Darth Vader The Face Of Android In Japan

In a move that only the Japanese would dare, NTT the countries largest teleco has chosen to make Darth Vader the face for their flagship Samsung Galaxy S Android powered smart phone. This sort of goes against the whole Google "Do no evil" motto... though some might find turning to the dark side cool I suppose, and let's face it we all kinda dig Darth Vader anyway. Perhaps they are trying to work the "galaxy far, far, away..." angle? Whatever it is I'm a bit drawn to the ad, so perhaps it's working!

Edible QR Codes

I have been singing the praises of QR codes since I purchased my Android phone a couple of years back. Those who know me well will attest to the fact that I have business cards that I carry with simply a QR code printed on them along side my blog logo. You need not look far to find one emblazoned on this page...

It should therefore come as no surprise to anyone that I am totally jealous of the folks who thought up and attended the following:

This is one of the best examples of geeky fun that I've viewed in a very long time. 

Don't Trust An Angry Bird (May be considered NSFW by some)

I am hooked on Angry Birds. There, I said it... but so too are millions of others so I am not alone. Apparently some people are so hooked that they feel it necessary to make videos and mashups. Here is my favorite. (Warning language may be offensive to some.)

Face Masks For Soldiers?

When I think of soldiers with full face masks I think Stormtroopers and countless other faceless fighters from movie lore. A recent study however suggests that adding a face guard to modern soldiers standard helmets could substantially reduce the shock wave affect of nearby blasts and thus reduce the number of traumatic brain injuries.

A study by MIT researches suggest that face protection is critical. “The face shield contributes a lot to deflecting energy from the blast wave and not letting it directly touch the soft tissue,” says lead researcher Raúl Radovitzky. “We’re not saying this is the best design for a face shield, but we’re saying we need to cover the face.”

Speaking about today's technology “These helmets weren’t designed to stop a pressure wave; they were designed to stop bullets,” says Albert King, director of the Bioengineering Center at Wayne State University in Detroit. “Just like a football helmet wasn’t designed to stop a concussion, but to stop skull fracture.”

Seems like natural progression, however I can see concerns being raised over cooling and peripheral vision, as advanced as we are becoming with our weaponry I don't know that we are necessarily keeping pace with the protection of our boots on the ground, though I'm not well informed enough to really weigh in here. In any case the more of this type of research that we conduct the better our troops are apt to be moving forward, though it would be nice if we lived in a world where none of this were necessary.


Source: Wired