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Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, Mancunians are offering help via the #RoomForManchester hashtag in the wake of a suspected terrorist attack, Deepmind's AlphaGo AI will take on the world's number one Go player this week, frozen sperm can survive a trip to space and back.
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In the wake of a suspected terrorist attack in Manchester, people around the city are offering help and accommodation to those stranded and injured using the #RoomForManchester hashtag on Twitter (Manchester Evening News). The suicide bomb attack, which took place following a Manchester Arena concert by US pop star Ariana Grande, killed 22 and injured more than 50, and has left many people stranded by resulting public transport and road closures. Echoing similar showings of public solidarity in the wake of bomb blasts in Paris and Brussels in recent years, Mancunians are offering those affected places to stay, lifts to hospital, and food. Facebook users can use Safety Check to check on friends and let others know they're okay.
This week, at Google's Future of Go Summit in Wuzhen, China, Deepmind AI AlphaGo will take on the world's top-ranked Go player, Ke Jie (The Verge). The 19-year-old champion will face the machine intelligence in a three-game match; the Summit will also see AlphaGo taking on a team of five professional Go players in an exhibition match. DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said: "Instead of diminishing the game, as some feared, artificial intelligence has actually made human players stronger and more creative. It’s humbling to see how pros and amateurs alike, who have pored over every detail of AlphaGo’s innovative game play, have actually learned new knowledge and strategies about perhaps the most studied and contemplated game in history."
Newly-published research has found that sperm stored for over nine months in the high-radiation environment of the International Space Station can be used to produce healthy, fertile mouse pups (ScienceMag). The findings have significant implications for the possibility of human colonisation of Mars and other extraterrestrial bodies. The scientists, led by Teruhiko Wakayama, a biologist at the University of Yamanashi in Kofu, Japan, found that the sperm exhibited DNA damage associated with space radiation, but surprisingly, when the sperm was introduced to fresh mouse eggs and transferred to surrogate mothers, 73 entirely healthy "space pups" were born.
The United Nations has partnered with Google's charitable division to create a new website to educate, inform and answer questions about the Syrian war, refugee crisis and surrounding events (TechCrunch). Named Searching for Syria the site poignantly reveals what life was like before the war, using videos, before and after photos and data including Syria's top search results in 2010: Arab Idol, bodybuilding, summer fashion and Miley Cyrus. It continues to explain and to show, using remarkable photography and satellite imagery - the impact of the war on the country's infrastructure, buildings and people, and well as providing insight into the lives of those who've fled the conflict and become refugees, revealing that 3.6 million of a total 4.9 million Syrian refugees are women and children.
The scale of the WannaCry ransomware's impact was partly blamed on computers running Windows XP, but Kaspersky Lab and BitSight, have said their analysis of the malware shows that the majority of devices hit were actually running Windows 7 (WIRED). More than 97 per cent of the infected machines globally were running a version of the Windows 7 operating system, Kaspersky Lab said. Costin Raiu, the director of global research and analysis at Kaspersky, said the number of machines running Windows XP was "insignificant" and Windows 7 x64 was the most infected version of the operating system. The figures from Kaspersky are based on the machines its own software runs on, however, the claim that Windows 7 was the most infected operating has been corroborated by security firm BitSight. The US-based firm told Reuters that it had analysed 160,000 computer and found that 67 per cent of infected machines were running Windows 7.
Hackers are getting more and more innovative, and it's more important than ever that security professionals and business leaders understand what the latest trends and developments are to combat such threats. WIRED Security 2017 takes place in London on September 28.
DJI, the drone maker behind the Phantom range, has announced that, once they've updated to the latest version of the DJI GO or GO 4 apps, its customers will be required to register their drones online (Gizmodo). If they don't do so, their drones' firmware will be locked so they can't fly beyond of a 50 metre radius or 30 metres upwards. The new registration requirement, which will apply to customers in all countries except China, will allow the company to roll out firmware settings to comply with different aviation laws and restrictions in operation around the world. Meanwhile, DJI has also teased a forthcoming new mini-drone, with a video showing it nipping through incredibly tight spaces.
Apple says more than half of the contactless pay points in the UK can be used with no limit when paying using its iOS and Apple Watch payment method (WIRED). "We think the majority of the contactless terminals (in the UK) are now limitless," Jennifer Bailey, the firm's head of payments, said according to The Telegraph. As Apple Pay uses a biometric identifier, it is possible for payments of more than the contactless limit to be made. Apple says the use of its contactless technology has increased by 300 per cent in the last year and Apple Pay is now available with 23 banks.
Entertainment Weekly has published published seven new photos showcasing HBO's forthcoming seventh season of Game of Thrones, including a spectacular image of Daenerys riding the dragon Drogon into battle. As previously promised by director Matt Shakman: "The dragons this year are the size of 747s. Drogon is the biggest of the bunch – his flame is 30-feet in diameter!”
Venerable satire site The Onion has created a 700-page cache of often-hilarious "leaks" from the Trump administration, with highlights including a children's restaurant placemat to describe global policy to the president and email chains detailing senior aide Stephen Bannon's obsession with dead animals (The Verge). It's a remarkable comedic labour of love, and a quality send-up of the current climate of media exposes and politicised leaks. The Onion's Twitter announcement of the piece has already sown confusion, with entirely accurate accusations of fake news likely to follow.
Tactical space sim Starpoint Gemini 2 is available for free on Steam until 20:00 tomorrow, May 24 (PC Gamer). Unlike many temporary Steam freebies, this one will remain in your library permanently after the free period ends. Meanwhile, District 9 director Neil Blomkamp has teased a new series of experimental short films to be released on Steam, along with their art and rendering assets. Versions of the films are also likely to make their way to YouTube.
On the surface, managing background noise with more background noise seems counterproductive. But audio communications company Plantronics is doing just that at its Hoofddorp workspace - and it seems to be working. This is because not all sound is created equally, according to Plantronics CEO Joe Burton. The intelligibility of the conversation - being able to understand what's being said - is what creates the interference. Here, Burton explains how to bring staff back from the brink of distraction.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
