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9 Awesomely Talented Blerds Behind The Scenes of Your Favorite Animation

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James Tucker 

Tucker is a prominent animation producer for DC Comics and Warner Bros Animation. He has worked on projects such as Justice League: The Animated Series (2001), Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008) and Superman: Unbound (2013). He also worked on comedy animated series like Pinky and the Brain (1997).

 

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Floyd Norman

Norman is one of the most important animators in Black history. He worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Ruby-Spears, Film Roman and Pixar. He was the first Black artist/animator to work for Disney, opening the door for many animators to come. He worked on Sleeping Beauty (1959), Toy Story 2 (1999), and Monsters, Inc (2002). He also has writing credits on Mulan (1998) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).

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Ghana’s Burgeoning Tech Start-Up World Is Showing the Innovative Spirit to Make It the Next Silicon Valley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2GFnnmKIs4

Whether you are talking about a Silicon Valley Roundabout, Fen or Wadi – there is no shortage of countries looking to adorn their mantelpieces with a hi-tech hub.

But in the developing world, and especially in Africa, getting that unique mix of tech and business skills together, not to mention investment, can be a big ask.

David Reid visited Accra, in Ghana to see a school for start-ups with big ambitions.

Source: Rana02

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Liquid Processor Cooling Innovation May Save Consumers Billions

University of Alabama in Huntsville researchers have developed a new cooling apparatus that could bring many changes.

Dr. James E. Smith Jr., Cuong Nguyen and Xiaolin Wang have invented a way to cool down processors without electricity, using liquid, and is more cost-efficient than the everyday cooling systems currently being used.

Cooling is possible because of the excellent heat-transfer characteristics of Fluorinert FC-72.

TechRepublic writer Michael Kassner explains that the process works because “heat from the computer processor vaporizes the Fluorinert liquid. Then the vapor being lighter moves upward to the heat exchanger. The FC-72 transfers its heat load to the exchanger, which in turn transfers the heat to the surrounding air. Removing heat causes the FC-72 to condense into a liquid that flows into the holding tank below the heat exchanger. From the holding tank, the liquid FC-72 travels to the processor where the cycle is repeated.”

The researchers made progress due to a $10,000 grant from UAH Charger Innovation Fund last year. The team has estimated that computer manufacturers could save up to $600 million and consumers could save more than $6.3 billion per year if the cooling innovation is used in future computers.

“Our system can absolutely work, and it can work for 12 hours in a stable condition,” Nguyen said.

This type of cooling system could possibly be used for propulsion systems for space travel and 21st century power delivery systems. Since the project is in the early stages, there are a large number of people who still need convincing.

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Epic Selfies and Hollywood Shots: 3DR’s New Solo Brings Consumers Into the New Era of Drones

Drones have been growing in popularity among professional filmmakers and photographers who would do just about anything to get the perfect shot, but a new drone has just been introduced to the market and is making it easier for even the newest of drone novices to capture stunning aerial shots on their own.

Thanks to 3D Robotics, the average consumer will finally be able to use his or her own drones to capture the type of shots that have long been reserved for those with years of experience piloting drones.

The $1,000 Solo drone offers a collection of helpful tools that make shooting with the drone easier while also providing new features that haven’t been available on drones in the past.

“We like to joke that we just turned Steven Spielberg into software,” Chris Anderson, the CEO of 3D Robotics, told NBC News.

That’s because the new features make it possible for anyone to capture the type of video that “a Hollywood director would approve of.”

“It has a simple controller, with a holder for your iPhone or iPad, which act as both the monitor for the drone and the remote control for the mounted GoPro camera,” Wired reports of the new drone.

It also features a panic button on the controller that will stop the drone in its tracks along with a flight simulator that will help new drone pilots learn how to control the flying device without risking serious damage to their $1,000 investment.

Other impressive features are the “follow me” mode that allows users to draw a path for the drone on the screen and the “Orbit” function that will cause the drone to create a perfect circular path around a selected object.

Solo is even making a way for drone users to capture stunning selfie videos.

With just one click, the GoPro camera will focus on the user as it flies away to create an epic selfie shot that would be much more difficult to get otherwise.

Perhaps the most innovative feature, however, will be the fact that the Solo drone is encouraging hackers to improve the software with their own tech skills.

Solo is being sold as an open platform, which will allow users to freely tinker with the hardware and software.

The Solo’s release comes at just the right time as more and more consumers are getting swept away in the drone wave.

In 2014, consumers spent $69 million on drones, and they are expected to spend more than $100 million in 2015 on the devices, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

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6 Things You Should Know Before Watching The New ‘Dragon Ball’

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The new series Dragon Ball Super will be written by creator Akira Toriyama himself. Toriyama is an active mangaka who has created works such as Dr. Slump and has worked in the gaming industry on games such as the Dragon Quest series and Chrono Trigger. 

majin-buu-2Dragon Ball Super will follow the aftermath of Goku’s battle with Majin Buu. At this time, there is very little information on the other villains Goku and company will fight. We can only assume that older villains like Cell could return.

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NASA Tests 10 Engine Plane That’s Half Copter and All Awesome

NASA revealed a new prototype drone with the capabilities of a helicopter and airplane. The Greased Lightning or GL-10 is a concept for a future aircraft with the goal to make drones and unmanned planes more efficient in the years to come. It uses 10 engines to maximize speed and mobility.

The prototype was developed at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Aerospace engineers Bill Fredericks, David North and Zack Johns are some of the members of the team that developed the drone. As they worked on the project, they had many different ideas about how it could be utilized.

“It could be used for small package delivery or vertical take-off and landing, long endurance surveillance for agriculture, mapping and other applications. A scaled-up version — much larger than what we are testing now — would make also a great one- to four-person-size personal air vehicle,” Fredericks said.

With news of Amazon starting a drone delivery service (Amazon Prime Air) to its customers, The Greased Lightning’s innovation may make attract other companies to join the drone delivery service.

According to Kathy Barnstorff for the NASA Langley Research Center, “The GL-10 is currently in the design and testing phase. The initial thought was to develop a 20-foot wingspan (6.1 meters) aircraft powered by hybrid diesel/electric engines, but the team started with smaller versions for testing, built by rapid prototyping.”

The plane is also very quiet even though there are 10 engines at work. Fredericks goes on to say that the plane is quieter than a lawn mower.

The Greased Lightning prototype will be the main attraction at the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International 2015 conference in Atlanta through Thursday.

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5 New Cloaking Technologies Set to Make Invisibility a Reality in the Near Future

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Earthquake Cloaking Device

Technology can solve many things at this point, even earthquakes. The diagram above shows how scientists at the Institut Fresnel in Marseille, France, plan on stopping seismic energy. First, the vibroprobe shakes the ground – simulating an earthquake. Second, rows of hollow cylinders act as metamaterials (man-made materials) that will reflect the vibrations away from the important structure and make it “invisible” to the “earthquake.” The whole experiment will have acoustic sensors to measure how well this works.

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