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A newly-discovered bacterium that feeds on plastic could help develop new recycling methods.

The discovery was made by researchers from Japan, who say that the microorganism is remarkable for its ability to breakdown completely a common type of plastic known as PET. This digestive process is slow, and the short-term implications of the discovery are uncertain, but studying the bacterium — which has been given the name Ideonella sakaiensis — could lead to new ways to safely get rid of junk material.

It's thought that plastic bottles take 450 years to break down, and although some plastics do degrade quicker in the ocean, this just leads to more chemical pollution.

Snap Counsellors, an account on the messaging app, is helping teens speak up about relationship abuse

Snapchat’s self-destruct feature makes it ideal for a helpline. All messages get deleted within 10 seconds.

It also allows the Stories feature to be used to send out images and videos to encourage victims to come forward.

The 12 year old used the internet to stop, rewind, and watch videos of the best dubstep music dancers in the world like Marquese Scott (youtube.com/user/WHZGUD2), something she admits a traditional dance class wouldn't allow her to do.

Adilyn Malcolm mastered dubstep dancing by just using YouTube as her teacher.

By Obsessing Over the Present, Big Media has Forgotten its Past and Endangered its Future (But it’s Not Too Late)

When it comes to digital-era investments, Disney has certainly been the most active of the major media companies (though IP represents more than 80% of total outlays). Over the past decade, the House of Mouse has bought the largest YouTube Multi-Channel Network (Maker Studios), a mobile gaming company (Playdom), several multi-media storytelling platforms (Marvel, LucasArts, Pixar), become Vice’s largest outside shareholder, doubled down on technology-driven theme park experiences (MagicBand, VR), established an annual fan expo (D23), formed an accelerator program with TechStars (Disney Accelerator) and launched an ever-expanding sandbox video game at the cost of more than $125M (Disney Infinity)

For the past 20 years, television networks have reaped more than $1T inflation adjusted revenues and $300B in net cash flow thanks to what was sown throughout the 1980s and early 1990s (most cable networks took years to hit cumulative net profits, with several market leaders accumulating hundreds of millions in losses doing so). But the harvest is coming to an end. Crop rotation is not a waste; it’s an essential investment in forward productivity.

The Obama administration has called for a new era of "personalized medicine," which relies on collecting a vast amount of genetic information from American volunteers to bolster the development of genetics-based treatment.

. Medical schools did not pay much heed to genetics until relatively recently

Studies have also found that most patients don't actually change their behavior for the better once they learn about a genetic predisposition to a disease. But he also argues that primary care physicians shouldn't simply ignore genetics.

Designers Yitan Sun and Jianshi Wu want to make New York’s Central Park available to more people by digging down to the bedrock of the park. The idea is to create a 1000-feet tall, 100-feet deep mega structure that provides a total floor area of 7 square miles, which is about 80 times greater than the Empire State Building.

“The ambition is to reverse the traditional relationship between landscape and architecture, in a way that every occupiable space has direct connection to the nature,” – say the authors of the proposal that was awarded first place in eVolo’s annual skyscraper competition.

Microsoft’s own virtual assistant Cortana, aim to help pave the way for the future of communication, productivity, and interactions with businesses and brands.

In Skype, the company showed off rich Cortana integration which put the assistant directly into the app where she could help users do things like identify the persons, places and things in your messages, underline them, and then display more info in a card-like interface when clicked.

She is also able to help you perform a variety of tasks, like adding items to your calendar, booking travel or hotel rooms, or even pre-populating conversations to friends with text.

innovation is coming from private companies. These companies are starting to have better insights about how a city works compared to local governments.

Cities should be collecting all the data these companies are generating — Airbnb, Uber, drone delivery, Google self-driving cars. You can run analytics and look at the efficiency of the city

The startup is building a platform so that all the companies can send their data to this platform using an API approach.

RT активно внедряет технологии виртуальной реальности (VR) уже сейчас.

В ближайшее время планируется запуск новой версии приложения, которая будет построена исключительно на контенте 360 градусов.

RT запустил отдельную страницу в соцсети Facebook, где транслируется только новостной контент с панорамным видео, а также публикует видео в формате 360 градусов на своем канале на видеохостинге YouTube. 

Gen Z shares the entrepreneurial spirit of Millennial innovators: About 72% of current high-schoolers want to own their own businesses, and 76% hope they can turn their hobbies into full-time jobs.

Gen Zers influence $600 billion of family spending.

the connection between fan and celebrity is minimal

Bkstg is looking to change all that, not only for fans but for artists.

Bkstg is its own platform, created by Ran Harnevo, that lets artists own the entire experience of connecting with their fans, from posting videos and photos, selling tickets, and selling merchandise.

A new glove will turn even the most deficient in musical talent into rockstars.

The glove works in tandem with a motion sensor bracelet, allowing you to create sounds by moving your fingertips or your entire hand. You can tap any surface and it will sound like you're playing on a keyboard.

You can then record songs in real-time, on-the-go, and trust that they'll all be saved onto the app. The glove can send recordings over WiFi or Bluetooth.

В 2017 году в России появится первая многопользовательская игра с нейроинтерфейсом: гарнитура будет считывать эмоции игрока и транслировать их на игрового персонажа. Разработкой оригинального мультинейроинтерфейса с гарнитурой, способной регистрировать в режиме реального времени целый ряд физиологических показателей

Мы стремимся создать обучающую и развивающую систему, знаменующую привнесение нового механизма контроля игровой среды, поведения объекта и восприятия контента, — рассказал Владимир Статут, генеральный директор «Нейроматикс». — Создаваемая нами система — это мультинейроинтерфейс. На рынке игровых приложений пока нет нейроинтерфейса, который бы полностью соответствовал потребительским пожеланиям к утилитарным свойствам оборудования. В основном все что есть построено на распознавании электроэнцефалограммы, мы же стремимся расширить ворота, регистрируя больше показателей: кожно-гальваническую реакцию, миограмму, кулограмму, пульс, температуру и так далее. По сумме этих данных мы сможем получать нужную информацию о психофизиологическом состоянии пользователя, дифференцировать ее и направлять на систему управления средой, которая, в свою очередь, таким образом будет давать обратную связь и развивать пользователя

Фундаментальная задача в том, чтобы определить минимально необходимый набор физиологических параметров для выделения и классификации функциональных состояний: когда человек испытывает стресс, утомление и т.д.

За ними давно уже закрепились особые названия типа «поколение Y» или «миллениты» (millennials, «тысячелетники»), ибо в новый век и тысячелетие они вошли подростками, которые первыми родились и стали созревать в мире цифровых технологий, где уже рухнули стены глобального идеологического раскола, грозившего мировой катастрофой.

Чтобы уже сегодня не только отчетливо увидеть действительно влиятельную молодежь, но и ясно понимать комплекс продвигаемых ею великих идей, надо сделать несколько парадоксальную вещь. Просто чуть повнимательнее присмотреться к тому, что делают прямо сейчас наиболее умные из людей более старших поколений.

Если кто-то вдруг совсем не в курсе или уже успел подзабыть, то судебные власти США методично и целенаправленно сфабриковали против Шварца и его «подрывной идеологии» крупномасштабное уголовное преследование – с комплексом обвинений, тянувших на срок тюремного заключения от 30 до 50 лет. И все это за то, надо подчеркнуть, что Шварц, по сути дела, брал и копировал слишком много библиотечных книг и журналов. Формулируя точнее, он легальными методами, но в автоматическом режиме выкачал через сеть университета MIT гигантское количество научных публикаций из коммерческого архива JSTOR – «с очевидным намерением затем распространять эти файлы через интернет», что прямо следовало из его публичных выступлений о необходимости «освобождать знания». То есть собственно факта распространения еще не было, однако влепить дюже умному хакеру полсотни лет тюрьмы за это будущее «преступление» власти собирались вполне решительно.

MoviePass, which opens up to 75,000 wait-listed users today, is an invite-only subscription-based service that lets you pay between $19.99 and $34.99 a month to watch up to one in-theater movie per day

Unlike Netflix viewership, theatrical attendance tends to heavily peak twice a year, during Oscars season and the summer blockbusters.

Spikes says this demographic is also more likely to drive post-theater purchases, such as DVDs, soundtracks, and branded merchandise. To that end, he says MoviePass will be exploring options to offer these items through its service in the future

The average American driver spends 51 minutes a day in the car

On future screens, local restaurants, doctors’ offices and other services could target ads based on typical driving routes

“We see this as the battle for the fourth screen,”

Consumers have more digital media options than ever, and most are finding what they want. But many are becoming frustrated by the complexity and effort piecing together their entertainment experience requires.

While consumers appreciate the freedom to customize their entertainment experiences, they don’t enjoy the friction—the hassles, responsibilities, and even vulnerabilities—that can result from choosing options à la carte.

The service will let you play all manner of computer games streamed from Google‘s data centers to your devices running the Chrome browser or ChromeOS platform, or even your TV with a Chromecast Ultra plugged in. You won’t need any additional hardware to run Stadia, and you won’t need to install anything to play games. As Google VP Phil Harrison noted in an interview with Eurogamer, “Anywhere where YouTube runs well, Stadia can run.”

Rather than treat Stadia as an entirely standalone service, Google sees people using it from and with YouTube. That means your starting point with Stadia could be a game trailer on the video platform, or a live stream of a tournament; you could simply hit Play on either video stream and start playing – solo or with others – within a few seconds.