News | Furthr

Verizon, America’s biggest mobile-network operator, agreed to take a 24.5% stake in AwesomenessTV, an online-video startup aimed at millennials that is part of DreamWorks, a film studio. Like other carriers, Verizon is expanding its entertainment offerings to lure younger customers who are more likely to watch videos on mobiles than on television.

Posted in: News | Leave a Comment

America’s cyber-warriors have gone to war with ISIS

April 7, 2016

Right now, the Pentagon’s Cyber Command is attacking Islamic State in “really its first wartime assignment” according to America’s secretary of defence, Ashton Carter.

With this in mind, lawmakers are considering re-organising the US Department of Defence.

One plan is to create a new separate combatant command for America’s cyber-warriors, alongside special forces, transport, strategic (currently nuclear-plus-cyber) and the six geographic commands.

Posted in: News | Leave a Comment

Death by firing squad returns to the US and nine more surprising stories

March 12, 2015

China’s feud with the Dalai Lama has become an absurdist comedy. A dispute about reincarnation is best seen “through the prism of Monty Python.”
Netflix broke the spoiler alert. The solution is to have marathons, not binges, of new TV episodes.
We’re suffering from opinion fatigue. Everyone is expected to have a take on everything—and our brains simply can’t cope.
Governments need to invest in the internet. Private companies on their own won’t get the next several billion people online (paywall).
Tikrit is still ripe for atrocities. Even if ISIL gets run out of town, there’s ample potential for sectarian violence in the Iraqi town.
South African gamekeepers are breeding mutants for sport. Hunters pay $30,000 to shoot blue-eyed white lions, for example.
Old people drink more frequently than young people. But the youths—especially men—consume a whole lot more alcohol overall.
Apple stores are good for shopping malls. Their presence can boost spending in neighboring stores by a third.
Chameleons use crystals to change colors. Altering the space between “floating nanocrystals” in their skin cells reflects different wavelengths of light.
Death by firing squad might return to the US. Utah lawmakers passed a bill approving the method if lethal injection supplies run short.

Posted in: News | Leave a Comment

The reason Bill Clinton doesn’t use email and eight more stories that will surprise you

March 11, 2015

Skype is just the worst. For the money Microsoft paid to buy it, and vast numbers of people it serves, it is shockingly unreliable.
Spying on Wikipedia users could threaten their safety.Knowing what people are reading and writing could put them at risk (paywall).
Expect more quantitative easing in Japan. The previous rounds weren’t aggressive enough.
Future Apple Watches will collect emotional data.They could track how you feel about the content you’re consuming.
Finnish meatballs are just called “balls” now. A processed meat giant was forced to relabel its “52% meat” product.
Bill Clinton doesn’t use email. The US ex-president—who does use Twitter—ensured he won’t face the same problems as his wife.
There is a crowd-funded Back To The Future documentary. The film is seeking $50,000 and expects to be ready this year.
China is touchy about Photoshop. An digitally-enhanced ad for toothpaste resulted in a $1 million fine for Procter & Gamble.
You can teach young pigs new tricks. A six-month-old pig named Amy is winning in dog obedience classes.

Posted in: News | Leave a Comment

Drones over Africa and four more amazing stories

March 3, 2015

“Buy-and-hold” investing really works. A fund that hasn’t changed its stock picks since 1935 is outperforming its peers.
Earth has another moon. The near-Earth asteroid 3753 Cruithne completes one horseshoe orbit around us every 800 years.
Warren Buffett eats like a six-year-old. He drinks five cans of Coca-Cola a day and has ice cream for breakfast.
Beer was banned in Iceland until 1989. The country didn’t want to be like its hedonistic neighbors in Denmark.
Drones will revolutionize Africa. “Flying donkeys” will be a leap-frog technology similar to mobile phones.

Posted in: News | Leave a Comment

Why Facebook was right to spend $19 billion on WhatsApp and eight more must-read stories

February 23, 2015

It’s sexist to ask “Who are you wearing?” on the red carpet. Actresses grilled about their outfits don’t get asked about their careers.
Don’t make goals, make habits. Goals only make you feel like you’re not good enough yet.
Robot workers are creating human jobs. The president of one robotics firm says the industry needs more skilled workers to develop and operate them(paywall).
Lenovo doesn’t deserve consumers’ trust.Installing adware on its laptops is not only annoying, it is unsafe.
Facebook was right to spend $19 billion on WhatsApp. Messaging apps are central to all smartphone use.
Cable companies speed up their TV shows to fit in more ads. Doing so raises actors’ voices, and cuts up to two minutes from each episode.
Reddit tricked Google. Users tricked Google’s algorithm into showing a picture of a potato when people searched for “gaming console.”
Americans aren’t studying European languages.But the availability of Chinese, Arabic, and Korean classes is rising.
Someone bought Warren Buffett’s old car for $122,500. A customized 2006 Cadillac DTS sold for $115,000 more than its model-expected resale value.

Posted in: News | Leave a Comment

Too much jogging is bad for you. Running for more than four hours is like not running at all

February 4, 2015

Does Uber really reduce drunk driving? That’s what the tech firm claims, but the evidence is thin.
Testosterone is the drug of the future. It can help middle-aged men feel young again.
The new Harper Lee novel is not happy news. Its provenance is murky as the elderly author is in poor health.
Don’t tell your children how much you make. It might encourage them to think that money is everything.
Improving women’s rights will slow global warming. Better-off women will have fewer children.
Mayonnaise fans are upset with Hellman’s. Many believe the company changed its recipe on the sly.
Too much jogging is bad for you. Running more than four hours is the same as not running at all.
Bureaucracy is coming to the moon. The US government is already working out how to license lunar businesses.
Paganism is back. A temple dedicated to Norse gods—the first in a millennium—is being built in Iceland.

Posted in: News | Leave a Comment

America’s founding fathers wouldn’t approve of anti-vaxxers and nine more must-see stories

February 3, 2015

Work is so over. So many jobs will soon be automated that we should just pay people to do whatever they want.
Obama’s Israel strategy is backfiring. The US president is only Motorcyclesbolstering Binyamin Netanyahu’s lead.
Motorcycles are a threat to public health. They pose a bigger threatto developing economies than malaria or AIDS.
Creditors should forgive Greece’s debt—for the children. The unemployed youth can’t pay it back.
America’s founding fathers wouldn’t approve of anti-vaxxers.Thomas Jefferson was one of the first to vaccinate Americans.
YouTube can teach robots to cook. Researchers had them watch videos and imitate what they saw.
The father of Star Wars doesn’t like modern sci-fi. George Lucas says today’s movies are “more circus than substance.”
The Queen of England is done with corgis. The world’s oldest monarch is afraid she’ll trip over a dog and hurt herself.
You can finally buy McDonald’s Big Mac sauce. But only in Australia, and only in small tubes. (McDonald’s also shows you how to make it.)
Previously-owned power plant for sale, free shipping included.German utilities offer tempting terms to offload their old plants.

Posted in: News | Leave a Comment

Bad day: Britain moves deeper into the red after paying £2.9b EU bill

January 23, 2015

Britain has moved deeper into the red after a £2.9bn payment to the European Commission. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed the government borrowed £13.1bn in December – up from £10.3bn a year earlier. The UK’s deficit rose higher thanks to the controversial payment to the European Commission budget, pushing the national debt up to a record £1.48tn.

Posted in: Infographic of the day, News | Leave a Comment