Artist Simon Weckert recently found a mischievous way to create a fake traffic jam on Google’s mapping service. The idea came to him during the May Da… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/334321/man-fools-google-maps-using-99-mobile-phones…
Tag: simon
Audible Settles Copyright Lawsuit With Publishers Over Audiobook Captions
After months of back and forth, Audible has settled in a copyright lawsuit with major publishers over its plan to introduce captions to their recordings, a proposal that the publishing houses argued was simply reading. The Guardian reports: In July, the audiobook company owned by Amazon announced Captions, an additional function for the existing app that would allow customers to read…
Terry Cavanagh Releases Source Code For VVVVVV On GitHub
The source code for acclaimed 2D puzzle platformer VVVVVV has been released by creator Terry Cavanagh to celebrate the title’s 10th anniversary. Gamasutra reports: Breaking to news in a blog post, Cavanagh explained the code fro both the desktop and mobile versions of the game can now be grabbed over on Github, and confessed that “even by the standard of self…
Betelgeuse: What’s up?
The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, a bright star in the constellation of Orion, has been making headlines due to a recent drop in brightness. Is an explosion imminent? If it happens, will Earth be affected? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/betelgeuse-dimming-late-2019-early-2020-supernova…
EarthSky’s 2020 meteor shower guide
All you need to know about major meteor showers in 2020. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide…
UK Government Accidentally Doxxes Award Winners
More than 1,000 celebrities, government employees and politicians recognized in the U.K.’s traditional New Year’s Honours list this year “have had their home and work addresses posted on a government website,” reports the Guradian. Shimbo (Slashdot reader #100,005) quotes their report:
The accidental disclosure of the tranche of personal details is likely to be considered a significant security breach, particularly as senior…
Apple News No Longer Supports RSS
Mac developer Michael Tsai reports that Apple News no longer supports RSS. The news comes from user David A. Desrosiers, who writes: Apple News on iOS and macOS no longer supports adding RSS or ATOM feeds from anywhere. Full-stop, period. It will immediately fetch, then reject those feeds and fail to display them, silently without any message or error. I can…
Astronomers spy the Geminid meteors’ dust trail in space
Astronomers held a press conference this week to discuss the trail of dust left by 3200 Phaethon – the mysterious, blue rock-comet that spawns the Geminid meteor shower each year. This object was one of the 1st to blur the distinction between asteroids and comets. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/rock-comet-3200-phaethon-geminid-meteor-shower…
Human Nature film review: Telling the CRISPR story with wit and verve
How much do you really know about the revolutionary gene-editing technology called CRISPR? A sharp independent film will have you up to speed in no time, finds Simon Ings in his latest column Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24432580-400-human-nature-film-review-telling-the-crispr-story-with-wit-and-verve/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Thousands of Bots Are Retweeting Claims of Voter Fraud In Kentucky
“It’s deeply concerning to see shady coordinated disinformation campaigns trying to undermine our democracy,” says the man who apparently defeated Kentucky’s Republican governor Bevin in a close election last Tuesday. The New York Times reports on what happened in the hours after Twitter user “Overlordkraken1” decided to tweet to his 19 followers that he’d “just shredded a box of Republican mail-in…