July 2015

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Google continues its initiatives to fight the problem of patent trolling, which is the use of patents for the sole purpose of restricting competition and to obtain money through lawsuits or through agreements following threats of such actions. Recently the company announced the Google Patent Starter Program, an offer to grant some of its patents to some startups that meet certain requirements. One of the conditions is to join for at least two years to the License on Transfer (LOT) Network, an initiative for the exchange of patents created in 2005.

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Bradley Horowitz, the Google executive who’s been in charge of Google+ and some newly separate services such as Photos for some months, announced a split between Google+ and YouTube. For a long time it was necessary to create a profile on the social network to gain access to other Google services and this went against many users’ wishes. Eventually, the company decided to change things by eliminating this need with the result that YouTube will be a well-separated service but this news will require a bit of time.

Hunter's Moon by Paul Finch

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The novel “Hunter’s Moon” by Paul Finch was published for the first time in 2011.

The Eleventh Doctor takes Amy Pond and Rory Williams on Leisure Platform 9, where an old friend is the head of the local police. Casino games look similar to those on Earth and Rory is convinced he can win at one of them but ends up losing the Tardis and is kidnapped by a dangerous criminal.

Amy tries to follow Rory sneaking on the starship of the criminal who kidnapped him while the Doctor realizes that his old friend is acting strange and has something in mind. The travelers get involved in a ruthless hunt whose prey get found also on Earth.

Catopsbaatar catopsaloides, an ancient mammal that belonged to the multituberculates order

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An article published in the journal “Current Biology” describes a research showing that there was a rapid evolution of mammals during the Jurassic period, between 200 and 145 million years ago. That period and in general the Mesozoic era, between 252 and 66 million years ago, were the dinosaurs era so we tended to think that mammals lived in their shadow, in ecological niches, such as nocturnal insectivores. Instead, the discovery of new fossils in recent years showed a series of adaptations with a previously unknown diversification.

Matt Dillon at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival

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On July 23 the TV show “Wayward Pines” ended.

The series is an adaptation of a trilogy of novels written by Blake Crouch. Conceived as a mini-series of 10 episodes, although it leaves the door open to a continuation, it was developed by Chad Hodge, who involved in the production the director M. Night Shyamalan.

The TV show “Wayward Pines” was purchased by Fox, which decided to promote it as a special event worldwide. The pilot episode was made available online in April 2015 and the normal TV programming began on May 14, 2015 with the broadcast in about 125 countries on the same day.

“Wayward Pines” takes inspiration from previous TV shows such as the classics “The Prisoner” and “Twin Peaks” but it develops some elements in a different science fiction key. The series begins when the US secret service agent Ethan Burke is sent to the town of Wayward Pines to look for two missing colleagues and find himself in a place that immediately seems very out of the ordinary.