Tag: read-the-rest

Amazing photos along China’s Silk Road

My friend Kevin Kelly wandered down the Silk Road (the one in China) and took many stupendous photos. He wrote, “Technically this region is called Xinjiang (New Province), also once known as East Turkestan. This area has more in common with the culture of Turkey than with Beijing. It’s kebab with chopsticks. But this is really China. In fact it is the largest province of China. I took a bunch of photos and the usual caveat applies: this is a very selective view, and it does not represent the typical scene in the province at all. Like most of China it is rapidly urbanizing. But I think these images capture the spirit of this part of Asia, which once connected east and west.”

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Amazing photos along China’s Silk Road

The first drawings of neurons

In 1837, Italian physician Camilo Golgi devised a reaction to stain the wispy dendrites and axons of neurons, making it possible to see brain cells in situ . In 1875, he published his first scientific drawing made possibly by his chemical reaction, seen here. It’s an illustration of the never fibers, gray matter, and other components of a dog’s olfactory bulb. ” The First Neuron Drawings, 1870s ” (The Scientist)

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The first drawings of neurons

DoJ to Apple: your software is licensed, not sold, so we can force you to decrypt

The DoJ is currently trying to force Apple to decrypt data stored on a defendant’s Iphone, and Apple, to its great credit, is fighting back, arguing that on the one hand, it doesn’t have the technical capability to do so; and on the other, should not be required to do so. (more…)

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DoJ to Apple: your software is licensed, not sold, so we can force you to decrypt

Botnets running on CCTVs and NASs

Researchers at Incapsula have discovered a botnet that runs on compromised CCTV cameras. There are hundreds of millions, if not billions, of these in the field, and like many Internet of Things devices, their security is an afterthought and not fit for purpose. (more…)

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Botnets running on CCTVs and NASs

Astounding showpiece table full of hidden compartments nested in hidden compartments

Custom furniture maker Craig Thibodeau created this showpiece “Automaton Table” to illustrate all the different ways that he can hide secret compartments in the pieces he builds. (more…)

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Astounding showpiece table full of hidden compartments nested in hidden compartments

Meet Saya: the incredibly realistic computer-generated Japanese schoolgirl

Teruyuki and Yuki Ishikawa are a husband-and-wife team of freelance 3D computer graphics artists from Tokyo. Their latest creation is Saya, and she is going to be the star in the movie they are self-producing. (more…)

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Meet Saya: the incredibly realistic computer-generated Japanese schoolgirl

Laser shines through fly’s skin, controls its heart by activating doped cells

Eliza writes, “A researcher from Lehigh University has invented a light-based pacemaker for fruit flies, and says a human version is ‘not impossible.’ The pacemaker relies on the new technique of ‘optogenetics,’ in which light-sensitive proteins are inserted into certain cells, allowing those cells to be activated by pulses of light. Here, the proteins were inserted into cardiac cells so the researchers could trigger the contractions that produce heartbeats.” (more…)

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Laser shines through fly’s skin, controls its heart by activating doped cells

Saudis halved the death toll in Hajj stampede: true count is 1453

After reporting 700 pilgrims dead in a stampede near the holy city of Mecca two weeks ago , Saudi authorities have come clean with the true number killed after pressure from investigators: 1,453 were killed and hundreds remain missing. Indeed, Shiite Iran in particular has challenged its Sunni arch-rival’s status as the custodian of Islam’s two holiest sites, warning that if diplomacy doesn’t yield an independent investigation, “the Islamic Republic is also prepared to use the language of force.” Nearly one-third of the deaths in the incident were pilgrims from neighboring Iran. Given all of this, it’s not terribly surprising that a more accurate accounting of the tragedy had to come from an outside source. As Ruth Graham noted last month in The Atlantic, Saudi officials weren’t eager to take responsibility: “In Saudi Arabia, the country’s health minister chalked up the latest incident to a failure to follow instructions, and the head of the Central Hajj Committee blamed ‘some pilgrims from African nationalities.’” In the meantime, hundreds of worshipers still remain missing and so the true extent of last month’s disaster is not fully known.

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Saudis halved the death toll in Hajj stampede: true count is 1453