New Posts to Wired.co.uk - News on Apr 7, 2014:
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1) Report: change European law to allow scientific data mining
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/european-copyright-science-journals
The European Commission has published a
consultation recommending that copyright law be changed to
allow researchers to use automated text and data mining (TDM)
software to hunt for vital information in published scientific
papers.
For years scientists from all fields have been engaged in an
uphill battle to get more data out from behind journal paywalls,
and into the public academic sphere. Finding the balance between
open access and sustaining the costly peer-review model has been
tricky, and some have gotten around this by only publishing
datasets. Trawling through thousands of such releases, is of course
time consuming and somewhat counters the theory that making it open
will speed up scientific progress.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
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2) Raspberry Pi announces customisable module for industry
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/raspberry-pi-compute-module
The makers of Raspberry Pi have today announced a new
product, the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, aimed specifically
at business and industrial users.
As Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton told the audience at the
Wired 2013 event last autumn, the Pi was always intended to be an
educational device. But the tiny computers have ended up all over
the world, being used for all sorts of projects. It's not
surprising, then, that the Foundation has launched a module that
can be embedded into systems and commercial products.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
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3) 'Nearly unbreakable' encryption inspired by biology
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/unbreakable-encryption
A team of physicists has built a "nearly unbreakable" encryption
system devised using the same mathematical principles that explain
how the human heart and lungs function in unison.
The system has been described in a paper published
in Physical Review X, penned by Tomislav Stankovski,
Peter McClintock and Aneta Stefanovska of Lancaster University, and
a patent has already been filed. The kicker is, not one of the
physics professors had experience in encryption. Their joint
backgrounds are in engineering, nonlinear dynamics and
biomedical/physics engineering, but when they read up on the latest
discoveries around the cardiorespiratory coupling function -- the
way in which the heart and lungs work together continuously -- the
potential applications became clear.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
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4) £1.1m roboman to test Army's protective clothing
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/robot-man-mod
The Ministry of Defence has spent £1.1 million on a robotic
mannequin that will be used to test protective suits and other
equipment used by the armed forces.
The Porton Man mannequin has been built out of advanced
materials normally reserved for Formula One cars and can move
around in a variety of ways. He features more than 100 sensors on
his body to record data during tests, to see how equipment such as
chemical and biological protective clothing fares.
By: Olivia Solon, Continue reading...
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5) Gaming linked with brain thickening
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/gaming-brain-thickness
Playing video games has been linked with increases in the
thickness of some parts of the brain.
A study published in PLOS One reports that "a
robust positive association" exists between the amounts of time
teens reported spending on video games each week and the thickness
of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and left frontal
eye fields (FEF).
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
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6) Generation XXX: Talk to your kids about internet porn
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/porn-education
Ministers and regulatory bodies want to put internet
pornography on the top shelf. They're insinuating it will deprave
and corrupt under the Obscenity Act -- which in fact defines what
material is illegal, including abuse and necrophilia, and does not
make judgements on other legal content. They're arguing it
constitutes material that will impair the emotional, physical and
mental development of minors, under Europe's Audiovisual Media
Services Directive. No other European country has gone this
far.
The result of all this, if online pornography is regulated and
taxed to the hilt, or alternatively blocked for non-compliance, is
that no one will ever have to talk about porn again.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
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7) Child abuse images bundled with malware in sinister hacks
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/child-abuse-malware
In the Internet Watch Foundation's (IWF) annual report, released
today, the organisation has highlighted an emerging
trend that has seen a number of UK businesses' websites hacked
to host folders of child sexual abuse images and malware.
Only one percent of all the child sexual abuse images and videos
discovered last year were hosted in the UK, but the number of pages
found to be hosting images was up to 92 from 73 in 2012. The IWF
identified the reason for the increase as a significant rise in the
number of legitimate personal and business sites being hacked with
two specific child sexual abuse website templates -- a distribution
method that has not been in widespread use since 2010.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
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8) MPs slam BBC for false balance in climate debates
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/uk-parliament-bbc-climate-change
The UK Parliament's Science and Technology Committee has
recently delivered a report on the state of climate
knowledge and communication in the country. Although it doesn't
spare the government from criticism, the report notes that most of
the public looks to the BBC to provide authoritative coverage on
science. The report concludes that in this case, the BBC's news
division is failing its readership and viewers. Rather than
providing authoritative information, the BBC is succumbing to false
balance, and its director of Editorial Policy and Standards gave
testimony on science coverage that appears to be incoherent.
In the UK, the major political parties largely accept the
scientific evidence for climate change; official skepticism is
limited to a few parties on the conservative fringe. As such, the
report starts with the acceptance of the conclusions reached by the
majority of [...]
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9) Generation XXX: Global porn regulation could boost UK industry
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/regulating-online-porn-a-good-thing
The UK porn industry is dwindling, Jerry Barnett of
Sex & Censorship tells Wired.co.uk. Barnett's own company fell
foul of new regulations introduced by TV on-demand body
Atvod when a European directive ruled a few years ago that
anything that "might seriously impair minors" be fitted with age
verification tools. Part of the industry revolted, like Barnett
concerned that the "moral panic" over our children's innocence
would lead to excessive controls and, ultimately, censorship.
Another section, however, submitted, seeing the changes as overdue
and possibly with one great advantage: a path to battle "tube
porn".
"They are the scourge of the industry," says Chris
Ratcliff, Managing Director of Portland Broadcasting, which
runs ten adult channels broadcast on the likes of Sky and Virgin
and two on-demand websites. "I don't know why anyone would be
looking to try to protect them. The [...]
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10) Brace yourselves for the return of Game of Thrones
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/game-of-thrones-recap
Last time on Game of Thrones, everything
happened.
George R. R. Martin's world has always been famously
complicated, and by design. The story of Westeros isn't a simple
one, just like the story of the real world isn't a simple one.
Rather than getting lost in the myopia of honor or ego, the wisest
people -- and the wiliest survivors -- are those who understand the
complex political, historical, and personal forces that shape
events and see the world from a broader point of view, not
unlike the audience itself. From that perspective, even kings
and conquerors become little more than pawns in a bigger game that
has been in motion for thousands of years. What's the difference
between how Littlefinger looks at his world and how Game
of Thrones Wiki contributors see it? Probably very
little.
By: Laura Hudson, Continue reading...
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11) Generation XXX: Niche pornographers feel unduly targeted by censors
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/censorship-pornography
"I believe that there is some kind of hunt going on at the
moment," Itziar Urrutia tells Wired.co.uk.
Urrutia operates an adult fetish site that is less blondes in
schoolgirl skirts, and more whips, chains and latex. She is a
visual performance artist, and her persona du jour is that of the
jail keeper at the Urban Chick Supremacy Cell, "a fictional Femdom
terror cell that seeks to chase smug City boys and other male
vermin and destroy patriarchy". Since June 2013, however, the
tables have somewhat turned and Urrutia has found herself the
hunted party.
By: Liat Clark, Continue reading...
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12) Watch the 29-storey-high game of Tetris
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/tetris-building
If you'll cast your mind back to deepest, darkest March Drexel
University was promising visitors to Philadelphia the chance
to play Tetris on a 29-storey building.
The game was planned as part of Philly Tech Week which opened on
4 April and thus you can now see how the building was repurposed
for gaming in the video above.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
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13) Amazon's Dash is 'remote control' for buying groceries
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/amazon-shopping-dash
Amazon announced a new stand-alone gadget today
called the Dash. It's basically a remote control for buying
groceries. The small, handheld
gadget itself is free, but the catch is you can only
use it to order food and other goods from Amazon Fresh, the
company's same-to-next-day delivery service.
Dash automates the task of creating a shopping list.
It looks like a little wand, and you can speak into it, or use it
to scan a barcode. Dash then adds those items to your Amazon Fresh
account. When you're ready, all the items you've added are there
waiting for you to schedule a delivery. You have to be an Amazon
Prime Fresh customer to get one (Prime Fresh costs $300 (£180) per
year, and is only available in a few cities) and, for now at least,
you'll also need an invitation code from Amazon.
By: Mat Honan, Continue reading...
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14) Xbox partners with Channel 4 to make sci-fi show Humans
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/humans-xbox-channel-4
Microsoft has confirmed it will be working with Channel 4 to
deliver a new sci-fi show called Humans.
The programme is set in the present day but in an alternate
universe where Synths -- humanoid robotic helpers and servants --
are common. The main plot of the show revolves around a father who
buys a refurbished Synth who happens to harbour a secret.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
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15) Generation XXX: Why we're afraid of internet porn
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/porn-fear
People like porn. It's not a surprising statement, and it's not
true of everyone, but there's just a lot of people that like porn.
Nine million of our 60+ million population accessed adult content
at least once in December, tv on-demand regulator Atvod told
us last month. That figure is totally unsurprising. It's also
probably a massive underestimate, considering only 83 percent
of UK households have internet access, and that nine million figure
didn't account for tablet or mobile access -- the predominant means
of accessing the web, at about 60 percent. The fraction of the
population left over after you account for mobile, must be looking
at porn down at the sex shop. Because you can't look at it on
television. Did you know that? Hardcore pornography, which the
British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) classes as real sex, is
banned. It's not behind a paywall, or a watershed. You're [...]
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16) Why Mercedes is owning this Formula 1 season
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/07/f1-mercedes-turbo
We're two races into the Formula 1 season, and Mercedes-Benz has
been killing it. Now we know the team's secret (one of them,
anyway), and it's brilliantly simple.
This year, the entire grid of 22 cars is running 1.6-litre
turbocharged V6 engines with a sophisticated hybrid energy
system that scavenges energy from the brakes and turbo. F1
engineers are among the sharpest on the planet, and they
have thousands of parameters they can tweak and tricks
they can use to make these power units as powerful and efficient as
possible. Mercedes' best and brightest found a particularly cool
one: they essentially cut the turbo in half.
This is very smart. Here's why.
By: Damon Lavrinc, Continue reading...
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