ECOBLOG, LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME– More than 40 dead dolphins have been found washed ashore along the western coast of Italy since January 5. La Stampa reports that the locations where the dolphins have been found span more than half the western coastline, from Tuscany to Calabria, as well as the island of Sicily, […]
Category: Future
MANDIANT, NEW YORK TIMES, CNN (USA) Worldcrunch An American cybersecurity firm has linked more than 100 cyber attacks on U.S. companies to to the Chinese government. In a 60-page long document entitled APT1: Exposing One of China’s Cyber Espionage Units,, the Virginia-based firm Mandiant traced 147 cases of corporate cyber espionage over a six-year period […]
In our distracted, over-connected society, diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been the rage for more than a decade. The case for a hard rethink.
Look up (with binoculars) for a glance of 2012 DA14, size of half a football field.
As many as one billion people may not have access to clean drinking water by 2050. Changes are needed, which may also create investment opportunities.
TECH CENTRAL, IRISH INDEPENDENT (Ireland), LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch DUBLIN – The European Union is banking on broadband. More than eight million euros in EU funding have been awarded to a project that promises to “revolutionize” broadband in Europe. According to Tech Central, the DISCUS project aims to address issues at the heart of the […]
CANNES – “The MP3 is dead.” As the Midem yearly music industry event opened in France last week, Yves Riesel, president of music streaming service Qobuz, declared the end of the top online music format. “From Feb. 1, we won’t be selling MP3s anymore. All of our downloadable content will be in CD quality sound, […]
BEIJING – Recently, pharmaceutical company Renhen Pharmacy went through a public relations nightmare after a doctor wrote on the popular Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo that its children’s cold medicine was dangerous. Could better preparation and response on Weibo have substantially mitigated the damage to Renhe’s image? On Jan. 21, a Weibo post about Renhe Pharmacy […]
LES ECHOS (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – A new French study has found that the risk of diabetes may actually increase more with the consumption of diet or light soft drinks than with sugary ones. Researchers at Inserm, the French biomedical and public health research institution, followed the health and consumption habits of 66,188 women since […]
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) Worldcrunch SYDNEY – Australian scientists have discovered that cannabis could help reverse dementia. Researchers from Neuroscience Research Australia (NRA) believe one of the main active ingredients in cannabis – cannabidiol – could reverse some of the symptoms of memory loss, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Tim Karl, a senior NRA researcher […]
PARIS – “The melting Arctic is under threat…Let’s take action!” Last July, Greenpeace launched a vast media campaign to “stop Shell from drilling in the Arctic”, as the oil giant was getting ready to open its second Arctic well off Alaska. Greenpeace’s campaign garnered huge support from the general public, but it also reached the […]
BBC 2 (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – In the first episode of the new installment of Top Gear, on BBC Two, Jeremy Clarkson tries to build a car that is “even smaller than the famous Peel P50.” Peel P50. Photo mrflip Rising to the challenge, as always, Clarkson tests his tiny invention in London’s suburb of […]
BERLIN – Winegrower Barbara Banke of the Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates in California doesn’t just love the sun because it ripens grapes. The sunnier it is, the lower the winery’s electricity and gas bills are. And those savings are possible because of the large mirrors mounted on the football-field-sized tin roof of the winery’s production facility […]
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Will Plastic Bags Ever Disappear?
A technological marvel, the plastic bag has become a symbol of humankind’s ecological footprint. Laws and habits are decreasing their use, but the alternative is sometimes worse.
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch HAMBURG – German researchers are developing a long-lasting battery that could solve one of the biggest problems of the energy transition, reports Die Welt. The German government is aiming for electrical power in Germany to be 80% from renewable energy sources like wind and solar by the year 2050. However, this […]
PARIS – It is a new stain on the already tarnished reputation of biofuels. After being accused of aggravating food insecurity and driving up food prices, accelerating tropical deforestation and even increasing greenhouse gas emissions, crop-based biofuels are now being accused of worsening air pollution and creating health problems. The European Union’s target of 10% […]
LA NACION, CLARIN, BUENOSAIRESBACHE (ARGENTINA) Worldcrunch BUENOS AIRES – Driving through Buenos Aires can resemble scenes from Mad Max. Not only must you dodge reckless drivers, but also steer clear of the multitudes of potholes. According to La Nacion, in the most populous neighborhoods of Buenos Aires such as Belgrano, there are potholes on virtually […]
As Instagram users snap and tag their lastest best meal, Yelp, OpenTable and even FourSquare could be victims of Zuckerberg’s appetite.
BBC, NEW SCIENTIST, WIKIPEDIA Worldcrunch Dolphins are the friendly sea creatures nobody can hate – they’re playful, fun and super intelligent. Here are some interesting facts you may not know about dolphins, as well as the saddest dolphin video we’ve ever seen — that is, the saddest video EVER. milk-can 1. SEA PORK – People […]
A new study offers fascinating evidence that men who have no sense of smell have serious difficulty finding partners. For women, there is no such clear correlation.
GOOGLE MAPS (USA) Worldcrunch Thanks to its community of “citizen cartographers” who joined forces on Google Map Maker, Google says in a blog post, the U.S.-based Internet giant has managed to give its maps of North Korea a tremendous overhaul – including an updated bird’s eye-view of some the country’s most secretive locations, i.e. prison […]
Facebook is the upstart, Google is the grizzled veteran — and still the powerhouse — in the massive battle for online advertising dollars. But when the cash register rings, who gets the credit? That is the billion-dollar question in advertising these days—particularly in Internet advertising, where it’s easy to track clicks and links, but often […]
GENEVA – It’s called simply, “Human Brain Project” (HBP), and it is as audacious as it is ambitious: 256 individual labs scattered across 24 countries in order to create a virtual human brain. Though only officially awarded a one-billion-euro grant Monday by the European Union, the debate around the endeavor has been brewing for years […]
SOUTH METROPOLITAN DAILY (China) Worldcrunch LIANJIANG – A Chinese centenarian woke up after being dead for 16 hours, reports the South Metropolitan Daily. Peng Xiuhua, a 101-year-old woman from Shenshuidong Village in China’s southeastern Guangdong Province, had been living alone since the death of her husband 11 years ago. She had taken a fall two […]
SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, DER SPIEGEL (Germany) Worldcrunch BERLIN – The German military looks eager to get in the drone business. According to Der Spiegel Germany’s coalition government is planning to rapidly equip the country’s defense forces with armed combat drones, saying they would provide a “credible deterrent” to enemies and thus offer greater security. The government […]
Already in place in several cities, the federal Department of Homeland Security may install state-of-the-art acoustic technology in DC that can cover areas of up to 20 square miles.
ITAR-TASS (Russia), CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR Worldcrunch MOSCOW – The Kremlin has authorized scientists to finally reveal what they say are “trillions of carats” of diamonds located in a field in eastern Siberia that could forever change the market of the precious gem. The Russians have know since the 1970s of this 35-million-year-old and 62-mile wide […]
Sounds a bit like Mark Zuckerberg?
DER SPIEGEL (Germany), NEWS.COM.AU (Australia) Worldcrunch BOSTON – George Church, a Harvard School of Medicine genetics professor, believes that he can create a Neanderthal baby. All he needs is an “adventurous female.” George Church at TED 2010. Photo: Life, Synthetic Life! He told German magazine Der Spiegel: “I have already managed to attract enough DNA […]
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Germany’s New Green War On Cow Farts
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch It’s a different kind of toxic emission, but scientists have indeed measured the environmental impact of the methane gases let out by flatulent livestock. And now the President of Germany’s Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Jochen Flasbarth, wants farmers to shoulder more responsibility for climate protection. “In the medium term we could […]
In his native Germany, Mr “Dotcom” is called by his real name, Kim Schmitz; but Germans joined with the rest of the world to see the roll-out of his new outsized Internet file-sharing site.
Facebook rolled out a new feature for the Messenger app on iPhone that lets you make free phone calls to your friends using a WiFi or cellular data connection. There are, of course, a few caveats: But the calling feature in Messenger hints at the grander plans Facebook has for you phone. Just like Facebook […]
EL NUEVO HERALD (Cuba), CLARIN (Argentina) Worlcrunch HAVANA – After remaining cholera-free for more than a century, Cuba is suffering its second bout of cholera in six months. The disease has infected more than 50 people in Havana, the government admitted, and, according to non-confirmed information, one death. In July, three people died of cholera […]
BERLIN – Can we draw conclusions about another person’s character traits based on their facial or body features? We have a tendency to base ourselves on outer appearance when forming first impressions of other people. Studies have shown that the shape of a face plays a role in our perception of how trustworthy somebody is. […]
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How Big Data Could Lead To Big Brother
PARIS – Computer services giant Atos called 2012 the year of evangelization of “Big Data.” Now, in 2013, it’s time we may all be converted. Big Data is the massive volume of digital data that is so large to process that it needs additional management tools and database processing applications. It is much more than […]
GENEVA – Reto Stöcklin can boast owning the world’s largest collection of venom. He has 1,200 samples in a freezer. A biochemist by training, he’s also a “serial entrepreneur.” The five start-ups he has created are all linked to his famous library of samples taken from snakes, fish, insects and venomous shellfish. Founded in 1995, […]
Her eyes tear up when I come into the room although the word “daughter” holds no meaning for her anymore. When friends and relatives ask me “How’s your mother?,” they are not referring to the woman I used to relate to in that role, but to a whole other person behind an invisible wall. I […]
THE AUSTRALIAN, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, QUEENSLAND INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL RESEARCH (Australia) Worldcrunch BRISBANE – Australian researchers believe they have found a way to halt the HIV virus from developing into AIDS. Researchers from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research say they have found a “light switch” protein within the HIV virus that can be effectively […]
KANSAS CITY- It looks like the typical American neighborhood home: a flag out front, a terrace with a rocking chair and a barbecue in the backyard. But this ordinary Kansas City street contains a hidden treasure. It’s one of the first places to have access to “Google Fiber,” the super-fast broadband that is 100 times […]
KAISERSLAUTERN – It’s been more than two years since 21 people were killed and more than 500 injured in the Duisburg Love Parade, a tragedy that shocked Germany and reopened wider questions about how to control large crowds. In an article published in the EPJ Data Science journal, physicist Dirk Helbing of the Swiss Federal […]