A NASA research team in Pasadena, California has published results of a study of the ionosphere and how its irregularities can effect GPS and other communications in the far North. Working with the University of New Brunswick in Canada, NASA researchers are attempting to predict when and where ionosphere irregularities might occur in the future.

These ionospheric irregularities can greatly distort GPS signals, causing unreliable data. This is mostly a problem in the far North, but it is definitely an issue for pilots flying in the upper latitudes. This research also has plenty of implications for other sciences such as astronomy. read more

I tend to hesitate to write about crowdfunded Kickstarter projects because a lot of times, they don’t actually pull through. There are complications associated with crowdfunding and such, so the device must be something really interesting to for me to even bother with more than a brief writeup. Well, today, I read about a flashlight that wants to replace, well, everything… and I just had to share.

Meet Fogo, a “smart flashlight” that has probably as many sensors as your smartphone and does just as much. Here’s the list of features that are expected to be included according to the Kickstarter page: read more

One of the more common stereotypical futuristic technologies–aside from holograms and intelligent robots–is a self-driving vehicle of some sort. Usually something airborne, because who wouldn’t want to travel fast AND have great views while getting there? When I was a kid, I imagined when I was an adult, I would climb in my hover car, tell it where I wanted to go, and then sit back and relax as my intelligent flying car shuttled me there with no delay.

While I’m pretty certain that flying cars are never going to happen (at least not in my lifetime), self-driving vehicles are actually almost here. In fact, according to Volvo, we might start seeing them on the road as soon as 2017. read more