Insulting in Russian no Longer Possible

One of the last remaining hurdles for the human race to come together as one is the language barrier. Although most educated people know two languages (english is almost a requirement if you are going to use the Internet), talking to someone that doesn't understand your language is still a pie-in-the-sky dream. Well, not according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. Together with German scientists, they have put together a system of electrodes (attached to your cheeks, neck, and throat) that, when connected to a sophisticated computer program, translates whatever you are saying into other languages almost instantaneously. So you could go to Poland, connect the electrodes, plug them in to a handheld computer with speakers, and speak in english to that cute polish college student. The computer speaker will play what you are saying in Polish, to the astonishment of the girl and your travelmates. The researchers say that it will be at least 10 years before the technology sees production, but the Tower of Babel has strated to inexorably crumble. Full article from Slashdot here.

With 11 electrodes attached to his face, Stan Jou mouths Mandarin Chinese and it is translated into English. By Philip G. Pavely, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review via AP

Boing Boing

Added a link to Boing Boing to my 'Daily Schedule' list. They are up there in terms of popularity and interesting articles.

Making Dishes On Demand

What happens when you are hosting a dinner party for 8 people and 3 extra guests arrive unexpectedly? Well, you can either rush out to buy more plates, seat the 3 guests in the kitchen and give them paper plates, or have your cabinet-mounted machine make more plates. I choose the latter, mostly because it is so damn cool. From the article over at Wired.com

"MIT Media Lab's Counter Intelligence Group, which develops innovative kitchen designs, has created a machine that makes dishes on demand and recycles them after diners have finished a meal. The dishes are made from food-grade, nontoxic acrylic wafers, which are shaped into cups, bowls and plates when heated, then resume their original wafer shape when they are reheated and pressed... The prototype DishMaker is the size of a standard dishwasher, and uses the heating element of a toaster oven to shape the items. To recycle the dishes, it heats them to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit to soften the acrylic, then a press restores them to wafers for easy stacking."

So basically, you never have to worry about broken plates, dirty plates, or missing plates ever again. Of course, some people will still want to have nice ceramic pieces for when the in-laws come to visit, but for everything else people can use these babies.

Hi, My Name is Bob, and I'm an Addict

Addiction is not pretty. I mean, listen to what this guy had to say

"A month or two after I started surfing the internet, I failed some of my school tests, but I was too afraid to tell my parents. When my father found out, he was very angry.

"But I couldn't control my addiction. Friends were also telling me that I was on the net too long, but I thought: 'It's my life, I can do what I want.' I became a real loner, was withdrawn, and wouldn't listen to anyone."

Yes, you read that correctly. He is addicted to the Internet. Well, he is in luck because he a) is Chinese and b) lives in China. That means that he can go to the brand-new Internet Addiction Clinics and get treatment for his 'horrible' problem.

Dr Tao Ran, head of the clinic, said the scale of the problem in China was enormous:

"Every day in China, more than 20 million youngsters go online to play games and hit the chat rooms, and that means that internet addiction among young people is becoming a major issue here.

"And it's only recently that the authorities have started to wake up to the seriousness of the problem with more articles in the papers highlighting the dangers of going online for too long," he said.

So be careful guys. D.A.R.E. to stay off drugs, and the internet.

The Return of Electro-boy

A man wearing a woolen shirt and a synthetic nylon jacket built up so much static energy from his clothes rubbing together that he ignited the carpet of his office building. The co-workers, smelling something burning, called the firefighters, which then turned off electricity to the building thinking it was a power surge. In fact, the man, Frank Clewer, actually noticed when he saw that he had melted a plastic part inside his car. When the firefighters measured the jacket, a current of 40,000 volts registered. It happens to be awfully close to the point where spontaneous combustion can occur.

From the article: "'There were several scorch marks in the carpet, and we could hear a cracking noise -- a bit like a whip -- both inside and outside the building,' said fire official Henry Barton."

I think that many so-called 'superheros' are just iterations of situations like this one. This guy could have painted his jacket bright green and his pants yellow and gone around 'fighting crime and evil guys' by discharging 40,000 volts at them.