Archive for October, 2008
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
Carbon Nano-Tube Color A4 E-Paper
Samsung Electronics and Unidym have demonstrated the world’s first carbon nanotube-based color active matrix electrophoretic display (EPD) e-paper. The revolutionary color e-paper was demonstrated on a 14.3 inch display. The e-paper device jointly completed by Samsung and Unidym uses a carbon nanotube (CNT) transparent electrode developed by Unidym. CNT is a novel material that has extraordinary electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties.
Perhaps to be used in the next (-next) generation of
Kindle
or 
iliad
Tags: A4 Paper, Active Matrix, Carbon Nano Tube, Carbon Nanotube, Iliad, Mechanical Properties, Next Generation, Novel Material, Paper Tube, Revolutionary Color, Samsung, Samsung Electronics, Transparent Electrode, Unidym
Posted in External, technology | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
From Hack a Day:
Here’s a fun little suprise that showed up in a recent Flaming Lips interview. Frontman Wayne Coyne built this custom guitar rig out of a double-necked Epiphone. It has a neck from a Guitar Hero controller, which triggers a built in KORG
Kaossilator
touchpad synthesizer. Checkout the
video interview at around 1:55 for a demo
. He went with the Guitar Hero controller because he feels that it’s replacing regular guitars in childrens’ perception of how guitar is played.
Tags: Checkout, Custom Guitar, Demo, Flaming Lips, Guitar Hero, Guitar Rig, Guitars, Hack, Perception, Suprise, Synthesizer, Video Interview, Wayne Coyne
Posted in Electronics, External, technology | No Comments »
Friday, October 24th, 2008
Walking house can escape floods or unruly neighbours – Telegraph
The 10ft high home is solar and wind powered and can stroll at walking pace across all terrains.
It has a living room, kitchen, toilet, bed, wood stove and mainframe computer which controls the legs.
Fantastic to see as a break from buildings as stationary and all-or-nothing (i.e. must be knocked down to reuse the land).
At the same time, it’s a bit contrived to look at this as a totally separate idea to an RV/Mobile Home/Caravan. If one is trying to do something outside of the norm, then still defending the concept of the house is not helpful.
The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company does a good job at a more practical movable house, although a little less fun.
Tags: Caravan, Floods, Good Job, Legs, Living Room, Mainframe Computer, Mobile Home, Neighbours, Norm, Rv, Terrains, Toilet, Tumbleweed Tiny House, Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, Walking Pace, Wood Stove
Posted in art | No Comments »
Friday, October 24th, 2008
Scientists Erase Specific Memories in Mice – Yahoo! News
“While memories are great teachers and obviously crucial for survival and adaptation, selectively removing incapacitating memories, such as traumatic war memories or an unwanted fear, could help many people live better lives,” Tsien said.
The “work reveals a molecular mechanism of how [memory deletion] can be done quickly and without doing damage to brain cells.”
I’ve already spoken about this line of research before (and at greater length in “No more painful memories?”), and am still extremely uncomfortable with it. The possibility that you can send people to war, or torture detainees, then erase their memories of it just make my skin crawl. This is exactly the sort of technology secret services would want to get their hands on, and there’s no reason to think there’d be any qualms against using it.
What are your thoughts?
Tags: Adaptation, Brain Cells, Fear, Memory, Mice, Molecular Mechanism, Painful Memories, Qualms, Scientists, Survival, Torture, War Memories, Yahoo, Yahoo News
Posted in Politics, thoughts | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
Watch “Pfriend or Pfoe?” followed by
“Understanding Real America in Wasilla” segments from yesterday’s Daily Show, and you may well share my mix of scandal and surprise.
Tags: America Link, Daily Show, Real America, Scandal, Segments, Surprise
Posted in External, Politics | No Comments »
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