Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Video: Voice Over (English Subtitles)



This is a great video about an astronaut struggling to stay alive after crash landing on an unknown planet.  As his air supply dwindles, he starts contemplating his current situation and how it compares to other life and death scenarios.  I don't want to give away too much, but I will say its very well done.

Video: Wingham Rowan: A new kind of job market



Description: Plenty of people need jobs with very flexible hours -- but it's difficult for those people to connect with the employers who need them. Wingham Rowan is working on that. He explains how the same technology that powers modern financial markets can help employers book workers for slivers of time.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Dr. Wade Adams: Nanotechnology and the Future of Energy



Video Description: "Dr. Wade Adams, Associate Dean of the School of Engineering at Rice University, passionately explains what nanotechnology is and why it is fundamental to solving many of the world's most pressing challenges." Nanotechnology may one day do everything from curing cancer to solving the world's energy problems.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Video: Jane McGonigal: How Gaming Will Change the World



Video Description: "Jane McGonigal, author of The New York Times best seller "Reality Is Broken" and world-renowned designer of alternate reality games, talks about how games can be created to improve the way we learn, work, solve problems, and lead our real lives."

Web site: National Flu Situation Page 2013

Want the latest information (such as CDC maps, news and twitter feeds and more) on the current national flu situation, check out the following page on the VueToo site.

Video: Ellen Jorgensen: Biohacking -- you can do it, too (The rise of DIYbio labs)



Video description: "We have personal computing, why not personal biotech? That’s the question biologist Ellen Jorgensen and her colleagues asked themselves before opening Genspace, a nonprofit DIYbio lab in Brooklyn devoted to citizen science, where amateurs can go and tinker with biotechnology. Far from being a sinister Frankenstein's lab (as some imagined it), Genspace offers a long list of fun, creative and practical uses for DIYbio."

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Arictle: White House shoots down petition to build Death Star

Excerpt from CNET article: "However, in a playful, "Star Wars"-inspired response titled "This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For," Paul Shawcross, the chief of the science and space branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, explains that construction of the universe's ultimate weapon would cost $850 quadrillion ($850,000,000,000,000,000). The administration also said it was reluctant to spend such an uncountable amount on "a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship."" (read the rest of the article)

Sunday, January 06, 2013

Friday, January 04, 2013

Video: Futuristic highways in the Netherlands glow in the dark


Here are some innovative ideas for the highway.  The only issue will be will some of them be more of a driver distraction then helpful.  Then there are other issues like how do you pay for the energy used to power the electronic car induction lanes, or to pay for the other enhancements.

Video description: "A futuristic highway that can save energy and improve road safety is set to be installed in the Netherlands by mid-2013. Two companies, Studio Roosegaarde and Heijmans Infrastructure, came up with the highway, which includes: glow-in-the-dark road markings painted with photo-luminescent paint which are charged during the day and light up during the night; temperature-responsive paint which indicates slippery roads when temperatures fall below zero; and interactive lights along the highway that light up as cars approach. Wind lights that light up using the draft produced by cars and priority induction lanes that can recharge electric cars as they run along them also feature.

The luminous road markings and weather indicating roads will debut in the Dutch province of Brabant in the middle of next year. The wind powered and interactive lights along with the induction lanes are also planned to go into service in the next years."