Matt's Favorites: Girls Gone Tech, Theremin Madness, And Much More
What's the latest and greatest in tech and science as I actually get to go back to my office and do my regular job? Try these on for size....
* First of all, here are links to the Tech Report home page and Tech Report Page Two, as well as a link to our latest report on tech-related events and meetings in Michigan.
* While most jobs in technology are filled by men, you may be surprised by the size of the majority: 75 percent. To get more women breaking through the silicon-chip ceiling, a female scientist created a tech contest limited to teenage girls - no boys allowed. It's called the Technovation Challenge: 100 teams looking at real-world problems and developing innovative, high-tech solutions. It's girls only - by design.
* It just might be world's strangest, spookiest musical instrument. You can see it . . . you can hear it . . . but you can't touch a Theremin. "It's like you're fingerpainting in space," says professional Thereminist Rob Schwimmer. "Playing Theremin is like having sex with ghosts."
* Halloween is just days away and preparing for a spooky, good time can get a boost from some great mobile apps.
* The New York Stock Exchange says its test run of Twitter's initial public offeringon Saturday was a success, as the exchange takes pains to avoid the technical problems that marred Facebook's debut.
* Comcast is testing a package called "Internet Plus" that bundles premium cable network HBO with basic TV channels and Internet service. Variety reports that, for a limited time, Comcast will lets customers pay for HBO as a standalone service. However, a subscription to Comcast's limited basic cable services is still required.
* Plenty of studies have shown that the Arctic is warming and that the ice caps are melting, but how does it compare to the past, and how serious is it? New research shows that average summer temperatures in the Canadian Arcticover the last century are the highest in the last 44,000 years, and perhaps the highest in 120,000 years. "The key piece here is just how unprecedented the warming of Arctic Canada is," Gifford Miller, a researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a joint statement from the school and the publisher of the journal Geophysical Researcher Letters, in which the study by Miller and his colleagues was published online this week. "This study really says the warming we are seeing is outside any kind of known natural variability, and it has to be due to increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere."
* Here's a fascinating look at how Hurricane Sandy morphed from a boring middle-of-the-bell-curve hurricane into the storm of the century.
* MTV is releasing a full season of a new series about a luckless high school football team on its mobile application a week before the first episode is shown on television. The series, "Wait 'Til Next Year," is a 12-episode docudrama about a high school football team that had lost 43 games in a row and the community surrounding it.
* Instagram said last week it will start showing photo and video ads to users in the U.S. as soon as next week. The company released a sample ad to prepare its 150 million active users for the coming-soon sponsored messages.
* Federal prosecutors intend to use information gathered through the government's warrantless surveillance program in a criminal trial, setting up a possible court test of the constitutionality of such secretive eavesdropping.
