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Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, an independent report has revealed worrying injury figures at Tesla, Nintendo shares have reached a seven-year high in response to the Switch's success, DJI has revealed its smallest and cheapest drone ever, and more.
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The new independent report into injury rates at Tesla between 2014 and 2017 reveals that Tesla workers sustained 31 per cent more injuries than the industry average in 2014 and 2015 (The Verge). The report, carried out by worker safety advocacy group Worksafe, also indicates that Tesla's recent 2016 injury rate of 8.1 per 100 workers – down from 8.8 in previous years – is also likely to be significantly higher than the rest of the US automaking industry, which has maintained an average of 6.7 injury reports per 100 workers in recent years. As the electric vehicle firm struggles with complaints of unsafe working practices, discrimination and sexual harassment, the company's head of HR, Arnnon Geshuri, has departed, making for a total of three of the firm's human resources executives to leave so far this year. Geshuri is being replaced by Gaby Toledano, formerly of Electronic Arts.
Nintendo's share price is at a seven-year high thanks to the massive success of its Switch hybrid console (The Guardian). Compared to the same time last year, Nintendo shares are up 102 per cent, the highest they've been since 2010. Prices have exceeded even the brief dramatic spike that followed the release of mobile hit Pokémon Go, before Nintendo pointed out that it had only minimal involvement in the game and wouldn't be seeing huge amounts of money from it, causing share values to drop just as suddenly. The current rise to ¥31,880 (£220) is built on far more solid foundations, with the Switch selling in record numbers and showing no sign of stopping.
DJI has revealed its tiny new Spark drone, which weighs less than 300 grams, is around the size of a soft drink can (The Verge). Priced at £519, the drone has a 16 minute flight time and a maximum speed of 50kph. It comes equipped with an effective 12-megapixel camera, can record 1080p video, and has a 2km radio control transmission distance. A dedicated remote control unit, charging hub and extra batteries are available to buy separately. The drone's estimated UK shipping date is June 15, 2017.
The government's implementation of the Investigatory Powers Act is continuing, with ministers saying they will push through powers to allow for near real-time surveillance and the removal of encryption (WIRED). According to a report by The Sun, following the Manchester bombings which killed 22 people, a Conservative government will approve technical regulations that say encrypted data should be accessible to law enforcement officials. The draft regulations say telecom companies will have to provide "communications and secondary data" about a person "in near real time". This will apply if a warrant is obtained for collection of information about an individual.
This year's Global Drug Survey has revealed that 'magic' psilocybin mushrooms are the safest recreational drug (The Guardian). The data was based on reports from over 12,000 people who said they had taken the hallucinogenic fungi in 2016, of whom just 0.2 per cent said they had required emergency medical treatment - a rate at least five times lower than that of other mind-altering substances such as MDMA, LSD and cocaine. Consultant addiction psychiatrist and Global Drug Survey founder Adam Winstock said: "Magic mushrooms are one of the safest drugs in the world. Death from toxicity is almost unheard of with poisoning with more dangerous fungi being a much greater risk in terms of serious harms".
Join fellow security professionals and business leaders at WIRED Security 2017 in London on September 28. Speakers include Jigsaw’s Yasmin Green, Charlie Winter from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Rachel Botsman, author of Who Can You Trust?
Cowpea seed beetles (Callosobruchus maculatus) are locked in an evolutionary battle that sees male beetles developing ever more vicious spiked penises, and females adapting to survive the mating process undamaged (New Scientist). New research led by Liam Dougherty of the University of Western Australia has revealed that, in 13 separate beetle populations, females are evolving thicker reproductive tracks as males evolve longer penis spikes. The spikes help the smaller males hold onto the female, allowing more sperm to be transmitted, as well as piercing the reproductive tract to release chemicals into the female's body that could cause females to lay more eggs. Dougherty observes that "it’s probably the harm caused by males that is causing the females to evolve. Because it’s so harmful, you get rapid changes, and females that are less harmed have more offspring."
Almost four months after manufacturer HMD unveiled the new Nokia 3310, the new version of the beloved, virtually indestructible feature phone is finally on sale (WIRED). Starting yesterday, May 24, UK customers can buy the relaunched handset from Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone in red, yellow, blue and grey at a price of £49.99. The new Nokia 3310 will then roll out to Germany on May 26 followed by the Netherlands and Belgium on June 5. "There has been a groundswell of interest in the Nokia 3310 following the launch announcement of this reimagined classic," said Andrew Wilson, UK director of buying at Carphone Warehouse. "Levels of pre-registrations at Carphone Warehouse are incredibly strong, proving that it's not all hype." He added that Carphone Warehouse has already sold out of very limited stock online meaning the best way to get a handset is to preregister for when more stock becomes available.
Niantic's latest effort to dissuade unethical players from cheating at Pokémon Go is to flag their accounts so they only see common Pokémon such as the ubiquitous Pidgey (Eurogamer). Uncovered by PokémonGoHub, so far the common-only flag appears to have primarily been deployed against bot accounts used by third-party trackers to identify which Pokémon are in different areas so they can publish them to online maps and apps. Meanwhile, The Pokémon Company has released its own free mobile game to glorify the weakest Pokémon of them all: Magikarp Jump is out now on Android and iOS.
Netflix has released the first trailer for its forthcoming original animated series, Castlevania, based on the Konami video game franchise (Polygon). Aimed firmly at an adult audience, the trailer starts with a dose of nostalgia as a cartridge is plugged into an NES before introducing animated blood, fire and destruction as we get glimpses of the show's characters. The official series description says that "the last surviving member of a disgraced clan fights to save Eastern Europe from Dracula". Castlevania is written by comic book scribe Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, Iron Man), produced by Adi Shankar (Dredd, The Grey) and will be available to stream from July 7.
STX Entertainment has released the visually stunning final trailer for director Luc Besson's sci-fi spectacular, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Den of Geek). The film, based on the 60s graphic novels written by Pierre Christin and illustrated by Jean-Claude Mézières, is set in an exotic future world where special operatives Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) must find and defeat an existential threat to Alpha, the City of a Thousand planets. The film is due out in cinemas of July 21, and yes, that does sound like Gangsta's Paradise in the background.
In a specially-designed classroom near Southwark station in London, 20 robot students are hard at work. They chat to each other in a language inspired by morse code before their robot teacher settles them down and starts to take the register. Once all robots are accounted for, the day’s lessons begin; the robots dutifully learn to count by drawing straight lines and tally marks in their notebooks. The robot classroom is part of artist Patrick Tresset’s latest exhibition, Machine Studies. Tresset’s robots consist of a camera and a robot arm holding a pen, controlled by a laptop hidden in each robot’s "body" – a traditional school desk.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
