Pompeii has the best press, but the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD also buried the town of Herculaneum. Charred scrolls were recovered from the town library in 1752, and Italian scientists just discovered it might be possible to use X-ray technology to read them. Their findings were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Read more…
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We Might Finally Be Able to Read Ancient Scrolls Damaged By Vesuvius Eruption
Today, the first of New York City’s public, gigabit wifi hotspots opened to the public. I tried them, so take it from me: They’re insanely fast. How fast? Fast enough that Starbucks’ free internet is about to get killed. Read more…
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NYC’s New Public Wifi Is Obscenely Fast
New York City will definitely not be having a White Christmas, but when winter finally does arrive, sanitation trucks will be hauling some of the city’s snow-melting salt out of this quite beautiful sculpture. Turns out this is also an incredible story about how city buildings can be done right. Read more…
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NYC’s Road Salt Is Being Stored in a Building That Looks Like a Giant Crystal
New York City has plenty of parks that revamp aging transit infrastructure: The High Line transforms a decrepit elevated rail route , the Lowline reclaims forgotten tunnels . But neither of those is as ambitious as the Green Line, a concept that would turn a major street into a linear park. Read more…
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A Totally Feasible Plan to Turn Manhattan’s Busiest Street Into a 40-Block Park
Ibuprofen is an amazingly effective and impressively safe pain killer. Now, researchers have created what they claim to be the first ever ibuprofen patch, that’s able to conform to the skin and provide a steady release of the drug for up to 12 hours. Read more…
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World’s First Ibuprofen Patch Can Relieve Pain for 12 Hours Straight
itwbennett writes: Over the weekend a Dark Web marketplace had 590, 000 Comcast email addresses and passwords for sale, offering the entire list for $1, 000, writes CSO’s Steve Ragan. Saturday evening Ragan contacted Comcast about the accounts being sold online and learned that Comcast had ‘already obtained a copy of the list’ and was checking it against their customer base. ‘Of the 590, 000 records being sold, only about 200, 000 of them were active, ‘ Comcast said. Still unknown is the source of the data being sold online, although signs point to it being recycled. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Comcast Resets Nearly 200,000 Passwords After Customer List Goes On Sale
Even though at least seven autonomous car programs swear they’ll be street-ready by 2020, the truth is that US cities are woefully unprepared for this reality. Only six percent of the US’s largest cities include any language about self-driving vehicles in their long-range transportation plans. Read more…
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Self-Driving Cars Will Be On Roads by 2020 But No US Cities Will Likely Be Ready
Add / Remove Electronic paper signs that run on sunlight consume up to 99 percent less energy than their LCD counterparts, so it was only a matter of time before cities began using the technology to power road signs. The first to do so is Sydney, Australia, whose Road and Maritime Services recently installed Visionect’s e-paper signage across the city. The new eco-friendy wireless signs are connected to the Internet of Things and display changing road information, keeping drivers informed with relevant updates. They are solar powered and therefore 100 percent self-sustainable and not susceptible to problems such as power cuts. They use little power because they only connect to 3G at pre-scheduled ‘wake up’ times, when they receive new information via Visionect’s software. The signs are visible in bright sunlight — the electronic ink used is the same as that used in e-book readers and smart watches. A front panel light triggered by diminishing light levels makes them just as readable at night. What else could e-paper be used for? Website: www.visionect.com Contact: info@visionect.com
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Sydney’s e-paper road signs are smart and energy efficient
IBM has announced that it’s designed a new kind of ultra-dense chip, which squeezes in four times as much computing power as the best silicon currently available. Read more…
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IBM’s New Chip Is Four Times as Powerful as Today’s Best Silicon
