via CNN) Photos courtesy of Gardens by the Bay More stunning super-structures: City of Darkness:
Mysterious site spotted from space Mysterious geological site spotted from space Mysterious â Ëoenazca Lines â â¢ruins discovered in Saudi desert Did a robot discover Jesus â â¢tomb
we need sensor platforms that can detect the entire network and classes of chemicals, instead of just one type.
and drugs A cheap landmine detector made from ebay parts Sensor robots sense out environmental changes
Engineers from Silicon valley tinkered with the software on a laptop to ensure the machine was eliminating the right leafy buds.
The thinner is part of a new generation of machines that target the last frontier of agricultural mechanization fruits
which have resisted thus far mechanization because they're sensitive to bruising. Researchers are now designing robots for these most delicate crops by integrating advanced sensors, powerful computing, electronics, computer vision, robotic hardware and algorithms,
as well as networking and high precision GPS localization technologies. Most agrobots won't be commercially available for at least a few years.
Land matrix global observatoryresearchers have released a new version of a database that records global land acquisitions by governments and private investors.
The database has been developed by a group of five international research centres. For several years now, media reports of land acquisitions have highlighted the growing trend of private investors
but in the database there is not as much China as we think there is Campaigners have complained that these investments were often unjust,
The database suggests that more than 46 million hectares of land have changed hands in 756 verified land deals.
but in the database there is not as much China as we think there is.""While the bulk of direct investment continues to come from western countries
Invisible hand But apart from direct investment, the new database suggests there are some worrying trends emerging."
The database now uses a wide number of data sources to help increase both accuracy and transparency.
These modules will be melded with other software to form what the team call a"Green Brain,
with Nvidia providing some of its top-end graphics processors for the development team to work with.
but we also believe the computer modelling techniques we will be using will be widely useful to other brain modelling and computational neuroscience projects".
using only low levels of mechanization, and without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers.
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Those gaining access to the data on the group Web site www. cacaogenomedb. org have to agree not to patent anything
iphone doctorbrendan Mcelroy living room in an apartment on the top floor of an East Village walk-up is crowded with anxious patients,
but for an iphone. Mr. Mcelroy, a lanky, clean-shaven 28-year-old who looks more likely to be playing an afternoon game of touch football than tinkering with the innards of a phone,
is standing at a workstation littered with the detritus of his trade: tiny silver screws, peels of plastic and cartons overflowing with spare parts.
Using a quick succession of tools suction cup, razor blade and screwdriver Mr. Mcelroy sets to work replacing a broken screen,
deftly prying it off the iphone. Fifteen minutes later, he slips the back cover on and hands the phone to an eager client,
who punches in the code to unlock it and sighs with relief as it leaps to life. oeit not difficult to do,
said Mr. Mcelroy, who taught himself to repair iphones by studying Youtube video tutorials that demonstrate how to disassemble
and reassemble the device. oebut it difficult to do perfectly. With Apple having sold 50 million iphones
it was perhaps inevitable that a cottage industry of iphone repair shops would spring up. The one-year warranty that comes with the iphone doesn t cover damage
unless it is shown to be caused by a manufacturing defect. And using official Apple channels for repairs can get expensive quickly.
Screen replacements alone can cost as much as $300, inspiring some iphone owners to seek out alternative ways to restore their phones health.
Enlisting the services of Mr. Mcelroy or Dr. Brendan, if you prefer his Web moniker costs markedly less.
Replacing the battery on a 3g or 3gs iphone for example will run about $50. The price tag for fixing the touch-screen on an iphone 3g is $70;
for a 3gs, it $15 more. Mr. Mcelroy operation is one of many offering rehabilitation services for the iphone.
A quick perusal of the business reviews site Yelp for places to take a mangled phone turned up dozens of listings in urban areas like San francisco, New york, Chicago and Los angeles. Companies like Missionrepair,
Rapid Repair and iresq primarily offer mail-order services, which require shipping off the damaged iphone.
In addition to inviting customers to his apartment, Mr. Mcelroy makes house calls in and around New york city,
sometimes crisscrossing boroughs several times a day. He also accepts repairs by mail and says he has a healthy international clientele from as far away as Portugal.
Of course the bravest among us and those with the steadiest fingers can always try to make the repairs themselves.
or its authorized repair centers to fix the phone, could violate Apple warranty. One of those authorized businesses is Tekserve, a well-known computer store in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.
Although its fees are significantly higher than Mr. Mcelroy repairing a smashed screen on a 3g iphone costs $149 the company justifies them by pointing to its long track record. oewe ve been around for 23 years
said Jazmin Hupp, a spokeswoman for the company. oewe re not a college kid who set up shop to do it this weekend
She would not say how many iphones the shop had repaired, but she did say that cracked screens were the most common malady.
Apple recommends finding authorized repair shops on its Web site at apple. com/support. oewe can t vouch for the quality of unauthorized repairs
said Natalie Kerris, a company spokeswoman. Mr. Mcelroy offers customers his own warranty of sorts.
and will replace any phone damaged in the repair process though he says that hasn happened t
since his inaugural attempt at fixing an iphone. oethe first try went less than smoothly, he said. oei had just finished a bartending shift
and reached for my phone. I dropped it and it smashed on the concrete floor.
he decided to try his hand at replacing the shattered screen. He purchased parts, first from ebay
then from a local repair shop, and got to work. oei d describe it as semi-successful,
But after polishing his method on the phones of a few willing friends, it wasn t long before he had improved enough to charge for his services.
Through an advertisement on Craigslist, Mr. Mcelroy began offering to replace shattered screens, and eventually expanded his menu to include broken SIM card trays, cracked covers, water damage and more mysterious glitches, like unresponsive buttons.
because word-of-mouth referrals and his Web site (www. drbrendan. com) were driving enough traffic. He quit his job tending bar to focus on his repair work.
his younger brother, Dan, who handles the ipod Touch touch ups. oethere rarely a phone I can t fix,
who estimates he worked on a thousand iphones since June. oethere was once a guy whose phone was thrown out of a 10-story window.
but the motherboard was fine. Despite the trauma, he said, oei was able to get it up and running for him.
The worst phones aren t the ones dropped from great heights, Mr. Mcelroy said. They re the ones that are dropped in the toilet. oei keep a pair of rubber gloves around for that
the ipad. But he suspects the iphone will remain his main source of revenue. The ipad oeactually looks like it won t break as often,
he said. oeit has a nice sturdy case that should protect it when falling
347 tomatoes off one plant! THERE S a oebeyond Thunderdome quality to Rob Torcellini greenhouse. The 10-by-12-foot structure is undistinguished on the outside:
he built it from a $700 kit, alongside his family Victorian-style farmhouse in Eastford, Conn.,
and a thermostat system sends Mr. Torcellini e-mail alerts when the temperature drops below 36 degrees.
The movement antipodean think tank is called a Web site Backyard Aquaponics, where readers can learn how, say, to turn a swimming pool into a fish pond.)
She has started her own Youtube channel and a blog, and is teaching aquaponics at the Denver Botanic Gardens.
Vegetable beds, herb gardens and orchards have sprung up on sites as varied and previously urban as the railway station forecourt and an elderly people's home, under the aegis of the Incredible Edible Todmorden campaign.
part of a national network encouraging similar sustainable, locally grown food production. The group's secretary, Chris Gathercole, said:"
Hewlett-packard was founded in a garage in California (now a national landmark), as was Google, many years later.
And, in addition to computer hardware and software, garage hackers and home-build enthusiasts are now merrily cooking up electric cars,
drone aircraft and rockets. But what about biology? Might biohacking tinkering with the DNA of existing organisms to create new ones lead to innovations of a biological nature?
When a science blog called io9 ran a competition for biohackers, it received entries for modified microorganisms that, among other things,
and respond to commands from a computer. The template for biohacking's future may be the International Genetically Engineered Machine (igem) competition
Mr Jankowski likens the current state of biohacking to the years in which amateurs first began working with personal computers, a metaphor that Dr Kelly also uses.
Computers were once both expensive and arcane. Today, they are built mostly from off-the-shelf components, and even a relatively nontechnical person can assemble one.
or Google to be born in a dormitory room or garage. But what about viruses? The computer metaphor,
though, is a reminder that there is no shortage of fools and criminals ready to construct viruses and other harmful computer programs.
If such people got interested in the biological world, the consequences might be even more serious
How do you plug your garden directly into the Internet? The goal of this garden project was to build a garden that was easy to water,
and could be controlled remotely via the internet
A move back to local brands? When brands are king there is an interesting move in the opposite direction at Wyevale garden centres.
We employed artificial intelligence algorithms combined with animal longevity assays to screen for wide-spectrum herbal extracts that extend lifespan;
while data on 110 to 119 year olds are validated from human super-centenarians from the website www. grg. org.
Unfortunately, none of the single compound nutraceuticals tested appeared to significantly extend fly lifespan in our longevity screens.
The screen for herbal extracts I used was novel in several ways. First, I tried to identify the best wide-spectrum herb in Chinese, Indian,
One interesting claim of health benefits from proanthocyanidins is the hypothesis that they are responsible for the oefrench Paradox,
This is certainly a realistic hope according to Missy Cummings, director of the Humans and Automation Lab at MIT.
The project, called Quantum entanglement Science and Technology (Quest), could produce unbreakable codes, unbelievably fast computers,
or rather computer-enhanced surgery is to reduce the impact of surgeries (make them less invasive,
A Hawaiian heart doctor named Benjamin Berg dictated a complicated surgery over an Internet feed for a Guam man located 3, 500 miles away.
and heartbeat of the patient via sensors embedded in the catheter that had been inserted into the patient heart.
Faster Internet speeds will allow doctors to monitor their patients around the clock in their patients homes.
The Renaissance Computing Institute in North carolina has developed an Outpatient Health Monitoring System (OHMS) for patients with chronic conditions such as asthma.
This is a powerful new genetic engineering technology founded on DNA synthesis that amounts to writing software for cells.
the developer liability approaches the theoretical minimum
Electrical circuit runs entirely off power in treesyou've heard about flower power. What about tree power?
spent last summer exploring likely sites. Hooking nails to trees and connecting a voltmeter, he found that bigleaf maples,
Under pressure from animal welfare groups, fast-food giant Mcdonald, major meat-processor Hormel and others recently agreed to end the use of tightly-confining pens at their suppliers pig farms.
The company has installed even live webcams so the public can see the hens in the new cages in real time.
Wikipedia says that by 2015 26 cities in the world will have a population of 10 million or more.
Each pod contains a computer-controlled environmental system to regulate the pod temperature, humidity, ph levels and CO2 throughout the crop life cycle.
air is channeled underground through a network of pipin...Linacre is a Swinburne University of Technology design graduate (image:
air is channeled underground through a network of piping that quickly cools the air to soil temperature.
ready to be pumped out via subsurface drip irrigation hosing. The Airdrop design also features an LCD screen displaying water levels, pressure strength, solar battery life and system health.
Utilizing a turbine intake system air is channeled underground through a network of pipin..."The one that I made in the backyard at mum's house was creating about a liter of water a day,
"Linacre told Gizmag. Although the backyard trial was successful on a small scale, Linacre did prove that it could be implemented on a large agricultural scale."
The Internet Gets Physicalthe Internet likes you, really likes you. It offers you so much, just a mouse click or finger tap away.
Some of the finest minds in computer science, working at start-ups and big companies, are obsessed with tracking your online habits to offer targeted ads and coupons, just for you.
But now nothing personal, mind you the Internet is growing up and lifting its gaze to the wider world.
To be sure, the economy of Internet self-gratification is thriving. Web start-ups for the consumer market still sprout at a torrid pace.
And young corporate stars seeking to cash in for billions by selling shares to the public are consumer services the online game company Zynga last week,
though, the protean Internet technologies of computing and communications are rapidly spreading beyond the lucrative consumer bailiwick.
Low-cost sensors, clever software and advancing computer firepower are opening the door to new uses in energy conservation, transportation, health care and food distribution.
The consumer Internet can be seen as the warm-up act for these technologies. The concept has been around for years,
sometimes called the Internet of things or the Industrial Internet. Yet it takes time for the economics
said Edward D. Lazowska, a computer scientist at the University of Washington. These abundant smart devices, Dr. Lazowska added, will oeinteract intelligently with people and with the physical world.
The role of sensors once costly and clunky, now inexpensive and tiny was described this month in an essay in The New york times by Larry Smarr, founding director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information technology;
he said the ultimate goal was oethe sensor-aware planetary computer. That may sound like blue-sky futurism,
which has hired more than 100 engineers from Apple, Google, Microsoft and other high-tech companies. Its product, introduced in late October,
combining sensors, machine learning and Web technology. It senses not just air temperature, but the movements of people in a house, their comings and goings,
Yoky Matsuoka, a former Google computer scientist and winner of a Macarthur oegenius grant, said, oethis is the next wave for me.
Matt Rogers, 28, a Nest cofounder, led a team of engineers at Apple that wrote software for ipods.
Across many industries, products and practices are being transformed by communicating sensors and computing intelligence. The smart industrial gear includes jet engines,
Computers track sensor data on operating performance of a jet engine, or slight structural changes in an oil rig, looking for telltale patterns that signal coming trouble.
Computers pull GPS data from railway locomotives, taking into account the weight and length of trains, the terrain and turns,
With software for analysis, the room can monitor movements by doctors and nurses in and out of the room,
Computer vision software can analyze facial expressions for signs of severe pain, the onset of delirium or other hints of distress,
Last month, G. E. announced that it was opening a new global software center in Northern California
and would hire 400 engineers there to write code to accelerate the commercial development of intelligent machines. oeour role is to build the software that enables us to do this industrial Internet,
In 2008, I b m. declared that it was going to make a big push into the industrial Internet,
using computing intelligence to create more efficient systems for utility grids, traffic management, food distribution, water conservation and health care.
lest they gunk up their smartphone. Dutch maker of farming technologies, Lely, recently installed their 12,
it also automates milk testing right at the milking station and pushes the data to the farmer smartphone.
and more time managing the health of their heard as a whole from their smartphone. The growing popularity of the platform is a testament to its cost-effectiveness.
I also do the same thing over the weekend through text messages and emails which makes them ecstatic and ready to work hard on Monday.
Google and Facebook are just a few of the companies that feed their employees for free and it seems to work well.
If you are starting out you may not be able to provide the level of food services that Google
After some time the new cathedrals became downtown cores, celebrations of capitalism and commercialism"."The cities of the future, he argues,
"said Rebecca Tarbotton, executive director of Rainforest Action Network, which worked with Disney on the policy.
someone has announced a mobile payments app or joined a mobile commerce consortium. We've seen a surge of such announcements in the last year,
one that very likely will have an ipod Touch at the core. The use of a sled around the ipod Touch means that the clerks can swipe credit
and provide a perch for a tiny receipt printer. The printer didn't use Apple's Airprint,
though that no doubt will come. Instead, it has a QRC sticker the clerk scanned to tell his mobile terminal what printer to send the receipt to over the network.
Printing was an option, but the preferred receipt was an emailed copy on a customer's smartphone.
That way, the store could use it in lieu of paper to verify a purchase when the customer left the store.
But it's also meant to be based a broad mobile wallet for receipts and, at some point, an extension of Apple's payments system in the itunes Store,
Apple's own Apple Store app and its Easypay service lead the way, using your itunes-associated credit card for payment
and in-app electronic receipts to show you're not a thief
Mixed-use 2. 0: The office building of the futuresocial forces and advances in communications technology are driving changes in how and where people work.
Corner offices and cubicles are giving way to a kind of Mixed-Use 2. 0-workspaces that are infinitely flexible, with options for focused,
An individual with a laptop can work from home, or at a wi-fi equipped location,
or even on the road using the latest wireless'puck'devices. The office building of the future will also be expected to be more affordable to build and operate
thanks to advances and cost reductions in construction materials and systems. Also, a greater degree of sustainability will be attainable
Net-zero buildings will meet the corporate demands of tenants as well as the improved building performance sought by building owners and developers.
¢Communal table areas,¢Benching areas,¢Hive configurations for the duration of a project,¢Individual workstations for focused tasks,
Originally a term meaning to break into a computer security system, 'hack'has been given a more positive connotation by Gensler:
The Miller Hull Partnership Miller Hull design is based on the belief that oebuildings should not be allowed to consume more than they can capture on site.
Cities should provide incentives to developers who meet these performance goals. It calls its design concept:
or start-up firms that lease space on an as needed basis. Developers can create demand and higher lease rates by oecurating the office space to ensure the right creative mix of users.
¢Located on an underutilized site on the edge of the downtown core;¢¢Accessible by foot, bicycle or mass transit;¢
¢Built to harvest all of the water and energy from the site;¢¢Smaller and reconfigurable to the needs of the mobile workforce;
Personalized comfort controls at workstations will enhance worker satisfaction and improve productivity. Innovative design and construction, efficient floorplates and multipurpose spaces will support the owner business objectives.
in an email to IRIN. oebut part of what we hope this report -and other products like www. watershedconnect. org-will do is share some of the elements of success
Commentsview/Create comment on this paragraphanyone with Internet access can visit Oxfam Web site and see how the big brands rank on each of seven ethically significant indicators.
In addition, the facility says by 2014 it will be providing about 200 jobs to the community, many of them via a partnership with Windy city Harvest,
computers, sporting goods, cosmetics, etc. â chemical production: industrial compounds, high-value compounds, plastics, chemical synthesis, etc. â human health:
By contrast, synthetic biologists work with large networks of genes, thus a new acronym, SMO.
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