Meet the world’s first fully operational hummingbird-inspired unmanned aircraft. The “Nano Hummingbird” was developed by AeroVironment for DARPA, the United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The surprisingly beautiful and biologically respectful robotic hummingbird can fly indoors, outdoors and could be the future of reconnaissance and surveillance missions in urban environments. The Nano Hummingbird hovers, even in wind gusts up to 5 miles per hour, and for up to 8 minutes with no external power source....

Flying robotic seagulls have taken flight from a company calledFesto, which has a history in developing mind-boggling, biologically-inspired bots like flying penguins and jellyfish. Our friends atIEEE first reportedon the SmartBird this week, which is part of Festo’s 2011 Bionic Learning Network projects. The autonomously flying robo-gull weighs less than half a kilo and lands using its 2 meter-long wings. By analysing SmartBird’s flow characteristics, Festo hopes to gain insights that it can transfer to the development and optimization of hybrid driving technology....

US Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, recently blamed the perceived loss of American masculinity on liberal ideologies, video games, and pornography. Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in Florida last week, Hawleyasked the crowd: Still, can we be surprised that after years of being told they are the problem, that their manhood is the problem, more and more men are withdrawing into the enclave of idleness, and pornography, and video games?...

Everyone needs a little inspiration once in a while, and next week,NEXT – The Nordic EXceptional Trendshopin Denmark intends to deliver that in spades with a programme of speakers designed to “rock your worldview.” Bringing together some of the world’s most exceptional minds, the conference covers a diverse range of topics: Digital, Food, Green, Design, and Health. Speakers include Matteo Sardi, Head of PR at Ferrari, discussing how to become the world’s most valuable brand without ever spending a penny on advertising; David Polinchok, Director of the Media Lab at AT&T advanced Ad Solutions, a prescient ‘tech acrobat’ who has helped the likes of Disney, Nike, and the Grateful Dead gain from technological developments, and Jason Anthony, Vice President and Senior Editor at Time Inc, discussing combining gaming mechanisms with insightful new media applications....

In an effort to control what applications and services are used on the network, some Canadian ISPs are shaping internet traffic and throttling bandwidth. This type of app discrimination started to become apparent a few years ago when Skype was launched in Canada. Floods of users reported that for whatever reason, the application wasn’t working properly on their desktops. And the cause? Rogers was intentionally jamming the pipes. TheCRTC(Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) is well aware of Rogers’ tactics to slow down your connection....