Amazing Bulletin

New Micro-Chip gets wrong answers very quickly

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:34:31 +0000

Scientists have found that getting an answer that isn’t necessarily right but is close enough is much faster than getting a correct answer. They have now designed a micro-chip around this principle and are seeing significant performance gains on certain applications where mathmatical accuracy isn’t as important. I think the government figured out years ago that it was cheaper to hire people who are bad at math, so the government might be a good place to look for applications. Maybe we could use these chips to predict the weather, it couldn’t be much worse than existing predictions. Or maybe the various governments (Greece comes to mind) could use it balance the budget.

Get the full story here: http://news.rice.edu/2012/05/17/computing-experts-unveil-superefficient-inexact-chip/

Honda Personal Mobility

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:51:07 +0000

Dinosaur emissions decidedly not green

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:27:13 +0000

Apparently scientists have discovered that plentiful very large plant eating dinosaurs expelled enough methane gas to cause significant global warming. Apparently all of those huge dinosaurs were far worse than our factories and cars are today at warming up the planet.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303630404577390042359268690.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Microsoft Kinetic sensor using just microphone and speaker?

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:51:22 +0000

Disney Touch

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:48:55 +0000

Turn any surface into a touch screen? The Walt Disney Company, has created Touché, a system that can turn almost any object or substance into a multi-touch, gesture-recognizing interface. At its most basic, Touché could be used to enhance touchscreen devices like smartphones — but it could also turn everyday objects such as doorknobs, tables, liquids, or even your own body, into touch interfaces.

Mouse Brains hold key to curing Alzheimer’s?

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:45:14 +0000

Scientists may be a step closer to discovering a treatment for Alzheimer’s. Experiments with mice have revealed a method to detect the cause of brain cell death and also have yielded a method to reverse the process.

Shark Laser

admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:51:39 +0000

Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads!

Well, they’ve gone and done it now! http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/05/02/1744223/finally-a-shark-with-a-laser-attached-to-its-head

Mad Cow found in California

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:17:31 +0000

Random testing found a cow with mad cow desease in California. It was a dairy cow that had died though and wasn’t going to be eaten by humans. Get the story here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/24/health/california-mad-cow/index.html

Air Breathing Batteries

admin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:45:44 +0000

As part of its Battery 500 project — an initiative started by IBM in 2009 to produce a battery capable of powering a car for 500 miles — Big Blue has successfully demonstrated a light-weight, ultra-high-density, lithium-air battery.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/126745-ibm-creates-breathing-high-density-light-weight-lithium-air-battery

Trading wind for water in the desert

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:16:43 +0000

Marc Parent, founder of Eole Water, realized that he could extract water from the air after noticing how much water an air conditioner unit collected. He decided to combine a green energy source with the necessary components for condensing water directly from the air. The end result after 10 years of R&D is the WMS1000 wind turbine, capable of condensing and storing up to 1,000 liters of water every day.

Get the full story: [geek.com]