Why Do Cats Love Boxes So Much?

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We’ve all seen it. There is an empty box somewhere and your cat comes into view, intrigued by it. First it may use a paw to touch it, then it might nuzzle its face up against it. Next thing you know, the cat is inside the box and seems to be about as content as can be. Why is this? Wired is bringing us closer to understanding:

For cats in these often stressful situations, a box or some other type of separate enclosure (within the enclosures they’re already in) can have a profound impact on both their behavior and physiology.

Veterinarian Claudia Vinke of Utrecht University in the Netherlands is one of the latest researchers to study stress levels in shelter cats. Working with domestic cats in a Dutch animal shelter, Vinke provided hiding boxes for a group of newly arrived cats while depriving another group of them entirely. She found a significant difference in stress levels between cats that had the boxes and those that didn’t. In effect, the cats with boxes got used to their new surroundings faster, were far less stressed early on, and were more interested in interacting with humans

That and they say that cats like to run away from their problems, and the box acts as a sort of ‘safe zone’ for them. No, the rest of the article says that, I didn’t just make it up. So the next time you see your cat go hide in a box, understand, that is about as safe and happy as it can feel, so let it be. Maybe a few of us could use some human size boxes for our own problems. I’ll go try today and let you know if it helps.

[Image and Story Via Wired]

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Google and Twitter Become Friends Again

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There was a time when you could Google search something and related, topical tweets would come up in your search. Over time, this stopped (for business reasons far too complicated for my feeble mind to understand). But recent news that the two giants have met up and worked out their differences has resulted in some great news for people who are fans of both services (which ends up being essentially everyone).

From TechCrunch:

Twitter is reported to have struck a significant partnership with Google on the eve of its latest financial results. Bloomberg reports that the two companies have agreed to a deal to put real-time tweets from Twitter back into Google’s search results sometime “in the first half of this year.”

We will have to see the effect this has on Google and Twitter in the long run (as well as the effect it may have on Google+), but for now, we’re just glad these two can see eye-to-eye again. Hope it lasts.

[Image via DigitalStrategyConsulting, story via TechCrunch]

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Ubuntu Smartphone Finally On Sale

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The first Ubuntu smartphone goes on sale next week. But it’s more of a publicity drive than a serious launch.

The Aquarius E4.5 from Spanish manufacturer BQ normally runs on Android, but a new model will run on a version of Ubuntu developed by Canonical.

Rather than go on full sale, a limited number will go on sale at various points next week, each being announced on Twitter (@ubuntu or @bqreaders.) There’s no word on exactly how many are on sale, but the idea seems to be to get publicity both for the launch and then from word of mouth from the more tech-obsessed folk who are likely to be among the initial buyers. Shipping will be restricted to Europe at this point.

The handset will cost €169.90 (approximately $192.64) and ship without a SIM or network lock, though some networks in Europe will offer special service deals for the handset. Given the specs (1.3GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 4.5″ screen, 5-megapixel front camera, 8-megapixel rear camera), it’s definitely the operating system that’s the selling point rather than trying to produce a spectacular bargain.

It’s now more than two years since Canonical announced mobile Ubuntu. After a failed crowdfunding attempt, it announced it would not be producing an Ubuntu handset itself but instead was looking for a manufacturing partner. Indeed, it previously announced a phone was definitely coming out in 2014.

While open source vs closed systems is still certainly an issue for some buyers, one of the key selling points of mobile Ubuntu has become less cutting-edge thanks to the delay. Back in early 2013 Canonical was keen to stress the idea of developers being able to produce single applications that would easily and neatly scale between PCs, tablets and phones running the various flavors of Ubuntu. That’s now an idea Microsoft is heavily pushing for Windows 10.

Japan “Hoth-ifies” Mount Rushmore [Pics]

That’s right, Hoth-ifies. Behold:

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This gigantic Star Wars-themed sculpture is the centerpiece of the annual Sapporo Snow Festival, which started today in Japan. The piece took a month to complete and is 15 meters tall, 22.6 meters across, and 20 meters deep. Impressive. Most impressive.

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[Picture Sources: Game Impress Watch, itmedia, momoko_f | Via Gizmodo]

Lauren Cohan (Maggie Greene from “The Walking Dead”) Talks About Getting Pulled Over by a Cop While Covered in Blood and Guts

Listen as Lauren Cohan (Maggie Greene from “The Walking Dead”) talks about the time where after a day of work on the set of the show she got pulled over by a cop while still being covered in fake walker blood and guts.

[Jimmy Kimmel Live]

Alan Turing’s Code-breaking Sheets Found Stuffed In Wall

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Secret documents from the work by Alan Turing’s team of codebreakers have been found stuffed into the walls and roof of a hut at Bletchley Park.

It appears that after completing a day’s work, the team didn’t securely destroy the papers as was protocol, but instead used them to boost insulation in the far-from-luxurious facility.

The papers were discovered in 2013 during renovations of the hut, which are now part of an exhibition at the Bletchley Park museum, but officials have only just revealed the find. Some of the papers will now be put on display, but others have been sent to GCHQ, one of Britain’s intelligence organizations, for further analysis.

Among the paper are the only known surviving example of a Banbury sheet, named after a printing location. As an extremely simplified explanation of a complex situation, the Banbury sheet took advantage of Turing’s discovery that the encryption settings on Germany’s Enigma machines, although changing daily, were not entirely random.

British codebreakers faced the challenge of discovering each day’s settings as quickly as possible so that they could then decipher intercepted messages for the rest of the day. Turing developed the “Banburismus” technique, which involved punching holes in sheets of paper to represent the cipher in two different intercepted messages. While this took longer than relying solely on writing, overlaying the sheets and looking for holes lining up made it much quicker to then spot repeated patterns.

Intriguingly the haul of papers also includes several notes, possibly related to the decryption, which officials don’t yet fully understand.