Obama v. McCain: The Wired Scorecard
3 hours, 46 minutes ago
What do Barack Obama and John McCain say, and what have they done, about policies that matter to Wired? Here are descriptions and analysis on five issues: Broadband, H1B Issues, Investment in Green Tech, Net Neutrality, Spectrum. They may or may not come up in Wednesday’s third and final debate. But that doesn’t mean you have to be uninformed or apathetic. Wired.com [read]
Q&A: John Hodgman on Perfecting the Illusion of Expertise
3 hours, 46 minutes ago
John Hodgman is an expert. At everything. (OK, maybe not sports.) But where he really excels is in creating the illusion of expertise — and not letting pesky facts intrude on that authority. From his first book, a compendium of faux trivia aptly titled The Areas of My Expertise, to his fiction-spewing shtick on The Daily Show to his role as the bloviating PC ... [read]
Microscope-On-a-Chip Is One Step Closer to the Tricorder
3 hours, 46 minutes ago
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com LOS ANGELES, California – In the very near future, drawing blood may be obsolete. Instead, implants will be able to image your blood and monitor it constantly. This is because scientists at Caltech have squeezed a microscope onto a computer chip not much larger than a dime. And that’s just the demo unit. Shrinking a standard microscope to this size ... [read]
Oct. 13, 1884: Greenwich Resolves Subprime Longitude Crisis
3 hours, 46 minutes ago
1884: Geographers and astronomers adopt Greenwich as the Prime Meridian, the international standard for zero degrees longitude. The late 19th century was an era of standardization. With the Second Industrial Revolution stimulating world trade, the Treaty of the Meter established the International System of weights and measures in 1875. With railroads linking together entire continents, nations were replacing hundreds (or even thousands) of diverging ... [read]
'Children in Need' Could Unite All Surviving Doctor Whos
11 hours, 14 minutes ago
Reports claim the seven surviving actors who played The Doctor will reunite for this year's BBC 'Children in Need' telethon. That means David Tennant and Peter Davision would join Tom Baker, Colin Baker, Sylvestor McCoy, Paul Mcgann and Christopher Eccleston for a reunion fans thought was impossible. Wired.com [read]
Q&A: 'World of Warcraft' Lead Producer J. Allen Brack
13 hours, 46 minutes ago
During Blizzcon Wired chats with with J. Allen Brack, Wow's lead producer, to discuss the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion, where the game goes from here, and the title's Deathknight class, an addition many fans see as the latest example in Blizzard's new-found desire to homogenize their once unimpeachable games. Wired.com [read]
U.S. Game Designer Hurtles into Space With DNA Cargo
16 hours, 9 minutes ago
An American computer game designer -- along with two crewmates and the digitized DNA sequences of some of the world's most famous minds -- reached space Sunday. Wired.com [read]
Spies Launch 'Cyber-Behavior' Investigation
16 hours, 19 minutes ago
In effort to get a handle on wannabe spies' cyber behaviors, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence hands out $800,000 to researchers to figure out whether hopping on World of Warcraft or Facebook "suggests an unwillingness to abide by rules." Wired.com [read]
The Prisoner's Sonic Shadow Looms Large
1 day, 5 hours ago
Four decades after its short run concluded in controversy, Patrick McGoohan's brilliant sci-fi miniseries The Prisoner remains one of television's most influential shows. But its speculative tentacles reach deeper, inspiring user-generated music videos as well as songs from artists as varied as The Rolling Stones and Wagon Christ. Wired.com [read]
Power Ascender: Ballsy Tool Yanks People, Equipment up Walls
1 day, 16 hours ago
What it is: Atlas Power Ascender What it's used for: Rapidly pulling people and their gear up the side of a building or canyon The prototype of the Power Ascender was not easy to use. The battery-powered, waist-mounted climbing assistant yanked people up a dangling rope at a blistering 10 feet per second — almost 7 mph — fast enough to snap their limbs ... [read]