Archive for the ‘robots’ Category

truebador and such

and other meanderings

An Earth Without People

scientificamerican via notcot

Hitachi: Move the train with your brain

HATOYAMA, Japan - Forget the clicker: A new technology in Japan could let you control electronic devices without lifting a finger simply by reading brain activity.

The "brain-machine interface" developed by Hitachi Inc. analyzes slight changes in the brain’s blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals.

A cap connects by optical fibers to a mapping device, which links, in turn, to a toy train set via a control computer and motor during one recent demonstration at Hitachi’s Advanced Research Laboratory in Hatoyama, just outside Tokyo.

"Take a deep breath and relax," said Kei Utsugi, a researcher, while demonstrating the device on Wednesday.

At his prompting, a reporter did simple calculations in her head, and the train sprang forward a€" apparently indicating activity in the brain’s frontal cortex, which handles problem solving.

Activating that region of the brain a€" by doing sums or singing a song a€" is what makes the train run, according to Utsugi. When one stops the calculations, the train stops, too.

Underlying Hitachi’s brain-machine interface is a technology called optical topography, which sends a small amount of infrared light through the brain’s surface to map out changes in blood flow.

more at news.yahoo

How Should We Think About Economics Today ?

Note that the scientific approach (like the aristocratic one) is a quest for power for its own sake; in other words, it is the practice of black magic. Science transforms white magic into black when it turns the young childa€™s paranoid fantasy for total control into the real world. The bounds of the expanse of total power (and of black magic) is the economic requirement of performing a valuable service for others. This is the humility that the capitalist market expects of us so that the white magic of economics might deploy its beneficial effects.

Contrary to customary opinion, money is not an idol, it is instead the tempest that upsets idols. Unpredictable and uncontrollable, money is on the side of liberty because it does not recognise borders and it threatens all governments. It is spiritual because it tears us away from materialism.

To sum up, the subject matter of economy is simply the Soul of the world.

read the complete analysis at liberalia

Innovations and growth in a flat world

thoughts and webcast at jawspeak

The Electro-Kinetic Road Ramp, Environmentally Friendly Engineering

Lately we have been uber-enviro-nerds with the talk of wind turbines, deep lake cooling and environmentally friendly roller coasters. I just felt the need to put up another nifty energy saving device that was invented by a Bloke from the UK named Peter Hughes. He has created a ramp that absorbs kinetic energy from breaking or slowing down while driving your car over regular roadways. The idea is simple, use the cars wasted kinetic energy to power the streetlights and stoplights. There are a series of plates installed under the road which the cars will drive over, more than likely around stop lights or other areas where the traffic will be slowed. The weight of the car slightly shifts the plates, causing kinetic energy to be created. The energy is stored and then used to power whatever. It is better described on the official site, so I will just do you a favor and quote it here.

unsoughtinput

kinetica museum

kinetica-museum

The Logic Alphabet of Shea Zellweger

theiff

cymatics

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