{"id":910,"date":"2013-04-08T15:20:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T15:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2013\/04\/08\/geek-month-in-review-march-2013\/"},"modified":"2013-04-08T15:20:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T15:20:00","slug":"geek-month-in-review-march-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2013\/04\/08\/geek-month-in-review-march-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Geek Month in Review: March 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by JB Sanders<\/p>\n<p>Spring?<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/science\/2013\/03\/giant-nasa-spider-robots-could-3d-print-lunar-base\/\"target=\"_blank\">More 3D-printing a Moon Base<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nI know, I just linked to a story about this. The difference here is two-fold. The folks here are a rival team with a better plan. First, they&#8217;re architects, so they&#8217;re taking the idea of 3D-printing buildings and running with it. Second, they have an idea to use microwaves to fuse the moon dust, which would mean the 3D printers sent to the moon wouldn&#8217;t even need binding agents. It&#8217;s a cheaper and more energy-efficient method. They think they can have the first module complete in two weeks, once their setup reaches the moon.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2013\/03\/05\/173435599\/wanna-play-computer-gamers-help-push-frontier-of-brain-research\"target=\"_blank\">Video Game Charts Brain<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nScientists are trying to map the connections between neurons in the brain, and to do so they&#8217;ve made their neural maps into a game. Players help work out the connections between neurons, expanding the map. They&#8217;re also helping the artificial intelligence behind the mapping program learn more about mapping.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/perezhilton.com\/cocoperez\/2013-03-06-dita-von-teese-michael-schmidt-3d-printed-nylon-paper-dress#.UTen3XzFIeO\"target=\"_blank\">It&#8217;s a 3D-Printed Dress<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nNo, really! And it&#8217;s got this very 1940&#8217;s glamor vibe mixed with a sort of scifi nod.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-21714906\"target=\"_blank\">Lord British Needs 1 Million Dollars<\/a>*<\/strong><br \/>\nRichard Garriott, creator of Ultima Online, is looking to repeat his success with a new massively multi-player online game. One of the reasons he says they&#8217;re kick-starting it (rather than just shelling out the moola himself) is so that the public has a say in how the game is built. Or maybe he&#8217;s just cheap.<\/p>\n<p>* To get the full effect, you need to use a cheesy voice and a pinky finger.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Non-Newtonian Fluid on a Speaker Cone<\/strong><br \/>\nThis video will either freak you out, or give you great ideas for special effects, depending on your temperament. It&#8217;s just cornstarch and water in a 2:1 ratio (forming oobleck), plus a little blue food coloring. But add in a little stirring and an ultrasonic sound source, and boy howdy do you have some creepy action. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"280\" height=\"157\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3zoTKXXNQIU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-21754924\"target=\"_blank\">3D Printed Jewelry<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s not &#8220;coming soon&#8221;, it&#8217;s &#8220;happening now&#8221;. Still a little high-end, but it looks like it could lead to an interesting trend. Personalized unique jewelry indeed!<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/krulwich\/2013\/03\/15\/174203234\/pacific-island-bigger-than-manhattan-vanishes\"target=\"_blank\">The Un-Discovered Country<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nNo, not the future. In this case, it&#8217;s islands that are supposed to be there &#8211; but aren&#8217;t. Including one near Australia that was supposed to be larger than Manhattan, but now has been determined to not only not exist, but to have never existed. Really.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/alltechconsidered\/2013\/03\/27\/175371800\/solar-powered-plane-uses-its-lightness-to-fly-in-the-dark\"target=\"_blank\">Around the World &#8212; On Solar Power<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nThe creators of the Solar Impulse plan on flying their entirely-solar-powered airplane around the world by 2015. It&#8217;s capable of flying day and night (on stored power). It has the wingspan of a Boeing 747, mostly to accommodate more solar cells.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mars-one.com\/en\/faq-en\/21-faq-selection\/241-can-i-apply-to-become-an-astronaut\"target=\"_blank\">Settle Mars!<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nThere was a rumor running around that the Mars One Project (those folks planning to build a commercial settlement on Mars) was accepting applications for Mars Settlers &#8212; but no. They are going to be soon, and they reveal a few of the qualifications you&#8217;ll need to be signed on. Chief among them, of course, is being prepared to move to Mars permanently. It&#8217;s a one-way trip.<\/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:\/\/glenandtyler.blogspot.com\"target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/glenandtyler.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JB Sanders has got a great &#8220;Geek Month&#8221; in store for you!  Islands that never existed, tickets to Mars, and Dita Von Teese in a 3D printed dress.  Oh yes my friends, Dita Von Teese.<\/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\/910"}],"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=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}