Bruce Schneier, that pragmatic and insightful observer of the so-called security state, is interviewing Kip Hawley, the head of the Transportation Safety Administration. The interview is going up on Schneier’s blog in 5 installments. Read part 1 to start.
Kip Hawley comes out sounding almost reasonable, though Schneier demolishes most of Hawley’s points (or at least those points that don’t reduce to, “it’s secret, so just trust me”).
Digital cameras are capable of capturing colors in areas of the spectrum invisible to normal human sight. Kameraflage is a technique for creating designs that incorporate elements that only show up in digital photos. Get this into the hands of that bong hits for Jesus kid, quick. [engadget]
If you’re a long-time reader of Futurismic, you know we’ve recently made the switch to WordPress. In the spirit of embracing the new platform, we link to CommentPress 1.0, a WordPress theme that puts comments in a box that scrolls as you scroll, and lets you click on a paragraph to see comments related to that paragraph. They imagine lots of uses for CommentPress, but the one most interesting to me is the applicability to workshopping stories online. If you’re a writer, would you use something like CommentPress to solicit feedback on stories in progress? [o’reilly radar]
The RoboSwift is a remote controlled micro airplane with wings that can reconfigure in flight, mimicking the flight characteristics of swifts. There are four “feathers” on each wing that can fold over one another to increase or decrease lift and speed, and a propellor that can turn off and fold against the fuselage for better gliding performance. Cameras in the nose allow the operator to know what the plane’s doing and where it’s going.
The good news: Toyota’s developing a plug-in Prius hybrid that can run off the battery alone for short trips. The bad news: we’re talking really short trips (8 miles or less). These cars are “not fit for commercialization” because the battery technology hasn’t kept up with the potential usages. Damn that bunny. [slashdot]