China to fight pollution with smog cleaning drones

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China has a real problem on its hands. On a bad day in Beijing, visibility can be measured in tens of yards.

China declared a “war on pollution” this week, and is now fortifying its arsenal with a new weapon: smog-clearing drones. The drones work by shooting chemicals into the air, freezing pollutants and making them fall to the ground, according to state media. The unmanned vehicles currently carry about 176 pounds of haze-scrubbing chemicals, while future versions will hold more than 1,500 pounds.

Will this work?

Apple’s view of the future from 1995. Here’s what they got right

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[VIDEO] Interesting find.

In 1995, Apple was looking at the world ahead and released a promotional video to educators laying out its vision for how students would be learning one day. It’s been 19 years since this video was produced and some of its predictions have become everyday realities. Here’s what Apple got right about the future, even if they weren’t the company to bring the changes about in some cases.

Watch the video, then read the article.

John S. Chen, BlackBerry, and Steve Jobs

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BlackBerry CEO John S. Chen, in an interview with the New York Times Bits blog, talks future plans and compares his situation to that of the return of Steve Jobs.

25 iconic historical documents for sale

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There are documents from Gandhi, Darwin, George Washington, Napoleon, Einstein, Churchill, and many more. Click on a document and you can zoom in, get a really high resolution look at some amazing bits of history.

Teleporter

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This site will teleport you around the globe, always to a picturesque spot. Click the Teleport button to make the next jump, click Map to switch to a zoomable map view so you can learn where you are. Much fun.

What to do in Canada

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[VIDEO] A supercut of all the things James O’Malley did when he visited Canada.

What, no poutine?

The lost short film George Lucas commissioned for Empire Strikes Back

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The title of the linked article is The Lost Star Wars Movie, but I think that’s a little misleading. This isn’t about any of the Star Wars worlds or characters. Nonetheless, it’s a very interesting read and certainly does have a connection to the making of Star Wars and, most closely, to George Lucas.

Incredibly fun text-to-speech demo

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Click the headline link and give this demo a try. There’s something about having an avatar, and the quality of the voices are great. Remember, no curse words. Oh, OK, go ahead. So much fun!

How to create a data recovery external drive

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We’ve all had that sinking feeling when we realize we might just have lost all our precious data.

I knew something was wrong when I booted my 2012 MacBook Pro, walked away to get coffee and returned to find the computer had turned off. When I booted again, the grey screen appeared and the MacBook Pro booted part way before powering down. An attempt to boot into Safe Mode revealed that the CPU was halting, killing the processes, then shutting down.

If you own a Mac, there’s certainly a good chance this will happen to you someday. Read the post, and don’t forget to do a backup. Apple really makes it all so very easy.

Apple TV Updated with Revamped Channel for this week’s iTunes Festival at SXSW

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In preparation for this week’s iTunes Festival at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2014, Apple has expanded its Apple TV lineup to include a revamped iTunes Festival channel that allows users to live stream the concert’s shows as well as view lineups and artist information.

The channel showcases artists who will be performing at the festival such as Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay, and Keith Urban, complete with artist bios and concert showtimes. Direct iTunes links to artist albums are featured as well, along with full details on opening acts.

Nice.

The moment when you realize they know the words

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[VIDEO] There is a moment in this video, a very emotional and poignant moment, when this singer becomes aware that the audience knows the words to her song. It’s a subtle thing, almost like a loss of innocence. I found it beautiful and rare.

New way of doing subtraction making its way around the net

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This is real. If you’ve got kids, there’s a chance they might learn a completely different way of doing math than the way you were taught. Love it or hate it, there’s no question this is an interesting and logical way to solve a subtraction problem.

Samsung files appeal against first patent trial verdict

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With surprising speed, Samsung has now officially filed a notice of appeal over the final judgement in the first Apple vs. Samsung patent trial from 2012. The last ruling in the case was handed down yesterday, when Judge Lucy Koh ruled in Samsung’s favor that sales injunctions on the products it was found guilty of infringing Apple patents with were not warranted in the interests of competition. Apple is likely to appeal that portion of Judge Koh’s rulings.

In the original trial (and the limited damages retrial), none of Samsung’s original counter-claims against Apple were given the time of day by the two juries in the case; all were dismissed due to prior art, while Apple won judgements against Samsung to the tune of nearly $1 billion in penalties against the Korean electronics firm (originally Apple was awarded just over $1.05 billion, but a portion of the damages was re-calculated in a juried damages retrial, with the result being $929 million instead).

Will this never end?

How to tell a real diamond from a fake

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I don’t tend to run into this problem a lot, but if you’ve ever wondered how to tell the difference between a real diamond and a chunk of cubic zirconium, give this a read.

Man loses bet and his friends change his name. Legally.

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One unfortunate New Zealander found out the hard way after losing a bet which involved his friends choosing him a new name if he lost.

His new name:

Full Metal Havok More Sexy N Intelligent Than Spock And All The Superheroes Combined With Frostnova

If this is true, I can’t imagine the hell he’ll have to go through now. Wow. Nice friends.

Meet Chris Anderson, the head curator of TED Talks

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Ever wonder what TED stands for? Who decides what TED Talks to accept? Well wonder no more.

What began somewhat modestly in 1984 when the architect and designer Richard Saul Wurman summoned 300 friends and colleagues to Monterey, Calif., to discuss Technology, Entertainment and Design, now has more angles to it than a Mandelbrot set. Part of Mr. Anderson’s nonprofit Sapling Foundation, the organization has two annual conferences (this month’s includes 1,200 attendees from 42 countries), the free online collection of more than 1,600 TED Talks viewed nearly two billion times, a $100,000 TED Prize, a TED Fellows program and global education initiative, TED digital books, the TED Radio Hour and thousands of TEDx events in more than 150 countries (talks are translated into more than 104 languages).

Great article.

Daylight saving time tonight

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For those who are subjugated to this madness, don’t forget to move your clocks ahead one hour (from 2a to 3a, for example) tonight.

You can read about daylight saving time here.

The case for Apple to buy Nintendo

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This case has been made before, but this article does a good job of analyzing all the moving pieces.

In my view, access to the Nintendo game catalog on iOS would strike a major blow to Samsung. Having Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, and their many friends exclusively tied to iOS would likely provide the most significant point of software differentiation between the two rivals.

[Via a free reg-wall]