Unleash the CRACAN

John Hopkins Applied Physics Lab released a video this week showing off its latest unmanned aerial vehicle. The Corrosion Resistant Aerial Covert Unmanned Nautical System, or CRACUNS, is a submersible UAV that can be launched from a fixed position underwater. It can stay under seawater for up to two months and still launch into the air.

http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2016/160317.asp

Marvel Internship competition for STEM girls

Marvel is inviting girls between ages 15-18 to submit creative STEM-based projects that have the potential to make the world a better place.  Five finalists will be flown to California, where they will present their project to a panel of experts and they’ll also get to walk the red carpet at the Captain America: Civil War world premiere, take a tour of the Walt Disney Studios and Dolby Laboratories, participate in a live global Broadcom Masters webinar and discuss their STEM skills, and receive a $500 Savings account from Synchrony Bank.

A grand prize winner will be selected from the five, and she will win an internship with Marvel. The deadline for entry is March 26.

HP Lovecraft Casting

Deadline reports that Ron Perlman and Christopher Plummer have been cast in the upcoming animated film Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom.

The story follows a young Howard Lovecraft who visits his estranged father in a mental institute. In the meeting, his father gives him one piece of advice, do not read the Necronomicon. Thanks to his loving mother who gives him the book as a gift, he reads it. In doing so, it sends him to a different world that he must try to survive in. During his journey, he befriends a creature that he dubs Spot and adventures ensue.

New MacGyver cast in CBS Pilot

Deadline reports that CBS has found its young MacGyver in X-Men co-star Lucas Till. The 25-year-old actor will play the title role in the CBS drama pilot MacGyver, a reimagining of the 1985 series about a resourceful and ingenious agent who improvises his way out of sticky situations using everyday items like rubber bands, chewing gum and a Swiss Army knife. 

Cartoon Network orders new FLCL episodes

This week Cartoon Network announced that they are partnering with Legendary Pictures to produce 12 new episodes for the 2001 hit anime FLCL (pronounced “Fooly Cooly") the story of how A boy's humdrum life is turned upside-down with the arrival of an alien investigator.

Nike’s Self Lacing Shoes

This week Nike announced a new line of self lacing shoes. Finally fulling the promise of Back to the Future 2. The shoes are called HyperAdapt 1.0, and use a series of sensors in the heel and sole of the shoe to tell how you walk and will adjust the tightness of the laces to match your walking style. Nike says the shoes operate on a battery that will last for two weeks on a single charge. No price or release date was announced.

Uber family Plan

Uber, the ride sharing service, announced Wednesday that it would be testing a new payment system that would allow one person, or business, to pay for the rides of up to 10 other people. The test will take place in Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix. The person who wants to be responsible for paying for all those rides sends invites through the app to everyone he or she wants to add to their plan. Once that invitation is accepted, all future Uber rides will be billed directly to the organizer, who will receive a receipt for every ride.

The idea came from feedback from riders who wanted a way to consolidate trip payments under one account, Uber says.

Express Drive

General Motors and Lyft announced a service called Express Drive. GM will provide Lyft drivers with rental cars for $99 a week plus mileage if you give fewer than 40 rides. Give 65 rides and you don’t pay anything. Drivers pay for nothing else except gas. The service will launch in Chicago with 500 Chevy Equinoxes. Boston, Washington, DC and Baltimore will follow

The Microsoft-Sony Crossover

Microsoft announced it is opening up network gaming to allow players of games on Windows and Xbox to compete against players on other platforms. Rocket League will take advantage of the feature with Xbox One/PC network play allowed later this spring. This means that PlayStation players could in the future face off against Xbox One players online.

Sony responded that they’d be open to a conversation ‘with anyone’ about cross platform online play. Please note that Sony has allowed online play between PC and PlayStation since it first came out.

Chelsea Handler’s new Netflix Show

Netflix's first talk show is almost here. Chelsea Handler announced this week that her half hour show, titled Chelsea, will premiere on May 11th, 2016. It will be filmed in front of a live studio audience and air on Netflix only 12 hours after filming. The show will run three days a week and remain up on Netflix permanently. 

Power Man release date

This week during the NYC premiere of Daredevil’s second season, Power Man himself, Mike Colter, finally revealed when fans can expect to see a whole lot more of Luke Cage.

Colter revealed that as of now, Luke Cage is set to release in its entirety on Sept. 30, 2016.

According to Colter, fans of Marvel’s other Netflix series have a lot to look forward to as the new series is going to be action packed from beginning to end.

Will Poop power your Car?

This week UCLA scientists posted a video of their poop based biofuel project. By altering microscopic bacteria, the UCLA scientists can feed waste polypeptides to the germs, which then produce biofuels and ammonia. Unlike traditional biofuels, the end product isn’t corrosive to metal. Which, in theory, means you could just fill up your tank with the poop fuel without any special car modifications.

This might be a great way to use up the over 1 billion tons of agricultural waste produced in the U.S. every year.

The SkyWall bazooka captures drones with a giant net

The SkyWall 100 is one of the latest device promising to protect the world from the impending drone takeover. It’s essentially a smart bazooka that fires a canister filled with a net at drones 100 meters away. Boom headshot.

An operator targets the drone and fires a canister that contains a large net that gets tangled in the drone’s rotors. A parachute then delivers the drone back to earth in a civilized manner.

Bionic fingertip lets amputee feel texture

The scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have succeeded in designing a bionic fingertip that can make amputees feel textures and even differentiate between rough and smooth surfaces. The team asked Dennis Aabo Sørensen, who lost his left hand in an accident, to test it out. He said the sensations it gave him were almost like what you'd feel with your own hand.

Fable Legends Canceled

In a press statement this week Microsoft announced that is has cancelled the latest Fable game ‘Fable Legends’ and has announced plans to close Lionhead. Founded in 1996 by Peter Molyneux and bought by Microsoft in 2006, the game studio has produced such iconic game franchises as Fable, Black & White, and The Movies. However, in recent years the studio has struggled with overhyped products and poor game sales.

Venom movie in development

Sony Pictures will develop a film based on Spider-Man villain Venom, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The spinoff is not connected to the upcoming Spider-Man film that the studio is co-producing with Marvel.

Dante Harper, who wrote a draft of Edge of Tomorrow, will serve as screenwriter. There is no director attached to the project yet, but longtime Spider-Man producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are involved with the Venom film.

Darth Maul: Apprentice better than the Star Wars Prequels

To a lot of fans, Darth Maul is the coolest character in the Star Wars prequels. This fan film, which took the crew two years to make, you get a great new Darth Maul story with all the bad ass fight moves you’d expect from the character. Darth Maul: Apprentice focuses on Darth Maul fighting a group of Jedi, and it features an amazing lightsaber choreography, stellar visual effects, and a story that actually adds complexity to Maul's character. 

Fuller House gets 2nd season order

Variety reports that Netflix has ordered a 2nd season for the Netflix original series Fuller House. The show has been only been available for a little over 2 weeks but seems to have proved popular enough to get the green light on season 2.

Disney Infinity Next

Disney released a video this week outlining their plans for the upcoming expansion of the Disney Infinity 3.0 line.

Disney plans to release four new Play Sets that are compatible with Disney Infinity 3.0 in 2016 – including Zootopia, and The Jungle Book.

Disney introduced three new characters: Black Panther, Ant-Man and Vision.

Disney is also introducing four-player local co-op gameplay to Disney Infinity called Marvel Battlegrounds. The system will also support all the Disney 2.0 characters.

Amazon adds the Tap and the Dot to the Echo family

The Echo has received more than 33,000 Amazon reviews at a nearly five-star rating since launching in late 2014 and was one of the best-selling items going for more than $100 over the holidays.

Amazon is now introducing two new members to the Echo family with slightly different uses in hopes of achieving a similar reaction: Amazon Tap ($130) is a portable version of the original Echo, and Echo Dot ($90) is a tiny, hockey-puck-sized version that includes a built-in line-out connector to hook into your choice of speaker.