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A federal appeals court Wednesday ordered the Transportation Security Administration to answer why it hasn’t complied with the court’s year-old decision demanding the agency hold public hearings concerning the rules and regulations that have led to the deployment of so-called nude body scanners across U.S. airport security checkpoints.
from Wired Top Stories
Red eye flights aren’t fun, but sometimes they’re inevitable. The worst part is getting to your destination early in the morning without sufficient rest. You have to go about your day tired, and that’s tough. A thread on Quora, however, suggests you can avoid this problem with a few adjustments to your eating (and drinking) schedule. More »
from Lifehacker
The human body already has a highly efficient cooling system: As perspiration evaporates, it draws heat away from the body. Wicking fabrics facilitate this process by distributing sweat evenly over the fabric, so that it dries more quickly. Despite devising cheats, such as menthol-like chemical coatings added to fabrics, companies have never actually improved upon the body’s natural cooling process. Designers at Columbia Sportswear have now made a fabric that does.
The wicking polyester base of the Omni-Freeze ZERO T-shirt is embedded with thousands of 0.15-inch hydrophilic polymer rings (a men’s medium has more than 41,000 of them). As the base spreads sweat, the rings absorb moisture and expand into three-dimensional doughnuts. In order to swell, the rings require energy, which they gather as body heat. In tests, the shirt was up to 10 degrees cooler against the wearer’s skin than shirts made from any other material.
Weight: 4.8 ounces
Material: stretch polyester
Sun Protection Factor: 50
Price: $60
Designers at Brooks worked with a team at the Loughborough University Sports Technology Institute in the U.K. to ensure runners wearing the Nightlife Jacket III remain visible to drivers in any light. The darker the surroundings, the more heavily eyes rely on contrast to pick out objects, so the team added black stripes to the arms and shoulders to offset the fluorescent base and better outline runners. Brooks NightLife Jacket III $115
from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now
The pills, made by Proteus Digital Health, have sand-particle-sized silicon chips with small amounts of magnesium and copper on them. After they’re swallowed, they generate voltage as they make contact with digestive juices. That signals a patch on the person’s skin, which then relays a message to a mobile phone given to a healthcare provider. It’s only been approved for use with placebos right now, but the company is hoping to get it approved for use with other drugs (which would be where it would get the most use).
Even if there’s a slight whiff of dystopia about a pill that tracks your actions, it does help with a major problem. Patients aren’t the best at taking their pills, especially those suffering from chronic illnesses, so it’s one step of many toward a future where they don’t have to.
[Nature]
from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now
In the latest advance for private space flight, a Texas company has been granted rare government permission to launch its reusable rocket
The female badminton players have been booted from the London Olympics for purposely trying to lose. The players from Indonesia, South Korea and China had been charged with “throwing” group stage contests to secure an easier draw through the Olympic tournament.
from Morning Edition
The M2 flamethrower utilized by Allied forces during WWII proved to be a devastatingly effective weapon against bunkers—and Axis psyches. However, walking around a firefight with a napalm-filled backpack and an effective range of 20m is a great way to become a crispy critter. So the US military developed the M202 FLASH rocket-propelled flamethrower. More »
from Gizmodo