Tom McKay, Author at Gizmodo

Lawsuit Alleges University of Pittsburgh Covered Up Escaped Lab Monkey Infected With ‘Select Agent’

A former immunology expert and laboratory director at the University of Pittsburgh alleges she was fired after blowing the whistle on safety violations at the university, including an incident when a laboratory monkey infected with a “select agent” escaped its cage, the Penn Record reported. According to the Record, court documents show former university immunology…

Health Tom McKay

China Denies That It Gifted the African Union an HQ Building Stuffed Full of Surveillance Devices

The government of China has long held an interest in building bridges with countries across Africa, which it sees as both a major opportunity for economic investment and a chance to project geopolitical power. But while mutual solidarity is nice and all, the Chinese want to leave as little to chance as possible in their…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

Piers Morgan Interviewing Donald Trump on Climate Change Is the Lowest Circle of Hell

President Donald Trump, an area man who believes cold weather disproves the theory of climate change, granted an ITV interview on Sunday to Piers Morgan, an equally pasty area man who has lots of extremely bad opinions about the N-word. Per the Independent, this low-budget performance of No Exit veered into an unfortunate exchange on…

Climate Change Tom McKay

Elon Musk Would Like to Sell You a Flamethrower

Do you have $500 lying around and want to spend it on something that will, inevitably, lead to a much costlier disaster? Elon Musk has you covered. His Boring Company—yes, that’s the one that digs tunnels—has released a flamethrower for some reason that probably has more to do with branding than a pivot to manufacturing…

Sploid Tom McKay

Apparently a Way of Hacking ATMs Called ‘Jackpotting’ Has Spread to the US

ATM manufacturers are warning that criminals are hacking into their devices using a method called “jackpotting”that has recently spread to the U.S. according to Reuters. Both Diebold Nixdorf Inc and NCR Corp issued alerts, though they “did not identify any victims or say how much money had been lost.” NCR told Reuters that none of its…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

Elon Musk Says SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Will Be Ready for Launch on February 6th

SpaceX founder Elon Musk says that the Falcon Heavy, the launch vehicle being billed as the most powerful rocket in the world, will be ready for its first launch on February 6th. The Falcon Heavy is the rocket Musk says could eventually carry astronauts or other equipment to Mars as part of SpaceX’s dubiously safe…

Space & Spaceflight Tom McKay

Does Razer Know It Posted a Racist Meme? [Updated]

There’s being into video gaming and there’s identifying as a hardcore gamer. Both are fine! But the latter group has developed a well-earned reputation for being rife with bigoted jerks, from the whole mess over Gamergate to more recent instances like PewDiePie’s repeated instances of racism. It’s also not a coincidence that hardware manufacturers have…

Tech News Tom McKay

Two Additional Gamers Named in Fatal Kansas ‘Swatting’ Police Shooting

Two additional gamers have been named in a court case involving a Los Angeles man who allegedly phoned in a hoax emergency call over a Call of Duty friendly-fire dispute, resulting in a Wichita, Kansas police sniper shooting and killing an innocent man. Authorities charged 25-year-old Tyler Barriss, who allegedly posted online under the username…

Tech News Tom McKay

Shocking Report Suggests Some Celebrities May Be Buying Social Media Followers

Please brace yourself. According to a Saturday expose in the New York Times, some of your favorite social media influencers may not really be influencers at all. Instead, they may be social media fakers. As someone who had previously assumed celebrities adhere to a sort of Iron Law of Ethics, it rocks my worldview to…

Tech News Tom McKay

Over a Decade Later, NASA’s Long-Dead IMAGE Satellite May Have Come Back to Life

A $150 million NASA satellite which died from systems failure just five years after its launch has somehow reactivated and is still broadcasting, Science reported Friday. Astronomer Scott Tilley was searching for signs of Zuma, a classified U.S. government satellite of unknown purpose that officials declared a “total loss” shortly after its launch, when he…

Space & Spaceflight Tom McKay

Donald Trump Will Probably Ask NASA to End Funding for the ISS by 2025

Donald Trump’s administration has touted big plans for NASA in the past few months, but it hasn’t been willing to put up much cash. So the White House has come up with a way to stretch the space agency’s budget further: Forwarding the bills for the International Space Station to, like, anyone else. Per budget…

Space & Spaceflight Tom McKay

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Orders State Not to Sign Contracts With ISPs That Violate Net Neutrality

In a clear middle finger to the Republican-controlled FCC and its chair Ajit Pai, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order on Wednesday mandating that state agencies only purchase internet service from providers who agree to abide by the net neutrality rules the FCC just threw out. Per the Washington Post, Cuomo’s order…

Tech News Tom McKay

Rebuffed Flat Earth Rocketeer Says He Will Actually Launch Himself Into the Sky at 500 MPH This Time

When last we heard of “Mad Mike” Hughes, the 61-year-old limo driver and stuntman who planned on launching a $20,000 steam-fueled rocket with “RESEARCH FLAT EARTH” painted on the side some 1,800 feet into the air at 500 miles per hour, the gosh darn government had intervened to tell him he couldn’t conduct any such…

Gadgets Tom McKay

YouTube Is Asking Promoted Musicians to Sign Non-Disparagement Agreements

YouTube is asking musicians who have signed up for a new partnership program in which it provides big-ticket funding for videos and promotional support to sign sweeping non-disparagement agreements, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Per Bloomberg, anonymous sources familiar with the program say that YouTube is keeping a tighter grip on its musicians than many of…

Tech News Tom McKay

The GAO Will Look Into the FCC’s Sketchy Net Neutrality Comments in, Like, Five Months or So

Under the tenure of its new Donald Trump-appointed chair Ajit Pai, the Federal Communications Commission recently revoked Barack Obama-era regulations mandating service providers abide by net neutrality rules. But on the way there, the agency had to overlook millions of allegedly fraudulent comments submitted to its Electronic Comment Filing System—likely corrupting one of the only…

Tech News Tom McKay

Trump Administration Targets Imported Solar Panels for Huge Tariffs

Donald Trump’s administration announced on Monday it would be imposing a 30 percent tariff on foreign-made solar panels, sparking warnings that the new regulations are a blow to alternative energy adoption across the U.S. Per CNBC, the tariffs could cause a massive shift amid the next few years across the $29 billion industry, which the…

Tech News Tom McKay

This New Integral Memory 512GB MicroSD Card Is the Biggest on the Market

There’s now a microSD card capable of holding over half a terabyte of data. Per the Verge, Integral Memory’s new 512 gigabyte card exceeds the previous record holder, SanDisk’s 400GB card, by over a quarter more memory. It’s not quite as fast as that card—Integral Memory’s new card maxes out at 80 megabytes/second transfer, slower than…

Gadgets Tom McKay

Hawaii Gov. David Ige Forgot His Twitter Password During That Fake Ballistic Missile Alert

Earlier this month, the state of Hawaii descended into a brief if existentially terrifying panic as its Emergency Management Agency dispatched a mass text message warning of an imminent “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT” after an employee pressed the wrong button. Many residents immediately scrambled for cover from what they believed was an inbound nuclear missile from North…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

South Korean Prosecutors Are Investigating Apple Over the iPhone Throttling Controversy

Prosecutors in South Korea’s capital of Seoul said on Friday that they plan to investigate allegations tech giant Apple deliberately slowed down older models of iPhone to push customers towards purchasing pricier newer versions, the Korea Herald reported. According to the Herald’s report, Seoul-based Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty filed a complaint against Apple CEO…

Tech News Tom McKay

Trump Administration May Face Lawsuit Over Refusal to Restrict Dangerous Pesticide Chlorpyrifos

If Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency does not implement restrictions on pesticides advocated in a recent National Marine Fisheries Services report, environmental activists and commercial fisheries hoping to preserve Pacific Northwest stocks of “salmon, sturgeon, orca and other endangered species” may file lawsuits, the Guardian reported on Sunday. The 3,700-page NMFS report concluded that a…

Health Tom McKay

Tom McKay

Lawsuit Alleges University of Pittsburgh Covered Up Escaped Lab Monkey Infected With ‘Select Agent’

China Denies That It Gifted the African Union an HQ Building Stuffed Full of Surveillance Devices

Piers Morgan Interviewing Donald Trump on Climate Change Is the Lowest Circle of Hell

Elon Musk Would Like to Sell You a Flamethrower

Apparently a Way of Hacking ATMs Called ‘Jackpotting’ Has Spread to the US

Elon Musk Says SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Will Be Ready for Launch on February 6th

Does Razer Know It Posted a Racist Meme? [Updated]

Two Additional Gamers Named in Fatal Kansas ‘Swatting’ Police Shooting

Shocking Report Suggests Some Celebrities May Be Buying Social Media Followers

Over a Decade Later, NASA’s Long-Dead IMAGE Satellite May Have Come Back to Life

Donald Trump Will Probably Ask NASA to End Funding for the ISS by 2025

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Orders State Not to Sign Contracts With ISPs That Violate Net Neutrality

Rebuffed Flat Earth Rocketeer Says He Will Actually Launch Himself Into the Sky at 500 MPH This Time

YouTube Is Asking Promoted Musicians to Sign Non-Disparagement Agreements

The GAO Will Look Into the FCC’s Sketchy Net Neutrality Comments in, Like, Five Months or So

Trump Administration Targets Imported Solar Panels for Huge Tariffs

This New Integral Memory 512GB MicroSD Card Is the Biggest on the Market

Hawaii Gov. David Ige Forgot His Twitter Password During That Fake Ballistic Missile Alert

South Korean Prosecutors Are Investigating Apple Over the iPhone Throttling Controversy

Trump Administration May Face Lawsuit Over Refusal to Restrict Dangerous Pesticide Chlorpyrifos

Apple’s Siri Isn’t Just Going to Use One Chatbot. It’s Going to Use All of Them

Why ‘For All Mankind’ Season 5 Is the Key to the Rest of the Series

ASUS ZenScreen 15.6-Inch Portable Monitor Is Now Cheaper Than Black Friday in Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

Early Wildfires Are Surging Across the US—and Trump’s New Fire Agency Isn’t Ready

INIU Brings Another Power Bank to the Spring Sale as SnapGo Keychain Portable Charger Drops to Its Lowest Price

Attorney Hit With Historic Fine for Citing AI-Generated Cases

Travelers Experiencing the Longest Security Lines in TSA History

Could There Be a ‘Project Hail Mary’ Sequel?

Meta Has More Smart Glasses Coming Whether You Want Them or Not

Apple Requires Device-Level Age Verification in the UK Now. Could the US Be Next?

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

Apple Studio Display XDR Review: It Looks So Good, I Wish It Were an iMac

RayNeo Air 4 Pro Review: My Eyes Love These Video Glasses, but My Nose Disagrees