Chris Mills

It Seems Reddit Ex-CEO Ellen Pao Isn’t to Blame for Site’s Meltdown

If you thought that the Reddit drama had ended with the ousting of Reddit CEO Ellen Pao, think again: according to a series of posts, Pao didn’t make the decision to fire anybody: Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanion did. The story so far goes something like this: Reddit employee Victoria Taylor, the de-facto company liaison with…

This Inhaled Vaccine Could Be the Key to Stopping Ebola

Ebola is a particularly scary disease not only because of the way in which it kills you, but because there’s no cure, and no real vaccine. That’s obviously something scientists are working to change — and one vaccine that’s just finished trials with monkeys shows serious promise. According to a paper published in the Journal…

Modular Chameleon Satellite Can Transform to Change Missions

Once you’ve put a satellite into space, that’s normally kind if it. There’s not usually a lot of replanning once your technology is in orbit, meaning that if you want to change something like the broadcast frequency, you’re stuck. That’s the reason these transforming satellites exist. The Quantum programme is a European space project to…

Mass Recall of Avalanche-Rescuing Airbags, Thanks to Static Electricity

Avalanches make backcountry skiing one of the most dangerous ways to get your selfies, something that Black Diamond’s Jetforce airbags promised to change cheaply and simply with an innovative design that got rave reviews. But unfortunately, the designers forgot one tiny detail, leading Black Diamond to issue a recall. Airbag backpacks save skiers from avalanches…

Why Is This Bizarre Illustration Taking Over The Internet?

Back in 2011, illustrator Erica Glasier created this artwork for a Forbes article titled ‘The Bank of Facebook: Currency, Identity, Reputation’. For reasons that no-one can find out, that image now makes up one in every 120 images on Imgur, the internet’s leading photo repository. The phenomenon seems to have been first spotted by a…

Three Telescopes Worked to Create This One Amazing Image of the Sun

Thanks to the Solar Dynamics Observatory, humanity keeps a 24/7 unceasing watch on our friendly neighbourhood star. But to get a better appreciation of what’s going on on the Sun’s surface, SDO has to rope in some friends. The image above is a composite from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), Japan’s Hinode spacecraft, and…

iOS 9 Now Explicitly Encourages Selfies

If you needed further proof that 2015 is the Year of the Selfie, look no further than the latest beta of iOS 9, which among other things, has brought a dedicated selfie folder to your iPhone. The folder is tucked away in the regular Photos app, where it amalgamates any pictures taken with the front-facing…

If you’re a Chromecast user suffering from the terrible 21st century disease of poor Wi-Fi coverage, help is at hand: Google just released a clever $15 Ethernet adapter for Chromecast, which will let you hook it up to a wired network. Pair it with a powerline adapter, and say goodbye to crummy Wi-Fi extenders. [Google…

Framing Pictures With Fingers Would Be the Best Google Glass 2.0 Feature

The first Google Glass might’ve died an ignominious death, but don’t give up on face computers just yet. Google will most likely launch some kind of updated Glass in the future, and when it does, features like framing up pictures with your fingers could make it a whole lot better than version 1.0. Google was…

Electric Cars Are Ever So Slightly Lighter With Dead Batteries

Drive your car until the tank’s empty, and it will probably be 100 pounds lighter (minus the 6 extra Red Bulls consumed). But drive an electric car until it’s out of juice, and on a much smaller scale, it will also have shed weight. Whether or not batteries get lighter as they lose energy is…

AT&T Thinks Shitty Internet For Poor Families Will Help Its Merger 

AT&T is trying to acquire DirecTV, a deal worth some $67 billion that would create a soul-sucking leviathan telecoms company. The deed is all but done, and just awaiting FCC approval — something AT&T is hoping to help along by (temporarily) offering (shitty) internet to low-income families. In a regulatory filing submitted to the FCC…

iOS 9 Preview: Well This Was Long-Overdue 

This year’s update to Apple’s mobile operating system isn’t a blockbuster release full of controversial design; in fact, the biggest iOS update of the year, Apple Music, is already out. But that doesn’t mean you should write iOS 9 off just yet. The developer preview of iOS 9 has been out for a month now,…

A Fascinating Look at How a Film Projector Works

Enginner Guy Bill Hammack is a master at taking seemingly-boring technology, and breaking down the components and manufacturing process until you’re left with nothing but respect for the engineers who designed it. The film projector is no exception — rather than just rolling a series of frames in front of a light, a projector has…

You Can Buy a HomeKit-Friendly Thermostat Starting Today

Apple announced HomeKit, its attempt to make every lightbulb and lock talk to your iPhone, well over a year ago, but things that can actually whisper sweet nothings in your iDevice’s ears have been few and far between. Most notably, you haven’t been able to buy a HomeKit-enabled thermostat, something that changes today. The Ecobee3…

This Trash-Covered Glacier Is a Monument to Boston’s Godawful Winter

Over the course of last winter, Boston’s snowplows moved thousands of tons of snow (and trash) into ‘snow farms’ around the city, where it sat waiting to melt in warmer weather. Well, the warmer weather’s still here, and so is the snow. As the New York Times documents, the ‘snow farm’ at Tide Street (seen…

NASA Captures North Sea Algae in Full Bloom 

Every summer, the population of algae in the North Atlantic reaches a peak, with the blue-green color of the phytoplankton causing the ocean to visibly change, even from space. NASA’s aptly-named Aqua satellite captured the above image on July 1st using its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument. You can see Norway on the right, the…

Instagram Is Finally Fixing Its Crummy Resolution

Instagram is a great way to share over-emojied pictures of fireworks with friends, but for years, pictures have been limited to a fairly-pathetic 640 x 640. Now that it’s not 2009, and most high-end smartphones have screens that can handle the pixels, Instagram is (finally) upgrading to HD. In a subtle change that’s rolling out…

Facebook Really Would Like You to Use GIFs in Messenger

I’m personally doubtful that GIFs need more help in taking over the internet, but then again, I don’t have Mark Zuckerberg’s vision (or even two lowly commas). Facebook appears to be testing a new built-in way to search GIFs and stickers in Messenger, with the feature available to select users in Canada. Although you’ve been…

Everyone Relax, NASA Solved The Problem With Its Pluto Probe

Yesterday afternoon, NASA lost contact with its New Horizons spacecraft for an hour for reasons unknown. This is generally not a good thing when you’re working with technology that’s 4.5 light hours away, but thankfully, NASA seems to have solved the problem. According to NASA, the problem was caused by a “hard-to-detect timing flaw in…

Burning Wood With Electricity Is My Kind of Modern Art

I’m not saying this is the most dangerous thing I’ve ever seen on the internet, but it does do a good job of making the Anarchist’s Cookbook look like a Health & Safety training manual. This video is the work of YouTuber/future Darwin Award winner TheBackyardScientist. He demonstrates how to use electricity to burn fractal…