Category: Culture

Culture Health

The link between weed and schizophrenia is way more complicated than we thought

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As reported on The Verge. By Arielle Duhaime-Ross Study finds genetic overlap between cannabis use and schizophrenia The association between marijuana and schizophrenia is historically fraught. In the 1960s and 1970s, scientists thought that smoking weed could trigger psychosis in just about anyone. Today, these findings are more nuanced, but researchers still think that cannabis can trigger schizophrenia in people who are predisposed to the disease — meaning those with family histories of the disorder. Yet, in the last decade,…

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Culture Education Engineering

University library starts ‘drone loan’ program for students

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As reported on Engadget. BY STEVE DENT  There’s good news if you’re a broke University of South Florida student who’d like to take an $1,195 DJI Phantom 2 Vision UAV for a spin: you can now sign one out from the library. Before you start preparing some kind of water balloon-dropping scheme, however, there are a few caveats. First off, all use will be supervised by library staff and you’ll have to take a course in drone operation…

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Culture Hardware Dev Tech

Soundhawk’s smart earpiece tunes out noise to augment your hearing

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As reported on Engadget. BY CHRIS VELAZCO We’ve all been there. You’re standing around, trying to have a conversation — meaningful or otherwise — but that wretched, raucous noise means all you can do is cock your head and mouth “I can’t hear you!” to your friend. San Francisco-based startup Soundhawk doesn’t want that to ever happen again. The team can’t boost your hearing to Superman-esque levels, but with a new $299 gadget they can at least augment…

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Application Cloud Culture

Wink wants to simplify the smart home with a universal app and $80 hub

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As reported on Engadget. BY SHARIF SAKR You’ve probably never heard of Wink, but you may soon encounter its logo (“Wink app ready”) or its smart home router (the “Wink Hub”) the next time you go shopping at Home Depot. The logo will appear on a range of WiFi-connected devices from different manufacturers, including air conditioners from GE and thermostats from Honeywell, signifying that they can all be controlled via the Wink app for Android and iOS. The hub…

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Automotive Business Culture

This is Harley-Davidson’s first electric motorcycle

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As reported on The Verge. By Aaron Souppouris Meet Project LiveWire America’s foremost bike manufacturer is leaving a century of tradition behind with the all-electric Project LiveWire, and it’s inviting the public to help test it. While the company is being coy with details on the bike, it says LiveWire offers “tire-shredding acceleration and an unmissable new sound,” and is capable of hitting 0-60 in less than four seconds. LiveWire is not for sale, and is instead…

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Culture Hardware Dev

Ambient glasses put smartphone notifications right in front of your eyes

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As reported on Engadget. BY MAT SMITH Still not sold on smartwatches, but want to know what’s going on with your phone without taking it out of your pocket? Maybe Matilde’s Fun-iki glasses, spotted at CNET Japan’s Live 2014 event, will do the trick. Connecting to smartphones through WiFi, a trio of LEDs above each lens will glow (or pulse) when there’s a notification, or simply to add a little, er, color to your complexion. The lights…

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Culture Entertainment Trends

Meet AirDog, An Action Sports Drone For Your GoPro Camera

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Steve O’Hear Meet AirDog, an action sports drone for when a GoPro action camera alone isn’t enough. The problem Latvian startup Helico Aerospace Industries has set out to solve is most homemade action sports videos rely on a camera, such as the GoPro, being strapped on your person or action sports equipment, providing mostly a POV shot only. But, with drone technology, it could be possible to democratise the kind of aerial videos previously…

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Culture Entertainment Story Tech

France is the first team to benefit from goal-line tech at the World Cup

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As reported on Engadget. BY MAT SMITH  Well, the above image might look pretty straightforward, but when the shot from France’s Karim Benzema bounced off the far post and deflected off the keeper into goal, in the midst of a World Cup match, there was more than a little confusion. The referee asked for clarification through the newly instituted goal-line technology, which initially (and confusingly) ruled ‘No goal’. However, that was for the initial rebound, not when it bounced…

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Culture Hardware Dev

Crowd-control drones reveal the technology’s dark side

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As reported on Engadget. BY DANIEL COOPER  The treatment of South African miners has been a troublesome issue ever since black laborers were forced into the mines in 1894. It’s led to a series of bloody strikes andprotests, starting in 1946 and continuing through apartheid right up until today. A new type of crowd suppression drone from a local defense contractor isn’t going to help matters, especially given the fact that the country is in the grip of a 21-week…

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Culture Internet

Your survival guide for an internet blackout

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As reported on The Verge. By Russell Brandom What do you do when the network goes out? How do you build a network that survives when the rest of the web goes down? It’s a strange question, but one with a surprisingly concrete answer. You can find the networks in Athens, Berlin, and Red Hook, Brooklyn — small-scale traffic webs that let computers connect peer-to-peer without going through the larger web. It’s called a mesh network,…

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