San Diego Comic-Con is kicking off right now, and to celebrate, the White House will be hosting a Google+ Hangout called “We the Geeks” today at 12 pm ET, which will feature a panel of innovators that will be discussing “real-life superpowers”, such as invisibility, self-healing electronic skin, and new types of armor.
The Hangout won’t include President Obama, but the discussion will be lead by the White House innovation advisor Tom Kalil. The panel will include five innovators, including James Kakalios (author of The Physics of Superheroes), Nate Ball (of PBS’s Design Squad Nation), and Zhenan Bao (a researcher focusing on synthetic skin), just to name a few.
The live stream will be available on several of the White House’s different pages, including their YouTube channel, Google+ page, and the WhiteHouse.gov website. If you can’t make it at noon ET for the hangout live, the full video will be available for viewing afterwards on the White House’s YouTube channel.
Viewers can send their questions in beforehand by sharing them via Twitter or Google+ using the hashtag #WeTheGeeks. No word on exactly how long the panel session will last, but it’ll most likely go on for at least an hour, so if you’re thinking about getting a bit of viewing in during your lunch break, plan accordingly.
Elon Musk’s next big idea has been making the rounds lately. It’s actually an idea that’s been around for a while, but it’s just now gaining some real steam across the internet, mostly thanks to an announcement by Musk that he would be unveiling plans for the Hyperloop system by August 12, leaving us waiting in anticipation. While the idea sounds really cool and it makes sense on paper, is Hyperloop something that can realistically happen?
A quick primer on the basic idea of Hyperloop: It would essentially consist of a network of tubes spanning across the US, and capsules would be shot through these tubes at tremendous speeds (similar to how the capsule and tube system works at your local drive-thru bank). These capsules would be able to fit 6-8 people at a time, leaving room for luggage as well. Musk calls the Hyperloop system “a cross between a Concorde, a rail gun, and an air hockey table.”
How fast would these capsules be able to travel? The theoretical speed we’re talking about is somewhere around 4,000 mph, and this would be possible using Maglev technology that is currently used on bullet trains that allows them to travel at over 350 mph. However, since the tubes will be vacuumed and airless, the capsules will be able to travel at much higher speeds, similar to how a spacecraft can zoom through space at ridiculous speeds, thanks to the lack of air friction.
On top of that, Musk has said that the entire system would be incredibly low-powered, and it could run off of solar panels placed above the tubes, leaving energy costs at a minimum. Based on the speed that these capsules could travel at, a 2,500-mile trip from New York to Los Angeles would take only 30-45 minutes — a trip that normally takes 5-6 hours by commercial plane. People have been sketching out what a Hyperloop system would look like, and Elon Musk has pointed out a sketch that’s the closest anyone has gotten so far:
Another sketch shows the possible network of Hyperloop tubes stretched out across the US, with main hubs in New York, Chicago, Amarillo (in Texas), and Los Angeles. Then, each of these hubs would have separate branches extending out that could take passengers to surrounding cities. For instance, you could stop at the Chicago hub and get on another capsule that would take you to either Minneapolis, Detroit, Cincinnati, or St. Louis.
Plus, since the energy costs of Hyperloop would be so low, Musk says that a trip from New York to Los Angeles in one of the capsules would cost much less than an airline ticket. It also wouldn’t experience delays due to weather, since the tube system would be able to withstand most forms of bad weather. We’ll see how robust the system will be, but we wouldn’t be surprised if a tornado or hurricane caused a bit of damage.
This all sounds quite amazing, and it seems to work on paper, but is it practical and realistic? The US is having a hard time as it is just to bring high-speed rail into the country, mostly because the US doesn’t have the money and infrastructure for such a big project, and Hyperloop would cost just as much as (possibly even more than) a high-speed rail network.
However, if Musk ended up funding the project himself, this could be something that may actually get built, but it would also have to get approval from the government, and who knows how long that would take.
Check out our other recent coverage below for more on Elon Musk’s latest happenings.
Boy, I haven’t seen a reel-to-reel tape deck in years. After 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs, MiniDiscs and MP3s, we’re at least five generations past the everyday use of these things. And dekstop calculators? I haven’t used one in a very long time either. Between my smartphone and my computer, I’ve had no reason to have one. But that hasn’t stopped somebody from mashing up these two obsolete technologies into one new device.
This retro-style LCD calculator combines these old-school gadgets into one – though it only works as a calculator and won’t play your old spools of magnetic tape, no matter how hard you try. On the plus side, you don’t need to worry about getting your tape tangled up.
If you actually have some use for this thing, it sells for £8.49 (~$13USD) over at I Want One of Those.
Ticks suck, literally. Seeing as one of the things that they would like to suck on is our body we go to some lengths to stop them from sucking on us. A team of engineers at the Virginia Military Institute is currently in the testing phase of a tick-killing robot that could help to thin the population of the disease carrying insects.
Our friends at TechBargains.com compile a list of daily deals to help you save money. Keep in mind that as with any good deal, products are limited in quantity and can sell out quickly – so don’t hesitate to check them out now.
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Our friends at TechBargains.com compile a list of daily deals to help you save money. Keep in mind that as with any good deal, products are limited in quantity and can sell out quickly – so don’t hesitate to check them out now.
If you’re looking to buy a product from a specific store, save money with updated and verified coupon codes here.
Our friends at TechBargains.com compile a list of daily deals to help you save money. Keep in mind that as with any good deal, products are limited in quantity and can sell out quickly – so don’t hesitate to check them out now.
If you’re looking to buy a product from a specific store, save money with updated and verified coupon codes here.
Earlier this month, Apple reportedly formed a deal with Time Warner Cable over Apple TV, which we’ll be hearing about towards the end of the year, if the sources are correct. Now word has surfaced that Apple is approaching cable networks with ideas of a “premium” service it would offer that allows the users to skip advertisements, something for which Apple would then pay the network.
The information comes from Jessica Lessin, who goes on to point out that in 2012 an Apple patent surfaced showcasing technology that allowed for a video stream to be played when a different one is being watched when a commercial comes on. As far as the actual claim goes, very little known, such as what kind of compensation Apple is offering for each skipped advertisement.
Reportedly, according to the sources who provided the information, the talks are being kept very hush-hush, with the latest ones having taken place last week at an event by Allen & Co that media businesses participated in. Both Senior Vice President Eddy Cue and marketing head Phil Schiller are said to also be part of the talks.
If all of this sounds familiar, it is not just because many DVRs already allow users to fast-forward through commercials. Dish Network allows for a similar feature, which is called Auto Hop and raised the ire of most of the industry. Fox, CBS, NBC, and others sued Dish over the feature, saying such a feature was an attack on the overall ecosystem.
NBC was particularly vocal over the feature, and Dish Network’s chairman eventually responded with his own stance, talking about advertisements in general and Dish’s goal. In light of this, it will be interesting to see how networks respond to Apple’s plans, and what effects that could end up having in the grander scheme of things.
Do you leave your phone on the kitchen table a lot? If you do, then you’ll be pleased to know that it won’t just be sitting there idly, thanks to a collaboration between DuPont Building Innovations and the Power Matters Alliance.
They’ve come up with a surface that can charge smartphones and other devices wirelessly. They basically took Powermat’s wireless charging technology and embedded that within Corian solid surfaces. The latter is basically a synthetic, granite alternative that’s often used for countertops.
This new technology isn’t just for kitchen counters. The surface can also be installed on nightstands and coffee tables. The DuPont-PMA team up is especially exciting. Who knows? We might soon see countertop chargers installed in public spaces soon.
Robots are slowly but surely taking all of our jobs. Even jobs that we thought were safe – like being an artist. e-David is a robotic painter developed by the University of Konstanz in Germany. It takes photographs, then uses its software to develop a unique set of brush strokes to make a one-of-a-kind painting of the subject. There’s another job gone.
It creates using five different brushes and a palette of 24 paint colors. It can also change its painting style on the fly, making adjustments to future brush strokes by observing the results of those it has already made. e-David even signs its work with a reverse-written signature, which is a nice artistic touch.
The team built the robot painter to learn more about the techniques human artists use. They want to boil painting techniques down to their basics by creating algorithms that can mimic them.
Sure, e-David paints a great painting, but can it cut it’s own ear off like Van Gogh? Nope. No passion. No crazy. No heart. How is that art again?
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