Innehållsförteckning för August 2016 från WIRED

OTS OF WIRED FOLKS like to cook, but when it comes to recipe development, we’re no Alison Roman. The Brooklynbased food writer and former editor at Bon Appétit is working on a book, Dining In, which aims to get our takeout-obsessed nation back into the kitchen. And for this issue’s “What to Eat Today” package, we asked her to create recipes using ingredients that won’t drain California’s reservoirs or that address specific nutritional goals. Those rules didn’t phase her: “Sometimes when you’re developing recipes, not having limitations can be more challenging than having some structure,” she says. Make one of her creations yourself from the recipes on page 68 and 74. THE WIRED KITCHEN, BY THE NUMBERS (ANNUAL CONSUMPTION): 37,000 CUPS OF COFFEE // 18,000 EGGS // 60 GALLONS OF…

THE 2016 OLYMPICS in Rio de Janeiro will (probably) not be a disaster. Construction crews will finish the $43 million velodrome in the nick of time. There won’t be an epidemic of Zika among athletes. Police crackdowns will prevent civil unrest from seriously disrupting the celebration. NBC’s cameras will capture astounding beach views and triumphant competitors, and memories of the months of panic leading up to the games will melt away. But avoiding catastrophe isn’t the same as achieving success: Contrary to the bold claims about economic development that accompany any mega-event, hosting the Olympics is almost always a financial disaster for cities in the long term, and Rio won’t be the exception. ¶ Indeed, economists are uncommonly unanimous that hosting the Olympics is a bad bet. “The math just…

Most Tinder interactions won’t end in a relationship. You swipe right on a promising prospect, meet at an equidistant bar, have a fantastic evening—but for whatever reason, there’s no spark. Which is such a shame, because you really, truly, honestly want to be friends! This person is great! Well, if your priorities skew platonic, dating apps aren’t your best bet. A number of services exist that are designed around the promise of establishing friendships, with none of the awkwardness that comes with a “Let’s just be friends” Tinder speech. Patook is one, and it takes the principle very seriously: The app features a built-in “flirt detector” that stops you from using indecent language. Hey! Vina is an app exclusively for women; Meet My Dog brings together not only lonely dogs…

galactic warming n. / g -'lak-tik 'w r-miŋ / Caused by blasts from supermassive black holes, which exist in the center of most galaxies, galactic warming makes things so hot that gases can’t coalesce to form new stars. That could be how our own Milky Way burns out someday. Darwinolide n. / 'där-'win- -līd / A substance that kills drug-resistant staph bacteria, even when the bugs form a protective biofilm. Scientists isolated it from an Antarctic sea sponge in the Darwinellidae family. bompeln n. / 'bäm-p ln / Stoplights in the pavement, introduced in Germany for pedestrians who text while walking. A contraction of boden (ground) and ampeln (traffic lights), bompeln are said to help keep “smombies” (smartphone zombies) undead.…

Bisphenol-A-(epichlorohydrin) Invented by a truck mechanic who must have hated welding, J-B Weld epoxy is a staple of DIY toolkits. It comes in two tubes: a resin and a curing agent that you mix together. The resin is bisphenol-A (yep, that BPA) combined with garlicky- smelling epichlorohydrin. Chemically, the molecule is a chain with little carbon-and- oxygen triangles, called epoxide rings, on the ends. That’s where the sticky action happens. Crystalline Silica Basically quartz. It’s added to the resin for body and viscosity, without which the goop would be too fluid to adhere and set properly. Carbon Black The name says it all. Made up of sooty bits often produced by burning hydrocarbons, it gives the resin its inky color. Tetraethylenepentamine This is the curing agent. It contains amine groups…

1 Nike Zoom Superfly Flyknit Being a gold medalist has its perks. Nike’s research lab studied the stride mechanics of Olympic sprinter Allyson Felix to develop the ultra-lightweight track shoe she’ll wear in Rio. The spikeadorned iridescent plate is molded to match her foot. The knitted upper is a three-quarter-height design that ends above the ankle, offering more support as she races to another victory. Not for sale 2 Puma Ignite Dual Women’s When an athlete wins a medal, they change out of their competition garb and slip into a team uniform to collect their prize. Though just part of the ceremonial kit for teams from Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas, these Pumas are still top-tier flat running shoes, with a flexible, cushioned sole and a breathable mesh upper. These…

SOME OF MY FAVORITE MEMORIES revolve around food. Black-tie New Year’s Eve potluck, happyhour snacks and drinks with treasured coworkers, hot dogs and peanuts at Giants ball games, birthday cake with extra frosting, summer barbecues with plenty of Nibbi’s pimento cheese to start. The impressions of flavor, love, and pleasure are so intertwined for me that I knit them together synesthetically in my recollections, one indistinguishable from the other. Even when we were anything but flush, my family celebrated good grades and professional accomplishments with a luxury (at least for us): a steak dinner, beef carefully grilled over oak charcoal on a Weber in the backyard. Steak is still my favorite meal. And the giddy feelings of my incipient crush on my now-wife create a salty-sweet taste in my mouth,…

THE ONLY THING standing between delectable ice cream and a sloppy, sticky mess is a few degrees. Luckily, Nestlé’s facility in Bakersfield, California, runs nonstop at a low temperature to produce more ice cream than any other factory in the world—and that includes about 3.5 million Drumsticks a week—all while battling the hot Central Valley sun. We talked to plant manager Buttons Coleman to see how those nutty cones get made. 1. Churn Every day, tankers haul in 67,000 pounds of dairy just for Drumsticks. Mixers combine it with whey for stability and smoothness, sweet eners, flavoring, and vegetable shorten ing for creaminess. The “dairy dessert” (it has a lower fat content and more air than ice cream) is then churned and chilled to 23 degrees Fahrenheit, making it firm…

SIX FANTASY NOVELS. Three Hugo Award nominations. A book reviewer gig at The New York Times. N. K. Jemisin was by all accounts a successful writer, but she still had to work a day job to make rent. That changed earlier this year when she turned to Patreon, a crowdfunding site that lets fans pledge monthly stipends to artists they love. Her campaign was so successful that she was able to quit and write full time. That’s wonderful for her, and it’s good for us too— because we can’t wait for her to finish her dark, lyrical Broken Earth trilogy. The second book, The Obelisk Gate, comes out in August, and the combination of seismologic geekery and social commentary has rocked our world. Some people in these books can control…

A CHARCOAL-BLACK pyramid rising from the Nicaraguan jungle, Cerro Negro has experienced an explosion of activity recently. Since the volcano last erupted in 1999, its molten core has triggered earthquakes, its gas-stained craters still spew sulfurous plumes, and people from all over the planet have been flinging themselves down its slopes on sheets of plywood.¶ After bouncing to the Pilas–El Hoyo Natural Reserve in the back of a truck with 20 fellow boarders, I tucked a crude wooden sled under my arm and followed our guide up the soot-colored scree. Our goggles and orange jumpsuits made us look like a band of prison escapees, and we got a primer on volcano boarding technique: Sit down, lean back, and hold the rope. You can brake with your feet, our guide said,…

YOU MAY NOT THINK of yourself as a woodworker, but the founders of Shaper can change that. The San Francisco startup makes a handheld cutting device called the Origin that uses computer vision to help even the clumsiest craftsperson make cuts like a pro. Grab the device by the handles, place it on a piece of wood, and start tracing along the edges of the shape on Origin’s touchscreen. (The drill bit will automatically correct for your wobbly, inexperienced hands.) “While it’s really complex robotics under the hood, for users it’s kind of magic,” CEO Joe Hebenstreit says. “We want people to take the technology for granted.” Cheaper than a traditional CNC machine and more mobile, Origin can cut pieces of any size. That ease of use was the goal…

WHEN THE US WOMEN’S track cycling team rolls onto the velodrome in Rio for the pursuit event, they’ll be pedaling some funky-looking chariots. Felt’s new track rocket has been designed to wrestle every aerodynamic advantage from the uncaring laws of physics. Track cyclists tip to the left as they loop around the velodrome. To reduce drag, Felt put the bike’s drivetrain on the left side—the opposite of every bike you’ve ever ridden, and a first in international track cycling. The frame is also asymmetrical; it’s shaped to better slice through the air in a left-side lean. The result is a bike that generates 125 fewer grams of drag. For a typical Olympic cyclist, that nets a gain of 4 seconds over the 4-km race. In 2012 the US women lost…

1 Odyssey Works Versa #1 Wide Putter When golf returns to the Olympics after 112 years in the rough, you’ll see Odyssey’s putters used by top players like Henrik Stenson and Danny Willett. The groovy pattern on the face of this club puts the ball into a roll faster, translating to less skid, better control, and fewer three-putts. $180 2 Blaise Frères FIE Fencing Foil The sport dates back more than 500 years, but fencing isn’t all old-school. Modern weapons like this thrusting blade are rigged with circuitry, enabling split-second scoring by computer. As with foils of yore, it has a thick forte near the guard and an ultraflexible foible near the tip. $160 3 Wilson Fierce Badminton Racquet Boasting a sturdy unibody design, Wilson’s high-end racket is primed for…

FOOD 2016 MY FIRST RESTAURANT Momofuku Noodle Bar, had an open kitchen. This wasn’t by choice— I didn’t have enough money or space to put it farther away from the diners. But cooking in front of my customers changed the way I look at food. In the early years, around 2004, we were improvising new recipes every day, and I could instantly tell what was working and what wasn’t by watching people eat. A great dish hits you like a Whip-It: There’s momentary elation, a brief ripple of pure pleasure in the spacetime continuum. That’s what I was chasing, that split second when someone tastes something so delicious that their conversation suddenly derails and they blurt out something guttural like they stubbed their toe. THE MOMOFUKU PORK BUN was our…

RUKMINI CALLIMACHI IS arguably the best reporter on the most important beat in the world. As a New York Times correspondent covering terrorism, her work explores not just what jihadists do but how they do it. You’ve read her stories on ISIS’s use of birth control to maintain its supply of sex slaves, or the Kouachi brothers’ path to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, or the nature of lone-wolf attacks like the recent mass shooting in Orlando. Her byline often appears on the front page of the paper; at just 43, she’s received three Pulitzer Prize nominations. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Callimachi, though, is how she gets her insights into the world’s most hostile and secretive organizations. Sure, she spends months every year out of the country…

SO YOU DON’T KNOW JAVA FROM PYTHON. Who cares! The end of code is near, argues editor at large Jason Tanz in his June cover essay. The rise of deep neural networks—massively distributed computational systems that mimic the connections of the human brain—means that machines can learn on their own, without constant programming by humans. Consider the artificial intelligence AlphaGo, which senior writer Cade Metz explored in the same issue. It beat one of the world’s best Go players in four out of five games—ouch. But don’t weep for humanity. Losing to the AI made the player, Lee Sedol, better at the game. We teach machines, and then they teach us. Re: “The End of Code” “THE MAIN BENEFIT OF THIS A.I. CRAZE MAY BE REAL RESEARCH INTO THE HUMAN…

General Mills Because there’s no limit to a mill this general, the maker of Cheerios has turned to the health food space, investing in kale chips, broccoli bites, and bottled gazpacho. OR Trader Joe’s The grocery chain’s VC arm, Trader Kimo’s, is constantly searching for new products to repackage under the TJ name. Recent targets include triple IPAs and nori strips. Roots The Canadian clothing retailer thinks you’re tired of traditional wearables, so it has dropped $7 million in the past year alone on startups specializing in smart textiles, with sensors built right in. OR 7-Eleven 7-Ventures is throwing venture capital at consumer-facing innovations that could revolutionize convenience— and potentially turn storefronts into automated checkout stands. NBA It makes sense for the league to invest in tech that makes its…

ELEPHANTS ARE GREAT—says anyone who doesn’t have to live near them. Undeterred by fences or patrols, these ravenous, devious beasts love to stampede through crop fields in the middle of the night. It’s a big problem in much of Africa, where farmers can lose not just the source of their income but also, on occasion, their lives. For years, one of the easiest solutions has been bees: Hang some hives on the fences surrounding your land and elephants quickly learn to stay away. (Some studies put effectiveness at 80 percent.) But dealing with bees causes a host of other problems. Hives—still based on the original 19th-century wooden design—are heavy, difficult to build, and highly vulnerable to weather, disease, and rot. That’s why Mark Collins, a South African designer, created BeePak.…

EVERYONE HAS A THEORY on the best way to learn about a person. It’s how they treat the server at a restaurant, or how they act when they’re drunk. But according to MIT engineer Carlo Ratti, you can tell the most about someone by sampling their microbiome, and “the sewage system is the great aggregator.” Gross, sure, but Ratti is studying waste to understand everything from heroin use to antibiotic-resistant bacteria—and all with the help of a sewer-slurping robot named Luigi. ¶ The potential is obvious: If there’s an outbreak of the flu virus, the pipes will be the first to know. But waste also carries drug metabolites, DNA, even biomarkers for diabetes—and all that data is available in real time. That’s the aim of the MIT-sponsored Underworlds project, which…

Now that marijuana is legal in 25 states and counting, many a boldface name is cashing in on the green rush. From rappers to comedy icons, here’s how they’re trying to light up the industry. Tommy Chong, Chong’s Choice Beyond being half of seminal counterculture comedy duo Cheech & Chong, he’s also a longtime activist for decriminalization. PRODUCTS: flower, prerolled joints, oil cartridges, THC breath strips BEST FOR: halitosis sufferers waiting for a way-out alternative to Listerine REJECTED SLOGAN: “No Cheech, no problem!” Melissa Etheridge, Know Label Private Reserve The singersongwriter used medical marijuana while undergoing chemo for breast cancer. PRODUCTS: pot-infused wine tinctures (a medicinal line, MedRock, comes out in August) BEST FOR: a dinner party with your in-laws (surprise!) REJECTED SLOGAN: “It’s Like Sideways … sideways.” Snoop Dogg,…

1 Mikasa MVA 200 Indoor Volleyball Festooned with dimples and vibrant colors, this official game ball looks more fit for a minigolf course than a volleyball court. But the pockmarks and bright hues serve a purpose: Dimples increase turbulence and decrease air resistance, making flight paths more predictable. On the defensive end, the contrasting stripes help players judge the ball’s spin. $70 2 Adidas Errejota 2016 Official FIFA Match Ball The Errejota soccer ball has the same six-panel design as World Cup 2014’s psychedelic Brazuca but with a fresh new look. The colors pay tribute to the host country, while “Errejota” is a Portuguese acronymic shout-out to Rio de Janeiro. Looks aside, matching the Brazuca’s much-lauded performance is the ball’s main gooooooooal. $160 3 Molten 2016 FIBA Special Edition Basketball…

OLYMPIC ARCHERS are only allowed to use one type of projectile weapon—not the medieval long bow or the Rambo-style compound bow, but the elegant recurve bow. The name comes from the shape; the main arc of the recurve is convex like other bows, but the top and bottom curve away from the archer in the opposite direction. This design delivers more force (sometimes exceeding 50 pounds of it) and allows for a straighter, faster arrow flight. (Olympic archers fire their shots at a 4-foot-wide target from nearly 230 feet away, and the prized bull’s-eye is less than 5 inches across.) An Olympian’s recurve bow has three main components: the center section called the riser, made of aluminum or carbon fiber, and two flexible limbs, which keep the string taut. A…

On the first day of the sprawling RSA security industry conference in San Francisco, a giant screen covering the wall of the Moscone Center’s cavernous lobby cycles through the names and headshots of keynote speakers: steely-eyed National Security Agency director Michael Rogers in a crisp military uniform; bearded and besuited Whitfield Diffie and Ron Rivest, legendary inventors of seminal encryption protocols that made the Internet safe for communication and commerce. And then there’s Moxie Marlinspike, peering somberly into the distance wearing a bicycle jersey and an 18-inch-tall helmet shaped like a giant spear of asparagus. “It was the only picture I could find,” Marlinspike deadpans as we walk into the building. Even without the vegetable headwear, Marlinspike’s wire-thin 6'2" frame and topknot of blond dreadlocks doesn’t fit the usual profile…