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Young Innovators: Detecting Land Mines This afternoon, NPR spoke with Marian Bechtel, the 17-year-old inventor of a device that can detect land mines using sound waves. Earlier this year, Bechtel was awarded a fellowship from the Davidson...

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The Crow Vending Machine I’m a big fan of crows, they’re all around me in the Pacific Northwest, they’re intelligent and I love seeing them solve puzzles. Most geeks are probably already aware that crows are pretty unique...

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WolframAlpha is Wise   Question posed to WolframAlpha knowledge engine: Answer…       via GWS

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2011: The Year in Pee and Poop Treehugger gives us a recap of the year in innovative solutions to the sanitation issues facing us here on Earth and in space. The slideshow covers systems purifying human pee so astronauts can stay hydrated,...

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Another New Military Aircraft Mistaken for UFO From Wired’s Danger Room: Note to the Navy: When trucking a giant flying robot with a rounded fuselage across the country, people are going to think they’re looking at an artifact from Area 51. As...

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Young Innovators: Detecting Land Mines

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Posted by Andy | Posted on December 28, 2011

Category : Just geeky

Landmine

This afternoon, NPR spoke with Marian Bechtel, the 17-year-old inventor of a device that can detect land mines using sound waves. Earlier this year, Bechtel was awarded a fellowship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development. Her science fair project -"A Stand-off Seismo-Acoustic Method for Humanitarian Demining" – has won her recognition for her innovation from science contests and from the US Army.

Listen to the interview as Marian describes how she discovered this innovative capability to help detect landmines.

The Crow Vending Machine

Posted by Andy | Posted on December 26, 2011

Category : Stumble of the Day

American Crow

I’m a big fan of crows, they’re all around me in the Pacific Northwest, they’re intelligent and I love seeing them solve puzzles. Most geeks are probably already aware that crows are pretty unique in the animal kingdom known to create tools and use them (if you’re not aware of this, you can see a short snippet of this tool creation in the following video).

Hacker and writer Joshua Klein is fascinated by crows. (Notice the gleam of intelligence in their little black eyes?) After a long amateur study of corvid behavior, he’s come up with an elegant machine that may form a new bond between animal and human.

After watching the video, check out these links if you want more on this vending machine:
-Gizmodo did a review of the device
-A paper written about the concept
-Josh is also seeking support to make this device more readily available, he needs electrical and mechanical engineers to join him and needs a little funding to support it.

WolframAlpha is Wise

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Posted by Andy | Posted on December 24, 2011

Category : Computers

 

Question posed to WolframAlpha knowledge engine:image

Answer…

 

 

 

via GWS

2011: The Year in Pee and Poop

Posted by Andy | Posted on December 24, 2011

Category : Green / Eco Friendly

Treehugger gives us a recap of the year in innovative solutions to the sanitation issues facing us here on Earth and in space. The slideshow covers systems purifying human pee so astronauts can stay hydrated, to mushrooms that decompose diapers to the DIY rainwater-flushing toilet.

There’s some cool stuff in that presentation, check it out.

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Another New Military Aircraft Mistaken for UFO

Posted by Andy | Posted on December 23, 2011

Category : Conspiracy, Military

From Wired’s Danger Room:

Note to the Navy: When trucking a giant flying robot with a rounded fuselage across the country, people are going to think they’re looking at an artifact from Area 51.

As the local news coverage above shows, residents of Cowley County, Kansas, were freaked out to see a truck rumbling down U.S. 77 towing what looks a whole lot like a 32-foot spaceship. “People were calling in saying, ‘Oh they think they found a flying saucer,’” Donetta Godsey of the Winfield Daily Courier told the ABC News affiliate

If I saw this I wouldn’t think it was a UFO because surely the gov’t has been doing an outstanding job keeping their alien discoveries suppressed from the public view and they wouldn’t have been stupid enough to truck it through a town in broad daylight….or would they?

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