doing good
14 Years of Feeling Lucky, Happy Birthday Google
It's been 14 years since the emergency rafts full of netizens started to ditch the sinking ships of websearch services Altavista, Yahoo, AskJeeves, WebCrawler, MSN and AOL Search.
The Rise of Eco Drones Among America's Crunchiest Federal Agencies
Here's one to add to the so-called Triple D (dull - dirty - dangerous) drone rationale: Dam.Researchers with the U.S. Geologic Survey, the Federal Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service are utilizing small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS...
In Laos, Cronyism Is Fueling Illegal Logging With Little Payoff
Laos is a small, mountainous, landlocked country that's ruled by one of the few one-party communist regimes left in the world. That's not normally a recipe for economic success, and the Southeast Asian country ranks near the bottom of the world for per...
The One Stat About Tesla's Model S That Means Electric Cars Have Arrived
The electric car has finally arrived. Tesla, eccentric Elon Musk's automotive baby, has finally moved on from stuffing lithe Lotuses full of batteries to create its Roadster and has released the Model S, a super sedan for upper-middle class, middle...
Are Pakistan's Other Drones the Future of Extreme-Sport Cinema?
In a place that's become synonymous with all the moral, ethical, legal, and political quandaries posed by the robo-lords of the new "bugsplat" warfare, the thought of insect-like drones buzzing over northern Pakistan may not immediately take on...
As Sake Declines, Japanese Craft Beers Are Booming
Spend any time drinking in Japan -- and if you're in Japan, you likely will -- and you'll notice that for all the plethora of sub-brands of beer in the country, they're all pretty much variations of malted macrobrews produced by the four titans of the...
The Six Names You Won't Hear at the Democratic National Convention
Joe Biden summed up the essence of Obama’s reelection campaign months ago. “Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive." These duel sentiments will be showcased at the DNC over the next few days, the slightest glimmers of hope amplified to...
The Khan Academy Finally Gets What it Desperately Needs: Criticism
There's little doubt that the much-acclaimed, Bill Gates-backed Khan Academy is chasing a Good Thing: providing online video courses and educational materials to all. It doesn't get much nobler than that—of course the world wins if everyone with an...
Everybody Slow Clap America Scrubbing Vietnam of Agent Orange
It only took 40 years. And yes, Washington still disputes Hanoi's claim that up to 4 million Vietnamese suffered contact with the defoliant, which was dumped en masse in a U.S. air campaign to scorch away the dense jungle cover under which guerilla...
3D Printing an Exoskeleton for a Three Year Old
Three-year-old Emma has a condition known as arthrogryposis and, as a result, she's left with a super-limited ability to use her arms. Thankfully, we live in the future and doctors at a Delaware hospital were able to 3D print her a suitable exoskeleton...
From Eight Months to Seven Minutes: NASA's Jim Adams on Mars' Curiosity
In less than 24 hours we'll know whether the Mars Curiosity Rover, the next in NASA's line of vehicles designed to probe one of Earth's closest planetary neighbors, plummeted to the Martian surface as it's been programmed to, or not. Jim Adams is...
Indiana Drones: Piloting the New Robot Archaeology Over Peruvian Ruins
It may not crack whips and fight Nazis, at least not yet. But it still sounds pretty badass: An interdisciplinary research team out of Vanderbilt University is using a semi-autonomous SUAVe - their very own micro Indiana Drone (sorry) - to map the...