A few years ago, in 2006, Erin Catto created some code called Box 2D. It was a simple, free physics system the “math-obsessed PhD gamer” came up with in his spare time and gave away for free. More »
from Kotaku
From Kotaku: Sham Kickstarter Project Found Out, Closes Down
Better be mindful of these to come…
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When the whole Kickstarter thing blew up earlier this year, there was always a very quiet suspicion. That amidst all the nostalgia and indie enthusiasm, someone would use the service to try and rip people off. Well, looks like we’ve got our first scammers. More »
from Kotaku
From Gizmodo: Apparently, Copyright Trolls Don’t Need to Tell the Band When Suing Its Fans
This is just a sham…
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Unless your band’s name ends with “etallica,” suing your fans for copyright infringement is very bad for publicity (and even if it does, that’s still a dick move Lars). So, imagine All Shall Perish’s surprise when they learned that a Panamanian copyright troll, which no one remembers hiring, recently filed suit against 80 of their fans. More »
from Gizmodo
From Discover Magazine: Top tip: do not steal food from ant traps | Not Exactly Rocket Science
The Amazonian tree known Hirtella physophora looks rather unassuming, but it is the site of several grisly spectacles. Amid its leaves and branches, an animal, a plant and a fungus conspire to create a nightmarish trap where trespassers become meals, robbers get the death penalty, and assassins are assassinated.
The tree is home to ants called Allomerus decemarticulatus, which defend it from hungry insects. In return, the tree provides the ants with leaf pouches and swollen thorns as shelter, and feeds them with nectar and sugary nodules. These food sources are rich in carbohydrates but low in proteins. To supplement their diets, the ants need flesh, and they get it by shaping the tree into traps.
The ants cut hairs from the plant and weave them together into a hollow gallery, which extends down the side of the tree’s branches. Within the gallery, the ants hide inside small holes, jaws agape. From the outside, nothing can see them. If an insect lands on the trap, hundreds of lurking jaws seize its legs and pull it spread-eagled, as if on a medieval ‘torture rack’. The victim is overpowered and dismembered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrL5BYRqrTI
This …
from Discover Magazine
From Engadget: South Korea opens up cellphone sales, networks wary of the ‘free market’
South Korea’s Communications Commission is wresting control of the domestic cellphone market away from operators. From May 1st, it is opening the handset business open to any vendor, who will sell phones unlocked so consumers can decide their choice of network. The plan is aimed at lowering prices by introducing competition between the retailers — although some voices in the industry have expressed concerns that the operators will withdraw discounted offers in retaliation. Naturally, the KCC is determined to ensure a better deal for consumers, and is already strong-arming wayward networks into ensuring that doesn’t happen.
from Engadget
From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: Turbine Condenses Clean Water From the Air and Generates Wind Power At the Same Time
A new type of wind turbine harvests not only electricity from the wind, but clean water from the air, by condensing humidity from even the driest climes. One prototype turbine is apparently collecting 16.3 gallons of water an hour from the desert air over Abu Dhabi, according to the company that builds it.
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Tags
Technology, Rebecca Boyle, condensation, drinking water, water filter, wind energy, wind turbines
French company Eole Water produces several water-harvesting technologies, including the WMS1000 wind turbine, a harvester powered by a 30-kilowatt solar panel and a water condenser that can connect to an existing power grid. The company’s founder, Marc Parent, started collecting water from an air conditioner while he lived in the Caribbean, and later conceived the idea to generate water from atmospheric moisture.
The turbine works like a typical wind turbine, with three upwind blades spinning to generate electricity. Then in a separate process, air is sucked into the turbine’s nose and sent through a cooling compressor, which extracts moisture from the air. Water droplets drip down stainless steel pipes inside the turbine shaft and are collected at the base, which houses a filtration and purification system. The system is powered by the wind turbine.
The company claims one turbine can produce up to 1,000 liters of water every day, depending on the humidity and wind conditions. The company says it could help remote communities in need of clean drinking water, especially in Indonesia and countries in Africa. For now, one turbine costs $790,000, but the cost could come down if the company starts building lots of them, according to a spokesman who spoke to CNN.
The prototype in Abu Dhabi has been in operation since October, the company says.
[via CNN]
from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now
From MAKE: Math Monday: Paper Polyhedra
By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics
If you’ve never made a set of the Platonic solids from paper, perhaps it’s time to try it. These shapes are the foundation for many aspects of three-dimensional design. Here is a set made with open faces, but the openings are strictly optional. You can just cut out regular polygons and tape them together so every vertex is identical, e.g., putting five triangles at each vertex leads to the icosahedron.
After mastering the five Platonic solids, there is a world of more complex models to explore. The polyhedron below consists of twelve regular pentagons and twenty (very slightly irregular) hexagons. It is made by cutting out paper polygons and taping them together on the inside. This design is often confused with the truncated icosahedron shape that is well known because of its use as a soccer ball. But this shape is the truncated rhombic triacontahedron. To see the difference, notice that there are some vertices here with three hexagons and no pentagon, but in a soccer ball there is one pentagon and two hexagons at each vertex.
And if you become engaged in discovering the world of polyhedra, you will encounter the many additional families, including the stellated icosahedron below. Their intricacies can be quite a challenge to make from paper, especially when some components meet just at points. I made the model below over thirty years ago, starting from a template in the book Polyhedron Models by Magnus Wenninger. If you want your models to last this long, be sure to use acid-free paper.
More:
See all of George Hart’s Math Monday columns
from MAKE