Photo credit: TU Graz
In a hot attic on the Graz University of Technology campus, air next to one water-soaked ceramic block measured nearly seven degrees Celsius cooler than the space around it. Kristijan Ristoski, who built the water supply into a full cooling wall for his master’s thesis, said the drop was easy to feel across the room. That block is a cube about 23 centimeters on each side, printed from clay, fired at low heat so it stays open and thirsty, then loaded with water.
Gavin Free of the Slow Mo Guys bought the LaCie 12big Thunderbolt 3 in 2019 because twelve 14TB 7200-rpm enterprise drives packed 168 terabytes into one desktop tower and Thunderbolt 3 could shove footage across at up to 2600 megabytes per second. That kind of space and speed made sense for years of high-frame-rate video. Seven years later the tower simply would not stay on. Fans sat still. After about ten seconds the whole unit powered itself down. Warranty had expired, the model had been discontinued, and Seagate’s answer was to buy a new one.
Microsoft shipped the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, priced at $111.74 (was $150), in late 2019 as a heavier, more configurable pad built around metal parts, an internal battery, and a profile switch that lives on the face of the controller. Years later it still shows up in living rooms and on desks because the basics have held: four rear paddles, tension you can set with a small tool, trigger stops that shorten travel, and a grip that wraps far enough to keep sweaty hands from sliding during long sessions.
On Friday at Lamborghini’s Sant’Agata Bolognese headquarters, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi stood with Chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelmann as a Temerario in official Polizia colors entered service. Prefect Renato Cortese attended for Police Chief Vittorio Pisani. A book called “I motori della Polizia,” a short record of the force’s working machines, was presented with the car.
Agility Robotics posted a short clip this week of Digit rearranging a room, dragging a couch and shifting chairs, bags, and household clutter as if the furniture were just another tote. That demo is the company showing off generalized manipulation: objects of different sizes, weights, and grips, moved through a space built for people. The same skill set is what Digit already uses on mixed loads and changing layouts inside warehouses.