Author: dallas

Bullseye from 1,000 yards: Shooting the $17,000 Linux-powered rifle | Ars Technica.

With this computer-aided long range rifle people who have never used a rifle before can shoot small targets 1000 yards away. Things like this are a clue about what the future will look like. Computers will be augmenting human ability in almost everything we do. Modern cars are already largely computer-assisted devices with your actions not directly controlling them, but imagine when it happens to medicine (computer-assisted surgery) and sports (think bionic basketball).

Coast-to-coast solar plane flight set for May 1 | Ars Technica.

This solar plane is capable of crossing the US nonstop going just 43 miles per hour.  It would take 3 days but they’re unable to do it due to “security reasons”.  I wonder if we’ll soon start seeing solar-powered flying unmanned vehicles that never have to land.

American teacher in Japan under fire for lessons on Japan’s history of discrimination.

This guy is trying to do something good and teach kids about important issues, and he’s being attacked for it. It’s shameful.

Download this gun: 3D-printed semi-automatic fires over 600 rounds | Ars Technica.

When I first heard about “3D Printing” I didn’t realize the impact it could potentially have. When a technology is brand new it’s often hard to overlook the limitations and see the potential, but now parts of machine guns can be created at “home”.  It still takes a pretty high end printer today but it won’t for long.  It’s hard to not consider what this might mean for people in the future.

Pope will remain in Vatican to avoid prosecution for child sex abuse – National Humanist | Examiner.com.

Certainly this should be enough to bring some sort of widespread reform to the Catholic Church and its antiquated views on sexuality.

Fond memories of Soul Food Farm – SFGate

Sad story of a couple of independent farmers who created “chicken heaven” and produced amazing chickens and eggs that sold to some of the best restaurants in San Francisco and the bay area.  Despite having the best product around they still couldn’t make the business work.

Netherlands Highways Will Glow in the Dark Starting in mid 2013 | Ars Technica

The idea of bringing technology out of the screen and into the world really resonates with me, but projects like this sound so hard to actually do on a large scale. It wasn’t easy to build the interstate highway system in the US either, though. Big ideas can come to life.

With The Oatmeal’s help, nonprofit buys property to build a Tesla Museum | Ars Technica.

Cooperation comes easily but thinking makes us selfish | Ars Technica.

That article got me really thinking about what that means for humans as a people.  Over the past 100 years we’ve increasingly moved away from collaborative working towards competitive.  That’s also been a move away from fulfilling and satisfying work.  As people become more selfish and greedy they pull even farther away from what actually makes them happy… connections with other people!

This is What Happens When a Squid Listens to Cypress Hill | Colossal.

Science is fun!