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Rain may soon be an effective source of renewable energy
There have been numerous attempt to generate electricity using rain, but this may be one of the more effective solutions yet. Researchers have developed a generator that uses a field-effect transistor-style structure to instantly produce a surprisingly high voltage from water drops -- a single drop can muster 140V, or enough power to briefly light up 100 small LED bulbs. Earlier generators without the structure produced "thousands" of times less instant power density, the scientists said.
It rains sunscreen on this 'hot Jupiter' exoplanet
Anyone who can conjure up a way to collect resources from Kepler-13Ab in the far future could become a sunscreen magnate. On the heavenly body, one of the hottest Jupiter-sized exoplanets the mission has ever discovered, titanium oxide falls from the skies. The planet is so close to its host star that, like our moon, one side permanently faces Kepler-13A while the other is permanently in darkness. This titanium oxide "snowfall" takes place on the dark side, because winds tend to carry it to colder areas.
India is building a monsoon-predicting supercomputer
In India, monsoons are big business. If the country has a healthy rainy season, its agricultural industry thrives and helps account for a fifth of the total value of its goods and services. It's vitally important for meteorologists to predict when those rains will come, so instead of utilizing numerical or statistical predictions -- which once failed to predict India's biggest drought in 40 years in 2009 -- the country is spending $60 million on a supercomputer that could give farmers the advance notice they need to plant crops and increase yields.
Solar cell generates power from raindrops
Rain is normally a solar energy cell's worst nightmare, but a team of Chinese scientists could make it a tremendous ally. They've developed a solar cell with an atom-thick graphene layer that harvests energy from raindrops, making it useful even on the gloomiest days. Water actually sticks to the graphene, creating a sort of natural capacitor -- the sharp difference in energy between the graphene's electrons and the water's ions produces electricity.
ICYMI: Water-repellent coating, elite air travel and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-590267{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-590267, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-590267{width:570px;display:block;}try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-590267").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Rice University scientists came up with a new kind of water-repellent coating that is modeled on the lotus leaf. Australians have their first ever remotely controlled firefighting robot that is capable of firing a water cannon up to 90 feet. And Windspeed Technologies, an aerospace engineering firm, just upped the luxe travel game by putting a dome at the top of an aircraft with top 'o the plane seating for those you can pay for it.
PSN Christmas Euro-deals continue with Rain, Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut
If all you wanted for Christmas was a set of PlayStation Europe deals on Rain and Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut, we'd say you ought to expand your horizons. As such, it's not for us to judge your lack of imagination, but to simply inform you that a Christmas miracle happened, and all your wants have been met. Huz-zah. So, shun that 179-gear mountain bike and that Game of Thrones box set complete with 100 percent genuine dragon eggs, and make your Christmas complete by grabbing PS3 artistic puzzler Rain for £5.49 (€7/AU$10.35) and the enhanced Director's Cut of The Lone Survivor on Vita for £4.79 (€6/AU$8.85). Those prices drop an additional 10 percent for PlayStation Plus members, and as with all the discounts in PlayStation Europe's 12 Deals of Christmas campaign, they'll be available for 48 hours across today and tomorrow.
PSN Tuesday: NBA 2K14, Rain, Fatal Frame 3
Sony has issued its latest PlayStation Store update today, headlined by NBA 2K14. Sony's Japan Studio makes a splash with Rain today as well, and Fatal Frame 3 scares up a spot in the PS2 Classics section. PS Plus subscribers can transport themselves to the kingdoms of Amalur this week with a free PS3 download of Reckoning. Discounts have been extended to select THQ games such as Darksiders 2 and Red Faction: Armageddon, as well as Rocksmith and Persona 4: Golden. Finally, rounding out this week's offerings is the chance to be Ellen Page in a free demo for Beyond: Two Souls.
Rain review: A steady drizzle
There are many different kinds of rain. The shower that comes out of nowhere and is gone just as quickly. The driving storm that makes you think about building an ark. The gentle mist that makes the summer air even thicker. And then there's the steady, relentless thrumming of drops beating a steady staccato on your roof, never slackening, never intensifying, just monotonously droning on and turning your day into a doleful shade of headache gray. Rain, the latest from Sony's Japan Studio and PlayStation CAMP, falls into that last category.
Rain drops on PSN this October
Rain, Sony Japan Studio's adventure game that has players guiding the silhouette of an invisible boy through a downpour, will launch on October 1 through PSN, Sony announced. The PS3 exclusive game will cost $14.99. Those who pre-order Rain before September 30 will also receive a dynamic theme, 5 avatars, a musical montage and static theme in addition to "a few pieces of exclusive content." Aside from letting Rain's release date slip, Sony also offered up a new developer diary video for the game, which is centered around its music.
Soak up the world of Rain in new developer diary
This developer diary video for Rain explores the ways players will interact with and affect the game's wet environments when it launches this fall on PS3.
Rain: Boy meets invisible girl
The concept at the heart of Rain is magical. Looking out his window, a boy witness an invisible girl, her silhouette revealed by the rain as she runs splashing through the night. She's followed by another invisible entity outlined by the rain, a ferocious bipedal monster, which is referred to only as an "unknown." Fearing for the girl's life, the boy chases after her, following her and the monster through a strange door of light. Emerging on the other side, the boy finds himself in different though familiar world. It looks like his own, a seemingly European city filled with alleyways, though this world is cloaked in perpetual night and never-ending rain. In this world, he too is invisible, his presence revealed only by the rain pattering against his body. The boy sets off in search of the girl, looking for answers. Is he cursed to remain invisible? Can he ever return to his own world? Those will have to wait though, as the boy is soon running from a pack of different four-legged monsters. He quickly discovers that invisibility has its advantages. By hiding under structures so that the rain doesn't give away his position, the monsters can no longer see him. Normally, this sort of storybook world would be right up my alley (see: my Unfinished Swan review), but I'm afraid Rain's big trick may be its only trick.%Gallery-189816%
Sony-sponsored 'EToo' event in London is an alternate to E3
Londoners not attending E3 this year have a video game-centric event of their own to attend called "EToo." EToo was announced as an alternative to E3 with both Sony and PlayJam's GameStick headlining the event as sponsors. The event's press release noted that over 30 developers will show off their latest games. Demos of Lost Planet 3 and DuckTales will be presented by Capcom and The Last of Us and Rain will be on display as well, to name a few. EToo will be held at the Loading Bar in Soho from Monday, June 10 through Thursday, June 13. The daily events will be free to the public but require registration in advance, while nightly livestream shows have a £6 entry fee. Hopeful attendees will have to act fast, as the June 10 evening show has already sold out.
Rain drops onto PSN this fall
And now the weather: PSN can expect Rain sometime this fall. The Sony Japan Studio game, reminiscent of Ico, sees you play as a boy who's only visible as a silhouette outlined by rain. He finds a girl like himself being chased by similarly invisible monsters, and the pair work together as they try to escape the perils of the night. With Sony Japan Studio forecasting Rain to arrive in a matter of months, it's no shock we'll be seeing more of the game in a couple of weeks time at E3.%Gallery-189816%
Fifth Avenue Apple Store experiences a water leak
The Apple Store on New York's Fifth Avenue is a veritable marvel of engineering, with its glass cube leading down into an underground space. But putting the store underground like that makes it more vulnerable to water leaks, and sure enough, that's what's happened earlier today in New York. The Post reports that heavy rain in the city caused water to erupt through the ceiling of the store, sending employees running and sliding tables around to protect the merchandise. The issue doesn't sound so bad; the water was mopped up quickly, and the store never actually closed. But the Post also says that one worker on site claims there's an issue with the stone slabs in the store entryway, which sit above the underground retail space. Incoming customers walk across those every day, and past construction in the area may not have been up to snuff. If that's the case, it seems there might be more renovation in the Fifth Avenue store's future -- hopefully the employees there can avoid another indoor downpour.
First Rain footage falls at GDC
Surprisingly, since the Gamescom debut of Sony Japan Studio's Rain, we haven't seen any actual gameplay footage. We've seen comparison images of Rain's environments soaked and dry, but now Sony's finally offered up some footage of the adventure game in action.
Seen@GDC: Rain's handmade pamphlet
Ken Suzuta, associate producer on Rain, put in the extra effort to convey his game's mechanics at a glance for GDC attendees: Suzuta created numerous pamphlets for the game by hand. Above, you can see the inside full of glossy cut-outs of game art, while just past the break is the other side, featuring an origami umbrella and the words, "A tale only the rain knows..."
Sony's 'Rain' shows its invisible world in a downpour of pictures
Sony's Rain stars a young boy trapped in an invisible world brought to life only by the rain – when it pours, the boy, a young girl and all manner of strange creatures are made visible, gallivanting around our own world. Six new images, separated into dry and wet pairs, demonstrate the breadth of emotion and action Rain hopes to achieve.The first set of images come with the tagline, "Sometimes rain reflects loneliness." The second reads, "Sometimes rain brings melancholy," and the third pair says, "Sometimes rain soaks through the heart." We'd like to add that rain also helps flowers grow. Check out all of the images in the gallery below.[Thanks, Roger!]%Gallery-183058%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Spate
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Eric Provan dissects the beauty of rain, hallucinations and mystery with Spate, coming to PC, Mac and Linux in Q3. What's your game called and what's it about?My game is called Spate. Spate is the journey of one man's descent into madness that is fueled by his addiction to absinthe, following the tragic death of his daughter. He is hired to investigate mysterious disappearances that have been occurring on an island offshore, and figures that he has nothing left to lose. The detective hopes to uncover some of the island's mysteries, but is finding it increasingly difficult to battle his own pain. As his absinthe use increases it becomes harder and harder for him to tell reality from fiction. Soon he finds he is fighting for more than just the missing people – he is fighting against the madness as well.Out of all the drinks someone can be addicted to, why absinthe?Truthfully, absinthe began as an excuse for me to make weird stuff. I love abstract art, and needed a logical reason to include it in the game. Today it is mostly debunked, but for hundreds of years it had been thought that absinthe caused hallucinations. This works for the steampunk theme, the gameplay, the story and the visuals.%Gallery-181301%
NASA accidentally improves weather forecasting with lunar dust-measuring lasers
Anyone that's ever tried to plan an outdoor activity in advance knows that weather forecasting is not an exact science, but the perpetual sky-watchers at NASA may have inadvertently found a way to improve these guesstimations. They have been testing a laser system for measuring lunar dust and soil kicked up by rocket exhausts, and while using precipitation as a substitute to calibrate the laser, they found they could measure the average size of raindrops passing through it. This value is estimated in current forecasting models, so plugging in some accurate numbers should make those predictions more reliable. The original mission hasn't been forgotten, though. Particles whipped up by landing rockets on the moon's surface could damage what was left behind by the Apollo missions, ruining its scientific and historic value. One of the laser sensors may find its way onto a craft vying for Google's X Prize, with the results used to determine where vessels can touch down whilst keeping a safe distance from Apollo landing sites. Although an accidental discovery, the system's other potential career in weather forecasting will also continue to be explored. Now, if only there was a way to make it rain and speed up the testing.
The invisible made visible in PS3's Rain
SCE Japan Studio's puzzle-adventure game Rain is a lot more intriguing, and its trailer much more quietly beautiful, when you can actually see it. Sony released yesterday's trailer online this morning, allowing you to get as good a look as you can considering the protagonist's invisible nature.
