Facebook has recently released the first ‘Global Government Requests Report’ which covers the first six months of this year. Specifically, the report covers requests made from January 1 up through June 30. In terms of the information, Facebook has detailed which countries are making these requests, how many requests they are making and more. Breaking […]
If you’ve ever wondered why certain foods taste great together—tomato and basil or, hell, peanut butter and jelly—then wonder no longer. This amazing visualization from Scientific American shows how flavors are linked, and explains why certain combinations work so well.
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Nokia Here collection vehicles aren’t the only way the Finish giant is gathering data about our highways and city streets. The company’s researchers are also using anonymous smartphone, PND and even CAN bus data to further our understanding of traffic flow and driver behavior in different conditions. Beyond improving maps and navigation, the goal is to make our roads better and cars smarter. We recently spoke with Nokia’s Jane Macfarlane, Head of Research for Here, who shared how her team is bringing map data to life with the collaboration of opt-in smartphone users and fleet vehicle operators. Take a look at our gallery below and watch the video after the break. %Gallery-slideshow73225%
Filed under: GPS, Transportation, Mobile, Nokia
Gravity’s often assumed to be constant across the entire planet, but because the Earth varies in shape and density, that’s not really the case. Now, this super-accurate gravity map reveals that the fluctuations are even more extreme than scientists previously thought.
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While the people of Europe bravely set sail during the Age of Discovery—a period stretching from the early 15th century and continuing to the 17th century—it’s easy to forget that very few of the shores onto which they stepped were entirely uninhabited. This map shows the lands that were, until adventurers landed, entirely unexplored by a single human.
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The International Space Station orbits the Earth at 8 kilometers per second—but it’s tough to visualize just how fast that is. When you think about it in terms of how far the thing moves during the course of a song you know, though, you’ll be shocked.
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This map is covered in dots. In fact, there are 308,745,538 of the little things—each one representing a single individual living in the US, and its color indicating ethnicity.
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Clothing brands have begun using body-scan data to tweak their clothing sizes and to help customers find the right fit. But a new Kickstarter campaign is taking this method further by creating sizes from the ground up. With 50 different sizes modeled after body scans, Stantt wants to provide a quick and cheap alternative to custom-tailored clothing.
Stantt founder Matt Hornbuckle started by scanning the bodies of more than 1,000 men ranging in age from 25 to 35. Each scan was composed of about 200 body measurements. He narrowed these down to three main measurements that would determine how well a shirt would fit: chest width, waist width and arm length. Using the data collected, Hornbuckle created each new size from digital models of various body builds.
Right now, several stores use personal body scans to find or manufacture a size. The difference with Stantt is it uses already collected data to predict potential body types. Instead of taking your own body scan, you can measure yourself at home and enter in the three numbers. Stantt also already has sizes constructed based on these measurements, so you won’t need to wait for the actual production of the shirt. To order a Stantt shirt, customers enter their measurements, and the corresponding size will ship right away.
After comparing his data to popular brands, Hornbuckle says he found that standard small, medium and large sizes only fit about 15 percent of men. But Stantt isn’t looking to take on large consumer brands.
“If you look at some of the big stores out there where a lot of guys shop, their casual shirts have 50 different styles, with six to seven sizes, and those numbers add up in a big way.” Hornbuckle tells me. “What we’re focusing on is a line of being really simple and straightforward. We’re going to focus on just the essentials.”
Hornbuckle also faces competition from startups who are making custom-tailored clothing much more accessible and affordable. For example, Trumaker sends “outfitters” to take 12 personal measurements, determine the right size and deliver a custom-made shirt. Another company, Vastrm, makes custom-fitted polo shirts, based on height, weight, body type and waist size. After trying on some sample shirts, you can tweak the fit online and then start ordering.
Both these options are able to offer more styles and customization options for cuffs, pockets, colors and more. But they also take time and effort to finesse the fit. Hornbuckle says his solution makes shopping easier for men, with measurements they can take themselves and no waiting for clothes to be custom manufactured.
Hornbuckle says he recognizes that supplying shirts in 50 different sizes to ship immediately is a lot of hassle for production. That’s why he is starting the Kickstarter off with five simple options: a standard button-down shirt for $98 in three colors and a polo shirt for $68 in two.
Stantt is planning to offer other styles and garments based on demand. You can check out their campaign here.
Stantt Kickstarter from Stantt on Vimeo.
The internet doesn’t just happen; it’s served up to us by thousands of miles of physical cabling
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Edward Snowden has said that he still has more information about the NSA than what he’s already leaked, and we’re now getting a look at another big piece of that. According to a new set of documents provided to The Guardian, the NSA is using a tool called XKeyscore that is said to be its “widest reaching” system for collecting information from the internet — one that lets it examine “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet,” as one presentation slide explains. That apparently includes both metadata and the contents of emails, as well as social media activity, which can reportedly be accessed by NSA analysts without prior authorization; as The Guardian notes, a FISA warrant is required if the target of the surveillance is a US citizen, but not if a foreign target is communicating with an American.
According to The Guardian, the amount of data collected is so large that content is only able to stored in the system for three to five days, or as little as 24 hours in some cases, while metadata is stored for 30 days. That’s reportedly led the NSA to develop a multi-tiered system that lets it move what’s described as “interesting” content to other databases where it can be stored for as much as five years. In a statement provided to The Guardian, the NSA says that “XKeyscore is used as a part of NSA’s lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system,” and that “allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true. Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA’s analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks.” The agency further adds that “every search by an NSA analyst is fully auditable, to ensure that they are proper and within the law.”
Filed under: Internet
Source: The Guardian, NSA
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