18054576
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Lanxon writes:
Wikileaks figurehead Julian Assange has been granted bail at a courthouse in London, after being backed by the likes of Michael Moore and John Pilger. Assange has been in jail in Britain since being arrested in London in early December. This court appearance is the first time he's been seen in public since, though he's been issuing occasional statements about the situation. He's fighting extradition to Sweden, where he's accused of the sexual assault of two women — charges that he denies. The United States is also considering what charges it could apply to Assange.
18033172
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Lanxon writes:
With Inception hitting DVD, Wired speaks to the film's director, Christopher Nolan, to discuss the much-debated ending of the movie, along with giving his answer to "So, WAS it a dream?" Nolan: "I've always believed that if you make a film with ambiguity, it needs to be based on a true interpretation. If it's not, then it will contradict itself, or it will be somehow insubstantial and end up making the audience feel cheated." He also admits to reading online discussions about the film's conclusion, and gives his take on whether they "get it" or not.
17937586
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Lanxon writes:
Most people are repulsed by mold, but one artist is using it to create creepy, decaying architectural models of houses. Daniele Del Nero creates architectural scale models of buildings with a domestic look to them. He then dampens the exterior of the structure and applies a thin dusting of flour. The model is then placed into a transparent plexiglass case. Mould starts to grow after a couple of days and dies within two weeks, leaving behind what Del Nero describes as "a dusty spider-web which covers the model like a rambler plant".
17933554
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Lanxon writes:
The submerged wreck of the Titanic may be soon be lost forever, reports Wired. The culprit for the rapidly eroding wreckage? A never-before-seen species of bacteria that gorges on rusting metal. Researchers from Canada's Dalhousie University Ontario Science Centre in Canada, as well as scientists at the University of Seville in Spain have been studying samples of the Titanic's "rusticles" — delicate stalactite-shaped formations that grow on rusting metal — that were gathered back in 1991.
17911856
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Lanxon writes:
I'm not saying the new Lara Croft isn't a good Lara Croft, but the blood-spattered first images present a very different picture to the character we've known for over a decade. Square Enix has finally lifted the curtain on the long rumoured Tomb Raider reboot. The upcoming game will cast aside the already once-restarted franchise's 14 year history, in favour of a new, redefined Lara Croft. The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC game, simply titled "Tomb Raider", starts the renewed canon near the beginning, when a fresh-faced, 21-year-old Lara first discovers her knack for leaping over ancient monuments and shooting tigers in the face. She's left abandoned on a giant island after a shipwreck and has to use her instincts and survival techniques to stay alive.
17910590
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Lanxon writes:
Biologists have identified the enzyme that's responsible for dental plaque sticking to teeth, and hope to soon identify substances that'll inhibit it, potentially leading to substances that fight tooth decay, reports Wired. The interesting part comes when the researchers discuss inhibiting that enzyme — meaning that the bacteria is unable to attach to the tooth enamel, potentially eradicating plaque.
17910272
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Lanxon writes:
If your nagging email signature, urging people to "think before you print", isn't having the desired effect, then how about this: a new file format from the WWF forcibly prohibits you from printing the document out. It's an alternative to the PDF, effectively imposing DRM on the printers of the people you email documents to. Hopefully your recipients know how to copy and paste.
17408726
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Lanxon writes:
An embarrassing error on Google Maps has been blamed for Nicaragua’s accidental invasion of Costa Rica, reports Wired. Last week, Nicaraguan troops crossed the border, took down a Costa Rican flag and defiantly raised their own flag on Costa Rican turf. But the troops’ commander, Eden Pastora, told a Costa Rican newspaper, La Nacion, that his invasion was not his fault, because Google Maps mistakenly said the territory belonged to Nicaragua. Government officials in Nicaragua have also blamed a “bug in Google” for the error.
17332476
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Lanxon writes:
Deep inside the Swiss Alps, a former nuclear bunker is now the ultimate hiding place for the world's most sensitive secrets — the Swiss Fort Knox. In a lengthy feature, Wired gains access to the server farm designed to survive a full-scale military attack. From the article: "As we punch our codes at the checkpoint, the yellow door opens into what looks like a city of server towers, their green LEDs flickering as a technician in a white jumpsuit runs diagnostic checks. [Later], we are in a dimly lit tunnel next to what looks like a metal oven door carved into the side of the rock. "These are expansion rooms in case you have an atomic explosion outside," Christoph Oschwald, a retired Swiss paratrooper turned contractor, says. The thinking behind the rooms, he explains, is that if there were a nuclear explosion, the rush of high-pressure air would fill them through vents in the opposite side. Then, the vents would snap shut, trapping the air before it had a chance of damaging the fortress. "There is a lot of protection you can't see," he says. We stroll past an intricate network of insulated pipelines that carry water up from the underground glacial lake to the cooling system."
17318642
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Lanxon writes:
A German artist named Ralf Schmerberg has created an igloo out of fridges in a square in Hamburg, Germany, to try and draw attention to energy use and climate change. To make that point, alongside the construction is a giant electricity meter that displays how much electricity is being used by the 322 old fridges that comprise the structure.
17314954
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Lanxon writes:
A prototype for an electric vehicle — code named Urbee — is the first to have its entire body built with a 3D printer, reports Wired. Stratasys and Winnipeg engineering group Kor Ecologic have partnered to create the electric/liquid fuel hybrid, which can deliver more than 200 miles per gallon on the motorway and 100 miles per gallon in the city.
17314066
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Lanxon writes:
An artist named Aram Bartholl has come up with a novel spin on peer-to-peer filesharing, by embedding USB sticks into walls across New York. The project, which is called "Dead Drops" allows anyone to come along, and upload or download whatever files they like. A readme.txt file is included in the root of the USB stick that explains the project and lists the locations of the other points.
17284148
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Lanxon writes:
UK cable ISP Virgin Media has announced that it will begin offering the country's fastest broadband speed ever — 100Mbps — to customers before the year is out. The first locations to receive the new speeds will be parts of London and South East England, who could receive the service as early as December. The complete roll-out is expected to take until mid 2012 to finish.
17284120
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Lanxon writes:
One Second Life resident, named Robinn Magic, has put together a recreation of the Hayao Miyazaki's classic anime Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Miyazaki's movie was based on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, but Miyazaki reinterpreted the floating island of Laputa as a flying city. Magic has reinterpreted the world again, creating most of the movie's colourful characters, including a secret easter egg robot, which grants a wearable head to players.
17272760
submission
Lanxon writes:
In the future, you won’t eat food: you’ll breathe it. “It’s a far-out idea. But it’s obvious it’s going to happen,” says Tom Hadfield, the 27-year-old CEO of Breathable Foods. In March, Breathable launched Le Whif, a lipstick-sized tube containing particles of food: inhaled through the mouth, reports Wired.
