The Swedish branch of C. F. Møller Architects, Berg Arkitektkontor, has designed Sweden’s new, spectacular skiing attraction, Skipark 360°, the world’s most complete indoor ski park with e.g. a 700 m long downhill slope and a drop of 160 m, making it the only indoor ski slope in the world to meet the requirements for hosting the World Cup.
UC Berkeley scientists have developed a system to capture visual activity in human brains and reconstruct it as digital video clips. Eventually, this process will allow you to record and reconstruct your own dreams on a computer screen.
I just can’t believe this is happening for real, but according to Professor Jack Gallant—UC Berkeley neuroscientist and coauthor of the research published today in the journal Current Biology—"this is a major leap toward reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the movies in our minds."
Indeed, it’s mindblowing. I’m simultaneously excited and terrified. This is how it works:
via Scientists Reconstruct Brains’ Visions Into Digital Video In Historic Experiment.
Every course of study has a text book, and finally we can read the text students at the Jedi Temple have been reading for over a thousand generations. It’s been revised over and over by the Jedi Masters, annotated by Jedi (many times by hand, to the distress of the Jedi Librarians), and now can be bought in facsimile form. And in that form, it is called Star Wars: The Jedi Path – Jedi Training Manual.
via ThinkGeek :: Star Wars: The Jedi Path – Jedi Training Manual.
NASA has just published the Global Exploration Roadmap, a document detailing the agency’s plans for the next 25 years of space exploration. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in the future of space technology, travel and exploration.
Last night, in response to a worldwide surge in interest, the OPERA experiment released a paper that describes the experiments that appear to show neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light. And today, CERN broadcast a live seminar in which one of the work’s authors described the content of the paper. Both of those emphasized the point of our initial coverage: figuring out whether anything is traveling beyond the speed of light requires incredibly accurate measurements of time and distance, and the OPERA team has made an extensive effort to make its work as accurate as possible.
via More details on the “faster than the speed of light” neutrinos.
The increasing cost of metals, coupled with the energy required to transport them, has inspired researchers to find alternatives in areas such as wiring. With this goal in mind, Rice University researchers have developed cables made of double-walled carbon nanotubes that can transport electricity just as efficiently as standard metal cables at one-sixth the weight. The scientists predict that these cables will replace metal-based equivalents in cases where weight is a critical factor—such as in airplanes and cars. Eventually, standard wiring in buildings may be made of carbon nanotubes.
According to researcher Yao Zhao, the new cables show no signs of degradation under thorough testing, and perform well under a wide range of temperatures. "We really want to go better than what copper or other metals can offer overall," says Enrique Barrera, a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Rice.
via Blog Entry – Nanowires to Replace Metal Cables – Architect Magazine.
Demorou, mas aconteceu. O Facebook entrou em crise de identidade.
Quem estuda a estratégia dessas empresas que fornecem plataformas de redes sociais sabe que, a partir de certo momento, elas entram em algum tipo de crise de identidade. Não sabem mais em qual negócio estão. Foi assim com Friendster, Twitter e MySpace. Naturalmente, não seria diferente com o Facebook.
Há 3 anos, o MySpace queria ser tudo ao mesmo tempo. O principal player e loja de música, o mais popular site de compartilhamento de vídeos e fotos (em 2009, o MySpace comprou o Photobucket), o mais relevante site de notícias (quem lembra do MySpace News?), a melhor ferramenta de chat e a maior plataforma de publicidade.
via Tiago Dória Weblog » Blog Archive » Facebook em crise de identidade.
iOS app developers who are looking to make big bucks on the App Store should consider using the in-app purchase model, according to a recently published study from Distimo. In-app purchases are a huge source of revenue, accounting for a whopping 72 percent of all App Store revenues.
That number has increased drastically from July of 2010, when only 28 percent of App Store revenues came from in-app purchases. What’s even more surprising is that only four percent of all apps are currently using the in-app purchase model.
This all points to a trend of freemium apps dominating the App Store. These, of course, are apps that are free to download and try out, but require an in-app purchase to supply full functionality. Freemium apps made up the majority of the revenue — 48 percent, or nearly half of all App Store earnings. Many of these apps are games, but comic apps are also starting to create an impact.
via Report: In-app purchases a strong source of iOS app revenue | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog.
The Financial Times struck out on its own recently with a web-based mobile app, opting to remove its native iOS applications from Apple’s App Store. So far, the experiment has been a success, reports FT.com Managing Director Rob Grimshaw. Grimshaw told Reuters the company is already seeing more traffic from the web app than from its iPhone and iPad applications.
More than 700,000 people already use the FT web-based mobile site, which launched in June. The official FT iOS apps were then removed from the App Store at the end of August, because they failed to comply with Apple’s new in-app subscription rules. The new rules state that if a publisher offers subscriptions for content available in apps, they must also offer the ability to subscribe directly through the App Store, which entitles Apple to a 30-percent cut and doesn’t guarantee subscribers will pass on personal info to publishers, since it’s an opt-in process.
via Financial Times finds life outside the App Store pretty good so far — Apple News, Tips and Reviews.
Just like its super models, Brazil’s economy is smoking hot!
With 80,000,000 Internet users and the country’s GPD growth rate at well over 7%, the home of Ronaldinho and Gisele figures to be a bastion of investment over the next decade.
We figured you’d like to know about the tech startups making noise there, so we did a little research. Home to the original Youtube, Videolog.tv, Brazil is mimicking many of the successful trends that began in the U.S.