Czeers MK1 prototype

The Czeers MK1 prototype is a world’s first solar-powered speedboat that can traveling at over 30 knots. It com

es with a carbon fiber frame, photo voltaic cells on almost all horizontal surfaces, and an LCD touch-screen control system. The MK1 have 10-meter long, 14 square meters of solar panels, and a 80kw of electric motor inside. The electric motor itself doesn’t use an oil, produces no fumes or engine noise, and quietly generates all its own power in a completely sustainable fashion. See the video after the jump

Avatars Anchor Your RSS Evening News
File this under str_ange. WebNews.TV is a RSS news aggregator software application that pronounces both your feeds and comments on them with funny animation movies featuring avatars (virtual reality characters). It downloads the latest news from your feeds and then shows them in TV like screen with funny characters. Each news character (world news, sports, technology, entertainment, etc.) is delivered by a different emotion of a single penguin (Hmm, is he related to Linux?) character.

HOW-TO: Make a 3D Video Stereoscope

A Stereoscope is a simple optical device to allow the perception of a stereoscopic or 3D image from pairs of aerial photographs.But this one being a mod is quite different from the definitions.

Scandinavia tops world IT rankings

The World Economic Forum has published its annual IT rankings and Scandinavia has come out in top place. Of all Scandinavian countries, Denmark has surfaced in first place in terms of adopting and applying information technology and telecommunications.

According to reports in the Information Age, the annual survey looks at technology use in 127 countries around the world.

Denmark picked up top prize for the second year in a row although receiving fierce competition from Sweden, which came in second place. Switzerland placed third. Perhaps most surprisingly, Americans came in fourth and Britons dropped in the rankings this year, from ninth place to 12th.

Despite the fact that IT is a growing industry in India, overall the country lost ground in this year’s rankings, slipping four places. China and the Republic of Korea were two countries which improved their rankings over the year.

Some of the lowest ranked countries in the world were Chad, in 127th place and Burundi and Zimbabwe.

The Global Information Technology Report considers the ability and desire of a government, business and individuals in a country to use and adopt new advances in information technology.

“Establishing a pervasive and prosperous Internet culture is as much about creating the right business environment as it is about adopting the right technology,” the report found.

PRI's The World: Technology Podcast 208

OK, last week's podcast was a little skimpy, so hopefully this one (WTP 208) will make up for it.

We lead with the recent brouhaha over iTunes in China. Turns out that Apple's popular music service went dark in China for a few days. Then it reappeared, but without a certain album, called Songs for Tibet. And then, the album seemed to be back on iTunes in China as well. Hmmm...curious. We have a report that tries to sort out exactly what's going on here, and why.

Then to South Korea, a truly amazing place to be a citizen journalist these days. Recent polling suggests that the Internet has surpassed newspapers as the people's choice for their daily news. Portals such as OhmyNews (english version here) have tapped into this, proclaiming that "every citizen is a journalist." But South Korea's leader, Lee Myung Bak, thinks Internet news has gone too far, calling it irresponsible. He's contemplating a number of measures to reign in outlets like OhmyNews. We take you to South Korea to hear more.

Commerical Brain Computer Systems are coming

All over the world, systems that directly connect silicon circuits to brains are under development, and some are nearly ready for commercial applications, according to a new report from the World Technology Evaluation Center and announced by a news release of the University of Southern California (USC). Some of the conclusions of this report about brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are quite surprising. For example, North America researchers focus almost exclusively on invasive BCIs while noninvasive BCI systems are mostly studied in European and Asian labs. If you don't have enough time to read the 234-page report, please look at my selection of four exciting projects from all over the world.