New Posts to Wired.co.uk - News on Mar 30, 2014:
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Smiley-faced screw cheers up DIY
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/30/smiley-screw
A Japanese designer called Yuma Kano has developed a
screw that has a drive in the shape of a smiley face, and an
accompanying screwdriver that slots into it.
"The screw is one of the tools I use most frequently. I had been
thinking about the existence of the screw as an icon of mass
production, because screws are used and disposed -- they are
unnoticeable and ordinary," he told Wired.co.uk, adding that he
felt that the screw was a bit of an unsung hero in the tool
world.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive Blog Alerts (email notifications of new posts) for Wired.co.uk - News. If you no longer wish to receive Blog Alerts for Wired.co.uk - News, go to this link:
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==================================================================
Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
Monday 31 March 2014
Thursday 27 March 2014
Blog Alert for Wired.co.uk - News, Mar 26, 2014
New Posts to Wired.co.uk - News on Mar 26, 2014:
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Neurosurgeons successfully implant 3D printed skull
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/3d-printed-skull
A 22-year-old woman from the Netherlands who suffers from a
chronic bone disorder -- which has increased the thickness of her
skull from 1.5cm to 5cm, causing reduced eyesight and severe
headaches -- has had the top section of her skull removed and
replaced with a 3D printed implant.
The operation was performed by a team of neurosurgeons at the
University Medical Centre Utrecht and the university claims this is
this first instance of a successful 3D printed cranium that has not
been rejected by the patient.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Xbox One does a 360, reconsiders game sharing
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/xbox-game-lending
Microsoft is considering a return to the idea of digital loans
and gifting for its Xbox One games.
The company had been working on a type of family sharing before
the console launched with the intention that players would be able
to share the games in their library with up to ten family
members.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Feeble regulation of biometrics could 'erode privacy'
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/biometrics-privacy
There is too much inconsistency in EU legislation and
EU data protection regulation when it comes to biometric
data, says Julia Lodge, senior analyst at Adaption Information
Management and Technology, at the University of Leeds. "It's these
inconsistencies in law that could erode privacy and make
accountability and trust in legislation fragile. The moment that
becomes even more fragile and people misunderstand how biometrics
are being used, they may question whether the regulator is relevant
anymore -- or even the law."
Lodge made the warning while speaking at a panel
debate on the future of biometrics held by Nesta. Though many of the panel
members spoke of the boundless merits and possibilities the
technology brings, Lodge warned that the wrong approach could be
the undoing of personal privacy.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Remix Linkin Park with Project Spark game
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/linkin-park-project-spark
Linkin Park's latest music video takes the form of a level made
entirely in Project Spark -- Team Dakota's
digital game creation canvas.
Project Spark launched in open beta on Xbox
earlier this month and a trailer of existing Spark levels pointed
to a connection between the band and the developers as it was "Set
to the music of Linkin Park, Team Dakota's rock band of
choice!"
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
5) Get ready to have your biometrics tracked 24/7
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/biometrics-the-good-and-bad
It's already too late to stop the ubiquitous tracking
and monitoring of the public through biometrics, says Peter
Waggett, Programme Leader at IBM's Emerging Technology Group.
We need to stop worrying about prevention, and start working out
how to make the most of data garnered from that kind of
surveillance.
"We're fighting the wrong battle when we ask should we
stop people being observed. That is not going to be feasible. We
need to understand how to use that data better," urged Waggett, who
was speaking as part of a Nesta panel debate on what
biometrics mean for the future of privacy.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
6) Seals wear earphones to test impact of noise pollution
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/seal-earphones
Biologists have studied grey seals' sense of hearing by making
wild seals wear specially adapted earphones.
The researchers were concerned about the effect of acoustic
emissions from wind turbines on grey seals in the North and Baltic
Seas. Grey seals use acoustic signals for communication in air and
underwater, using complex vocal repertoires through a wide
frequency range, but particularly lower frequencies. This is where
offshore wind turbines also make a lot of their noise, and so their
operation may prevent seals from communicating effectively or make
a permanent impact on seals' hearing.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Dutch student offers up all his personal data to highest bidder
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/shawn-buckles-sells-his-data-soul
Shawn Buckles is a student from the Netherlands who
wants to sell you his soul. Or rather, he wants to sell you
everything there is to know about him, from his online viewing
habits to his thoughts and email conversations.
On 12 April, 2014, the highest bidder will receive:
Shawn's personal records, location track records, medical records,
train track records, personal calendar, email conversations, online
conversations, social media conversations, consumer preferences,
browser history and finally, his thoughts.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
8) Why ghostly false positives cropped up in MH370 satellite hunt
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/ghostly-plane-images-mh370-satellite-hunt
Volunteers spotted scores of ghostly planes while hunting
through satellite images for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight
370. Many of these false positives stood out because they
showed up as three separate brightly coloured airplanes, an
interesting artefact of the way many satellites record a scene.
The imagery above, hosted by Mapbox, is from a satellite
company called BlackBridge, which was among the many companies and
governments that contributed data to the search. Their fleet of
five satellites uses push-broom cameras to scan the Earth.
By: Betsy Mason, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
9) 'No difference' between stealing car keys and severing fingers
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/biometrics-stealing-body-parts
Cutting off fingers so that the prints can be used to
steal a car, is the same as stealing a set of keys to swipe that
car, says Peter Waggett, Programme Leader at IBM's Emerging
Technology Group.
The question arose during a panel debate held
by Nesta about how the ubiquity of biometrics could
redefine what privacy means in the modern age. Julia Lodge, senior
analyst at Adaption Information Management and Technology, at the
University of Leeds, cited the example of a driver having
his finger sliced off in southeast Asia so a gang could
access his Mercedes S-class.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Minecraft for Oculus Rift axed, Facebook too 'creepy'
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/notch-facebook-oculus
Minecraft creator, Markus 'Notch' Persson
has withdrawn his support of Oculus Rift in the wake of
the company's acquisition by Facebook for
$2bn (£1.2bn).
"I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with
Facebook," he stated in a blog post reacting to the news. "Their
motives are too unclear and shifting, and they haven't historically
been a stable platform. There's nothing about their history that
makes me trust them, and that makes them seem creepy to me.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
11) ?Mars in a bottle? simulates the Red Planet?s deadly dust
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/mars-chamber-simulates-deadly-martian-dust
The most dangerous thing on Mars isn't a 1-ton
laser-wielding robot; it's dust. And researchers have built a
vacuum chamber that can help determine how the probes and, one day,
human explorers we send there might fare against the mighty Martian
dust.
The schmutz of Mars has long plagued our robotic explorers. This
dust, composed mainly of magnetic iron oxides, tends to stick to
anything with a slight charge, including motors and electronic
devices. It can accumulate on solar panels, coating rovers
such as Spirit and Opportunity. Martian soot is even more
dangerous to humans. It is a strong oxidiser, meaning it could
interact with human skin like bleach or lye, and it contains
poisonous or carcinogenic compounds such as hexavalent
chromium.
By: Adam Mann, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
12) Nasa captures most detailed Milky Way panorama ever
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/milky-way-captured-by-spitzer
A stunning 360-degree mosaic of images shot by Nasa contains
more than half of the stars in the Milky Way. The images have been
captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope as part of Nasa's
GLIMPSE360 project -- or to give it its full title, Galactic Legacy
Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire. It's a big name alright, but a
project of this magnitude does justify it at least.
The panoramas have been stitched together from more than two
million photos that have been captured using infrared light over
the course of ten years. As you might expect, the use of infrared
light allowed the Spitzer to illuminate and capture much more of
the galaxy than can be seen simply by using natural light. Visible
light is frequently blocked out by a dust that infrared light can
easily penetrate. Stars and other objects emit infrared light,
which is then picked up by the Spitzer's detectors.
By: Katie Collins, [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
13) Here's what to expect from Oculus in the Facebook era
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/vr-social-oculus-facebook-era
If you asked me yesterday to start listing companies that might
purchase virtual reality wunderkind Oculus, Valve would have
probably topped the list; the companies have previously talked
up their close relationship, after all. Microsoft would have
been a strong contender too, likely to throw around its cash to
give its consoles and mobile products an instant leg up in the
brewing VR wars. Google has also shown interest in augmented
reality and Amazon is making noise about a game console,
so they both would be dark horse candidates for buyers as well.
But Facebook? The social networking giant wouldn't have even
made my top ten list of potential Oculus buyers before last night.
No matter, though; the company did actually purchase Oculus
for $2 billion despite my theoretical list-making skills.
By: Kyle Orland, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
14) First convictions made for pirating mobile apps
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/copyright-app-case
The US Department of Justice has secured its first
convictions against distributors of counterfeit mobile apps in
a case involving $700,000-worth (£425,000) of downloads.
Americans Nicholas Anthony Narbone, 26, and Thomas Allen Dye,
21, have both now pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit
criminal copyright infringement.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive Blog Alerts (email notifications of new posts) for Wired.co.uk - News. If you no longer wish to receive Blog Alerts for Wired.co.uk - News, go to this link:
http://shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/index.php?action=leave&r=66344&k=V4SSCVDPCVNJ33XG
==================================================================
Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Neurosurgeons successfully implant 3D printed skull
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/3d-printed-skull
A 22-year-old woman from the Netherlands who suffers from a
chronic bone disorder -- which has increased the thickness of her
skull from 1.5cm to 5cm, causing reduced eyesight and severe
headaches -- has had the top section of her skull removed and
replaced with a 3D printed implant.
The operation was performed by a team of neurosurgeons at the
University Medical Centre Utrecht and the university claims this is
this first instance of a successful 3D printed cranium that has not
been rejected by the patient.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Xbox One does a 360, reconsiders game sharing
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/xbox-game-lending
Microsoft is considering a return to the idea of digital loans
and gifting for its Xbox One games.
The company had been working on a type of family sharing before
the console launched with the intention that players would be able
to share the games in their library with up to ten family
members.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Feeble regulation of biometrics could 'erode privacy'
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/biometrics-privacy
There is too much inconsistency in EU legislation and
EU data protection regulation when it comes to biometric
data, says Julia Lodge, senior analyst at Adaption Information
Management and Technology, at the University of Leeds. "It's these
inconsistencies in law that could erode privacy and make
accountability and trust in legislation fragile. The moment that
becomes even more fragile and people misunderstand how biometrics
are being used, they may question whether the regulator is relevant
anymore -- or even the law."
Lodge made the warning while speaking at a panel
debate on the future of biometrics held by Nesta. Though many of the panel
members spoke of the boundless merits and possibilities the
technology brings, Lodge warned that the wrong approach could be
the undoing of personal privacy.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Remix Linkin Park with Project Spark game
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/linkin-park-project-spark
Linkin Park's latest music video takes the form of a level made
entirely in Project Spark -- Team Dakota's
digital game creation canvas.
Project Spark launched in open beta on Xbox
earlier this month and a trailer of existing Spark levels pointed
to a connection between the band and the developers as it was "Set
to the music of Linkin Park, Team Dakota's rock band of
choice!"
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
5) Get ready to have your biometrics tracked 24/7
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/biometrics-the-good-and-bad
It's already too late to stop the ubiquitous tracking
and monitoring of the public through biometrics, says Peter
Waggett, Programme Leader at IBM's Emerging Technology Group.
We need to stop worrying about prevention, and start working out
how to make the most of data garnered from that kind of
surveillance.
"We're fighting the wrong battle when we ask should we
stop people being observed. That is not going to be feasible. We
need to understand how to use that data better," urged Waggett, who
was speaking as part of a Nesta panel debate on what
biometrics mean for the future of privacy.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
6) Seals wear earphones to test impact of noise pollution
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/seal-earphones
Biologists have studied grey seals' sense of hearing by making
wild seals wear specially adapted earphones.
The researchers were concerned about the effect of acoustic
emissions from wind turbines on grey seals in the North and Baltic
Seas. Grey seals use acoustic signals for communication in air and
underwater, using complex vocal repertoires through a wide
frequency range, but particularly lower frequencies. This is where
offshore wind turbines also make a lot of their noise, and so their
operation may prevent seals from communicating effectively or make
a permanent impact on seals' hearing.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Dutch student offers up all his personal data to highest bidder
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/shawn-buckles-sells-his-data-soul
Shawn Buckles is a student from the Netherlands who
wants to sell you his soul. Or rather, he wants to sell you
everything there is to know about him, from his online viewing
habits to his thoughts and email conversations.
On 12 April, 2014, the highest bidder will receive:
Shawn's personal records, location track records, medical records,
train track records, personal calendar, email conversations, online
conversations, social media conversations, consumer preferences,
browser history and finally, his thoughts.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
8) Why ghostly false positives cropped up in MH370 satellite hunt
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/ghostly-plane-images-mh370-satellite-hunt
Volunteers spotted scores of ghostly planes while hunting
through satellite images for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight
370. Many of these false positives stood out because they
showed up as three separate brightly coloured airplanes, an
interesting artefact of the way many satellites record a scene.
The imagery above, hosted by Mapbox, is from a satellite
company called BlackBridge, which was among the many companies and
governments that contributed data to the search. Their fleet of
five satellites uses push-broom cameras to scan the Earth.
By: Betsy Mason, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
9) 'No difference' between stealing car keys and severing fingers
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/biometrics-stealing-body-parts
Cutting off fingers so that the prints can be used to
steal a car, is the same as stealing a set of keys to swipe that
car, says Peter Waggett, Programme Leader at IBM's Emerging
Technology Group.
The question arose during a panel debate held
by Nesta about how the ubiquity of biometrics could
redefine what privacy means in the modern age. Julia Lodge, senior
analyst at Adaption Information Management and Technology, at the
University of Leeds, cited the example of a driver having
his finger sliced off in southeast Asia so a gang could
access his Mercedes S-class.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Minecraft for Oculus Rift axed, Facebook too 'creepy'
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/notch-facebook-oculus
Minecraft creator, Markus 'Notch' Persson
has withdrawn his support of Oculus Rift in the wake of
the company's acquisition by Facebook for
$2bn (£1.2bn).
"I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with
Facebook," he stated in a blog post reacting to the news. "Their
motives are too unclear and shifting, and they haven't historically
been a stable platform. There's nothing about their history that
makes me trust them, and that makes them seem creepy to me.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
11) ?Mars in a bottle? simulates the Red Planet?s deadly dust
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/mars-chamber-simulates-deadly-martian-dust
The most dangerous thing on Mars isn't a 1-ton
laser-wielding robot; it's dust. And researchers have built a
vacuum chamber that can help determine how the probes and, one day,
human explorers we send there might fare against the mighty Martian
dust.
The schmutz of Mars has long plagued our robotic explorers. This
dust, composed mainly of magnetic iron oxides, tends to stick to
anything with a slight charge, including motors and electronic
devices. It can accumulate on solar panels, coating rovers
such as Spirit and Opportunity. Martian soot is even more
dangerous to humans. It is a strong oxidiser, meaning it could
interact with human skin like bleach or lye, and it contains
poisonous or carcinogenic compounds such as hexavalent
chromium.
By: Adam Mann, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
12) Nasa captures most detailed Milky Way panorama ever
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/milky-way-captured-by-spitzer
A stunning 360-degree mosaic of images shot by Nasa contains
more than half of the stars in the Milky Way. The images have been
captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope as part of Nasa's
GLIMPSE360 project -- or to give it its full title, Galactic Legacy
Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire. It's a big name alright, but a
project of this magnitude does justify it at least.
The panoramas have been stitched together from more than two
million photos that have been captured using infrared light over
the course of ten years. As you might expect, the use of infrared
light allowed the Spitzer to illuminate and capture much more of
the galaxy than can be seen simply by using natural light. Visible
light is frequently blocked out by a dust that infrared light can
easily penetrate. Stars and other objects emit infrared light,
which is then picked up by the Spitzer's detectors.
By: Katie Collins, [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
13) Here's what to expect from Oculus in the Facebook era
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/vr-social-oculus-facebook-era
If you asked me yesterday to start listing companies that might
purchase virtual reality wunderkind Oculus, Valve would have
probably topped the list; the companies have previously talked
up their close relationship, after all. Microsoft would have
been a strong contender too, likely to throw around its cash to
give its consoles and mobile products an instant leg up in the
brewing VR wars. Google has also shown interest in augmented
reality and Amazon is making noise about a game console,
so they both would be dark horse candidates for buyers as well.
But Facebook? The social networking giant wouldn't have even
made my top ten list of potential Oculus buyers before last night.
No matter, though; the company did actually purchase Oculus
for $2 billion despite my theoretical list-making skills.
By: Kyle Orland, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
14) First convictions made for pirating mobile apps
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/copyright-app-case
The US Department of Justice has secured its first
convictions against distributors of counterfeit mobile apps in
a case involving $700,000-worth (£425,000) of downloads.
Americans Nicholas Anthony Narbone, 26, and Thomas Allen Dye,
21, have both now pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit
criminal copyright infringement.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive Blog Alerts (email notifications of new posts) for Wired.co.uk - News. If you no longer wish to receive Blog Alerts for Wired.co.uk - News, go to this link:
http://shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/index.php?action=leave&r=66344&k=V4SSCVDPCVNJ33XG
==================================================================
Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
Wednesday 26 March 2014
Blog Alert for Wired.co.uk - News, Mar 25, 2014
New Posts to Wired.co.uk - News on Mar 25, 2014:
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Facebook buys virtual reality specialist Oculus VR
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/facebook-buys-oculus-vr
Facebook is to acquire Oculus VR, the company that makes
the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, in a cash-and-stock
deal worth around $2 billion (£1.2 billion).
Announcing the news in a Facebook post, Mark Zuckerberg
explained that the acquisition marked part of Facebook's strategy
to "start focussing on what platforms will come next to enable even
more useful, entertaining and personal experiences", having spent
the last few years mostly building mobile apps.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Watch a blowfly's internal flight muscles flutter in 3D
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/blowfly-muscles-3d-videos
The humble blowfly is able to beat its wings 50 times in the
same time it takes a human to blink just once. Its muscles are
controlled by many tiny steering muscles that are not only as tiny
as human hairs, but also hidden well away within the insect's
thorax.
Now, for the first time, zoologists have managed to create 3D
videos that show the blowfly's flight muscles in action -- the
details of which have been published in the journal PLOS
Biology. Using the Swiss Light Source, a powerful x-ray tool
housed at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the secret workings of
the insect's complex motor have been captured, and can now be
examined in detail.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Students hack Waze, send in army of traffic bots
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/waze-hacked-fake-traffic-jam
Two Israeli students have successfully hacked popular
social GPS map and traffic app Waze, causing it to report a
nonexistent traffic jam.
The attack, somewhat reminiscent of the wonderfully
ridiculous Die Hard 4.0 plot, was carried out by Shir
Yadid and Meital Ben-Sinai, two software engineering students in
their fourth year at the Israel Institute of Technology.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Homeopathic remedies recalled for containing real medicine
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/homeopathy-contains-medicine
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recalled
homeopathic remedies made by a company called Terra-Medica
because they may contain actual medicine -- possibly penicillin or
derivatives of the antibiotic.
Terra-Medica creates a range of homeopathic capsules,
suppositories and ointments under clinical-sounding brand names
including Pleo-Fort, Pleo-Quent and Pleo-EX. The FDA has found that
56 lots of the drugs may contain penicillin or derivatives of
penicillin, which may have been produced during fermentation. This
is a problem, because Terra-Medica says that its products don't
contain antibiotics. Pleo Sanum range of products, for example,
"can address acute and chronic inflammations and infections without
the use of traditional antibiotics". Homeopathic remedies are
generally highly diluted substances (in fact the more a substance
is diluted, the more effective homeopaths deem [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
5) Check out Niklas Roy's ball-sucking machine
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/this-machine-sucks-balls
This art installation literally sucks balls. Niklas
Roy is the designer of what is an extraordinary kinetic art piece,
made for and exhibited at Goethe-Institut Krakau, Poland.
The exhibit consists of a ball pit and an 80 metre
long pneumatic tube, which fills up the entire historic staircase
of the Potocki Palace in Kraków. When entering the pit, the lights
switch on and a vacuum cleaner whirs into action. Visitors are then
invited to get hands-on with the machinery and operate the suction
spout themselves.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
6) Disney buys YouTube content network for $500 million
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/disney-maker-studios
Maker Studios, one of the largest networks on YouTube,
has been acquired by The Walt Disney Company for $500 million (£303
million), making Disney a major presence in the online video sector
and further expanding their multinational mass media
corporation.
Should Maker Studios achieve specific undisclosed
performance goals, the buyout could be as large as $950 million
(£575 million), according to Reuters.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Layoffs strike Sony's UK game studios
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/sony-layoffs
Layoffs have been confirmed at a number of Sony's UK game
development studios.
The affected developers are Evolution Studios, Guerilla
Cambridge and SCE London asSony confirmed
to Videogamer. The scale of the layoffs is unclear
but they come as part of a restructuring effort.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
8) HTC One M8 revealed: hands-on preview
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/htc-one-m8-preview
HTC has announced its new flagship smartphone -- the HTC One
M8.
In the battle of the high-end smartphones, this is the third
contender alongside the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy
S5 and Sony Xperia Z2. They're all tricked-out, top-spec
systems with the latest Qualcomm CPUs.
Each manufacturer wants to separate itself from the market
though (Samsung: health, fitness, lifelogging; Sony: photography,
gaming, entertainment) and HTC's angle on this harks back to
its Evo 3D from 2011 -- it features two cameras on the
rear.
By: Nate Lanxon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
9) HTC's One M8 versus Sony's Xperia Z2 versus Samsung's Galaxy S5
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/htc-one-m8-vs-galaxy-s5-vs-xperia-z2
After holding out on us at Mobile World Congress this year, HTC
has finally shown off its latest entry into the high-end Android
market. We've taken an in-depth look at how the HTC One M8 weighs
up against the competition.
Ever since the S2 burst onto the scene a few years back, setting
a precedent for swanky, premium Android devices, Samsung has
remained the company to beat. Its latest top-tier phone, the Galaxy
S5 puts up a good fight, although it's rivalled by the equally
enticing Sony Xperia Z2, and now the HTC One M8.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Help Nasa design its next spacesuit
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/nasa-z2-suit
Nasa is letting members of the public vote on its next
spacesuit design, the Z-2. A prototype and follow up to the popular
Z-1, the Z-2 boasts a number of new features, bringing it closer to
approaching a final flight-capable design.
The suit boasts a number of important milestones for
Nasa, including: first surface-specific planetary mobility suit to
be tested in full vacuum; first use of 3D human laser scans and
3D-printed hardware for suit development and sizing; most advanced
use of impact resistant composite structures on a suit upper and
lower torso system; first integration of the suit-port concept with
a hard upper torso suit structure; most conformal and re-sizeable
hard upper torso suit built to date.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
11) Refocus smartphone photos with six-pence filter
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/tesseract-imaging
Being able to refocus a photograph after it has been captured is
becoming a key trait of new smartphones. But a masters graduate of
MIT's Media Lab thinks he can do it better -- with a camera filter
that costs less than ten pence.
Kshitij Marwah's technology is called Tesseract and stems from a
technology he and colleagues developed at the Media Lab around
three years ago for SLR cameras. It was a filter produceable from
high-resolution inket printers that was inserted into a camera
between the light sensor and the lens. Called Focii, it allowed the
camera to record depth information into an image, which was then
manipulable by software created for desktop computers by Marwah's
team -- points of focus could be altered, or special effects could
be applied to specific parts of an image such as a person in the
foreground.
Now he has developed the same technology in miniature [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
12) Promo: Wired Money 2014's first speakers announced
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/speakers-wired-money-event
Wired Money, Wired's 1 July summit focusing on innovation in
banking, finance and money has announced the first confirmed
speakers.
Following on from the successful inaugural event, Wired Money
2014 -- to be held at Canary Wharf's Level 39 -- will examine how
the topics discussed in 2013 have developed and identify the new
trends beginning to emerge.
By: Dan Smith, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
13) Turkish PM's social media clampdown backfires
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/what-its-like-to-live-under-erdogan
The people of Turkey are waiting and watching to see what
Sunday's municipal elections will bring. And while they wait, their
phones do not leave their sides.
"The Twitter ban has made sure that we don't leave our phones,
and we do not miss any tweets," Eran Filiba, product manager at an
Istanbul ecommerce company, tells Wired.co.uk.
Since the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan promised to wipe out the social media platform in
the wake of leaks about government corruption, the tweeting public
has been circumventing the ban with Google DNS, VPN services and
even Tweetdeck.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
14) Biologists interrupt fly sex with lasers. For science
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/laser-flies-change-behaviour
Despite its small size and relatively compact nervous system,
the standard lab fruit fly Drosophila manages to engage in some
fairly sophisticated behaviours, including a courtship ritual.
Researchers have also trained the Drosophila to associate an
irrelevant event with an unpleasant experience, causing the fly to
form lasting aversions to the event.
Now, researchers have managed to bring all that together and mix
it with computing, molecular biology, and lasers. The end result is
a system that tracks the flies in real time and targets laser
pulses to specific body parts. It can be used to create averse
associations so strong that male flies will flee an otherwise
available female.
By: John Timmer, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
15) #nomakeupselfie raises 'unprecedented' £8m for cancer research
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/nomakeupselfie-donation-mixup
Cancer Research UK didn't actually start the #nomakeupselfie
campaign, whereby women share a bare-faced picture of themselves
and pledge a donation to charity. However, it has been the main
beneficiary, receiving more than £2 million in just 48 hours. Six
days on, and it's been announced that it has raised a whopping £8
million.
The meme appears to have been born when a US crime author called
Laura Lippman posted a picture of herself without makeup to
support 81-year-old actress Kim Novak, whose appearance was
criticised at the Oscars. She took the picture in early March and
"stuck it up on Facebook" using the hashtag #itssokkimnovak in
solidarity. Many people copied Lippman, by posting
unflattering pictures of themselves. Over the weekend of 15-16
March, people started tagging Cancer Research UK in their posts,
saying they were posting their photos to raise awareness. By
Tuesday 18 [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
16) Double Fine dips hoof into publishing with Escape Goat 2
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/escape-goat-2
[Youtube##1##16x9##LVcEdnmhVqI]
Game development studio Double Fine has made its first foray
into publishing with the release of Escape Goat 2.
The puzzle platformer sequel was created by indie team
MagicalTimeBean (Ian Stocker and Randy O'Connor) and follows the
original Escape Goat in which a goat was escaping imprisonment for
witchcraft.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
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http://shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/index.php?action=leave&r=66344&k=V4SSCVDPCVNJ33XG
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Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Facebook buys virtual reality specialist Oculus VR
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/facebook-buys-oculus-vr
Facebook is to acquire Oculus VR, the company that makes
the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, in a cash-and-stock
deal worth around $2 billion (£1.2 billion).
Announcing the news in a Facebook post, Mark Zuckerberg
explained that the acquisition marked part of Facebook's strategy
to "start focussing on what platforms will come next to enable even
more useful, entertaining and personal experiences", having spent
the last few years mostly building mobile apps.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Watch a blowfly's internal flight muscles flutter in 3D
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/blowfly-muscles-3d-videos
The humble blowfly is able to beat its wings 50 times in the
same time it takes a human to blink just once. Its muscles are
controlled by many tiny steering muscles that are not only as tiny
as human hairs, but also hidden well away within the insect's
thorax.
Now, for the first time, zoologists have managed to create 3D
videos that show the blowfly's flight muscles in action -- the
details of which have been published in the journal PLOS
Biology. Using the Swiss Light Source, a powerful x-ray tool
housed at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the secret workings of
the insect's complex motor have been captured, and can now be
examined in detail.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Students hack Waze, send in army of traffic bots
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/waze-hacked-fake-traffic-jam
Two Israeli students have successfully hacked popular
social GPS map and traffic app Waze, causing it to report a
nonexistent traffic jam.
The attack, somewhat reminiscent of the wonderfully
ridiculous Die Hard 4.0 plot, was carried out by Shir
Yadid and Meital Ben-Sinai, two software engineering students in
their fourth year at the Israel Institute of Technology.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Homeopathic remedies recalled for containing real medicine
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/homeopathy-contains-medicine
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recalled
homeopathic remedies made by a company called Terra-Medica
because they may contain actual medicine -- possibly penicillin or
derivatives of the antibiotic.
Terra-Medica creates a range of homeopathic capsules,
suppositories and ointments under clinical-sounding brand names
including Pleo-Fort, Pleo-Quent and Pleo-EX. The FDA has found that
56 lots of the drugs may contain penicillin or derivatives of
penicillin, which may have been produced during fermentation. This
is a problem, because Terra-Medica says that its products don't
contain antibiotics. Pleo Sanum range of products, for example,
"can address acute and chronic inflammations and infections without
the use of traditional antibiotics". Homeopathic remedies are
generally highly diluted substances (in fact the more a substance
is diluted, the more effective homeopaths deem [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
5) Check out Niklas Roy's ball-sucking machine
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/this-machine-sucks-balls
This art installation literally sucks balls. Niklas
Roy is the designer of what is an extraordinary kinetic art piece,
made for and exhibited at Goethe-Institut Krakau, Poland.
The exhibit consists of a ball pit and an 80 metre
long pneumatic tube, which fills up the entire historic staircase
of the Potocki Palace in Kraków. When entering the pit, the lights
switch on and a vacuum cleaner whirs into action. Visitors are then
invited to get hands-on with the machinery and operate the suction
spout themselves.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
6) Disney buys YouTube content network for $500 million
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/disney-maker-studios
Maker Studios, one of the largest networks on YouTube,
has been acquired by The Walt Disney Company for $500 million (£303
million), making Disney a major presence in the online video sector
and further expanding their multinational mass media
corporation.
Should Maker Studios achieve specific undisclosed
performance goals, the buyout could be as large as $950 million
(£575 million), according to Reuters.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Layoffs strike Sony's UK game studios
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/sony-layoffs
Layoffs have been confirmed at a number of Sony's UK game
development studios.
The affected developers are Evolution Studios, Guerilla
Cambridge and SCE London asSony confirmed
to Videogamer. The scale of the layoffs is unclear
but they come as part of a restructuring effort.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
8) HTC One M8 revealed: hands-on preview
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/htc-one-m8-preview
HTC has announced its new flagship smartphone -- the HTC One
M8.
In the battle of the high-end smartphones, this is the third
contender alongside the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy
S5 and Sony Xperia Z2. They're all tricked-out, top-spec
systems with the latest Qualcomm CPUs.
Each manufacturer wants to separate itself from the market
though (Samsung: health, fitness, lifelogging; Sony: photography,
gaming, entertainment) and HTC's angle on this harks back to
its Evo 3D from 2011 -- it features two cameras on the
rear.
By: Nate Lanxon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
9) HTC's One M8 versus Sony's Xperia Z2 versus Samsung's Galaxy S5
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/htc-one-m8-vs-galaxy-s5-vs-xperia-z2
After holding out on us at Mobile World Congress this year, HTC
has finally shown off its latest entry into the high-end Android
market. We've taken an in-depth look at how the HTC One M8 weighs
up against the competition.
Ever since the S2 burst onto the scene a few years back, setting
a precedent for swanky, premium Android devices, Samsung has
remained the company to beat. Its latest top-tier phone, the Galaxy
S5 puts up a good fight, although it's rivalled by the equally
enticing Sony Xperia Z2, and now the HTC One M8.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Help Nasa design its next spacesuit
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/nasa-z2-suit
Nasa is letting members of the public vote on its next
spacesuit design, the Z-2. A prototype and follow up to the popular
Z-1, the Z-2 boasts a number of new features, bringing it closer to
approaching a final flight-capable design.
The suit boasts a number of important milestones for
Nasa, including: first surface-specific planetary mobility suit to
be tested in full vacuum; first use of 3D human laser scans and
3D-printed hardware for suit development and sizing; most advanced
use of impact resistant composite structures on a suit upper and
lower torso system; first integration of the suit-port concept with
a hard upper torso suit structure; most conformal and re-sizeable
hard upper torso suit built to date.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
11) Refocus smartphone photos with six-pence filter
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/tesseract-imaging
Being able to refocus a photograph after it has been captured is
becoming a key trait of new smartphones. But a masters graduate of
MIT's Media Lab thinks he can do it better -- with a camera filter
that costs less than ten pence.
Kshitij Marwah's technology is called Tesseract and stems from a
technology he and colleagues developed at the Media Lab around
three years ago for SLR cameras. It was a filter produceable from
high-resolution inket printers that was inserted into a camera
between the light sensor and the lens. Called Focii, it allowed the
camera to record depth information into an image, which was then
manipulable by software created for desktop computers by Marwah's
team -- points of focus could be altered, or special effects could
be applied to specific parts of an image such as a person in the
foreground.
Now he has developed the same technology in miniature [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
12) Promo: Wired Money 2014's first speakers announced
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/speakers-wired-money-event
Wired Money, Wired's 1 July summit focusing on innovation in
banking, finance and money has announced the first confirmed
speakers.
Following on from the successful inaugural event, Wired Money
2014 -- to be held at Canary Wharf's Level 39 -- will examine how
the topics discussed in 2013 have developed and identify the new
trends beginning to emerge.
By: Dan Smith, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
13) Turkish PM's social media clampdown backfires
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/what-its-like-to-live-under-erdogan
The people of Turkey are waiting and watching to see what
Sunday's municipal elections will bring. And while they wait, their
phones do not leave their sides.
"The Twitter ban has made sure that we don't leave our phones,
and we do not miss any tweets," Eran Filiba, product manager at an
Istanbul ecommerce company, tells Wired.co.uk.
Since the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan promised to wipe out the social media platform in
the wake of leaks about government corruption, the tweeting public
has been circumventing the ban with Google DNS, VPN services and
even Tweetdeck.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
14) Biologists interrupt fly sex with lasers. For science
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/laser-flies-change-behaviour
Despite its small size and relatively compact nervous system,
the standard lab fruit fly Drosophila manages to engage in some
fairly sophisticated behaviours, including a courtship ritual.
Researchers have also trained the Drosophila to associate an
irrelevant event with an unpleasant experience, causing the fly to
form lasting aversions to the event.
Now, researchers have managed to bring all that together and mix
it with computing, molecular biology, and lasers. The end result is
a system that tracks the flies in real time and targets laser
pulses to specific body parts. It can be used to create averse
associations so strong that male flies will flee an otherwise
available female.
By: John Timmer, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
15) #nomakeupselfie raises 'unprecedented' £8m for cancer research
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/nomakeupselfie-donation-mixup
Cancer Research UK didn't actually start the #nomakeupselfie
campaign, whereby women share a bare-faced picture of themselves
and pledge a donation to charity. However, it has been the main
beneficiary, receiving more than £2 million in just 48 hours. Six
days on, and it's been announced that it has raised a whopping £8
million.
The meme appears to have been born when a US crime author called
Laura Lippman posted a picture of herself without makeup to
support 81-year-old actress Kim Novak, whose appearance was
criticised at the Oscars. She took the picture in early March and
"stuck it up on Facebook" using the hashtag #itssokkimnovak in
solidarity. Many people copied Lippman, by posting
unflattering pictures of themselves. Over the weekend of 15-16
March, people started tagging Cancer Research UK in their posts,
saying they were posting their photos to raise awareness. By
Tuesday 18 [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
16) Double Fine dips hoof into publishing with Escape Goat 2
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/25/escape-goat-2
[Youtube##1##16x9##LVcEdnmhVqI]
Game development studio Double Fine has made its first foray
into publishing with the release of Escape Goat 2.
The puzzle platformer sequel was created by indie team
MagicalTimeBean (Ian Stocker and Randy O'Connor) and follows the
original Escape Goat in which a goat was escaping imprisonment for
witchcraft.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive Blog Alerts (email notifications of new posts) for Wired.co.uk - News. If you no longer wish to receive Blog Alerts for Wired.co.uk - News, go to this link:
http://shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/index.php?action=leave&r=66344&k=V4SSCVDPCVNJ33XG
==================================================================
Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
Sunday 23 March 2014
Blog Alert for Wired.co.uk - News, Mar 22, 2014
New Posts to Wired.co.uk - News on Mar 22, 2014:
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Visualising the tangled Syrian conflict to seek a resolution
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/22/visualising-the-syrian-conflict
A political analyst and ecological network scientist have
created a visual map of the Syrian conflict, the players involved
and their various agendas. The creators hope the platform can, as
more experts from across the Middle East contribute, help policy
makers, analysts and diplomats find a solution.
"At the moment we're just trying to present a simplified and
coherent visual narrative so the general reader can understand --
and keep coming back as it's refreshed -- to have an ongoing
picture of what the conflict looks like and how it's developing,"
Scott Field, Middle East manager at the Skoll Global Threats
Fund, told Wired.co.uk. "The aspiration is it may develop into
something that would help regional diplomats, people actually
involved in the conflict itself, to have new insights and know how
to solve some of the regional problems and conflicts
themselves."
By: Liat Clark, [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Laser Cat curates artworks, projects them in beams from his eyes
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/22/hungry-castle-laser-cat
Do you like cats? Do you like lasers? Then you will like Laser
Cat, a giant inflatable feline that shoots projections of artworks
out his eyes like laser beams.
Laser Cat is the brainchild of Dave Glass and Kill Cooper, who
together form Hungry Castle, a creative studio that develops public
artworks under the mantra "we make cool shit". And they really
do.
You might remember them from such previous works as Lionel
Ritchie's Head, a giant model of the crooner's cranium that has
been toured around music festivals. People brave enough to go
inside Ritchie's head discover a telephone. If they pick up the
receiver, they hear 'Hello, is it me you're looking for?' Yes,
Lionel, it is.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive Blog Alerts (email notifications of new posts) for Wired.co.uk - News. If you no longer wish to receive Blog Alerts for Wired.co.uk - News, go to this link:
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==================================================================
Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Visualising the tangled Syrian conflict to seek a resolution
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/22/visualising-the-syrian-conflict
A political analyst and ecological network scientist have
created a visual map of the Syrian conflict, the players involved
and their various agendas. The creators hope the platform can, as
more experts from across the Middle East contribute, help policy
makers, analysts and diplomats find a solution.
"At the moment we're just trying to present a simplified and
coherent visual narrative so the general reader can understand --
and keep coming back as it's refreshed -- to have an ongoing
picture of what the conflict looks like and how it's developing,"
Scott Field, Middle East manager at the Skoll Global Threats
Fund, told Wired.co.uk. "The aspiration is it may develop into
something that would help regional diplomats, people actually
involved in the conflict itself, to have new insights and know how
to solve some of the regional problems and conflicts
themselves."
By: Liat Clark, [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Laser Cat curates artworks, projects them in beams from his eyes
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/22/hungry-castle-laser-cat
Do you like cats? Do you like lasers? Then you will like Laser
Cat, a giant inflatable feline that shoots projections of artworks
out his eyes like laser beams.
Laser Cat is the brainchild of Dave Glass and Kill Cooper, who
together form Hungry Castle, a creative studio that develops public
artworks under the mantra "we make cool shit". And they really
do.
You might remember them from such previous works as Lionel
Ritchie's Head, a giant model of the crooner's cranium that has
been toured around music festivals. People brave enough to go
inside Ritchie's head discover a telephone. If they pick up the
receiver, they hear 'Hello, is it me you're looking for?' Yes,
Lionel, it is.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive Blog Alerts (email notifications of new posts) for Wired.co.uk - News. If you no longer wish to receive Blog Alerts for Wired.co.uk - News, go to this link:
http://shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/index.php?action=leave&r=66344&k=V4SSCVDPCVNJ33XG
==================================================================
Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
Saturday 22 March 2014
Blog Alert for Wired.co.uk - News, Mar 21, 2014
New Posts to Wired.co.uk - News on Mar 21, 2014:
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Information poses bigger bioterrorism threat than microbes
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/bioterrorism-threats
It is the spread of information rather than microbes that poses
the biggest bioterrorism threat today, concluded a panel of experts
at Chatham House today.
Biosafety is no longer simply about controlling substances and
microbes, but information, says Laurie Garrett who runs the Council
on Foreign Relation's Public Health Program. While we have become
pretty adept at controlling microbes, the flow of information is
way beyond our control. "The genie is out of the bottle here," she
says.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Ourscreen lets you call the shots at selected cinemas
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/ourscreen-crowdsourced-cinema
Ever gone to the cinema with your friends only to find out the
film you wanted to see isn't showing anymore? Or perhaps you've
just wanted to eliminate all the hush-talkers and loud-eaters in a
screening? Well now you can, with your own screen. With
ourscreen.
Ourscreen is a concept ported over from the US where groups
of people can arrange to see a film at their local cinema that's
not on the regular listing. It functions in a similar way to
Groupon, in that a showing can be booked but is only confirmed once
a certain number of people buy in. The number is based on an
estimate you give, which also affects the ticket price. So if you
think you can draw a good crowd, you'll benefit from cheaper
tickets, but the threshold to confirm your booking will be
higher.
By: Chris Higgins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Does your ball hover and boomerang? This one does
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/hoverball
Ball games are a curiously human trait
(excluding seals, of course). People-ball interactions are
capable of eliciting play, teamwork and emotional bonding. This is
partly why Japanese inventor Jun Rekimoto of the University of
Tokyo believes balls should be considered the future of play and as
such, need a little upgrading.
Rekimoto worries that the joy of ball play can be
unfairly denied to the elderly, the disabled or children: "For
instance, the speed of balls could be too fast for small children,
senior people, or people with physical disabilities." He wishes to
widen the physical "vocabularies" of ball play with his HoverBall,
a ball that can hover, fly and be adapted to those who have a
special needs.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Look at these amazing academic pages. Just look at them
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/academic-web-pages-of-awesomeness
This week, some internet archaeologist dug out Sergey
Brin's Stanford home page from when he was a Computer Science
Ph.D. The page, which dates from around 1998, understates:
"Currently I am at Google" and "research on the web seems to be
fashionable these days and I guess I'm no exception." It doesn't
mention that this was the Google he founded with Larry Page that
would later become the behemoth we know and love to hate now.
The most mesmerising element of this piece of internet history
is the profile picture that Brin has gone for: a fresh faced
monobrowed boy with a hypnotic melting effect applied to the torso.
Stop whatever you are doing now and just look at it. Do a
little digging and you can also find this gem.
Wired.co.uk thinks this is marvellous and should be heartily
encouraged. As a result, we've picked some of the best (by which we
mean GIF-tastic extravaganzas of [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
5) Gherkin chandeliers are dangerous and spectacular
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/bompas-and-parr-gherkin-chandelier
"We knew the time had come to create something wondrous with
pickles," Sam Bompas, one half of gin-cloud generating, wedding
cake-exploding culinary masters Bompas & Parr, tells
Wired.co.uk. The pickle has been overlooked for too long.
Bompas is relaying the story of how the Gherkin Chandelier -- a
gherkin-powered piece of lighting with an eerie glow akin to the
Grinch lit up at Christmas -- came to be.
"Thinking about the development still gives me goosebumps.
Risking death to explore an everyday sultan of savour!"
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
6) This bug lures prey with its hairy legs
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/assassin-bugs-hairy-legs
Australia has something of a reputation for housing
the world's more peculiar animals and the Feather-legged Assassin
bug, which uses its own legs as bait, is no exception.
In a recent study conducted at Macquarie University,
it has been discovered that these brave little predators will trick
prey into attacking its hairy legs before performing evasive
manoeuvres, allowing the Assassin to turn the tide of battle and
destroy its attacker.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Startup of the Week: CurrencyTransfer
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/startup-of-the-week-currency-transfer
CurrencyTransfer is a business foreign exchange price
comparison marketplace. International business payments can be
expensive and opaque, with hidden markups of up to five percent of
the value of transfers. CurrencyTransfer aims to bring transparency
and impartiality to the market, by getting currency specialists to
lifestream their tradable rates -- which are usually decided
'manually' over the phone depending on the client -- in a
transparent market. It was set up by computer scientist Stevan
Litobac, who was born in Sarajevo but fled to the UK when the
Bosnian war started, and Israeli-Brit Daniel Abrahams.
The pair have previously set up consumer-facing currency
marketplaces MyTravelMoney and MyCurrencyTransfer. Wired.co.uk
caught up with Abrahams.
By: Wired.co.uk, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
8) How to build a 1000mph car
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/bloodhound-ssc-1000mph-car
Human beings achieved many 'firsts' in the 20th century. We
climbed the planet's highest mountains, dived its deepest undersea
trench, flew over it faster than the speed of sound, and even
escaped it altogether in order to visit the moon.
Beyond visiting Mars, it may feel like there are no more
milestones left to reach. Yet people are still trying to push the
envelope, even if they have to travel a little farther to get
there.
Richard Noble is one such person. He's spearheading a project
called Bloodhound SSC that will visit uncharted territory on its
way to a new land speed record on the far side of 1,000mph. The
idea of a car capable of 1,000mph might sound ludicrous at first
blush, but consider Noble's credentials. The British businessman is
responsible for previous land speed records in 1983 and 1997, the
first of which came with him behind the wheel.
By: Jonathan M Gitlin, [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
9) Bear Simulator: 'Like a mini Skyrim but you're a bear'
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/bear-simulator
Bear Simulator is a Kickstarter designed to tackle the
horrible lack in the gaming industry when it comes to letting you
play games as a bear.
The game's TL;DR summary offers "It's like a mini Skyrim but
you're a bear".
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Pay penance for your cheesy music taste with Guilty Pledgers
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/guilty-pledgers
Guilty Pledgers is a Spotify web app that lets you donate
money to charity each time you play a particularly cheesy song.
The fundraising app combines Spotify's song catalogue with Just
Giving's charity payments platform to allow individuals to offload
the guilt of playing naff tunes at a party.
Party hosts can sign in with Facebook, open up a playlist and
pick a preferred charity. Attendees can then visit the Guilty
Pledgers web app via their mobile and pledge a minimum of £2 in
order to add their preferred song to the party playlist.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
11) Giant inflatable wind turbine to soar to 300 metres
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/altaeros-wind-turbine
Altaeros Energies is to carry out the first commercial
demonstration of a high altitude wind turbine, thanks to a
partnership with the Alaska Energy Authority.
The wind energy company was formed out of MIT, and has developed
a 10-metre-wide, helium filled inflatable wind turbine called the
Buoyant Airborne Turbine (BAT) that has been tested at altitudes of
more than 100 metres above ground. Wired.co.uk wrote about the
company's plans to provide an alternative do diesel generators
back in 2012, but Altaeros has now found a commercial partner to
take the technology to the next stage.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
12) Microsoft makes token policy tweaks after email snooping
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/microsoft-blogger-policy
Journalists, bloggers and pretty much everyone worried about
their privacy on the internet drew breath earlier this week when it
emerged that Microsoft had trawled through a French blogger's
Hotmail account in order to search for emails it could use to press
charges against a former employee.
The employee had been accused of leaking code and screenshots of
Windows 8 to the blogger after they had met on a forum. After
Microsoft discovered evidence of the leaks, the ex-employee was
then arrested and charged.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
13) Microsoft to 'democratise' Xbox One game development
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/xbox-one-developers
Microsoft is hoping to democratise development when it comes to
getting games on the Xbox One.
Speaking about the company's ID@Xbox self-publishing
programme, corporate vice president Phil Harrison
told VentureBeat that over 250 developers have access to
the toolset and are working on games.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
14) Turkish PM vows to 'wipe out' Twitter, fails
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/turkey-twitter-ban-futile
Turkey's Prime Minister has reengaged his war on Twitter by
ordering a ban on the social network in the days leading up to
municipal elections -- to little effect. Nevertheless, he says he
will "wipe out" the platform.
"The international community can say this, can say that. I don't
care at all. Everyone will see how powerful the Republic of Turkey
is," AFP reports Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is fighting
against the online publication of leaked documents that allude to
corruption in his inner circle, as saying.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
15) Pain-detecting computer can tell if you are pulling a sickie
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/emotient-computer-detects-pain-faking
You can tell when someone's faking a smile or pretending to be
in pain, right? Sure you can. But computer scientists think they
can build systems that do it even better. There's already a Google
Glass app in beta testing that claims to provide a real-time
readout of the emotional expressions of people in your field of
view. And a new study finds that the same technology can detect
fake expressions of pain with 85% accuracy -- far better than
people can, even with practice.
Granted, the study was done in a carefully controlled laboratory
setting, not a messy real-world situation like a dive bar
during last call, but the findings still look impressive.
By: Greg Miller, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
16) PlayStation's first original TV show is Powers
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/playstation-powers-series
Following in the footsteps of brands like Netflix, Sony will be
entering the world of original programming with an hour-long drama
called Powers.
Sony did actually confirm it was dipping its toes into the
original programming malarkey last year at E3 although it declined
to offer any specific information as to the nature of that
content.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
17) The human nose knows more than 1 trillion scents
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/one-trillion-smells
Ask any man what the most sensitive organ on his body
is and he probably won't reply with "my nose", but he should,
because according to a new study from Rockefeller University in New
York City and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the human
nose can smell over 1 trillion different scents.
The team behind the research determined the resolution
of the human sense of smell by testing the capacity of humans to
discriminate odour mixtures with varying numbers of shared
components. It was previously thought that humans could detect
about 10,000 different odours, but the exact number had never been
empirically tested.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
18) How scientists kept the Big Bang echo discovery under wraps
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/bicep-discovery-secret
Great surprises in science don't just happen -- they're
engineered.
When researchers announced earlier this week that they might
have made what is essentially the scientific breakthrough of
the year -- echoes from the earliest fraction of a second
after the Big Bang known as primordial B-mode polarisations -- it
seemed to come out of left field. Similarly large announcements,
like the discovery of the Higgs boson, generally have followed
months of speculation, rumours, and even leaks.
It's standard practice for researchers to keep tight-lipped
about their results. No one wants to cavalierly mention
half-finished data to a colleague and give them the wrong
impression or worse, tip off a rival project. Yet scientists are
human, and humans love to gossip. In this world of science blogs
and Twitter, the BICEP2 collaboration maintaining secrecy
so well is almost unheard of.
The [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
19) Facebook's 'Hack' is here to shake up programming
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/facebook-hack-programming-language
Facebook engineers Bryan O'Sullivan, Julien Verlaguet, and Alok
Menghrajani spent the last few years building a programming
language unlike any other.
Working alongside a handful of others inside the social
networking giant, they fashioned a language that lets programmers
build complex websites and other software at great speed while
still ensuring that their software code is precisely organized and
relatively free of flaws -- a combination that few of today's
languages even approach. In typical Facebook fashion, the new
language is called Hack, and it already drives almost all of
the company's website -- a site that serves more than 1.2 billion
people across the globe.
By: Cade Metz, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
20) What we can learn from 1844's Post Office 'surveillance' scandal
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/post-office-espionage-scandal-1844
"No man's correspondence is safe. No man's confidence can be
deemed secure; the secrets of no family, of no individual, can be
guaranteed from reaching the ear of a Cabinet Minister".
So thundered The Times in 1844, with Britain
in the grip of scandal. An Italian radical -- Giuseppe
Mazzini -- had arrived in London a few years before, carrying
with him the (crazy) idea that the states of Italy should be
unified into a single country. Rattled, the British Government had
started to open his mail. They were found out; Mazzini complained;
furore ensued.
By: Carl Miller, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive Blog Alerts (email notifications of new posts) for Wired.co.uk - News. If you no longer wish to receive Blog Alerts for Wired.co.uk - News, go to this link:
http://shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/index.php?action=leave&r=66344&k=V4SSCVDPCVNJ33XG
==================================================================
Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Information poses bigger bioterrorism threat than microbes
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/bioterrorism-threats
It is the spread of information rather than microbes that poses
the biggest bioterrorism threat today, concluded a panel of experts
at Chatham House today.
Biosafety is no longer simply about controlling substances and
microbes, but information, says Laurie Garrett who runs the Council
on Foreign Relation's Public Health Program. While we have become
pretty adept at controlling microbes, the flow of information is
way beyond our control. "The genie is out of the bottle here," she
says.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Ourscreen lets you call the shots at selected cinemas
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/ourscreen-crowdsourced-cinema
Ever gone to the cinema with your friends only to find out the
film you wanted to see isn't showing anymore? Or perhaps you've
just wanted to eliminate all the hush-talkers and loud-eaters in a
screening? Well now you can, with your own screen. With
ourscreen.
Ourscreen is a concept ported over from the US where groups
of people can arrange to see a film at their local cinema that's
not on the regular listing. It functions in a similar way to
Groupon, in that a showing can be booked but is only confirmed once
a certain number of people buy in. The number is based on an
estimate you give, which also affects the ticket price. So if you
think you can draw a good crowd, you'll benefit from cheaper
tickets, but the threshold to confirm your booking will be
higher.
By: Chris Higgins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Does your ball hover and boomerang? This one does
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/hoverball
Ball games are a curiously human trait
(excluding seals, of course). People-ball interactions are
capable of eliciting play, teamwork and emotional bonding. This is
partly why Japanese inventor Jun Rekimoto of the University of
Tokyo believes balls should be considered the future of play and as
such, need a little upgrading.
Rekimoto worries that the joy of ball play can be
unfairly denied to the elderly, the disabled or children: "For
instance, the speed of balls could be too fast for small children,
senior people, or people with physical disabilities." He wishes to
widen the physical "vocabularies" of ball play with his HoverBall,
a ball that can hover, fly and be adapted to those who have a
special needs.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Look at these amazing academic pages. Just look at them
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/academic-web-pages-of-awesomeness
This week, some internet archaeologist dug out Sergey
Brin's Stanford home page from when he was a Computer Science
Ph.D. The page, which dates from around 1998, understates:
"Currently I am at Google" and "research on the web seems to be
fashionable these days and I guess I'm no exception." It doesn't
mention that this was the Google he founded with Larry Page that
would later become the behemoth we know and love to hate now.
The most mesmerising element of this piece of internet history
is the profile picture that Brin has gone for: a fresh faced
monobrowed boy with a hypnotic melting effect applied to the torso.
Stop whatever you are doing now and just look at it. Do a
little digging and you can also find this gem.
Wired.co.uk thinks this is marvellous and should be heartily
encouraged. As a result, we've picked some of the best (by which we
mean GIF-tastic extravaganzas of [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
5) Gherkin chandeliers are dangerous and spectacular
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/bompas-and-parr-gherkin-chandelier
"We knew the time had come to create something wondrous with
pickles," Sam Bompas, one half of gin-cloud generating, wedding
cake-exploding culinary masters Bompas & Parr, tells
Wired.co.uk. The pickle has been overlooked for too long.
Bompas is relaying the story of how the Gherkin Chandelier -- a
gherkin-powered piece of lighting with an eerie glow akin to the
Grinch lit up at Christmas -- came to be.
"Thinking about the development still gives me goosebumps.
Risking death to explore an everyday sultan of savour!"
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
6) This bug lures prey with its hairy legs
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/assassin-bugs-hairy-legs
Australia has something of a reputation for housing
the world's more peculiar animals and the Feather-legged Assassin
bug, which uses its own legs as bait, is no exception.
In a recent study conducted at Macquarie University,
it has been discovered that these brave little predators will trick
prey into attacking its hairy legs before performing evasive
manoeuvres, allowing the Assassin to turn the tide of battle and
destroy its attacker.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Startup of the Week: CurrencyTransfer
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/startup-of-the-week-currency-transfer
CurrencyTransfer is a business foreign exchange price
comparison marketplace. International business payments can be
expensive and opaque, with hidden markups of up to five percent of
the value of transfers. CurrencyTransfer aims to bring transparency
and impartiality to the market, by getting currency specialists to
lifestream their tradable rates -- which are usually decided
'manually' over the phone depending on the client -- in a
transparent market. It was set up by computer scientist Stevan
Litobac, who was born in Sarajevo but fled to the UK when the
Bosnian war started, and Israeli-Brit Daniel Abrahams.
The pair have previously set up consumer-facing currency
marketplaces MyTravelMoney and MyCurrencyTransfer. Wired.co.uk
caught up with Abrahams.
By: Wired.co.uk, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
8) How to build a 1000mph car
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/bloodhound-ssc-1000mph-car
Human beings achieved many 'firsts' in the 20th century. We
climbed the planet's highest mountains, dived its deepest undersea
trench, flew over it faster than the speed of sound, and even
escaped it altogether in order to visit the moon.
Beyond visiting Mars, it may feel like there are no more
milestones left to reach. Yet people are still trying to push the
envelope, even if they have to travel a little farther to get
there.
Richard Noble is one such person. He's spearheading a project
called Bloodhound SSC that will visit uncharted territory on its
way to a new land speed record on the far side of 1,000mph. The
idea of a car capable of 1,000mph might sound ludicrous at first
blush, but consider Noble's credentials. The British businessman is
responsible for previous land speed records in 1983 and 1997, the
first of which came with him behind the wheel.
By: Jonathan M Gitlin, [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
9) Bear Simulator: 'Like a mini Skyrim but you're a bear'
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/bear-simulator
Bear Simulator is a Kickstarter designed to tackle the
horrible lack in the gaming industry when it comes to letting you
play games as a bear.
The game's TL;DR summary offers "It's like a mini Skyrim but
you're a bear".
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Pay penance for your cheesy music taste with Guilty Pledgers
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/guilty-pledgers
Guilty Pledgers is a Spotify web app that lets you donate
money to charity each time you play a particularly cheesy song.
The fundraising app combines Spotify's song catalogue with Just
Giving's charity payments platform to allow individuals to offload
the guilt of playing naff tunes at a party.
Party hosts can sign in with Facebook, open up a playlist and
pick a preferred charity. Attendees can then visit the Guilty
Pledgers web app via their mobile and pledge a minimum of £2 in
order to add their preferred song to the party playlist.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
11) Giant inflatable wind turbine to soar to 300 metres
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/altaeros-wind-turbine
Altaeros Energies is to carry out the first commercial
demonstration of a high altitude wind turbine, thanks to a
partnership with the Alaska Energy Authority.
The wind energy company was formed out of MIT, and has developed
a 10-metre-wide, helium filled inflatable wind turbine called the
Buoyant Airborne Turbine (BAT) that has been tested at altitudes of
more than 100 metres above ground. Wired.co.uk wrote about the
company's plans to provide an alternative do diesel generators
back in 2012, but Altaeros has now found a commercial partner to
take the technology to the next stage.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
12) Microsoft makes token policy tweaks after email snooping
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/microsoft-blogger-policy
Journalists, bloggers and pretty much everyone worried about
their privacy on the internet drew breath earlier this week when it
emerged that Microsoft had trawled through a French blogger's
Hotmail account in order to search for emails it could use to press
charges against a former employee.
The employee had been accused of leaking code and screenshots of
Windows 8 to the blogger after they had met on a forum. After
Microsoft discovered evidence of the leaks, the ex-employee was
then arrested and charged.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
13) Microsoft to 'democratise' Xbox One game development
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/xbox-one-developers
Microsoft is hoping to democratise development when it comes to
getting games on the Xbox One.
Speaking about the company's ID@Xbox self-publishing
programme, corporate vice president Phil Harrison
told VentureBeat that over 250 developers have access to
the toolset and are working on games.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
14) Turkish PM vows to 'wipe out' Twitter, fails
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/turkey-twitter-ban-futile
Turkey's Prime Minister has reengaged his war on Twitter by
ordering a ban on the social network in the days leading up to
municipal elections -- to little effect. Nevertheless, he says he
will "wipe out" the platform.
"The international community can say this, can say that. I don't
care at all. Everyone will see how powerful the Republic of Turkey
is," AFP reports Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is fighting
against the online publication of leaked documents that allude to
corruption in his inner circle, as saying.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
15) Pain-detecting computer can tell if you are pulling a sickie
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/emotient-computer-detects-pain-faking
You can tell when someone's faking a smile or pretending to be
in pain, right? Sure you can. But computer scientists think they
can build systems that do it even better. There's already a Google
Glass app in beta testing that claims to provide a real-time
readout of the emotional expressions of people in your field of
view. And a new study finds that the same technology can detect
fake expressions of pain with 85% accuracy -- far better than
people can, even with practice.
Granted, the study was done in a carefully controlled laboratory
setting, not a messy real-world situation like a dive bar
during last call, but the findings still look impressive.
By: Greg Miller, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
16) PlayStation's first original TV show is Powers
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/playstation-powers-series
Following in the footsteps of brands like Netflix, Sony will be
entering the world of original programming with an hour-long drama
called Powers.
Sony did actually confirm it was dipping its toes into the
original programming malarkey last year at E3 although it declined
to offer any specific information as to the nature of that
content.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
17) The human nose knows more than 1 trillion scents
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/one-trillion-smells
Ask any man what the most sensitive organ on his body
is and he probably won't reply with "my nose", but he should,
because according to a new study from Rockefeller University in New
York City and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the human
nose can smell over 1 trillion different scents.
The team behind the research determined the resolution
of the human sense of smell by testing the capacity of humans to
discriminate odour mixtures with varying numbers of shared
components. It was previously thought that humans could detect
about 10,000 different odours, but the exact number had never been
empirically tested.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
18) How scientists kept the Big Bang echo discovery under wraps
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/bicep-discovery-secret
Great surprises in science don't just happen -- they're
engineered.
When researchers announced earlier this week that they might
have made what is essentially the scientific breakthrough of
the year -- echoes from the earliest fraction of a second
after the Big Bang known as primordial B-mode polarisations -- it
seemed to come out of left field. Similarly large announcements,
like the discovery of the Higgs boson, generally have followed
months of speculation, rumours, and even leaks.
It's standard practice for researchers to keep tight-lipped
about their results. No one wants to cavalierly mention
half-finished data to a colleague and give them the wrong
impression or worse, tip off a rival project. Yet scientists are
human, and humans love to gossip. In this world of science blogs
and Twitter, the BICEP2 collaboration maintaining secrecy
so well is almost unheard of.
The [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
19) Facebook's 'Hack' is here to shake up programming
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/facebook-hack-programming-language
Facebook engineers Bryan O'Sullivan, Julien Verlaguet, and Alok
Menghrajani spent the last few years building a programming
language unlike any other.
Working alongside a handful of others inside the social
networking giant, they fashioned a language that lets programmers
build complex websites and other software at great speed while
still ensuring that their software code is precisely organized and
relatively free of flaws -- a combination that few of today's
languages even approach. In typical Facebook fashion, the new
language is called Hack, and it already drives almost all of
the company's website -- a site that serves more than 1.2 billion
people across the globe.
By: Cade Metz, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
20) What we can learn from 1844's Post Office 'surveillance' scandal
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/21/post-office-espionage-scandal-1844
"No man's correspondence is safe. No man's confidence can be
deemed secure; the secrets of no family, of no individual, can be
guaranteed from reaching the ear of a Cabinet Minister".
So thundered The Times in 1844, with Britain
in the grip of scandal. An Italian radical -- Giuseppe
Mazzini -- had arrived in London a few years before, carrying
with him the (crazy) idea that the states of Italy should be
unified into a single country. Rattled, the British Government had
started to open his mail. They were found out; Mazzini complained;
furore ensued.
By: Carl Miller, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive Blog Alerts (email notifications of new posts) for Wired.co.uk - News. If you no longer wish to receive Blog Alerts for Wired.co.uk - News, go to this link:
http://shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/index.php?action=leave&r=66344&k=V4SSCVDPCVNJ33XG
==================================================================
Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
Friday 21 March 2014
Blog Alert for Wired.co.uk - News, Mar 20, 2014
New Posts to Wired.co.uk - News on Mar 20, 2014:
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) NSA at TED: 'arrogant' Snowden put lives at risk
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/nsa-ted
The US National Security Agency went on the offensive
today after Edward Snowden's surprise Tuesday
appearance at the TED conference in Vancouver.
Flanked by a US flag, NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett used a
live video link from Fort Meade, NSA headquarters in Maryland, to
attack "arrogant" Snowden for putting lives at risk -- while
calling the agency's collection of communications metadata "privacy
enhancing".
"There were some kernels of truth in [Snowden's remote interview
on Tuesday], but a lot of extrapolations and half-truths," Ledgett
said in an interview with TED curator Chris Anderson,
which kept needing to be suspended -- because of poor
communications links. "He absolutely did have alternative ways he
could have gone. Characterising him as a whistleblower hurts
legitimate whistleblowing activities."
By: David Rowan, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) This £12 lens turns a smartphone into a diagnostic lab
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/smartphones-diagnosing-disease
We've seen health-focused smartphones before that can take all
kinds of measurements, including stress levels and blood pressure,
but researchers at the University of Houston's College of
Engineering claim that mobiles are also capable of diagnosing
disease.
The team are developing a diagnostic system that works simply by
attaching a $20 dollar lens to a smartphone. Diagnosing disease
relies on being able to spot chemical interactions between the
virus or bacteria and a molecule that will bond with only that one
thing, such as an antibody. In order to spot these interactions,
the team have developed a slide on which the reactions can occur
that can be examined using only a smartphone's camera and flash,
with a lens attached to it.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) MPs, stop bundling child abuse in with pornography
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/governments-porn-problem
Every time the government rampages about legal online
pornography in the same breath as online child abuse content, it is
damaging. One is a devastating crime that should be dealt with by
our criminal justice system, with the help of internet providers,
the other is a legal and legitimate pastime most adults in this
country will have enjoyed at some point -- some at many points.
Yet the Culture, Media and Sport Committee has, once again,
decided to deal with online harassment, child abuse and legal
pornography in one report -- the online safety report, which has
over time adopted the agenda of scaremongering politicians eager to
"protect our children", at any expense. The result has been a
threat to prosecute/block pornography websites that don't implement
age verification (which, we all know, is fairly useless at
preventing anyone looking at anything).
By: Liat Clark, Continue [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Government to found Alan Turing Institute
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/alan-turing-institute
Delivering his 2014 Budget to the House of Commons,
the chancellor, George Osborne, said the government will be
founding an Alan Turing Institute, which is part of a broader focus
to increase Britain's science, technology and engineering
output.
The chancellor claimed the institute will ensure
Britain leads the way again in the use of big data and algorithm
research. He praised Turing as a codebreaker who did more than
almost any other single person to win the war after denouncing the
persecution he suffered for being homosexual: "I am delighted that
he has finally received a posthumous Royal Pardon. Now, in his
honour, we will found the Alan Turing Institute... I am determined
that our country is going to out-compete, out-smart and out-do the
rest of the world."
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
5) 3D knitted onesie doubles as a Wi-Fi hotspot and music library
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/byborre-wearable-tech-onesie
Someone has finally improved upon that classic after-work
attire, the onesie.
ByBorre and its
founder Borre Akkersdijk collaborated with Eindhoven
University of Technology (TU/e), 22Tracks, CRISP and Daan
Spangenberg Graphics to create the BB.Suit, a walking Wi-Fi spot
and music library that was showcased at SXSW.
ByBorre, Akkersdijk's company, is at its heart a fashion and
textiles innovation firm. It has shown how old industry can be
reappropriated for new designs -- for instance, using a 3D knitting
machine, which produces round tubes of fabric for mattresses, to
make garments.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
6) UK networks team up to tackle spam texts
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/spam-reporting-service
In order to tackle nuisance spam text messages the UK's largest
mobile operators have announced today that they will be working
alongside the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to
implement the GSMA's spam reporting service.
EE, O2, Three and Vodafone are all on board with the project,
which will enable mobile users to report any unsolicited messages
they might receive free of charge to the number 7726, which is
'SPAM' spelt out on an old-fashioned phone keypad (remember
those?).
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Fly into a visualisation of your brain
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/glass-brain
Glass Brain is a tool that maps the electrical activity of
your brain in realtime, creating a 3D visualisation that you can
navigate with a gaming controller.
The anatomically realistic 3D brain will show realtime data from
electroencephalographic (EEG) signals taken from a
specially-designed EEG cap. This data is mapped to the source of
that electrical activity, i.e. the specific part of the brain. The
underlying brain model is generated through MRI scans so that the
EEG data is accurately mapped to an individual's brain model.
Different colours are given to the different signal frequency bands
to create a beautiful interactive artwork that seems to crackle
with energy, showing how information is transferred (or at least
estimated to do so) between different regions of the brain.
Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
8) 'Assgoblin', 'pooface' and 'douchewaffle': all banned in Mongolia
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/banned-mongolian-words
"Poop", "cocknose" and "dickslap" are just some of the
774 words banned from the Mongolian internet according to a bizarre
list published on Mongolian news site Shuum.
The list contains a mixture of English, Russian and Mongolian rude
words from which the Mongolian censors feel their citizens must be
protected.
The list may seem amusing at first, particularly when
you realise they've not only banned "douche" but gone one step
further and included "female hygene [sic] accessory", but it's
ultimately a tragic indictment of the absurd levels of censorship
currently keeping basic internet freedoms from the people of
Mongolia.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
9) Bizarre 'chicken from hell' dinosaur probably ate everything
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/chicken-from-hell
A team of US palaeontologists have pieced together fossilised
skeletons to form the most complete picture of a bizarre
crest-headed dinosaur that has been described as a cross between an
emu and a reptile.
The team has published the results in the open access
journal PLOS ONE, describing a 3.5 m-long, 300kg feathered
creature with large claws on its hands, powerful legs and no teeth,
but a powerful mandible that could move back and forth in a slicing
motion, suggesting it could have been an omnivore.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Brain-eating amoeba looks cute when cross-stitched
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/cross-stitch-microbes
Alicia Watkins makes cross-stitched microbes, turning malaria,
flu, gonorrhoea and mad cow disease into crafty keepsakes.
Watkins sells the completed cross-stitch artworks stretched
across embroidery hoops from her Etsy store, alongside others
featuring Patrick Stewart, Charlie the Unicorn and Godzilla. She
was inspired to focus on microbes by another Etsy crafter called
Meghan Schuman, who wanted to give her friend an "awesome
customised gift" in spring 2012 and asked Watkins if she'd cross
stitch some microbes. The first three microbes -- mange, flu and
"the E. coli with the flagella" -- were chosen with Schuman's
friend in mind.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
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http://shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/index.php?action=leave&r=66344&k=V4SSCVDPCVNJ33XG
==================================================================
Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) NSA at TED: 'arrogant' Snowden put lives at risk
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/nsa-ted
The US National Security Agency went on the offensive
today after Edward Snowden's surprise Tuesday
appearance at the TED conference in Vancouver.
Flanked by a US flag, NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett used a
live video link from Fort Meade, NSA headquarters in Maryland, to
attack "arrogant" Snowden for putting lives at risk -- while
calling the agency's collection of communications metadata "privacy
enhancing".
"There were some kernels of truth in [Snowden's remote interview
on Tuesday], but a lot of extrapolations and half-truths," Ledgett
said in an interview with TED curator Chris Anderson,
which kept needing to be suspended -- because of poor
communications links. "He absolutely did have alternative ways he
could have gone. Characterising him as a whistleblower hurts
legitimate whistleblowing activities."
By: David Rowan, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) This £12 lens turns a smartphone into a diagnostic lab
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/smartphones-diagnosing-disease
We've seen health-focused smartphones before that can take all
kinds of measurements, including stress levels and blood pressure,
but researchers at the University of Houston's College of
Engineering claim that mobiles are also capable of diagnosing
disease.
The team are developing a diagnostic system that works simply by
attaching a $20 dollar lens to a smartphone. Diagnosing disease
relies on being able to spot chemical interactions between the
virus or bacteria and a molecule that will bond with only that one
thing, such as an antibody. In order to spot these interactions,
the team have developed a slide on which the reactions can occur
that can be examined using only a smartphone's camera and flash,
with a lens attached to it.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) MPs, stop bundling child abuse in with pornography
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/governments-porn-problem
Every time the government rampages about legal online
pornography in the same breath as online child abuse content, it is
damaging. One is a devastating crime that should be dealt with by
our criminal justice system, with the help of internet providers,
the other is a legal and legitimate pastime most adults in this
country will have enjoyed at some point -- some at many points.
Yet the Culture, Media and Sport Committee has, once again,
decided to deal with online harassment, child abuse and legal
pornography in one report -- the online safety report, which has
over time adopted the agenda of scaremongering politicians eager to
"protect our children", at any expense. The result has been a
threat to prosecute/block pornography websites that don't implement
age verification (which, we all know, is fairly useless at
preventing anyone looking at anything).
By: Liat Clark, Continue [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Government to found Alan Turing Institute
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/alan-turing-institute
Delivering his 2014 Budget to the House of Commons,
the chancellor, George Osborne, said the government will be
founding an Alan Turing Institute, which is part of a broader focus
to increase Britain's science, technology and engineering
output.
The chancellor claimed the institute will ensure
Britain leads the way again in the use of big data and algorithm
research. He praised Turing as a codebreaker who did more than
almost any other single person to win the war after denouncing the
persecution he suffered for being homosexual: "I am delighted that
he has finally received a posthumous Royal Pardon. Now, in his
honour, we will found the Alan Turing Institute... I am determined
that our country is going to out-compete, out-smart and out-do the
rest of the world."
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
5) 3D knitted onesie doubles as a Wi-Fi hotspot and music library
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/byborre-wearable-tech-onesie
Someone has finally improved upon that classic after-work
attire, the onesie.
ByBorre and its
founder Borre Akkersdijk collaborated with Eindhoven
University of Technology (TU/e), 22Tracks, CRISP and Daan
Spangenberg Graphics to create the BB.Suit, a walking Wi-Fi spot
and music library that was showcased at SXSW.
ByBorre, Akkersdijk's company, is at its heart a fashion and
textiles innovation firm. It has shown how old industry can be
reappropriated for new designs -- for instance, using a 3D knitting
machine, which produces round tubes of fabric for mattresses, to
make garments.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
6) UK networks team up to tackle spam texts
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/spam-reporting-service
In order to tackle nuisance spam text messages the UK's largest
mobile operators have announced today that they will be working
alongside the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to
implement the GSMA's spam reporting service.
EE, O2, Three and Vodafone are all on board with the project,
which will enable mobile users to report any unsolicited messages
they might receive free of charge to the number 7726, which is
'SPAM' spelt out on an old-fashioned phone keypad (remember
those?).
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Fly into a visualisation of your brain
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/glass-brain
Glass Brain is a tool that maps the electrical activity of
your brain in realtime, creating a 3D visualisation that you can
navigate with a gaming controller.
The anatomically realistic 3D brain will show realtime data from
electroencephalographic (EEG) signals taken from a
specially-designed EEG cap. This data is mapped to the source of
that electrical activity, i.e. the specific part of the brain. The
underlying brain model is generated through MRI scans so that the
EEG data is accurately mapped to an individual's brain model.
Different colours are given to the different signal frequency bands
to create a beautiful interactive artwork that seems to crackle
with energy, showing how information is transferred (or at least
estimated to do so) between different regions of the brain.
Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
8) 'Assgoblin', 'pooface' and 'douchewaffle': all banned in Mongolia
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/banned-mongolian-words
"Poop", "cocknose" and "dickslap" are just some of the
774 words banned from the Mongolian internet according to a bizarre
list published on Mongolian news site Shuum.
The list contains a mixture of English, Russian and Mongolian rude
words from which the Mongolian censors feel their citizens must be
protected.
The list may seem amusing at first, particularly when
you realise they've not only banned "douche" but gone one step
further and included "female hygene [sic] accessory", but it's
ultimately a tragic indictment of the absurd levels of censorship
currently keeping basic internet freedoms from the people of
Mongolia.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
9) Bizarre 'chicken from hell' dinosaur probably ate everything
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/chicken-from-hell
A team of US palaeontologists have pieced together fossilised
skeletons to form the most complete picture of a bizarre
crest-headed dinosaur that has been described as a cross between an
emu and a reptile.
The team has published the results in the open access
journal PLOS ONE, describing a 3.5 m-long, 300kg feathered
creature with large claws on its hands, powerful legs and no teeth,
but a powerful mandible that could move back and forth in a slicing
motion, suggesting it could have been an omnivore.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Brain-eating amoeba looks cute when cross-stitched
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/cross-stitch-microbes
Alicia Watkins makes cross-stitched microbes, turning malaria,
flu, gonorrhoea and mad cow disease into crafty keepsakes.
Watkins sells the completed cross-stitch artworks stretched
across embroidery hoops from her Etsy store, alongside others
featuring Patrick Stewart, Charlie the Unicorn and Godzilla. She
was inspired to focus on microbes by another Etsy crafter called
Meghan Schuman, who wanted to give her friend an "awesome
customised gift" in spring 2012 and asked Watkins if she'd cross
stitch some microbes. The first three microbes -- mange, flu and
"the E. coli with the flagella" -- were chosen with Schuman's
friend in mind.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive Blog Alerts (email notifications of new posts) for Wired.co.uk - News. If you no longer wish to receive Blog Alerts for Wired.co.uk - News, go to this link:
http://shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/index.php?action=leave&r=66344&k=V4SSCVDPCVNJ33XG
==================================================================
Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
Wednesday 19 March 2014
Blog Alert for Wired.co.uk - News, Mar 18, 2014
New Posts to Wired.co.uk - News on Mar 18, 2014:
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Google brings Chromecast to UK TVs today
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/19/chromecast-uk
Google's competitor to the Apple TV and
AirPlay, Chromecast, will launch in the UK today.
The device, which costs £30, plugs directly into a television's
HDMI port and allows supported apps
on Android and iOS devices to stream content to
a TV wirelessly. At launch these include obvious choices such as
YouTube, but also BBC iPlayer and Netflix.
By: Nate Lanxon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Android smartwatch OS announced with Moto 360
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/moto-360
Motorola has announced it will be entering the smartwatch market
with the Moto 360, a traditionally styled timepiece that's been
given the Google treatment. It first hinted at the unveiling during
Mobile World Congress last month in Barcelona, but today we have
been given our first glimpse of the watch.
At the same time, Google has shown off Android Wear, its Android
operating sytem for wearables, which will run on the Moto 360, as
well as devices from other manufacturers. It's not surprising the
two have been announced in tandem, given that Google still
currently owns Motorola.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Snowden: Big revelations to come, reporting them is not a crime
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/snowden-ted
Edward Snowden made a surprise appearance on the TED stage in
Vancouver today, by Beam telepresence robot from "somewhere in
Russia".
Snowden, in his second remote talk in eight days after an
appearance at SXSW Interactive in Texas, urged online businesses to
encrypt their websites immediately. "The biggest thing that an
internet company in America can do today, right now, without
consulting lawyers, to protect users of the internet around the
world is to enable web encryption on every page you visit," he
said. "If you look at a copy of 1984 on Amazon, the NSA can see a
record of that, the Russians, the French, can -- the world's
library is unencrypted. This is something we need to change not
just for Amazon -- all companies need to move to an encrypted
browsing habit by default."
By: David Rowan, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) EU votes to protect net neutrality, end roaming charges
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/eu-roaming-net-neutrality
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted for
stricter rules against internet providers blocking or slowing
internet services provided by competitors and called for an end to
roaming charges.
The Parliamentary Committee on Industry, Research and
Energy passed the package of reforms put together by Digital
Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes with 30 votes to 12 (with 14
abstentions).
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
5) These clever hospital door handles will clean your grubby paws
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/pullclean-door-handle
Despite every hospital now having numerous hand
sanitation "stations" dotted throughout their wards, getting people
to actually use them is still proving a challenge. The PullClean
door handle from Altitude Medical could change this by
incorporating hand sanitisers in hospital doors to both remind and
encourage staff, patients and visitors to clean their hands.
By embedding hand sanitisers into hospital door
handles -- an unavoidable object that almost every visitor must use
-- it is hoped that hand sanitation will feel as effortless
and as habitual as opening a door. This simplification is intended
to radically increase rates of hand sanitising, which in turn could
possibly drastically reduced hospital based diseases and
infections.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
6) Wearables won't just record our lives, they'll change them
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/lifeloggers
Lifeloggers are not there to capture the mundane and
uninteresting. They are there to capture the subtle moments that
mean something to us -- and we are only just beginning to touch
upon the benefits of having these at our disposal for analysis.
Niclas Johansson, marketing manager at Narrative, and
Autographer CEO Simon Randall made these comments on stage at
London's Wearable Technology Show, alongside Lyte MD Chris Chance
and GoPro's Paul Hancon.
"One user came up to me and said they'd bought our
device and had been using it for a few weeks," said Randall. "He'd
been wearing it at the office everyday, and what he had captured by
the end of the week was really boring. So he decided to rearrange
his whole office -- he owned the company -- with more communal and
open spaces. Then his images were much more interesting."
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Hide from your friends with Cloak app
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/cloak-antisocial-network
Are you incredibly popular but sick of bumping into
your "friends" all the time? Then you should check out Cloak,
a newly released app and one of the first self-proclaimed
"anti-social networks", which is hoping to provide you with an
"incognito mode for real life".
Cloak harvests Instagram and Foursquare updates from
your friends before using that data to inform you of their
whereabouts, allowing you to keep track of their movements and
avoid them entirely.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
8) The Wind Rises review: a Miyazaki masterpiece
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/the-wind-rises-review
The name Hayao Miyazaki is to many synonymous with that of the
Japanese animation house he co-founded in the 1980s, Studio Ghibli.
At 73 years old, his latest work -- The Wind
Rises (Kaze Tachinu in Japan) -- is also to
be his last.
Ahead of its May release via Studio Canal in the UK, I was a
little nervous entering the screening room to see the picture. I'm
a long-time Ghibli admirer and fan, but I'm in the camp that
favours its marriage of fantasy and mysticism (My Neighbor
Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle) over its explorations of real
life (Grave of the Fireflies). I had heard The
Wind Rises sat somewhere in the middle. I didn't know
what to expect.
By: Nate Lanxon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
9) Football tech should not be relegated to the goal-line
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/wearables-in-sports
Football is a multibillion pound sport that relies on
its players for success -- why then isn't it protecting those same
players with life-saving wearables?
This was the question former professional footballer
Kevin Campbell put to the audience at London's Wearable Technology
Show, where he seemed personally incredulous at the lack of action
being taken by the likes of the FA.
"Being in a top level sport you tend to think
everything is measured -- with every run in training they are
trying to get every last ounce out of the athlete," said Campbell.
"Then you get to situations where Fabrice
Muamba collapses on the pitch with a heart problem and
everyone is up in arms. With all this technology constantly
measuring everything, how can that happen to an elite
footballer?"
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Ski apps don't cause accidents, people do
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/ski-tracking-apps
For skiers and boarders, technology has long been making the
mountain safer, more accessible, more thrilling. Whether it's the
reassuring presence of Recco avalanche sensors in our gear, snow
cannons, telecabines replacing rusty buttons or helicopters
dropping us in places lifts don't go, the skiing experience has
definitely benefited from advances in tech.
Recently though, a spate of media reports have picked
up on the growing popularity of ski-tracking apps, and have
questioned whether they are to blame for an increase in
speed-related accidents on the slopes. The apps measure a skier or
boarder's journey throughout the day, and among the various
statistics it throws up is their top speed. Reports suggest that
while attempting to score a personal best, or beat the top speeds
of friends, skiers have been pushing themselves to the point of
losing control, and on some occasions have [...]
------------------------------------------------------------------
11) Wearables are ugly and inessential, let's fix them
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/how-to-make-a-wearable-wearable
Entrepreneurs need to stop building wearables in plastic and get
authentication right if they are going to thrive. These were
two of the main points touched upon by a panel of four
entrepreneurs in the industry onstage at the London Wearable Technology
Show.
"Many of the products in this space are not even wearable," said
Sonny Vu of Misfit Wearables, the creator of activity monitor
Shine. "It's a bit of a misnomer. One of the first tasks is making
them wearable and that means elegant and not forcing people to take
them off to charge."
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive Blog Alerts (email notifications of new posts) for Wired.co.uk - News. If you no longer wish to receive Blog Alerts for Wired.co.uk - News, go to this link:
http://shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/index.php?action=leave&r=66344&k=V4SSCVDPCVNJ33XG
==================================================================
Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Google brings Chromecast to UK TVs today
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/19/chromecast-uk
Google's competitor to the Apple TV and
AirPlay, Chromecast, will launch in the UK today.
The device, which costs £30, plugs directly into a television's
HDMI port and allows supported apps
on Android and iOS devices to stream content to
a TV wirelessly. At launch these include obvious choices such as
YouTube, but also BBC iPlayer and Netflix.
By: Nate Lanxon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Android smartwatch OS announced with Moto 360
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/moto-360
Motorola has announced it will be entering the smartwatch market
with the Moto 360, a traditionally styled timepiece that's been
given the Google treatment. It first hinted at the unveiling during
Mobile World Congress last month in Barcelona, but today we have
been given our first glimpse of the watch.
At the same time, Google has shown off Android Wear, its Android
operating sytem for wearables, which will run on the Moto 360, as
well as devices from other manufacturers. It's not surprising the
two have been announced in tandem, given that Google still
currently owns Motorola.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Snowden: Big revelations to come, reporting them is not a crime
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/snowden-ted
Edward Snowden made a surprise appearance on the TED stage in
Vancouver today, by Beam telepresence robot from "somewhere in
Russia".
Snowden, in his second remote talk in eight days after an
appearance at SXSW Interactive in Texas, urged online businesses to
encrypt their websites immediately. "The biggest thing that an
internet company in America can do today, right now, without
consulting lawyers, to protect users of the internet around the
world is to enable web encryption on every page you visit," he
said. "If you look at a copy of 1984 on Amazon, the NSA can see a
record of that, the Russians, the French, can -- the world's
library is unencrypted. This is something we need to change not
just for Amazon -- all companies need to move to an encrypted
browsing habit by default."
By: David Rowan, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) EU votes to protect net neutrality, end roaming charges
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/eu-roaming-net-neutrality
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted for
stricter rules against internet providers blocking or slowing
internet services provided by competitors and called for an end to
roaming charges.
The Parliamentary Committee on Industry, Research and
Energy passed the package of reforms put together by Digital
Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes with 30 votes to 12 (with 14
abstentions).
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
5) These clever hospital door handles will clean your grubby paws
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/pullclean-door-handle
Despite every hospital now having numerous hand
sanitation "stations" dotted throughout their wards, getting people
to actually use them is still proving a challenge. The PullClean
door handle from Altitude Medical could change this by
incorporating hand sanitisers in hospital doors to both remind and
encourage staff, patients and visitors to clean their hands.
By embedding hand sanitisers into hospital door
handles -- an unavoidable object that almost every visitor must use
-- it is hoped that hand sanitation will feel as effortless
and as habitual as opening a door. This simplification is intended
to radically increase rates of hand sanitising, which in turn could
possibly drastically reduced hospital based diseases and
infections.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
6) Wearables won't just record our lives, they'll change them
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/lifeloggers
Lifeloggers are not there to capture the mundane and
uninteresting. They are there to capture the subtle moments that
mean something to us -- and we are only just beginning to touch
upon the benefits of having these at our disposal for analysis.
Niclas Johansson, marketing manager at Narrative, and
Autographer CEO Simon Randall made these comments on stage at
London's Wearable Technology Show, alongside Lyte MD Chris Chance
and GoPro's Paul Hancon.
"One user came up to me and said they'd bought our
device and had been using it for a few weeks," said Randall. "He'd
been wearing it at the office everyday, and what he had captured by
the end of the week was really boring. So he decided to rearrange
his whole office -- he owned the company -- with more communal and
open spaces. Then his images were much more interesting."
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Hide from your friends with Cloak app
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/cloak-antisocial-network
Are you incredibly popular but sick of bumping into
your "friends" all the time? Then you should check out Cloak,
a newly released app and one of the first self-proclaimed
"anti-social networks", which is hoping to provide you with an
"incognito mode for real life".
Cloak harvests Instagram and Foursquare updates from
your friends before using that data to inform you of their
whereabouts, allowing you to keep track of their movements and
avoid them entirely.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
8) The Wind Rises review: a Miyazaki masterpiece
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/the-wind-rises-review
The name Hayao Miyazaki is to many synonymous with that of the
Japanese animation house he co-founded in the 1980s, Studio Ghibli.
At 73 years old, his latest work -- The Wind
Rises (Kaze Tachinu in Japan) -- is also to
be his last.
Ahead of its May release via Studio Canal in the UK, I was a
little nervous entering the screening room to see the picture. I'm
a long-time Ghibli admirer and fan, but I'm in the camp that
favours its marriage of fantasy and mysticism (My Neighbor
Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle) over its explorations of real
life (Grave of the Fireflies). I had heard The
Wind Rises sat somewhere in the middle. I didn't know
what to expect.
By: Nate Lanxon, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
9) Football tech should not be relegated to the goal-line
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/wearables-in-sports
Football is a multibillion pound sport that relies on
its players for success -- why then isn't it protecting those same
players with life-saving wearables?
This was the question former professional footballer
Kevin Campbell put to the audience at London's Wearable Technology
Show, where he seemed personally incredulous at the lack of action
being taken by the likes of the FA.
"Being in a top level sport you tend to think
everything is measured -- with every run in training they are
trying to get every last ounce out of the athlete," said Campbell.
"Then you get to situations where Fabrice
Muamba collapses on the pitch with a heart problem and
everyone is up in arms. With all this technology constantly
measuring everything, how can that happen to an elite
footballer?"
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Ski apps don't cause accidents, people do
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/ski-tracking-apps
For skiers and boarders, technology has long been making the
mountain safer, more accessible, more thrilling. Whether it's the
reassuring presence of Recco avalanche sensors in our gear, snow
cannons, telecabines replacing rusty buttons or helicopters
dropping us in places lifts don't go, the skiing experience has
definitely benefited from advances in tech.
Recently though, a spate of media reports have picked
up on the growing popularity of ski-tracking apps, and have
questioned whether they are to blame for an increase in
speed-related accidents on the slopes. The apps measure a skier or
boarder's journey throughout the day, and among the various
statistics it throws up is their top speed. Reports suggest that
while attempting to score a personal best, or beat the top speeds
of friends, skiers have been pushing themselves to the point of
losing control, and on some occasions have [...]
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11) Wearables are ugly and inessential, let's fix them
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/how-to-make-a-wearable-wearable
Entrepreneurs need to stop building wearables in plastic and get
authentication right if they are going to thrive. These were
two of the main points touched upon by a panel of four
entrepreneurs in the industry onstage at the London Wearable Technology
Show.
"Many of the products in this space are not even wearable," said
Sonny Vu of Misfit Wearables, the creator of activity monitor
Shine. "It's a bit of a misnomer. One of the first tasks is making
them wearable and that means elegant and not forcing people to take
them off to charge."
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
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Monday 17 March 2014
Blog Alert for Wired.co.uk - News, Mar 16, 2014
New Posts to Wired.co.uk - News on Mar 16, 2014:
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) More ozone-destroying gases discovered in atmosphere
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/16/greenhouse-gases
Researchers have identified four manmade gases in the
atmosphere that could threaten the ozone layer, in addition to
existing chemicals that are banned under international
treaties.
Three new chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and one new
hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) have been spotted by comparing
modern air samples with air trapped in polar ice more than 100
years ago.
By: Duncan Geere, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Acoustic cloak keeps you out of ear's reach
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/16/acoustic-cloaking
Materials engineers at Duke University have built a
three-dimensional acoustic cloak that reroutes sound waves away
from an object.
The device, which functions in much the same way as purported
invisibility cloaks, masks an object from sound waves. "By placing
this cloak around an object, the sound waves behave like there is
nothing more than a flat surface in their path," said Steven
Cummer, who worked on the design.
By: Duncan Geere, Continue reading...
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Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) More ozone-destroying gases discovered in atmosphere
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/16/greenhouse-gases
Researchers have identified four manmade gases in the
atmosphere that could threaten the ozone layer, in addition to
existing chemicals that are banned under international
treaties.
Three new chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and one new
hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) have been spotted by comparing
modern air samples with air trapped in polar ice more than 100
years ago.
By: Duncan Geere, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Acoustic cloak keeps you out of ear's reach
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/16/acoustic-cloaking
Materials engineers at Duke University have built a
three-dimensional acoustic cloak that reroutes sound waves away
from an object.
The device, which functions in much the same way as purported
invisibility cloaks, masks an object from sound waves. "By placing
this cloak around an object, the sound waves behave like there is
nothing more than a flat surface in their path," said Steven
Cummer, who worked on the design.
By: Duncan Geere, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
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Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
Sunday 16 March 2014
Blog Alert for Wired.co.uk - News, Mar 15, 2014
New Posts to Wired.co.uk - News on Mar 15, 2014:
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) UK gov wants 'unsavoury' web content censored
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/15/government-web-censorship
The UK minister for immigration and security has called for the
government to do more to deal with "unsavoury", rather than
illegal, material online.
James Brokenshire made the comments to the Financial
Times in an interview related to the government's
alleged ability to automatically request YouTube videos be taken
down under "super flagger" status.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) UK pledges £290m for international science
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/15/international-science
Science minister David Willetts has offered up £290
million to international research projects, including the largest
telescope ever built.
A sum of £100 million will be put towards the construction of
the Square Kilometre Array -- a vast radio telescope that'll be
built across South Africa and Australia. It's hoped that the
investment will lead to breakthroughs in storing and processing
large amounts of data.
By: Duncan Geere, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) India plans mission to the Sun
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/15/india-sun
India's Mangalyaan spacecraft is on its way to Mars, but the
county is already planning its next major space exploration
mission.
The country visited the Moon in 2008, and launched a budget Mars
rocket in late 2013. But its next step is a mission to the Sun,
which could begin as early as 2017.
By: Duncan Geere, Continue reading...
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Self storage facilities are cash cows!
http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) UK gov wants 'unsavoury' web content censored
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/15/government-web-censorship
The UK minister for immigration and security has called for the
government to do more to deal with "unsavoury", rather than
illegal, material online.
James Brokenshire made the comments to the Financial
Times in an interview related to the government's
alleged ability to automatically request YouTube videos be taken
down under "super flagger" status.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) UK pledges £290m for international science
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/15/international-science
Science minister David Willetts has offered up £290
million to international research projects, including the largest
telescope ever built.
A sum of £100 million will be put towards the construction of
the Square Kilometre Array -- a vast radio telescope that'll be
built across South Africa and Australia. It's hoped that the
investment will lead to breakthroughs in storing and processing
large amounts of data.
By: Duncan Geere, Continue reading...
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) India plans mission to the Sun
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/15/india-sun
India's Mangalyaan spacecraft is on its way to Mars, but the
county is already planning its next major space exploration
mission.
The country visited the Moon in 2008, and launched a budget Mars
rocket in late 2013. But its next step is a mission to the Sun,
which could begin as early as 2017.
By: Duncan Geere, Continue reading...
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http://hasslefreehouses.com/selfstorage
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