A round-up of the latest technology news from around the globe.
FLY RIGHT: If you're a sniper you have to point your gun in exactly the right direction. DARPA's new electro-optical system will soon handle the aiming, ensuring even crosswinds don't send the bullet off course. An integrated spotter scope measures temperature, atmospheric pressure and other data relevant to improved targeting and sends that data wirelessly to the rifle. Ready, fire. More at MilitaryAerospace.
NELL'S DATA: NELL, the Never-Ending Language Learner, is a computer at Carnegie Mellon University that's reading the Web, aiming to teach itself in the same way humans learn. NELL's building a knowledge base and has built up 440,000 beliefs in the last 9 months. The emotion chip comes later. More at ML.
GOOGLE POWER: Google are putting funds into a new offshore wind energy system in the US. The wind turbines will generate 6,000 megawatts of power for America's East Coast. It's not just hot air. More at ArsTechnica.
SMILE, YOU'RE ON PARKCAM: Nice, in France, has more than 600 surveillance cameras on the streets. Intended to help authorities catch criminals such as drug dealers they are now to be used for detecting parking crimes too. Next it'll be for looking at someone the wrong way. More at RivieraReview.
CROWDED WEATHER: The Old Weather crowdsourced science project asks you to read through handwritten ship's logs looking for weather data. The handwritten logs are too variable for reliable text recognition, but the human eye can discern the contents. Marine weather data from early 20th century logs can help build up historic patterns as a basis for projections. The thrills, the spills, the weather reports. Details at OldWeather.
- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz
