Adam Clark Estes

Why the Future of Bitcoin Depends on the Silk Road Trial

Over the weekend, Ross Ulbricht’s lawyer, Joshua Dratel, filed a motion asking the court to dismiss all charges against the Silk Road kingpin. It’s largely what you’d expect from a bullish defense attorney. But here’s the twist: Dratel throws bitcoin under the bus. It’s funny, really. Many would argue that Bitcoin has the Silk Road…

Watch Every Cyber Attack in the World in Real Time

Kasperkspy Labs recently launched a beautifully terrifying interactive map that shows online threats arounds the world in real time. In practice, it’s a global visualization of cyber attacks that, Kaspersky hopes, will motivate you to buy their security software. But it’s still a hell of a spectacle. The interactive is also informative. The data displayed…

Hackers Can Now Create Fake Traffic Jams

A couple of Israeli students figured out a way to create fake traffic jams using the popular, Google-owned Waze GPS app. And while it sounds silly at first, these kinds of infrastructure hacks could have serious consequences as we depend more and more on data to help us get around town. The Waze hack is…

This Robotic Surgeon Climbs Inside Astronauts’ Belly Buttons

If you’re an astronaut on your way to Mars, there aren’t too many options if your appendix bursts. That’s why a Nebraska-based technology company has developed mini robot space surgeons that can actually climb inside of astronauts’ bodies. The first zero-gravity tests on the machine are about to begin. It sounds creepy, but this thing…

The US Grows the Most Productive Plants in the World, Says NASA

Remember learning about America’s “amber waves of grain?” Well, it turns out that the United States’ bread basket—a.k.a., the Corn Belt—is even more productive than previously thought. In fact, during its growing season, it’s the most productive land on Earth, according to new NASA data. For the past couple years, satellite sensors have been gathering…

The FCC just voted to open up another 100 megahertz of wireless spectrum, which will increase the number of frequencies available to unlicensed wireless networks (read: what you have at your house) by 15 percent. In other words, your Wi-Fi is about to get a lot faster.

Would You Drink A Beer Made From Kudzu?

As the microbrew industry has become increasingly crowded, brewmasters are becoming more and more creative with their ingredients and techniques. The latest trend, Outside magazine says, is spiking batches with foraged ingredients, from sassafras to kudzu. Sound delicious? Sounds different, at least. Kudzu, the invasive Japanese plant that’s taken over the South in the past…

The NSA’s Been Spying on Every Single Call, Text, and Email in Iraq

A couple weeks ago, we learned from leaked documents that the NSA has the capability to record an entire country’s calls, texts, and email in real time. That’s a hell of a capability, and those documents revealed that it was being used in one country. Now, thanks to a retired NSA leader, we know which…

Is LG’s New OLED Table Lamp Really the Future of Lighting?

You’re probably familiar with LG’s cutting edge curved OLED TVs, but the company is taking the technology in a new direction. At the Light+Building trade show in Frankfurt, LG unveiled an OLED table lamp. It’s a little bit ugly—okay, a lot ugly—but the technology bears some exciting implications. For one, this OLED table lamp comes…

South Korean marines storm the beach as smoke screens explode above them during a military exercise with the United States in Pohang on Monday. The same day, South Korea exchanged fire with North Korea, who is threatening a fourth nuclear test, in the Yellow Sea, a violent sign of increased tension between two countries that…

How 3D Printing Will Create On-Demand Swarms of Disposable Drones

New advances in 3D printing are making it not only possible but also viable to manufacture cheap, print-on-demand, disposable drones designed simply to soar off over the horizon and never come back. Some British engineers did just that, and this is only the beginning. The team hails from the Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC) at…

The Gizmodo Spring Outdoor Gear Guide

The snow melt is running into rivers, giving the grass its first glimpse of sunlight in months. It’s warm enough to trade your down parka in for a light jacket, and, any day now, wildflowers will light up the meadows. It’s spring, people. Who else is amped to camp? First, you’re going to need some…

Ring of Thieves Pulls Off Huge Luggage Heist At LAX

You probably don’t realize it, but hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods pass through airports every day inside of passengers’ baggage. Well, a ring of baggage handlers at LAX certainly realized it. Police say they’ve been stealing thousands of dollars worth of goods right out of people’s suitcases for months. Earlier this week,…

Why Take the Stairs When You Can Travel by Pneumatic Tube?

It takes work to go upstairs, but it doesn’t have to. That’s why elevators were invented. If you want an elevator in your home, though, it takes some serious construction. Why not travel through pneumatic tubes like the Jetsons? No, seriously, you can. Dayton Elevators makes pneumatic vacuum elevators that can be easily installed in…

The Air Force Just Fired 9 Nuclear Missile Commanders for Cheating

This is a little unsettling. A year-long investigation into alleged cheating on proficiency exams has resulted in the dismissal of nine nuclear missile commanders at the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. The military expects to punish dozens of junior officers, as well. You probably didn’t even realize that nuclear missile commanders have to take…

Is This Weird Little Blob The Future Of Bottled Water?

We get it. Our love of drinking water from disposable plastic bottles is a problem, enough of a problem that San Francisco actually wants to ban them. But then what will we drink water out of? Ooho, a biodegradable membrane made of brown algae, is an interesting idea. https://gizmodo.com/san-francisco-plans-on-banning-plastic-water-bottles-1537893968 Touted by some as an “edible…

Aromatic Forks Let You Mix Random Smells With Your Food

Do you ever take a bite of steak and wish it tasted a little more like chocolate? Well, wish no more, brave foodie. The Aromafork will make your dreams come true. Designed by the molecular gastronomy outfit Molecule-R, this smelly piece of flatware does exactly what you’d imagine something called “The Aromafork” would do. It…

Twitter Now Lets You Tag People in Tweets Without Using Any Characters

Twitter is growing up, and the latest new feature set includes the ability to tag up to 10 people in a photo as well as the ability to add up to four photos to a tweet. But—and this is big—those tags won’t count towards the total character limit. Suddenly, tweets seem kind of big. Now,…

Astronomers found a minor planet with a ring system like Saturn’s

For the first time ever, astronomers have identified a small planet with a ring system. They previously thought that such a phenomenon could only happen on large planets like Saturn and Jupiter. But this special space rock, known as 10199 Chariklo, is a small planet called a Centaur. The discovery came down to the blinking…

Newly discovered dwarf planet orbits the Sun once every 4,000 years

Astronomers just announced the discovery of a dwarf planet that trumps Sedna as the object in our solar system most distant* from our sun. However, what’s potentially more interesting is what the planet’s orbit suggests: another giant, rocky world at the far edge of our Solar System. But let’s start with what we do know.…