Mark's Robot Body: We're getting there! (Reuters) - Dianne Ashworth, who has severe vision loss due to the inherited condition retinitis pigmentosa, was fitted with a prototype bionic eye in May at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. It was switched on a month later.

"All of a sudden I could see a little flash ... it was amazing," she said in a statement.

"Every time there was stimulation there was a different shape that appeared in front of my eye."

"When you finally grasp the magnitude of Apple’s play in the payments business, it becomes clear that potential competitors will be shunned from the platform. As Daniel Terdiman suggests in CNET, “New Apple features may leave fresh app roadkill in their wake as Apple is likely to undercut several existing third-party applications.” With the introduction of Passbook, Apple has launched mobile payments on iOS and competing virtual payment systems, including bitcoin, must be terminated."

Users of electronic cash protocol Bitcoin might soon have another way to access and spend funds...Charlie Shrem...revealed that his company was 6-8 weeks away from launching a Bitcoin-funded international debit / credit card that will be issued by two unnamed major banks: one international and one domestic...the card will function like a regular debit or credit account and should be accepted wherever MasterCard is accepted – virtually everywhere. The first 1,000 cards will be given away for free but after those have been spoken for, expect to pay around $10 for a card.

Whenever possible, when the law is ambiguous or silent on the issue at bar, the courts should let those who want to market new technologies carry the burden of persuasion that a new exception to the broad rights enacted by Congress should be established. That is especially so if that technology poses grave dangers to the exclusive rights that Congress has given copyright owners. Commercial exploiters of new technologies should be required to convince Congress to sanction a new delivery system and/or exempt it from copyright liability. That is what Congress intended.

A “surveillance-proof” smartphone app to allow people to make secure phone calls and send texts easily. The groundbreaking encrypted data transfer app also enables people to send files securely from a smartphone or tablet at the touch of a button.

iBrain is a headband designed to diagnose sleep disorders by literally reading electrical signals in the patient’s brain while they’re asleep. Now Dr. Low is working with Professor Stephen Hawkings to see if the device can be used to read thoughts directly from his brain.

3D printers are gaining in popularity, with uses spanning the spectrum from moon bases to firearms, but there's another area where the ability to construct complex shapes is beginning to provide benefits: getting high. Online magazine Motherboard has published the story about the slow but inevitable rise of 3D-printed bongs.

New Mexico residents are trying to a break free from Los Alamos’ nuclear legacy by creating more environmentally sound ways of living. At the forefront of this struggle is renegade architect Michael Reynolds, creator of radically sustainable living options through a process called "Earthship Biotecture." Reynolds’ solar homes are created from natural and recycled materials, including aluminum cans, plastic bottles and used tires. These off-the-grid homes minimize their reliance on public utilities and fossil fuels by harnessing their energy from the sun and wind turbines.