No, it’s not a reference to spies who can park well. Or something. It’s about electrical smart grids. And how we might get the best out of them. But I think some explanation is in order first - hell, I know I had to do some research before being able to explain it… Firstly, what […]
Technology
All passengers: please remember your space insurance
Excellent stuff, this, and a fitting way of both apologising for my recent absence, and attempting to be sufficiently interesting to lure my readers (who have no doubt wandered) back to the fold. The topic of today’s post? Why space tourism and insurance, of course! Perhaps it’s just me, but space insurance wasn’t something to […]
Introducing a new blog: The Science of Architecture
Interested in architecture? Like sciencey things? Well, we have the blog for you! Ken Collins, one of the directors of lab-works, will be penning a blog, The Science of Architecture, all about architecture from, you guessed it, a science perspective. Topics he’ll be covering range from which wood treatments are best, to how to design […]
Introducing a new blog: The Bright Ideas Challenge
Remember last year’s What’s Your Problem New Zealand competition, won by Resene? Well, Grow Wellington, the regional economic development agency which has been tasked with making greater Wellington internationally competitive, has come up with rather a fun idea. Entitled the Bright Ideas Challenge, the idea is to get Wellingtonians - any and all of them […]
Living with robots - don’t panic
Yes, that was indeed an H2G2* reference. I sneak ‘em in whenever I can… Asimo, by Honda This is just a short post to point you all in the direction of a marvellous little video put together by the makers of Asimo. And various cars and bikes over the years. In it, Honda** talks to […]
Moving disembodied voice aids attention
In driving, that is.(Also, an oops here: I wrote this last week, and forgot to publish it) Two of the prettiest headsets out the there: the Jawbone and the Ripple (click on pics to be taken to websites)Eyal Ophir and his colleagues in Stanford Universi…
The broadband sitrep
I found this awesome infographic on Gizmodo today (click on the picture to make it larger).The data’s been taken from various sources (which are named on the picture), and shows the costs, and speeds, of broadband internet around the world.Of course, a…
The geoengineering debate
Geoengineering. Yes. Likely to spark heated (haha) debate, because if people are uncomfortable with the idea of tweaking living organisms (GM), then people are definitely going to be uncomfortable with slinging giant mirrors into space, and injecting…
Gadgets, Games and Geeks 09: The Future of Innovation, Shatter, Weta and pizza
A couple of days ago (Monday evening, to be exact), I attended GGG09 - Gadgets, Games and Geeks 09 (note: a logo would be a good thing, guys).And yes, it was pretty interesting.The highlight for me was Bill Reichert’s talk, ‘The Future of Innovation: …
Biomimicry and AskNature
Biomimicry is big right now. Or small. Or waterproof. Or able to run at full tilt (haha, considering the angle of activation is 10 degrees) across walls and even ceilings.It’s a fascinating subject, and one of those which, like many great brainwaves…