Hardware, Prototyping, and Fabrication
Pwnagotchi is without a doubt the cutest wifi-cracker I've ever seen.
🧱⛓ It turns out that some of the structural geometries that make carbon nanotube materials so strong also work when you scale them up and produce them using 3D printing. The result? Bulletproof plastic.
🧻 Is this article about a giant roll of Charmin toilet paper sponsored Buzzfeed content? Yes. It is crazy that Charmin has actually manufactured this item (plus the equipment you'd need to install it - although that was probably white-labelled)? Also yes.
➰ What if the fiber optics networks that provided information to cities could also gather information from them?
Software and Programming
Finally, an app that can tell if something is art or not.
Tired of the rudeness and vitriol of twitter? "Whenever you see a rude or abusive tweet, simply reply to it with '@GoodnessBot' and [the bot] will magically turn it into a positive tweet." A good idea, but I'm not of the opinion that bots on the internet will solve our core societal problems (if anything, they'll probably exacerbate them).
Sound control lets you use a variety of motion inputs to control new digital instruments - definitely something I'll be playing around with this holiday weekend.
AI and machine learning doesn't have to solely be the domain of expert computer scientists (at least for some cases), thanks to Google's Teachable Machine.
⚖ This one goes out to the handful of IP attorneys that I know read M&D: Can AIs own the copyrights on the content they create?
From recent M&D subscriber Ana: Google's AIs come through again this week with a tool that turns your shoddy scribbles into impressive icons.
Science, Engineering, and Biomedicine
🪐 There's a good chance you've seen other "size of space" websites out there (or on here - I don't remember what I may have shared on this topic, tbh) but this one is particularly impressive.
Dog vision gives you the power to see what your goodest boi sees (although after you use it you might not consider this a power - and you'll be glad they've got great senses of smell).
➡ While we're on the topic of dogs, scientists have come up with a more accurate method to convert dog years to human years, rather than just multiplying by 7.
Mapping, History, and Data Science
The 1920s was when, for the first time, more people in the US lived in cities than in the countryside. More recently, however, cities have become even more of a nexus of power, with the age of winner-take-all cities resulting in hyper-concentrations of resources, talent..., and inequality.
🥁 It takes a certain kind of dedication to build a drum machine out of an excel spreadsheet.
Here's a reasonably exhaustive list of video game console logos.
You're either going to love or hate this map of the most popular jingles in each US state.
Also from Ana: Information is Beautiful is going beyond the headlines with an informative data visualization covering one news story per day.
Events and Opportunities
Get ready for some of the last events of 2019 (it's still a pretty long list)...
Tuesday, 12/3 Join NYDesigns for their December Women in Tech Happy Hour, happening at Bierocracy in LIC. As always, Men and individuals who identify as female are welcome to attend, too.
Tuesday, 12/3 The Transit Techies are back with the December edition of their meetup. As always, you can expect great talks and awesome maps and data visualizations, plus lots of cool people to talk to.
Tuesday, 12/3 Join Cornell's BioVenture ELab for the 2019 Accelerating BioVenture Innovation Final Pitch, the culmination of their annual Fall course and training program in biomedical entrepreneurship known as Accelerating BioVenture Innovation. Some of Cornell's most exciting life science innovations will be on display.
Monday, 12/9 New Lab and JLABS are back with the 6th edition of their existential medicine series, this time covering the promise of personalized medicine and how innovations in computing and biology may actually get us to a world where medicine is tailored to each individual. Register with code NewLab2019.
Wednesday, 12/11 Join the SciArt group for their December Synapse mixer, a a casual evening of cross-disciplinary networking over drinks at favorite laid-back city bar, Peculier Pub. Come to discuss your latest projects and make new connections with artists, scientists, technologists, and cross-disciplinary practitioners.
Thursday, 12/12 Head over to A/D/O in Greenpoint for Women in 3D Printing's next event. They've put together a jam-packed itinerary prepared with activations from local companies and kickass women in the NYC 3D printing industry speaking on the topic of community.
Thursday, 12/12 The new NYC Health Professionals networking group is holding their first meetup over at Clinton Hall in west Midtown. Based on the existing RSVPs, there promises to be a great mix of innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and practitioners.
Some other upcoming events to keep on your radar...
Wednesday, 12/18 The Mid Atlantic Bio Angles host their annual end-of-the-year 1st Pitch event, featuring the year's 1st Pitch winners from New York and Pennsylvania going head to head pitching biotech angel investors and getting the business critiques that would normally happen after they leave the room. The 1st Pitch events are always a great gathering of the NYC biotech community, but the year-end Best of the Best events are especially so.
Wednesday, 12/18 JLABS hosts their December Innovators and Entrepreneurs mixer giving attendees a chance to meet the current JLABS residents, the NYC team and not to mention, expand your network with fellow NYC Innovators and entrepreneurs.
Thursday, 12/19 Join the most friendly and fun group of scientists and engineers in the city for the inaugural Nanotech NYC Holiday Party! Meet up for great conversation and laughter at the CUNY Graduate Center from 6:30-9:30PM. There'll be food, drinks, and music - and all are welcome to attend!
DUE Friday, 1/17 Apply to NYDesigns Hardware Accelerator, a program designed to provide early-stage hardware entrepreneurs with access to prototyping facilities; light industrial manufacturing space to build, assemble and distribute products, and an expert team of investors, mentors and manufacturers.
Map of the Month
The Urban Archive takes tons of historical photos of New York City and aggregates them all onto one map for you to peruse for hours on end.