Technology
RECENT VIDEOS
Recent Posts
Scientists Turn Scar Tissue Into Working Heart Muscle
Daily Download Team | April 19th, 2012
Via Flickr user Patrick J. Lynch
A remarkable discovery by scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease: injecting a mixture of three different genes into scar tissue can transform it into working heart muscle.
North Korea’s New Website Came Cheap
Daily Download Team | April 19th, 2012
Via Flickr user Joseph A Ferris III
North Korea recently launched a website intended to sell the West on its political ideology. But the wizards at Wired noticed something tucked into the website’s source code: an indication that the effort cost North Korea all of $15.
Book Buyers, Beware
Philip Bump | April 18th, 2012
Via Flickr user It'sGreg
Book buying is still big business. Contrary to popular belief, the percentage of people who indicated that they’re currently reading a book or novel has increased over the past fifty years. At the same time, it’s never been easier to publish a book. Not necessarily with a big publishing house, of course, and not even necessarily for any substantial profit. But anyone with a minimal level of technical savvy can produce a book and leverage one of several online outlets to offer it for sale.
That is the point at which the hustles begin.
Dumbest Post – Wikipedia Contains Errors!
Daily Download Team | April 18th, 2012
Everyone, prepare to panic: perhaps as many as 6 in 10 Wikipedia articles contain errors! But the claim isn’t that the entire article is wrong, just that there might be one somewhere on the page. Which makes sense.
Cybercrime Data Is Hugely Inaccurate
Daily Download Team | April 17th, 2012
Via Flickr user devdsp
It’s the scourge of modern life – those hackers and ne’er-do-wells hacking into our computers and stealing our identities.
A closer look at cybercrime statistics paints a different portrait. In fact, estimates of the extent of online pilfering such as the use of stolen credit card numbers indicates that the problem – while existent – is a far cry from the scale some have suggested.
A Close Look at the Pulitzer-Winning Huffington Post
Daily Download Team | April 17th, 2012
Via the Knight Foundation
Shortly after the Huffington Post won its first Pulitzer, the Columbia Journalism Review released a fascinating, detailed look at how the website came to be, including tensions between and insights from both Arianna Huffington and her original partner Jonah Peretti.
Website Reviews
Mind Shift
If you still know what something called carbon paper is, you've already lived through a revolution in the world of education. And you know, it's not over. MindShift focuses on the future of learning — cultural and technology trends, research into learning, education policy and more.
Mashable
The site is, well, a bit of a mashup. It often seems to cover whatever the editors find interesting, which makes the operation quirky and eye-catching, if a bit idiosyncratic.
Wired
The original tech publication, back when it was just a magazine with crazy, hard-to-read type, Wired now sports a vibrant website. When everyone else was going bonkers over Facebook, the site pointed out that Mark Zuckerberg’s company was playing catchup on mobile phones. A piece on the startup firm SonicNotify was headlined, “Why Lady Gaga Deploys a Sound Only Your Smartphone Can Hear.” And not everything is tech talk, such as a piece on why some wild animals are becoming nicer.
ReadWriteWeb
The site seems totally tilted toward techies. But there is some consumer material that is worth checking out. Some posts practically yell, Don’t read me unless you work in Silicon Valley. Say, “RedHat’s GlusterSF Appliance for Amazon Now Totally Virtual,” or “Mobile Carriers and OEMs Get Android App Testing Cloud from Apkudo.” But then there are pieces on [...]
AllThingsD
This Wall Street Journal spinoff finds the sweet spot between tech sophistication and sex appeal. Led by two rock stars in the field, Kara Swisher and Journal columnist Walt Mossberg, the site moves quickly on tech news—sometimes scoring scoops –but also features plenty of sharp posts with broad appeal. After Facebook announced it was going public, Swisher wrote that the Winklevoss brothers, who sued Mark Zuckerberg over the idea for the social network, were poised to collect as much as $300 million: “That’s right, folks, the rich do get richer, especially if they pursue their case well past the point of shame.”
TechCrunch
The fiercely independent site was a huge success story until founder Michael Arrington walked off in a huff—that is, he clashed with AOL’s Arianna Huffington after selling TechCrunch to the once-mighty online firm. She understandably objected to Arrington’s decision to launch a fund to invest with some of the start-up companies that TechCrunch was covering. The fiercely independent site was a huge success story until founder Michael Arrington walked off in a huff—that is, he clashed with AOL’s Arianna Huffington after selling TechCrunch to the once-mighty online firm. She understandably objected to Arrington’s decision to launch a fund to invest with some of the start-up companies that TechCrunch was covering. So what’s it look like today?
Latest Posts
Study Weighs Benefits of Organizing Recess
April 17th, 2012While an overwhelming number of elementary school principals believe in the power of recess to improve academic achievement and make students more focused in class, most discipline-related problems happen at school when kids cut loose at recess and lunch, according to surveys.
One of the solutions, according to a study released this week by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: more, and well-trained, staff on the playground.
DD Debates: Chelsea Clinton on NBC
April 17th, 2012A BuzzFeed article notes Chelsea Clinton’s rough tenure at NBC and raises a key question: why is she on the network? Daily Download debates.
DD on NewsHour: How the Campaigns Are Targeting You with Google Searches
April 19th, 2012In our regular NewsHour segment, Lauren Ashburn and Howard Kurtz tell PBS’s Jeffrey Brown how the Obama and Romney campaigns are buying up Google search terms to target ads to potential voters. The president’s reelection team is being far more aggressive, buying up such terms as “Obama economy,” “immigration reform” and “Buffett Rule,” while the [...]
Ghost Factories: Industry Gone, But Leaving Pollution Behind
April 20th, 2012When factories close, they often leave behind a reminder of what they once did. Particularly if what they did leached toxic elements into the soil – and particularly if they closed before people paid attention to such pollution.
Rest In Peace, Facts. We’ll Miss You.
April 20th, 2012A reporter for the Chicago Tribune penned an earnest lament for a long-lost friend: facts. Those humble, hard-working statements of truth, long ailing in public discourse, have been proclaimed dead and gone by the Trib‘s Rex Huppke.
How We Tweet When We Tweet About Health
April 20th, 2012A new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers assessed the role social media plays in healthcare coverage. Turns out that people regularly use social media to share opinions and information about about service, medications, and physicians.
Dumbest Post – Museum Burns Its Art
April 20th, 2012An Italian museum facing budget cuts is taking an unusual approach to the situation. Antonio Manfredi has pledged to torch three pieces a week until the cuts are reversed.
Win Dinner With George And Another Guy
April 20th, 2012Donate to the Obama campaign, and you could be having dinner with one of the most popular people in the world. And the President.
