{"id":714,"date":"2015-08-05T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2015\/08\/05\/geek-month-in-review-july-2015\/"},"modified":"2015-08-05T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-05T15:30:00","slug":"geek-month-in-review-july-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2015\/08\/05\/geek-month-in-review-july-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Geek Month in Review: July 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By JB Sanders<\/p>\n<p>Fireworks! <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/technology\/scientists-create-holograms-you-can-touch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Touching Holograms<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nRemember that scene in Iron Man or Avengers where someone moves holograms around like they&#8217;re real, physical objects? Yeah, we&#8217;re not that far away from having that. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2015\/07\/bluetooth-star-trek-communicator-shows-just-how-awesome-real-life-is\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Star Trek Bluetooth Communicator<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nSo sure, it&#8217;s nothing more than a bluetooth headset in a weird form, but it does look freakin&#8217; cool. How odd is it (for those of us above a certain age) to see something like this and think that&#8217;s retro-future nostalgia tech. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ny.curbed.com\/archives\/2015\/06\/30\/explore_the_twa_terminal_a_pristine_time_capsule_from_1962.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TWA Terminal in Time Capsule<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s a view back to the Jet Age, when the wealthy travelled by jet airliner and smoked in their designer finery. It&#8217;s like a posh version of the Jetsons. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ski.curbed.com\/archives\/2014\/08\/is-this-the-worlds-most-insane-camper-van.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Super Camper Van<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nPlanning an expedition to the arctic? Or that trackless wilderness that hides a pyramid? Then this camper vanis your ideal companion. It&#8217;s something the company in the movie Congowould have bought. It has everything. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2015\/07\/blade-runners-miniature-props-revealed-in-142-behind-the-scenes-photos.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Blade Runner Prop Photos<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nSee the miniatures created for all the effects in Blade Runner. You know, because there was a time before CGI. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/technology\/watch-flight-drone-through-these-new-underground-tunnels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Underground Drone Video<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nNot just for high-level aerial footage anymore ,\u009d now drones are flying around the tunnels under London. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wusa9.com\/story\/cruiselog\/2015\/07\/10\/queen-mary-lego-model\/29951313\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LEGO Queen Mary<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nYup, an ocean liner model made entirely of LEGOs. It&#8217;s 25-feet long, has over 250,000 bricks, and weighs 600 pounds.  <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.atlasobscura.com\/articles\/before-radios-pilots-navigated-by-giant-concrete-arrows?utm_source=facebook.com&#038;utm_medium=mentalfloss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Giant Arrows from a Bi-plane Age<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nObsolete infrastructure can be found all over the place ,\u009d just look out the train window in the Easter US and see the telegraph cabling. There used to be arrows all over the US guiding early flyers to the nearest airport. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/health-and-medicine\/our-star-trek-style-skin-healing-technology-could-be-end-chronic-wounds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Healing With Ultrasound<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nScientists are working to heal wounds with ultrasound, sci-fi style. Not instantly, mind you, but the technique appears to work on chronic wounds which won&#8217;t otherwise heal normally. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/technology\/could-plastic-lego-roads-pave-way-greener-future\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Plastic Roads<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nLike giant LEGO(tm) bricks, Plastic Roads are being developed in the Netherlands, and are designed to be modular.  <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/plants-and-animals\/mysterious-tree-can-grow-over-40-different-kinds-fruit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Tree That Bears 40 Different Fruits<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nYeah, really. It&#8217;s not some weird genetic hybrid that might have tentacles if someone slipped a digit somewhere, this is straight-up ancient-as-hell hybridization. Or more specifically, grafting. Some joker grafted 40 different varieties of fruit-bearing tree limbs onto one tree, and then repeated the idea in several dozen locations. The article has a link to a map, if you want to see these trees in person. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/2015\/07\/10\/worlds-largest-vertical-farm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">World&#8217;s Largest Vertical Farm<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nKickin&#8217; it scifi-style in New Jersey with the indoor, sunlight-free, aeroponic farm. The facility will be capable of producing 2 million pounds of produce a year when it&#8217;s finished, and it doesn&#8217;t use nearly the resources of regular farming. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hacked.com\/scientists-confirm-impossible-em-drive-propulsion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EM Drive May Actually Work<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nWhen it was originally announced, the EM space drive got a lot of scorn. Thrust from nothing(no reaction mass)? Yeah, lots of doubt. However, several independent scientists have now tentatively confirmed that there is something going on there. Space travel, ahoy! <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/science\/2015\/07\/inside-the-quietest-room-in-the-world\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quietest Rooms in the World<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nSoundproofed, shielded from electromagnetic noise, and isolated from pretty much any odd earth movement, these rooms in Switzerland are great places to mess with particle physics. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/a-brother-and-sister-in-the-philippines-invented-a-lamp-that-runs-entirely-on-metal-and-salt-water?c=bl3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lamp Runs on Sea Water and Metal<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nTwo Phillipine geniuses (genii?) have invented a lamp that can run on salt water and electrodes that only need to be replaced once or twice a year. It even has a port to charge cell phones. <\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/a-brother-and-sister-in-the-philippines-invented-a-lamp-that-runs-entirely-on-metal-and-salt-water?c=bl3<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/john1.bmp\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/john1.bmp\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"272\" height=\"240\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2629\" \/><\/a> <strong>About John:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>John&#8217;s a geek from way back. He&#8217;s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it&#8217;s on his desk).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Geek Credentials:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>RPG:<\/strong> Blue box D&#038;D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.<br \/>\n<strong>Computer:<\/strong> TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w\/reel-to-reel backup tape<br \/>\n<strong>Card games:<\/strong> bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993<br \/>\n<strong>Science:<\/strong> Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983<br \/>\n<strong>His Blog:<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glenandtyler.com\/\"target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.glenandtyler.com\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JB Sanders is back with a new &#8220;Geek Month in Review&#8221;! Click in for the tree of 40 fruits, Star Trek communicators, healing with ultrasound, and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}