Collaborate Disseminate
San Francisco’s electric scooters are disruptive to the communities where they are abandoned and, because they are constantly moving, the issues of abandonment and refuse cycle through neighborhoods. Continue reading Disrupting the Commons: Dockless Bikes and Scooters Create Layers of Community Instability
After years of being a testbed for startups, San Francisco is fighting back by literally smearing shit on scooters. Continue reading San Francisco Is Fighting the Scooter Trend With Poop and Vandalism
The image of the crackpot inventor, disheveled, disorganized, and surrounded by the remains of his failures, is an enduring Hollywood trope. While a simple look around one’s shop will probably reveal how such stereotypes get started, the image is largely not a fair characterization of the creative mind and how it works, and does not properly respect those that struggle daily to push the state of the art into uncharted territory.
That said, there are plenty of wacky ideas that have come down the pike, most of which mercifully fade away before attracting undue attention. In times of war, though, …read more
Continue reading Hacking When It Counts: Pigeon-Guided Missiles
When faced with a problematic Bird slug, [Chuck Martin] didn’t give up. He pecked away at the slug and brought us all along for the ride. If that sentence didn’t make sense to you, read on! Anyone who’s been to a hamfest has seen a Bird meter. The Bird Model 43 watt meter is the defacto standard for measuring transmitter power in-line. Bird meters don’t just work from DC to light though. In fact, the model 43 itself is just a bit of transmission line and a meter movement. The magic happens inside the swappable measurement element. These elements, affectionately …read more
Positive reinforcement is the process of getting someone to understand their actions result in a reward. Children get a sweet treat when they pick up all their toys and older ones might get some cash for mowing the lawn. From the perspective of the treat-giver, this is like turning treats into work. A Dutch startup wants to teach the crow population to pick up cigarette butts in exchange for bird treats.
The whole Corvidae family of birds is highly intelligent so it shouldn’t be a problem training them that they will get a reward for depositing something the Hominidae family …read more
