Business Culture Environmental

Monsanto Is Going Organic in a Quest for the Perfect Veggie

As reported on Wired. BY BEN PAYNTER Monsanto’s new veggies are sweeter, crunchier, and more nutritious—with none of the “Frankenfoods” ick factor.   Nicholas Cope In a windowless basement room decorated with photographs of farmers clutching freshly harvested vegetables, three polo-shirt-and-slacks-clad Monsanto execu­tives, all men, wait for a special lunch. A server arrives and sets in front of each a caprese-like salad—tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, lettuce—and one of the execs, David Stark, rolls his desk chair forward, raises…

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Art

Astronomers say Monet’s ‘Sunset’ masterpiece was painted at 4:53 pm on February 5th, 1883

As reported in The Verge. By Amar Toor Forensic astronomy sheds new light on impressionist work Researchers from Texas State University have used forensic astronomy to uncover new details about Claude Monet’s Étretat: Sunset — a stunning seascape that the impressionist master painted during a trip to the Normandy coast in 1883. Their findings, published in the February 2014 issue of the magazine Sky & Telescope, reveal the exact spot and time at which Monet painted the work, based on extensive fieldwork and…

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Film

‘The Raid 2’ review: bigger and bloodier

As reported on The Verge. By Bryan Bishop Gareth Evans mixes gangster drama and epic action Let’s just get this out of the way: I wasn’t a huge fan of The Raid: Redemption. Gareth Evans’ Indonesian action flick was a video game riff on John Carpenter’s classic Assault on Precinct 13, and while its intense devotion to martial arts wizardry was certainly impressive, I found myself wanting more when it came to story and drama. So when it…

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Android Application Security

Android app learns from your phone to fend off malicious attacks

As reported on Engadget. BY CHRIS VELAZCO  The last time we heard from Itzhak ‘zuk’ Avraham, he was at Defcon 2011 showing offan Android app that let even inexperienced users poke around networks for weak links and vulnerable computers. Now his company, Zimperium, is rolling out a new mobile intrusion protection app (or zIPS, for short) to help users figure out when their phones are subject to sneak attacks. There’s no shortage of mobile antivirus apps out…

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Apple

Apple gushes on 30 years of making Macs (video)

As reported on Engadget. BY JAMIE RIGG This year signifies the 30th anniversary of the Macintosh computer, and who better to reflect on this achievement than the almighty creator Apple? Cupertino has dedicateda corner of its website to such a retrospective, the focal point of which is an inspirational video starring several fans who talk about what Macs have meant to them (embedded below). After learning that Moby is still a thing and that Macs represent a “truly…

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