Whether it is a TV, desk fan or wall clock, the gadgets you could buy from catalogues in the previous decades to spy on people were all pretty big. New Scientist has an article informing us that not only have the devices got smaller, but also that they are more high tech now. One similarity is that the objects used to hide the circuitry are still items that can easily be swapped in a home or office without people normally noticing. Fans, wall clocks and TVs are normally quite easy to swap, as there aren’t that many popular models that will be found in most homes/offices. The same applies really for USB coffee cup warmers, USB hubs or even keyboards. I’m currently trying to resist the urge to see if my combined hub and cup warmer is sealed or screwed shut 🙂
Jul 09 2010
That Hub Looks A Bit Cleaner Than Yesterday?
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May 24 2010
Stoned Wallabies And Decoy Spiders
Continuing the clearance of old news stories and images that have been stuck in draft posts for a while, here we have a couple of articles from the BBC. The first is about stoned (although to me that only infers weed, not the other substances mentioned) wallabies creating crop circles see here. Whether they would ever approach the geometric designs that some (in)famous hoaxers in Britain did is highly arguable, and I would have loved to have seen some aerial shots of the damage done/art dislpayed by the wallabies. Also worth a quick scan are the mostly tongue in cheek comments at the end of the article.
With the second article we have a species of spider that builds life-sized decoys to distract predators from eating the real McCoy. I also seem to remember an old article in New Scientist on how spiders under the influence of different substances spun a wide variety of altered web patterns, but I can’t seem to find the bookmark or draft post for that.
May 26 2007
Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze?
Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? – Various contributors from the New Scientist magazine
If you or even a 4 year old (eternal fans of Why…. conversations) has ever posed that question, this book should keep you occupied, and even provide answers to strange queries.
I remember reading my Dad’s New Scientist when I was younger, and making myself reading the ‘normal’ topics, then gleefully skipping the jobs section, to get to the sweet spot of NS – the Last Word column, strangely enough on the last page. A bit like reading the news stories before allowing yourself the light relief of a comic strip 🙂
If you don’t get the idea of the book from the above description, it probably isn’t for you 🙂
Oh, and thanks Dad for the intro to the magazine, and sending one over recently.
May 05 2007
International Mail
Almost one month after my Dad sent me a parcel, it has finally arrived here in Astana. (Thank you Dad, the Angel Delight, card & magazines all arrived fine).
Causing me some confusion is the fact that Alex’s birthday card arrived at the same time. She sent hers a week and a half after Dad!
Perhaps they stock pile mail before sending it over here?
Anyway, I have a fresh copy of New Scientist to read now, so I’ll leave you all in peace.
7 weeks until Alex comes over 🙂
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