technology
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Bamboo iPhone speaker amplifies music with zero electricity
The iBamboo speaker makes use of the naturally resonant properties of bamboo to provide zero-electricity amplification for the iPhone 4. Yeah, you could get more gadgets to go with your gadget, but this is probably cooler -- no wires, no energy use, and it adds as much Zen cool to your desk as a tiny portable waterfall (which would need to be plugged in anyway).
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I have cancer — a personal meditation on technology, sustainabity, and social context
I have cancer, but thanks to modern medicine, in terms of health it may be no big deal. The surgeon will use a scalpel to remove a thin layer of tissue from the floor of the mouth along with a tiny bit of the connection to the tongue. Then a laser will cauterize it, minimizing […]
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Bill Gates’ blind spots
So right, and yet so not-quite-rightPhoto: Suzie KatzWhen Bill Gates first jumped into the energy discussion with a big TED talk, I wrote a post called “Why Bill Gates is wrong.” In retrospect, I should have been a bit more diplomatic. I should have started with a post called “Why it’s super-fantastic that someone as […]
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Charge your phone by yelling at it
As if cell phones don't already encourage enough annoying, disruptive public noise, researchers at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul have developed a phone battery that you charge by yelling at it. The battery has zinc oxide wires running between two electrodes; sound vibrates the wires, and that creates electricity. Right now, it only works with sounds […]
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Meet the world’s most high-tech bike
It's pretty impressive that we're still chugging along on human-powered vehicles only a step more high-tech than a velocipede — olde-tyme bikes look basically like the ones we've got today. Why improve on perfection, right? Well, maybe just for the sheer badassery of it. At least, that seems to be the theory behind the Alpha, […]
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Want to save the planet? Al Gore has an app for that
An Inconvenient Truth started out as a book and became an Oscar-winning movie. Al Gore’s follow-up book, Our Choice, has now gone multimedia too, but in a whole new way, as a first-of-its-kind app complete with documentary footage and even a trailer set to swelling, melodramatic music. Watch it here: After Our Choice was published […]
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Self-healing plastic lets gadgets take a licking and keep on ticking
Here’s a good way to cut down on waste: Stop breaking sh*t. To that end, scientists are working on self-healing materials that can extend the life of your belongings. One new polymer, developed by scientists in Switzerland, can heal deep scratches just by being exposed to ultraviolet light. It's like an immune system for your […]
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How green is your iPhone?
Carbon emissions? Energy overuse? Sketchy labor relations? There's an app for that, and it's all of them. This infographic from Geekaphone (there's way more, it's huge — click on our excerpt to see the rest) illustrates that the iPhone, like basically any modern convenience, is probably going to kill us all sooner or later. (What […]
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Military miracle turns fuel exhaust into water
Man, if there's two things you don't have enough of when you're deployed in the desert and insurgents keep blowing up your fuel runs, it's beer and Wii. Wait no, it's diesel and water. Luckily researchers have devised a way for soldiers to turn one into the other. Membranes full of tiny tubes condense vehicle […]
