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8 September 2010, 9:16 am |
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hedwig jnhnao [ mail: hedwig.jnhnao[at]bongfaschist.com | homepage: hedwig.bongfaschist.com ]
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Inventing to Survive in Cuba |
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In 1991, Cuba’s economy began to implode. “The Special Period in the Time of Peace” was the government’s euphemism for what was a culmination of 30 years worth of isolation. It began in the 60s, with engineers leaving Cuba for the Unites States, and continues in part today, under the longest trade embargo in modern history.
When Ernesto Oroza, a Cuban-American designer and artist, began studying the technological innovations that have been made during this period, he uncovered a trove of homespun, Frankenstein-like machines that ordinary citizens made for their survival, out of day to day objects.


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7 September 2010, 2:23 pm |
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waltraud dfloa [ mail: waltraud.dfloa[at]bongfaschist.com | homepage: waltraud.bongfaschist.com ]
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Google Scribe |
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Google launched a very interesting tool that offers suggestions as you type: Google Scribe. It's not exactly the service I anticipated 3 years ago, but Google Scribe works surprisingly well. For example, I started to type "This works sur" and Google suggested "This works surprisingly well", which is exactly what I wanted to type. Instead of typing 14 characters, I could only type "1" or press Enter to select the first suggestion. "Google Scribe provides text completion service. Using information from what you have already typed in a document, Google Scribe provides related word or phrase completion suggestions. In addition to saving keystrokes, Google Scribe's suggestions indicate correct or popular phrases to use," explains Google.The nice thing about this service is that you don't need to use Google's editor. You can add a bookmarklet to your browser and use Google Scribe in Gmail, Blogger, Google Docs or on any web page that includes text fields.Google Scribe only works for English right now, but I'm sure that Google will add many other languages in the future. If you don't like to see suggestions for all the words you type, enable the on-demand mode (Ctrl+Shift+J) and you'll only see suggestions when you press Tab.


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7 September 2010, 1:22 pm |
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olaf ichehnri [ mail: olaf.ichehnri[at]streng-katholisch.de | homepage: olaf.streng-katholisch.de ]
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Retro Car Goes From Canada to Mexico On a Single Tank |
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Energy efficiency has only recently become a popular concern among vehicle owners, but some people have been thinking about it for a long, long time. Craig Henderson and Bill Green designed the Avion, a fuel-efficient sports car, in 1984. Two years later, the vehicle set the Guinness World Record for fuel economy, getting an average of 103.7 mpg all the way from the Mexico border to the British Columbia, Canada,
border. Now Henderson has revived the Avion for another jaunt from Canada to Mexico.The latest iteration of the vehicle is just 1500 pounds and features an aluminum monocoque frame, a carbon fiber, kevlar and fiberglass body, and Goodyear "Fuel Max" tires. After receiving a sponsorship deal from Goodyear, Henderson decided to go from border to border once again--this time, on a single tank of gas. Jalopnik reports that Henderson began his latest journey on August 29th. He stopped only to go to the bathroom, grab food, and catch a night's rest. The result: Henderson burned only 12.4 gallons on his journey to the Mexican border for a fuel economy of 119.1 mpg, breaking his own Guinness World Record from 1986. (He drove at a pretty constant 55 mph.) Henderson is gearing up for limited commercial production of the Avion. If our fascination with fuel economy is any indication, he won't have any trouble selling it. Below, check out a video about the Avion from 1982.[youtube umDk0_01nmY]
Ariel Schwartz can be reached on Twitter or by email.


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7 September 2010, 10:31 am |
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martin aiakt [ mail: martin.aiakt[at]jasmin-wagner-fans.com | homepage: martin.jasmin-wagner-fans.com ]
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PAX 2010 Hands-On: Drumskulls (with World-Exclusive Screens!) |
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Remember Evan's E3 preview of Rock of the Deadfrom a few months back? Where you could strum specific note patterns to shoot zombies? The problem with that, according to Andrew Laing, creator of the new, never-seen-before-PAX title Drumskulls, is that Rock of the Deaddidn't deviate far enough from the Rock Band/Guitar Heroformula. Despite having zombies as a backdrop, it's still very much in the "music game" genre. Drumskullsis not. It's all about shootin' some zombies... with your plastic drum set.
I had a chance to try out Drumskullsat PAX, and I dug it. It's by a company that's so grassroots indie that they don't have a website yet. They don't even have a name. Andrew Laing is the man in charge, however, and you can expect some big things from him.
So, the zombies marching toward you on the screen are four different colors. To shoot a zombie of a particular color, you hit that drum (it'll be compatible with any Rock Band/Guitar Herodrumset). Despite their slow zombie pace, when a dozendifferentlycolored zombies are coming toward you at the same time, it's gets really intense. Each drum hit is one shot, and each zombie takes multiple blasts to finish off. Hitting a drum pad to shoot a zombie is very visceral; it's quite a different experience than merely using a gamepad. The bass pedal will be implemented in the final product somehow, too, but it wasn't quite ready to be used in the version I tried out at PAX.
The game is on-rails, but there are plenty of secrets to discover; one in particular I found was a red dumpster that you blow away to open a hidden path through the level. The game is still very early in development (they stayed up until 4 a.m. coding the last level, in fact - that's so indie!), and they don't even have a publisher or a platform to release the game on yet. It's situated to be a downloadable title, though, and it's looking good so far.
Check out some gameplay footage from the show floor (and don't mind the dork on the drums - that's just me):
I also got in tight with Mr. Laing and he sent me some WORLD-EXCLUSIVE SCREENSHOTS that you won't see anywhere else, including this one of the never-before-seen Baron Samedi:
Believe it or not, this is one of the good guys. Baron Samedi is your mentor in the game world, and the Commander of the Drumskulls. There weren't a lot of details regarding the storyline released, but Laing confirmed that the game would feature seven levels, as well as boss fights. Stay tuned here for more news on the game, and look for it on various downloadable services (XBLA? PSN? WiiWare?) if and when the game gets picked up by a publisher. Until then, enjoy some screenshots that you won't find anywhere else:


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