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St. Paul's Cathedral at Dusk, London  

Faraz Tareen posted a photo:

 
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Sunrise 6 Aug 2016  

Sculptor Lil posted a photo:

05:41

 
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r0B0t: Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony In Funny Tweets  

Funny bikes, little plants, Dame Judi Dench and some insanely scary spiders - the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympic opening ceremony was certainly eventful.

Not that you'd have known it from the rather subdued start...

It began with the beginnings of life itself. 

And when evolution kicked in people across the world got a little bit scared. 

Soon, humanity made an appearance. 

All of a sudden suburbia sprang from the ground. 

There were high hopes of who could make a guest appearance. 

He must have been disappointed because this happened. 

But then the dancing started! 

But at least the sound quality was good. 

In fact Limmy appeared to be even more pissed off than usual at the whole thing. 

But someone seemed to be enjoying it. 

Then there was a touching section on pollution and the climate narrated by none other than Dame Judi Dench. 

We were only an hour in and it was already proving divisive.

 

And there was the small matter of when teams would appear in the arena considering Portuguese spelling mixed things up a bit.

And in the UK it was already getting late. 

AND THEN THE TEAMS ARRIVED!!! 

It soon became apparent the commentators were engaged in some kind of fact-off competition with each other. 

There were a few unexpected entrances. 

By now people were tired and realising waiting for all those teams to make an entrance was going to take a long time. 

Then we got to “M”.

Meanwhile in London... 

But at least we had things like this to keep us entertained.

Oh, and those bikes... 

Then for some reason - can't think why - everyone went a bit la la over the Tongan flag bearer. 

 

Then things took a turn for the weird when it transpired the actual CIA were getting involved. 

 

Of corse what we were all waiting for was the entry of Team GB and whether or not flag bearer Andy Murray was going to carry on with Brit tradition and carry it one-handed, because apparently that's a thing.

Then it was time for the unveiling of the rings. 

The honour of lighting the Olympic flame went to... 

But at least it looked pretty. 

Anyway, that was about it.

Wasn't as good as London 2012 though...

 
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r0B0t: Pete McMartin: Modern Love The Hard Drive Wants what the Hard Drive Wants - Vancouver Sun  

Vancouver Sun

Pete McMartin: Modern Love The Hard Drive Wants what the Hard Drive Wants Vancouver Sun In 2015, he created Tinderbox, a computerized robot app of Tinder that could learn which attributes the user found attractive — in effect, editing Tinder for his best selections. It proved so popular that by the start of this year, he came up ...

 
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Lasers reconfigure the properties of novel metasurface  
Switchable material can block or transmit particular wavelengths of light  
science  

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r0B0t: Google executive quits self-driving car project - Daily Mail  

New York Times

Google executive quits self-driving car project Daily Mail Aug 5 (Reuters) - Chris Urmson, who was instrumental in building Google's self-driving car project, said on Friday he is leaving the team after seven and a half years. Alphabet Inc's Google had named Urmson chief technical officer of the project after ... Technology|Latest to Quit Google's Self-Driving Car Unit: Top RoboticistNew York Times Google's Self-Driving Car Leader ExitsWall Street Journal Google autonomous car team leader Chris Urmson is leavingFast Company TechCrunch -Recode -Bloomberg -Business Insider all 19 news articles »

 
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r0B0t: The World's First Industrial Tattoo Robot Looks Like A Really Fancy Torture Device  
Pierre-Emmanuel Meunier and Johan da Silveira from Autodesk's Pier 9 created this tattoo robot using the principles of 3D printing. But unlike the 3D printer, this involves a lot of pain.  
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r0B0t: Project Murphy Is Microsoft's Latest Artificial Intelligence Robot, And It Wants To Photoshop Pictures For You - Huffington Post UK  

Huffington Post UK

Project Murphy Is Microsoft's Latest Artificial Intelligence Robot, And It Wants To Photoshop Pictures For You Huffington Post UK Microsoft's recent Artificial Intelligence robot Tay didn't exactly make headlines for the right reasons, after Twitter users somehow managed to trick it into becoming a Nazi. But the computer giant is probably hoping their latest venture will steer ...

 
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r0B0t: Dogs as Model for Emotional Expression by Robots - The Bark (blog)  

The Bark (blog)

Dogs as Model for Emotional Expression by Robots The Bark (blog) The emotions expressed by the dog and by the robot were fear, joy, anger, sadness and neutral (no emotion). Both the dog ... Future work will explore ways that dogs (and perhaps other mammals) can serve as models for combining functionality with sociality.

 
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r0B0t: New Robot Doesn't Need Humans to Control it - Newsweek  

Newsweek

New Robot Doesn't Need Humans to Control it Newsweek artificial intelligence alter robot japan An android named 'Alter,' developed by researchers at Tokyo University and Osaka University, at a press preview, Tokyo, July 29. The android can move its head, eyes, mouth, body and hands thanks to a neural ... and more »

 
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r0B0t: Can Artificial intelligence, Robots, Humanoids learn ethics and morales? Tulsa Technology Time - Daily Star Gazette  

Daily Star Gazette

Can Artificial intelligence, Robots, Humanoids learn ethics and morales? Tulsa Technology Time Daily Star Gazette Researchers at Georgia Tech believes Robots can learn to conform to human norms, the paper argues, through a method called “Quixote”, which teaches artificial agents to read stories that demonstrate human values and then rewards them for “good” ...

 
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Blogumentary: Giving Voice to Survivors from Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima.  

Hiroshima  Today, with some distance of time and perspective, we can think about Hiroshima with a more balanced compassion than a few decades ago. It has become possible to reflect on not only the justification for the first dropping of an atomic bomb on a populated city, but also on how that impacted the many thousands of people caught up in the blast and its aftermath.

It was a bombing American hearts decided was justified; but which minds have largely disconnected from in terms of consequences for humanity. This was evident when the current Republican candidate for President allegedly questioned why we don't use our nuclear weapons for a third time.

Next January, either Donald J. Trump or Hillary Rodham Clinton will receive the nuclear football from President Obama. Either one of seemingly the two most controversial people in modern U.S. political history is going be in charge of our nuclear codes, a certain outcome of this election we should be most concerned about.

Seventy-one years ago my grandfather Jacob Beser was flying in the back of a B-29 listening to the radio. He wasn't listening to Beyonce—He was listening to frequency. He was monitoring a device that was going to end the war. This is what he trained for. This is what he knew and was prepared to die for. If anything went wrong, he was told to eat the device's frequency code, written on a small piece of paper.

None of that was necessary. He did his job right, and he saw what men were capable of. He saw it twice, over Nagasaki too, and he never expressed guilt about it. But he, like the rest of America, disconnected from the reality of the human suffering 32,000 feet below. He, like the majority of his countrymen felt, it was necessary.

When my grandfather looked out the window, he likened the mushroom cloud to sand in the water, the way it billows along the shoreline in the tide. He couldn't connect with the children in the streets or the people as they packed in train cars on their way to work. He couldn't connect to the horrors they would witness and live with for the rest of their lives.

Can we make those connections, America? Can we stop saying “What about Pearl Harbor,” long enough to look at what World War II brought humanity to accomplish? Can we ask ourselves, “what will it take to bring us there again?”

I am not asking for a justification. I am not asking for an apology. I am asking that we listen to the stories of the atomic bomb survivors as a testimony to the evils of nuclear war.

Today I invite you to my Facebook community, Hibakusha: The Nuclear Family, where you can learn about what it was like under the mushroom clouds. I've called it a Blogumentary. It is an interactive online documentary that begs you to remember what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What happened to them could happen to us. Listen to their words, not as Japanese, and not as Americans, but as people.

Ari M. Beser is the grandson of Lt. Jacob Beser, the only U.S. serviceman aboard both bomb-carrying B-29s. He is traveling through Japan with the Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship to report on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the fifth anniversary of the Great East Japan earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima. Beser will give voice to people directly affected by nuclear technology today, as well as work with Japanese and Americans to encourage a message of reconciliation and nuclear disarmament. His new book, The Nuclear Family, focuses on the American and Japanese perspectives of the atomic bombings.

 
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Sunset and Crepuscular Rays 5 Aug 2016  

Sculptor Lil posted a photo:

 
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Sunset 5/8/16  

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Sunset 5/8/16  

Nick-Weedon posted a photo:

 
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Chiswick Bridge  

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Barns  

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Sunset on Twickenham Bridge  

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Innovative Technologies for Reducing Food Waste  
Innovative technologies and best practices that are cost-effective for small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and small agri-businesses for reducing food waste along the value chain include improved packaging, cold chain management, 100% utilization, and secondary uses for foods that for some reason do not enter the traditional marketing pathways (Kitinoja 2016).

Improved packaging is big business, but many of the innovative packaging systems developed for large scale agriculture have been successfully adapted or modified for use by smallholders. These include modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) for fruits, the use of very thin, vented polyethylene produce bags for reducing water loss in fruits and vegetables, smart packaging, and small PICS bags (triple layer hermetically sealed plastic bags) for pesticide free home storage of grains and dry beans. PICS bags prevent moisture, air and light from damaging the stored foods and kills insects when the oxygen concentration falls below a threshold percentage in the sealed package.

Food Magazine (2015) described a few of these innovations: "The terms active packaging and smart packaging refer to packaging systems used with foods, pharmaceuticals, and several other types of products. They help extend shelf life, monitor freshness, display information on quality, improve safety, and improve convenience. More recently this has been updated to include intelligent functions (sensing, detecting, recording, tracing, communicating and applying scientific logic) in order to extend shelf life, enhance safety, improve quality, provide information and warn about possible issues."

Cold chain management is a complex topic, but there are many small-scale methods and simple cooling/cold storage equipment that can be used by retailers and home use to reduce food waste. Use of a low cost Zero Energy Cool Chamber (ZECC) on the farm or at home for temporary storage of perishable foods, using a CoolBot™ equipped cold room for food storage in a restaurant or retail shop, and using ice in retail displays can all help to reduce food waste. Recent literature reviews on the cold chain were undertaken by The Postharvest Education Foundation and IMechE, and provide many examples of cost effective practices (IMechE 2014; PEF 2013). Learning how best to use a home refrigerator seems like a simple issue that does not require a lot of thought, but misuse can greatly increase food waste and may create food safety problems.

Way back in the 1980s Dr. S. K. Roy (the inventor of the ZECC) began promoting "100% utilization" of perishable foods produced in India. He developed many systems for using the portions of the plants that were typically discarded, including using the leaf trimmings of cauliflower to make high quality green vegetable powder, bottling a whole tomato concentrate, and drying overripe mangoes to make nutritious and low cost fruit powders, fruit roll-ups and confectionary products. Postharvest training teams based at Amity University in Uttar Pradesh worked with the World Food Logistics organization on cost/benefit analyses and field trials during 2009-10 and are currently disseminating many of these food processing practices in many rural communities in India (Raman and Dubey, 2014).

Secondary, non-food uses for foods that are discarded during harvest, postharvest handling, processing or distribution include bio-gas production, animal feeds or composting. The technologies used in each of these fields are relatively simple and can be implemented on an individual, group or community scale as desired.

This blog post is based on a major review article on food loss and waste issues prepared for the Brookings Institution's Ending Rural Hunger Project. For further information you can read the original review article and cited reports.


This post is part of our "Reclaim" initiative, which showcases solutions to the issue of food waste and engages our readers to take action. You can find all the posts in this initiative, as well as feature pieces, investigative stories and video, here . Follow the initiative on Twitter at #Reclaim. And if you'd like to add your own thoughts to our series, sign up https://us.blog.huffpost.net/cms/signup for a HuffPost blog account.


Citations

Food Magazine (2015). http://www.foodmag.com.au/features/controlling-food-losses-through-better-packaging

IMechE 2013. Global food: waste not, want not. Jan 2013

Kitinoja, Lisa. 2016. "Innovative Approaches to Food Loss and Waste Issues," Frontier Issues Brief for the Brookings Institution's Ending Rural Hunger project.

PEF 2013. Use of cold chains for reducing food losses in developing countries. White Paper No. 13-03. (December 2013). La Pine, Oregon USA: The Postharvest Education Foundation. 16pp

Raman, N.L.M. and N. Dubey (2014). Panchayat and Economic empowerment of rural women by hands on Training. American International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, 5(2), December 2013-February 2014, pp. 249-252.

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Wake Up: These Unneeded Instruments Can Wreck Mass Destruction  
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has recently advanced a clean energy plan which mandates that New York transition half of its energy needs to renewables by 2030. By regressive contrast, New York's Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved enormous subsidies for three aging nuclear power plants―Ginna, Nine Mile Point and FitzPatrick―located in Upstate New York. Estimates of the costs of these subsidies range from $59 million to $658 million by 2023, with specialists such as Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group predicting that costs could grow to $8 billion. New York consumers will be covering the tab via their utility bills.

Ginna and Nine Mile Point are owned by the Exelon Corporation, and Exelon has plans to purchase the FitzPatrick plant. You can be sure that Exelon is frothing at the mouth for this huge bailout that was approved without adequate public scrutiny. Approval of this plan gives New York State the not-so-honorable distinction of being one of the first states to bailout the aging nuclear industry in our increasingly green energy age. The long-coddled nuclear industry is hoping that other states will follow suit.

Unfortunately, subsidizing the nuclear industry in the United States is nothing new. Since the first nuclear plants opened back in the 1950's, taxpayers have assumed nearly all of the financial risk. One of the most telling warning signs about the real cost of investing in nuclear power is that fact that Wall Street will not finance the construction of a nuclear plant without a full loan guarantee from the U.S. government. The reason for such caution by financial wheelers and dealers is the long history of delays, cost overruns and reactors that never came online. Whether the plants open or not, obeisant politicians pass many of the nuclear boondoggle costs to the taxpayers.

Atomic energy is also uninsurable in the private insurance market. Under the Price-Anderson Act of 1957, taxpayers must cover almost all of the costs if a catastrophic nuclear accident should occur. Think of the devastation caused by Chernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island. Three Mile Island, which experienced only a partial meltdown in 1979, cost approximately $1 billion to clean up.

The case to preserve the New York nuclear power plants is that they are an "emissions-free power source." There are, however, much better, more affordable and safer low carbon options that would replace the need for nuclear energy in New York. These options were not even discussed or evaluated. A more sensible approach would have been for the PSC to present some alternative scenarios, so that citizen taxpayers could compare the risk and costs of a massive nuclear bailout against significant investments in other energy-generating options like wind and solar, in addition to energy conservation measures.

Consider the absurdity of the complex and expensive nuclear fuel cycle itself. It begins with uranium mining which produces radioactive tailings and dust, followed by the fabrication and refinement of fuel rods, the risky transport of these rods to the plant where they are installed, and then firing up the reactor so it goes critical with a huge amount of radioactivity. The end goal? To boil water to generate steam to turn turbines to produce electricity!

What other method of boiling water has to have specific population evacuation plans?

There is also the significant problem of spent fuel rods which are stored in pools at nuclear plants. No permanent storage sites exist for these deadly radioactive wastes, which pose national security risks, and which must be kept for thousands of years.

It's notable to point out that the Indian Point nuclear plants in New York, which are located near an earthquake fault just thirty miles from Manhattan, were excluded from the PSC proposal. Even cautious Governor Cuomo and Hillary Clinton, when she was a Senator, have acknowledged the imminent danger that Indian Point poses to the Greater New York City area and urged its closing. The 5 PM rush hour in New York's metropolitan area is bad enough without adding the chaos of a panicked mass evacuation of millions of people.

So what about those who live within the fallout zone of these three upstate plants that will be the recipients of billions of dollars of taxpayer money? Why is Governor Cuomo trying to close Indian Point while saving these other plants? One explanation could be right out of the classic nuclear industry handbook―hold the state hostage by threatening that the lights will go out if they don't pony up.

The public was given just 14 days to comment on the bailout proposal. Despite pushback from anti-nuclear activists, the nuclear industry prevailed. Is two weeks enough time for a thorough public debate on the merits of bailing out the costly, risky, dirty nuclear power industry? Shame on the indentured PSC and Governor Cuomo!

Rather than prop up deteriorating nuclear plants with a huge hand out, New York officials should be focused on phasing out nuclear energy entirely. Nuclear power has been proven many times over to be unnecessary, uneconomic, uninsurable, unevacuable, unsafe and unfit for use in the unstable modern world.

New Yorkers―don't take this lying down. Write and call Governor Cuomo's office and tell them that you oppose the PSC's huge bailout to the nuclear industry. And, we hope that some citizen groups will challenge the decision in state court.

Have you seen the print, TV and radio ads touting atomic energy by the Nuclear Energy Institute? Its top executives and the CEOs of the nuclear energy corporations have not been willing to debate publically the assertions in these ads about cost, subsidies, evacuation, risk, alternatives and climate change. I'm confident that Peter Bradford, former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and former chairman of the New York PSC would agree to a debate in a neutral forum such as the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. So too would Amory Lovins, physicist, author and energy consultant to agencies from electric utility companies to the Pentagon.

Can you, readers, demand that the Nuclear Energy Institute open themselves up to informed debate? After all, they represent big corporate welfare kings that have taken taxpayers for a ride of hundreds of billions of dollars for the last sixty years. They owe you!

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Marcia G. Yerman: Is Your State Attorney General Undermining America's Clean Power Plan?  
The surreptitious collusion between energy companies and specific state Attorneys General becomes crystal clear when looking at contribution supporters of Attorneys General who are part of the lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan.

Read more: Environment, Clean Power Plan, State Attorneys General, Kochs, William F. Whitsitt, Devon Energy Corporation, Oipa, Election-Contributions, Politics News

 
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The Mystery Of Why Sunflowers Turn To Follow The Sun — Solved  

Scientists have answered a burning question central to the charm of sunflowers: Why do young flowers move their blooms to always face the sun over the course of a day?

 
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r0B0t: Private Companies.....IN SPACE  
Florida Company Gets Approval to Put Robotic Lander on Moon. Moon Express, a small startup based in Florida, is the first private enterprise to receive approval to land on a celestial body. If successful, such a feat would win the Google Lunar X Prize.

Of course, challenges remain.

Moon Express has a ways to go before it can reach the lunar surface, which it hopes to do next year. It still has to assemble the lander. The rocket that it plans to launch on has yet to fly even once.

Reuters:

The spacecraft will carry a number of science experiments and some commercial cargo on its one-way trip to the lunar surface, including cremated human remains, and will beam back pictures and video to Earth, the company said.

 
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This Week's Most Popular Posts: July 29th to August 5th  

This week Microsoft delivered a big update to Windows 10 and we explored all the cool new features. We also tried upgrading ourselves with nootropic “smart” drugs, compared the two presidential candidates' cybersecurity platforms, talked with author Mary Roach, and more. Here's a look back.

All the Coolest Features of Windows 10's Anniversary Update

Microsoft's first big feature update for Windows 10, the Anniversary Update, is out today. With it comes a smarter Cortana, better multiple desktop tools, and tweaks that fix annoyances we've hated since Windows 10 launched.

How Effective Are Nootropics and “Smart” Drugs?

Imagine a pill you can take to speed up your thought processes, boost your memory, and make you more productive. If it sounds like the ultimate life hack, you're not alone. There are pills that promise that out there, but whether they work is complicated. Here are the most popular cognitive enhancers available, and what science actually says about them.

Which Form of Two-Factor Authentication Should I Use?

Two-factor authentication is one of the most important ways to protect your accounts. However, recently some authentication methods like SMS have come under fire for being vulnerable to hackers, which defeats the point of “something you know and something you have.” We decided to look at the most common methods and rank them by how secure they really are.

I'm Mary Roach, and This Is How I Work

Mary Roach wants to you to be uncomfortable, but intrigued. Her books examine the unexpected, curious minutiae of managing the human body and the science of how we deal with our own limitations.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's Cybersecurity Platforms, Compared

Every day it seems like there's another hack, password theft, or leak. Both government agencies and private companies are regularly attacked, by intruders just looking for sensitive data to sell, or foreign actors looking for valuable information. That alone is reason enough for a Presidential candidate to at least have an educated, informed cybersecurity policy. Let's take a look at their platforms to see if they do.

How to Run a Tabletop Game with Friends Around the World In Three Easy Steps

Sitting around a table with good friends is the best way to play tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, but that's not always an option. If your friends have moved away, live overseas, or don't want to brave the traffic, there's plenty of ways to make game night happen no matter where your group is located.

Poke Radar Still Works Great, and Now Has a Webapp and Android App

If you've been playing a lot of Pokémon Go, you're probably tired of catching the same ol' pokémon in your neighborhood. The Poke Radar map and iPhone app help you find the rest of them so you can complete your collection.

How I Manage My Income as a Freelancer

It's hard enough to manage your money on a steady, regular income. When your income varies from month to month as someone who's freelancing or self-employed, keeping your finances organized is even more of a pain. From my experience, you need a system. Set it up once, and it protects you forever. Here's the system I use.

Sunscreen Showdown: Creams vs. Sprays

Sunscreen is sunscreen, so you'd think the way you apply it doesn't really matter, but choosing between cream or lotion and a spray-on sunscreen can impact the likelihood you'll use it, the amount of coverage on your skin, and even the actual protection you get. Let's find out which might be better for you in this sunscreen showdown.

Top 10 Ways to Bring a Garden into Your Small Space

If you want to add a little green to your home—whether it's green for nature's sake or green because you like the idea of growing food—you don't need a lot of space to do it. Here are some suggestions to add a little plant life to your home or office, no matter what size it is.

You Can Still Get Windows 10 For Free If You Use Assistive Technologies

Microsoft's free Windows 10 upgrade offer officially ended yesterday. However, the company has left a loophole. If you need to use assistive technologies, you can still upgrade for free. Microsoft also isn't verifying if you do.

The Best Exercise Equipment for Your Dorm Room

If you live in a small space, you may think your at-home exercise options are limited to no-equipment, mostly bodyweight workouts. However, a suspension system or a couple of dumbbells can open the door to tons of new exercises without taking up a ton of space or stretching your student budget.

Spiral-Cut Pool Noodles Make Great All-Purpose Cushions

Have some extra pool noodles around? This video is chock-full of great pool noodle tricks, including a way to spiral-cut them into padding you can wrap around almost anything.

Two Walking Tips Every Pokémon Go Trainer Needs to Know

Even if you're no longer a novice trainer, there's still plenty you may not know about Pokémon Go and how it works. When it comes to using Incense and hatching eggs, the way you walk makes a huge difference.

 
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IBM makes randomly spiking neurons using phase-change - Electronics Weekly  

Electronics Weekly

IBM makes randomly spiking neurons using phase-change Electronics Weekly IBM scientists in Zurich have created randomly spiking neurons using phase-change materials to store and process data. Recommended Articles. IBM DLD chip · IBM micro-machine separates bio-particles for disease detection · IBM 5 qubit computer with ... Scientists discover a way to make crystals act like neuronsiNews IBM Scientists Create Artificial Neurons for Cognitive ComputingCDA News IBM Research Develops The World's First Artificial NeuronsScience World Report Benzinga -scitech nation (press release) (blog) all 8 news articles »

 
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