Indice dei contenuti per September 2016 in WIRED

CAGE MATCH THE VIDEO FOR OUR COVER STORY about the new Netflix show Luke Cage, based on the Marvel Comics superhero, grew out of a minor mix-up. Senior editor Peter Rubin, who helms WIRED’s culture coverage and edited this issue’s TV package (page 56), asked producer Paula Chowles what kind of video they might shoot to accompany the story. “Is Luke Cage related to Nic Cage?” asked Chowles. Rubin turned her question into a game of “Who said it, Luke Cage or Nic Cage?” At the photo shoot in Los Angeles, WIRED’s video team filmed Luke Cage star Mike Colter guessing whether lines were spoken by the character of Luke Cage in his four decades’ worth of comics or by veteran actor Nicolas Cage. “Fortunately,” Rubin says, “there’s no shortage…

Eyes in the Sky During daylight, at least one drone stays in the air at all times (weather permitting). Tree Pods At each night’s camp, cameras attached to trees (and controlled from afar) capture footage. Power-Ups The DJI Phantom 4 and Inspire drones’ batteries get swapped every 15 minutes. Sharp Shooters Four camerapeople with 820-mm lenses shoot campsites from hundreds of yards away. Magic Mic Who needs booms when everyone’s necklace has an integrated mic? Where-Ables Contestants’ bracelets track their vitals— and location. Point Guards Passing contestants trigger tripodmounted robo cameras at waypoints.…

The Soviets wanted to shoot Nintendo into space. Nintendo executives traveled to Moscow to lock down the Tetris rights, but Russian bureaucrats had grander ideas—like placing Nintendo’s logo on the Soyuz orbiter that they were about to launch. (Nintendo said nyet.) The Russian iconography was an American invention. Alexey Pajitnov’s original game is deliberately simple: just blocks. The backwards Cyrillic Я, the red box, St. Basil’s Cathedral? All added by Western publishers to exploit its behind-the– Iron Curtain provenance. Same with the music. Also added was a chiptune version of a Russian folk song called “Korobeiniki.” A remixed version of the song by unknown artist Doctor Spin—aka Andrew Lloyd Webber (!) —hit the top 10 on the UK singles charts.…

U.S. TEENS WHO ARE TAUGHT … 76.3% Abstinence 73.8% Long-term health consequences of STDs 35.3% How to use a condom correctly What are we doing wrong? I was born in America but grew up in the Netherlands, so I’ve always moved between these two cultures. In the US, there is this dramatization of teen sexuality— playing up the fear and conflict and danger. The metaphor of raging hormones is so central, and that communicates this idea of sexuality as an outof-control force. How is it different in the Netherlands? Children are taught at very early ages to recognize their own feelings through desexualized, playful exercises. There’s one exercise where the kids feel objects, like pieces of clay, just to decide what feels good and not good to them. Dutch teens…

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1 Kowa SV 8x25 BEST FOR: Rambunctious explorers Weighing just 9.1 ounces and measuring only 4.1 inches long, the Kowa SV is a good choice for kids with smaller hands and faces. The design uses roof prisms (the reflective surfaces meet at a pitched angle), which makes these binocs more streamlined and durable. Despite the Lilliputian dimensions, the Kowas offer high magnification. That’s great news for your tree house sentry, though all that power does make it harder for wee’uns to hold objects steady in the field of view. $99 Kid-friendly features 1. Low magnification to prevent shaky-hands blur. 2. Small size and weight for easier handling. 3. Narrow interpupillary distance for young faces. 2 Eagle Optics Kingbird 6.5x32 BEST FOR: Discerning 7-year-olds The Kingbird uses high-performing Porro prisms, making…

“Through the Cracks” July 29, 2014 Sometimes slow tricks are even more mind-boggling than fast ones. At 00:45, Charpu eases his quadcopter through a series of hoops barely wide enough to fit a basketball. “Left Behind” March 14, 2015 Yes, viewers—all 1.6 million of you—that’s real-time footage. Wait for Charpu’s improbable corkscrewing escape maneuver at 02:45, after he guns through the halls of an abandoned hospital. “Guns vs. Drones” February 15, 2016 Can the world’s best pilots fly their drones through a volley of bullets and emerge unscathed? Tune in at 06:30 to watch Charpu take evasive action (and lose a propeller or two). “Right Between the Eyes” September 1, 2014 The secret to throttling your drone past 80 miles per hour? Clip the propellers with a pair of scissors.…

ALEXANDRA CUNNINGHAM was looking for a home for Chance, the crime thriller she’d developed starring Hugh Laurie. She had a number of network suitors. During the decisionmaking process, Cunningham, who wrote and produced for Desperate Housewives, called her friend Liz Tigelaar, the executive producer of Hulu’s acclaimed comedy Casual. What was it like, she asked, to work with the upstart network? Tigelaar’s vote of confidence was convincing: Chance landed at Hulu with a two-season order. More important, it’s one of the new arrivals cementing Hulu’s reputation as a platform committed to recruiting and nurturing female talent. Over the past couple of years, Hulu’s originals slate has become dominated by female showrunners: five of the platform’s eight series. This isn’t any sort of explicit policy, but head of originals Beatrice Springborn,…

Alfred Hitchcock as a bus passenger in To Catch a Thief; Zoe and Stuart at Park Tavern; “Shake Your Pants,” from the album Cameosis; the elusive Beedrill in South Park; Po Bronson walking his dog along Third Street; the old Denver & Rio Grande Western no. 499; Bill Burr in Breaking Bad; occasional wayward opossum scampering across backyard fence; “Tom Hanks” at Phish’s 2002 New Year’s Eve performance at Madison Square Garden; SkyPark; my cat, lurking always in the background of my life; Angel at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo; “Word Up!” WIRED is a registered trademark of Advance Maga zine Publishers Inc. Copyright ©2016 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Volume 24, No. 9. WIRED (ISSN 1059–1028) is published monthly by Condé Nast, which is a division of…

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT Steven Spielberg can do it all, but his best movies are about childhood. So to celebrate his latest, a CGI-rich adaptation of Roald Dahl’sThe BFG, we not only sent Mr. Know-It-All columnist Jon Mooallem to profile the director (“The Giant”), we also put together a package about how to raise kids today (“Hack Your Kids”). Monstrous, snotty creatures, they require your sharpest wits and sneakiest powers of manipulation—all so they can grow up to be as wonderful and well adjusted as you. Re: “Hack Your Kids” “MOST IMPORTANTLY, TALK TO YOUR KIDS. THEY’LL LET YOU KNOW HOW WISE THEY ARE. DON’T BE DISCOURAGED.” Stacy Cockrum (@scockrum) on Twitter Re: “The Giant” “Spielberg is everyone’s dad.” Omar Mouallem (@omar_aok) on Twitter “Of the many writers I’ve been…

THE IDEA OF A MEMORIAL to African American history is almost a century old, but by the time the Smithsonian chose architect David Adjaye to design the National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2009, he heard rumblings that it might not be needed. Barack Obama had just been elected after all—maybe we were in a post racial America. Seven years and a mounting national sense of racial discord later, the opening of the museum this month is timely. “It’s so urgently needed,” says the Ghanaian British architect, whose portfolio includes an affordable housing project in Harlem and the Nobel Peace Center. To start, Adjaye gave the building a three-tiered corona motif to mimic the sculptures of West Africa’s Yoruba ethnic group— the ancestors of many American slaves.…

Synthetic Dyes Patents for ballpoint pens go back to the late 1800s, but it took half a century to develop good, fastdrying inks. Bic, Pilot, and other makers jealously guard their formulas, but to get that classic ballpoint blue, these companies mix up a cocktail of colorants. A few likely suspects are phthalocyanine blue, the awesomely named crystal violet, and Prussian blue, a longtime favorite of painters that’s made from iron and cyanide. That last one was used as invisible ink in World War I: Spies wrote in iron chloride, which could then be treated with potassium ferrocyanide to make the words appear. Crystal violet was another wartime staple: It has antibacterial properties that made it a cure-all for infections during the Great War and a weapon against thrush in…

WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU GO WATCH • Hunt for the Wilderpeople • Utu • Hunt for the Wilderpeople • Utu • Goodbye Pork Pie Urban says: “They’re not homogenized movies you can get anywhere else. Each one is steeped in our culture and gives you an idea of what New Zealanders are about.” LISTEN • Lorde “She’s from Auckland, and if you have an opportunity to see her in concert, you must. She’s extraordinary.” The View “We have at least 40 dormant volcanoes around Auckland, maybe more. I’d recommend going up Mount Eden. At the top you get these 360-degree views of the city, out to the Waitakere Ranges and back across the Hauraki Gulf toward Waiheke Island. It’ll get you situated in Auckland.” Caffeine Scene The café culture…

1 Sphero SPRK+ Youngsters can peer through the transparent body of Sphero’s latest ball-bot to study its electromechanical innards. The revamped Lightning Lab app lets kids use the company’s OVAL programming language to manipulate the LEDs and motor, making the orb follow a route of their choosing. $130 2 Anki Cozmo A mind-blowing amount of engineering— from AI to computer vision to sound design—is packed into Anki’s adorable palm-size package. Cozmo recognizes your youngling’s face and develops a complementary personality. Play learning games with him—he’ll remember your favorites. Can a puppy do that? $180 3 Osmo Coding Kit This iPad accessory turns coding from an abstract intellectual exercise into a playful, intuitive one. Kids manipulate colorful command tiles to build a program that controls a friendly onscreen monster, helping him…

AS LETÍCIA, clad in a fluttering pink bridesmaid’s dress, walked to the center of the rose garden ahead of the bride, my 7-year-old reached his hand sideways, groping for my purse. He located his camera, held it up, and began snapping photos of his beloved babysitter in this beautiful setting. “I can show her later,” he said, putting down his dinged-up old Canon with the burned-out circle in the top left of the screen. “She might want to see.” ¶ I also have a younger son, who is 3. Anyone with multiple kids is familiar with the Law of Conservation of Object Possession: For any item of desire obtained by Kid A, an analog must also be obtained by Kid B. ¶ So the 3-year-old got his own camera. It’s…

A FEW YEARS AGO, my mother called with an urgent request. She was agitated. She had just come from a meeting of her Jewish women’s group, where she had learned about BRCA1 and BRCA2, the so-called breast cancer genes. She wanted me to get tested. She insisted. I immediately said no. ¶ BRCA1 and 2 are some of the most powerful cancer markers scientists have discovered—archetypes of an ever expanding pool of potentially livesaving genetic tests. A mutation in one of those genes more than quadruples your risk of breast cancer to between 45 and 65 percent. For ovarian cancer, the risk hits 10 to 39 percent. Treatment is ruthless but effective: Cut away your breasts and ovaries to cut down your risk. ¶ When I got that call from…

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) An advocate of space research since her days heading the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee, Mikulski repeatedly blocked spending cuts to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Her departure could ground the agency. Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) Reid proved to be a quiet but effective supporter of renewable power, brokering an 11th-hour deal to keep windand solar-energy tax incentives afloat. Representative Chris Gibson (R-New York) One of the few Republicans who actively supported taking action on climate change, Gibson got 13 other GOP House members to sign a resolution noting that “human activities” have warmed the planet and that Congress should address the issue. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) Boxer’s successor on the Environment and Public Works Committee will likely be just as devoted to environmental causes,…

Phobia treatment The simulation starts with a spider crawling toward you; then you’ll feel the tickle of eight little legs. Pretty soon you’ll be shopping for pet tarantulas. Pet control Backyard activists are here to raise a stink. Local tours show you what happens when people don’t curb their dogs. Nothing prompts action like stepping in digital poo. Appetite development It’s hard to get your kids to eat something other than pizza. So tempt their eyes with faux feasts— from pistachiocrusted salmon to rack of lamb— and win over their fickle stomachs. Rape awareness Sexual assault on campus is a tough subject, but virtual parties can help start crucial conversations. Try out the man’s perspective as he pursues a female student—then relive the experience through her eyes. Religious recruitment Uploading…

1 Louis Vuitton Quilted Jacquard Cardigan The dad sweater done right. This midcentury-inspired cardigan is made of quilted merino wool; button it up like a knitted bomber jacket during those chilly days at the park. In the evening, pair it with a tumbler of whisky for your best Don Draper impression. $975 2 Bose QC35 Noise-Canceling Headphones After a day of naptime meltdowns and Disney Junior singalongs, nothing sounds sweeter than silence. And no one does noise-canceling like Bose. Its new wireless cans let you drown out the world or just fill your ears with music of your choosing for once. $350 3 Nikka Coffey Grain Whisky You won’t find any espresso notes in this hooch—the “coffey” on the label is for the column-style still used to produce it. The…

CARLOS PUERTOLAS maneuvers an X-shaped drone high above a grassy field in a Los Angeles park, then spins it sharply to face the ground and sends it full-throttle into a suicide dive. Inches before impact, he levels out the machine, its propellers gnashing the grass like a weed whacker, and gently lands it 5 feet away. He takes his hand off a radio controller and peels off a pair of opaque white goggles. Puertolas is an aloof but unassuming Spaniard who stands about 5'8", with a tuft of gray in his bangs and a rough chinstrap beard. In his day job he’s a top animator at DreamWorks, but he’s in this park testing a model designed especially for him by the Florida drone-kit company Lumenier. Better known by his pilot…

1972 Hero for Hire In the origin issue, an innocent Carl Lucas lands in prison, where a botched experiment gives him superstrength and bulletproof skin. 2001 Alias When Cage and Jessica Jones have a one-night stand, the PI gets pregnant. The two ultimately wed and become parents to a baby girl. 1974 Defenders After breaking out of prison, Cage gets roped into this “non-team” to stop bad guys like the unabashedly racist Sons of the Serpent. 2010 Thunderbolts Captain America puts Cage in charge of his own group, which operates from a maximumsecurity island prison and rehabilitates supervillains. 1978 Power Man and Iron Fist Cage rebrands himself, partnering with martial- arts phenom Iron Fist to provide superhuman- grade security and investigative services.…

LEE DANIELS has become a master of escapist television that’s as rooted in reality TV as it is in sui generis surrealism. To follow up his brilliant network debut, Empire—a gleefully ludicrous and highly rated mess cocreated with Danny Strong—Daniels is gearing up to deliver another musical series for Fox. Star, airing later this season, builds its drama not around a record label but a nascent girl group. While ordering conch ceviche on a beach in Anguilla, Daniels took time from vacation to discuss the art of camp, his keys to constructing a diverse writers’ room, and how he makes the world of television decidedly more vibrant. You started in movies— producing then directing titles like Precious and The Butler—then jumped to TV. Why? I come from the era of…

“Make a fist,” says Jerry Hayes, waving his own in the air. “Now put it someplace on you.” About 150 people, the audience at a honeybee panel at the 2014 South by Southwest Eco conference, place their fists on their shoulders or collarbones. “Proportionally, this is how large a varroa mite is compared to a honeybee’s body,” Hayes says. The reddish-brown parasite, just a dot to the naked eye, drains the life out of bees and delivers a deadly cargo of viruses. “It would be like having a parasitic rat on you, sucking your blood.” Under a microscope, a varroa mite is a monster: armored and hairy, with eight legs and one piercing, sucking mouthpart, primordial in its horror. Since the parasite arrived in the United States from Asia in…