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From Wired Top Stories: Mensa Picks Its Mind Games Winners for 2012!

Now you can tell your parents that you are playing scientifically chosen games!!!  Ha ha ha!!

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Last weekend, Mensa members and others gathered for the annual Mensa Mind Games, held this year in Herndon, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. Mensa Mind Games is an intense weekend of playing board and card games. Game publishers submit games to be evaluated on criteria such as the rules, replayability, and general fun. Anyone at the weekend can play the games and send feedback to the publishers. But only Mensa members can then vote for their top choices of games overall. The top five receive the coveted Mensa Select seal. Here are the winners for this year!

from Wired Top Stories

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From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: Video: ISS Soars Above Beautiful Auroras, Lightning and Stormy Weather Back on Earth

ISS Over the Clouds via YouTube

For your morning viewing pleasure, we bring you another beautiful video of one of the rarest views in the universe – Earth lit up from below as the International Space Station soars 220 miles above.

The video contains a series of time-lapse sequences captured by the crew of Expedition 30 aboard the ISS. It starts over the southern United States and moves toward the American West and into Canada; then you see central Europe toward the Middle East, starting at 21 seconds in. There are amazing lightning storms, rains over Africa, the southern aurora over the Indian Ocean, a setting moon – and even Comet Lovejoy makes an appearance.

The song is called “Walking in the Air,” by Howard Blake, in case you’re wondering.

NASA posts these videos on occasion, and although they may be similar, each is so unique that I stop what I’m doing and stare. Especially when the spangled arm of the Milky Way shows up on the horizon, serving as a reminder that our planet really is so very small.

[NASA]

from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now

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From Engadget: Space travel coming to an airport near you? Maybe, if Skylon keeps its cool

reaction-engines-spaceplane-skylon-critical-cooling-tests

Want to get from New York to Perth in under 4 hours, or maybe just head to outer space on a lark? Reaction Engines’ “Skylon” mach 5 spaceplane might be your chariot — or not. Its scheme of ingesting oxygen from the atmosphere instead of stowing it like a 50-year old modern multi-stage rocket sounds good, but the project’s fate may hang on critical new tests. Failure is still a possibility, but if the high-speed, superhot gases can be cooled enough for the hybrid Sabre engines to work, and if Reaction Engines Limited can secure another round of funding, punching your space-ticket could soon be a very real possibility.

 

from Engadget

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From Engadget: Wolfram Alpha releases first desktop PC app for Windows 7, makes homework even easier

Wolfram Alpha releases first desktop PC app for Windows 7; homework just keeps getting easier

Have a habit of letting Wolfram Alpha do your math for you? Well, say hello to one more tool in your computational arsenal — the electronic homework lackey self-described knowledge engine is now available as a Windows 7 desktop app for $2.99 at the Intel AppUp store. In addition to providing desktop analytics on the works of the Bard, the Wolfram Alpha app features extended copy / paste support for graphics and queries, a full-screen optimized user interface and a special software keyboard with native support for special characters. If that isn’t enough, the company also plans to drop even more knowledge at the AppUp center later this year in the form of “course assistant apps” for such geeky subjects as astronomy, physics and chemistry. Still got queries about the desktop app? Then satiate that thirst for information by imbibing in the PR after the break.

 

from Engadget

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From Engadget: Ikea cardboard digital camera: when Instagram isn’t authentic enough

Ikea cardboard digital camera: when Instagram isn't authentic enough

Forget TVs. Want something more whimsical and lo-fi than Instagram? This is a digital camera made of cardboard that Ikea included with its press kit at this year’s Milan Design Week. It runs on two AA batteries (Ikea-branded, natch) and features a swing-out USB plug, viewfinder cutout, shutter key and paperclip-friendly erase button. While there are no details on the sensor, lens or storage capacity, the camera holds up to 40 pictures. It’s expected to land in Ikea stores at some point but exact pricing and availability are still a mystery. No matter — this camera is sure to impress hipsters everywhere (and yes, that includes us). Awesome demo video after the break.

Continue reading Ikea cardboard digital camera: when Instagram isn’t authentic enough (video)

from Engadget

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From Ars Technica: Going organic hurts veggies, OK for legumes


How could organic stuff not be better? Eschewing pesticides and fertilizers is better for consumers, farmers, the environment, and all the denizens of the ecosystems that comprise it—everyone knows that. Even ask Prince Charles.

Yet, like many ideas that seem to be straightforward, this one turns out to be somewhat complex. If organic agriculture has lower yields, it will require more land to generate the same amount of calories as conventional farms. It will thus cause more deforestation and the loss of biodiversity that accompanies it—hardly environmental boons. To find out how things balance out, researchers at McGill and the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota have performed a meta-analysis comparing the yields of organic and conventional farming. Their results are published in Nature.

 

 

from Ars Technica