Geofeedia bills itself as a way for marketers to reach potential customers through geotagged “hashtag listening,” but they also sell it to police departments for “predicting, analyzing and acting on social media conversations,” like, say, peaceful protests. (more…)
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Social media surveillance software used by cops faces backlash
In this video, a man plays Abba’s 1976 classic Money Money Money using one of the new £5 notes issued in the UK. They’re made of plastic. The new polymer five pound notes have a rather curious ability of being just about able to play vinyl records (with the aid of a contact microphone and small amplifier not shown on screen). As the corners on these new banknotes are more durable and sharper than its paper counterpart it acts like a very crude record needle. Like a lady barbarian’s armor in a computer game, the new fiver doesn’t crumple easily or get wet or tear, but still folds, and has a see-through window. “I do quite like them,” says a Briton on the street. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChqhM9C44fM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srQSzhkh8Uo
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Britain’s new plastic money so hi-tech it can play vinyl records
Nanoengineer engineers at Tsinghua University fed silkworms carbon nanotubes or graphene, both of which are approximately 100 times stronger than steel. The silkworms then spun reinforced silk that, according to Chemical & Engineering News , “twice as tough (as regular silk) and can withstand at least 50% higher stress before breaking.” The modified silks conduct electricity, unlike regular silk. Raman spectroscopy and electron microscopy imaging showed that the carbon-enhanced silk fibers had a more ordered crystal structure due to the incorporated nano materials. Some questions remain. One is exactly how the silkworms incorporate the nanomaterials in their silk. Another is what percentage of the nanomaterials eaten by the worms make it into the silk instead of being excreted or otherwise metabolized. ” Feeding Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes or Graphene to Silkworms for Reinforced Silk Fibers ” (Nano Letters)
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Silkworms eat nanotubes, spin super-silk
Typeroom looks back at ITC Benguiat , the font that so embodied its time that it’s now canonical for late 1970s to early 1980s. Turns out its designer and namesake Ed Benguiat was motivated by a potential big payoff: Inspired by Times New Roman and Bodoni, “he wanted to create a design that was pretty and readable in order to garner as much commission and licensing fees as possible. Back then, it was much harder to access different fonts so there was a larger incentive to have a typeface take off”. • How Ed Benguiat’s vintage font became the most hyped of the year (h/t Calpernia Addams )
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Terrific history of Benguiat, the ‘Stranger Things’ font
The 1981 Radioshack computer catalog is beautifully illustrated, but everything in it is complete TRS.
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Check out Radioshack’s 1981 computer catalog
https://youtu.be/0XdC1HUp-rU Here’s a da Vinci Surgical System robot performing a delicate operation on a grape.
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Robot stitches a grape back together
California police departments’ license to steal cash from innocent people has been restricted, thanks to a new bill signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. Let’s hope the federal government follows suit. Nick Sibilla of The Institute for Justice says: Since 1994, California state law has required a criminal conviction before real estate, vehicles, boats and cash under $25,000 could be forfeited to the government. But those requirements are completely missing under federal law. So California police could instead partner with a federal agency, take the property under federal law, and reap up to 80 percent of the proceeds. To fix this, the new law requires a criminal conviction before agencies can receive forfeiture payments from the federal government on forfeited real estate, vehicles, boats and cash valued at under $40,000.
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California now requires conviction before civil asset forfeiture
“What happens when you grow a pumpkin inside a plastic mold,” shared by IMGURian ” WuTangClams .” (more…)
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When you grow a pumpkin inside a plastic mold, this is what happens
If you thought soccer’s world cup being awarded to baking-hot Qatar marked the zenith of sporting corruption, give FIDE a chance: the international chess federation’s forthcoming world championship is headed to Iran, and women players must wear the hijab to compete. UK tabloids quote leading women chess players as threatening to quit the tournament rather than obey. US women’s champion Nazi Paikidze said: ‘It is absolutely unacceptable to host one of the most important women’s tournaments in a venue where, to this day, women are forced to cover up with a hijab. ‘I understand and respect cultural differences. But, failing to comply can lead to imprisonment and women’s rights are being severely restricted in general. It does not feel safe for women from around the world to play here.’ She added: ‘If the situation remains unchanged, I will most certainly not participate in this event.’ It’s insane, but entirely in keeping with FIDE’s brainier-than-thou shiftiness, to think that Tehran is a good place to host the key event on their highly-politicized mind game’s calendar. For starters, there’s a current U.S. government travel warning telling citizens not to go there at all . (I would go, but wear a Burka)
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Women competitors must wear hijabs at chess world championship, oddly awarded to Iran
Wang Jianlin made billions speculating on Chinese real-estate; now that he’s diversified into buying Hollywood movie studios and chains of movie theaters, the richest man in China is prepared to say what many have known: the Chinese property market is a huge, deadly bubble that’s ripe to burst. (more…)
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Chinese real estate bubble is "biggest in history"