As reported on Wired. BY JOSEPH FLAHERTY The “Happy Beaver” is a vinyl toy designed by Jeff Pidgeon – a story artist at Pixar who worked on theToy Story series. The toy started out as a sketch in Jeff Pidgeon’s notebook. Going from 2-D to 3-D can be challenging. Pidgeon started with clay, but eventually modeled the character in 3-D. One of the key benefits of 3-D printing is rapid prototyping. Pidgeon was able to evaluate models…
As reported on TechCrunch. by KIM-MAI CUTLER Changemakrs, a platform for sharing inspiration built by an ex-Facebooker, is tapping into the Christmas spirit with a version of the site that lets anyone share holiday quotes. If you sign into the site, Changemakrs will automatically add holiday quotes to the homepage, using some natural-language processing algorithms that categorize the quotes. They also do quality filtering through internal user rankings. This holiday version of the site was hacked together in…
As reported on Engadget. By Steve Dent Sure, Google’s not in the Santa Tracking NORAD cabal anymore, but that’s not stopping it from rolling out St. Nicholas-related goodies. It just launched a series of new games, including a chimney / gift dropping challenge, a rocket-powered elf race and a Santa chat that lets you send a droll holiday greeting to your “hoodlum besties.” You can even play Rudolph for a lark and drag Santa around in his…
As reported on TechCrunch. by ALEXIA TSOTSIS You know that annoying kid in junior high that used to give you his lunch money to hang out? That’s what incentivized mobile app downloads are like. Or rather, it’s that kid’s mom or older brother paying you to hang out with them. So when we were blindsided by saw this post by our founder Michael Arrington earlier today, about the TechCrunch iOS app being offered in exchange for a whopping 9 premium plays of Goobers Vs. Boogers*, we…
As reported on Engadget. By Sean Buckley We’ve seen Christmas trees built out of spare car parts, discarded SCSI drives,OLED panels, and quadrocopter stacked boxes, but Germany? Their taking the old tannenbaum back to its roots — and tweaking its genetic code. With the aide of a government grant, scientists in Germany are trying to develop a method of tree cloning suited to Nordmann Fir. The native pine is popular for yuletide trimmings, but can be difficult to grow…
As reported on Polygon. By ALEXA RAY CORRIEA In a press conference earlier today, the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president Wayne LaPierreblamed violent video games as a contributor to last week’s Sandy Hook school shootings, citing Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat, Splatterhouse and a free flash game called Kindergarten Killer as examples of games with destructive influence. Kindergarten Killer?La Pierre said the media has been hiding the existence of web-based Kindergarten Killer, making it his showpiece for the “dirty little truth”…
As reported on TechCrunch. by JON EVANS Gun control is on many minds this week, but let’s not talk about guns. Let’s talk about drones. (With a reported 300 million guns in private hands in America already, it’s probably too late for gun control anyhow.) Drones are to nation-states what assault rifles are to psychotic mass murderers. Worse yet, the way things are going, it’s only a matter of time until alpha insurgencies like Hezbollah and the Zetas…
As reported on Engadget. By Steve Dent In the “sure wish we had a video” category, aptly-monikered defense contractor Rheinmetall has run a highly successful test of its 50kW high-energy laser weapon. It works by hunting down incoming targets using a so-called Skyguard radar system, then locking in with an optical scanner before firing multiple, superimposed beams for extra energy. During the Swiss trials, the German-made HEL cannon managed to cut through a 15mm steel girder from over 3,200…
As reported on Businessinsider.com by Kevin Smith Earlier today a video leaked via Reddit of a UPS driver stealing a package from the front porch of a home. The package contained an iPad mini, a Christmas present for the homeowner’s daughter. The package had been dropped off earlier by a FedEx delivery person but a UPS delivery guy came up, inspected the package and walked off with it. The act would have gone unpunished had the homeowner not installed a camera at his…
As reported on Wired. BY SPENCER ACKERMAN A diplomatic security agent, right, ushers U.S. diplomats from a helicopter in Afghanistan, 2011. Photo: Department of State U.S. embassy security in the post-Benghazi era is shaping up to be a financial bonanza for security contractors. It’s not necessarily going to look like the ‘roided-out era in which the firm formerly known as Blackwater and its ilk paraded diplomats through dangerous thoroughfares with specialty rifles in tow. But any company that…