Month: March 2015
10 things you need to know about the Solar Impulse-2 plane that’s circumnavigating the globe
This morning saw a record-breaking attempt to go around the world in a solar powered plane get underway. The aircraft which is called the Solar Impulse-2 took from Abu Dhabi, heading east to Muscat in Oman. Here's everything you need to know about the adventure. 1. At 72m, the Solar Impulse-2 has a larger wingspan than…
Gwyneth Paltrow wants to hand Goop down to her children
Most people who have children want to leave them a legacy, whether it’s their most treasured jewellery, enough money to buy their own home, or just a quiet sense of inner confidence. Gwyneth Paltrow is no different, except what she wants to leave her children… is Goop. As Vanity Fair spotted, she did an interview…
Smartphones are making us stupid, study says
Remember at school, when teachers would say that we’d need to be able to do mental arithmetic and think for ourselves when we got older? They clearly didn’t anticipate smartphones. Now we have a calculator and encyclopaedia in our bag/pocket at all times, and a tablet or laptop for when it’s charging. But it turns…
Lots of like, Mum: how to cope with your parents on social media
Mum, Dad, if you're reading this – none of this is about you. There was a time that a weekly phone call with your parents and the odd holiday postcard were enough to keep your relationship ticking over, and them reassured that you were alive, well and eating your vegetables. Then after that there was a time…
Meet Phantom: the £1400 speaker Devialet don’t need you to buy #MWC15
Sitting in the limousine that Devialet provided journalists to persuade them to listen to yet another sound system, I asked the representative a question. "If your product is sold out almost everywhere," I queried, a can of Fanta Limón in my pampered hand, "why do you want us to write about it? People can't buy it."…
Hands on with the LG G Flex 2: make a fist to take a selfie #MWC15
We tried out the upcoming LG G Flex 2 at Mobile World Congress, including a demo of the 'Gesture Selfie' feature that lets you take a photo by making a fist. Here's our hands-on video: LG G Flex 2 UK price and availability It looks like the G Flex 2 will be out in the…
Twitter and texts could help you stop smoking, study says
Chatting about their efforts to kick the habit can help people stop smoking, reports Psych Central. Researchers from Stanford University and the University of California, Irvine studied whether Twitter could help people to kick the habit, and found that it could. Even better, they didn’t even need to be communicating with a real person to…
MPs want Mumsnet users to be spies; they react hilariously
A new report from the Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee released today concluded that MI5, MI6 and GCHQ aren't very diverse, with only 37% of the workforce and 19% of senior staff being women. To solve this problem, it suggested that our nation's spy agencies consider recruiting from new sources, including popular parenting forum (and…
How to make the most of Pinterest and get more followers
A few weeks ago I brought you 10 things you didn't know about Pinterest, a compilation of tips, new features and shiny little hidden gems that many of you hand-on-heart admitted you didn't know about everyone's favourite inspiration (and time-sucking procrastination) platform. Because the initial list went down so well, I'm back today with a…
Teaching skills to robots helps children learn
Researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have just presented CoWriter, their new robotic teaching system, at the Conference on Human-Robot Interaction in the U.S. The system consists of a 58cm tall humanoid robot model plus specialist software that allows the robot to write words, and for its handwriting to improve over time. It’s…
