The Fresno, California Sheriff’s Department raided a “beehive chop shop” and uncovered $1m worth of bees stolen in “great beehive heists” that have taken place across the bee-starved state. (more…)
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Fresno cops find $1m worth of stolen bees in "beehive chop shop"
In development for several years, the Photonic Fence is an anti-mosquito laser weapon that’s apparently now being tested in a real world situation. I hope when it hits the market it still looks like a crazy contraption from a 1960s science fiction film! From the company site : One potential use of the Photonic Fence is to create a virtual fence that detects insects as they cross its plane. When an invading insect is detected, our software is able to estimate the insect’s size and measure its wing beat frequency. Using this method, not only can the system distinguish between mosquitoes, butterflies, and bumblebees, but it can even determine whether a mosquito is male or female. This is important to know because only female mosquitos bite humans. Once the software establishes that the insect is a valid target, it tracks the mosquito in flight, runs a safety check to ensure no innocent bystanders are in view, and then activates a laser to zap the mosquito. The Photonic Fence could be set along the perimeter of clinics or other strategic areas to control mosquitoes without endangering humans or other animals. From Wired UK : When Intellectual Ventures co-founder and former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold came up with the idea of a bug-killing fence in 2010, the intention was to use it to improve public health in Sub-Saharan Africa. Now, however, the Photonic Fence has become a commercial project with a particular target: the Asian citrus psyllid. This insect invader has reduced citrus production in Florida by at least 70 per cent over the last 15 years. The device has been installed on a US Department of Agriculture site in the state for its first real-world test. If all goes to plan, Intellectual Ventures aims to market the Photonic Fence to farmers protecting crops from a multitude of other pests.
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Contraption to shoot mosquitos with laser beams
Yesterday’s massive ransomware outbreak of a mutant, NSA-supercharged strain of the Petya malware is still spreading, but the malware’s author made a mere $10K off it and will likely not see a penny more, because Posteo, the German email provider the crook used for ransom payment negotiations, shut down their account. (more…)
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Ransomware crook’s email provider shuts down account, so now no one can pay their ransom
YouTuber Oxalis shared Ryan Deboodt’s gorgeous footage of the world’s largest cave , Vietnam’s Hang Son Doong. (more…)
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Explore the world’s largest cave, including 360-degree video
Starting July 1, the official Android and Apple App stores will no longer allow Chinese users to download the VPN apps that Chinese people rely upon in order to get around the Great Firewall of China, which censors information in China and surveils Chinese peoples’ use of the net. (more…)
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China orders mobile app stores to remove VPN apps
It turns out a lot of the aesthetics of the 1980s can be traced back to an Italian design collective. As Vox explains in this new video created by Dion Lee: [The] Memphis Design movement dominated the ’80s with their crazy patterns and vibrant colors. Many designers and architects from all around the world contributed to the movement in order to escape from the strict rules of modernism. Although their designs didn’t end up in people’s homes, they inspired many designers working in different mediums. After their first show in Milan in 1981, everything from fashion to music videos became influenced by their visual vocabulary. [ via The A.V. Club ]
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Here’s how the 1980s got its colorful look
Rolling Stone magazine asked the Prince of Darkness to list his ten favorite metal albums. Here are five of Ozzy’s sure-shots: AC/DC, ‘Highway to Hell’ (1979) “I love Brian Johnson but to me my good friend, the late Bon Scott, was the best singer AC/DC ever had. This album was like an addiction to me.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l482T0yNkeo Guns N’ Roses, ‘Appetite for Destruction’ (1987) “One of the greatest debut albums of all time. There’s not a weak song in the bunch. I never get tired of hearing it.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg Led Zeppelin, ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ (1971) “I’ve always been a huge Led Zeppelin fan. All of their studio albums are classics but this is one of my all-time favorites.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyivczZI5pw Metallica, ‘Master of Puppets’ (1986) “I took Metallica on tour with me after the release of Master of Puppets. The album was a milestone for the band and for heavy metal.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVR4bkyMykA Motörhead, ‘Ace of Spades’ (1980) “The album that put Motörhead over the top. The title track “Ace of Spades” is Motörhead’s “Paranoid.” It’s one of the great metal anthems and, to me, a band hasn’t made it until they have their own anthem. This is theirs.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWB5JZRGl0U Ozzy Osbourne: My 10 Favorite Metal Albums (Rolling Stone)
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Ozzy Osbourne’s favorite metal albums
A judge in Spain has ordered the exhumation of artist Salvador Dali’s body for genetic testing, so that a paternity lawsuit may be resolved. Dali died in 1989; Pilar Abel believes the painter is her father, from an affair he reportedly had with a maid in 1955. From Agencia EFE: Una juez de Madrid ha ordenado la exhumación del cadáver del pintor Salvador Dalí y la obtención de muestras de su cuerpo para la práctica de la prueba biológica de determinación de la paternidad de Pilar Abel, una gerundense que presentó una demanda para ser reconocida como hija del artista. Según indica en un auto la juez encargada del caso, “es necesaria la prueba biológica de investigación de la paternidad de Maria Pilar Abel Martínez respecto de D. Salvador Dalí Domenech”, al “no existir restos biológicos ni objetos personales sobre los cuales practicar la prueba por el Instituto Nacional de Toxicología”.
Coming on September 29, the Super Nintendo Classic. It will cost $80 and include 21 built-in games, including Super Mario World, Earthbound, Final Fantasy III, Link to the Past, Secret of Mana, Donkey Kong Country, and Super Mario Kart . From Ars Technica : Unlike the NES Classic, which sold $10 controllers on top of the $60 base package, the SNES Classic comes packaged with two controllers. Even so, only five of the included titles include true simultaneous multiplayer gameplay, with a handful of others allowing for two players to alternate play. The Classic Controller and Classic Controller Pro designed for the Wii and Wii U will also work on the SNES Classic Edition, much like its predecessor. Of the 21 included titles, a full 14 were published by Nintendo itself. Three games from Capcom, two from Konami, and two from Square Enix round out the package.
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Nintendo’s SNES Classic will cost $80, comes with 21 games
Games Nostalgia is a retrogame site with a useful difference: instead of simply providing files which then must be fed to the often-difficult gods of emulation, it packages the classics as ready-to-click apps for Mac and PC. Examples to eat your morning: seminal Atari/Amiga RPG Dungeon Master , DOS blaster Doom , and 1990’s original RTS Dune II . Then there’s Populous , Archon , Shadow of the Beast … Previously: Vast collection of Amiga games, demos and software uploaded to Internet Archive
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Old games as standalone apps: no emulator necessary