Few folding bikes can boast such compact proportions (even when fully collapsed) as this umbrella-sized wonder you can sling at your side or slide into your shoulder bag. The Sada Bike bends the basic assumptions of bicycle design, but not in the same fashion as small-bike solutions. Instead of reducing the size of essential elements, which creates an awkward riding experience, Sada trades a rigid chassis and support-providing spokes for a jointed lightweight frame and reinforced rims that require less material — via Urbanist
Like it or not, a new era of DRM began on the internet overnight. Mozilla, the last major holdout to the W3C’s endorsed DRM extensions known as Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), reluctantly decided to reverse its previous position and implement EME in the desktop versions of Firefox.
We have come to the point where Mozilla is not implementing the W3C EME specification means that Firefox users have to switch to other browsers to watch content restricted by DRM,
wrote Mozilla’s new CTO Andreas Gal in a blog post.
Mozilla would have preferred to see the content industry move away from locking content to a specific device (so called node-locking), and worked to provide alternatives.
To implement its DRM solution, the browser maker has teamed up with Adobe to provide a Content Decryption Module (CDM) — unlike the rest of Mozilla’s codebase, the CDM has a proprietary licence. Rather than directly loading the CDM, Mozilla have decided to place the CDM in an open source sandbox, and removed permissions for the CDM to access a user’s hard drive or network. The only data passed to the CDM will be decoding DRM-wrapped data, with the CDM returning its frame results for display to the user — via redwolf.newsvine.com
One year after their arrival at Zoo Berlin in Germany, a pair of Palawan Bengal Cats has had a litter of two. The two kittens, a male and a female, have been named Ilian and Taytay, after two places on the island of Palawan, the island in the Philippines where this subspecies of the Leopard Cat originates — via ZooBorns
Fennec fox @ evelrand.korea, originally uploaded by IN CHERL KIM
But while American companies were being warned away from supposedly untrustworthy Chinese routers, foreign organisations would have been well advised to beware of American-made ones. A June 2010 report from the head of the NSA’s Access and Target Development department is shockingly explicit. The NSA routinely receives — or intercepts — routers, servers and other computer network devices being exported from the US before they are delivered to the international customers.
The agency then implants backdoor surveillance tools, repackages the devices with a factory seal and sends them on. The NSA thus gains access to entire networks and all their users. The document gleefully observes that some SIGINT tradecraft … is very hands-on (literally!)
.
Eventually, the implanted device connects back to the NSA. The report continues: In one recent case, after several months a beacon implanted through supply-chain interdiction called back to the NSA covert infrastructure. This call back provided us access to further exploit the device and survey the network.
It is quite possible that Chinese firms are implanting surveillance mechanisms in their network devices. But the US is certainly doing the same — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The federal government is eyeing the introduction of a government-wide content-management system. The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) has indicated its preference is to use the open-source Drupal Web platform and to have the CMS delivered as a cloud service.
The Government Content Management System (GovCMS) is envisaged as an important service offering for Australian Commonwealth Government agencies,
the Australian government CTO, John Sheridan, wrote in a blog entry.
GovCMS is intended to support more effective web channel delivery functions within Government, and enable agencies to redirect effort from non-core transactional activities, towards higher-value activities that are more aligned with core agency missions,
a draft statement of requirements issued by AGIMO states.
An analysis by AGIMO found that between 182 and 450 websites could be transitioned to GovCMS over four years. The use of an open source solution means that Drupal modules could be shared between public sector agencies and the community, the draft states.
A transition to GovCMS will begin with Australia.gov.au and Finance.gov.au, the document states. The target go-live date is September this year — via redwolf.newsvine.com
I was a bit skeptical when I landed in Detroit. This is where Shinola, purveyors of everything from bicycles to leather goods to watches, calls home. Enough has been said about Detroit, from its slow decline amid the waning American manufacturing landscape, to its current prospects for revitalization and urban renewal. But in a relatively short period of time, Shinola has been both lauded and maligned for its relationship with the city. Supporters praise the company for its local hiring practices and support of scalable business models, while detractors cite everything from a skewed perception of American manufacturing
to ethically questionable marketing practices. But, before we get into those deeper questions, let’s first take a look at exactly what’s going on in Shinola’s brand new leather strap facility — via redwolf.newsvine.com
— via Buckmaster Images
HR Giger, whose biomechnical
artwork lent Ridley Scott’s film Alien much of its terror, has died aged 74 from injuries sustained in a fall on stairs, according to the Swiss press.
Following study in architecture and industrial design in Zurich, Giger began a successful career in art and interior design. He received an Academy Award as part of the visual effects team for Alien, after Scott saw his artwork Necronom IV and used it as the basis for the film’s murderous creatures. As well as the chest-bursting xenomorph
that is the film’s central focus, Giger’s designs, characterised by dark sexuality and cyberpunk energy, also inspired the derelict spacecraft and the masked gunner discovered on it.
Giger also designed iconic and controversial record sleeves: on Debbie Harry’s Koo Koo the singer appears with spears cutting through her face, while the poster insert for the Dead Kennedys’ Frankenchrist prompted an obscenity trial. He also designed the cover for Emerson Lake & Palmer’s 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Visitors to the Philadelphia Zoo might want to beware of stray cats: A new enclosed passageway allows lions and tigers to roam outside their exhibits.
Humans, though, can safely gawk at the predators travelling along Big Cat Crossing. The protected, open-air path snakes above the felines’ habitat to an archway over the zoo’s main promenade and ends at a viewing spot along a lake.
The concept for the catwalk unveiled Wednesday stems from the increasingly common practice of animal rotation, which lets animals take in new stimuli while visitors encounter them in unexpected places.
It becomes much more of a safari-like experience,
said Philadelphia Zoo CEO Andrew Baker — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Constantine coming to NBC Fridays this US fall — via Youtube
— via piecomic
It’s 2150.
There are all sorts of Aliens living throughout space. Johnny is a Space Delivery Man who travels to different planets to deliver packages. Johnny is lazy and his only desire is to sleep in his autopilot spaceship. When the spaceship arrives at the destination, all he has to do is simply deliver the box. However, it never goes as planned. Johnny encounters strange and bizarre planets and always seems to cause trouble on his delivery route.
Will he be able to finish his mission without trouble?
How to Build a Time Machine – Teaser from Jay Cheel on Vimeo
How to Build a Time Machine is the story of two men, both inspired by HG Wells’ The Time Machine
, who have set out on a quest to build their own time machines.
When Rob Niosi decided to build a full scale replica of the time machine prop from George Pal’s adaptation of HG Wells’ novella The Time Machine
, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. The three month project is now in its eleventh year, and he’s not sure it will ever end. His perfectionist attitude and obsessive nature — cultivated by years of detail oriented, time consuming work as a stop-motion animator — has elevated his machine from prop replica to a true work of art. His goal? To capture the impression he had as a kid when he first laid eyes on the beautiful machine.
When Ronald Mallett was a young boy, his Father died unexpectedly of a heart attack. This event turned his world upside down. He became ostracised from his friends and family and found solace in science fiction. It was HG Wells’ The Time Machine that inspired Ron to pursue a career in physics. His goal? To build a time machine so he could go back and save his father — via Warren Ellis
Beware the tomes in the forbidden West Wing, lest you start down an adventure into madness — via Neatorama
Every friend I have with a job that involves picking up something heavier than a laptop more than twice a week eventually finds a way to slip something like this into conversation: Bro,1 you don’t work hard. I just worked a 4700-hour week digging a tunnel under Mordor with a screwdriver.
They have a point. Mordor sucks, and it’s certainly more physically taxing to dig a tunnel than poke at a keyboard unless you’re an ant. But, for the sake of the argument, can we agree that stress and insanity are bad things? Awesome. Welcome to programming — via Still Drinking
As a result of a special breeding program, two endangered Galápagos Tortoises have hatched at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Australia. The tiny tortoises emerged from their shells on 24 and 26 January — via ZooBorns
— via 1111 Comics
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