A quick Hexup today, because there’s lots to do, and Dan and I will be wandering around NIGHT/SHIFT tonight looking at art and generally being cool. In the meantime, light-based cyborgs implants, iron ants, and pokemon.
Joining the Night Shift
We don’t feature local events on here often, but this is a particularly awesome one this weekend. If you’re in southern Ontario, it’s wroth the drive into KW to check out the first year of NIGHT/SHIFT, an art festival put on by Alternatives Journal and too many partners to name, and one that includes a ton of friends of mine. It runs from 9pm to 3am tonight all over downtown Kitchener. Come and check it out!
Killer advice
We normally don’t take advice that would be good for serial killers here, but sometimes you can learn a thing or two from them. It was Evil Week at Lifehacker this week, so take a look at what serial killers can teach you about confidence.
Nano Ants
Researchers at New York University have been experimenting by using beads of haematite in nano construction. It’s been found that they respond to light by attracting larger particles, and can even be steered in a way, carrying loads of up to ten times their mass. Could this be the key to the next stage of nano construction? Beats me, but the thought of hills of tiny nants swarming around inside me is pretty awesome.
Let it shine
Speaking of light, a light sensitive gel developed at Harvard Medical school might be instrumental in monitoring health and treating diabetes. So far it’s only been tried on mice, and the article on the New Scientist states “To control diabetes, the team shone light into the mouse and at the implanted gel using a fibre optic cable attached to its head. The light triggered cells in the gel to produce a compound that stimulated the secretion of insulin and stabilised blood glucose levels.” That might mean no raves for people with these implants one day, but it’s a small price to pay.
Computers vs. my grandma
CAPTCHA, those annoying sequences of letters and numbers you have to type in on the internet with increasing frequency, stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, has apparently been defeated. Vicarious, a startup from California, has announced that they have an algorithm that can beat CAPTCHA. My grandmother can’t fill in CAPTCHA right, but this computer can. Soothe your worries about Skynet though, Vicarious’s AI, while more internet savvy, is neither as dangerous nor as awesome as my nana.
Solve for X and Y
Pokemon X and Y just came out, and Dorkly collected the 15 most disturbing entries in the Pokedex. As someone who hasn’t played since the old Gameboy days, all I can say is that the world of Pokemon has become a dark and terrifying place.
I’ll leave you with that. Because wow. See you Wednesday with an odd comparison.
