It’s commonly said that “life imitates art,” but in this case life is art, to a disturbing degree: a curator was forced to “kill” an art exhibit, a living jacket on life support which threatened to grow beyond its boundaries. [m. christian]
All posts by Brian Wanamaker
You had me at “harmless mucus-like mash of molecules”
In considering anti-virus treatments which go beyond vaccinations, researchers are zapping them with a superfast laser; by pulsing at the same frequency as the virus, it’s possible to destroy its shell without harming the surrounding human cells.
Aidoru, I Adore You
Geek wageslave-turned-geek minstrel, Jonathan Coulton created a song for game developer Valve (recently covered at BoingBoing), which is used in The Best Game Ending Ever for their highly original game, Portal. If an internet-based, Creative Commons-friendly singer songwriter just isn’t futurismic enough for you, how about hearing said song as covered by a Japanese virtual idol in nearly unintelligible, katakana-accented English?
Frickin’ Laser Beams to Power Japan
Japan continues to horde its portion of the unevenly distributed future: Gizmodo is reporting on their plan for generating solar power from orbiting collectors, then beaming that energy back to Earthbound collection sites via laser. Expectations are that it could match a 1-gigawatt nuclear plant. No word yet as to the arrival of “1.21 gigawatt” systems.
“At the tone,” AT&T Calls Time Out
The L.A. Times is reporting that AT&T will retire the “Time of Day” phone service which has provided accurate time information, read aloud to the caller in ten second intervals. The reason? There are now ubiquitous, alternate ways to get the same data:
“Times change,” said John Britton, an AT&T spokesman. “In today’s world, there are just too many other ways to get this information. You can look at your cellphone or your computer. You no longer have to pick up the telephone.”