SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Photo via Wired.

Peter Rubin writes a very interesting piece in Wired sharing the inside story of Oculus Rift and how virtual reality became simply: reality. It is a long read, but it is really worth it. This is how it starts: "As he flew from Orange County to Seattle in September 2013, Brendan Iribe, the CEO of Oculus, couldn’t envision what the next six months would bring. The rhapsodic crowds at the Consumer Electronics Show. The around-the-block lines at South by Southwest. Most of all, the $2 billion purchase by Facebook. That fall Oculus was still just an ambitious startup chasing virtual reality, a dream that had foiled countless entrepreneurs and technologists for two decades. Oculus’ flagship product, the Rift, was widely seen as the most promising VR device in years, enveloping users in an all-encompassing simulacrum that felt like something out of Snow Crash or Star Trek. But it faced the same problem that had bedeviled would-be pioneers like eMagin, Vuzix, even Nintendo: It made people want to throw up." Read full story in Wired. E.T.P. 27'

And in the same subject, Samsung is now building an Oculus Rift competitor. Read about it in Mashable. E.T.P. 7'

Photo via L'Observateur.

Detox Overdose. The word is everywhere. Liquid diets, magic creams that help you expel toxins and take control of your body. But is it just a marketing strategy? Why is the word detox suddenly so popular, and more importantly, does it work? Read full article (in French) in Le nouvel Observateur. E.T.P. 7'

Europe will let its citizens edit Google search results for their names. "Google and other search engines routinely field takedown requests to remove material from results that violates copyright, defamation, and other laws. But a ruling  by the European Union’s highest court will now require them to consider takedown requests for material that is merely embarrassing or inconvenient, rather than illegal. " Read full article in Quartz. E.T.P. 4'