Sci-Tech news

• Persistent Surveillance Systems filming cities 24/7 may be the Big Brother future of America

  08-07-2015 23:44 via
  
  Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS), A small private firm in the US, has developed a surveillance system that could potentially capture every crime the moment it happens.
  
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• Apple iPhone 6 will launch with 90m handsets to break records

  08-07-2015 23:03 via
  
  According to the Wall Street Journal , the tech giant has ordered between 85 million and 90 million units combined of two new iPhone models with 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays.
  
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• Interactive tool reveals the amount of hunter-gatherer DNA in your family tree

  08-07-2015 22:50 via
  
  The data comes from an ongoing study by the University of Adelaide that has found most European are a mix of three ancient populations; hunter-gatherers, Neolithic farmers and pastoralists.
  
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• NY Stock Exchange trading restarts

  08-07-2015 22:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Trading on the New York Stock Exchange restarts after being suspended for almost four hours due to a technical fault.
  
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• Microsoft cuts 7,800 jobs in handset division and writes off $7.6bn

  08-07-2015 22:38 via
  
  Microsoft is cutting 7,800 jobs, or nearly 7 percent of its workforce, and write down about $7.6 billion related to its Nokia phone business to focus on being a software firm.
  
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• New York Stock Exchange stops trading as United Airlines experience tech crash

  08-07-2015 21:18 via
  
  The New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines and the Wall Street Journal have all fallen victim to a series of massive technical glitches within hours of each other. The NYSE only reopened at 3:10pm
  
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• New York Stock Exchange glitches hours after expert says banks AREN'T ready for cyber attacks

  08-07-2015 20:56 via
  
  Andreas Dombret from the German central bank today said cyber security is is not being taken seriously. Hours later, NYSE had to suspend trading due to a possible cyber attack.
  
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• Microsoft to cut 7,800 more jobs

  08-07-2015 20:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Microsoft cuts 7,800 jobs and takes a $7.6bn writedown as it reorganises its mobile phone unit following last year's purchase of Nokia's business.
  
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• 'Wendiceratops' dinosaur reveals clues about how the triceratops got its horn

  08-07-2015 20:21 via
  
  Discovered at a site in southern Alberta, Canada, Wendiceratops (illustrated) is one of the oldest known members of the large-bodied horned dinosaurs called Ceratopsidae.
  
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• Computer glitch grounds aeroplanes

  08-07-2015 20:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A computing fault forces United Airlines to ground its flights for two hours, its second major IT glitch in two months.
  
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• Robocall victim gets $230,000 payout

  08-07-2015 19:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Time Warner Cable is ordered to pay a woman almost $230,000 after a judge rules it harassed her with automated calls.
  
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• Volcanic eruptions have caused freezing temperatures, crop failures and famine since early Roman times…and they may even have changed the course of history

  08-07-2015 19:31 via
  
  Scientists at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno have reconstructed the timing and climate forcing of 300 individual volcanic eruptions extending as far back as the early Roman period.
  
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• Beat that Tatooine! Solar system with FIVE stars discovered orbiting each other 250 light years from Earth

  08-07-2015 18:38 via
  
  Astronomers at the Open University in Milton Keynes said the quintuple star system, shown in the artists impression pictured, is one of the most exotic ever found and may even have planets.
  
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• Are smartphones making us dumb? Students given iPhones to help with their studies used them for social media instead

  08-07-2015 18:21 via
  
  Psychologists at Rice University in Houston Texas wanted to see if the latest mobile technology would be used by the students (stock image) to improve their learning.
  
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• The ultimate family car designed around a BABY SEAT: Volvo concept includes a luxurious child chair that swivels and tilts

  08-07-2015 18:12 via
  
  Called the Excellence Child Seat, the Sweden firm's concept replaces the passenger seat (pictured) with an adjustable baby seat that rises, falls, swivels and tilts at the touch of a button.
  
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• Tinder gives celebrities blue tick

  08-07-2015 17:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The dating app says it will mean if a celeb comes up "you'll know it's for real."
  
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• Map of Pluto reveals whale shape on surface and a mysterious 'donut'

  08-07-2015 17:34 via
  
  Nasa scientists in Colorado have produced the best map yet of Pluto's surface from images sent back by the New Horizons space probe and have nicknamed one long dark patch as 'The Whale'.
  
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• Adobe tackles new Flash threat

  08-07-2015 17:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Adobe issues an update to fix a security hole in Flash that was discovered after data was stolen from an online surveillance company.
  
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• Forget the 'man in the moon', Pluto has a WHALE: Map of dwarf planet reveals odd shape on surface and a mysterious 'donut'

  08-07-2015 17:09 via
  
  Nasa scientists in Colorado have produced the best map yet of Pluto's surface from images sent back by the New Horizons space probe and have nicknamed one long dark patch as 'The Whale'.
  
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• Nemo's Garden project is growing strawberries, beans, lettuce and herbs underwater

  08-07-2015 17:01 via
  
  The farm, named Nemo’s Garden, has been installed in the Bay of Noli, in Savona, Italy. The plants are kept hydrated by drips of water condensing on the inner walls of the biospheres.
  
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• Reddit rival buckles under demand

  08-07-2015 16:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A news site start-up is struggling to make the most of a backlash against the leadership of its larger rival Reddit.
  
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• Vodafone Smart Prime 6 review

  08-07-2015 16:11
  
    The companion piece to Vodafone's Tab Prime 6, the Vodafone Smart Prime 6 is an ultra-cheap budget smartphone with 4G and Lollipop, and if there's not a lot else to recommend it, that's still pretty good going for the price.By: Dave Oliver, Continue reading...
  
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• Forget fields, farms could soon be UNDERWATER: Nemo's Garden project is growing strawberries, beans, lettuce and herbs in submarine pods

  08-07-2015 16:03 via
  
  The farm, named Nemo’s Garden, has been installed in the Bay of Noli, in Savona, Italy. The plants are kept hydrated by drips of water condensing on the inner walls of the biospheres.
  
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• Nasa want to turn the Moon's Shackleton Crater into a lunar science lab

  08-07-2015 15:46 via
  
  Shackleton Crater on the moon’s South Pole could be turned into ‘an oasis of warm sunlight surrounded by a desert of freezing cold darkness’ according to the Nasa.
  
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• Hydrofoil quadcopter drone seamlessly films from the air and on water

  08-07-2015 15:43 via
  
  The Hydrofoil minidrones (Orak pictured), from French firm Parrot, sail at 10km/h (6mph or 5.4 knots) on water before taking off and flying at 11mph (18km/h).
  
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• Vinyl record using a tortilla created with a laser cutter to cur audio grooves

  08-07-2015 14:59 via
  
  The tortilla record (pictured) was created by Instructables user UpgradeTech. He used a laser cutter on loan from Fab Lab in San Diego to cut grooves from audio of The Mexican Hat Dance.
  
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• Floating city project costing $167m to create concrete platforms to house 300

  08-07-2015 14:39 via
  
  A group of biologists, nautical engineers and biologists, backed by Paypal founder Peter Thiel plans on building a floating city, or 'seastead' by 2020, but the location has yet to be decided.
  
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• First Australians WERE Aborigines and arrived there 55,000 years ago

  08-07-2015 14:37 via
  
  Dr Michael Westaway from Griffith University in Queensland, says recent DNA and archaeological evidence shows art like the paintings above were created by Aboriginal artists.
  
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• Russia issues selfie guidelines after dozens die taking self-portraits

  08-07-2015 14:18 via
  
  Around 10 people have been killed and 100 injured in Russia this year while snapping dangerous selfies, from posing with a loaded gun or a hand grenade to climbing on to a railway bridge.
  
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• Teen convicted of over 50,000 hacks

  08-07-2015 14:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A 17-year old hacker is punished for hijacking thousands of email accounts, disrupting websites, and stealing credit card details, but avoids a jail sentence.
  
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• Will cities of the future FLOAT? $167 million project using concrete platforms could be home to 300 people by 2020

  08-07-2015 14:08 via
  
  A group of biologists, nautical engineers and biologists, backed by Paypal founder Peter Thiel plans on building a floating city, or 'seastead' by 2020, but the location has yet to be decided.
  
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• Facebook puts women at forefront in its new Friends and Groups icons

  08-07-2015 14:01 via
  
  It is not known when the icon was updated, but the thought process behind the changes has been explained by Facebook's San Francisco-based design manager Caitlin Winner on Medium.
  
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• Now that's WRAP music! Inventor creates a playable 'vinyl' record using a TORTILLA (but can it play salsa?)

  08-07-2015 14:00 via
  
  The tortilla record (pictured) was created by Instructables user UpgradeTech. He used a laser cutter on loan from Fab Lab in San Diego to cut grooves from audio of The Mexican Hat Dance.
  
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• Amateur astronomer takes stunning images of galaxies, sun spots and nebulae

  08-07-2015 13:46 via
  
  Engineer Mike Greenham recorded cosmic scenes from up to 50 million light years away from his garden in Northamptonshire.
  
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• Badgers age faster when fighting and should prioritise health and sex

  08-07-2015 13:41 via
  
  Researchers from the University of Exeter who tracked the animals over 35 years found that male badgers who live near a lot of other male competitors led shorter lives.
  
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• Bonobos make weapons and tools like a Stone Age man

  08-07-2015 12:59 via
  
  Scientists at the Haifa University in Israel say bonobos skills to make and use tools resemble the technology used by early humans in the Oldowan stone tool culture.
  
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• Adapt 999 for smartphones - report

  08-07-2015 11:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Radical changes should be made to 999 call services in the UK to allow people to utilise smartphone technology in an emergency, a report says.
  
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• Pluto map shows 'whale' of a feature

  08-07-2015 10:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists release their latest map of the surface of Pluto, using images from the inbound New Horizons probe.
  
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• Rare system of five stars discovered

  08-07-2015 09:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Astronomers have discovered a very rare system of five connected stars.
  
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• Texas man believes he has the carcass of a CHUPACABRA

  08-07-2015 08:54 via
  
  A Texas man named Philip Oliveira claims to have found a legendary chupacabra on May 31 but experts say it's merely just a coyote with mange.
  
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• Facebook reveals it is building a wind-powered data center in Texas

  08-07-2015 03:20 via
  
  Facebook will invest at least $500 million (£321 million) in the global data center in Fort Worth and will employ 40 full-time employees. Pictured is an artist's impression of what the center could look like.
  
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• Report finds alien craft sightings DOUBLED in June

  08-07-2015 03:02 via
  
  The Mutual UFO Network (Mufon) recorded sightings of 1,179 mysterious unexplained crafts in June – an increase from around 600 in the same period last year.
  
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• Scientists reveal why BMI is useless as different bodies give different readings

  08-07-2015 02:47 via
  
  The graphic, by New York-based Body Labs, shows full-body scans of six people with the same BMI but different body shapes to highlight how BMI fails to take into account muscle and bone density.
  
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• Can you prescribe nature?

  08-07-2015 02:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Science closing in on link between nature and well-being
  
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• How far will we go to charge our phones?

  08-07-2015 01:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The never-ending quest to charge our phones
  
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• VIDEO: USA vs Japan: Giant robot duel

  08-07-2015 01:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  American MegaBot challenges Japan's Kuratas Mecha to a giant robot battle to the bitter end
  
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• Son of Concorde? Firm reveals latest design that could travel from London to New York in THREE hours

  08-07-2015 00:49 via
  
  The latest design from Spike Aerospace has a new 'blended wing' and cabin walls that are giant video screens showing movies and even a live feed from cameras outside.
  
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• Nasa confirms New Horizons probe is headed for flyby as it bids to solve mystery of Pluto's four 'alien black spots'

  08-07-2015 00:46 via
  
  Mission controllers promised the first images of the Jul;y 14th flyby 'will knock your socks off' after they confirmed the commands had been uploaded to the now fully recovered probe.
  
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• Watch a marathon on Mars: Nasa reveals video showing Opportunity traversing 26.2 miles across the red planet 

  08-07-2015 00:34 via
  
  The video comes as engineers and scientists operating Opportunity have chosen the rover's next target - Marathon Valley.
  
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