Visa says they’re working on a credit cards with tiny screens that would let you see a record of your recent transactions, bank balances, and even the local currency rates when you’re shopping overseas. Still a few years away, though, since they still haven’t figured out how to make a credit card with a screen that doesn’t break too easily.

[Via TechDirt]

 

Thomas sez, "Thought United Airlines covered every possible title? Not a chance. British Airways covers absolutely everything including -- I kid you not -- 'His Holiness' and 'Her Majesty'. Because I'm sure the Pope needs air miles."

Mr Mrs Ms Miss Dr Herr Monsieur Hr Frau A V M Admiraal Admiral Air Cdre Air Commodore Air Marshal Air Vice Marshal Alderman Alhaji Ambassador Baron Barones Brig Brig Gen Brig General Brigadier Brigadier General Brother Canon Capt Captain Cardinal Cdr Chief Cik Cmdr Col Col Dr Colonel Commandant Commander Commissioner Commodore Comte Comtessa Congressman Conseiller Consul Conte Contessa Corporal Councillor Count Countess Crown Prince Crown Princess Dame Datin Dato Datuk Datuk Seri Deacon Deaconess Dean Dhr Dipl Ing Doctor Dott Dott sa Dr Dr Ing Dra Drs Embajador Embajadora En Encik Eng Eur Ing Exma Sra Exmo Sr F O Father First Lieutient First Officer Flt Lieut Flying Officer Fr Frau Fraulein Fru Gen Generaal General Governor Graaf Gravin Group Captain Grp Capt H E Dr H H H M H R H Hajah Haji Hajim Her Highness Her Majesty Herr High Chief His Highness His Holiness His Majesty Hon Hr Hra Ing Ir Jonkheer Judge Justice Khun Ying Kolonel Lady Lcda Lic Lieut Lieut Cdr Lieut Col Lieut Gen Lord M M L M R Madame Mademoiselle Maj Gen Major Master Mevrouw Miss Mlle Mme Monsieur Monsignor Mr Mrs Ms Mstr Nti Pastor President Prince Princess Princesse Prinses Prof Prof Dr Prof Sir Professor Puan Puan Sri Rabbi Rear Admiral Rev Rev Canon Rev Dr Rev Mother Reverend Rva Senator Sergeant Sheikh Sheikha Sig Sig na Sig ra Sir Sister Sqn Ldr Sr Sr D Sra Srta Sultan Tan Sri Tan Sri Dato Tengku Teuku Than Puying The Hon Dr The Hon Justice The Hon Miss The Hon Mr The Hon Mrs The Hon Ms The Hon Sir The Very Rev Toh Puan Tun Vice Admiral Viscount Viscountess Wg Cdr

Link (Thanks, Thomas!) Update: Johannes points out a glaring omission here: in German, someone with multiple PhDs goes by Doktor Doktor Doktor (und zo weiter), abbreviated DDDDr -- how does BA expect to attract hyper-educated Germanic people without this honorific in its otherwise exhaustive list?

(via Boing Boing)

 

Self-propelled swarming robot traffic cones: nuff sed.

The new road markers have been developed by Shane Farritor, a roboticist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in a bid to help reduce the $100 billion per year that the Department of Transportation estimates is lost to the US economy through accidents and delays caused by highway lane closures.

The self-propelled markers take the form of robotic three-wheeled bases for the brightly coloured barrels that are set out to demarcate road repair zones. Farritor says they can open and close traffic lanes faster and more safely than humans.

Link (via Boing Boing)

 

A Swiss/German research team have published an article in Smart Materials and Structures analyzing the feet of jumping spiders. These feet covered in nanoscale fibers depending from thicker hairs, and the overall bundle is small enough that the van de Waals force -- "an interesting form of adhesion is that, unlike many glues, the surrounding environment does not affect it" -- creates a very high degree of waterproof, grease-proof, dirt-proof stickiness.

"We found out that when all 600,000 tips are in contact with an underlying surface the spider can produce an adhesive force of 170 times its own weight. That's like Spiderman clinging to the flat surface of a window on a building by his fingertips and toes only, whilst rescuing 170 adults who are hanging on to his back!"

...The total van der Waals force on the spider's feet is very strong, but it is the sum of many very small forces on each molecule. The researchers believe the spider lifts its leg so that the setules are lifted successively, not all at once, and it does not need to be very strong to do this. All you would have to do to lift a future kind of Post-it® note is peel it off slowly.

Link

 

"The presence of unwanted or unknown animal species in food, can have a range of effects from benign to deathly serious and is of great concern for public health, economic, religious and legal reasons. Manufacturers and consumers alike have been unable to examine the composition of food at a molecular level. However, for the first time, the bioMérieux FoodExpert-ID Array is being used to detect DNA sequences specific to an animal, allowing species composition to be determined, safeguarding the purity and authenticity of food products." Link

 

 

Elmira Stove Works makes and sells repro stoves and fridges styled to look like 1850s and 1950s kitchen appliances. Link (via Pirotcar)

BBC NEWS | Technology | Fingertips 'read' text messages

"The sense of touch will in the future be added as the third communication channel to human communication technologies."

BBC NEWS | Technology | Fingertips 'read' text messages

It’s already the year 2004, dammit, so where are those personal jetpacks we were promised? Apparently, they’re in London, where a stuntman by the name of Eric Scott set a world record yesterday for the highest human flight with a rocket belt when he soared a full 152 feet into the skies over north London. The flight only lasted 26 seconds, or just long enough for him to develop a mean case of air rage. [Side note: doesn’t that photo of the big even look totally Photoshopped?]

[Via bookofjoe]

[Engadget]

 

If you’re the type to worry about these sorts of things (and we’re not exactly saying you shouldn’t be), there’s a new USB 2.0 version of the StealthSurfer, a USB key drive with up to 512MB of storage on it that you plug into a PC and that stores all the evidence of your nefarious websurfing activities (including cookies, downloaded images, the browser cache, etc) on the disk itself so that when you log off you take all the incriminating evidence with you.

[Engadget]

 

Spotted at this year’s Milan Design Week: a spiraling chandelier made out of thousands of Swarovski crystals that can display text messages sent to it from a cellphone. The “Lolita”, which has tiny LEDs embedded in it, will sell for over $18,000.

[Engadget]