Blogotariat

A Kickstarter project wants to take the art of the selfie to a higher level -- literally. ZANO, by the Wales-based Torquing Group Ltd, is a palm-sized drone that will fly out from users at up to 25 mph, take stabilized 720p video at 60 fps, and send it all back, as well as any pictures snapped, to the pilots' smartphone app. Its creators even boast that the final product will respond to gesture commands, making dronies easier to take than ever.

Are you a farmer with galactic ambition? Does the agrarian life lack that aerospace sheen? Or do you just wish your career path looked a bit more like Matthew McConaughey's in the movie Interstellar?

A while ago, I suggested that bodies like Universities Australia should dissolve themselves and make way for a body that actually represents universities as communities of scholars (students and academics) and the workers (professional and administrative) who support them. I see I’ve been joined by Stephen Parker from the University of Canberra who describes UA support for deregulation as a “suicide ritual”.

One of humanity's greatest queries has focused on the nature of a change from good to evil. There is no single answer; several possible reasons apply. Julius Caesar, who dramatically asked his friend, “Et tu, Brute?” learned the hard way about the power of opportunity. In the fictional series, Homeland, empathy for a child was the root of Nicholas Brody's turncoat actions. Finally, there is the longstanding issue of necessity, in which a person turns to crime to deal with environmental stressors, such as a lost job or poverty.

Sleep deprivation saps much more than your energy. Studies show it also weakens your memory, changing the way we convert short-term memories into long-term ones. But not for bats.

Someday, in the not-too-distant future, bacterial infections could be treated by implanting electronics into your body. A team from Tufts University and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana developed a tiny implant that can be inserted into an area of infection (or potential infection) and activated remotely, delivering either heat or drugs to infected tissues, and then dissolving harmlessly.

Testing modern naval weapons in a realistic way is tricky. In order to operate properly, ships need a crew, but there are times, like determining whether a new anti-missile weapon actually works, where having people on deck is an unnecessary risk. To square this circle, the U.S. Navy took the USS Paul F. Foster--an old, out-of-use destroyer--and made it unmanned, ready to be destroyed.

Santa Claus may be coming to town, but how are you going to know when? Turns out there's not one, but two prominent trackers for jolly old St. Nick's progress on this upcoming Christmas Eve: one from Google, and a second from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). But with two competing Santa trackers, how do you know where to go to get the most up-to-date information about Father Christmas?

Bibi Netanyahu calls for elections, and grabs headlines. A much more important article passes by quietly. It was written by Ghanem Nuseibah, the scion of the oldest Arab family that has held the key to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for more that 1,400 years. It is worth comparing the two.

Bibi wants an election in order to gain a mandate to take apartheid in Israel to new heights. He does not put it that way, of course:

Since the Cypriots found that their cash actually belonged to someone else, I have been suspicious of the Australian bank guarantee scheme. This says up to $250,000 per person per institution is secure, without charge. Do you remember the stunned interviews, just a few years ago, of small business owners and pensioners in Cyprus who […]

(First published by Independent Australia)

Shorten is a million votes ahead of Abbott as preferred Prime Minister, Labor 1.5 million votes ahead of the Coalition as preferred federal government, and, in the Westminster system, there would normally be resignations by now.

Does increasing the legal drinking age reduce traffic accidents caused by young drivers? The idea is that if you increase the legal age at which people can drink, young people are going to quietly abide by the law, not do anything stupid, read the bible, contemplate their sinful natures, and stay out of trouble.