via BBC News – Charles Darwins ecological experiment on Ascension isle.

We dont know whether we should be terrified or overjoyed. Weve just come across a video demo from the University of Pennsylvanias GRASP Lab that shows an autonomous quadrotor helicopter performing “precise aggressive maneuvers.” And trust us when we say, nothing in the foregoing sentence is an overstatement — the thing moves with the speed and grace of an angry bee, while accompanied by the perfectly menacing whine of its little engine. See this work of scientific art in motion after the break.

via Autonomous quadrocopter flies through windows, straight into our hearts video — Engadget.

see also

Photos you are not authorized to see.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/you-are-not-authorized-to-see-these.html

Preface: The title is a parody of the fact that the government has effectively made it a felony to take pictures of oiled wildlife.

While most of these pictures have previously been published by the mainstream media – and presumably will remain publicly available – that assumption is not 100% certain. By way of analogy, the government sometimes reclassifies as top secret information which was previously declassified.

More importantly, while some of these photos have been widely seen, most have not, and I have never seen them rounded up in a single page before.

via BBC News – First human infected with computer virus.

“Biologists find dead zones around BP oil spill in GulfMethane at 100,000 times normal levels have been creating oxygen-depleted areas devoid of life near BPs Deepwater Horizon spill, according to two independent scientists..”

via Biologists find dead zones around BP oil spill in Gulf | Environment | The Guardian.

via Mary Celeste – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The “Clean City” law passed last year by the populist mayor, Gilberto Kassab, stripped the Brazilian city of all advertising. So how's it looking now?

by Patrick Burgoyne

A city stripped of advertising. No Posters. No flyers. No ads on buses. No ads on trains. No Adshels, no 48-sheets, no nothing.

It sounds like an Adbusters editorial: an activist's dream. But in São Paulo, Brazil, the dream has become a reality.

via São Paulo: The City That Said No To Advertising.