Ay caramba! Es muy caliente! 2017 was hottest non-El Niño year – an annotated infographic

Well, who knew? 2017 turned out to be among the three hottest years on record, in a new sign of man-made climate change that is aggravating “extraordinary weather” such as hurricanes, droughts and floods. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says the average global temperature from January to September was 1.1C above the pre-industrial figure, dangerously close to the 1.5 degrees threshold to which island states feel temperatures must be kept under in order to ensure their survival. Click on the graphic for an expanded view. Continue reading Ay caramba! Es muy caliente! 2017 was hottest non-El Niño year – an annotated infographic

World War I submarine found after century-long search – an annotated infographic

A Royal Australian Navy vessel – the first Allied submarine lost in World War I – has been found after a 103-year search, lying at a depth of 300m off the Duke of York Islands in Papua New Guinea. Click on the graphic for an expanded view. Continue reading World War I submarine found after century-long search – an annotated infographic

Security design flaws revealed in new computer chips – an annotated infographic

Design flaws in processor chips (CPUs) by AMD, ARM and Intel could allow hackers to trick apps into revealing sensitive data such as passwords. The CPU “kernel” – the core of the operating system – is leaking memory. Researchers from Google’s Project Zero team, academia and cybersecurity firms found two flaws in June 2017, dubbed “Spectre” and “Meltdown,” in computer chips that affect nearly all modern computers. Some fixes, in the form of software updates, have been introduced or will be available in the next few days, said Intel, which provides chips to about 80% of desktop computers and 90% … Continue reading Security design flaws revealed in new computer chips – an annotated infographic

Worst passwords of 2017 include ‘123456’ and ‘Password’ – an annotated infographic

Despite the efforts banks, companies and even governments go to in order to educate the population at large about basic security measures to protect devices and privacy, apparently the biggest threat is not hackers and cyber criminals, per se -it’s stupidity. The most common passwords show that many people continue to put themselves at risk of hacking, despite all the many, many well-publicised data leaks. Seriously, who still uses ‘password’ as a password in 2017? And yet it still tops the list every year. From this writer’s own experience, you’d be surprised how many total strangers’ devices you can unlock … Continue reading Worst passwords of 2017 include ‘123456’ and ‘Password’ – an annotated infographic

Dubai Frame building opens to public – an annotated infographic

The Dubai Frame is a $43.5m feat of engineering, a building at ground level linking two towers 150 m (492 ft) high with an observation deck linking the top of the towers to form a huge “picture frame”. The frame is positioned so that if you look through it one way you see representative landmarks of modern Dubai, and if you look the other way you view parts of the old city. The project was conceived by Fernando Donis for a competition to design a “Tall Emblem Structure for Dubai”. As the city was already full of emblems he decided … Continue reading Dubai Frame building opens to public – an annotated infographic

Australia red-flags Huawei’s Chinese undersea cable project – an annotated infographic

An undersea cable project by China’s Huawei, aimed at delivering internet to the Solomon Islands, has been banned from connecting to Australia’s broadband network on the advice of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). Instead, Canberra will majority-fund the US$85 to $100 million project. The plan, which was to connect the Solomons and Papua New Guinea to Sydney via a 4,500-kilometre submarine fibre optic cable laid by a U.S.-British firm, had the backing of the Asian Development Bank for a $23 million loan. But in July 2016, the Solomons government abruptly switched to a subsidiary of Chinese telecom giant Huawei. … Continue reading Australia red-flags Huawei’s Chinese undersea cable project – an annotated infographic