Well, it looks like Texas legislators are completely oblivious to human perversion, or they just don’t care.

In a short time, construction will begin on Interstate 69 in Texas. The Department of Transportation decided that it was a good time to begin placing new signs to announce I-69.

Of course, don’t expect these signs to stay around for long. The phrase “Future I-69 Corridor” just has too many perverted jokes to pass up.

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Imagine driving and having navigation details displayed right in front of you, on your windshield. You could see upcoming roads in real-time, using the concept of augmented reality to easily map your way to your destination.

There is a working prototype of this technology, though no word yet on when it will be available on consumer markets. As far as augmented reality goes, this would definitely be some pretty awesome technology to see implemented in future vehicles.

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The bridge is thermoplastic, and is sturdy enough to support heavy utility vehicles. Here’s a bit more about this interesting project:

The bridge spans the River Tweed at Easter Dawyck in Peeblesshire and forms part of the historic John Buchan Way. It was built off-site and assembled in just 4 days by an outstanding team from Glendinning Groundworks Ltd, a local Peeblesshire contractor, and 10 Field Squardron (Air Support), Royal Engineers. Being made from plastic it won’t rust, requires no painting or regular maintenance; and get this – is 100% recyclable.” – World Architecture News

Pretty awesome, if you consider exactly how much space 50 tons of plastic would have taken up in a landfill.

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Apparently a Japanese man in his 50′s was working as an air traffic controller in November. Maybe he was frustrated with his job, maybe he was being made fun of by his friends. Either way, he decided the best way to impress them, was to post the flight itinerary of Air Force One — Also known as the airplane that carries the President of the United States.

Anyway, America was understandably a bit pissed off. The man is currently being questioned, and may be charged with “leaking national secrets”. The Japanese seem thoroughly embarrassed by the entire ordeal, and worried that it might compromise their reputation for “handling sensitive information”.

Yeah, you think?

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The Ford Evos redefines the term “Smartcar”, with the ability to be cloud-connected 24/7. Sure, it’s just a concept right now, but Ford is planning to give the Evos its debut this September at the Frankfurt Auto Show.

Theoretically, this car could adjust its performance based on weather, your past driving skills and the mapped road conditions ahead. It could even “talk” to your house, automatically running your appliances on low-power until you pull back into the driveway.

Even though the Evos is just a concept, it uses technology that already exists today — the only difference is that it hasn’t been implemented in this manner. Even if this car is never produced, the concept itself is incredibly intriguing.

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As soon as you press a button, a life-size holographic image appears. “Bonjour! I invite you to go to your boarding gate. Paris Airports wishes you a bon voyage,” the virtual agent says, as the name of your destination flashes on the screen.

The tech behind these images is actually very simple. A rear projector displays the images on a human silhouette made of plexiglass. The “agents” and all of their dialogue are pre-recorded.

Paris isn’t the first airport to test out these “virtual” boarding agents. Similar experiments are being carried out in Manchester and London.

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You ready for this? Aircraft designer Michael Moshier, and test-pilot Robert Bulagaa are working on developing a fuel-electric hybrid car… that can fly. Well, more like hover. The craft would use the same ducted-fan technology as was used by Trek Aerospace in developing the SoloTrek XFV, which was a VTOL aircraft revealed in 2001.

Unfortunately, developing this vehicle will (obviously) take a significant amount of money, so Moshier and Bulagaa are looking for investors.

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Shell just one-upped Halliburton’s fracking rigs by announcing they’re going to build the largest man-made floating object EVER.

The floating island, err natural gas facility, will make U.S. Battle Ships look like the Navy is sailing Legos. At 600,000 metric tons the faux floating island displaces six times the amount of water the U.S.’ next-generation Ford -class super-carrier does. Also, it measures a whopping 1/3 of mile in length. That’s like playing football on five fields.

The massive floating vessel isn’t really designed to move. It will be moored in the same spot of the coast of Australia for 25 years, and tap into about 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas according to Shell. The facility will chill the gas to -260 degrees fahrenheit thereby shrinking its volume by 600 times, allowing it to be shipped to customers throughout Asia.

That’s right, this is being built for Asia to feed their rapidly growing energy needs. However, the technology behind the vessel is scalable, and someday we could see these enormous floating island-facilities around the world.

Oh, and they can withstand a category 5 typhoon (aka hurricane for western folk).

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Who knew the Center For Disease Control had a sense of humor?

In a rather out of character, but incredibly hilarious move the C.D.C. posted a how-to-guide on surviving a Zombie Apocalypse. The motive? To make their usual hum-drum press releases a little more entertaining.

While the tongue and cheek set-up seems a little out of character, it gives way to a serious analysis of what to do during an actual zombie apocalypse.

Identify the types of emergencies that are possible in your area. Besides a zombie apocalypse, this may include floods, tornadoes, or earthquakes. If you are unsure contact your local Red Cross chapter for more information. Family members meeting by their mailbox. You should pick two meeting places, one close to your home and one farther away

Pick a meeting place for your family to regroup in case zombies invade your home…or your town evacuates because of a hurricane. Pick one place right outside your home for sudden emergencies and one place outside of your neighborhood in case you are unable to return home right away.

Identify your emergency contacts. Make a list of local contacts like the police, fire department, and your local zombie response team. Also identify an out-of-state contact that you can call during an emergency to let the rest of your family know you are ok.

Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast.

The guide garnered a little more attention than typical C.D.C. blog posts. The amount of traffic actually crashed the server. Perhaps this will be an incentive for a newer, and more media friendly C.D.C.

I wouldn’t count on it though.

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This system that we have gives you capacitor-like power with battery-like energy. Most capacitors store very little energy. They can release it very fast, but they can’t hold much. Most batteries store a reasonably large amount of energy, but they can’t provide or receive energy rapidly. This does both.

That is University of Illinois professor Paul Braun, speaking of a new battery that is being developed at the university. This battery utilizes a 3D film that has shown that it can charge between ten and one hundred-times faster than a conventional battery. In regards to the batteries being developed by Braun and his team, the 3D film was molded into an actual 3D structure, which greatly increases the storage capacity.

While this technology could serve a vital role for those of you who own electric cars, Braun stresses that the technology could be adapted for other purposes. Case in point, the film could be used to help recharge cell phones in a matter of seconds, or be used to help power a defibrillator that wouldn’t require a “warm up” period before discharge of a pulse.

The future is now, people!

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