awesome duuuuuuude

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Two researchers at Case Western Reserve University have developed an optical storage system that can hold 1 to 2 terabytes of data on a disc the same size as a standard Blu-ray or DVD! That’s equal to 50 Blu-ray discs. Whereas Blu-ray and DVD discs have always had up to two layers holding the data and the laser refocusing to transition from one to another (the reason why your DVD often pauses for a split second before resuming play) the researchers piled dozens of much teenier layers on top of each other. Same basic technology, but a significant refinement of the materials being used. Potential investors are already looking into bringing the technology to market.

Meanwhile over in Israel, Izhar Gafni – an accomplished engineer and cycling enthusiast – has invented a bicycle made almost entirely out of cardboard. The cycle is very cheap to produce, can be manufactured ...

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How perfectly fitting, that on the same day that Felix Baumgartner took his 24-mile high skydive, becoming the first person to break the sound barrier in freefall with only a high-tech suit for protection…

…retired Air Force Brigadier General Charles “Chuck” Yeager celebrated the 65th anniversary of the very first supersonic flight – which Yeager accomplished in the X-1 – by flying faster than sound again at the age of 89.

There ain’t enough accomplishments of daring these days, it sadly seems. Reading stuff like this, gives me great hope....

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That is the most awesome aircraft in history, and infinitely cooler than the Stealth Bomber.

(Okay, the SR-71 Blackbird will always be the greatest aircraft ever, but this is at least a very close second.)

I’m not sure if this is one person’s private aircraft or something official with Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey, but it’s got “93 Proof” printed on the fuselage and flies high and fast! ‘Course it’s been said that Popcorn’s likker would make you fly high and fast without a plane, but anyhoo…

I wonder if we’ll ever see a NASCAR driver sponsored by Popcorn Sutton’s moonshine. Now that would be a beast of a hot-looking car!...

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This project was asking for $70,000 on Kickstarter in order to become a reality. As of this writing it has raised $76,272.

So coming soon from design firm Kawamura-Ganjavian, it is the Ostrich Pillow!

Here’s the product’s description…

OSTRICH PILLOW is a revolutionary new product to enable easy power naps anytime, everywhere, OSTRICH PILLOW ‘s unique design offers a micro environment in which to take a cosy and comfortable power nap at ease. OSTRICH PILLOW has been designed to allow you to create a little private space within a public one, to relax and unwind. Its soothing soft interior shelters and isolates your head and hands (mind and body) for a short break, without needing to leave your desk, chair, bench or wherever you may be.

And if you put it on backwards it makes an excellent snore-suppressor!

Thanks to Kristen for finding this 🙂...

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A seriously talented dude on YouTube with the username “otaking77077” has created what is by every possible measure the most astounding work of Star Wars art that has been produced in a very, very long time. Fellow YouTuber “JPL4185” added some music and sound effects from pre-existing sources. But it’s the animation that will drop your jaw and have you begging for more…

Mr. George Lucas, THIS is the Star Wars that we the fans desperately want to see!! No more of that CGI stuff. otaking7077 has taken Star Wars and animated it in the style of Robotech and it is in this blogger’s opinion the purest Star Wars sequence that I have seen since… dare I say it… the original trilogy. I especially loved the details inside the TIE Fighters that were liberally taken from the LucasArts X-Wing computer game series.

You know what watching this makes me feel ...

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On the fertile green plains of Alberta, Canada, the Kraay Family has engineered the world’s largest QR code into a cornfield.

And yes, the code works! Hold your smartphone outside the window of a hovering helicopter and when you point it at the code you’ll be directed straight to the Kraay Family Farm website.

The QR code takes up about 1.1 square miles of land and has just been verified by Guinness as being officially the world’s largest functioning QR code. It’s just the latest in a tradition going back more than a decade for the Kraay family: every year they do a “maize maze” featuring wildly intricate designs in their cornfield.

Mash on over to Engadget for more about the Kraay family’s techno-agricultural art!...

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In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became President after the assassination of William McKinley. The Wright Brothers were still experimenting with gliders and motorized propellers. Tsar Nicholas II reigned in Russia and the British Empire mourned the passing of Queen Victoria. A child named Walt Disney was born in Chicago. Guglielmo Marconi used his newly-invented radio to send the first trans-Atlantic signal.

Meanwhile in England, a photographer named Edward Turner was experimenting with color negatives and the recent advent of motion pictures. Among other things Turner recorded footage of his three children, Hyde Park, and traffic in London.

More than a century later and after exhaustive research, it is now being reported that Edward Turner’s film is the oldest color motion picture that has ever been found.

Wanna see it? Of course ya do!

The palette of the macaw is particularly striking. But after watching the soldiers marching and the Union Jack ...

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My mind is reeling from thinking about the applications possible with this…

A sharp-thinking dude named Ramesh Raskar and his team of techies have come up with a way to take photos… at 1,000,000,000,000 frames per second. That’s fast enough to watch an individual packet of photons from a laser moving through a soda bottle and being able to observe how the light particles scatter throughout.

And if you watch the video, you can also see how this technology might find its way into everything from medical imaging to search and rescue.

One thing that comes to mind is that in another decade or so, with enough refinement something like this could be put into a smartphone. The result? Your very own ESPER straight out of Blade Runner.

And then there is the notion of aiming this camera at a house, from across the street or from an ...

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The realm of 3-D printing is one that continues to bear watching. A few months ago there was some legal action taken by Games Workshop in regard to a printable 3-D version of one of the company’s more iconic models. At the time I remarked that the “Dreadnought” in question was worse than lame, that it was craptacular. I quietly wondered how long would it be before the quality of this kind of thing would catch-up to traditional molding and casting.

Ooh-boy…

From computer scientists at Harvard University comes some new software that will let you print highly-detailed and fully-ARTICULATED action figures! And it’s pretty insane how the software does it too: it takes an animated 3-D character and automatically figures out where all the movable joints will be, and figures-in how to manufacture those joints in a real-world model. In other words you could take a picture of Shrek ...

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Craziest thing: I was wondering the other week about whatever the heck happened to Erector Sets. Yes the classic toy that you could make real working bridges, robots and miniature vehicles out of with a crazy assortment of metal beams, screws, nuts and pulleys. I got a used one when I was five years old and still remember making all kinds of wacky things with it! Most of them weren’t half-bad. They weren’t half-good either, but anyway…

Unfortunately in the past few decades Erector Set has faded because of plastic building toys, electronic gizmos and the like. It sadly looked as if there might be the first generation since Erector’s invention by A.C. Gilbert a hundred years ago that had never heard of the toy.

Until this week.

Look! Officially licensed Gears of War Erector Sets!

Coming to Toys R Us later this month, Erector is releasing four ...

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