It’s art. At the Royal College of Art’s graduate show in London, students showed off their creations, including an acoustic botanical garden and a “disc with legs” to keep electronics away from water.

Hiromi Ozaki, however, developed the “Menstruation Machine”: a suit for men which releases blood stored in its reservoir over the course of a menstruation cycle, usually lasting about 5 days. It also has lower abdomen stimulating electrodes to mimic painful cramps.

On a compassionate level, this is kind of cool. If you’ve never experienced the dreaded Cycle of Pain that comes with a monthly period, perhaps this will help people get a better understanding of why it’s impossible to function at work when you’re in a cold sweat willing yourself to die. I have friends who compare their period pains to those of labor contractions. That stuff is real.

On the other hand, what the hell? Why would you put yourself through torture? Can you use a tampon with it? What kind of woman makes her loved ones experience such trauma? Is this the ultimate test to determine whether or not your boyfriend is fit for marriage?

Also, where does the blood come from? Can you increase the flow? Why does this exist?

Yes, I did just dedicate a whole post to menstruation. Have a great weekend.

Community Connection

Men, do you fancy yourself a round of the Menstruation Machine? Women, would you giggle with glee? Share your thoughts.

No one can say for sure whether Boston-Based Terrafugia’s “roadable aircraft,” dubbed the “Transition” will become the Model T of flying automobiles, but today’s news that the FAA has approved the vehicle for a maximum takeoff weight of 1,320 pounds and a maximum speed of 115 mph is a significant sign of progress for Jetson wannabe’s everywhere.

However, as one might guess, this isn’t something that your average Hyundai Elantra driver could use as a trade-in. Classified as a Light Sport Aircraft, the Transition requires a Sport Pilot certificate to fly, and pockets deep enough to cover the $200,000 price tag.

The Transition features a 30 miles-per-gallon fuel efficiency and its wings fold out automatically, enabling drivers to quickly change from land to air. If you’re in the market–or if you’re just curious–here’s a video below.

Community Connection

Are flying cars the future of travel? Or would you prefer any other mode of transportation? Share your thoughts.

Photo by westerndave/Feature Photo by purdman1

Wouldn’t you like to do the same with, well, everything else? Food. Clothing. Games. Cameras. Parts for your car. Imagine the time you would save not running from store to store. You could even design your own objects!

Let’s say you want to design and construct your own electric guitar out of lucite and anodized steel, or replace a gear for that 90-year-old grandfather clock that sits broken in your hallway. E-Machine Shop allows you to create customized replacement parts — or just about anything else you can think of — and model in 3-D using computer controlled lasers, torches and a wide variety of other machine shop tools. They supply you with a downloadable 3-D modeling program you can use to design your product. Then, you choose from a list of materials and finishes, and they provide you with a price estimate and shipping options.

Welcome to the World of the Personal Assember, a.k.a Fabber.

What if you were able to design and produce all your needs at home, cutting out the middle man entirely? It’s been possible for quite a while, actually, but until now these types of machines needed to produce your product — called prototypers — were extremely expensive and out of reach of the average consumer.

Photo by sekimura

Soon, anyone will be able to DIY at home using the following two open source project printers.

Fab@Home is part of a collaborative project with Cornell University. They’re working to develop a printer that attaches via USB or firewire to your PC and allows you to print three dimensional objects. You can print things one layer at a time using such diverse materials as silicon, chocolate frosting, plastics or glue. Thus, you can personally manufacture just about anything you can model using off-the-shelf CAD software on your PC.

The printers — called Model I or Model II assemblers — are compact enough to fit on your desktop and the plans to build these machines are available for free on their website. An entire setup — including construction, parts and set up time — comes in at around $1600.

Cornell is currently researching how to employ similar devices to build human organs and facilitate tissue reconstruction.

A similar concept is the CNC Cupcake by Makerbot. It’s cheaper than Fab@Home but doesn’t give you as many materials options. CNC Cupcake works by heating an ABS plastic wire — a type of thermoplastic — until malleable, then builds the object of your desire one layer at a time. It is also open source and you can either buy parts to create your own variation of the CNC Cupcake or simply order an off the shelf version for $950.

Photo by ralphbijker

Once you have your personal assembler technology, head to thingiverse.com where you can connect with other fabbers and download, swap and trade your favorite 3-D plans.

This Technology Is Limited, For Now.

Remember what a computer looked like way back when? They were as large as a house, cost millions of dollars, were expensive to maintain, required years of training to use and had very limited functionality. Jump to today where there are hundreds of millions of computers in the world that we depend on for just about everything in our daily lives. This is the future of personal fabricators.

Don’t just take my word for it. Ray Kurzweil, preeminent futurist and artificial intelligence expert, also believes fabbers will soon become a ubiquitous part of our daily experience.

Once it’s possible to make everything you need at home, the price of most objects will drop to nothing more than material costs, thus obliterating our reliance on stores, manufacturers and distributors. Our consumer oriented society will never be the same again.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

For more gadget love, take a look at Technology Bytes: Freaky Futuristic Gadgets, 10 Gadgets to Unleash Your Inner James Bond and Affordable Gifts for Gadget Lovers.

Photo by jurvetson

Every day there’s seemingly a new study proclaiming either good news or bad news. Among the most recent, coffee apparently doesn’t increase a person’s alertness, and Gen-Y workers have the greatest sense of entitlement in history.

Then there’s some studies that offer results more obvious than Ricky Martin’s sexual orientation.

For example, the University of Valencia has proven that beautiful women are bad for men’s health. In the presence of a beautiful lady, stress hormones in men are raised to “dangerously high levels,” particularly if they view the woman as out of their league.

Men get so worked up about it, their stress levels are comparable to the levels of someone who jumps out of a plane.

Was a study necessary to find these answers? Couldn’t the researchers just put a dozen men in a room with a lingerie model and observe them going ga-ga for long legs and thick eyelashes? Furthermore, what does such a study hope to achieve?

Photo by Eddie~S

Another study has also shown that schoolyard bullies target obese kids. Really? I had no idea.

The study was actually developed by the University of Michigan to see if targeting chubby children has decreased now that obesity is more common than ever. But the results showed that being overweight increased chances of being bullied by 63 percent.

I’m not sure what’s more depressing, realizing that possibly thousands and thousands of dollars were used to fuel such studies, or the fact that people didn’t already know this to begin with.

The whole thing brings to mind a South Park episode, “Child Abduction is Not Funny.” In the episode, the parents become concerned about their children’s welfare because the media has bombarded them with news of terrorist attacks and school shootings. Things get out of hand when a study is released to show that a large percentage of child abductions are carried out by someone the child knows personally. The kids are forced to leave home, because they are no longer safe with family.

I’m not a big South Park fan, but the episode has an amusing take on how we react to media influence. Are we taking these studies too seriously? Will women someday have to dress more modestly to prevent the male population from dying out due to heart attacks?

In all seriousness, dumb studies are a fairly common thing. Two years ago, National Post dubbed 2008 “a year of confirming the incredibly obvious.” Among the many studies listed, a few favorites include: young children are a little frightened by clowns, media coverage of a disease inspires more fear of that disease, and teenage drivers are less careful than seniors.

Whew, glad someone cleared those questions up.

Community Connection

Do you think some of these studies are a total waste of time and resources? Share your thoughts in the comments.

A few years ago, a company named Sustainable Dance Club (SDC) introduced a dance floor used to power an entire nightclub. In Rotterdam’s club WATT, the stomping feet of dancers powers the club’s light system and music. There’s even a huge battery life monitor to keep people interactive and dancing.

Here’s how it works:

The deputy mayor of Toulouse wants to take this technology and apply it to “pavement power,” generating electricity for street lamps simply by people strolling along the sidewalk.

As a trial run, eight modules have already been installed in Toulouse. Their design differs from the dance club, however, because the modules have to be modified to work for walkers instead of dancers.

Why not combine both? How different would our evenings be if we had to dance our way home, whirling on the sidewalk, looping arms with passer-bys and kicking up heels? Street lights wouldn’t just light up, they’d blare music into the streets. Waltz to some Sinatra, or break out the parachute pants for some Hammer Time.

Imagine a city where people wouldn’t move along the street with heads down, but do the funky-chicken in passing. Or grind on people to keep the vibe alive, like the couple in the following video.

I do suggest pulling less awkward moves than the ones shown here. Even the DJ seems bored, although the fate of the club rests entirely on his shoulders as he is responsible for the stiff dancers who are in turn responsible for keeping the music going, like a vicious cycle. If the powered pavement worked in the same manner, how would you feel about being responsible for shutting down a whole town?

Community Connection

What do you think, are powered pavement and dance floors a good way to practice sustainability? Will the long-term benefits outweigh the current costs?

Photo by joanna8555

Barbie has received a lot of attention since her birth in 1959. She became an instant role model for younger girls, with her first career choice being a fashion model.

Since then, Barbie has switched professions as easily as a game of musical chairs: 124 in total. She became an astronaut (years before a man even landed on the moon), a nurse, a gymnast, and even an American Idol winner.

Her latest career of choice is a computer engineer.

You might think sitting at a desk all day writing code is less than glamourous. You’re right, although the programmers I work with have a series of inside jokes and cryptic IM status updates I fail to understand. I assume they prefer I never figure it out.

But much to Mattel’s surprise, people wanted to see Barbie go geek. A month-long voting campaign launched in January on Barbie.com brought in over 600,000 votes. Anyone could vote, and although “Anchorwoman Barbie” was the choice for young girls, the rest of the world just wanted to see Barbie put on some nerdy glasses and talk l33t.

How Did Geek Go Chic?

I’m a little upset. Back when I was in high school, my inner geek was abhorred rather than embraced. I hid her behind the latest trends and pop music.

Photo by weelakeo

Now there are even websites like Geek Girl Camp, dedicated to “empowering women through technology, one geek at a time.” The site is hot pink and outrageously girly, but covers topics like “Mac Tips” and “Photoshop.”

You can find geek inspired clothing, or use Geek 2 Geek to find a romantic partner or friend who shares your particularly quirky ways. Someone who appreciates Star Wars, or who can also snort their way through a Monty Python movie.

In reality, the geek movement started back in the 80s with Family Matters and Steve Urkel (Jaleel White). That young man’s ability to turn a simple task into a dangerous fiasco was outstanding, as was his complete disregard for color coordination, and his passion for cheese.

The geek movement has been here all along, it seems. The Internet just gave it a push.

Why Barbie Has The Ability To Change Girls’ Futures

Barbie’s geek look includes a ponytail, black leggings, a shirt that says “Barbie” in binary code, eyeglasses, and a Bluetooth headset. And of course she’s still tall, thin, blonde, and hot. She even comes with a top secret code used to unlock online games at Barbie.com.

Mattel says, “Having Barbie as a new ambassador for female computer engineers can help inspire a new generation of girls to hone in on their computer skills and become part of a growing profession.”

Why is this so important? According to the National Center for Women & Information Technology, women are desperately needed in the computer and information sciences field. Working women geeks are actually on the decline: in 1985, women received 37% of computer science degrees; in 2008, that number was just 18%.

The only major concern is how the guy geeks’ productivity will fare once the girl geeks start taking over.

Community Connection

Do you think Barbie has the ability to encourage girls to seek more male-dominated careers? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo by covilha

A funny thing happened the other day. My Cairo taxi driver took one look at the bundle of raggedy notes I was trying to give him, and asked if I had some coins instead.

But mere months ago, he’d have done everything in his power not to take coins, even if that meant committing the sacrilege of breaking a large note. Coins weren’t considered “real money”, and people looked at you like you were offering them a handful of scrap metal. Now, the coins are everywhere, and accepted without question.

When I told my housemate this story, he laughed. “In Korea,” he said, “we use our mobile phones to pay for things like bus journeys.” They hold their phones up to a reader when they get on, and the money is either debited directly from their bank, or added to their next phone bill. Same goes for buying things in some shops.

Now, I’m no hick – I even had a credit card, once – but I had no idea such magic was possible. It got me thinking on what I know about money.

What is money?

I know that “money makes the world go round.” We use it to buy stuff. And I never seem to have enough of it. (But that’s OK, because I don’t want much stuff.)

I also know we started off by bartering for the things we needed: two chickens for a bag of grain, or a sack of magic herbs for the latest model of ax. (Actually, we probably started off hitting people over the head with our ax and taking their magic herbs, but that’s a different story.)

Photo by zolierdos

Then we started using things like cowrie shells as money. By around 650 BC, the first gold and silver coins were being minted. They were valuable, because they were made from something considered worthy. This is known as commodity money.

And then, ever so slowly, things became complicated. Representative money came into use, where physical tokens with no intrinsic worth (such as a paper note) were used to represent a fixed amount of something worthy.

In other words, your paper money was valuable because it could, in theory, be converted into gold at the bank. But there was never enough gold to back up all the paper money in circulation.

Then, since World War II, fiat currencies gradually took over. Put simply, this is money that has value because the government says it has value, not because it’s intrinsically worth anything, or because it directly represents a commodity that is worth something.

It’s a symbol, an expression of trust, a way of keeping score and of facilitating trade without having to exchange any goods. Money doesn’t really exist, except in our minds. That’s brilliant. And absolutely terrifying.

The future of money

I don’t pretend to understand how it all really works. But on April 26th, The Future of Money and Technology Summit is taking place in San Francisco. This will “bring together the best and brightest thinkers around money” – from organisations with such arcane names as Entropria Universe, Zong, and Plastic Jungle – to “discuss the evolving money ecosystem”. And I don’t really understand what that means, either.

Photo by Uriel 1998

Except that the days of cash must surely be numbered. What’s the point of keeping the old, physical tokens that represent money? They just weigh down your pockets, and keep muggers in business.

For many of us, our money is already nothing more than a number on a computer somewhere, going up and down as we exchange goods and services. The cash machine is an unnecessary middle man.

It all becomes even more mind-bending when you consider the overlap between the “real world”, and the virtual worlds of online Role Playing Games such as Second Life.

You can use “real” money to buy “virtual” money to spend on goods and services in the game. And you can cash out your virtual money, exchanging it for real money. So what the hell is real money?

We already have mobile devices that can do everything short of making us a cup of tea in the morning, or rubbing our feet when we are tired. Hooking them up to our bank balances is the next logical step, and one that’s already being taken in countries such as South Korea.

Just chip us already

In fact, why not just chip us already? For years, the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona has been implanting a microchip into the arms of its VIP guests. This contains an ID number that is scanned to allow chipped guests access to the VIP lounges, and can be used as a debit account to pay for drinks.

As well as the convenience of ordering and paying for your drink simply by waving your arm, these Very Chipped Persons can kiss the uncouth wallet-tucked-in-Speedos look goodbye.

Now I’m not suggesting for a minute we are close to having all our personal information, including our bank details, embedded in our bodies on a microchip. Or that cash is in its final death throes. But it seems we might be moving in that direction.

To paraphrase the Cree Indian proverb about eating money: “Only when the last tree has died, and the last river been poisoned, and the last fish been caught, will we realise we didn’t need to chop down trees to make money.”

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

What do you think about a cashless society? Are we marching towards a better future, or does the very thought of it scare the pants off you? Share your thoughts below.

Photo by Olaf

Superpowers are back in fashion. Every other film these days involves some mentalist in an improbable costume, using their even more improbable powers to save the day.

But we don’t have to visit the movies or open a book, or flick on the TV to find superpowers. They are all around us. Technology advances so rapidly that abilities once confined to comic books are becoming a reality.

Here are five biggies that – if not already with us — are most definitely in the pipeline.

Flight

Who doesn’t want the ability to fly? Every journey becomes both a shortcut and the scenic route, and everyone wants you on their basketball team. And if you fly really fast in the opposite direction to the Earth’s spin, you can even turn back time.

Photo by Mike Licht

Since World War II, a load of work has been done on jetpacks, mainly with military applications in mind. Although the US government has decided they are not practical, Jetpack International has developed a commercial product. They claim it can fly 11 miles at speeds of around 80 mph, at a maximum height of 250 feet. Boba Fett eat your heart out.

Even better, in 2006 British newspaper the Daily Mail published an article speculating that UK special forces might soon be flying into combat using “batwings”. These six meter wings would allow troops to glide up to 120 miles before deploying their parachutes. Presumably they also came kitted with a pre-recorded tape, blasting out, “Bam! Crash! Pow! Zap!”

Invisibility

Invisibility cloaks were once the preserve of dragon-slaying heroes on a quest for swag and damsels in distress. Now, scientists in Germany are close to developing one for real. They managed to cloak a tiny bump in a layer of gold, bending light around it and rendering it invisible “at nearly visible infrared frequencies.”

Before you start planning your new career as spy, bear the following in mind: the bump was already so small you needed a magnifying glass to see it, and the lead researcher has admitted cloaking larger items “is not really feasible” with this technology. So it’s a step in the right direction, but we’ll still need to pay for our cinema tickets a little while longer.

Time Travel

Our obsession with time travel is understandable: forwards in time for a look at the lottery results; backwards in time to warn ABBA their music will still be polluting dance floors some forty years later… no wonder we get all tied up in knots.

According to physicist Michio Kaku, time travel is both theoretically possible, and not so riddled with paradox as we’ve been led to believe. He reckons time is like a river that can develop whirlpools and fork into different branches.

Photo by AdamL212

So if you go back in time and meet your mother as a teenager, and she falls in love with you, then you’ve crossed streams into a parallel universe. In this universe, she is not – and will not be – your mother. Which naturally means it’s OK to sleep with her.

Kaku claims multiple universes co-exist, but you’re only tuned in to the vibrations from one of them. So even though dinosaurs from a universe where they didn’t become extinct are standing in your living room, you can’t see them!

If time travel really is possible, someone should go back and shoot the guy who invented bloody quantum theory. Put us out of our misery.

Pyrokinesis

From The Human Torch to Pyro, the only thing cooler than being able to fly is being able to set stuff on fire. Although spontaneous human combustion remains a controversial topic, the Pentagon is lending a helping hand.

Their latest toy is a non-lethal weapon called the Active Denial System, designed for crowd control and slated for possible use in Iraq. It fires a burst of high frequency microwaves, heating the target in exactly the same way as your microwave cooks your ready-made lasagna.

While victims don’t burst into flame, they do feel an intense burning sensation, which is meant to stop once they get out of the line of fire.

Fictional company Pyrotech are currently developing a handheld version, aimed at techno-cannibals who no longer have time to boil their missionaries in giant cooking pots.

Immortality

This is the holy grail of superpowers, the one that obviates the need for any other.

Who cares if you can’t fly? Just take a plane like everyone else, smug in the knowledge that you really don’t need to listen to the safety announcement. Can’t travel forwards in time? No worries. Being immortal necessarily means you have time on your hands. Just chill a while, and let the future come to you. And if you need to burn something, buy a box of matches.

Photo (not of T. nutricula) by marfis75

Sadly, given our almost universal fear of death, immortality is one superpower we don’t yet have. But help is at hand, in the form of… a jellyfish! Yep, Turritopsis nutricula appears to be the world’s only immortal animal. This tiny hydrozoan can reverse the aging process, transforming from its mature form into its immature form, and back again.

This can theoretically go on forever, which means the animal is biologically immortal. But it is still vulnerable to violent death, which is something the boffins will have to work on if we ever want to achieve true immortality.

But then again, would you really want to live forever? That’s a heck of a long time. Perhaps being able to fly is better, after all.

Community Connection

Which superpower would you like to see technology make possible? What would you do with it? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The key to getting through an event, be it an anthropogenic or natural disaster, is to develop a solid plan and prepare yourself for the most probable scenario. Taking steps in advance can seriously reduce your risks and potentially be the difference between catastrophe and inconvenience.

There are so many potential hazards, how do I identify risk?

Hazards can be categorized into three main categories: Natural, Technological and Terrorism. A comprehensive list of hazards as well as an excellent manual for preparation can be found at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Identify the events that have the most probability of occurring and not necessarily the one that is most personally frightening to you. Yes, it is possible that a terrorist group will target Sawgrass Mills mall near Boca Raton, Florida in an attempt to send a message to the United States government, but odds are that you are more susceptible to flooding, hurricanes and extreme heat.

Hurricanes generally do not hit states such as California but there you have a greater possibility of experiencing an earthquake or responding to a wild fire. View this strategically unless you wish to devote unnecessary time preparing for every eventuality.

Resources for Determining Risk

Consult your local insurance agent and discuss hazard probability with them. They are in the business of assigning value based on available historical data. You can purchase a plan from them if you wish.

FEMA’s Hazard Maps, the United States Geological Survey has a customizable earthquake probability map , and your closest government planning office should have reliable local information.

Planning and Preparation

Once you’ve isolated your potential risk, it’s time to begin preparations. As it turns out there is much overlap and a few steadfast rules that apply in most situations.

Photo by kansasphoto

Determine the emergency evacuation route that your community has established. This can be found online or at your local government planning office.

Mark the route clearly on a map to be stored in your vehicle. It is important to follow the exact route and not deviate or take short-cuts as you could find yourself in a bad situation with no one around to provide assistance.

Take photographs or video of your house and catalogue your personal belongings before a catastrophic event. This can help you get properly compensated when dealing with insurance companies. Also, discuss your policy with your agent in advance to find out what you are covered for under your current home policy.

Scan or photocopy important documents like the deed to your house, birth certificates, medical history, passports and insurance papers. Store original documents at a well fortified location (eg bank vault) if possible. Scanning is a good solution as you can fit most important documents on a small and inexpensive USB flash drive or a micro SD card from your cell phone.

Become acquainted with how to shut off your water, gas and electricity systems. Earthquakes have been known to rupture gas lines and cause secondary explosions. By turning off your gas you can avoid this unfortunate situation. Imagine your house survives a magnitude 7.0 earthquake only to become a fire ball ten minutes later when you forget to turn off the gas.

Potable water is a priceless commodity during most hazards. By turning off your home’s water main it will prevent water already accumulated in your hot water tank, toilets and pipes from contamination. Water stored in your hot water tank is an excellent source of potable water during emergencies.

Remember to share this information with your housemates so that the responsibility does not entirely depend on you.

Establish a meeting point and contingency plan. Hazards don’t occur on your schedule, so make another plan, thus it is highly possible that you will be separated from your friends or family.

Photo by Garton

Remember that plans are created to keep you safe, not to expose you to greater risk. If your path or meeting place is blocked or dangerous, find the most secure place for yourself before trying to make contact with family and friends.

Establish a contact person who does not live in your region so that they can relay messages and coordinate meeting points in times of crisis and cell phone failure.

EXAMPLE: If there is a fire in the house, meet by the large oak tree in the neighbor’s yard. If that becomes impossible, then meet at supermarket around the corner. If both become impossible and your entire area has become dangerous, find the best place for yourself and when possible call your contact person for more information.

Getting Your Disaster Kit Ready

Potable water is by far the most important supply you can have. While it is possible to live for weeks without food, you will perish in a matter of days without water. Figure at least a half gallon per day per person. Also keep in mind that this is a baseline amount. For example, nursing mothers require more water than an average individual. Contact a health or nutrition professional to determine your personal water intake needs.

FEMA recommends that you put together three disaster kits: home, school/work and car.

At Home:

• Enough food and water to last you anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks
• A battery powered or hand crank radio to get latest news and advisories. Often these devices have other features like cell phone chargers, flashlights and alarms
• Appropriate clothing – that could be additional coats for cold weather, long pants and long sleeved shirts to protect your arms and legs, rain gear, protective footwear and extra socks

• A first-aid kit
• Moist toilettes or toilet paper
• Flashlights with extra batteries
• Hand sanitizer
• Basic tool set
• Any other special medical or personal hygiene supplies you might need

Pack your kit in a duffle bag or backpack and put it in a place that is accessible to everyone in the house.

At Work/School:

This should be a small bag that you can grab and run. It should contain food and water. If you are able to store a pair of sneakers or good walking shoes in your office this also might come in handy.

Car:

• Water and food
• Jumper cables
• Flashlight
• Basic tool set
• First aid kit and a map with your evacuation route highlighted

I keep a small tent and a couple of sleeping bags in my trunk. We usually use them for camping, but in case of emergency, it could be extremely useful as well.

Additional Resources:

Accurate and timely information will save your life and help you understand the threat at hand.

Early warning systems and other types of signals are in place in most developed countries around the world.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather radio is broadcast throughout the United States. NOAA also has an excellent real time map of weather conditions across the country.

Photo by srqpix

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) can be found on many participating radio and television channels. EAS will interrupt regular programs with a long, high pitched siren and warn of potential hazards.

FEMA provides a complete and downloadable e-book with extensive information and checklists for every eventuality. It’s called Are You Ready?

Remember, having a clear and concise plan will not only educate you about potential risks but also put you in a better situation for reducing collateral damages and expediting recovery. If you can avoid panic induced decisions in favor of a more rational approach it is possible for you to be there for family, friends and your community in a more expansive way.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

For more information on surviving natural disasters check out by Carly Blatt’s How to Survive Travel Disasters: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina and Julie Schwietert’s How to Get Disaster Response Training: 5 FREE Resources

Yesterday, our very own Candice Walsh took us on a tour of the sordid, silly and surreal world of Chatroulette. Today, I ask where will this latest fascination take us?

What is the allure of ChatRoulette?

It is a challenge to find the weirdest, most interesting, most sexually odd stranger. It is anonymity. When you don’t have a name, you can say what you like and not take responsibility. That is extremely liberating.

It is human contact. It is human contact with absolutely no strings attached. We all wonder what it would be like with a stranger. It is a chance to see a naked stranger possibly shirtless and masturbating..

It is a search for the self. Deep down, how many of us hope that we’ll find our doppelgangersoulmateselfstranger?

Photo by Buzzfeed

Every article I read about ChatRoulette discusses in detail the rejection, more than one describing the “horrifying” moment of watching your stranger reach a hand out to the keyboard before F9ing you.

It is as the name suggests, an opportunity to shoot yourself in the head with every flip of the keyboard. Yet, every single person went back more than once to this place where you can be anyone. A cat. A whore. A samurai. A complete and utter pervert. You can travel to Turkey or have a drink with a stranger in Amsterdam even if you’re under 21 and couldn’t get into the bar in real life. You can play “Make this face” or “Hey, I’ll draw you!” Then settle down for a chat with a nazi, ghost, skeleton or dog. Real dog, not just someone dressed up as one.

Only your imagination limits you.

Is ChatRoulette the So-Called Next Big Thing?

It could be.

Sam Anderson tells us in his New York Magazine article that “if ChatRoulette catches on, it might even swing our collective online pendulum back toward chaos.”

A little bit of chaos may be just what the techgeek ordered in this overly monitored and measured world. Who are we kidding? This isn’t just for techgeeks. Everyone occasionally seeks escape from the self to find adventure. That’s why we travel. That’s why we jump out of planes. That’s why hostel sex is fun, then you get up the next day and are on your way. Chatroulette provides just a small taste of letting go before you return to your normal life.

Says Jonah Lehrer at ScienceBlogs

Human interaction, of course, is pretty damn predictable. We’ve got elaborate rituals for dealing with strangers, thus minimizing the chance of a surprising interaction. (“How are you?” “Good, thanks. How are you?” “Great. Thanks for asking. Have a nice day.”) And then there’s the fact that the vast majority of our interactions are with people we already know, whether it’s family, friends or co-workers. So they probably won’t surprise us, either. The end result is that our social exchanges become tedious and rote. They might be rewarding, but they’re rarely exciting.

Many don’t get it, though. Just like people didn’t get online dating, then Facebook, then Twitter. They didn’t get it. They didn’t get it. And then suddenly, everyone realized they had to get it because if they didn’t, they’d be left behind.

I keep hearing metaphors for what ChatRoulette is like. Speed dating, urban subway ride on your computer, slot machine made of other people. This revolving door of metaphor is part of the not getting it. We’re all trying to get our heads around it. We want to understand what it is and what it means about us but don’t quite know yet.

-Photo by Rodrigo Basaure

Here’s a tip. If you hear a large group of people saying something like “I don’t get it. What’s it for?” you’re probably onto something.

What does the future hold for ChatRoulette?

The future of ChatRoulette will be guided by two things. Will it be monetized? Will it remain anonymous?

Andrey Ternevskiy, the 17 year old creator of ChatRoulette, provides some insight on monetization in an interview with Brad Stone in the New York Times Bits blog.

I think it’s wonderful that I do not have to put a lot of advertisements on my site to keep it running. I am not sure why it is so. Maybe because Google AdSense (the thing I use to show the advertisements) shows links to various video chats. I don’t think this is a bad thing. I actually think it is a good thing, because only people not interested or tired of using my site click those links, to explore other services.

How’s that for pure sentiment in our post modern, advertising media savvy days?

But can ChatRoulette remain alive with such minimal monetization? The ability to make a living doing something you love, be that travel blogging or coding anonymous chat websites, is hugely alluring. If Mr. Ternevskiy doesn’t do it, it’s inevitable that someone else will come along to fill the void.

The Case For Giving Up Anonymity

While the ability to say and do what you want with no strings attached is a beautiful thing, if you don’t know what someone wants, where they live and what they need, it is extremely difficult to market to them, thus making ChatRoulette into a business rather complicated.

Again, Sam Anderson nicely sums up the possibilities:

I found myself fantasizing about a curated version of ChatRoulette—powered maybe by Google’s massive server farms—that would allow users to set all kinds of filters: age, interest, language, location. One afternoon I might choose to be thrown randomly into a pool of English-speaking thirtysomething non-masturbators who like to read poetry. Another night I might want to talk to Jets fans. Another night I might want to just strip away all the filters and see what happens. The site could even keep stats, like YouTube, so you could see the most popular chatters in any given demographic. I could get very happily addicted to a site like that.

The ability to keep stats strips away anonymity. Without it, ChatRoulette becomes a different animal but one with a world of possibility.

“Like what?” you may ask.

Psychoanalysis.
Professional or pop, you can log into a room looking for someone who will listen to your problems and hear you vent. Choose between Freudian, cognitive behavioral, gestalt and eclectic flavors. If you like the person you meet, you can arrange to meet again.

Games.
Here you can play chess, connect with a World of Warcraft buddy or even an entire group for mahjong or bridge. No, I don’t suddenly see a market for college mahjong tournaments, but it sets the stage for older users as well.

Babysitting.
Tired of your child sitting slack jawed and wide eyed while watching the same video over and over and over. Here you can connect with a real person who will occupy your child.

For an fantastic vision of what computer babysitting and education could be, read Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age: A Lady’s Illustrated Primer. (Definitely up there as one of my favorite sci-fi books of all time). We can require sitters to register and login with work history, favorite games, and even police record.

-Photo by Don Hankins

Online Dating.
It doesn’t take much thought to see how ChatRoulette adds another dimension to online dating. Instead of e-mailing for a week, you immediately connect, see if there’s attraction before wasting time with an awkward, man-you-seemed-cool-but-in-real-life-you’re-a-lot-doughier-than-I-expected night on the town.

Art and Entertainment.
Flip between live shows, plays, improv, comedy, and it’s all there just for you, the audience of one or however many happen to be in front of your monitor at the moment. The longer the audience stays with a program, the higher the rating. Highly rated shows, as in any other system, get advertising.

Trivia.
Need an answer to a question? Connect with experts from all over the world on any number of subjects.

Parental Control
Right now, no one monitors you as you wheel through a world of strangers, but what happens the day some 12 year old logs on to watch two naked men in leather beating a third while a fourth jerks off in a corner. Suddenly, lack of responsibility doesn’t seem so funny anymore. And like Google executives who have recently been convicted of privacy violations because of a video uploaded to YouTube of an autistic boy being bullied, someone will be held accountable.

Any of these fit easily into many different potential business models, but once this happens, once we’ve begun to quantify, qualify and find ways to monetize as is natural in the course of internet entropy, we lose the spontaneity and freedom that currently makes ChatRoulette so damn appealing.

Maybe for now, we can relax and just enjoy this little slice of painful, horrifying, rejection with a side of titillation. There’s plenty of time to put order in the chaos.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

What do you see as the future of Chatroulette and other live video chat feeds?

]]> http://matadorlife.com/the-thermodynamic-theory-of-chatroulette/feed/ 12 http://matadorlife.com/how-spray-on-glass-will-revolutionize-the-world/ http://matadorlife.com/how-spray-on-glass-will-revolutionize-the-world/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:52:28 +0000 Candice Walsh http://matadorlife.com/?p=3822 Photo: Ctd 2005

You’re probably skeptical. How could a household product improve our planet? Will it be used as a way to revolutionize Apple products like the iPad, making it waterproof and protected from the outside elements?

The spray hasn’t been released to the public yet, but is currently undergoing some trials. Here’s the low-down.

How It’s Used

-Food processing companies will use the glass for sterilization. The results so far are impressive: surfaces needing to be sterilized with strong bleach require only a hot water rinse once they are coated with the glass. The perfect solution for germaphobes, these surfaces remained sterile for months.

-Hotel chains and train companies are testing the product for cleaning purposes.

-It can be used for kitchens, bathrooms, floors, and just about any other surface.

-The spray can be used on headstones and cemetery monuments to offset weathering and graffiti.

- Because it’s so thin and flexible, you can even spray your clothes with it. Red wine spill? Not a problem. The glass is waterproof, so simply peel and remove.

-Spraying plants and seeds helps to prevent fungal diseases and pest infestation, due to its breathable but protective quality.

-Some research has even proven that the spray helps seeds to germinate and grow quicker, much to the delight of vineyard operators.

Photo: Jill Clardy

What This Means For the Future

Because of its multi-purpose functionality, the spray-on glass will remove virtually any need for household cleaners.

One coat will last a year, thus making it affordable and less wasteful. That means you get to throw out harmful chemicals, ditch the sickly-smelling cleaners and stop spending a ton of cash. Mr. Clean is probably rolling over in his grave right now.

Of course, this seemingly futuristic product raises all kinds of questions. What can’t it coat? Why would you want to cover your clothes in a thin layer of glass? Is this like a more glamorous type of plastic chair covering cleverly disguising someone’s severe aversion to germs?

There’s also no mention of any negative side-effects to be found. What about the long-term consequences? What happens when major cleaning supply companies are forced to close their businesses?

Community Connection

How do you predict nanotechnology to change our future?

Remember those remote-controlled helicopters? The ones that you could control with a remote, and they’d be all fun until you got distracted and steered your expensive aircraft nose-down into the sidewalk?

Enter the incredibly advanced Parrot A.R. Drone, a quadricopter which can be controlled by WiFi from an iPhone and iPod Touch (and possibly soon from Blackberry and other applications). It’s easy to fly, and uses augmented reality to fight other Drones or to play “search and rescue” and hunting games. In other words, it’s just good fun.

The Drone is equipped with two cameras to give the user a view from above, using streaming video to serve as a sort of “real life” video game. It also comes with other fancy do-dads, like two ultrasonic transmitters for stability, a two-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, and another single-axis yaw precision gyroscope to top it all off. I’m not really sure what that all means, but damn, it sounds fancy.

To control the Drone: hit the take-off button so the Drone hovers at three feet, then use the controls to rotate left and right, climb, and then use a button to tilt and fly the quadricopter in any direction.

The Drone can even be used indoors, as it comes equipped with shields around its rotors to allow it to bump against other objects. There’s no word of a release date yet, but expect to pay anywhere from $400 or more.

Community Connection

What would you like your robot to do?

Above photo by tyreseus

Le Trung, artificial intelligence engineer and creator of Project Aiko, brought the work of his lifetime home to meet his parents this past Christmas. Aiko speaks two languages fluently, can recognize 250 faces a second and her silicone skin is touch sensitive.

“If you grab or squeeze her too hard,” Trung tells the Daily Mail, “she will try to slap you.”

Imagine the real life implications of a gynoid robot such as Aiko who can be used for airport security, provide home care for the elderly or be your next uber-office assistant.

Then there’s Roxxxy.

She’s the kind of robot girl you don’t take home to mama.

True Companion, founded by ex-Bell Labs AI engineer, boasts real life dolls intended specifically for sex and like forms of companionship. She can talk and play, but she won’t cook or clean like Aiko.

True Companion’s website tells how Roxxxy was inspired by the loss of a friend in the 2001 World Trade Center destruction.

The initial concept for the current sex robot began with a conversation several years ago. A friend and Douglas Hines were remembering a dear friend who passed away. Douglas thought that it was sad to not be able to ever talk to him again. He said “wouldn’t it be great if I could create a robot with artificial intelligence and have it hold someone’s personality and preferences – this way, we could talk to the robotic version of that person and ask it questions whenever we wanted”? We thought it was a great idea though we both agreed that it would be a very big undertaking.

How they began with the desire to speak to an old friend and ended up with a sex doll is another story I suppose. One not told on the website. In fact, the website seems rather devoid of information or photos in general, so I called their 800 number.

What do you see in the crystal ball?

Douglas Hines happened to answer and we chatted about Roxxy and talked science fiction futures of AI.

Hines sees sex as only one small part of Roxxy’s capabilities. She’s a companion, one who knows you, your desires and can talk in addition to being a simple body with “three inputs.”

Photo by striatic

Thus, Roxxy comes in a variety of flavors, a.k.a. personalities. There’s Frigid Farrah, for those who want a bit of a challenge. Wild Wendy. S&M Susan. Young — a definite eyebrow raiser. And Mature Martha. You customize their personalities to your taste, and can even swap personalities with your friends to use on their own dolls. Partner swapping via software.

All rather tempting options for those who may be too shy, maybe embarrassed to experiment with a human partner or those with sexual dysfunction.

Hines and Trung carry us one small step closer to a future in which we find seamless interaction between humans and robots. My imagination runs wild with questions arriving straight from the pages of sci-fi novels and films.

Suddenly ethics and morals involve themselves. If a robot is so real as to perfectly mimic human interaction, then must we treat it as human? What rules should govern relationships between robotics and robotics? And if software is capable of generating new software is that procreation?

Sounds great, right?

Still, something here feels not quite right. Is it the idea of sex or a romantic interpersonal relationship with what is, in essence, a really smart doll, perhaps allowing people to avoid real human interation? Or perhaps we’re somehow uncomfortable with the idea of humans buying something humanoid to be used only for personal enjoyment?

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

What role do you see robots taking in our future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Photo by World of Warcraft

Alleged drug dealer Alfred Hightower was finally captured in Canada after successfully running from drug charges for the last two years. How was he caught? His World of Warcraft account.

Authorities came across Hightower’s War of Worldcraft connection while investigating his background and subpoened Blizzard Entertainment for Hightower’s personal records. Blizzard played along, giving up Hightower’s information and location. Voila. Criminal in custody.

This isn’t the first time playing games on the internet has helped law enforcement. Xbox helped track a thief. Playstation lead to the arrest of child pornographers.

What does this say for our privacy general? In order to play these games, we have to give up personal information. That information allows us to be measured, tracked and ultmately found. Of course, no one wants thieves, drug dealers and child pornographers running free, but are we comfortable with the limits placed on companies such as Playstation and Blizzard to protect our information?

Perhaps this story also sheds light on how addicting games of this sort can be? I mean, the guy is willing to leave his family, friends, and the life he’d always known in the United States but he wasn’t willing to give up his online gaming? WoW!

Community Connection

What do you think? Is sharing our personal information a good thing, or an invasion of privacy?

Photo by Artotem. Feature by Navicore.

Never mind where you are in the world, the Geminids are worth wandering outside to seek out the perfect star-gazing location. The shower began on December 6, 2009, and will peak on the nights of December 13 and 14, with 120-160 meteors per hour.

The Geminids are the pieces of debris from 3200 Phaethon, an extinct comet which was originally thought to be an asteroid. According to NASA, the Geminids began appearing in the late 19th century, but were not spectacular and did not garner much attention. However, they have intensified over the past few decades, and researchers are eager to see this year’s outcome.

For optimum viewing, watch the skies late Sunday night to early Monday morning. A brilliant shower might be the perfect way to kick off the holidays with some loved ones.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

Looking for the ultimate place to stretch out on your back and observe the sky? Check out the World’s Best Stargazing Destinations.

One of these designed by a 5-year-old The other by 35-year old.

I first heard about Tux Paint — a silly, fun little program — from Wired’s Geekdad blog a few months ago. We downloaded it immediately.

Yes, it’s great for kids.

Cute little penguin mascot. Lots of silly noises. Great features that are all easy enough for even a two year old to use.

The Tux Paint penguin

I suppose they say it’s for children because aside from make stuff, you don’t really do anything with it. Although, as someone who regularly uses and teaches Photoshop and other design and photo-editing software, the logic process used to navigate this program sets the stage for using the more heavy duty photo editing programs.

And it’s fun.

I worked with it a bit so I could teach Lila to use it. Next thing you know, she’s sitting next to me as I’m rubber stamping cherries and distorting them with the bubble filter — known in TuxPaintLand as magic – while she’s begging “Mama, I think it’s my turn now. Can I have a turn?”

What’ll you make when it’s yours?

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

You’ve tried Tux Paint and want to move onto more advanced design software? Check out our Brave New Traveler review of free photo editing software found on the internet.