Futurismic at least in appearance, an attempt at reinventing the wheel by making it hubless is truly eye-catching. [meine kleine fabrik]

Who says technology isn’t making the world a better place? Cheap digital camera technology will now allow the savvy general to keep a close eye on collateral damage, by making it less likely that a Claymore mine will kill or maim the wrong sort of person. If that’s not progress, what is?

Here’s some news that confirms long held suspicions – Google are working on developing large scale artificial intelligence, according to Larry Page. How much of this is big talk and boosterism remains to be seen, but if the talk of AI as an emergent phenomenon has any truth to it, Google are the most likely folk to throw the right switches.

In more mundane news from the world of the Big G, they’ve added a whole bunch of new NASA data layers to Google Earth.

The world’s military forces have long been trying to crack the 100kW barrier for solid state lasers, which would make them ‘battlefield viable’. Brian Wang reports that they’re getting very close to cracking it, but suggests a more peaceful use for such technology – using laser beams to push satellites and probes to Mars in a matter of days rather than months.

Now this is just awesome – exactly the sort of thing I wish someone would set up here in the UK. OpenCongress exists to break down the barriers between American citizens and the Congress that represents them, by revealing all the complicated inner workings of the system. And as any mechanic or techie will tell you, once you know how a system works, you can start tweaking it so it works better… [BoingBoing]