Friday Linkapalooza for April 11, 2014

CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGY

Google is piloting a project called “Loon” that involves using balloons to deliver Internet service.

Another cool new gadget from Amazon called the Dash allows you to scan items and add them directly to your AmazonFresh account. AmazonFresh is a grocery service presently serving only a few locations, but don’t be surprised if you see it more places, and soon.

Do you have both a laptop and an iPad? This article outlines a writer’s experiment of replacing his laptop with an iPad.

CURRENT EVENTS

The U.S. Army plans to start a cyber warfare academy, gathering the country’s best hackers, mathematicians, and engineers to defend the country and its government from online attacks.

This fascinating article discusses our country’s “annual energy consumption”.

HUMAN INTEREST

A letter in a bottle was pulled out of the Baltic Sea this week, and it turns out it’s been floating around for 100 years.

A tech CEO spent several years and several million dollars to create a dream truck for his young daughter.

HEALTH AND MEDICINE

Have antibiotics made it easier for us to get ill, and harder for us to get well? This article brings up some interesting questions.

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (called HOT for short) uses satellite technology to makes maps of areas hit hard by devastating diseases like cholera or the Ebola virus, allowing humanitarian organizations to better plan and give assistance.

ARTS AND CULTURE

The latest idea for a film from Pixar looks ambitious, and is creating a lot of buzz.

This week we lost one of the greats: Mickey Rooney.

A clever graphic artist has inserted social media icons into classic paintings for an interesting effect and commentary.