Washington Post:

Researchers coated subjects’ hands with Lactobacillus, a harmless bacteria that you don’t typically come across in a public bathroom. The idea was to mimic hands that hadn’t been washed properly. After drying hands, researchers went in and conducted 120 air-sampling tests. They found that Lactobacillus counts in the air were 4½ times higher near high-powered jet dryers than around warm-air dryers. And bacteria counts were 27 times higher near warm-air dryers than when subjects used paper towels.

Ok, that’s it. I’m simply not going to use public washrooms any more.

Handbrake:

HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs.

Handbrake has been my go to video converting app for years.

Medium:

Cyberspace may be ancient history for Gibson, but how our future unrolls before us has once again captured his attention. After sticking fairly close to the present for his last half-dozen novels, The Peripheral is Gibson’s most wide open and far-ranging adventure in decades. Multiple futures, near and far, collide. Characters zip back and forth in time, conspiracy theories come true, and an apocalypse unfolds in slow motion, with all the inexorability of a slowly rising tide.

I’ve been a hug fan of Gibson’s since I first read Neuromancer as a kid. It’s is still the first and only book that blew my mind so much that, when I read in pretty much one sitting, I immediately turned back to page one and started reading it again.

New York Times:

Those who saw Odell Beckham Jr.’s acrobatic catch live on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium probably could not fully appreciate it in real time. Those who saw it on video — millions, once the awe spread on social media — were dazzled by his seemingly impossible body control. And those who saw still photographs of the catch might have wondered, how did the photographer capture that?

Jeffrey Furticella, a picture editor on the Sports desk at The New York Times, reached out to some of the photographers who shot the catch on Sunday night.

As a photographer, I always love to read the stories behind the images.

This world record jump is not only not what you’d expect, it’s also bat-poop crazy.

Boston Globe:

More than 6 feet of lake-effect snow was dumped in the Buffalo, N.Y., area over the last few days with reports of more on the way. Storms closed a 100-mile plus section of the New York State Thruway, and the US National Guard has been called in to help dig out.

Some amazing photos included in this story. Being from Canada, I’ve experienced these kinds of snow falls when I was a kid – it was a lot of fun then but as an adult, I’m glad I don’t live somewhere I’d have to deal with this on a regular basis.

Wired:

There’s no way to anticipate the emotional impact of leaving your home planet. You look down at Earth and realize: You’re not on it. It’s breathtaking. It’s surreal. It’s a “we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto” kind of feeling. But I’ve spent a total of 55 days in space, over the course of five missions for NASA, and I’ve learned that being out there isn’t just a series of breathtaking moments. It’s a mix of the transcendently magical and the deeply prosaic. It can be crowded, noisy, and occasionally uncomfortable. Space travel—at least the way we do it today—isn’t glamorous. But you can’t beat the view!

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. Hell, I still do.

On this episode, Jim and I talk about Uber, the Mac’s “Second Act”, how to learn to play guitar and what effects pedals are!

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The Guardian:

Their name might sound a bit ominous, but the 1,500-strong gang…is a long way from the Hell’s Angels.

They’re called the blood bikers: men and women all over Britain who dedicate a few evenings a week to transporting hospital deliveries across the country as stand-ins for the daytime professionals. They are all volunteers, and in 2013 they responded to around 35,000 urgent requests from hospitals, saving the NHS hundreds of thousands of pounds. They take everything from blood and platelets to medicine and breast milk.

Great story about how volunteers on motorcycles transport medical supplies around Britain. Reminds me of another great organization called “Riders for Health” who do something similar in Africa.

Narrative:

In 1976, America turned 200 and cities around the country planned bicentennial celebrations. Twinsburg, a suburb of Cleveland, turned the event into double the reason to celebrate by dedicating one day of its bicentennial celebration to twins. Thirty-seven sets of twins attended that first celebration.

The world’s largest gathering of twins and multiples still attracts around 2,000 sets the first weekend of every August.

What a weird, cool place that would be in August.

Vice:

It wasn’t just a smell; it was a force. With the first whiff, I thought, Camembert. But as the golf cart got closer, the smell became sweeter—noxiously sweet. You could call it the smell of death, but really it was the smell of what comes after: an obscene eruption of microbial life.

In the driver’s seat was Dr. Daniel Wescott, director of the Texas State Forensic Anthropology Centre.

He pointed to the corpse at our feet—one of the dozens of donor bodies exposed to the elements here in the forests and fields of Texas State University’s 26-acre decomposition research facility. Most of the local kids who tell ghost stories about the place just call it “the body farm.”

I had the opportunity to see the University of Tennessee’s version of this but chickened out.

The Guardian:

A coalition of technology and internet companies is lobbying to curb US National Security Agency surveillance powers and for more transparency on government data requests.

The Reform Government Surveillance coalition, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft and Apple, added its support for the race to pass a bill through the US Senate before the end of the year, which would inhibit mass data collection from emails and internet metadata.

Even if their motives aren’t 100% altruistic, it’s still good to see these companies shining a light on the issue.

TechCrunch:

I’m fascinated by the reviews left by Monument Valley players in the wake of the decision by the game’s developer (ustwo) to price a recent content update at not-free. Ustwo had released the original game at $4 featuring 10 levels. The game was a labor of love and earned many just awards. It also went to sell in excess of 1.4 million copies – a feat that exemplifies how arty mobile gaming can work very well. This latest pack brings 8 new levels to the game and costs a pretty trivial $2. And yet in its wake came a surge of 1-star reviews. But why?

First lesson is people can be cheap and petty.

Grantland:

Nelly Bly’s idea was to try to beat the time of Phileas Fogg, the hero of Jules Verne’s massively popular 1873 novel Around the World in Eighty Days. She’d send dispatches back to the paper, make an adventure out of it. Her editor was in favor, but the World’s business manager — who liked the concept — wanted to send a man.

“It is impossible for you to do it,” he told her. “You are a woman and would need a protector.” Even if she could travel alone, he said, she’d want to take too much baggage. “There is no use talking about it,” he insisted. “No one but a man could do this.”

“Very well,” she said. “Start the man, and I’ll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him.”

With our world considered made so small with instantaneous communications, high speed train, plane and car travel, it’s hard to imagine what kind of true adventure, in every sense of the word, this would have been in 1889

Heyday:

Heyday transforms the photos and videos on your iPhone into a beautiful journal, presenting you with a delightful way to rediscover your most important memories. And since life happens when you least expect it, Heyday automatically chronicles the places you go and the things you see so you’ll never forget a meaningful place or moment again.

I mentioned and did a bit of a video review of Heyday on the Your Mac Life show last Wednesday. I’m not a “daily journal” kind of guy but Heyday is great for “following you around” and noting the places you’ve been, collating the pics you took and, at your leisure, allowing you to add notes, thoughts and impressions after the fact. Free in the iOS Store.

Vox:

This chart, from David McCandless’ fascinating new book Knowledge is Beautiful, ranks 87 dog breeds and compares those rankings to the actual popularity of those breeds in the US.

The ranking is based on a number of factors: trainability, life expectancy, lifetime cost (including the price of food and grooming), and suitability for children, among others.

The result: Border Collies, according to McCandless, are the finest dog breed in existence. Labs, Beagles, and Golden Retrievers, while not at the very top, are other popular dogs (at the top right of the chart) that he rates highly.

Where does your dog fit into this chart? If I had a dog, it would likely be a Labrador. Happily, they score highly on this chart.

PetaPixel:

If you’ve never thought to find out why aperture works the way it does, you should definitely check out this simple explanation of optics, aperture and pinholes by MinutePhysics.

As a photographer, I knew this information but this video explanation is the best, clearest I’ve seen.

Inc:

Imagine going to work for Steve Jobs as a recent college graduate. That’s what happened to Mark Tacchi, who dropped out of graduate school in 1993 to take a job at NeXT, the computer company Jobs founded after being forced out of Apple.

In time, Apple acquired NeXT in a deal that put Jobs back at Apple’s helm. Tacchi spent a total of four years at NeXT and Apple, and he learned a lot about how to run a business, and how not to.

Jobs had a (deserved) reputation as a tyrant but he also taught many in Silicon Valley how to serve the customer.

Jim and Shawn talk about the Amazon Echo, how we communicate and left handed guitarists!

Sponsored by Squarespace (use code GUITARS for a free trial and 10% off) and Animoto (Visit the link and use the code AMPLIFIED for 10% off a new Pro Annual subscription).

The New York Times:

The Rosetta spacecraft’s Philae lander has touched down on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Amazing pictures. Amazing achievement.

AppleInsider:

Mac and iOS users are protected from viruses and malware by default unless the user bypasses their security systems, by jailbreaking an iOS device; by disabling the protections of Mac OS X’s GateKeeper; or by choosing to “Trust” app installs that iOS identifies as being from an “Untrusted App Developer.” Here’s how those systems work, and how users can avoid being tricked into turning off their own security.

Short version? Don’t be stupid.

Vox:

President Barack Obama announced on Monday that he supports taking strong measures to protect network neutrality. The announcement was not terribly surprising — Obama has long been an avowed supporter of network neutrality. But this is the first time Obama has proposed a specific legal strategy for protecting network neutrality. And his comments will raise the profile of what was already the most contentious policy debate in the technology world.

If you’re just tuning in now, it can seem a little overwhelming. What is network neutrality? What’s “reclassification?” And why have people been arguing so angrily for so long? Here’s an explanation that starts from the very beginning.

This is an important issue but sadly one the vast majority of internet users don’t know or don’t care enough about.

io9:

A dropped penny won’t kill you, alcohol doesn’t keep you warm, and swallowed gum doesn’t take seven years to digest. These are just three of the more than fifty rumors debunked in this compendious collection of common myths and misconceptions.

We’ve all heard many of these. We might even believe some of them are not myths. But, according to these guys, they all are. I knew most of them weren’t true but got caught by the one about bananas.

A.V. Club:

H.R. Giger, the Swiss surrealist sculptor and painter who died earlier this year, is the subject of the new documentary Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s World. While the film is not available in the U.S. yet, a trailer is now online. The reclusive Giger was best known for his Academy Award-winning design contributions to the Alien franchise. This new documentary shares the last years of the artist’s life, and reveals how deeply he resided within his own dark artistic visions.

I’ve never enjoyed being creeped out more than when I see Giger’s wonderfully macabre art. I’d love to see this movie.

The Roosevelts:

Using 80GB worth of photos captured by astronauts aboard the International Space Station between 2011 and 2014, timelapse filmmaker Guillaume Juin created this awe-inspiring video of the Earth entitled “Astronaut.” And thanks to the incredible cameras aboard the ISS, this footage rivals the best visual effects that Hollywood has to offer.

Mind blowing. Watch on the biggest screen you possibly can.

NPR:

America’s master clock is one of the most accurate clocks on the planet: an atomic clock that uses oscillations in the element cesium to count out 0.0000000000000001 second at a time. If the clock had been started 300 million years ago, before the age of dinosaurs began, it would still be keeping time — down to the second.

Try that with your fancy-schmancy Apple Watch.

TorrentFreak:

It may sound absurd, but taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night and sharing that online may be copyright infringement. The stance is confirmed by the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, who note the following on their website.

“Daytime views from the Eiffel Tower are rights-free. However, its various illuminations are subject to author’s rights as well as brand rights. Usage of these images is subject to prior request from the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel.”

A weird and little known quirk of copyright law. So, you can take and sell daytime shots of the Eiffel Tower to places like stock photography sites but not of the night time shots because the evening light show on the tower (which is quite lovely) is copyrighted.

Gigaom:

Since GT Advanced Technologies declared bankruptcy in early October, the vast majority of documents detailing its deal with Apple to supply sapphire crystal have been under seal.

On Tuesday, Judge Henry Boroff issued an order unsealing an statement signed by GTAT CEO Daniel Squiller as well as its attached documents, which include details on the reasons GTAT filed for bankruptcy and its business relationship with Apple, its largest creditor. On Friday, the Squiller statement entered the public record.

There’s never been any doubt that Apple plays hard ball with its suppliers. I’ve spoken to many companies who have to deal with the company and the stories all have one thing in common – you don’t negotiate with Apple. They dictate the terms to you.

The Daily Dot:

If you were previously in denial that the Christmas season had already begun, the arrival of the annual Christmas ad from British retailer John Lewis is sure to dispel that belief.

They had me at “penguin”.

Macworld:

With the news that Microsoft is making all of its mobile Office apps free—the iPad and upcoming Android tablet versions—you knew there had to be some caveats.

I’m glad I don’t have to use Office any more but for those of you who do, my sympathies and this article will help you figure out this news.