Drawing on what they had learned about accelerating technology in the past 10 weeks of study, the students laid the groundwork for more than a dozen new startups in five general areas of interest…

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Let’s face it, we’re not going to just start off with computers flying humans around right away. The first space shuttles were, after all, unmanned for good reasons. We have to learn to crawl before we can learn to walk, lest we trip and smash our head against the pavement. Delivery of lighter objects than humans is a good place to start. Sure, we do have a flying car already, notably the Terrafugia Transition, but it’s really more of a driving plane. It’s not the VTOL we’ve dreamed of for decades. Developing a well functioning delivery drone network will pave the way for confidence in a practical network of drones delivering people. Humans have notoriously poor navigation skills in three-dimensional environments, so unmanned aerial vehicles seem a safer option than those prone to human error.

Yale has developed an unmanned aerial vehicle that can pick up your mail or your beer without landing…

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A month ago, we covered the news that a long-simmering municipal broadband bill had been taken off North Carolina’s legislative stove and (to continue the metaphor) jammed back into Raleigh’s government deep freeze. The bill targeted North Carolina communities who thought that broadband ought to be a public utility, and it sought to make such community-owned networks much more difficult. more>>>

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ASPEN, Colo.–Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini offered a depressing set of observations about the economy and the Obama administration Monday evening, coupled with a dark commentary on the future of the technology industry if nothing changes.

Otellini’s remarks during dinner at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum here amounted to a warning to the administration officials and assorted Capitol Hill aides in the audience: unless government policies are altered, he predicted, “the next big thing will not be invented here. Jobs will not be created here.” more>>>

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Much like snowflakes, no two neurons are exactly alike. But it’s not the size or shape that sets one neuron apart from another, it’s the way it responds to incoming stimuli. Carnegie Mellon University researchers have discovered that this diversity is critical to overall brain function and essential in how neurons process complex stimuli and code information. The researchers published their findings, the first to examine the function of neuron diversity, online in Nature Neuroscience. more>>>

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Publisher Oxford University Press said Sunday that…

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I should mention that my Amazon Kindle includes The New Oxford American Dictionary which allows me to easily look up words as I’m reading by placing the curser in front of the word I want defined.

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This is the best 10 minute video of Ray Kurzweil and the Singularity that I’ve seen!

If you agree, be sure to share it on Facebook or find some other way to enlighten your friends and family about the coming technological Singularity.

Click here to watch the video.

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Salim Ismail, Executive Director of Singularity University, is introduced by Dr. Raj Shah (USAID Administrator) and gives some impromptu remarks about SU’s approach to addressing Grand Challenges at a State Dinner hosted by Secretary Hilary Clinton and attended by officials from a variety of agencies and NGOs.

Click here to access this short video found on the Singularity University website.

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According to a study released Friday, the number of internet users over 50 who use social-networking sites has…

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Here is some news from my very own University of Missouri – Kansas City where I am a senior working on a Communications Studies with emphasis in Film and Digital Media Production degree.

Crews have been working on a giant robotic system to retrieve books from a space much smaller than it would have been to house them traditionally. They are the ONLY library to use a hybrid shelving/bin system.

It might cost less to digitize them and make them available to students via login account but I suppose it’s good to keep good ol’ paper around in case of a solar storm that knocks out all electricity on Earth! I don’t even want to imagine that happening…

Robots are not just for building cars and repairing underwater oil spills anymore. Robots are the librarians of the 21st century.

The Miller Nichols Library invested $20 million in a robot of its own. Three cranes, four rows of either shelving or bins and the operating computer comprise the heart of the four-story giant.

“It’s fully installed and operational. At this point we have loaded 187 thousand materials with a goal of 800 thousand,” Bonnie Postlethwaite, Associate Dean of Libraries said. “We are making good progress.”

The addition of the robot enables the library to house its catalog in one-seventh of the space previously required. To protect the quality of the materials they are kept in low humidity at 65 degrees. more>>>

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Wow this never crossed my mind before! Read the whole article. I’m sure it offends some religion somewhere…

A highly-promoted feature in the 2011 Ford Explorer are its new inflatable rear seat belts. The not-so-highly-promoted working stiffs that helped make it happen? Human cadavers. Here’s how automakers still quietly use dead people to make your car safer.

When automakers and safety advocates show off the results of crash tests, they inevitably run video showing empty vehicles or crash test dummies; back in the 1980s, they even turned the dummies into lovable cartoon characters. What the industry doesn’t like talking about is how much of the safety innovation in vehicles was built around testing cadavers. more>>>

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When bodily fluids such as blood are tested for infectious diseases and unhealthy protein levels, they’re typically mixed with antibodies or other biological reactants to produce a positive or negative reaction. Researchers from Arizona State University (ASU) have now come up with an alternative testing system that they claim is just as accurate, but much simpler, quicker and cheaper. It utilizes LED lights and simple microelectronic amplifiers, and actually uses the sample itself as a diagnostic tool. Because it integrates the sample into the process, inventors Antonia Garcia and John Schneider call their device the Integrascope.

A drop of blood, saliva, urine or other fluid is placed on the Integrascope’s superhydrophobic viewing surface, which repels liquid and thus causes the drop to bead up. A spherical depression in the surface holds the drop in place. A drop of liquid containing nanoparticles or microparticles is then placed on top of the sample drop, the two mixing together into one big drop. more>>>

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Researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada have developed floor tiles that can simulate the look, sound and feel of snow, grass or pebbles underfoot. Such a tool could perhaps be used for augmented reality applications, tele-presence, training, rehabilitation or even as virtual foot controllers.

The modular “haptic” floor tiling system is made up of a deformable plate suspended on a platform. Between the plate and platform are sensors that detect forces from the user’s foot. And the plate can give off vibrations that mimic the feeling of stepping on different materials. A top-down projection and speakers add visual and audio feedback. more>>>

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ScienceDaily (Aug. 24, 2010) — Using powerful lasers, Hui Zhao, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas, and graduate student Lalani Werake have discovered a new way to recognize currents of spinning electrons within a semiconductor. more>>>

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The new computers will be designed to directly read the words thought by the user…

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