The M&G’s Faranaaz Parker rounds up five odd things you may have missed this week.
Twitter stands up to Big Brother
Wired staff writer Ryan Singel reported Twitter emerged Tron-like from cyberspace to fight for the user. “Twitter introduced a new feature last month without telling anyone about it — [it] beta-tested a spine,”he wrote.
Last week the US government got a court order demanding that Twitter hand over information concerning a number of people involved in WikiLeaks, including frontman Julian Assange and Bradley Manning, the US soldier who is alleged to have leaked over 250 000 diplomatic cables to the whistleblower website. The state also issued a gag order meant to prevent Twitter from speaking about the request.
Instead of complying with the government order, Twitter successfully challenged the gag order in court and notified WikiLeaks of the incident. This is a refreshing change from similar incidents involving companies like Visa, Mastercard and Amazon, all of whom acceded to the US government’s attempts to isolate WikiLeaks.
Saudis censor bloggers
Fast Company reports that Saudi Arabia has passed new regulations to regulate blogging. The country, which is known for jailing dissenters and bloggers, will soon require bloggers to register with the government.
Under the regulations, only Saudi citizens aged at least 20 and in possession of a high school diploma will be able to create mobile phone content creators or operator news sites or blogs. Blogs will also be required to “include the call to the religion of Islam” and not to violate Islamic Sharia rulings, compromise national security or public order.
It seems the Saudi government has found a way to restrict what little free speech there is to be had in the country. Although some bloggers are already protesting the regulations, it’s unlikely the state will change its stance.
Swedes harness body heat
The BBC reported on a novel approach to cutting the cost of heating in cold countries.
A Swedish company has found a way to harness human body heat for internal heating. Using a heat exchange system, the company converts the heat generated by the quarter million people who travel through Stockholm’s central train station each day into hot water. This is then piped over to an office building across the road and used for heating.
The system saves the office building up to 25% on its heating bill. While it works well in a cold country with high energy costs like Sweden, it would not be cost effective everywhere. Still, it’s beautiful design and something the world could do with more of.
BMJ accuses MMR doc of fraud
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) this week published a scathing editorial accusing disgraced medic Andrew Wakefield — the man behind the autism/MMR scare — of medical fraud.
Wakefield published a series of questionable papers in the 90s linking autism to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR). Despite the fact that his research was conducted on just 12 children and could not be replicated, his ideas spread rapidly in the US and United Kingdom, leading to a critical drop in immunisations. In the last few years, there have been sporadic outbreaks of measles in both countries.
The BMJ is publishing a series of articles by investigative journalist Brian Deer which show that Wakefield’s work was not just the result of bad research but that he had faked some of the data in his studies, was on retainer from a lawyer pursuing a court case against the MMR vaccine manufacturer, and had failed to disclose that he had sought his own patents for a similar vaccine.
Despite being stripped of his medical credentials and his work being thoroughly debunked, Wakefield continues to enjoy support in the US.
Hundreds volunteer for Mars mission
No sooner had the Journal of Cosmology laid out details on how a manned mission to Mars could be possible in the next 20 years, than volunteers started flooding in with requests for consideration.
This week Fox News tried to get a feel for what would make a sane man opt for a lifetime of solitude over the joys of the Earth.
Not too much it seems. A common thread among the over 400 volunteers was a deep desire to understand the universe and a tolerance for solitude. I’m guessing some manner of Star Trek or Robert Heinlein obsession is also involved.
Faranaaz’s interests span science, technology and development. Read her weekly wrap every weekend on the M&G and follow her on Twitter here