Meet the Man Behind CNN's Multitouch Magic Wall

Those of you who watch CNN have probably noticed the neat multitouch screen the anchors have been playing with since the beginning of the election season. Now that all the votes are coming in and we're literally counting down to the big reveal, the news network has given a shout out to the man behind the Magic Wall—Jeff Han of Perceptive Pixel. More »

Astronauts Cast Votes From Space, But It's Only One Regular Vote For Mankind

Astronauts Michael Fincke and Gregory Chamitoff did what only four other Astronauts have done in NASA's 50 years when they voted today—from space. Thanks to a Texas bill passed in 1997, NASA space cases are able to legally vote while they're out of the planet on business. But how did they cast their ballot from space, you ask? Here's the answer that Space.com got. More »

I Vote For Technology

Gizmodo is not endorsing a presidential candidate. Nearly everyone on staff agreed that it would be a bad idea, for a lot of valid reasons. Besides the fact that Gizmodo is seen by many as a means of escape from the the real world, we simply don't cover politics. Many on our staff felt that, even if we weighted our selection using just the candidates' statements on technology, we'd just be trivializing the truly pressing issues—the economy, the wars, national security, America's cultural divide and our standing in the international community, to toss out a handful. But I think you guys should know where at least one of us is coming from: Technology is political, because it's tightly intertwined with every major issue. If you don't grasp technology, you no longer understand the world. I'm voting for the guy who gets that. More »

Dvice's Voting Machines Map Shows Us Just Where the Election Will Be Stolen

With the election coming up in a mere two weeks, our friends over at Dvice decided to take a very in depth look at the technology behind all of the states voting machines and just how susceptible they are to both malicious hacking and human error. What results is a beautiful interactive map showing the different machines used in each state and a rundown of every type of voting machine used in the entire country. You'll definitely want to spend some time playing around with this and then worrying about how the election is going to be hijacked by a combination of hackers and bumbling old people in Florida (again). [Dvice]

VP Debates, Rickrolled

Chris Matthews and the CNBC crew did their best to report last night's vice presidential debate between Biden and Palin, but it appears that a rogue squadron of mavericks was able to sneak into the shot with a VP write-in of their own. I can't speak for anyone else here, but if an internet meme gets elected to office, I'm so moving to Canada—for real this time. [Fark]

John McCain Blamed for Sucky Broadband in US

Our friend (and Wired editor) Nick Thompson wrote a piece in the Washington Monthly accusing John McCain for the sorry state of America's broadband. It seems the email-avoiding presidential candidate, as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, supported too much consolidation and too little oversight. The end result? "Since 2000, the United States has gone from fifth in the world to twenty-second in broadband penetration." More »

McCain Vs. Obama on Science

It's easy to know where presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama stand on ever-hot topics, like the war or abortion. But what about various areas of scientific interest? Science Debate 2008 has made it their focus to clarify each candidate's stance on issues like genetics research, energy and space. The full text is available at that link, but for those who enjoy abridged versions, the New York Times did a nice job of cutting the big block of text into bite-sized pieces. More »