Month: May 2014

Entertainment

‘Ghost in the Shell’ intro recreated in haunting still life

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As reported on The Verge. By Carl Franzen The product of over 30 artists around the world The 1995 anime film Ghost in the Shell is still widely heralded as a modern sci-fi classic, helping define the look, feel and themes of the cyberpunk movement. But few fans are as devoted as the group of artists behind Project 2501, a 4K, live-action recreation of 39 still frames from Ghost in the Shell‘s title sequence that was released this week. The resulting…

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Legal Politics

House votes to stop federal raids on legal medical marijuana states

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As reported on The Verge. By Jacob Kastrenakes Members of the House voted late last night to stop federal law enforcers from interfering with medical marijuana operations in states that have made them legal. The measure, which restricts funds from being spent on stopping states from implementing the legalized distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana, will now head to the Senate, which will have to pass it in order to put a final stop to DEA raids being conducted…

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Culture Engineering Entertainment

Our New Favorite Mad Scientist Builds A Terrifying Wrist-Mounted Flame Thrower In His Garage

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Greg Kumparak Insane garage mad scientist Colin Furze promised three absurd X-Men themed projects by the end of the month — and man, has he delivered. First came his ridiculous, automatically extendable Wolverine claws. Then came his Magneto boots, which let him walk upside down across the ceiling. His last project, though, might be the most dangerous of the lot: wrist-mounted flame throwers.     Built in homage to flame-tossing baddie Pyro, the system…

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Space

Virgin Galactic’s space flights cleared for US blastoff

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As reported on Engadget. BY MATT BRIAN Virgin Galactic’s plans to charter its first space flights by the end of the year have been given another huge boost after it got the green light to begin planning launches. The company, which is now deep in its testing phase, signed a deal with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to help it set clear guidelines on how its missions will take place in US airspace. The agreement doesn’t give Virgin a…

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Business Entertainment

LA Times: Steve Ballmer agrees to buy the LA Clippers for $2 billion

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As reported on Engadget. BY RICHARD LAWLER So what’s Steve Ballmer up to now that Satya Nadella is running things at Microsoft? According to the LA Times, he’s just made a tentative agreement to buy the Clippers for about $2 billion. After NBA commish Adam Silver (pictured above, with Ballmer at a Clippers game on May 11th) announced the league will force current owner Donald Sterling to sell the team after racist remarks he made leaked out, a number of potential…

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Hardware Dev Internet

6 Stunning Photos of the Internet’s Hidden Infrastructure

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As reported on Wired. BY LIZ STINSON Arnall gained access to Telefónica, a 65,700-square-meter data center in Alcalá, Spain that handles much of Europe’s cloud computing services. TIMO ARNALL We know the internet as a 2-D screen, but in reality, the web is an immensely physical thing. The cloud isn’t an ephemeral, immaterial place where our pictures just happen to hang out, but rather a series of massive servers, wires and equipment tucked away in high-security buildings.…

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Google

Google is building a hardware empire, and this is what it looks like

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As reported on The Verge. By Rich McCormick From self-driving cars to contact lenses, Google makes a surprising amount of stuff Google began the 21st century as a small but growing search engine. 14 years later, the California-based company has built smartphones, mapped the globe, purchased a firm that makes advanced smoke detectors, and obtained a veritable army of robots. It’s sometimes tempting to still think of Google as a search engine, but the strides the…

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Business Culture Tablet Trends

2014 Tablet Growth Revised Down To 12% On Longer Ownership Cycle, Phablet Popularity

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Ingrid Lunden The growth of tablets has been held up as one of the big, disruptive forces in personal computing, with the more portable, touchscreen devices eating into sales of laptops and other, larger PCs. But a report out today from IDC puts a little dampener on that line of thinking: the analysts there say that they are revising down their forecasts for 2014 tablet shipments (and subsequent sales), as people hold on…

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Culture Design Entertainment

Beats’ new Solo2 headphones sound way better than they feel

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As reported on Engadget. BY BILLY STEELE After the news broke yesterday of Apple officially acquiring Dr. Dre’s headphone and music streaming business, Beats isn’t putting the new product announcements on hold. The success of the brand is without question, and its most popular set of cans just got a refresh. This is the Beats Solo²: a redesigned on-ear model with re-tuned audio that does quite a bit to combat the “too much bass” argument. Beats Solo2 hands-on See all photos 19 Photos  …

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Environmental

What you need to know about solar energy

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As reported on Engadget. BY STEVE DENT Right now, you can install relatively cheap technology on your own roof and power your house, gadgets and even your car. For free! Sorcery? Not so much. The Earth receives more energy from our sun in about one hour than humans consume in an entire year. That’s why solar power was the second leading source of new energy last year, and why companies like Google and IKEA are now in the solar panel business. However, many…

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