Spectrum: Twin Cities Cycling Map, Robotic Bees

Smart Ride

Visiting the Twin Cities area? Check out Cyclopath — an editable map where anyone can share cycling knowledge, including notes about Minneapolis-St. Paul roads and trails, or details about routes and special locations. Map data for the geowiki comes from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the MET Council and the U.S. Geological Survey. Cyclopath is Web-based, but there’s also a downloadable Android app.
Source: cyclopath.org

Worker Bee

Nature’s pollinators are in steep decline, which ultimately could be catastrophic for plant life on Earth. But scientists at the universities of Sheffield and Sussex are hoping to relieve the sting by creating a computer simulation of a honey bee’s brain and uploading it to an autonomous flying robot. These robotic insects one day could supplement or replace decimated honey bee populations. The Green Brain Project, as it’s called, received more than $1.5 million in funding and NVIDIA donated graphical processing units. Source: io9.com

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“Our approach to [Do Not Track] in Internet Explorer 10 is part of our commitment
to privacy by design and
putting people first.”  

— Microsoft in response to the Association of National Advertisers

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Facing the Music

Japanese citizens who download music illegally may want to think again. Although downloading copyrighted material has been illegal in Japan since 2010, a new revision to the law makes illegal downloading punishable by two years in jail. And those caught uploading music or video will pay up to the tune of $128,000 and 10 years in prison. The law was pushed by the country’s Recording Industry Association.  Source: NBC News

Meet MegaDroid

To help prevent and mitigate disruptions to computer networks on the Internet, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in California linked 300,000 virtual handheld computing devices running the Android operating system. The Android project, dubbed MegaDroid, will help researchers understand the behavior of large-scale smartphone networks and will result in modeling software that helps the computer industry improve security for handheld devices.  Source: Sandia National Laboratories