Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

drag2share: Bitcoin's tech could be used to prevent digital gift card fraud

source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/17/gyft-bitcoin/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full

Bitcoin may linger on the fringes of the mainstream, but plenty of companies are casting envious eyes towards the technology that underpins it. Just days after IBM announced a plan to use the blockchain as the basis for its own payments platform, Gyft has said that it's doing the same. The digital gift card company has revealed that it's looking into ways to "tokenize" gift cards and issue them on the blockchain for better theft protection. CEO Vinny Lingham has admitted that the company is a long way away from having a working prototype, but it's clear that Bitcoin isn't going anywhere.

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Article: Tiny Sensor Package Will Let Students Design Their Own Physics Experiments

Measure everything from acceleration to magnetic fields From what I remember of my high school physics class, we spent a lot of time rolling marbles down inclined planes. Today's kids are used to a little more tech, so the Pocket Lab project on Kickstarter wants to spice up science class by devel...

http://www.popsci.com/tiny-sensor-package-lets-students-design-their-own-experiments?dom=tw&src=SOC

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Article: Contact lens with built-in telescope

Lights, mirrors, action! Scientists are developing smart contact lenses embedded with miniscule mirrors that can magnify your vision by almost three times. The 1.55mm-thick lenses incorporate a thin reflective telescope made of mirrors and filters; when light enters the eye it bounces off the ser...

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/17/tech/contact-lens-telescope-blindness/

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Article: The UK's latest 'wonder material' is made from sugar beet

A Scottish start-up is turning root vegetables into an ingenious new material, which can be used to lock moisture into anything from food to cosmetics to concrete A Scottish start-up has developed a material made from carrots and sugar beet that it claims is twice as strong as carbon fibre, and i...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/11475639/The-UKs-latest-wonder-material-is-made-from-sugar-beet.html

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Monday, March 16, 2015

NCAA tournament makes more than $1.1 billion selling TV commercials

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-ncaa-tournament-tv-commercials-value-2015-3

The NFL is famous for its high-priced Super Bowl commercials. But when it comes to the bottom-line for the entire post-season, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is not far behind.

In 2014, the NCAA Tournament generated $1.13 billion in ad revenue over 67 games, compared to $1.23 billion for the 11 games in the NFL playoffs according to data collected by Kantar Media. The NCAA Tournament actually led the NFL in 2013 when TV commercials sold for a total of $1.11 billion compared to $1.10 billion for the NFL playoffs.

The NBA playoffs is the only other North American postseason that generates more than $500 million in ad revenue while Major League Baseball and the NHL are way off the pace.

NCAA Tournament Chart