Technology

Science

Looking Back, and Up, at a Seattle Icon

4:13pm June 14, 2013

Seattle's Space Needle opened in 1962 as part of the World's Fair. Knute Berger, author of Space Needle: The Spirit of Seattle, discusses the history and engineering behind the tower, and explains why a symbol of "the future" from days gone by still has relevance today.

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Science

Rolling Out Bamboo Bicycles

4:13pm June 14, 2013

Valid Cycles specializes in handcrafted bamboo bicycle frames. To be bike-ready, the bamboo must be cooked in an oven, stripped, and sealed. But after that, the founders of Valid Cycles say the bikes last as long as a metal one. We stopped by their shop — a barn in Woodinville, Washington — for a look at how the bikes are put together.

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Google Acquires Israeli Mapping Service Waze

5:53am June 13, 2013

by Wendy Kaufman

Waze makes a crowds-sourced traffic app that uses input from drivers. It will complement Google's mapping capability. The deal is seen by many as a defensive move by Google to keep Waze from being acquired by Apple or Facebook.

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Google, like Facebook, Microsoft and other Internet companies, is concerned that data requests from U.S. surveillance agencies could ultimately damage its reputation in the U.S. and overseas.

National

Net Giants Try To Quell Users' Jitters About Their Data

7:00pm June 12, 2013

by Jim Zarroli

Tech companies that field National Security Agency data requests are currently barred from sharing those requests publicly. But Google, Microsoft and Facebook all have a financial interest in showing their users that the NSA does not enjoy unfettered access to their data.

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Residents of the Estonian capital of Tallinn can use public transportation for free after purchasing a special card for 2 euros.

World News

Tallinn: The Former Soviet City That Gave Birth To Skype

6:20pm June 12, 2013

by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

The Estonian capital is dotted with medieval towers and Soviet architecture that belie its status as one of the world's most technologically advanced cities. Residents use a smart card to ride the bus, and mail packages and pay for parking with their phones.

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'Internship': A Love Story To Nooglers

12:42pm June 10, 2013

by Steve Henn

The movie, The Internship, tells the story of two 40-year-old, down-on-their-luck watch salesmen, who land an unlikely summer internship at Google. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson star as the older interns who will have to compete for a full-time gig. Meanwhile, more than a thousand new Google interns — or Nooglers, as they're called — have shown up on the company's campuses across the country.

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A National Security Agency data center is under construction in Bluffdale, Utah. When this data center opens in the fall, it will be the largest spy data center for the NSA.

National

Amid Data Controversy, NSA Builds Its Biggest Data Farm

10:01am June 10, 2013

by Howard Berkes

The Utah Data Center, 26 miles south of Salt Lake City, will begin operations in September. Though the NSA director has said it won't hold data on U.S. citizens, privacy advocates worry about the agency's expanding capabilities.

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Jonathan Bush, co-founder, athenahealth, at Health Datapalooza IV, where he urged the government to release more data on health care quality and costs.

Datapalooza: A Concept, A Conference And A Movement

8:29pm June 07, 2013

by Eric Whitney

Entrepreneurs, investors and data geeks descended on Washington, D.C., in pursuit of better ways to make health information useful for consumers. They urged bureaucrats to set the health data free.

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Cyberspying Expected To Be Discussed At U.S.-China Summit

2:34pm June 07, 2013

by Tom Gjelten

The Pentagon recently released a report directly accusing China of using cyberweapons to gain a military advantage with the U.S. The scope of the problem, and the damage done by cyber-espionage, is not clear. But the issue will be on the agenda when President Obama meets China's new president, Xi Jinping, in California on Friday.

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Whole Genome Scans Could Reveal Too Much

1:33pm June 07, 2013

When doctors run out of clues on how to treat a cancer patient, they sometimes order a scan of all the patient's genes. But such a test can turn up unexpected results, such as greater risk of another disease. When are doctors obligated to tell the patient what they know? And do patients have the right not to know?

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