[Sponsor] Much like the iconic double decker buses in the UK, this British-designed limited edition Storm Trilogy Watch has two levels. The top floor is a traditional three-handed clock bolted onto the bottom floor, where two totally different one handed displays display two other timezones. On the right, one features a simple single hand for hours (if it lies in the middle of the 8 and 9, it's showing 8:30). To the bottom left, an obscured viewing area offers a unique way of displaying the time: a single double-sided hand points to the hours in two rows, with the shorter side pointing to the hours after 3 o'clock and the longer side pointing to the hours after 9.
Laurie Anderson's commencement speech on art, science and space Security researcher: I found secret reprogramming backdoors in Chinese microprocessors The sordid history of a perfect poison Cool collages made from vintage science media How to: Use math to win at Battleship Open Goldberg Variations: free, open source recording and modern score of classical masterpiece What's your diameter breast height? What the heck is this thing? Game of Thrones recap: The Rains of Castamere Canada's national archives being dismantled and scattered Quebeckers take to the streets with pots and pans: a charivari Innovation Under Austerity: Eben Moglen's call to arms from the Freedom to Connect conference CPU Wars: Top Trumps with CPUs Bruce Schneier explains security to a neurologist who believes in profiling Muslims at airports Laurie Anderson's commencement speech on art, science and space
By Cory Doctorow on May 28, 2012 12:14 pm Gayle from the School of Visual Arts in NYC sez, "Acclaimed multimedia artist Laurie Anderson gave the commencement address this year at the School of Visual Arts' (SVA) graduation ceremony, held at New York City's Radio City Musical Hall on May 10. In a speech that was at turns thoughtful and lighthearted, she interwove stories ...
Read in browser Security researcher: I found secret reprogramming backdoors in Chinese microprocessors
By Cory Doctorow on May 28, 2012 08:58 am Sergei Skorobogatov, a postdoc in the Security Group at the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge has written up claims that reprogammable microchips from China contained secret back-doors that can be used to covertly insert code: Claims were made by the intelligence agencies around the world, from MI5, NSA and IARPA, that silicon chips ...
Read in browser The sordid history of a perfect poison
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 28, 2012 07:54 am Suxamethonium chloride is a common hospital anesthetic that has, off and on, moonlighted as murder weapon. Used to paralyze patients so that doctors can more easily put insert a breathing tube, the drug can kill very easily if the person who gets a dose of it doesn't have access to things like respirators, or a ...
Read in browser Cool collages made from vintage science media
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 28, 2012 07:49 am Artist Peter Madden builds these cool collages out of photos he cuts from back issues of National Geographic, vintage encyclopedias, and old nature books. They're really lovely! Via Thisiscollossal, thanks to Steve Silberman
Read in browser How to: Use math to win at Battleship
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 28, 2012 07:38 am It takes an average of 66 moves to win a game of Battleship. But that's only if you stick to random guessing. With the help of a computer algorithm, the tech consultant at a data mining company was able to win the game in an average of 44 moves.
Read in browser Open Goldberg Variations: free, open source recording and modern score of classical masterpiece
By Rob Beschizza on May 28, 2012 07:30 am Performed by Kimiko Ishizaka on a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial in Berlin's Teldex Studio, there's already plenty to love about a new cut of Bach's Goldberg Variations. But this one is also the first fan-funded, open source, and completely free recording of it. "Every part of it is free for you to use, share, and copy," ...
Read in browser What's your diameter breast height?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 28, 2012 07:30 am Scientists measure trees for a wide variety of reasons. When I visited the Harvard Forest last week, I measured them as part of studying carbon sequestration by plants. But you can't just go out into the woods with any old tape measure and expect to collect some significant data. That's because where you measure the ...
Read in browser What the heck is this thing?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 28, 2012 07:22 am Marine biologists think they can identify this strange, blobby creature that floated up out of the ocean depths and was captured on an oil drill video. That, alone, is not terribly surprising. Marine biologists know a lot of weird ocean creatures. But would you believe they identified it by its gonads? Read the rest of ...
Read in browser Game of Thrones recap: The Rains of Castamere
By Leigh Alexander on May 28, 2012 03:30 am It's a funny thing, those who begrudge others the modern privilege of simultaneous participation. Fans of Game of Thrones waited for the epic Battle of the Blackwater for weeks – it's one of the few occasions in the books when a decisive battle involving major characters is shown directly in realtime, instead of as ...
Read in browser Canada's national archives being dismantled and scattered
By Cory Doctorow on May 27, 2012 08:45 pm A reader writes, The Canadian government is slowly doing away with Canada's ability to access its own history. Library and Archives Canada's collection is being decentralized and scattered across the country, often to private institutions, which will limit access, making research difficult or next impossible. It should be noted that Daniel Caron, the new National ...
Read in browser Quebeckers take to the streets with pots and pans: a charivari
By Cory Doctorow on May 27, 2012 06:00 pm Here are Montrealers engaged in charivari, a form of protest involving beating pots and pans in the streets. They're out protesting the new law 78, which prohibits public gatherings without police approval, and gives the police the power to arbitrarily declare approved protests to be illegal ones midstream. The law was passed amid a long, ...
Read in browser Innovation Under Austerity: Eben Moglen's call to arms from the Freedom to Connect conference
By Cory Doctorow on May 27, 2012 04:55 pm Last week saw the latest installment of David Isenberg's Freedom to Connect conference in Washington, DC. One of the keynotes came from Eben Moglen, formerly chief counsel of the Free Software Foundation, now the principle agitator behind the Software Freedom Law Center. Eben's keynote is one of the most provocative, intelligent, outrageous and outraged pieces ...
Read in browser CPU Wars: Top Trumps with CPUs
By Cory Doctorow on May 27, 2012 03:46 pm CPU Wars is a Top-Trumps-style game whose play-tokens are cards bearing the likeness and specifications of various CPUs (what else?) through the ages, from 8088s up to contemporary 64-bit multicores. It was produced with the help of a successful Kickstarter, and is now available as a normal object of commerce, with regular expansion packs. CPU ...
Read in browser Bruce Schneier explains security to a neurologist who believes in profiling Muslims at airports
By Cory Doctorow on May 27, 2012 03:19 pm Sam Harris, a neuroscientist, challenged Bruce Schneier to a debate on whether Muslims should be singled out for additional screening at airports. Schneier patiently, and repeatedly, explains why (apart from the unconstitutionality and moral repugnance of this), it would be bad security practice. Harris changes the subject. A lot. But Schneier presents a model of ...
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