We open with Yahoo’s David Pogue’s musical tribute to CES. Advanced radars that see through walls, temperature controlled nano fibers built into your clothes and Stitch, the hookup app for grandma and grandpa. Twitter’s legacy might just be based on a toilet paper story.  And again, we have John Mallen for the ongoing discussion of social media and you’re personal brand.

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HALF TIME

Crazy new tech lets police officers peer through the walls of your home undetected

by Jacob Siegal, bgr.com

January 21 02:18 PM

There has been plenty of negative press surrounding law enforcement in the United States over the last year, but it doesn’t look like 2015 is going to be any less controversial.

USA Today reports that at least 50 law enforcement agencies have secretly purchased advanced radars for their officers which could potentially allow them to see through the walls of our homes without first obtaining a search warrant.

The radar systems were originally deployed to the agencies over two years ago, without any public disclosure about how they would be used. This obviously raises privacy concerns, but even more worrying is the fact that the agencies appear to be ignoring the law altogether.

And these radars are about as accurate as you could possibly imagine. According to the report, the Range-R radar can detect “movements as slight as human breathing from a distance of more than 50 feet.” They’ll know if your home, where you are in your home and whether or not you’re moving around.

“The idea that the government can send signals through the wall of your house to figure out what’s inside is problematic,” Christopher Soghoian, the American Civil Liberties Union’s principal technologist, told USA Today. “Technologies that allow the police to look inside of a home are among the intrusive tools that police have.”

Hanni Fakhoury, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, adds that the fact that the technology is being used isn’t the only concern — judges might not know exactly what they’re dealing with if the issue ever comes up in court. The less we know about this technology, the easier it is for agencies to get away with using it without ever having to answer any questions.

ThisClothing Acts Like A Personal Heater When Temperatures Drop

January 16

When temperatures drop, you may wear your next heater instead of turning up the thermostat. New nanowire-coated clothing is designed to keep people toasty without wasting energy heating empty spaces in rooms.

Researchers at Stanford University used metallic, invisible mesh to coat regular fabric. Unlike typical clothing, which lets most body heat escape, the mesh creates a conducting network that radiates warmth back towards the wearer’s skin. Since the wires are nano-sized, the fabric is still as flexible and breathable as ordinary clothing. It’s also sturdy enough to go in a washing machine.

Most heating systems are incredibly inefficient, warming up vast swaths of space inside buildings just to keep the humans inside comfortable. Indoor heating uses almost half of all energy globally and contributes a third of climate change emissions. Why not heat humans directly instead?

Of course, when a polar vortex sweeps through a city, buildings will still need some heat to keep pi...