You don’t need to be a physicist, a PhD student, a geek, or even a member of the Insane Clown Posse to appreciate the awesome capabilities of superconductors and magnets as demonstrated in this video by Tel-Aviv University.

An unidentified member of the university’s Superconductivity Group School of Physics and Astronomy shows off the quantum locking, or quantum trapping, effects of a magnet that’s been super cooled with liquid nitrogen. Now we’ve probably all seen demonstrations of super cooled magnets floating above a track before, with promises of them facilitating high-speed trains zigzagging across the country. But this video goes one step further, showing how the position and angle of the magnet can be locked in a magnetic field while it’s in motion. The moral of the story is that it makes for an impressive demo, and I better see hoverboards popping up in toy stores by Christmas. [Quantum Levitation via ASTC via Fazed]

Love the lede on this Gizmodo post.

This is what I always wanted out of voice recognition. When I first used Voice Control on 3GS, I thought was amazing, but then after awhile felt it didn’t do enough. Siri looks like a better take on the tech, and is a good base to build on. More natural speakers and the ability to call on Siri without explicitly summoning it would be a great place to start.

…then I see this: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert pay tribute to Steve Jobs (via tuaw.com)

It’s strange, and somewhat embarrassing to be affected so by the passing of a stranger. An influential and remarkable individual, that’s true, but a stranger nonetheless. I might just be vulnerable to the sentimentality of elegiacs such as these, but then again past reminiscences on the occasion of other note-worthy individuals’ deaths never had the effect these and others like these have had on me.

I guess it just seems like a light has gone out, the world is a little bit darker, and we are a little poorer for his loss.

If someone like me who has a very peripheral connection to the man feels this saddened by Steve’s departure, I can’t imagine how much more profoundly his dear friends and family experience his passing. My thought go out to them at this difficult time.

If you turn a political party into a church, as the GOP essentially now is, sectarianism will eventually emerge. In all its ugly, bigoted, negative manifestations.

The only way you can characterize the iPhone 4S as a disappointment is if you believed all of the bullshit rumors that have been floating around the Internet for the past few months.