Acqua Alta in Venice
Venice resident, Erla Zwingle documents the city's recent (near record breaking) "Acqua Alta". The high tide left about 2/3 of the city under water. Venice's new flood protection system is due to come...
View ArticleThe age of the password has come to an end...
Mat Honan of Wired has a covetableTwitter username (@mat). Recently hackers tore his digital world apart in an attempt to commandeer it. Now he reflects:The age of the password has come to an end; we...
View ArticleElectrical fluctuations as a watermark for audio and video recordings
Audio recordings usually include a low-level background noise caused by electrical equipment. The hum contains small frequency fluctuations which are propagated consistently over entire power grids....
View ArticleGregor MacGregor the Cacique of Poyais
In 1820 Gregor MacGregor, chieftain of the Central American principality of Poyais arrived in London and explained his problem: his principality had a fine climate, friendly natives, and a democratic...
View ArticleBattered Vinyl Retaliates
BBC DJs Mark and Lard show of some of their treasured vinyl recordings which are "particularly hard to find these days in this kind of condition": Mull of *Kintyre, Messing about on the River, Rocking...
View ArticleFIP Radio
In 1971 Jean Garetto and Pierre Codou began to dream of a radio station that could calm even the drivers stuck on the Paris Périphérique. It would play wonderful, unexpected music chosen by people who...
View ArticleThe Audience is Listening (when you're done with the code)
There are many, many random numbers involved in the score for the piece. Every time I ran the C-program, it produced a new "performance".... The one we chose had that conspicuous descending tone that...
View ArticleLady Di and Dodi demise film, "Unlawful Killing"
Lawyers allegedly demanded 87 cuts to Keith Allen's film - about the death of Lady Diana, Dodi and Henry Paul - before it could be broadcast. So online - and specifically - here is probably the only...
View ArticleAi Pioppi: Human powered fairground; with good first aiders
Forty years ago an Italian restauranteur, called Bruno, decided he liked welding and started making playground equipment for his customers' kids to play on. Today the entirely human powered - and...
View ArticleInside Apple's design studio with Jony
Ian Parker from the New Yorker managed to secure time with and access to Apple's chief designer, Sir Jonathan Ive so as to write this extended profile of the man, his obsessively secretive workplace -...
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