December 2011
54 posts
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News Reviews
APPS/SOFTWARE Another Diet App, This Time with Meal Peer Pressure The Eatery has you snap your meal, then the software analyzes eating habits while other users rate your choices. It was released this week, and has over two million meal ratings so far. @techrev App for Reporting Bad Taxi Drivers ReportATaxi lets you take a photo of the driver’s cab license, or record his medallion number, then...
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Culture Counter
VH1 to launch biopic series, up first: TLC
Many cable outlets started getting into film this past year (TNT, CMT, BET, USA) and Vh1 is about to join. They’re planning a series of biopics about influential musicians and pop culture icons, starting with TLC. T-Boz and Chilli are consultants on the film, Kate Lanier (What’s Love Got To Do With It) will write the movie. No definite timeline yet.
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Wired Daily Digest
Diamonds Linked in Quantum States Quantum entanglement, the spooky ability of separate particles to share quantum states, is accepted fact. Usually though, the entangled bits are so small or cold we needn’t loose sleep over the weirdness. That’s changed. English physicists report today in Science that they’ve linked a pair of diamond crystals at room temperature.
Far From Home, Voyager...
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Wired Daily Digest
Accelerating Learning Among Autistic Children, There Are Apps for That Using tablet computers, children with autistic spectrum disorder can make remarkable cognitive and behavioral improvements, report their parents and teachers. To help adults select the good apps, among the thousands available, several websites are now publishing reviews.
The Energy Future: iPads vs. Typewriters With Guns ...
November 2011
38 posts
2 tags
News Reviews
HOUSEHOLD Get a Tweet When Your Basement Floods The Twine, an iPhone-sized plastic cube that runs for months on a AAA battery, has wi-fi, a temperature sensor, accelerometer, magnet switch, and moisture sensor. Set it to send you a text when laundry is done, or open a door via Tweet. The programming software is deliberately simple so anyone can use it. Via @kickstarter Panasonic Nails...
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Culture Counter
This probably won’t actually be produced in Scranton either, but now paper from Dunder Mifflin will be available at Staples. Gale Anne Hurd developing Area 51 series Hurd’s production company optioned the Annie Jacobsen book, Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base, for a potential series. It’s set to be an hourlong show written by Karl Gajdusek (who will double as...
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Reviews News
HOUSEHOLD Urinal Gaming Makes a Splash in the UK, Puns Ensue A tablet-sized screen (covered in toughened glass) sits above the urinal, and infrared sensors track the player’s stream as he tries to hit the targets. Since all the mechanics are in the device, any urinal can be retrofitted without having to touch the plumbing. Via @BBCnews Vacuum Suitcase Lets You Overpack with Ease The Pumpack...
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Wired Daily Digest
Shale, Fracking & the E.P.A. The latest natural gas boom is lining the pockets of some and ruining the drinking water of others. Fracking companies, exempt from review under the Safe Drinking Water Act, do not have to tell the public what chemicals they use. But chemicals suspected to be in fracking fluid are showing up in drinking water. And, as Elizabeth Kolbert reports, water can be...
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Reviews News
OUTDOORS Nike, Acuvue Develop Eye Exercise System The Vapor Strobe trains athletes’ eyes for rapid recognition of changes in light and shape. Via @cnet For the Temperature-Sensitive Motorist, an Interior Preheater Program it to turn on before your scheduled morning commute and the dashboard-mounted heater, after a full four-hour charge, defrosts the windshield and makes the leather...
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Wired Daily Digest
Wine Fluid Dynamics: Sip and Swirl While swirling red wine, mixing in oxygen and enhancing its flavor, three factors determine if the wine will splash, slosh, or form multiple-crested waves, report Swiss scientists with an appreciation for the vine. Comes with video but not, alas, a glass of pinot. Pepper Spray Reviews on Amazon.com Cleverly Occupied “Accept no substitutes when casually...
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Culture Counter
Not the most convenient, but certainly creative business cards from the musical duo Ritornell (via Wired UK) Joe Strummer biopic on the way Earlier in the year both Elton John and Steven Tyler biopics were planned, now the frontman of The Clash is next. The film is called The Right Profile (a song off London Calling) and it’ll focus on Strummer’s post-Clash years (‘82 through his 2002 death,...
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Today's News
New York Times: Separating You and Me? 4.74 Degrees Adding a new chapter to the research that cemented the phrase “six degrees of separation” into the language, scientists at Facebook and the University of Milan reported yesterday that the average number of acquaintances separating any two people in the world was not six but 4.74. The new research used 721 million Facebook users, more than...
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Culture Counter
Regis Philbin ended his run on morning television last Friday. SNL jumped on the chance to audition new cohosts Saturday (Bill Hader does Garrison Keillor, Abby Elliot does Zooey Deschanel and Jay Pharoah brings back Denzel Washington): New Arrested Development will be on Netflix in 2013 When the show announced it would produce new seasons, many outlets were teased as the potential home. Late...
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Wired Daily Digest
Caffeine Amps Up ‘Hot Spot’ in The Brain Activity in a small nook of the hippocampus — the CA2 region — spikes when rats eat the equivalent of two cups of coffee, report scientists in a Nov. 20 study. The hippocampus has a role in forming spatial memories. Not much is known about the CA2 region, though, which seems to be especially sensitive to caffeine, in rats at least.
Pack...
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Reviews News
OUTDOORS A Minute of Sun Powers Weeks of Night-Vision A new type of night-vision material uses a special complex oxide compound to absorb a charge from a smidgen of sunlight, and make it into weeks of near-infrared lighting. Plans for use in the military and in medicine are underway, and a consumer version is likely to follow. Via @BBCNews
New Bike Saddle Sits you Proper The Fizik Kurve is...
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