It takes that special touch to get what you want
Google and Facebook both spent more money on lobbyists this quarter than they ever have before, according to disclosure documents filed Wednesday…
Continue reading… “Google & Facebook set company records for lobbyist spending”
Will radiation warnings curb cell phone use?
“Cell phones cause cancer.” “No they don’t!” “Yes they do.” “No they don’t!“
Back and forth it goes, like the world’s slowest game of tennis. One study spends 6 months proving that cell phones turn you into a giant walking tumor, and another pops up showing that cell phones cause nothing but an increased need to tell people what you’re doing…
Continue reading… “San Francisco passes law requiring radiation warnings for cell phones”
Harvesting the wind in water.
The French government of Nicolas Sarkozy has launched a €10 billion ($14.26 billion) tender to build about 1,200 wind turbines in 5 different offshore wind farms. The goal is to diversify France’s energy generation (they are very reliant on nuclear, which accounts for about 80% of their electricity generation) with renewable sources and to have 23% of France’s energy come from renewable sources by 2020. The wind farms will be located off France’s coast on the North and West and should produce about 3.5% of the country’s electricity according to government authorities. The farms should come online between 2015-2020…
Has the Search Engine altered our way of thinking and remembering?
If you can Google it, why bother remembering? Being able to access facts with just a few keystroke definitely improved our lives, but it has actually changed the way our memories work.
A study of 46 college students found lower rates of recall on newly-learned facts when students thought those facts were saved on a computer for later recovery.
If you think a fact is conveniently available online, then, you may be less apt to learn it…
Continue reading… “Are Search Engines changing the way our memory works?”
The Rainbow Toad
After months of scouring remote forests in Borneo, researchers spotted three rainbow toads up a tree, snapping the first-ever photographs of this elusive amphibian species that hadn’t been seen for 87 years. Last seen in 1924, the Bornean rainbow toad (Ansonia latidisca) had been listed as one of the world’s top 10 most wanted lost frogs…
Continue reading… “Rainbow Toad rediscovered after 87 years”
Anonymous has chosen to attack Monsanto and Oil Companies involved in the Tar Sands project in Canada.
The notorious activist hacking group “Anonymous” has launched two new campaigns championing a pair of green causes — helping U.S. farmers earn the right to label their food as “GMO-free” and working to obstruct the expansion of the devastating tar sands oil project in Alberta, Canada. Monsanto, the giant biotech firm, has confirmed it was the victim of a large-scale hacking attack. And the oil companies are next, Anonymous says…
Continue reading… ““Anonymous” hackers attack Monsanto and Tar Sands Oil Companies”
More than one million websites closed down in China last year, a state-run think tank has said.
China claims that they offer a “high level of freedom” for online speech. Hah! I don’t know what world they live in because in our world, the real world, China has shut down 1.3 million websites and routinely block websites.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the state-run organization who reported the figure, also said that there were were 41% less websites at the end of 2010 than a year earlier. It’s like they don’t want the Internet to grow…
Continue reading… “China shut down 1.3 million websites 2010”
When you think of a map of the US, you probably break it down by state or quadrants or party affiliation. But MIT, IBM and AT&T’s research teams decided to look at who was talking to whom, and the resulting map is pretty captivating.
The researchers organized anonymous data from AT&T mobile phones into interactive maps illustrating which areas place the most calls and texts, and who they’re communicating with. The colors represent areas that areas that communicate heavily locally, while the lines are for areas of the country that are in heavy contact remotely, like San Francisco and New York…
Continue reading… “The Connected States of America”
Something is certainly odd about this date.
Today is Odd Day. Three consecutive odd numbers make up the date only six times in a century. After 7/9/11, only two days remain in this parade of Odd Days which began with 1/3/5. The previous stretch of dates like this started with 1/3/1905. Odd Day was founded by Californian teacher Ron Gordon…
As part of whisky brand Ballantine’s “Leave an Impression” campaign, Paris-based tattoo artist Karl Marc seared a QR code onto his friend Marco’s chest.
Marc says the whisky company approached him and asked if he would be interested in executing the tattoo — a QR code that unlocked an animation when scanned — via a live stream on the brand’s Facebook Page. The brand is doing similar events with other artists, from ice sculptors to graffiti artists…
Continue reading… “Can’t decide on a tattoo? Get a QR Code inked on your chest!”
Anonymous may be slightly less anonymous shortly.
The Italian government capped off a long investigation yesterday with a series of 32 raids across Italy and one in Switzerland. Authorities arrested 15 alleged members of Anonymous and accused them with conducting denial of service attacks against government web sites and the web sites of private and state-owned media organizations…
Continue reading… “15 suspected Anonymous members arrested in Italy”
One of many relics found at the site.
Mexican archaeologists have discovered a Prehispanic grave site they believe to be Mayan in the state of Tabasco. Estimated to be around 1200 years old and containing 116 bodies, this is the largest group of skeletons found in the region. The area was thought to have been used as a cemetery, with the elite buried in a separate area from their companions, and skeletons found with dental inlays, cranial deformation and other body modifications…
Continue reading… “Massive Mayan Gravesite found in the State of Tabasco”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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