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Medicine

New Film Documents Heartless Man->

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes "By criteria doctors conventionally use to analyze patients, Craig Lewis was dead. He had no heartbeat, no pulse, his EKG was flatlined. Yet he left the hospital and returned home to his wife. So what happened? Last March, doctors cut out Lewis' heart entirely and replaced it with a centrifugal pump — a revolutionary procedure that was only attempted because Lewis' health prognosis was so dire."
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Medicine

Why People Don't Live Past 114-> 1

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes "Average life expectancy has nearly doubled in developed countries over the 20th century. But a puzzling part to the equation has emerged. While humans are in fact living longer lives on average, the oldest age that the oldest people reach seems to be stubbornly and oddly precisely cemented right at 114. What will it takes for humans to live beyond this limit?"
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Science

Electrode Implants in Brain Detect What Patients Hear-> 1

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes "A group of 15 patients suffering from either epileptic seizures or brain tumors volunteered to allow scientists to insert electrodes into their brains. After neurosurgeons cut a hole in their skulls, the research team placed 256 electrodes over the part of the brain that processes auditory signals called the temporal lobe. The scientists then played words, one at a time, to the patients while recording brain activity in the temporal lobe. A computer was able to reconstruct the original word 80 to 90 percent of the time."
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Robotics

'Archetype' – New Short Film on Robots With Memories->

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes "In Aaron Sims‘ exciting new short film Archetype, RL7 is a devastatingly powerful military robot that seems to be remembering its past lifeas a human and loving father. Running under seven minutes, the brief movie grabs its audience with stunning visual effects and an immersive futuristic world. That’s no surprise considering Sims’ impressive credentials – his visual effects and design can be seen in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon, Green Lantern, and dozens of other blockbusters. Archetype is Sims’ breakout project, a self-produced short film that is aimed at attracting the right attention so that it can be extended into a full length feature."
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Social Networks

Ray Kurzweil for President?->

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes "Ray Kurzweil for President? Americans Elect is an online organization hoping to add a third party presidential candidate to the national ballot in 2012. They’ve already gathered more than 2.4 million signatures, over 80% of the 2.9 million signatures they’ll need to get on the presidential ballot in every state.The not-for-profit is open to electing anyone nominated (and supported) by their delegates – and any US citizen can be a delegate. And, as of 12:01pm PST on February 10, 2012, Ray Kurzweil’s name is in the running to be the Americans Elect candidate."
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AI

30% of All US Military Aircraft are Now Drones-> 1

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes "The American era of drone warfare has clearly arrived. According to a recent report from the Congressional Research Service, nearly one in three US warplanes are drones and those machines are changing the way the world wages war. From short range surveillance craft like the Raven to missile packing hunter-killers like the infamous Predator, the US military is awash with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)."
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Entertainment

High-Speed Photos Capture Art In Drops Of Water->

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes "Jim Kramer is a photographer, but his subjects aren’t waterfalls or cityscapes. He captures the beautiful shapes found when colored water droplets smack the water's surface using high speed photography. He’s doing some really magical photography, just take a look at his stunning High Speed Water Drop Collection."
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Google

Google's Eric Schmidt: In God We Trust - All Others Bring Data->

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes "Recently at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Google's Eric Schmidt presented his thoughts on how the focus on hardware and software will fade in importance to harnessing the globally generated network of knowledge and data. In his talk titled "The Future of the Global Mind", Schmidt declares the global network of knowledge to be “as important, if not more important, as the development of electricity.” He also gives the audience a new motto: “in God we trust, but all others bring data”."
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Hardware

MIT Media Lab Rolls Out Folding Car In Spain->

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes "You think European cars are small now, wait till the Hiriko takes to the roads in Spain’s northern Basque country. The two-seater is about the size of a SmartCar, but when parked, the car can actually fold. After folding the car takes up about a third of a normal parking space. The Hiriko, Basque for “urban car,” folds as the rear of the car slides underneath its chassis. Every square foot counts."
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Cloud

IBM Tracks Your Pork From Farm To Fork->

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes "IBM has set out to prove it can revolutionize the food industry with data, starting with China. Six industrial slaughterhouses and 100 markets in Shandong Province are part of a large scale test in tracking pork from farm to customer. Pigs are marked with ear tags containing unique barcodes, those same barcodes appear on the bins that carry their meat during processing, and on the packages for the pork placed in stores."
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Work expands to fill the time available. -- Cyril Northcote Parkinson, "The Economist", 1955

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