Now the U.N. says edible insects are the future of food

Since I posted Eating bugs on the Beeb, the idea of eating insects has attracted even more attention, as the United Nations issued a report last month on the topic saying it was a good idea.  Al Jazeera English gives more details in UN says eating insects could tackle world hunger.

The United Nations says that eating insects might provide one of the answers to global hunger. There are 19-hundred edible insect species on the planet and 40 tons of insects to every human. Insects are rich in protein, vitamins and minerals and do not damage the environment. But the UN admits that getting over people's squeamishness will be a big challenge. Al Jazeera's Jessica Baldwin, reports from London.

You don't have to wait until insects are grown commercially.  Tech Feed shows how one can Grow Your Own Edible Insects?!

A few weeks ago, we told you how t3D-Printed food may be made from insect parts. Annie explains how now, you can grow your own edible insects right in your kitchen with Lepsis.

Welcome to "our food is a science project," which just happens to be the most memorable comment one of my students made yesterday while watching Food, Inc.

Syrian Electronic Army takes credit for hacking AP's Twitter account

This has been a weird news day.

On the way out the door from from work, I noticed that there had been a flash crash of all three U.S. stock indices.  Joe.My.God captured the 140+ point drop in the Dow shown below.


I was afraid it was a computer trading glitch like the 2010 Flash Crash, but it turned out that it was the traders responding to a tweet from the hacked AP account, as CNN reported.

The shocking tweet came from the Associated Press earlier this afternoon: "Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured."

The AP's communications team quickly tweeted from its own account that the main AP Twitter was compromised, but investors had already panicked. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) immediately plunged by more than 140 points.

And there it is: After years of hacks that typically involved little more than obscene language, Twitter's subpar security measures have now caused serious real-world consequences.

Tech Feed then reported that the Syrian Electronic Army, a
"cybermilitia" (actually a bunch of hackers and script kiddies) loyal to the Assad government took credit.  Here is their video report: Who Hacked the AP Twitter Account?

This morning a tweet was sent from the official Associated Press account that read, "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured." Although the tweet was bogus (the account had been hacked), it had a very noticeable effect on the stock market, as Annie explains. She also takes a look at the Syrian Electronic Army, who have taken credit for the hack.

The Syrians?  Really?  I'd never have guessed.

When I came home, two other stories relating to last week's  terror attacks awaited me.

First, Nebris had this gem on his Facebook wall: Former GOP Candidate Reacts After Man He Allegedly Framed For Ricin Poisoning Is Released.  Elvis has left the building just as the rabbit hole was revealed to be even deeper.

Second, another Facebook friend shared Salon's report that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an Alex Jones fan.  Jones immediately claimed that the news was evidence of a plot against him.

UPDATE: Sure enough, within minutes of the AP story breaking, Jones told BuzzFeed’s Rosie Gray that it’s all a conspiracy against him:

“I’ve seen this before,” Jones said. “The federal government trying to connect me to tragedies. That’s the media and the government’s own conspiracy theories.” Jones compared the situation to when Richard Andrew Poplawski, a Pittsburgh man who killed three police officers in 2009, was shown to be a conspiracy theorist who frequently visited the Infowars website. “It’s standard for them to talk to people, go through computers, and any time someone’s done something bad they connect it to us,” Jone[s] said.

Shorter Jones, courtesy of Ambassador Vreenak.


And so we come full circle, starting with a fake AP story and ending with claims of another fake AP story.   Jones' protests to the contrary, I think that final AP story is real, although I'm motivated to do so.  After all, it means that the U.S. Right now has to disclaim Tsarnaev, as the Infowars association makes him one of them.  Excuse me while I suppress a wicked snicker.

Tech Feeds hates April Fools Day

In fact, they hate it enough to post a video about the more than a dozen pranks they saw today.

Having trouble keeping up with all the April Fools' Day pranks on the Internet? Scott rounds them all up for you. From Google's seven different April Fools' gags to Toshiba's fake game console to ThinkGeek's multiple (awesome) fake products, we have you covered.

When was the last time you were genuinely tricked by an April Fools' joke? Let us know in the comments below.

Methinks they doth protest too much.

As for the last time I was genuinely tricked by an April Fools' joke, I really don't remember. However, I almost was when I read on Michigan Liberal today that Brewer was going to run for Congress, challenging Sander Levin. I thought that was nuts, and reading the comments convinced me that it was a prank. Sure enough, it was. Good thing. I wouldn't have voted for Brewer if it were true, just like I was prepared to vote against him in February.