Jamie Condliffe

U.S. Economic Activity, Split in Half and Mapped

In orange, half of America’s GDP; in blue, the other half. While the population of the country is much more evenly dispersed, its contributions to the economy aren’t. Of course, the distribution is centered around cities, which affects the skew, but not as dramatically as this. You can spin it so many ways politically, though…

Watch Bill Nye Debate Climate Change With a Denier

Because, obviously, this is gold. Pure gold. As he points out, you don’t need a PhD in climate science to understand what’s going on here. We love you, Bill. But also, maybe stop giving these loons such a big soap box? [YouTube]

Report: Apple Is Working on Medical Devices, Mulling Cars

A report from the San Francisco Chronicle suggests that Apple is working to develop new product lines—including medical devices and cars The newspaper is light on detail, but does describe how , according to their sources, Cook & Co. are working with with audio engineer Tomlinson Holman—who invented THX and 10.2 surround sound—to develop a…

Seeking a Cheap Cell Phone Signal by the Light of the Moon

It looks like a cultish gathering of smartphone users, and in many ways it is: this image shows African migrants on the shore of Djibouti, holding their phones aloft to snatch cheap phone signal from nearby Somalia. Djibouti is a common stopping point for migrants trying to leave Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea for new lives…

This Graphene Nanoribbon Conducts Electricity Insanely Fast

You’re looking a ribbon of graphene that’s just one atom thick and fifteen atoms wide—and it could help shift data thousands of times faster than anything else currently can. The nanoribbons, produced Felix Fischer, a chemist at Berkeley, are narrow—10,000 of them placed side by side would be about as wide as a human hair—and…

Why Do We Get Headaches?

From dull tension headaches to crippling migraines, sometimes your cranium can feel crippled. But what causes all those headaches? You might not know that the brain itself can’t actually feel pain. Instead, headaches are usually the result of muscle tension or blood flow in the head—and this video explains how and why those both happen.…

Under Armour’s Suits May Actually Be Slowing U.S. Speedskaters Down

Heralded as “the world’s fastest speed skating suit,” Under Armour’s all-in-one was hoped to give U.S. athletes the edge in Sochi. Now, though, it appears it could in fact be slowing them down. https://gizmodo.com/under-armour-will-debut-the-worlds-fastest-speedskatin-1502673088 The Wall Street Journal reports that, according to three people familiar with the U.S. team, the suit has a major design…

You Can Download Every De La Soul Album for Free Today

Era-defining hip hop legends De La Soul have decided to make their entire back catalog available for free download today to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album. Because of label and sample clearance issues, most of De La Soul’s catalog has never made it online, and is peculiarly absent from the likes of…

Google Wants to Give Us 10 Gigabit Fiber Within Three Years

Google’ Fiber is mighty fast at 1 gigabit per second, but the company is working to pick its speeds up by a factor of ten. https://gizmodo.com/googles-crazy-1000mbps-fiber-internet-connection-is-out-5929295 At a conference earlier this week, Google’s Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette explained that its coming fiber networks should boast speeds of 10 gigabits per second, reports USA Today.…

The second season of House of Cards is available now on Netflix. So long, weekend.

Comcast Confirms Its $45 Billion Merger with Time Warner Cable

Following rumors last night, Comcast has announced that it is acquiring Time Warner Cable in a multibillion-dollar deal. The official press releaseclaims that this is a merger, but in reality Comcast is ponying up a cool $45.2 billion to absorb 100 percent of TWC. In turn, Time Warner Cable shareholders will find that they own…

Google has announced that, in collaboration with VMWare, it’s starting to port Windows software to run in its Chrome OS. Time for Microsoft to worry?

Ten Technologies That Could Enslave Humanity

While humans continue to mold and shape technology, it’s just a matter of time before it starts molding and shaping us, too. This video investigates ten current technologies that could go on to enslave us in the future. Some you might agree with, some you might not—after all, it’s pretty tough to predict the future—but…

The Most Common Relationship Advice, Visualized

Ahead of the schmaltz that is Valentine’s Day, how about a little advice? This visualization shows the most frequently provided words of relationship wisdom so you can console your friends—or yourself—tomorrow. A simple word cloud put together by the guys at Information Is Beautiful, it takes data from 25 popular relationship guides to ascertain which…

An Xbox One Media Remote Could Be Coming March 4th

You can control the Xbox One by shouting, waving your arms or—if you must—using a controller. But a leaked pre-order page suggests that a conventional remote is on the way, too. The page briefly appeared on Amazon’s Canadian website. It revealed an image, a price ($25), a March 4th release date and… little else. But…

Apple: Our Supplies (Largely) Don’t Come From War Zones

Apple has just published its supplier responsibility report, which audits its contract workers who produce and assemble hardware in factories outside the US. Perhaps most interestingly, Apple explains in the report that it has confirmed that none of its suppliers use tantalum—a metal that is regularly used in mobile electronics—from areas engaged in warfare. The…

Mozilla Is Putting Ads in Firefox’s New-Tab Page

There is no escape from consumerism: Mozilla has announced that it is going to start experimenting with promotional tiles in its ‘new tab’ page. Usually when you open a new tab in Firefox you’re presented with your most-visited websites. When you’ve cleared your history or are starting with a fresh installation, those tiles simply appear…

A Rocket, a Meteor and the Milky Way, All in One Overwhelming Image

Pictures of rockets, meteors and the Milky Way are all amazing. But one with all three makes for an overwhelming image indeed. This amazing picture shows the night sky over Doi Inthanon National Park in Thailand. Within it, you can see the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, hovering surreally. But there’s more: just…

10 Simple Techniques For Photoshop Beginners

Adobe’s Creative Cloud has opened Photoshop up to more beginners than ever thanks to its $10 per month price tag. Here are ten super useful things to learn how to do if you’re using the software for the first time. OK, yes, this tutorial is by Adobe. But, honestly, who better to tell you how…

This Beautiful Patchwork US Celebrates Landsat 8’s First Year in Space

A year ago, Landsat 8 rocketed into space. Since then it’s been beaming back data to Earth for NASA scientists to interpret—like these beautiful patchwork picture of the US. This series of images, acquired in August 2013 by the satellite’s Operational Land Imager, were pieced together by David Roy, from South Dakota State University. The…