STUFF: News, Technology, the cool and the plain weird

[MIKA27]

Spectacular Photo Of A Woman Climbing A Vertical Rock Wall At Night

Image: Scott Jarvie took this cool night photo of Julia Wooten at a rock climbing route in Papago Park, located between the cities of Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona. Here’s the entire photo in its original orientation.

It doesn’t seem like a montage to me — after getting it through Photoshop — and apparently that’s the view you get from the park.

[MIKA27]

Scientists Can Now Clone the Woolly Mammoth, But Should They?

“I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.

I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,” nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.”

The above, in case you are unfamiliar, is the Hippocratic Oath. It’s not the original, which, while it’s quite different in language, offers essentially the same sentiment, but this version offers terms more relevant to modern medicine.

As you may gather from the text, the Hippocratic Oath is a promise, made by health practitioners, to perform their duty in an ethical manner at all times. This version was written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, the Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University. It, along with several other versions, is used by most schools of medicine the world over, as a sort of rite of passage for medical students, including doctors, nurses, technicians and professionals in other medical related disciplines, like Chiropractors.

It’s meant to punctuate graduation from student to professional, but moreover, it’s meant to affirm their intent to do no harm, as the oath is often summarised to mean.

The Hippocratic Oath is all well and good, but it certainly works on a sort of honor system, trusting that the oath taker is a trustworthy and ethical person, but in general, most medical professionals take it seriously, if nothing more than as a hallowed tradition.

Should other scientists be required to take such an oath?

Bear the above in mind as you read the following from recent news headlines.

An international group of scientists from Russia, South Korea, the UK, the US, Denmark and Moldova, working with the Research and Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory of the Medical Clinic of North-Eastern Federal University (Siberia) have announced that they are now, or will be in short order, able to resurrect an extinct species, the Woolly Mammoth.

The mammoth, or mammuthus primigenus, is a close evolutionary relative of modern elephants, both from the genus Mammut (Mastodon), and an extremely well preserved mammoth carcass was recently found in the permafrost of northern Siberia.

Researchers have declared that the mammoth remains are surprisingly intact, and though it’s estimated to be 43,000 years old, it’s in better condition than a human body dead and buried for only six months.

As a result of that state of preservation, they now have ample genetic material to actually clone the creature!

Now, it wouldn’t technically be a mammoth identical to the one found, it would, out of necessity, have a modern elephant as a surrogate mother, and as such would share her genome to a degree. But the resulting animal would be very much closer to the extinct species than we’ve ever seen. Much could be learned from this.

It’s possible that such an animal could not only unlock secrets about ancient biology and physiology, but could also offer opportunities for new medicines, and the development of new genomic protocols.

But should it be done?

In the Hippocratic Oath above, there are two lines that are, even in the context of the oath itself, of primary importance, but in this situation even more so:

“…this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.”

“I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings…”

Despite the religious wording, the overall point of these two lines is to highlight the imperative that those in a position to control life, have a responsibility to understand that we, humans, have no inherent right to meddle with the natural order of things.

So, the question of whether to bring this animal back from extinction rests on a decision. A decision about whether the potential benefits outweigh any potential risk. But more than that, it requires us to consider what right we have to interfere with the natural process of extinction.

It could be argued, and maybe rightly so, that humans had a hand in causing the mammoth to go extinct, so this would only be a step in the direction of righting an old wrong. Of course, the evidence that humans directly contributed to the extinction of the mammoth is still in question, so it’s not nearly as cut and dried as that.

There are other species, more recently doomed to oblivion, whose demise was clearly and without contention the fault of human activity. Why not bring them back? The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger, the largest carnivorous marsupial, went extinct in 1936; is it not just as valid a candidate for cloning? Or is the mammoth worth more in novelty? How about Raphus Cucullatus, or the world famous Dodo bird? An animal that was savagely hunted to extinction for no other reason than that they were characteristically friendly and unafraid of humans.

Or, how about we reverse the tragic and very recent extinction of the African White Rhino?

Is it just because the mammoth is a story-time favourite from our childhood, the most recognised prehistoric species in our culture, that it seems to deserve this attention?

The researchers in this case seem to be acutely aware that they have a responsibility to weigh these issues carefully. Radik Khayrullin, vice president of the Russian Association of Medical Anthropologists, had this to say on the matter:

“We must have a reason to do this, as it is one thing to clone it for scientific purpose, and another to clone for the sake of curiosity.”

It’s likely though, that public opinion will dictate where they go from here. They still have much work to do before they’ll be in a position technically to begin the cloning process, and the intervening time may spark some heated debate among certain groups.

Whether you, personally, are for or against it, the issue is larger than any one of us. And when you consider recent talk about and public pressure to ban elephants in captivity for entertainment, one has to wonder how this would be any different.

[MIKA27]

Android Wear: Here Comes The Future Of Android Smartwatches

Google just announced a new project called Android Wear, and as that name implies, it’s an “at-a-glance” variation of Google’s OS tailored specifically for wearables. So far, LG and Motorola have already announced Android Wear smartwatches, and they’re just the first in a slew of Android-powered wristables coming this year.

According to the announcement, Google’s working with Asus, HTC, LG , Motorola and Samsung. Chip makers Broadcom, Imagination, Intel, Mediatek and Qualcomm are also on the project. It’s not clear yet what this means for a device coming from Google itself.

Given the recent smartwatch craze — and subsequent disappointments — it was only a matter of time before Google took matters into its own, er, hands. It’s a move that’s even more necessary given that Samsung has apparently abandoned Android for its smartwatch project, choosing instead to use the open-source, lightweight Tizen OS .

For now, there’s a developer preview for the new OS which guides devs through tailoring their notifications so that they will show up on Google’s new wrist-based platform.

According to Google, we’ll see watches powered by Android Wear later this year, and we’re glad to see that the company has taken its time with the platform given how difficult it’s proven to get it right. According to Google’s specs, Android Wear should be voice responsive and provide notifications at-a-glance, a bit like Google Now on your wrist.

With the specter of an iWatch looming on the horizon, Android Wear couldn’t have come at a better. And besides the embarrassment of barking OK Google at your wrist, it sounds very promising, especially if the hardware can live up to the promise of the platform.

[MIKA27]

Souped-Up Dinghy Racing Is How You Stay Entertained In Country Australia

You’re out in the bush. There’s no phone reception. No internet. Nowhere to charge your gadgets. Surely it’s a geek’s worst nightmare, right? Wrong: as long as you have a dinghy and a dangerously narrow riverbed, you’ll have the best day of your life.

This is the Riverland Dinghy Club. As all good things in Australia were, it started back in the 1980′s after a bet between two mates to see who had the fastest dinghy. It now has a proud heritage of racing insanely powerful small boats on tiny rivers in country South Australia.

The video above is an example of one of their derbys, and it looks amazing. How much is membership?

(Skip to 1:54 for the river dash).

[MIKA27]

The Narwhal’s Tusk Is Filled With Nerves. But Why?

Narwhals’ long tusks are sensory organs capable of detecting changes in seawater salinity.

For centuries, the purpose of a narwhal’s tusk has eluded explanation. Now, researchers suggest that these small whales use their tusks as sensory organs and speculate that sensing changes in seawater salinity might help male narwhals stay safe, and locate fish or females.

Narwhals are a little bit like Arctic unicorns. At least, the males are. They’re the beasts that swim around wielding giant, spiraling tusks that can grow to nearly 9 feet long. But unlike the mythical horned horse, narwhals are a: real and B: their horns aren’t centered on their faces. Instead, their tusks protrude from the left of their mouths – they’re actually big, twisted canine teeth (the right canine usually remains embedded in the whale’s jaw).

Since at least the 15th century, scientists have been mulling over the purpose of the narwhal’s super-long tooth, proposing roles in defense, attracting a mate, hunting, hearing, breathing, and ice-breaking, among others. Now, it seems clear that the tooth is capable of acting like an enormous sensory organ, says Harvard University’s Martin Nweeia, a marine mammal dental specialist. Nweeia and his colleagues have been studying narwhals in the Arctic for more than a decade, and published a paper describing the tooth’s sensory capabilities today in The Anatomical Record.

“It takes a tremendous amount of energy and devotion to get that thing to grow,” Nweeia says. “To expend that much energy in such a harsh environment – there has to be a pretty compelling reason to do it.”

Nweeia and his colleagues collected narwhal tusks from Inuit hunters near Baffin Island, then studied those tusks for anatomical clues to their function. Turns out, narwhal tusks are filled with a nerve-rich pulp that’s similar to the stuff in human teeth that can sometimes make drinking coffee or eating ice cream a painful experience.

Next, the team looked to see if there were any genes expressed by the pulp that would indicate a role in relaying sensory information to the brain. And there were: two genes expressed in sensory signaling pathways were present at much higher levels in tusk pulp than in muscle or jaw tissues.

Nweeia then decided to test whether the tusks helped convey information about salt concentration in the surrounding sea. To do this, he fitted narwhals with a “tusk jacket” – a clear plastic tube that encloses the tusk, from one end to the other. He attached electrodes to the animals so that he could measure their heart rate. Then he bathed the jacketed tusks in solutions with either high or low concentrations of dissolved salt – a situation that mimics changes to seawater as icebergs form (high salt) or melt (low salt).

He found that narwhal heart rates rose in response to high salt concentrations, presumably because these concentrations normally suggest that the sea is freezing and entrapment is possible. The animals’ heart rates dropped when the tusks were washed with fresh water, suggesting they could detect this change. But, Nweeia says, salt is just one of many environmental stimuli the tusks could be sensing. “Our premise was just to open the pathway for people understand that this is a sensory organ,” he says. “Now the pathway is open for people, including ourselves, to look at other variables it might also detect.”

[MIKA27]

Maleficent Trailer: Angelina Jolie Breathes Fire

http://youtu.be/gAgaBY0CI7Y

The new trailer for Disney's reinterpretation of Sleeping Beauty features Princess Aurora - played by Elle Fanning - wander through the forest before viewers are treated to a shot of Angelina Jolie's character turn into a dragon and breathe fire

[oliverdst]

Astronomers Discover First Direct Proof Of The Big Bang Expansion

Somebody’s going to win a Nobel Prize. At least that’s what the physics community is saying after the ...

VIDEO:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/17/5518346/first-evidence-gravitational-waves-supports-big-bang-inflation

[MIKA27]

SNAPPGRIP

Snappgrip turns your iPhone into a photo powerhouse, the snap-on camera controller ads controls for your shutter, zoom and shooting mode, just like a real camera. It also features a tripod mount and communicates with snappgrip´s photography app via Bluetooth. The convenient and pocketable device snaps on to an included protection case when you want to shoot some serious photography.

[MIKA27]

VIDEO:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/17/5518346/first-evidence-gravitational-waves-supports-big-bang-inflation

Brilliant post Oliver - thanks always for reading and posting.

[MIKA27]

BALL FIREMAN STORM CHASER PRO WATCH

Even if you don't get your thrills by running into the middle of tornados and hurricanes, there's still plenty to like about the Ball Fireman Storm Chaser Pro Watch.

Made as a partnership between Ball and MIT-educated meteorologist Dr. Joshua Wurman, the watch features telemetric technology that helps determine approximate distance between you and a fixed point. Featuring 30-minute and 12-hour counters, separate day and date windows, and luminous indices throughout that glow green, orange, and blue, it's simple to determine the time no matter how much light you have. And with water resistance down to 100 meters and impact resistance up to 5,000 Gs, if you do choose to chase storms, you can feel confident your watch will hold up to those harsh conditions.

[MIKA27]

SHELFIE BIKE MOUNT

For those of you who live or work in a small space, finding enough room to store all your stuff is really a way of life — and if you ride a bike, it makes your storage woes that much worse. But with the Shelfie Bike Mount, you can free up just a bit of room by hanging your your bike out of the way on the wall. Unlike most bike mounts that go through the frame of your bike, potentially getting tangled in cables, with the Shelfie you can hang your bike from its seat. A built-in cubby gives you space for a helmet or other small biking gear.

[MIKA27]

Star Wars: Episode VII filming to begin in UK in May

Star Wars: Episode VII will start shooting at Pinewood Studios near London in May, its producers have said.

Disney and Lucasfilm confirmed the latest instalment in the series would be set about 30 years after the events of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

It "will star a trio of new young leads along with some very familiar faces", the press release added.

Star Wars: Episode VII, directed by JJ Abrams, will be released in cinemas on 18 December 2015.

The news of a return for "some very familiar faces" will fuel rumours that the stars of the original trilogy - Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher - will appear in Episode VII.

Open auditions

According to the Hollywood reporter, Adam Driver is in final negotiations to play the main villain.

He is best known for his role in hit TV series Girls, but has also recently appeared in films including Lincoln and Inside Llewyn Davis.

Open auditions for two roles in the new films were held in the UK and Ireland last November.

They were a "street smart and strong" orphaned girl in her late teens and a "smart capable" man in his late teens or early 20s.

It is not known whether any of the actors eventually cast in the film were found through the open auditions.

Episode VII will be the fifth Star Wars movie to to be shot in the UK.

The original Star Wars trilogy was filmed at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, while The Phantom Menace began shooting on 26 June 1997 at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire.

George Lucas directed a bluescreen sequence with actors Ian McDiarmid and Ray Park, who played Senator Palpatine and Darth Maul.

[Philski]

And with water resistance down to 100 meters

Help me out here please, FOHers. Am I the only person who's irritated by the 'water resistant' label? It just seems to smack of "It'll go down to 100m and will try its best to keep the water out, but it might be unable to actually resist water coming in - who can tell?".

Look, it's either impermeable at at 100m or it's not. Have you either not been arsed to to test it properly, or do you want to give an impression of toughness beyond reality? Please, waterproof to xxm, or just don't mention it.

I've been waiting to get that off my chest for a while, thank you for your patience.

[MIKA27]

Help me out here please, FOHers. Am I the only person who's irritated by the 'water resistant' label? It just seems to smack of "It'll go down to 100m and will try its best to keep the water out, but it might be unable to actually resist water coming in - who can tell?".

Look, it's either impermeable at at 100m or it's not. Have you either not been arsed to to test it properly, or do you want to give an impression of toughness beyond reality? Please, waterproof to xxm, or just don't mention it.

I've been waiting to get that off my chest for a while, thank you for your patience.

I'd love to help you out but I'm not a technical watch guy.

My rule of thumb with anything is NOT to wear it when going in the water.

Perhaps some other readers who are watch technical can help?

[MIKA27]

South Korean University Now Accepts Gamers As Student Athletes

Man, remember how your folks would harass you about getting ahead in life rather than molting in front of a video game for 42 hours on end? Throw this in your mama’s face: Chung-Ang University in South Korea now considers competitive gamers the same as traditional athletes. And it’s a top 10 (South Korean) school!

The university will begin accepting eSports applicants starting next year, with students matriculating into the school’s Department of Sport Science — previously home to the ball sports you’d generally associate with college athletes.

The move seems a little non-traditional, but let’s not forget that South Korea has a robust gaming community that’s a bit more mainstream than it is in places like the U.S. Live public gaming tournaments are a spectacle in South Korea, often televised with the kind of fanfare we associate with professional wrestling.

Now that Chung-Ang University is accepting gamer-athletes, we can only hope the next step is a giant badass gaming stadium on campus.

MIKA: How times change.... Some of these eSports guys earn millions playing game comps. Go figure.

[MIKA27]

Watch The Chinese Air Force Bombing The Yellow River To Destroy Its Ice

http://youtu.be/uITyQP7Yt88

The Yellow River has been completely frozen for weeks. So much that it doesn’t flow. China’s flood prevention authority decided that, before the snow melts and a huge clusterf*ck ensues, they should destroy the ice and make it flow again. So let’s ask the air force to bomb it because, fun!

China’s Air Force send a few bombers loaded with heavy bombs, dropped 24, and destroyed that ice. Vini, vidi, go to hell river. What’s a few dead fishes and even more pollution in a river — the second largest in Asia — that is already breeding mutant beings to begin with? Right? RIGHT? Right. The Yellow River is now flowing again. Carry on.

[MIKA27]

The Earth Was Almost Fried Back In 2012

A massive solar storm in July 2012 was more intense than thought — and it blasted right through the Earth’s orbit. Luckily for us, we were on the other side of the sun, thus missing the chaos completely. But if that storm had hit this beautiful little blue marble in space? “The solar bursts would have enveloped Earth in magnetic fireworks matching the largest magnetic storm ever reported on Earth, the so-called Carrington event of 1859,” Science Daily reports.

These “fireworks” could have knocked out our electrical grid and satellites, leaving us in a global darkness without telecommunications or GPS, potentially for years.

New research published yesterday in Nature Communications suggests that we “dodged a huge magnetic bullet” two summers ago. While a “solar superstorm” is a fortunately rare event, being hit by one could upend almost every detail of our existing electromagnetic infrastructure. The 1859 solar storm, for example, not only knocked out the telegraph networks of the day, it even gave electric shocks to the system’s human operators; and, as Science Daily reminds us, “A considerably smaller event on March 13, 1989, led to the collapse of Canada’s Hydro-Quebec power grid and a resulting loss of electricity to six million people for up to nine hours.”

Due to the severity of these events, it’s obviously absurd to be distracted by the potential beauty of the storm itself — nonetheless, it seems that, if this ever does happen, it will be an absolutely extraordinary way to be plunged into global darkness.

Described as “gnarly, twisty ropes of magnetic field” energy, these coiled branches of solar magnetism would have “tangled” with our own as they enveloped the planet. Incredibly, this particular storm was even oriented such that it would have augmented, not canceled, our own magnetic field: “One reason the event was potentially so dangerous, aside from its high speed, is that it produced a very long-duration, southward-oriented magnetic field, [uC Berkeley research physicist Janet G. Luhmann] said. This orientation drives the largest magnetic storms when they hit Earth because the southward field merges violently with Earth’s northward field in a process called reconnection. Storms that normally might dump their energy only at the poles instead dump it into the radiation belts, ionosphere and upper atmosphere and create auroras down to the tropics.”

Imagine huge rolling dragons of colour surging toward the tropics, burning for hours above Miami, Rome, Riyadh, Jakarta, Mexico City, visible on the horizon from camping sites in the Andes and the Himalayas, looping over the pyramids, an ocean of magnetic energy passing through the clouds, a kind of planetary-scale TV broadcast of pure, apocalyptic power roaring all around us as the lights go out.

[MIKA27]

The UK's New 12-Sided £1 Is The 'Most Secure Coin In The World'

The UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, today dipped into his pocket and displayed a new 12-sided £1 coin, the coin’s first redesign in 30 years. It is, supposedly, the world’s most secure coin.

The new design will apparently cut down on fraud, said to cost millions of British pounds each year, thanks to its Integrated Secure Identification System (iSIS) tech. The Royal Mint actually thinks that around 45 million £1 coins in the UK, in pockets and down the backs of sofas everywhere, are actually forgeries.

The Queen’s visage is still on the “head” side of the coin, but it’s up to the UK public to decide what makes it to the other side. I can’t wait to see the myriad of ways goatse is suggested for tails.

[MIKA27]

Tents Should Have Had Built-in Air Mattresses Since Day One

A comfy air mattress can make roughing it feel a little less rough, although wrangling one inside a tent that’s a little too small for your queen size bed can be a huge pain. And that’s exactly the situation that inspired Dan Robertson to create the Aesent: a tent with a built-in air mattress on its base that’s always the perfect size.

Even if an air mattress does fit inside your tent, there’s still a good chance you’re going to roll off it in the middle of the night. But that won’t happen with the Aesent, since it’s furnished with wall-to-wall air mattress comfort — there’s no place to roll off and no place for stuff to get lost between cushions.

Since the six-inch inflatable mattress serves as the bottom of the tent and will be sitting on all kinds of terrain including pointy rocks, it’s been designed with extra-thick vinyl to prevent punctures. And if carrying the deflated mattress is too heavy for a particular adventure, the tent itself can be zipped off and used by itself — minus all the extra comfort.

If it sounds like the perfect camping accessory for you, the Aesent can be pre-ordered through Kickstarter for $US160 at the moment. Just keep in mind there’s the risk of manufacturing hiccups that might delay its availability, or completely prevent it from becoming a reality. But since the Aesent is just a combination of two tried-and-true products, there’s a good chance it could make your next outdoor excursion far more enjoyable. Or at the very least give you the low-key moon bounce you always dreamed of.

[MIKA27]

This Icy Blue Tower Will Be New Jersey's Tallest Residential Building

New Jersey has plenty of tall buildings, to be sure, but it’s not known for its skyscrapers. A new development planned for Jersey City hopes to change all that with a bright blue set of towers that will boost the city’s skyline.

Located in the Journal Square neighbourhood of Jersey City, the 1,840 unit-development will be called Journal Squared (although, shouldn’t it really be Journal Cubed?) and hopes to attract young professionals who can easily get to work in Manhattan using the adjacent PATH station.

In addition to the residential units, the development’s base will have retail and and restaurants, and a large public plaza will be programmed with a farmers’ market and movie nights.

The complex is designed by HWKN and Handel Architects and will feature three towers, one of which will top out at about 729 feet, making it the tallest residential building in New Jersey (the press release says it will be the tallest, but Cesar Pelli’s 30 Hudson Street in Jersey City will remain the tallest at 780 feet). Bruce Mau Design did the identity and wayfinding.

According to the designers, the buildings will serve as both a gateway to the state and as a new urban center for the city. “We designed a building that works equally well at the scale of the Turnpike, where hundreds of thousands of people will see it every day, and at the scale of the human who walks and lives in the city,” says HWKN partner Marc Kushner. It should be complete by 2016.

Of course you can see plenty of New Jersey’s buildings from Manhattan, but this one seems like it was both designed to stand out and combat the gritty, industrial vibe that dominates the lands just across the Hudson. The use of blue — and that sure it a lot of blue! — seems to communicate a freshness while hoping to remind New York City that, hey, New Jersey is RIGHT OVER HERE.

[MIKA27]

The 1989 B-2 Bomber Still Feels Like A Plane From The Future -- Or A UFO

Photographer Ron Elkind sent us some cool aeroplane photos taken at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Like this is the B-2 Spirit of Florida with its weapons bays open — mouths of destruction that can vomit anything from bunker busters to nuclear nombs. Or this beautiful F-16 shot.

It feels like a mirror image, but they are two USAF F-16s flying in formation, part of the Thunderbirds air demonstrations squadron.

Here’s an extra shot of the B-2.

And some US Navy Blue Angels for good measure.

Ron Elkind is an amateur photographer who studied fine art photography for seven years after back problems halted his 40-year sailing career. He’s fascinated by aircraft and flew out to Nellis AFB to shoot these images back in 2010 and 2011.

[MIKA27]

Moto 360: This Is Motorola's Slick Android Wear Powered Smartwatch

I just learned about Android Wear for the first time , and now I'm already getting inundated in new hardware. Here’s a hot piece of gear from Motorola, the Moto 360. Billed as a more contemporary smartwatch thank the clunky wrist-bricks we’ve all seen before, the Moto 360 will supposedly be available this summer.

The Moto 360 adheres to much of what we heard about Android Wear earlier today: When you say OK Google, it will fire up, exactly as if it were Google Now. The watch will reportedly be available in a variety of styles. There isn’t a whole lot of information in terms of specs, but Motororola will be holding a press hangout tomorrow to address questions. I'll keep you posted, but for now, lets be happy to be looking at one of the most attractive smart-watches I've ever seen.

[MIKA27]

China's Ambitious Plan To Move 100 Million People From Farms To Cities

This week, Chinese authorities published the results of a long-delayed blueprint for how it will grow its cities — and its economy — by 2020. The plan is sweeping, ambitious, and dense, and it gives us a glimpse of China’s future.

The crux of the plan? Move 100 million people — mainly, rural farmers — into cities by 2020. To accommodate them, China will start a massive push to develop better public infrastructure, from hospitals to schools to railways. According to the study’s authors, the whole idea is to bolster the flagging economy with an influx of new workers, new housing, new infrastructure, and new factories.

The report is 30 chapters long, but a few highlights:

• By 2020, 60 per cent of cities will meet China’s national pollution standards. [Reuters]
• Every city of more than 200,000 people will have a railway connection. [WSJ]
• $163 billion will be spent to improve the slum-like conditions of migrant workers. [Bloomberg]
• The industrial development will be focused in the west, away from China’s already developed eastern edge. [SCMP]
• Right now, less than 40 per cent of urban citizens are “registered” under China’s Hukou system, meaning that the other 60 per cent don’t have access to public services, including public schools. The new plan will increase the percentage of registered citizens to 45 per cent — or 100 million new registered city dwellers. [QZ]

How realistic are these goals?

It’s hard to say — but urbanization is already happening at a rapid pace. We’ll just have to wait and see whether the government can deliver on its promises. You can check out the details of the plan over on Xinhaunet or The New York Times.

[MIKA27]

Porsche Will Replace Every Single 911 GT3 Engine After Finding That They Catch Fire

785 engines. That’s how many replacements Porsche will need when it comes to fixing the insanely fast Porsche 911 GT3 around the world. You see, the fastest car Porsche currently makes had to be recalled after it found they had a nasty habit of catching fire. Now it’s replacing every single engine after it figured out the problem.

Turns out the issue was related to dodgy screws that hold the piston connecting rods to the crankshaft. They’d cause damage to the crankcase, and the whole thing would start leaking oil which in some cases, led to fire.

Fairfax reports that five Porsche 911 GT3 owners are in Australia, and will be having their engines replaced as a result.

They’d be pretty happy with that, considering that Porsche took a pretty unusual step a few weeks ago, telling owners not to drive their cars at all due to risk of catastrophic fire.

The owners around the world, including Top Gear‘s Richard Hammond, will be pretty pleased that they can drive their dream supercars again.

[MIKA27]

The Germans Have Figured Out How to 3-D Print Cars

It’s not a sculpture. It’s the future of car manufacturing.

The assembly line isn’t going away, but 3-D printing is going to reshape how we make cars. The EDAG Genesis points the way, with an beautifully crafted frame made from a range of materials and inspired by a turtle’s skeleton.

The German engineering firm showed off the Genesis design concept at the Geneva Motor Show as proof that additive manufacturing–EDAG’s fancy term for 3-D printing–can be used to make full-size car components. It’s on an entirely different scale than the tiny, 3-D printed creations coming out of a desktop Makerbot, but it’s also just a frame–a stylized chassis that’s more art than reality.

Before settling on 3-D printing, EDAG tried a few different acronym-heavy options, including selective laser sintering (SLS), selective laser melting (SLM), and stereolithography (SLA). But after extensive tinkering, the final process they used was a modified version of fused-deposition modeling, or FDM.

EDAG’s robot built the Genesis concept by creating a thermoplastic model of the complex interior, although the company says they could use carbon fiber to make the structure both stronger and lighter. EDAG envisions the Genesis as being surrounded by an exterior frame–likely steel or aluminum–to provide a tough exterior to protect the lattice-like monocoque.

We’ve seen 3-D printing applied to cars before, but EDAG’s design is unique because it shows that with the right equipment you can produce a structure at a massively larger scale. Rather than printing out tiny parts and assembling them together to create a whole, the Genesis proposes that future cars could be produced in fewer steps by assembling large, exceptionally strong unibody parts.

Printing of this size is still years from reality due to both cost and scale, but the design is the opening salvo in an arms race for creating large objects with a single process.

“As for the target of using additive manufacturing to produce complete vehicle bodies, there is still a long way to go before this becomes an industrial application,” EDAG says in its announcement. “So for the time being, it remains a vision.”

MIKA: Will this be the future of F1 also....? Perhaps a V1 Turbo engine!