TUMBLR OF THE WEEK: The Gnu Aesthetic

Normally any tumblr that puns the New Aesthetic is an instant blackball. However the GNU Aesthetic is developing into a compelling catalogue of work and imagery that nestles nicely in the middle of the 'post internet art' :: 'glitch aesthetics' venn diagram.



GIF OF THE WEEK: Xmas Turkey Sale via Prosthetic Knowledge

Enjoy these yuletide animations from the Commodore era, care of the excellent Prosthetic Knowledge.



SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK: 

Go VC angel-science!

Thanks to them the era of mad scientists hasn't quite drawn to a close with an Louis Michaud proposal for a tornado powered turbine (or as he calls it - Atmosphere Vortex Engine) being funded.

CYBERCRIME OF THE WEEK:

 The Great Firewall of China

Word is that the Great Firewall of China is being boosted through fresh efforts to restrict VPNs

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: Moonbase



You've probably seen a lot of the cool animations that HTML5 enables. Vimeo founder Jake Lodwick has created Moon Base to open that animating power to the masses.



GEEK OF THE WEEK: Limor Fried (aka LadyAda)



Lady Ada's (aka Limor Fried) website and community contributes up to a brand synonymous with maker culture, and her success with Adafruit Industries has been recognised by Entrepreneur Magazine naming her the entrepreneur of the year.


HARDWARE OF THE WEEK: DARPAs robo-dog LS3

Personally I reckon this robot's got the jaunty gait of an internet sensation in the waiting. But there's also something weirdly pastoral about this vignette into one soldier and his robotic companion.



ALGO ANXIETY OF THE WEEK: Pattern Matching the mains hum!



Algorithms love finding patterns we'd never think of looking for. Take for instance this software deployed by South London police. They can verify the authenticity of a recording by creating a timestamp based on the background hum of the AC mains connections. Step aside Shazam.




WETWARE OF THE WEEK: Pacemaker cells



Instead of inserting pacemakers scientists could instead genetically engineer parts of the heart to become pacemaker cells. The caveat thus far is that they've only tested on guinea pigs (no really), but still: they infect the guinea pigs with a virus that transforms their heart!





TECHNONOMY OF THE WEEK: It's ALL about the open source



Amid the maelstrom of user outrage and social media schadenfreude that accompanied Instagrams new TOS, I'd like to point out how big open source was in the last week! Detroit is to be the test bed for an open source wireless network, the Raspberry Pi unveiled it's new app store to cater for the burgeoning community of enthusiasts and a retired US General says the US Defense's future lies in open source technology!