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Star Wars: The Old Republic announces economic adjustments
Economic upheaval is coming to the galaxy in Star Wars: The Old Republic's patch 1.1.5. A series of rumors and announcements from major organizations across the galaxy have been published on the official site in order to give players some insight into the upcoming changes. From all of the delicious lore tidbits, we find out that the speeder manufacturer Korrealis is retiring its Sovereign, Prince, Baron, and Commander speeders, while the Tirsa Industrial Consortium has quietly removed its Prime model speeders from the market. As a result of this decision, all of the aforementioned models are now steeply discounted, so grab them while they last. Meanwhile, the Republic Senate's Committee on Transportation and Public Safety has decided to lower the cost of speeder licenses. Speeder purchase taxes, however, are being raised in response to this move. The Imperial Transportation Authority recently passed a similar law. To top it off, the Republic has recently come into possession of some previously Empire-owned purple color crystals, and both Republic and Empire merchants have some into possession of some very rare -- and very expensive -- white color crystals. Market speculators, start your engines; there's money to be made!
ASSET speed camera also checks your seatbelt, insurance, can call the police all by its lonesome
Speed cameras have dubious legality in many places here in the States, but over in Europe they're an ugly fact of life. Now they're getting smarter, and the first is going into deployment in Finland. It's called ASSET, the Advanced Safety and Driver Support for Essential Road Transport, which confusingly abbreviates to ASDSERT and is the product of £7 million in government funding and years of development. Each of the £50,000 (about $80,000) cameras can naturally tell just how fast you're going and, if you're speeding, take a picture of you and your license plate number. That's just the beginning. It can also look up the status of your insurance, tell if you're wearing a seatbelt, and ding you for tailgating, all while sitting alone on the side of the road, relying on a wireless data connection and an internal generator to be totally self-sufficient. Whether or not this is scary depends largely on your propensity for speed, but know that the things will be getting built into police cars soon and will shortly be heading over here to our big, wide American highways
LED-encrusted speed bump flattens out when you're not flat-out
Speed bumps are supposed to punish the speeders and minimally offend those abiding by the legal limits. But, as all drivers know, crossing the things sucks at any speed and, regardless of how brightly painted they are, they're easy to miss until you're finding out the hard way just what kind of suspension travel your ride offers. A smarter bump from designers Jae-yun Kim and Jong-Su Lee could be the answer. Unlike the ones we've covered in the past, this one stays up all the time, using a small damper inside to flatten out when a car drives over it at low speed. The higher force applied by a faster car would prevent the bump from lowering and, presumably, ruin that dastardly speeder's day. The things are also festooned with LEDs on the front, back, and sides, which might just mean you'd be able to see this one in time to save your dubs from destruction.[Via Techie Diva]
