz’s decision to glad-hand with headgear made him look more like a telemarketer than a White House aspirant.

At no point during his two-day swing through the first-in-the-nation primary state did Cruz ever appear in public without a microphone attached to his person.

But as strange as it looked, for Cruz, maintaining the ability to electronically amplify his voice at any moment is a crutch befitting his biggest asset as a candidate: his mouth.

In what is expected to be an extremely crowded field of GOP contenders who will each bring to the 2016 table a set of unique strengths, Cruz can outtalk them all.

The man knows how to give a speech, but how he ultimately fares in his uphill campaign climb remains an open question, as Cruz is perhaps the biggest wildcard, equally capable of flaming out or catching fire.

He is a first-term senator with a negligible national organization, a shaky relationship with the party establishment that has determined each Republican nominee for the past half-century and a scant record of legislative achievement.

In short, the current Republican candidate of the moment appears in some ways to be poised to fade from relevance in the presidential equation faster than you can say “Michele Bachmann.”

But anyone inclined to underestimate his chances would do well to remember Cruz’s long-shot 2012 Senate bid that ended in a victory that shocked just about everyone but Cruz himself.

As a Princeton and Harvard-educated lawyer, he is savvy enough to know that being the smartest guy in the room isn’t necessarily the ticket to the top tier.

For Cruz, it’s all about playing the right tune to the right crowd at the right time.

In watching him wow three entirely different Republican constituencies in New Hampshire over the weekend, it wasn’t hard to imagine a scenario in which Cruz could use strong performances in the upcoming primary debates as a springboard to victory in Iowa and an ultimate emergence as the conservative alternative to whichever 2016 contender earns the GOP establishment’s backing.

His first stop in Merrimack on Friday provided a chance to thrive in his most natural environment: among a sea of mad-as-hell, hardcore conservative activists who were eager to be fed as many slabs of red meat as Cruz could pack into one speech.

Setting the tone for the event was Jack Kimball — the intensely controversial former New Hampshire GOP chairman, who has since mortified many of the Granite State Republicans he once presided over with his call to arrest President Barack Obama and penchant for spreading bizarre conspiracy theories online, including his belief that the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris were faked.

Even some of Kimball’s like-minded conservatives had heard enough, as he tested the upper levels of the public-address system’s range while introducing Cruz.

“Jack, you’ve got a microphone,” one man in the crowd snickered to no one in particular. “You don’t need to yell.”

After Kimball relinquished the stage to the candidate, there was no such pushback. Cruz didn’t need to shout to rev up these true believers. (He was, after all, already wearing his microphone.)

As he paced the stage with the deliberative gait of an evangelist preaching to the faithful, the familiar lines poured from Cruz’s mouth as effortlessly as if he were placing a series of phone calls asking potential customers for “just a moment of your time” or imploring them to “act now, before it’s too late!”

But the success rate of Cruz’s pitch was far better than any 1-800 number salesman could ever aspire to achieve.

“I am convinced, come 2017, a new president in the White House is going to sign legislation repealing every word of Obamacare,” Cruz said, inspiring a man near the front of the crowd to extend his arms and reach for the heavens.

Hallelujah!

Later that night, however, Cruz struck an entirely different tone as he addressed a conference of college-age conservatives who had gathered in this Boston exurb for a weekend of political confabbing, free food and adolescent flirting conducted in ill-fitting business attire.

Instinctively, Cruz picked up on the dynamic that this was an entirely different kind of crowd than the “Don’t Tread On Me” T-shirt-wearing and concealed-carry set that had greeted him in Merrimack, and he adjusted his style and substance accordingly.

He joked about the disparaging portrayal of him in the HBO vampire series “True Blood,” took a stab at a goofy Jay Leno impression and boasted about how he had co-opted Obama’s winning 2008 campaign strategy to find success in his own Senate bid.

And then he took a broadside at a particularly abhorrent foe: old people.

“I think every young person, after you go in to vote, oughta walk out and punch your parents in the nose,” Cruz said. “I mean, it is as if your parents went out and took a credit card in your name [and] said, ‘Savannah, we’re going to Vegas. We’re going to party it up, we’re having a great time, and guess what? You get to pay the bill!'”

On Saturday morning, Cruz headed to the tony seacoast region where he delivered remarks to the navy blue sport coat and khaki pants-wearing set, timed to begin at the civilized brunching hour of 11 a.m.

His lapel microphone already in place, Cruz took to the room adjoining the golf course, where he trumpeted his ideas for a flat tax, won a standing ovation in affirming his support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and earned some mimosa-infused chortles for his excoriation of the political press.

“Wow,” Cruz said in response to the crowd’s rousing greeting. “With that kind of reception, it’s almost like you all don’t read The New York Times!”

What Cruz didn’t mention was that, just a few minutes earlier, he had been standing in a different area of the same country club, ignoring an aide’s entreaties to stay on schedule, as he answered just one more question from a New York Times reporter.

As downright affable as his relationship with the political press who trailed him all weekend was, nothing goes better with scrambled eggs at a well-heeled Republican brunch than a heaping side of media bashing, and Cruz was not shy about indulging.

Still, no one knows better than the candidate himself that if he has any legitimate hope of rising out of the single digits in the polls and becoming a significant factor in the race, he will need the media — and not just the conservative media — to help him get his message out.

Cruz is even adjusting his schedule to ensure he has all the time he needs to talk to reporters on the trail at every turn.

“I want to have a good relationship with the press — it doesn’t pay not to — and Ted wants to have good relations with the press,” said Cruz’s spokesman, Rick Tyler. “One of the discussions we had today, frankly, is we need to build more time for the movements in going from one place to another because he’s just not going to move. He’s just going to take every question.”

If Cruz fails to catch on, it won’t be for a lack of energy.

Unlike other candidates who tend to become visibly exhausted after several hours of give-and-take, Cruz never once seemed to tire during his first foray onto the 2016 campaign trail.

This is, after all, a man who once stood for 21 hours straight on the Senate floor to deliver the filibuster that helped turn him into a national conservative icon.

Soon, the presidential stage that this born showman has had to himself for the past week will be crowded with a dozen or so other serious 2016 contenders.

And each of them will move quickly to challenge Cruz on whether his gift for gab is what the Republican Party is craving eight years after another charismatic first-term senator ascended to the White House on the back of his speechmaking prowess.

But so far, at least, Ted Cruz has ridden his rhetorical prowess to a strong start.

“It’s so scary because I just feel like the whole country’s going in a way where we’re forgetting all of our rights,” said Claire Lester, who said that she could “definitely” see herself voting for Cruz after hearing him speak on Saturday. “I feel like we’re the patriots that have to revolt to switch it around.”

Last week, HBO announced that its gay drama Looking would not be renewed for a third season, ending the brief run of this show about three gay friends in San Francisco. I have to confess, the announcement made me a bit sad. Yes, I’m a fan of Looking. But, apparently, I’m a rare breed. The show’s ratings had dropped considerably. And when the news broke, my Facebook feed was filled with comments that amounted to “good riddance.”

I get it. The show was FAR from perfect. The dialogue was sometimes trite. Its central character, Patrick, was often annoying, his choices bizarre. It presented a narrow view of San Francisco, and focused on a small group of very white, very privileged gay men. All of these critiques are valid. And probably account for the low ratings of this second season.

But the nature of the commentary surrounding the end of this little drama I found quite perturbing. On my newsfeed, in my office, on Twitter, the internet all over, seemed to both deride the show and relish in its demise. Indeed, the commentary felt like the acidic bite from that bitchy queen we all know. It was the feeling of walking into that party where you don’t know anyone and you’re the only one without a six pack.

Worst of all, these kinds of comments all came from gay men.

I liked the show because it finally presented a world I could relate to. It was refreshing to see a show that dealt with the issues that concern me and my community: being gay in America, dealing with questions of monogamy and infidelity, Grindr, Truvada, drugs, orgies, cruising. I personally have never seen any of these issues engaged with in any meaningful way in the mainstream media.

Instead, I’ve only seen stereotypical and basic portrayals of gay men. I couldn’t relate to either Jack’s over-the-top camp or Will’s apparent asexuality on Will & Grace. The gay couple on Modern Family just make me cringe. And the sex-fueled, party boys of Queer As Folk were most definitely stuck in the nineties.

But with Looking, at last there was an attempt to create interesting, three dimensional characters, who had real desires, struggles and dreams. Here was a show that was beautifully shot, with an amazing soundtrack. With great performances from its cast. Here, I thought, finally is a show I can enjoy and relate to.

I admit that part of the reason I relate to the show is because I am, indeed, a privileged white gay man. And the show was definitely lacking in diversity. But to be honest, so is the mainstream gay community. When I go to Fire Island in the summer, I feel like I’m the closest thing on the whole island to a person of color (I’m half Mexican). How many Grindr profiles come up with “no black guys,” or “not into Asians”? The show was, in that sense, accurate, if deeply problematic. But at least it made us think about it. At least Looking was provoking a much needed conversation.

Perhaps the kind of bitching that surrounded the show comes from the fact that as a community, we’re not ready to take ourselves seriously. We’re not ready to confront the issue of racism in the gay community. We are afraid to confront the realities of crushed dreams and failed relationships. To consider the possibility of both true love and heartbreak. It’s much easier to watch RuPaul because we don’t need to invest in it. We don’t have to confront ourselves — instead, we wear masks. Beautiful, sequined, rainbow masks. Because for hundreds of years we’ve been told we’re not good enough. And now that there is a show that treats us like real people, we just can’t handle it.

Most of all, what the end of the show says to me is that America is not ready for a show with real gay characters. If the only people who were going to watch this show were a couple of gay guys, the show was always going to fail. And in an America where states are right now passing laws that make discrimination against LGBT folks legal, it makes sense that the audience for this show would be tiny. In an America where gay marriage has been the source of such debate and outrage, it makes sense. In an America where Ted Cruz could actually be elected president, it makes sense. Where trans women of color are murdered on a weekly basis, it makes sense.

I don’t believe that as a community we should become complacent and not critical of our representations in the media. As Ingrid Jungermann says, “We should be harder on each other. Who better to be critical than someone who understands where you’re coming from? Some queer art is just plain bad and I think a lot of us are frustrated by that.”

We need to hold ourselves to the highest standard. We need to examine issues like racism and transphobia and critique art that fails to do so. But nor should we bitch about art that is at least trying to take us seriously. Or relish so gleefully in its demise. Otherwise, all we’ll be left with is Cam and Mitch from Modern Family.

I hope that the Andrew Haigh’s of this world don’t take the critiques to heart. That they continue to make interesting, moving and insightful portrayals of LGBT people. To push the envelope, provoke debate and make us think about who we are. That above all, show the world that lesbian, bi, gay and trans people are real, beautiful, different, wonderful people. God knows we need it.