MIT makes a robot with human reflexes
Popular Science, August 7, 2015
HERMES, a new robot by researchers at MIT, is a humanoid robot, steered by a human pilot strapped into a remote-control exoskeleton, with built in reflexes. The robot was designed to perform human-like maneuvers in areas that are hostile to humans.
Breathtaking simulation of a tornado-producing thunderstorm looks amazingly real
Slate’s Future Tense Blog, August 11, 2015
Meteorologists are getting closer to understanding exactly how and why thunderstorms produce tornados, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Enter David Bock, at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois. Bock told Slate he intended to “simulate how light rays move through the atmosphere” while “remaining faithful to the actual data itself”—all with the goal of increasing scientific understanding…
Ohio University migrates student housing system to the Cloud
Campus Technology, August 10, 2015
Ohio University's Residential Housing Department has migrated its student housing system from the campus to the cloud, making it easier for the department to control its own system updates while providing students with an improved user interface…
NYC plans e-book marketplace for schools
GCN, August 10, 2015
The New York City Department of Education has a plan to make e-books available to city’s 1,800 public schools. Under a $30 million contract with Amazon, the city’s e-book marketplace will offer textbooks, along with other books and texts that individual schools select, and make them accessible via smartphones, tablets, PCs and Macs.
Verizon tests Internet technology that’s 10X faster than Google Fiber
NBC News, August 11, 2015
Verizon says it has successfully tested new technology that would allow it to deliver Internet broadband speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second — which is 10 times faster than the speed of Google Fiber. That is pretty fast, considering that Google Fiber is already 100 times faster than the average broadband connection.
