Day: December 11, 2013

Culture

Your Essential Tips for Safe Winter Driving

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As reported on Wired. BY DAMON LAVRINC If the 70-plus-car pileup near Germantown, Wisconsin has taught us anything — again — people don’t know how to drive in the snow. Every year reduced grip, high speed, and general asshattery conspires to create hundreds of thousands of accidents and injuries, along with thousands of deaths. We don’t know everything, so we asked for your tips. And among the smart-ass comments, you gave us some gems. Check Your Car If…

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Engineering

World’s thinnest mechanical watch will cost over $20,000

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As reported on The Verge. By Rich McCormick Piaget’s Altiplano 900P is 3.65mm thick A reported price of between $20,000 and $30,000 will buy you the world’s thinnest mechanical watch when it goes on sale. The Piaget Altiplano 900P is 3.65mm thick, a crucial 0.4mm thinner than the previous record holder, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra-Thin Jubilee. As befitting a watch fancier than something called the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra-Thin Jubilee, Piaget’s new Altiplano 900P will be available in 18-karat white…

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Space

Water on the red planet: more findings point to flowing liquid on Mars

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As reported on The Verge. By Alexander Thompson Is water seeping out of Martian soil? Dark streaks in images from Mars, seen above, suggest flowing water. (NASA) During spring months on Earth, the ground thaws and new life abounds. On Mars, scientists have observed activity of a different sort — water that seems to bleed from the ground.   Mars is thought to have been much wetter in the past with oceans, rivers, and even lakes that could…

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Engineering Mobile

ASUS CEO: The PadFone is coming to America in Q2 2014

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As reported on Engadget. BY RICHARD LAI   ASUS has big ambitions with its PadFones, a unique phone-to-tablet convertible concept that was first introduced back at Computex 2011. While these devices are barely nibbling on the global mobile market (let alone entering the US), the company still stands by its “N+1” philosophy: “to add on a simple change which allows the product to evolve beyond its current capability.” This is evidenced by its five iterations of transformable phones, including the new…

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Google Security

NSA reportedly leveraging Google cookies and leaked mobile location data to identify hacking targets

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As reported on Engadget. BY TIMOTHY J. SEPPALA You know those cookies web services use to track your history and serve up personalized ads? It appears that the government is using them too. The National Security Agency is apparently leveraging a Google-specific cookie to tap into the computers of suspicious users, according to presentation slides Edward Snowdenleaked to The Washington Post. With an assist from Mountain View’s “PREF” file, the NSA can track a target’s web visits, then identify the computer…

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