You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
A Republican group in Kansas wants Topeka city officials to remove fluoride from the city’s drinking water in order to preserve the intelligence of legislators in the state’s capital.
Citing concerns about the chemical’s impact on IQ, the Kansas Republican Assembly, a conservative group that has campaigned against fluoridation, is sending a letter to Topeka’s top leaders urging that the city’s fluoride pipe be shut off during the annual legislative session. A draft of the letter and the minutes of the group’s January meeting where the proposal was made surfaced on the KRA’s website in recent days.
The minutes read:
We’re sure that many of you dread the thought of your Facebook account being hacked, especially those who keep their profiles extra guarded and only viewable to close friends or family. In any case it seems that Facebook has recently admitted that they were hacked, and this was actually brought about when some of their staff unknowingly installed malware on their laptops. While the attack is said to have been sophisticated, you might want to breathe a sigh of relief because according to Facebook, while an attack did occur, they claim that no user data was compromised. In a statement released by the company:
Last month, Facebook Security discovered that our systems had been targeted in a sophisticated attack. This attack occurred when a handful of employees visited a mobile developer website that was compromised. The compromised website hosted an exploit which then allowed malware to be installed on these employee laptops. The laptops were fully-patched and running up-to-date anti-virus software. As soon as we discovered the presence of the malware, we remediated all infected machines, informed law enforcement, and began a significant investigation that continues to this day.
In any case we can only take their word for it, but Facebook is said to be currently working with law enforcement agencies and other organizations who have been thought to have been attacked via the same exploit.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Iceland Proposes To Block Internet Pornography, Facebook Lets You Pay To Promote Your Friends’ Posts,
The Illinois ticket office made what some considered to be questionable photo choice for a Valentine’s Day-themed flier advertising a basketball match against Penn State.
The Illinois ticket office, which distributed the ad in an email blast, probably wasn’t thinking of the possible implications of putting a man hugging a young, shirtless boy on a flier for a game against Penn State.
(After all, the man in the picture is Illinois basketball coach John Groce, and the young boy happens to be his son. The two were celebrating the team’s victory over top-ranked Indiana last week.)
Read More…
More on College Basketball
By Climate Central’s Lauren Morello:
BOSTON — Automatic budget cuts set to take effect March 1 could add to the woes of the federal government’s troubled weather satellite programs, jeopardizing future forecasts, a top official said Friday.
“It’s not going to be pretty,” outgoing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco said of the package of across-the-board spending cuts known as “sequestration.”
Word has it that Google’s self-driving car could be ready in 3-5 years, assuming that’s the kind of thing you’re going after. However it looks like Google won’t be alone in the competition as another self-driving car in the UK could pose a challenge. This concept was cooked up by a team at the Oxford University and they claim that the component needed in order to turn your car into a self-driving vehicle would only cost around $150. That is one of the major differences between their concept and Google’s concept, as pointed out by Professor Newman.
“Well if you look at it, we don’t need a 3D laser spinning on the roof that’s really expensive – so that’s one thing straight away. I think our car has a lower profile […] Our approach is made possible because of advances in 3D laser mapping that enable an affordable car-based robotic system to rapidly build up a detailed picture of its surroundings.”
Despite their potential competition with Google, Professor Newman applauded Google’s efforts, and believes that it is possible to see such technology being commonplace within 15 years.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Moveo Electric Scooter Is Foldable, No Parking Spot Required, Car Pedestrian Collision Sensor Limits Injury Risk,
You might remember that Google decided to host a little get together with those lucky “explorers” that pre-ordered Glass. Well, no one is allowed to tell us a darn thing about what went down thanks to those pesky NDAs the devs were required to sign. But, the folks at Mountain View didn’t want us to feel completely left out, so they posted a bunch of pictures from the hackathons so we could get a glimpse at what it’s like to be granted early access. Predictably, what you get is a bunch of geeks wearing computers while typing on computers. In total the “pioneers” built 80 new ways to use Glass, at least one of which we’re sure involved viewing pornography (that’s a right of passage for all new tech), and eight winning teams picked up the grand prize — Google footing the bill for their Explorer Edition headset. We’ve got one more image after the break, but you can peruse the entire gallery at the source link.
Source: Google Developers (Google+)
In a social scene that looks like someone spun a roulette wheel, The Zuck, Nas, and mega-rich Silicon Valley investor Ben Horowitz were all in a room for some reason. And it was all Instagrammed. More »
This batch of the week’s best iPad apps is all about learning. Whether it’s U.S. presidents, or human anatomy, you’re beefing up your brain muscle. More »
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