Today I learned the Splendid Toadfish, a creature found only in the Caribbean Sea, produces a sound like a phone on vibrate.

National Geographic writes:

This grumpy-looking splendid toadfish has a special skill. That’s not the sound of a phone vibrating… the toadfish is “singing.” A similar species, the Bocon toadfish, produces its song with muscles surrounding its swim bladder. Researchers have discovered that the fish sing in unique patterns of ‘boops’ and grunts (Bocon toadfish sounds recorded separately from this video).

Videographer Bob Mazur thought he was hearing sounds coming from SCUBA gear, until he spotted this noisy fish hiding under the coral. Some toadfish sounds are used to attract females to nesting sites, and others are used as warning signals–probably the case in this instance. During this dive in Cozumel, several fish could be heard singing over each other. What a splendid toadfish surprise.

(Digg) Read the rest

Vodafone Germany and Nokia are designing a 4G network for the moon. The network is meant to support PTScientists's "Mission to the Moon" that involves the Berlin-based company launching a lunar lander and two moon rovers aboard a SpaceX rocket in 2019, the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. (PTSScientists was one of the teams competing in the Google Lunar XPRIZE that's ending this month without a winner.) From Space.com:

Vodafone picked Nokia to build a space-worthy version of its Ultra Compact Network, one that will be the lightest ever made, at just 2.2 lbs. (1 kilogram) — no heavier than a bag of sugar, Vodafone representatives said in a statement.

"This project involves a radically innovative approach to the development of mobile network infrastructure," Vodafone Germany CEO Hannes Ametsreiter said in the same statement. "It is also a great example of an independent, multi-skilled team achieving an objective of immense significance through their courage, pioneering spirit and inventiveness."

Under the plan, PTScientists' ALINA lander will use the 4G network to beam the first live HD video feed from the surface of the moon. The signal, which will operate in the 1,800-MHz frequency band, "will be broadcast to a global audience via a deep space link that interconnects with the PTScientists server in the Mission Control Centre in Berlin," according to the statement.

Trump FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is a former top Verizon executive and now he's about to hand Verizon billions of dollars in public subsidy by striking down net neutrality rules, which is a really funny coincidence! Read the rest

The Swiss security research firm Modzero just published a report documenting a grave flaw in HP laptops: an audio-driver made by Conexant that captures every keystroke (to detect volume up/down and mute-button presses) and saves them to an unencrypted file on the local system, which can then be exfiltrated via a debugging API that allows remote parties to see every keystroke in realtime. Read the rest

In 2012, more than two-thirds of Iceland's population ratified the most democratically crafted constitution in world history, written in public and drafted by a representative committee of 1,000 Icelanders; now in a stirring video in the leadup to the next national election, Icelanders are calling on one another to only vote for candidates who'll take action on the constitution the nation voted for. (Thanks, Larry!) Read the rest

If so, please contact me. You have been blocking my mail server for years, and have not responded to dozens of requests through this form. Thanks in advance. Read the rest

Say you've just scammed someone out of all their financial details using an online fraud, but now you need to call up their bank and impersonate them, and you don't speak their language, have the wrong accent, or are of a different gender -- what do you do? Read the rest