While you were sleeping, innovation was sticking itself in what looks like a Blue Man Group’s torture chamber, phoning a friend from his smartphone, and noticing that there are similarities between Apple’s antenna testing facility and a vaccination patch.
1. Thad Allen, the man in charge of the BP leak, is worried that oil may be seeping out from the seabed, and has ordered BP to start thinking about reopening the cap to funnel oil to the surface. Not surprisingly, the firm’s shares have tanked on the news. It has also emerged that the blowout preventer was serviced in China rather than the U.S. in order to save money.
2. Steve Jobs has topped Media Guardian’s 100 list, leapfrogging over Sergey and Larry, due to the way he is changing the way we consume stuff. Most interesting fact from the top 10 is that Evan Williams is seen as more powerful than Mark Zuckerberg. The two social media bods are separated by Simon Cowell. Jobs’ firm Apple opened up its antenna test lab for all to see. It really is gorgeous, and the video is worth two minutes of your time. Although this one, from Taiwanese news channel NMA, showing an animated Steve Jobs, might be more up your alley.
3. Anyone with a phobia of needles may be pleased to know that researchers at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a patch that allows vaccinations via its 100 “microneedles.” As well as the less pain gain, it’s thought that the technology provides a more effective immunization, and will be good for self-medicators and the developing world.
4. Is this the supersonic car that’s going to hit 1,000 mph? Well, it’s a full-size model of it, at least. The design of the Bloodhound SuperSonic car has been unveiled at the Farnborough Air Show, and the back end is to be built by aerospace firm Hampston at the beginning of next year.
5. As the world watches to see if Rupert Murdoch’s paywall experiment works out, Guardian columnist Peter Preston has been doing the math with its competitor in the U.K., the Mail Online website. Preston’s colleague, comedian David Mitchell, went against popular Grauniad opinion by saying, reasonably, to see if Murdoch’s experiment works before excoriating it in public. Post-paywall, the first unofficial numbers have come in, and they are said to be disappointing. Just a tenth of the readers who registered have actually paid out for a subscription, according to former Times media correspondent Dan Sabbagh. And 12,500 iPad apps have been paid for.