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(Credit: www.tedmacdonald.com) I love swarm robots, especially when they pull off tricks that you can easily imagine a robot army doing. Researchers at the Georgia Robotics and Intelligent Systems Lab have been having fun with small Khepera robots and a quadrotor.
Swarm robots form landing pad for quadrotor | Crave - CNET
TextBook Exchange Bags Top Honors in Alibris API Contest
Alibris , an online marketplace for Independent sellers of popular, collectible and bargain books, music and movies has announced the winners for its developer contest held in May . The contest invited developers to make innovative use of the Alibris API with prizes for best overall application, Android application, mashup and most fun application. Liz Deer, COO of Monsoon Commerce, of which Alibris is a division announced the winners .
Hacker collective Anonymous is preparing to launch its own social network called AnonPlus. The move comes after Google banned Anonymous's Google+ account called "Your Anon News" due to a violation of its community standards. Details about the project are scarce. Currently, AnonPlus.com is merely a splash page, containing a message that explains the group's motives behind the project. "Welcome to the Revolution," it says, "a new social network where there is no fear...of censorship...of blackout...nor of holding back". Another message on the site explains that the project is for "all people not just anonymous," adding that the actual site will go up soon but it will not happen overnight.
Anonymous To Build Its Own Social Network Called AnonPlus
Kindle textbook rentals arrive; used can still be cheaper
College students amassing piles of money to pay for textbooks this fall may get a reprieve with a new Amazon rental program that gets them up to 80 percent off list prices. Kindle Textbook Rental allows students to rent textbooks and read them via the free Kindle reading apps, with book annotations preserved in the cloud storage after the rental period is up. With Kindle apps available on several platforms—PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry—students who rent from Kindle Textbook Rental will have a number of offline viewing options. Students can choose their rental period as well, from 30 to 360 days.
Gameloft accused of overworking employees
A former head programmer for mobile and iOS developer Gameloft has made some pretty damning accusations against the company in a complaint. Glenn Watson says that he was made to work over 100 hours a week sometimes, and that "it was after I worked four consecutive weeks of fourteen-hour days - including weekends - that I realised I needed to resign." The issues didn't stop there, either -- after Watson resigned, he claims, he was asked to apologize for leaving others behind to do the work that he passed up. He says the best apology would be to make sure his fellow employees "never get put through the same rubbish conditions again." Other employees have backed up Watson's claims, apparently, and even the company itself says there are some long hours being worked, though they're all in line with regulations and employee contracts.
The Inlet House condo complex in Fort Pierce, Fla., was once the kind of place the 55-and-older set aspired to. It was affordable. The pool and clubhouse were tidy, the lawns freshly snipped. Residents, push-carts in tow, walked to the beach, the bank, the beauty parlor, the cinema and the supermarket. In post-crash America, this was a dreamy little spot. Especially on a fixed income.But that was Inlet House before the rats started chewing through the toilet seats in vacant units and sewage started seeping from the ceiling.
Neighbor vs. neighbor as homeowner fights get ugly
New Polymeric Car Paint Can Self-Heal Major Scratches, Dings
Professor Stuart Rowan at Case Western led a team of researchers to develop a self-healing coating. (Source: Case Western Reserve University via YouTube) When exposed to UV light, the polymer disassembles and reforms, patching scratches or cracks. (Source: Case Western Reserve University via YouTube)
Sheep growers benefit from low supply, high demand
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Saturday's New York Times contained an interesting op-ed piece by Charles Blow, titled "American Shame." The main item was a table listing the 33 countries designated as "advanced economies" by the International Monetary Fund and comparing them on various social and educational characteristics. Specifically, Blow charted income inequality, unemployment rates, level of democracy, the "percentage thriving" (according to the Gallup Global Well-Being Index), food insecurity, prison population, and student performance in math and science.
Why Are Other Democracies Better Off than the U.S. Is
Want more charts like these? See our charts on the secrets of the jobless recovery , the richest 1 percent of Americans , and how the superwealthy beat the IRS . A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household.
It's the Inequality, Stupid
The Mass Extinction of Scientists Who Study Species | Wired Science
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4634" title="fromthefields_banner" src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2009/04/fromthefields_banner.gif" alt="fromthefields_banner" width="660" height="69" /> <img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-48246" title="taxonomy_noaa" src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/01/taxonomy_noaa1.jpg" alt="" width="660" height="486" /> We are currently in a biodiversity crisis. A quarter of all mammals face extinction, and 90 percent of the largest ocean fish are gone.The Environmental Impact of Cell Phones
Just in time for next month’s Verizon iPhone release, we present to you a bit of thought-provoking, guilt-tripping data. In this graphic by InfographicWorld was created for iAmGreen and brings to light some of the questions that nobody asks but everyone should. What happens to all of those cell phones that we simply stop using after we move on to the latest and greatest?The spiny, venomous lionfish can kill three-quarters of a reef's fish population in just five weeks, according to one study. Michael Dwyer / AP Those beautiful lionfish, native to Asian waters, are wreaking havoc in the Caribbean and off the coasts of a bunch of Southeastern states. The species got a finhold over here about 20 years ago. Hurricane damage to a Florida aquarium may have let them loose , though the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it's not exactly clear how the lionfish got established in our territory.