Top internet firms are spying on smartphone users.
An investigation revealed on Sunday shows internet giant Facebook is accessing smartphone users’ personal text messages .
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Top 6 most profitable stores in the U.S.
Apple store tops the list.
The retailing industry has been challenged for the past few years. There are signs that 2012 will not be any different. One key metric used to judge the health of a store is annual sales per square foot. Research company RetailSails recently ranked U.S. stores based on this metric.
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Amphibious house floats above floods
Baca Architects ‘amphibious’ home
An “amphibious” home has been granted full planning permission and is set to be built on the banks of the River Thames in Buckinghamshire. The residential home designed by Baca Architects is an architectural feat that overcomes the threat of flooding by becoming a “free-floating pontoon” during a flood situation. “In an extreme flood, a 1 in 100 year event, the house can rise over 2.5 meters [8.2 feet],” Richard Coutts, director of Baca Architects. (Pics)
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A satellite tour of the world’s biggest slums
Kamagasaki, Japan. A slum in Nishinari-Ku one of 24 wards in Osaka, with a density of 30,000 people in every 2000 meter radius. Source: Androniki Christodoulou
Booming urban populations have seen poverty on the rise in some of the world’s biggest cities. Of the 3.49 billion people that now live in cities, 827.6 million are slum dwellers, according to a UN Habitat Report. Global slums can be vastly different in nature…
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Six tips on how to hire the right person for your startup
Tech companies in Silicon Valley and in tech hubs across the United States are at war against each other, to find and hire quality talent that is in short supply. The competition is particularly fierce among startups, which means that it’s ever so important to make the right decisions when hiring your next rock star.
Here are six tips to set you on the right course…
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The Badgermin is a Stuffed Badger Theremin
Badgermin ain’t afraid to play nothin’!
David Cranmer is an eccentric maker of sculptures and musical instruments, such as the Furby Gurdy. By combining the musical abilities of the badger and the aesthetic appeal of a theremin, he has created the future of music. Watch a video of a performance after the jump…
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Fantastic Voyage type wireless devices travel through your bloodstream to fix you up
A wireless medical device can move through the bloodstream controlled by a magnetic field.
Eventually, implantable medical devices will be able to dispense drugs, get rid of blood clots and perform micro-surgeries inside our bodies. But powering these devices could be problematic. The point is to have minimally invasive gadgets keeping tabs on our health, cutting patients open to swap out their batteries is not an ideal situation. (Video)
What creatures are living on your smartphone?
A graph charts the relative proportions of different types of bacteria on shoes (odd-numbered columns) and cell phones (even-numbered columns).
There are whole communities of microbes living on your cell phone and your shoes. The microbes are as distinctive as the germs on your fingers and in your mouth.
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Taga transforms from bike to stroller in 20 seconds
Taga
Cycling parents usually have to give up their two-wheelers when their first baby arrives, but the Taga could change all that – it’s a a bike that doubles as a stroller! The multitasking bike can be easily switched from a bicycle to a stroller in 20 seconds flat. Designed so that the child is placed in front of you, in between your arms – rather than behind or to your side – the Taga offers an increased level of control and safety for green parents who want to keep their carbon footprint low. (video)
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Tabasco: Secret sauce of space travel
Tabasco tastes better in space.
That bottle of Tabasco may just be the secret sauce for interplanetary travel. That’s right, Tabasco.
Turns out that after spending some time in space, astronauts’ taste in food change…
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The 5-Year Pipeline
Futurist Thomas Frey: Five years ago was the beginning of 2007. George Bush was President, Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor of California, Barack Obama wasn’t very well known, and Saddam Hussein had just been executed in Iraq.
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ZBoard – world’s first weight-sensing electric skateboard
ZBoard
ZBoard is laying claim to being the “world’s first weight-sensing electric skateboard.” It delivers up to 400 watts of motor power via a simple, lean-and-go interface. The result is that riders will get up to 17 mph worth of speed without having to scuff their soles on the pavement. (Video)
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