Today, companies around the globe are advancing “Techlepathy,” technology-enabled telepathy, where the human brain interacts with computers, allowing us to do things like use brain waves to control our mobile devices, play video games and even communicate with one another.

Question: Is this a slippery slope? Are we exposing ourselves to things like mind control and computer viruses or, is this just another form of natural selection and a glimpse into mankind’s cybernetic future?

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the agency that controls government-owned land that isn’t a forest, has put a two-year moratorium on new solar power plants to study the impact plants have on the local environment. Note, no such moratorium is being made to study the impact of Mountain Top removal mining, a form of strip mining where the tops of mountains are blown off, and the resulting fill is simply dumped into the local rivers. More »

To date, the oil barons that profit from our dependence on gas have succeeded in stifling the rise of fuel efficient vehicles. Their influence on American automakers has led to the production of fuel efficient cars so bland that only the hemp-soap-using, Birkenstock-wearing population would dare to be caught driving. And while most of us concede that environmentally friendly vehicles aren’t cool, the students at Royal College of Art have worked to debunk the myth, designing green concept cars so fresh they’d make Batman wanna plug up the BatMobile. See them here.

The old maxim “Leave it to the experts” is familiar because it’s usually good advice. We wouldn’t let anyone but highly trained doctors perform surgery on us. But sometimes even the most elite of experts must be called into question when they get carried away. Let’s say, a group of world-class physicists wanted to use a machine that would unlock the secrets of the universe, but it was also capable of destroying the planet. Some might think it’s time to take those experts down a few notches, right? More »

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter, in response to the oil shock, addressed the nation with maturity and insight. He said the good times were over, and it was time to grow up, put on a sweater, turn the thermostat down, and get on with your life. Carter proposed a national solar energy bank, and said that in twenty years, he wanted 20% of U.S. power to come from solar energy. Leading by example, he even installed solar panels on the roof of the White House.

He was practically impeached on the spot. More »

Surprise. It’s that time again—time to bear gifts!

This week, we’ve brought you two new pieces of functionality. First, we’ve introduced the “See Also” feature at the bottom of each post page. This addition provide depth to each article and helps readers explore other relevant posts they may have missed. Second, We’ve added a “Recent Comments” feature to the sidebar. More »

What up people,

You may not know me yet, but I know many of you from your posts and comments. I’m Johnny Haze and I’ve been working with TROUBL for a few months now, mostly behind the scenes. A lot of what we talk about is how we love the conversation here, but that we can do even better. It is with this in mind that we’re introducing “Threaded Comments.” In short, we’ve made it so you can now communicate directly with one another and reply directly to each others’ comments. More »

In 1984, “The Terminator” gave us a glimpse into the future, where humans wage battle against more advanced and more lethal cyborg rivals. A concept that seemed so futuristic at the time has actually been around for decades and is closer to actualization than most realize.

According to a 2003 US Joint Forces Command study titled “Unmanned Effects: Taking the Human Out of the Loop,” tactical autonomous combatants, as the report called them, could become the norm by 2025. More »

Pine nuts, the edible seed inside pine cones, have been eaten in Europe and Asia since humans lived in bands of 25 to 100 members. During this era the human population numbered around only one person per square mile. The era is characterized by the use of stone tools, cave paintings and humans living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Fast forward as Dippold finds a new use for the ancient seed. See “PinHolo”, a tiny pinhole camera used to create microphotographies. Dope!!!

From the MAKE Flickr pool.

What we know as surveillance is changing everyday. More and more average citizens are being watched by public and private organizations. Take London for example, which has nearly 500,000 surveillance cameras around the city. Once the art of human observation, surveillance has now evolved into a technological discipline of spy drones and social network data mining. And although average citizens may not be able to compete with the CIA, we can still get our James Bond on with some of the top 10 barely-legal gadgets for the modern spy. See them here.