This week we have a wide range of stories from the wonderful wild place that is the internet. There is art, science, music, and even pie! (Un)fortunately there is no Bacon, but no one is perfect. Remember that you can get the early scoop on our Hexups by following #CCHexup. You can also contribute your own links and articles there. Help us build a better polygon.
One Person’s Trash…
American artist Sarah Sze has spent months gathering up all sorts of objects that would be considered trash by most reasonable people. She has done this in order to create a series of 5 stunning installations for the American pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The refuse was collected from the neighbourhoods surround the exhibition and organized into complicated architectural forms. Read all about over at Wired.com
The Fluid of Life
Water is vital to our survival. It’s the biggest thing, the most common thing on earth. But most of it is undrinkable. Enter these desalinization chips that work at the nano level to purify water. Developed by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Marburg, the chip is still under development, but uses a lot less energy than desalinization plants. You can read the full article at Inhabitat.
Jams of the future
Musicians have always been jamming together, but now they can do it while thousands of kilometres apart. Networks like LOLA use incredibly fast connections to give them lossless and lag free video, with crystal clear audio to match. It makes Jim want to write songs with people all over the world. Check out the details on the New Scientist.
SCIENCE!
If there’s one thing we possibly love more than science here, it’s pie. Well, this week UCLA professor Amy Rowat shared some ways to combine science for the purpose of greater pie. That is all. Read her findings at the New York Times.
Back Alleys of the Internet
I’m sure that we’ve all heard of search engines like Google or Bing. These are great for finding anything an average person could possibly want but it turns out there is another kind of search engine out there that can be used to locate all kinds of things under the surface of the world wide web. Shodan, developed by John Matherly communicates with routers, phones, GPS receivers, webcams, any device that is connected to the internet. These devices can be used to shed light on all kinds of things the people think are hidden. Shodan (read the article over at Wired.com) raises interesting questions about security and privacy as well as the complexity of the internet.
What’s in a Second?
A new atomic clock being developed by physicists at the Paris Observatory will be accurate to within one second every 300 million years. This is three times more accurate than the clocks currently in use to define the length of the second. So what’s in a second? Well the length of the second is very important for researchers in many fields where accurate measurements are important. The research could lead to even more accurate clocks in the future. Read about it at theverge.com.
Well that’s it for this week. Enjoy your weekend!
