Laser-cut folding Ukulele (Soprano size).

Three Dimensional Labyrinth Orb.

Whirlpool’s Vessi Fermenter to make your own beer.

Pie Crust Maker Bag.

Trakline Essentials Belt.

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Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

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Writing in Nature, an international team of researchers described how they had taken pieces of cancer’s genetic RNA code, put them into tiny nanoparticles of fat and then injected the mixture into the bloodstreams of three patients in the advanced stages of the disease.

The patients’ immune systems responded by producing “killer” T-cells designed to attack cancer.

The vaccine was also found to be effective in fighting “aggressively growing” tumours in mice, according to researchers, who were led by Professor Ugur Sahin from Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany.

That would be useful.

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Over the last week, there has been a flurry of focus on antibiotic resistance. The attention stems from a recent article reporting the discovery of an antibiotic-resistant bacterium in the United States. While at first glance, this may not seem to be a reason for panic, the actual target of resistance–a class of antibiotics known as colistins–has led some to suggest the end of antibiotics is near.

This would appear to be an appropriate time to do some gene-editing on antibiotics to restore effectiveness.

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Oh, you mean like a plant?

The chemist who gave us the artificial leaf has genetically engineered bacteria to absorb hydrogen and carbon dioxide and convert them into alcohol fuel.

Fine. Does it scale? What does it cost?

When Harvard Professor of Energy Daniel G. Nocera announced he was working with bacteria last year, other scientists cautioned it would be difficult to achieve a productive level of efficiency. At the time, Nocera was aiming for 5 percent efficiency—about 5 times better than plants. This month at the University of Chicago, he announced his bug converts sunlight ten times more efficiently than plants.

Nice, if true. (How would you like to be a ‘Professor of Energy’? Sounds cool, doesn’t it?)

“I can just let the bugs grow exponentially. They’re eating hydrogen, that’s their only food source, and then they breathe in CO2, and they keep multiplying. They procreate, and that goes into an exponential growth curve.”

Cue the eco-nazi freakout about this stuff ‘escaping into the wild’ and converting all of the oceans to alcohol. (You know it’s going to happen.)

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Russia is touting its Iron Man — a humanoid military robot — in the new global arms race that has sprung up over high-tech weaponry.

“The development of a special military robot is one of the priorities of military construction in Russia,” the Russian daily newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported recently.

The purpose of Iron Man, the newspaper continued, is to “replace the person in the battle or in emergency areas where there is a risk of explosion, fire, high background radiation, or other conditions that are harmful to humans.”

Komsomol was the Soviet equivalent of the Hitler Youth, and Komsomolskaya Pravda was its house organ.

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Wherever humans have changed the environment—and you’d be hard-pressed to find a place we haven’t—there are winners and losers. Cities around the world shelter pigeons, naturally adapted to life on rock ledges. Farms allow weedy plants to thrive between their fields. Oceans—plagued by rising temperatures, depleted fish populations, and acidifying waters brought on by human activity—are no exception. New research shows that these changes to marine environments are leading to a surge of cephalopods, the invertebrate group that includes octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish.

Release the Kraken!

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I still don’t have my flying car….

Molekule air purifier.

Dino-Lite USB Microscope.

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And about fargin time, too.

When all you have is a gun and a bunch of missiles, every problem looks like something to blow up. The Army’s Apache helicopters are very good at blowing stuff up, but there are times when they need more precision.

On the other hand, blowing shit up works more often than you might think.

Better lasers and more lasers are one way the Pentagon plans to get around the cost imbalance of its weapons. Missiles and precision bombs, released from sophisticated helicopters and planes, are effective, but they’re not cheap, and they’re single-use. The cost of a weapon may make sense against a tank, but not against a truck carrying a machine gun. Lasers are expensive to develop, but their cost of use is expected to be very low, around $1 a shot. At that price, destroying trucks and buildings with lasers suddenly makes a lot more sense than using bombs.

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Well. There it is.

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Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

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When the Marine Corps developed the V-22 Osprey in the 1980s, the vision was pretty simple: fly troops ashore in amphibious assaults launched from beyond the range of anti-ship missiles. Now they’re turning the Osprey into a gas station. The Marines clearly envision the tiltrotor as a sort of flying Swiss Army knife.

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If you were suddenly awoken in the middle of the night and needed to go outside to fight off a threat or evacuate from your home, in what order would you don your clothes? Does it matter?

Hint: Yes.

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They’re making fuel from thin air at the USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute.

For the first time, researchers there have directly converted carbon dioxide from the air into methanol at relatively low temperatures.

The work, led by G.K. Surya Prakash and George Olah of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, is part of a broader effort to stabilize the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by using renewable energy to transform the greenhouse gas into its combustible cousin – attacking global warming from two angles simultaneously. Methanol is a clean-burning fuel for internal combustion engines, a fuel for fuel cells and a raw material used to produce many petrochemical products.

“We need to learn to manage carbon. That is the future,” said Prakash, professor of chemistry and director of the USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute.

The researchers bubbled air through an aqueous solution of pentaethylenehexamine (or PEHA), adding a catalyst to encourage hydrogen to latch onto the CO2 under pressure. They then heated the solution, converting 79 percent of the CO2 into methanol. Though mixed with water, the resulting methanol can be easily distilled, Prakash said.

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Of course, it will take 20 years to reverse the laws that make them illegal….

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With a single shot to the brain, researchers can rid rodents of all symptoms of the disease for months. The injection, a relatively low dose of a tissue growth factor protein called fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1), appears to reset powerful neural networks that can control the amount of sugar in the blood.

So far, it’s not completely clear how exactly FGF1 does that, researchers report in Nature Medicine. Early experiments found that FGF1 didn’t appear to lower blood sugar levels in some of the most obvious ways, such as curbing the rodents’ appetite and spurring sustained weight loss. Nevertheless, because FGF1 is naturally present in human brains, as well as those of rodents, researchers are hopeful that the lucky shot may translate into a useful treatment.

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Some 336 meters into the cave, the caver stumbled across something extraordinary—a vast chamber where several stalagmites had been deliberately broken. Most of the 400 pieces had been arranged into two rings—a large one between 4 and 7 metres across, and a smaller one just 2 metres wide. Others had been propped up against these donuts. Yet others had been stacked into four piles. Traces of fire were everywhere, and there was a mass of burnt bones.

These weren’t natural formations, and they weren’t the work of bears. They were built by people.

Recognizing the site’s value, the caver brought in archaeologist Francois Rouzaud. Using carbon-dating, Rouzaud estimated that a burnt bear bone found within the chamber was 47,600 years old, which meant that the stalagmite rings were older than any known cave painting. It also meant that they couldn’t have been the work of Homo sapiens. Their builders must have been the only early humans in the south of France at the time: Neanderthals.

Dan Brown, I have your next best-seller.

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I am not making this up.

The end times are upon us.

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Hey, it could happen. You know what sheep are like.

Swansea Councillor Ioan Richard said the sheep had already been causing havoc in Rhydypandy, Swansea and one had previously been killed after straying into the road.

Mr Richard told the South Wales Evening Post: “There is already a flock of sheep roaming the village causing a nuisance.

“They are getting in people’s gardens and one even entered a bungalow and left a mess in the bedroom.

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The lawyers said they “are concerned that snippets or soundbites of the deposition may be publicized in a way that exploits Ms. Mills’ image and voice in an unfair and misleading manner.”

Since that’s exactly what they’d do if the tables were turned, of course they’re concerned. Those who spin for their supper are always on their guard against being spun.

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Well, well, well. I’m pretty sure she has qualified immunity, but these days  you never know.

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Two years after the movement process began the only land-based Aegis anti-aircraft/missile system in existence (in New Jersey) has been taken apart, packed into 60 large (40 foot) shipping containers and sent to Romania where Aegis where it has been be put back together, tested and became operational in May 2016 as an anti-missile system. This took six months longer than expected but this was seen as a possibility because this was the first time land-based Aegis was disassembled and moved and then set up in a combat zone. The U.S. is building two more ground-based Aegis systems; one in Poland and one in Hawaii. All three, including new Aegis components for two of them and needed missiles (24 per location) and launching hardware for all of them will cost $2.3 billion. That’s nearly $800 million per system.

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The “five second rule” – the urban food myth, ever-justifying your decision to eat a dropped tasty treat – does exist, according to two NASA engineers.

The 87 per cent of people who admitted they would happily eat food after it had fallen on the floor in a 2014 survey, will be pleased to know there is legitimate science behind the rule, although certain conditions do apply.

Speaking on the Science Channel’s The Quick and the Curious NASA engineers, Mark Rober and Mike Meacham, explained the amount of moisture in your food and the surface upon which it is dropped are major factors in how much bacteria it will pick up.

“The ‘five second rule’ is really the ’30 second moisture and surface rule’,” they say.

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No one can explain exactly how Belton came to see again, not even the doctor who treated her as part of an unconventional stem cell study shortly before she regained limited vision.

Despite their promise, stem cell treatments often garner skepticism from experts who are still studying their safety and effectiveness. While stem cells can be grown into any type of cell in the body, scientists generally believe proving the cells can repair or cure anything is a ways off. The only U.S. government approved stem cell treatment involves blood clotting disorders, but that hasn’t stopped those who can afford the treatments from seeking them.

Disco Ball Helmet.

Smart Bottle Opener. Texts your friends when you open a beer.

Used Book Perfume.

KittySplit app divides expenses among participants automatically.

Slipit sliding compound.

Scrubba portable laundry system.

These stick-on lenses turn your smartphone into a digital microscope.

Portable Microwave for adventures.

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Last we checked in on the $2.2 billion Ivanpah solar power facility out in the California desert, it was in danger of being shut down because it was failing to produce the promised amount of electricity, despite all that free desert sunshine. (Before that we reported on how it was merely incinerating birds by the hundreds.)

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Solid and cellular tyres are one of those bicycle design ideas that potentially hold huge practical advantages; no punctures and none of the extra time and delay that entails and the need to carry round a spare tube, tools and pump with you.

…

Now Gecko Rubber from the UK has produced their own version of punctureless tyres, made from a cellular rubber compound (based on traditional thermoset rubber compounds similar to those being used in conventional pneumatic tyres). They claim to have a softer ride than Tannus and to be ‘70% less damaging to the environment than a leading puncture resistant alternative.’

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The four genes that determine exactly how your schnozzle formed have been revealed by scientists.

The researchers looked at the faces and DNA of more than 6,000 people, finding out what determined their breadth, pointiness and other characteristics.

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Yesterday the National Academy of Sciences released a 407-page report on genetically engineered crops that debunks most of the frothier claims of the anti-GMO crusaders. From the summary:

While recognizing the inherent dif?culty of detecting subtle or long-term effects in health or the environment, the study committee found no substantiated evidence of a difference in risks to human health between currently commercialized genetically engineered (GE) crops and conventionally bred crops, nor did it ?nd conclusive cause-and-effect evidence of environmental problems from the GE crops.

Even worse from the greenie point of view is the finding that GMOs have produced positive economic outcomes for their users. Better living through chemistry, and higher profits too! Talk about feeling the bern burn!

Take that, deniers!

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Most of us have found ourselves in the awkward situation of trying to communicate in a foreign language. Sometimes it’s funny. Sometimes it’s embarrassing. And sometimes it’s downright disastrous. But thanks to a new translation device that easily fits into your ear, the days of struggling to speak the local lingo might soon be a thing of the past.

The device is called The Pilot system and Waverly Labs is the company behind this brilliantly simple yet potentially groundbreaking idea. When it hits the shelves in September, the system will allow the wearer to understand one of several foreign languages through real-time in-ear translation. A handy app will allow you to toggle through the languages you want, and the selection includes French, Spanish, Italian, and English. It’ll retail for $129, and you can pre-order one here. Or you can just keep talking to people really loudly and slowly in English. Good luck with that.

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Samsung has been experimenting with mirror and transparent displays for years, but mostly in concept form. While we saw a pair of impressive 55-inch mirrored and transparent OLED displays last year, Samsung is revealing the first commercial installation of its mirror display today. A hair salon in Seoul, Korea is using four of Samsung’s 55-inch mirror displays to make haircuts a little more entertaining.

The mirror displays will show different styles, colors, and information on the latest cuts for customers to pick and choose from. When the displays aren’t providing information, they’ll look like regular mirrors for the salon. Samsung is planning to sell its mirror displays to businesses specializing in fashion, furniture, interior design, and retail in the third quarter of this year.

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IBM today announced a more efficient way to use phase-change memory, a breakthrough that could help transition electronic devices from standard RAM and flash to a much faster and more reliable type of storage. Phase-change memory, or PCM, is a type of non-volatile optical storage that works by manipulating the behavior of chalcogenide glass, which is how data is stored on rewriteable Blue-ray discs. A electrical current is applied to change PCM cells from an amorphous to crystalline structure, allowing you to store 0s and 1s in either state while the application of low voltage can read the data back.

The issue in the past has been PCM’s limited capacity and high cost; you can typically only store one 1 bit per cell. That makes it less useful for main memory applications like laptop or mobile phone storage. Yet IBM researchers discovered how to store 3 bits per cell by tinkering with how the crystals react to high temperatures, which are required to tap into multiple states for PCM cells. The jump is significant “because at this density, the cost of PCM will be significantly less than DRAM and closer to flash,” Haris Pozidis, IBM’s manager of non-volatile memory research, wrote in a statement.

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Researchers from Cardiff University’s Institute of Infection & Immunity discovered that certain germs trigger killer T-cells, a form of white blood cell that can cause diabetes.

The killer T-cells destroy insulin-producing ‘beta cells’, leading to an insulin deficiency.

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Cue screams of outrage about ‘frankenfoods’ by enviro-nazis, who would rather poor people around the world starve so long as it’s done ‘organically’.

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‘Experts’ are always being ‘stunned’ about something.

Update on Soylent.

If you’ve heard about Soylent at all, it’s likely as a saccharine, mealy, unappetizing glop that a bunch of journalists tried and failed to live off of exclusively, just like Soylent’s inventor, Rob Rhinehart.

Marketed to coders and people launching startups, the entire Soylent phenomenon came across as a cult designed to deprive the rest of the world of some of the most basic pleasures of all—good food and the fellowship that comes with it.

But with an infusion of $20 million in January 2015 from venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Soylent the company pivoted from being a vehicle for its inventor’s quasi-apocalyptic notions about the future of humanity—Mr. Rhinehart recently declared that “grocery shopping is a multisensory living nightmare,” while lamenting that his apartment came with a kitchen—to a brand targeting people who just need something healthy and cheap to tide them over until their next proper meal.

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Wouldn’t that be a blessing? (Can Canada absorb that many whining slackers?)

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Keeping track of time is critical for many tasks, such as playing the piano, swinging a tennis racket, or holding a conversation.

Neuroscientists at MIT and Columbia University have now figured out how neurons in one part of the brain measure time intervals and accurately reproduce them.

The researchers found the lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP), which plays a role in sensorimotor function, represents elapsed time, as animals measure and then reproduce a time interval. They also demonstrated how the firing patterns of population of neurons in the LIP could coordinate sensory and motor aspects of timing.

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The composition of theatergoers’ breath fluctuates along with movie scenes, according to a study published this week in Nature’s Scientific Reports. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and Johannes Gutenberg University found that they could reliably map the chemical patterns of a movie as it progressed through heart-racing scenes and calm ones. During Hunger Games, for instance, carbon dioxide and isoprene levels increased whenever Katniss was fighting for her life. The researchers think isoprene levels correspond with suspense.

Hey, tenure doesn’t grow on trees, you know.

Cue whine about difficulty getting funding, preferably from taxpayers.

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Maybe this time they’ll take the hint.

A North Dakota rancher shot and killed the first wolverine spotted in the state in more than 150 years, sparking the ire of animal advocates who found the killing unnecessary and rather cruel.

“Killed this here critter out tormenting the cows yesterday,” Jared Hatter wrote on his Facebook profile shortly after the late-April shooting of the rare animal.

Animal advocates make a hobby of sticking their noses into other people’s business. Of course, they had no sympathy for the cows being tormented. White privilege, or something.

Parent Hacks: 134 Genius Shortcuts for Life with Kids.

Food Huggers.

Planter that doubles as earthquake helmet. Hey, you never know.

Exploding bike locks. When you’re really serious.

Fire alarm that texts you when your house is on fire. We have the technology.

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Wendy’s is joining the restaurant push toward automation in some customer service. The chain announced this week that it will be making self-service kiosks available to all its (primarily franchise-owned) 6,000 stores later this year. It will be up to individual franchises to decide whether to use them.

Drastic increases to minimum wages are notably a factor. Investor‘s Business Daily points out the chain separately has more than 200 restaurants in California and New York. Stores actually owned by Wendy’s instead of franchises have seen wage inflation of between five to six percent so far. Obviously when the $15 minimum wage takes off in those two states, there will be much more.

Sure, you’ll get that higher minimum wage — if you actually have a job, which you just lost to a robot. Too bad.

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With a single spear throw, a spearman killed the future. He was at a mock battle, part of Rusborg 2016, a festival about the early Middle Ages in Russia. An observer filmed the battle from above with a quadcopter. One of the participants, perhaps out of sport, perhaps out of a sense for authenticity, decided to knock it out of the sky. With a step and a toss, he did.

We have the technology.

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‘If we had a void, we should have a strong reflection,’ Dean Goodman, a geophysicist at GPR-Slice software told National Geographic News, which published a feature on the research.

‘But it just doesn’t exist.’

Perhaps they ought to put some Climate Scientists on the job; then we would get a Consensus and go home.

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Think of it as evolution in action.

Next step: Goose concealed carry. Hey, this is America.

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What do cows need horns for, anyway?

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Jamba Juice Inc. this week said it plans to move its headquarters from Emeryville, Calif., to Frisco, Tex., becoming the latest California-based restaurant chain to move out of the state.

The juice chain said it plans to move its headquarters for operations, business development, sales and marketing, finance, supply chain, technology, human resources and other corporate functions to Texas. It will then close the Emeryville office after a six-month transition.

David Pace, the chain’s chief executive officer, said the company is making the move to better position itself to support franchisees. But the company also cited operating costs as a reason for the move.

Of course. Who wants to stay in California, and put up with all that hassle?

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These Hindus consider Donald Trump the “saviour of humanity”, and have invoked the help of the Hindu pantheon to ensure his election as president of the United States.

So at least he’s got that going for him.

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Wal-Mart is suing Visa for allegedly forcing the retailer to let customers use signatures when paying with their chip-based debit cards.

The retail giant filed a lawsuit in New York court, saying that Visa wouldn’t allow Wal-Mart to just use the “chip-and-PIN” protocol and that it was required to allow customers to sign when using a chip debit card. Wal-Mart is seeking a jury trial, according to the complaint, first reported in the Wall Street Journal.

Foolish me — I thought that was the whole point behind the ‘chip-and-PIN’ business. But apparently not.