The problem with earthquake -proofing a building is that it usually involves grafting on a lot of support — not really an option with historic buildings or other particularly delicate structures. Komatsu Seiren Fabric Laboratory might have a better way, however. Its carbon fiber-based CABKOMA Strand Rods can protect a building against quakes by tying the roof to the ground, making sure that the whole building moves together — and thus stays together — during a tremor. The fibers are both very strong and very light (you can easily carry a 520-foot strand by yourself), so it’s more like draping spiderwebs over a building than anchors. As you might have gathered just by looking at the photo above, the technology has its limits. It won’t work for tall buildings, or those in dense urban areas where there’s simply no room. This is more for mid-size structures that have plenty of free space. All the same, it might be the key to saving lives in areas where conventional bolts and braces just won’t work. Via: Gizmodo Source: Komatsu Seiren Fabric Laboratory
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Carbon fiber strings protect buildings against earthquakes
_Sharp’r_ writes: Want to fly a jetpack? Join the fire department in Dubai. In a skyscraper filled city where cops drive Ferraris and Lamborghinis, it was actually cheaper to buy twenty $150K jetpacks (plus two simulators) for fire rescue rather than find 2700 ft ladders. Slashdot has had stories about these coming for five years. A VR-headset based jetpack flight-simulator for the masses would be fun, too, even better if the object were to put out fires in skyscrapers.. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
You might not know it from certain conspiracy-minded corners of the Internet or 1990s-era chain emails , but aspartame is one of the most well-studied food additives ever . And yes, it is safe. Pepsi’s decision today to replace aspartame with, oh, another chemical sweetener may be a canny PR move—but it’s really a win for widespread misinformation. Read more… 
minstrelmike writes with this analysis from Nicholas Diakopoulos of the Washington Post: At the core of Uber’s wild success and market valuation of over $41 billion is its data and algorithmically fueled approach to matching supply and demand for cars. It’s classic economics, supposedly….but is Uber’s surge pricing algorithm really doing what they claim? Do surge prices really get more cars on the road? My analysis suggests that rather than motivating a fresh supply of drivers, surge pricing instead re-distributes drivers already on the road. Adds minstrelmike: The writer goes on to analyze 4 weeks of pricing info from 5 areas in D.C. and plotted prices versus wait times. “Price surging can work in any of three ways: by reducing demand for cars (less people want a car for a higher price), by creating new supply (providing an incentive for new drivers to hit the roads), or by shifting supply (drivers) to areas of higher demand.” It moves current drivers from one side of town to the other. It does not put new drivers on the road. It can’t because the prices change every 3-5 minutes.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.