Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Gizmodo Australia

REGULARS

It's Over: Australia's Site Blocking Anti-Piracy Bill Just Passed The Senate

Well that’s it then. Say goodbye to The Pirate Bay at the very least, Australia: our Senate just voted to enact legislation to block websites in a bid to crack down on rampant piracy.

ONLINE

Here's The Letter Aussie Dallas Buyers Club Pirates Are Getting In The Mail

LUKE HOPEWELL19 JUNE 2015 11:45 AM

Check your mailboxes, pirates. You might be seeing something like this in there very soon if you pirated Dallas Buyer’s Club.

SCIENCE

Researchers Devise A Simple Method For Recycling Rare Earth Magnets

MADDIE STONETODAY 9:00 PM

You’ve probably heard a bit about rare Earth elements. They have got unpronounceable names like ytterbium and praseodymium, and they’re found in nearly ever piece of tech you own. Despite their value, we’re do a piss poor job recycling them. But chemists are now hoping to change that.

ENTERTAINMENT

Artist Transforms Classical Music Into Stunning Fluorescent Light Show

MADDIE STONETODAY 8:00 PM

Classical music is timeless, and if you don’t believe me, Bach compositions visually rendered as a CGI sequence of flashing fluorescent lights will hopefully convince you otherwise.

SCIENCE

Night-Shining Clouds Are The Craziest, Most Beautiful Phenomenon

CHRIS MILLSTODAY 7:00 PM

Clouds are not usually the most enthralling part of nature. But in the late spring and summer, weather conditions conspire to create noctilucent or ‘night-shining’ clouds, high-altitude clouds that glow with an electric-blue hue long after the Sun has set.

ENTERTAINMENT

Foxtel Celebrates Early Christmas Thanks To Site Blocking Legislation

LUKE HOPEWELLTODAY 6:30 PM

You learn things in this job. One thing in particular is that whenever the Government does something to try and stop piracy, Foxtel is there to cheer them on. The passage of the site blocking Bill this evening means that the pay TV giant has been handed an early legislative Christmas present, and it took the time to celebrate as soon as the vote was over.

ENTERTAINMENT

Never Fly Your Light Plane Without Checking For Cats

GIZMODO AUSTRALIATODAY 5:30 PM

Video: This amateur pilot must have had the fright of his life when he spotted a cat lying in the hollow wing of his ultra-light plane, while he was already flying it.

SCIENCE

That Ancient Martian Ocean? It Might Have Been Frozen.

MADDIE STONETODAY 5:00 PM

When we think “ancient Mars,” we often picture roaring rivers, warm oceans, and if we’re being optimistic, perhaps some simple life forms. But it’s also possible the Mars of eons past was not a water-covered paradise at all. It may, in fact, have resembled a giant, dirty snowball.

ENTERTAINMENT

Amazon Will Soon Start Paying Authors Based On E-Book Pages Read

MADDIE STONETODAY 4:30 PM

What if we lived in a world where authors earned royalties not based on how many books they sell, but on how many pages we read? The idea, which would have been preposterous 10 years ago, is not only possible with modern technology, it’s something Amazon will be test driving this soon.

GAMING

Meet MarI/O, The Computer Program That Kicks Butt At Super Mario World

MADDIE STONETODAY 4:00 PM

Computers are besting us at everything these days, including our beloved childhood video games. MarI/O, built by programmer Seth Bling, may be 25 years late to Super Mario World, but the bot caught itself up to speed rather fast, thanks to artificial neural networks that evolve in hours rather than millions of years.