Users that often use this tag:
Fizz (2)
jonson (2)

Have you seen the article of the future?
posted by iamkimiam on Jan 6, 2012 - 52 comments

When will our Martian future get here? [via: The Space Review]
posted by Fizz on Mar 3, 2011 - 10 comments

Get a grip on this. "It turns out that opposable thumbs aren't critical for getting a good grip. Neither are fingers. Scientists have created a robotic arm that can do everything from serve drinks to draw pictures even though it has no digits. Their robotic hand, which they describe online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is a thin rubber sack filled with coffee grains or small glass spheres. When this hand comes in contact with an object, a small pipe sucks air from the sack, causing it to contract and mold to the object's shape. The contraction is small—a mere 1% change in volume–but was enough to grab most objects the researchers tested." Inside the balloon hand. The robotic mitt. Via: Sciencemag.org
posted by Fizz on Oct 26, 2010 - 49 comments

Some people make DIY drones. Some people build WiFi-hacking UAVs. Somethingawful members build their own submarines, floating launch-platforms, and tow their own manned spacecraft out to sea.
posted by fake on Aug 22, 2010 - 34 comments

Dutch Architects envision a self sufficient floating island in the Pacific.
Recycled Island would be located in the North Pacific Gyre or Garbage dump NE of Hawaii.
Richie Sowa did this before on a smaller scale with his first Spiral Island. You could say that Plastic makes it possible.
( Richie Sowa previously)
posted by adamvasco on Aug 8, 2010 - 22 comments

Can the free market save the space program?
posted by Brandon Blatcher on May 26, 2010 - 41 comments

Honk if you've missed a payment A disgruntled former car dealership employee was arrested in Austin for bricking 100+ cars using a dealer-installed debt collection black box. Made by Pay Technologies, the system allows the dealer to disable a car’s ignition system, or trigger the horn to begin honking, as a reminder that a payment is due.
posted by letitrain on Mar 18, 2010 - 63 comments

Of the bookshelves I’ve inspected in my life, two stand out as particularly consequential. [more inside]
posted by spindle on Feb 28, 2010 - 77 comments

Do You Want To Know RIGHT NOW How You Can Drive Around Using WATER as FUEL and Laugh At Rising Gas Costs, While Reducing Emissions and Preventing Global Warming?
posted by jonson on May 13, 2008 - 109 comments

In 1963, General Dynamics Astronautics asked politicians, scientists, and military commanders to speculate on the potential state of the world in 2063, recording all these speculations in a book, and sealing it in a time capsule that was lost during the demolition of the General Dynamics Astronautics building. Thankfully, the entirety of the book is available as a download thanks to the fine folks at Paleo-Future. Found Via.
posted by jonson on Apr 14, 2008 - 10 comments

In the year 1900, Ladies Home Journal writer John Elfreth Watkins Jr wrote an article entitled What May Happen In The Next 100 Years". This is apparently what the most learned, conservative men of the "greatest institutions of science and learning" had to say about the coming hundred years.
posted by antifuse on Apr 19, 2007 - 100 comments

The galleries of Transportation Futuristics illustrate some of the ingenious things people have dreamt up to solve the basic problem of how to get from here to there. Personal favs: the Bee and the flying saucer bus. via the exploratorium
posted by iconomy on Sep 29, 2004 - 12 comments