I’m declaring it a slow news week in the world of technology. Sure, there’s loads actually happening, but it’s all so boring, e.g.: Samsung agrees not to contest the sale of the iPhone 4S in South Korea…

*tumbleweed*

*crickets*

Few care.

Instead, here are my three cool things in the world of technology (and science) right now:

1. You may have heard of the Phantom HD before. If not, it’s an expensive, high resolution, high-speed camera. In other words, it shoots very high quality, very slow motion footage. “Who cares” I hear you say? But the Phantom allows us to see every day life in a new way. Where previously, high speed cameras were bound to a studio, indoors, the Phantom can go anywhere and still shoot 1000FPS at full 1080p (that’s a good thing).



Now, perhaps it’s just my inner stoner talking here, but I could watch this shit for hours, ‘neath a purple haze. Bookmark this one for that special session.

2. Continuing the ocean theme—this shit surely is bananas! Researchers at Duke University NC have discovered that certain types of squid, which are normally transparent, respond to blue light by instantly turn opaque.

See, the quid requires different camoflage depending on how old it is, which determines at which depth it hangs out (I’m really paraphrasing here), which then determines which predator it has to avoid.



Deep sea predators that emit a blue light cause the squid to turn opaque in a bid be not seen.

The amazing thing is that the squid turns from mostly transparent to quite dark in a fraction of a second when the blue light hits it. The big noise here is that this technology is only recently within our understanding… yet Mother Nature has been doing it for eons.

But will it blend? Yes; no amount of camo is going to save you in a blender.

3. Finally, here’s that bullshit, light-hearted story they play at the end of the news after the sport… (even though they just talked about twenty thousand people dying in a natural disaster).

According to Reddit, one of its users gave his Grandpa Aaron a bunch of console games to play. It actually did tug on my heart strings (whatever they are) for a couple reasons.

In an email (see below), Grandpa Aaron gives a wonderful insight into gaming—he points out things that we all take for granted but at the same time he points out how absurd some tasks in games can be.

Best of all though, Grandpa Aaron doesn’t display the fear of technology that many his age do (he’s 80). That and he genuinely wants to relate to his grandson.

I’m so with Grandpa Aaron on his comments about Red Dead Redemption; it’s a beautiful game and I like to wonder around and ignore the missions.

Next time you get owned in MW3, it could be by an 80 year-old man… (but, most likely by a 13 year old nerd).