Matt's Favorites: Facebook Bug Exposes Info, Flying Observatory, Model Rockets And More
So what's the latest, greatest, and absogalooly fantastickest among the Interetubes? Fasten your safety harness, kids, and let's get going...
* Facebook says a bug in its system caused 6 million users' contact information to be inadvertently exposed. The social media company said Friday that a bug led to users' contact information, such as email addresses or phone numbers, to be accessed by other users who either had some contact information about that person or some connection to them.
* Here's a look at how a new flying observatory is changing astronomy...
* USA! USA! Three students from a Georgetown, Texas rocketry club took home the gold medal from the sixth annual International Rocketry Challenge at Le Bourget Airport in Paris. The event is part of the Paris Air Show.
* Electronics and bodily fluids don't mix well. But new technology enables electronic devices to function in direct contact with tissues inside the body. The technology could allow scientists to make sensors that detect the early stages of organ transplant rejection, or create artificial nerves, researchers say.
* It's the kind of electronic junk that piles up in basements and garages - an old computer motherboard with wires sticking out. But because it was designed by two college dropouts named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, it could be worth more than half a million dollars.
* Hope you enjoyed the Supermoon last night -- and there's nothing to fear!
* Edward Snowden has flown the coop from our great and good friends in China to our great and good friends in Russia. Supposedly Ecuador is his final destination.
*Speaking of Snowden, he's now revealed extensive United States hacking attacks on a major Chinese university.
* All hail the high-tech Skunk Works from Lockheed, observing it's 70th birthday of groundbreaking aviation.
* A British designer develops a glove that works like a phone. Yes, you talk into the pinkie. Why didn't Google think of this?
* Google has reportedly been contacted by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission regarding its $1.1 billion acquisition of map app Waze. The Web giant confirmed that it had been contacted by the agency but declined to comment on the antitrust review, according to a Wall Street Journal report Saturday.
* We don't manufacture TVs, computers, cameras, or phones in the United States, and American audio companies have been outsourcing production for years, but it's starting to come back. Not just for ultra-high-end products -- Schiit Audio's $99 Magni headphone amp and $99 digital converter were designed and built here. Magnepan, Tekton, and Zu Audio are all making affordable high-end speakers in the U.S. And this past Wednesday, Dan Laufman, president of Jade Design, announced the acquisition of Bob Carver, LLC, a manufacturer of tube amplifiers.
* Call it the democratization of the drone: The homegrown electronics manufacturer Parallax is empowering a wave of DIY robotics, from flying quadcopters to programmable robots.
* Here's a very cool NASA map of the world's vegetation.
* And in other planets' resources, Planetary Resources has reached its goal for its Kickstarter campaign to get into asteroid mining. Here's more.
