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Better known as a world-famous luxury SUV icon, the Cadillac Escalade nameplate was also briefly attached to another body style between 2002 and 2006. Dubbed the Cadillac Escalade EXT, the “sport utility truck” combined the four-door luxury and street panache of the Escalade SUV with a composite pickup truck bed and expanded utility, making for quite a unique offering. Now, we’re rendering this modern Cadillac Escalade pickup that could make for a killer successor to the Escalade EXT. Granted, this isn’t the first time we’ve rendered a Cadillac Escalade pickup model based on the latest fifth-generation SUV. In fact, we...

Police in Peru Say Gang Members Killed People To Drain Their Fat For Cosmetics November 19, 2009 Gang members in Peru face charges of killing people and draining their fat for use in cosmetics, police said today. Police showed journalists two bottles of fat that authorities said were recovered from two suspects and a photograph of a rotting head believed to be of a male victim. The suspects allegedly told police the fat was worth $60,000 per gallon. Police Col. Jorge Mejia said three suspects who confessed to five killings told authorities the fat was sold in Lima, the capital....

The virtual worlds in computer games provide a realistic backdrop to the action. But step too close and the effect is lost – you'll see that textures and patterns are usually displayed on flat surfaces that look dull and artificial. A simpler way to add depth to textured surfaces could change that. The new technique can reconstruct the depth of a surface simply by taking two photos of it – one with a flash and one without (see video, right). Merely analysing the resulting shading patterns can capture the surface's 3D texture. Until now making realistic textures required the use...

SAN FRANCISCO--Intel is trying to see if millions of tiny robots can work together to create a coffee cup, or a model of a truck. Intel's lab in Pittsburgh, affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University, is showing off a technology concept at the Intel Developer Forum here this week called Dynamic Physical Rendering, which could ultimately lead to a shape-shifting fabric.Apply the right voltage and software program and the flat piece of fabric turns into a 3D model of a car. Change those parameters and it transforms into a cube. Dynamic Physical Rendering has grown out of the ongoing Claytronics project...

A vision system that helps soldiers plan a route through the chaos of the battlefield will undergo tests on both sides of the Atlantic. The system, called Primordial Soldier, will provide soldiers with a real-time picture of where troops are in relation to each other and a digital rendering of the route they should follow. It is about to undergo trials with US special forces and has been bought by the UK arm of MBDA Missiles. MBDA plans to carry out conceptual research on the system to learn how using such technology affects a soldier's decision-making capability in the field....

Dead cattle disposal poses conundrum for county By James Tressler The Times-Standard EUREKA -- Ever since Eureka Protein Co. abruptly closed its doors last month, farmers and ranchers all over Humboldt County have had the same problem: There's virtually no place for them to dispose of dead livestock. The bigger problem, some worry, is that with high costs and a declining market for the product, called tallow, it may be difficult -- and expensive -- to persuade anyone to fill the void left by Eureka Protein. A team of Humboldt County officials, ranchers and farmers met Monday to talk over...