SOCHI 2014: A Gold Medal Tie

History was made at the SOCHI 2014 Olympics. The Olympic alpine skiing event ended in a gold medal tie. That being Tina Maze of Slovenia, and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland.



They both went down the course in one minute, forty one point five seven seconds (1:41.57).



Although, for them they have a technology now to break down the times to one-one thousandth of a second to find the true winner, so it seems unfair that they wouldn't do that.

The reason why the Olympics chose to award the sport's first ever tie for gold, instead of breaking the times down even further, is because why the technology exists to break the times down to one-one thousandth of a second, that equates to about one inch, at downhill speeds, which is within the margin of error.

So, if the finish line isn't perfectly straight, it'd be hard to decide the true winner.

Olympic historian, Bill Mallon explains:



Nonetheless, earlier last week, the 1/1000ths were used to decide the Men's 500m speed skating race. How do you explain that? You think it's fair for the 1000th of a second to be used in some sports, but not others? Lemme know in the comments down below. Don't forget to tap that share button.

Musk's Vision: The Hyperloop

Elon Musk made a bunch of money when PayPal sold; and then he created Space X and Tesla Motors.



Not too long ago, he revealed the Hyperloop. He described it as the solar-powered, high-speed future of inter-city transportation.



Apparently, one of the reasons he was inspired to do this, was the high-speed train planned to be built between San Francisco and LA.



It's been greatly disputed; many people saying it is highly political. More importantly, it's going to cost seventy billion dollars!!!!!!!



Additionally, many people say that it's too expensive, too slow, and too impractical.

So, in walks in Musk's vision: the Hyperloop, aluminum pods enclosed inside of steel tubes that travel up to seven hundred miles per hour...



...that's too freaking fast!!!

According to Musk, the pods themselves would utilize air bearings to reach such speeds!

The Hyperloop would also utilize a low-friction pod system, in which Musk proposes, 70 pods would blast out every 30 seconds.



Regardless, the trip would take a super boring 30 minutes to complete.

Musk goes on to detail that 840 passengers can make the trip per hour.



His proposal paints a picture where an elevated track would run alongside the I-5 freeway in California, between Los Angeles and San Francisco.



The pods themselves would shoot air out, creating space between the pods and the track.



This creates the low-friction environment necessary for subsonic speeds, which will be achieved by an electric motor that would give the pod a boost every 70 miles. Just a little push.



For safety, the space between each pod would be around 5 miles; and of course, it would have emergency brakes. A lot of the train crashes that we read about every now and then, are because new systems have not been integrated.

Musk suggests that the price tag on the Hyperloop system would sit right around six billion dollars, but that's just for the people version. For an extra four billion dollars, the system would be able to ferry cars from LA to San Fran as well.

Paraphrasing, instead of a seventy billion dollar train, Mr. Musk believes he can do this for six billion dollars. Or, for ten billion, if they made the larger Hyperloop that people could drive their cars on. That'd be extra-large (pods) and awesome!!!

No one's stepping up to the plate to make this happen quite yet; and if no one does, Musk says he'll throw the time and money into building a prototype himself.

And, if it does become a reality, and it works, and people don't die in fiery, subsonic disasters, then the world would see these popping up between big cities everywhere. As long as they're no more than 900 miles apart according to Musk...



...any more than that, and it'd be cheaper just to sit your ass at home, and do whatever you want to do.

Google Self-Driving Cars: Technology Advance and Humans

In the not-too-distant future, there will be a fleet of self-driving cars that'll take people to different destinations.



I read an article on TechCrunch that predicted a future: 2023.

The concept that I don't actually have to drive while I'm in my car; maybe I could get more work done; maybe I could sleep, or anything; it's nothing short of amazing. It's absolute awesomeness.



It's not that crazy of an idea, Google Ventures is already an investor, and Uber, which is a car-service. I imagine legislation has been put into place where a human driver doesn't really need to be in the car, with a self-driving car (across locations). You can then use your handy-dandy Uber app, the car shows up, and there's no driver, the car would drive you to wherever you want, you input it. You won't even need to have any unwanted conversation, there's probably Wi-Fi in the car, you click to browse, and it's apparently safer because the technology has advanced so far. So far that the car can drive you to the airport and then drive itself back home, to take your lady to the grocery store.



It's all amazing things, except for the guy that'd normally have driven that car. Looking back, it's kind of history at this point: technology taking place of humans. That guy who'd normally have that job to support his family, no longer has that option.



And it ultimately wouldn't stop at taxi drivers, proportionately all transportation. So, you'd make the obvious jump to truck drivers. Literally, these guys can travel across a country with no sleep.



Basically, these truck companies won't have to pay self-driving trucks overtime (which is how human truck drivers feed their families). At the end of the day, your end result is a business owner who does not have to pay human employees; pay their health insurance; worry about their leave and their schedule; and you have a bunch of people out of their jobs.

Realistically, you (assuming you're the one in charge of the truck company with self-driving trucks) wouldn't be able to fire everyone, but you'd fire pretty much all of your drivers, and then hire a few other people to keep track of trucks.

The way I see it, in the future, affirmative action will no longer be about hiring a specific color or race. It'd definitely be about having a minimum amount of humans working on your force.

The Amazing Awesomeness of Bionic Limbs

Zac Vawter lost his leg in a motorcycle accident years ago and he never thought he'd be able to walk normal again. But today he can, because Vawter is a test pilot for a U.S. Army funded study on bionic limb technology. He's been fitted with the leg that comes from the rehabilitation center of Chicago's Center for Bionic Medicine.



They've described this as a mind-controlled leg. There's not a lot of buttons. There's not a lot of craziness. It's something that connects to two nerves in his leg...



...and when he thinks that he wants to stand up (like anyone else would), he stands up...



...when he thinks about his knee bending, it bends...



...when he wants to walk straight...



...when he wants to walk up and down some steps...



...he just thinks about it and it happens.

As of right now, they say the limb is close to flawless...



...with just a 1.8% rate of error.

Additionally, they said the only negative to this, is that the foot is not ready for running.

Ultimately, the fact that this exists, and it could be ready for the 1,200 plus veteran soldiers who lost limbs in Afghanistan and Iran; not to mention, after that the general public. I think that this is just too damn good.

The Two Real Reasons Why November 22nd Is So Significant

In video game news, Microsoft announced that the Xbox One is coming out November 22nd.



That date being pretty significant for two reasons. The first being that the PS4 will be beating them to the punch, releasing on November 15th.



The other is that it's being released seven days before Black Friday, which is, of course, the day Americans go out to the local Walmarts and electronic establishments, and destroy them with pure lust for electronic goodies and sales (that are, in fact, not sometimes even the best sales, but they look like they're the best sales).



And, it'd be very interesting to see which sells better (obviously in the grand scheme of things). I don't really care, though. Looking forward to enjoying both.

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The Top 100 Gadgets That Have Changed Our Lives

Very recently, there was a list compiled from a survey of thirty nine hundred (3,900) gadget lovers. But, I'm going to point out some things that I didn't think about and some that bother me.

The list starts all the way back in 1913 with the zip.



Zippers, a terrifying idea, interlocking metal teeth next to your junk. Nonetheless, it works and I always question people who wear pants with buttons.

Moving on, we go throughout the years:

Radio tuners.



The self-winding watch.



The modern day can opener.



Aerosol cans.



The colour television.



Radar.



Helicopters.



1941, the artificial heart.



I love that the Slinky is on this list...



...right before the Kidney dialysis machine.



Next, we have the Casio digital watch.



LEDs.



And then, Pacemaker.



The good old Sony Walkman...



...and then the CD version of it.



The world wide web.



And then, video games jump into the mix with the Game Boy and the SNES.

The iPod of course is there.



MicroSD, I almost forgot, that's a massive deal.



iPhones in 2007.



And then, in 2008, I've got a question, Beats by Dre?!?



Obviously, it's (most definitely) because, in 2008, Dr. Dre realized that a sub par product could sell really well with a really proper marketing campaign. And I type that as someone who has used Beats by Dre (the original one), and also used cheaper headphones that are far superior.

Moving on to 2009, we have Twitter (that makes sense).



That shit revolutionized news, and how information or misinformation could spread the world wide.

And then, we jump to 2013, were the PlayStation 4 has been crowned!



My problem with this, is that it's not out yet!! It doesn't make any sense!!! We're consumers right now, it's an "idea"! This makes about as much sense as getting an A before you take a test!! Or, I think, even more proper, Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 (Incase it's unclear, Obama was awarded that shit based on what he said he would do, rather than it actually happening. Yes, you read that right, he won that shit based on words and happy thoughts. You might want to Google it if you feel like I'm bullshitting).

Ultimately, the inclusion of the PS4 just makes me question the people who took this survey. Maybe they're time travellers.

Here's the full list of one hundred.



Now, lemme pass the question onto you: In the past 100 years, what do you believe is the most important gadget ever created?

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