Inhoudsopgave van Jul-15 - WIRED

Great Cannon n. / 'grāt 'ka-n n / China’s newest cyberweapon, it’s the offensive counterpart to the Great Firewall. The Great Cannon intercepts traffic to Chinese sites like Baidu and redirects it as a DDoS attack against foreign sites that attempt to undermine the regime’s censorship. placebome n. / pl -'sē-'bōm / The network of at least 10 genes that predisposes people to the placebo effect. Understanding how the placebome makes someone respond to sugar pills as if they were medicine will help doctors personalize treatments, a long-standing goal of the Human Genome Project. rainpower n. / 'rān-'pa - r / The frictional effect of rain on the power of a hurricane. Tropical cyclones, which suck up water from the sea, can pour down 500 billion gallons a day. The…

Black Powder Invented in ninthcentury China, this mix of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur is what makes fireworks (plus guns and explosives), well, work. In a traditional firework a lit fuse kicks off the reaction, igniting the powder in the bottom of the shell. As the potassium nitrate burns, it lets off oxygen. The O2 helps the charcoal and sulfur burn too, producing hot gases that hurl the firework into the sky. Seconds later, a delayed fuse reaches the center of the payload, igniting the main shell to unleash a spectacle of light and sound. Metal Salts The rockets’ red glare as fireworks burst in air is simple chemistry: luminescence! As pellets containing metal salts inside the payload heat up, their electrons get excited and release excess energy as light.…

Check your pockets for wockets, because Dr. Seuss is back! This July a long-lost Seuss book hits the shelves, based on a previously unpublished manuscript: What Pet Should I Get? How familiar are you with cats, hats, foxes, and socks? Each of these circles represents the color distribution of a single book cover. Identify each one from its distinctively Seussian scheme. Answers: (1 ) The Cat in the Hat, (2) Green Eggs and Ham, (3) Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories, (4) Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! (5) There’s a Wocket in My Pocket! (6) The Lorax…

AFTER A FALSE START in the early 2000s, podcasting has exploded. More than 2.6 billion episodes were downloaded in 2014. Here’s your user’s manual, from hosting tips to must-subscribes. 1 Best Guest Hrishikesh Hirway is the host of Song Exploder, a podcast that asks musicians to break down their most popular tunes and share the stories of how they were created. A musician himself, Hirway is great at getting his guests to reveal memorable specifics. Here, he shares his thoughts on what makes a great guest. —Eric Steuer What does the ideal guest bring to the table? A good memory and strong selfawareness. They can remember how and why they made creative decisions, and what those decisions say about who they are and what they’re trying to evoke in others.…

A: Robots: They’re just like us! Just look at them go! Exploring the ocean floor! Assembling cars! Detonating explosive devices! Vacuuming the living room! Performing surgery! I read about one, called OSHbot, that works at a hardware store in San Jose, greeting customers in five languages and leading them down the aisle toward just the right-size wing nut. ¶ And yet they’re also nothing like us. They are sleek and deft and their work ethic is phenomenal. They never hesitate or stutter or smell bad, or register ambivalence, or come in hungover or drowning in woe. They just get the job done, typically the same very specific job, over and over and over again. And thank God they do, because that labor frees up us humans to do what we…

Prince TeXtreme Tour 95 BEST FOR: Retrominded players who like to hit hard and rally from the net The carbon-fiber TeXtreme is firm enough to give you Agassi’s power but soft enough to keep your elbows from screaming. The bottle-capsized sweet spot might frustrate at first, but soon you’ll be smashing winners with laser-sight accuracy. A handle-heavy design affords wrist speed that’ll leave your opponent dizzy. $199 Wilson Burn 100S BEST FOR: Hardcourt warriors who want fast action and more baseline muscle The Burn’s heat comes from its stiff carbon-fiber frame, which gives speedier swings extra power. But it’s the racquet’s spin-generating string setup that’ll turn you into a baseline god and send your shots over the net in arching, Zeuslike bolts. The sweet spot is huge and springy; summon…

1 Alite Hot Tamale Sleeping Bag You want to stay snug in the wilderness, but a mummy bag can be a bit much, especially in summer. The Hot Tamale is light and roomy, and its rectangular shape lets you spread your limbs. A little pocket on top keeps your headlamp close. Camping with your partner? Zip two of them together. $129 2 Snow Peak Medium Single-Action Table Eating on a stump is for chumps. Nosh at this beautiful, durable bamboo table instead. It’s spacious, but it folds down to lie flat in your trunk. Its carrying bag even doubles as a rain cover. Gather for dinner, stay for open-air drinks and cards. $330 3 Rome Popcorn Popper Fresh-popped popcorn is a stellar complement to some late-night stargazing. Plus, it’s a…

WITH CHEMISTRY! Eyelids open; flowers blossom; tiny beaks tap cracks in eggshells; crops sprout; creatures stalk, slide, and wriggle from their burrows; teenage elk scrape hooves in the dust, lower antlers, and charge their competition. So: Did you—yes, you, clutching your fourth Keurig of the day and still feeling sluggish— really think you were immune to the effects of circadian rhythm, aka the clock cycle of practically all living things? Please. ¶ The master controllers of your internal chronometer are two tiny clusters of neurons called the suprachiasmatic nuclei, located behind your eyeballs in the hypothalamus. This area of the brain helps regulate the chemical factors that determine whether you feel droopy or perky. Here’s how to synchronize your activities with your hormone levels. WHEN TO DO WHAT OPTIMIZE YOUR…

SECTION 2 When you spend 8, 10, 15 hours mentally scotch-taped to your job, your actual workspace matters a lot. We spoke to a pair of techie-creative types who have found different ways to keep their desks positive, personalized, and productive: One thrives on a minimalist aesthetic, the other prefers a densely populated desktop. But both have customized their spaces for maximum daily happiness. MICHELLE MORRISON CREATIVE STRATEGIST SQUARE “I work on a large creative team, set back in the studio. I want people to feel like they can walk up anytime and talk about their projects or ask questions. So I removed the barrier of a large cinema display and added personal touches. That way I’m easy to find.” [ 1 ] “The rabbit pelt was a gift from…

RASHIDA SAYS “I’M SO ATTACHED TO CERTAIN APPS. I’VE GOT BINAURAL BEATS FOR NAPS. BITMOJ I AND THE SOUTHWEST APP. AND AMAZON PRIME. THE FEELINGS I HAVE ABOUT I T ARE SO POSITIVE. I’M IN A LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH AMAZON PRIME. AMAZON PRIME I S MY WORK CRUSH.” [ A ] CRATE & BARREL Rex Grey Desk Lamp Treat yourself to some warm, attractive illumination. This wood-andsteel beauty has a cloth cord that adds a pop of anticorporate color. $100 [ B ] DURACELL PowerMat Your desk should be your happy place. And if it’s cluttered with cords, it becomes an unhappy place. Bring the bliss back with a charging station that maintains a low profile as it keeps your essentials ticking. $40 and up [ C ] KEEPCUP Brew…

When I landed my first big job in publishing 10 years ago, I felt like an outsider. It was the social aspects of working in the big leagues that threw me—the small talk, the awkwardness that results from forced extroversion. So I wrote a book, drawing on my own experience as well as the scientific literature on social psychology and organizational behavior. Turns out, it is actually possible to take negative workplace situations and turn them into something positive. But you need a few tricks. HARNESS THE ASSHOLES Assholes are overconfident, narcissistic, reckless, entitled, and oblivious. This makes them useful: They let you feel morally superior (since you always look down on the asshole), they’re good for bonding (since everyone agrees that assholes are awful), and they increase efficiency (you…

A SILICON VALLEY VERSION OF THE CULT-HIT CARD GAME Magic: The Gathering. BILLIONAIRE VCS BATTLE TO DEFINE THE FUTURE … AND CAPTURE MASSIVE ROI. You are the most powerful being in The Valley. You are a venture capitalist, an elite investor who travels the world and identifies key trends years before East Coasters and poor people do. The object of this (playable) card game? To find and transform young startups into disruptive, revolutionary, billion-dollar companies. It won’t be easy: Few are born each year. Most perish before their potential can be realized. Without your wisdom and magic, none stand a chance. You have enemies—other powerful VCs whom you battle for a 20 percent stake and legendary returns. Intellect, reputation, and the smell of money are your weapons. Use them to…

SINCE JON STEWART took over hosting duties on The Daily Show in 1999, he and his correspondents have vaulted to super- or at least moderate stardom. Many of them made the transition from fictional news to standard TV shows like 30 Rock and New Girl, and almost all of their extra–Daily Show careers intersect somehow. We’re all going to miss Jon Stewart when he leaves next month, but at least we’ll have his legacy of comedy gold.…

Times are good, and you’ve got a few grand to replace those front steps. Multiply that by a brickload of other Americans replacing their front steps and you’ve got a $300 billion homeimprovement industry that’s forecast to grow. A new group of startups are eager to lend a hand, and VCs are eager to lend them some bucks. Houzz $165 million raised in a Series D round, October 2014 This one-stop shop for remodeling and decorating sure beats tearing pages out of magazines. Users can peruse more than 6.5 million photos to discover the perfect wainscoting without driving themselves up the wall Porch $65 million, Series B, January 2015 Hire vetted professional painters, landscapers, and handypersons through this website, which lists ratings, reviews, and photographic evidence of their work. Like…

FARMERS WHO WANT to grow stuff need to know stuff. How rocky is their land? Where are the dry (or boggy) patches? Historically, of course, they walked or drove through the fields, using eyeballs and a tractor-seat perch to scan for problems. Today they can take a 2 million– foot view with the help of a satellite, or cruise closer to the ground with a drone. Here’s how those two crop watchers compare. EBEE AG DRONE Wingspan: 38 inches Flight Time: 45 minutes Drones While unmanned aerial vehicles can zoom waaaaay in on arable land (and won’t be blinded by clouds), they can cover only so many acres on a single battery charge. But during that short flight, drones can collect a bounty of measurements. They can use a near-infrared…

Indian silk: great for scarves, saris, and now … diagnostic sensors. That’s the idea behind a biotech startup in Bangalore, and it’s not as lavish as it sounds. In India, where access to affordable, quality health care is limited, doctors and patients rely on quick, low-cost methods to detect and monitor disease. Simple test strips, for instance, can identify everything from rotavirus infections to blood type. So far, plastic has been one of the go-to substrates for these types of tools, since it’s cheap and easy to manufacture. But at Achira Labs, researchers are spinning diagnostic sensors out of silk. Not only does the material work better than plastic— threads can more easily direct the flow of fluids—it’s actually a far thriftier option in a country rich in textiles: Silk…

Digital tipping rescued baristas. Now it can do the same for artists. I HAVE A SOFT SPOT for old pop-rap, and on a surprisingly regular basis I fire up Spotify with the sole purpose of listening to Skee-Lo’s one and only hit, the 1995 paean to the little guy “I Wish.” It really holds up: great beat, clever concept, funny lyrics, catchy hook. Still a jam, 20 years later. At home the other night, it came on as part of my “Hip Hop You Can Play in Front of Your Kids” dinner playlist. “I wonder where this dude is now,” I said to my wife. “I’d love to throw him a couple of bucks for having made something so fun back in the day.” ¶ Problem is, I can’t. I…

IN THE WILDS of the American frontier, the camp ax was essential: Strong enough to fell an oak yet light enough to carry on your belt, it could be used to clear forests, build houses, kindle the hearth, and hunt game. John Pickett Council opened a forge on North Carolina’s Lake Waccamaw in the early 1900s, and his standard of quality has been passed down through four generations of family management. The head of each Velvicut ax is drop-forged—a lump of steel is heated to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, pounded into shape under a falling hammer, tempered for hardness, then hand finished on a grinding wheel. The curved hickory handle is precision cut to follow the grain of the tree, maximizing strength and shock absorption. With the invention of the chain…

ATTENTION MEMPHIS and Kansas City! Cambridge, Massachusetts, is horning in on the BBQ game. A class of 16 Harvard engineering students just built the ultimate smoker, one that hits the goal set by their professor, Kevin “Kit” Parker at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Williams-Sonoma (each year, the course features a real-world client): Perfect brisket every time. ¶ A lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve, Parker has split his time between academia and tours in Afghanistan for the past 13 years. The smoker derives from his Tennessee roots. “I was at the BBQ Bowl in Memphis, looking at what the good ol’ boys were smoking in,” he says. “The biggest piles of junk. I was thinking, there’s a science here. You could get the design…

SHARPEN your MIND SECTION 1 HAPPY EYES , HAPPY BRAIN To combat the fatigue, blurry vision, and headaches you get from staring at your damn screen all day, try F. LUX. This free program gradually adjusts the colors on your display as night falls, so you’re not blasting your brain with blue keep-you-awake light in the evening. For novelty value and a little temporary relief on some Macs, invert the colors: CONTROL + OPTION + COMMAND + 8. Ahhhhhhh.—RACHEL GROSS Some jobs are soulstirring; others are soul-sucking. And thanks to decades of laboratory experiments, field studies, and big data, scientists actually know why. Their research offers crucial lessons that apply Monday through Friday and beyond. MAKE IT YOUR OWN Fulfillment often depends on pushing outside formal responsibilities—a process Yale School…

SOFTWARE ENGINEER ETSY “My desk is covered in a bunch of items from lots of places. Stuff is everywhere, but when I’m working, it’s not obtruding in any way. I have a bunch of Etsy items, like the space worm and robot, some more utilitarian things, and then vinyl figures that’ll float around the office.” [ 1 ] “I started at Etsy straight out of college. When they sent me an offer letter, there was a picture of a robot. The CTO, Chad Dickerson, had picked out a foundart robot specifically for me. It’s a supernice memento and reminder of how small we were.” [ 2 ] “At Etsy, when you join you get $100 to spend on your desk. I found a lot of cool things, but the one…

It’s weird how much I love Evernote. I mean, it’s just note-taking software. But for me, the power of Evernote lies in how fast and easy it makes off-loading absolutely everything. It’s a dumping ground for all my random ideas, professional and personal to-dos, screenshots, links to stuff I’ve read (and want to read), photos, quotes, fleeting memories, obscure references by coworkers that I pretend to get but actually need to Google later. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Evernote brings me mental peace. It even helps me sleep better. As long as I know it’s stored somewhere, I can put it out of my mind. I can deal with it later.…

Finding headspace every day at 4:20 in the wellness room; surreptitiously placing action figures on people’s desks; power naps; slipping into that narrow gap to beat the lunch line; white text on white background; running to the office early enough to start the workday with a shower instead of a cup of coffee; distributing chocolate to the designers and fact-checkers working late (because chocolate); nabbing cookies from the kitchen; saving all my [redacted] to [redacted]; using the inter-webs to prove that a caller was impersonating a nonexistent attorney; the totally illegal but very time-savvy left turn out of the wired parking garage; learning the distinction between square meters and meters square; Control + Option + Command + 8; asking a reporter for their notes; “I have never done anything sneaky.”…

THE WORLD SERIES of Poker is no joke. Last year, the 46-year-old tournament pitted more than 6,000 players against one another, vying for just nine spots at the final table and the chance to win $10 million. Finalists are determined each July, then four months later they battle their rivals for the series win. We asked the 2014 champ, Martin Jacobson, how he trained during that break— so that you too can dominate at poker (night). Work Out With Living Opponents Jacobson needed to play as much as possible against high-caliber rivals, so he put together a Skype group and an online sim with 30 of his pokerplaying friends (and their friends). They played round after round, discussing tough hands and new approaches, so nothing would faze him. Scrutinize the…

PLAYING MUSIC COMBINES complex brain work with feats of coordination. Scientists would love to know how musicians pull it off—just what happens to a pianist’s brain while recalling Rachmaninoff or to a sax player’s tongue while riffing? Of course, you can’t just shove an orchestra into an MRI machine. But you can reinvent musical instruments to be compatible with its superconducting mega-magnets. That means nothing too big for the tube, no electronics, and no iron-based bits. Here are some instruments that researchers have tuned for a magnetic performance. Piano How it works The keyboard is a shortened 11-key version with optical sensors underneath that connect to a shielded processor. What it does Allows researchers to compare brain activation in pianists as they listen to music and then try to play…

SANTA FE AVERAGES OVER 300 SUNNY DAYS P E R YEAR—MORE THAN MIAMI // THE CITY'S PALACE OF THE GOVERNORS, BUILT IN 1610 , IS THE OLDEST ACTIVE GOVERNMENT BUILDING IN THE UNITED STATES // ARTISTS MAKE UP 3 . 4 PERCENT OF SANTA FE’S LAB OR FORCE “Santa Fe is green chiles and sopapillas and breakfast burritos. It’s glorious sunsets and long, lingering dusks— with no mosquitoes.” —George R. R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire and owner of Jean Cocteau Cinema OTHERWORLDLY SUNSETS and quietude have long drawn daydreamers, celebrities, and scientists to Santa Fe. Those same qualities have also branded the nation’s oldest capital an idyllic tourist trap. But change is coming, led by mayor Javier Gonzales, who last year promised to spur the…

NEXT TIME YOUR local surf break is stacked with windblown slop, ignore the Xbox and go bomb the ’hood. This retro-look board isn’t just shaped like a wave rider, its components were designed to mimic the feel of a surfboard underfoot. Key to its fluidity is the springloaded front truck, with a dual-axis setup that’s far more responsive than a classic skate truck. When riding waves, your back foot stays anchored over the fins while your front hoof pushes the nose around. The Carver lets you pump and weave in much the same way, all while keeping the front wheels grounded. The wheels are unique too: An hourglass shape delivers a large contact patch, providing extra grip for carving out deep turns. It’s the next-closest thing to riding on water…

1 SOMA Fabrications Saga This whip is no rocket ship, and that’s a good thing. It’s built for cruising at a steady pace over long miles. The steel frame eats up bumps in the pavement, and the burly tubes have eyelets for front and rear racks, letting you load up your steed with multiple days’ worth of supplies. $1,399 and up 2 Ortlieb Bike-Packer Plus Panniers These waterproof bags hold 42 liters of packables, keeping your delicates protected from the rain and mud. The adjustable mounting system ensures that your load attaches to the rack easily and stays there. Off the bike, a padded shoulder strap lets you schlep your gear in comfort. $240 3 Mission Workshop Acre Organizer Bag Flats and breakdowns happen— sometimes in the worst possible place.…

LET’S BE HONEST: Nobody can kill it all the time. I earnestly try to, but I just can’t. I have an inkling that a lot of people feel this way. And I’m done pretending that technology is helping me streamline things. Sure, there are apps and calendars and shortcuts, and I’m connected to everyone and everything I could possibly need to make my life easier, to make myself happier. But ultimately I use my devices to waste time—and I get kind of addicted to wasting time. My computer and my phone sometimes feel like beautifully designed, entertaining handcuffs. I’m partly to blame. I get distracted. I’m in the middle of an email—a work email—and suddenly I’m online looking at a Pinterest board of remodeled farmhouses or an article on Hillary…

RASHIDA SAYS “ I LOVE NAPS. I . LOVE. NAPS. THEY ARE SHEER MAGIC. IF YOU CAN ACTUALLY FALL ASLEEP FOR 20 MINUTES, I T CHANGES YOUR DAY AND I T CHANGES YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE THING THAT YOU WERE WORKING ON BEFORE YOU STARTED NAPPING.” DO YOURSELF A FAVOR: Take a nap. In fact, do it right now. Why? Because afterward you’ll better understand and remember this very important article. Bonus: You’ll also jack up your creativity and improve your fine motor skills, according to Sara Mednick, a psychologist at UC Riverside who studies naps (what a gig!). Midday naps revive you, she says, even if you got plenty of sleep the night before. ¶ Of course, snoozing on the job has a bit of an image problem—it can…

MASTER YOUR RELATIONSHIPS SECTION 4 RASHIDA SAYS “TELEPRESENCE, OH MY GOD. BECAUSE, I MEAN, IT'S BASICAL LY SKYPE BUT WITH MORE BODY. ALSO, I LOVE THAT I CAN ADJUST THE HEIGHT, SO I CAN BE TALLER WHEN I’M A ROBOT THAN WHEN I’M A PERSON.” To keep those key personal networks humming at work, you really gotta be there. For many of us today, though, getting there means hours of travel misery. Solution? Make the rounds via telepresence! Just log in to an office bot from your home computer and you’re off and rolling. Here’s how to get the most from your mecha. DO Pivot to follow the talk in meetings. This shows engagement. If you’re still pointed at someone who spoke five minutes ago, you look like a stalker.…