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The Smiley Face Emoji Is Clearly Full of Shit

Look, I’m no emoji expert, but there’s one thing I do know: The basic smiley emoji is a goddamn liar. And using it makes you a liar, too. I first noticed the fraudulence of this emoji’s yellow visage when praising a colleague for writing a good story. “Nice work!” I said. “🙂” Creeping Jesus, I thought,…

Tech News Andrew Couts Aug 3 '18

Small Dogs Pee Higher to Lie About Their Size, New Study Concludes

You just can’t trust a little dog. We all know dogs can communicate through scent. They urinate on new areas, their own home turf, and certainly things that other dogs have peed on. We also know that some male dogs lift their legs in order to pee higher. But new research found that smaller dogs…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum Aug 3 '18

New Research Could Reveal Which Parts of Your City Swelter the Most

Anyone who’s spent time in a city in the summer knows that these bastions of blacktop get uncomfortably hot compared with the surrounding countryside. But even within a city’s bounds, some neighborhoods swelter more than others, and that can have a big effect on who’s most threatened by heatwaves. Which is why citizen scientists are…

Earth Science Maddie Stone Aug 3 '18

NASA Announces First Crew for Commercial Space Travel

NASA has announced the first astronauts who will head to the International Space Station on a commercially built spacecraft. These U.S. astronauts previously flew aboard Russian spacecraft to get to the ISS. The coming launches will be the first from American soil since the Space Shuttle’s 2011 retirement, according to a NASA news release. The…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum Aug 3 '18

Summer Camp Island Makes Me Wish I’d Gone to Sleepaway Camp

One of the less-than-enviable things about growing up in a major metropolitan area with slightly more protective than average parents is never having the chance to spend a few weeks during the summer in a magical world commonly known as sleepaway camp. This cruel reality is one of the many things that makes Cartoon Network’s…

io9 Charles Pulliam-Moore Aug 3 '18

Alex Garland’s Sci-Fi Show Starring Nick Offerman and Ex Machina’s Sonoya Mizuno Is a Go

The director of Ex Machina and Annihilation has a new sci-fi project, and it’s coming to FX with a little help from his friends. Deadline reports the network just picked up an eight-episode limited series called Devs, directed by Alex Garland, about “a young computer engineer [who] investigates the secretive development division of her employer, a…

io9 Germain Lussier Aug 3 '18

Nut Milk Recalled Because It May Contain Real Milk

Beware, lactose-intolerant Almond Breeze drinkers: There may be milk in your milk alternative. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday that HP Hood is recalling many half-gallon cartons of Blue Diamond’s Vanilla Almond Breeze almond milk because the products may contain real milk. “There was a failure in the production process and some…

Health Jennings Brown Aug 3 '18

Electric Warriors Will Look at the Unexplored Dark Ages of the Future DC Universe

When you think about the future in the DC universe, a few iconic stories and franchises will pop into your head. Kingdom Come. The Legion of Super-Heroes. DC One Million. Electric Warriors wants to do something different: show people what happens to Earth after its superheroic legacies fade away hundreds of years from now. There’s…

Books & Comics Evan Narcisse Aug 3 '18

FCC Almost Does Something Right, and It May Give Google Fiber a Boost

There is plenty of reason to be skeptical when this FCC decides to do anything that isn’t a gift to the biggest telecoms in the nation. But on Thursday, it created new rules that could help upstarts like Google Fiber break into wireless and broadband markets. It’s a rare instance in which less regulation might…

Tech Policy Rhett Jones Aug 3 '18

The Cost of Buying a $100 Phone

No one gets a cheap phone because they want to have a sub-par experience filled with stuttering and lagging apps. People get cheap phones because they’re cheap, and usually work just enough to justify the low price point. Take the Alcatel 1X, for example. It’s neither novel nor intriguing. It’s not trying to impress you.…

Smartphones Patrick Lucas Austin Aug 3 '18

The Futuristic Invisible Wall That Was Supposed to Protect Entire Towns From Missiles in 1959

When you hear about the concept of missile defense in space, your first thought might be Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, more commonly called Star Wars. But ideas for an invisible missile shield in the sky are much older than the 1980s. As just one example, we have this Sunday comic strip from 1959, which…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 3 '18

We May Finally Know How Notorious Pregnancy Drug Thalidomide Hurt Thousands of Babies

The devastating story of thalidomide—a once-popular morning sickness drug later found to cause terrible birth defects—might have a few more chapters left to it. A new study published this week in the journal eLife claims to have discovered how the drug was able to so brutally harm developing fetuses in the 1950s and 1960s. The…

Health Ed Cara Aug 3 '18

Christopher Robin Won’t Release in China, and It Could Be for a Very Odd Reason [Updated]

Most of the world will get to see the depressing adventures of a grown-up Christopher Robin in Disney’s Christopher Robin live-action movie this month, but China won’t—because the country’s film authorities have just denied the film a release, with rumors swirling about an old meme as the possible reason. Since the ‘90s, China has had…

Movies James Whitbrook Aug 3 '18

A Top Medical University in Japan Has Been Lowering Women’s Test Scores For Years: Reports

A leading medical university in Japan wanted more male students—so it’s reportedly been lowering the entrance exam scores of female applicants for years. The school, Tokyo Medical University, has been “systematically” reducing all female applicants’ scores by 10 to 20 percent since around 2010, according to the Asahi Shimbun. “Many female students who graduate end…

Tech News Melanie Ehrenkranz Aug 3 '18

Google Lifts Ban on Addiction Rehab Ads

For several months, Google did not allow any ads for recovery-oriented services to appear when you searched drug addiction-related terms. But the search giant is easing up on its rehab-related restrictions, TechCrunch reports. Google began cracking down on addiction rehab ads last September following a report from The Verge about ads for costly rehab institutions…

Health Jennings Brown Aug 3 '18

Here’s How an Absurd Primate Ended Up With Squirrel Teeth

The aye-aye is about as ridiculous looking as a primate can get: beady yellow eyes, bat-like ears, and hands like horrible spiders. But perhaps its most interesting feature is its teeth. Over millions of years, species on Earth have developed seemingly unique adaptations that help them survive in challenging environments. But sometimes, totally different species…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum Aug 3 '18

You Don’t Have to Spend Hundreds to Get a Really Good Keyboard

If you’re not on a laptop or a phone look down at your keyboard. It’s probably the one that came with your PC. Maybe IT handed it over as they explained the no porn policy at the big company you work for. However you acquired it (and you almost certainly didn’t pay for it), there’s…

Reviews Alex Cranz Aug 3 '18

I Went to Die Hard’s Nakatomi Plaza and Not a Single Hostage Was Taken

Of all the filming locations scattered around Los Angeles, one towers above them all. Literally. It’s Fox Plaza in Century City, better known by its fictional name “Nakatomi Plaza,” the setting of John McTiernan’s 1988 classic Die Hard. The building can be viewed from all across Los Angeles and has changed surprisingly little in the…

Movies Germain Lussier Aug 3 '18

Trump’s Fuel Efficiency Rollback Could Start a Legal War

Every boneheaded Trump administration move has been met with a flurry of legal challenges. Thursday’s proposed rollback of future fuel efficiency standards will be no different. The administration has proposed freezing passenger car fuel efficiency at 2020 standard of of 43.7 miles per gallon (mpg) through 2026 rather than raising it to 54.5 mpg. In…

Climate Change Brian Kahn Aug 3 '18

Samsung, U OK?

Another day, another “leak” of what appears to be Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note 9 smartphone. It’s natural Samsung would be more than willing to express excitement for its sequel to the Galaxy Note 8—a phone that didn’t exactly take the world by storm. But for this device to so thoroughly and steadily leak prematurely, just…

Gadgets Patrick Lucas Austin Aug 3 '18

The Smiley Face Emoji Is Clearly Full of Shit

Small Dogs Pee Higher to Lie About Their Size, New Study Concludes

New Research Could Reveal Which Parts of Your City Swelter the Most

NASA Announces First Crew for Commercial Space Travel

Summer Camp Island Makes Me Wish I’d Gone to Sleepaway Camp

Alex Garland’s Sci-Fi Show Starring Nick Offerman and Ex Machina’s Sonoya Mizuno Is a Go

Nut Milk Recalled Because It May Contain Real Milk

Electric Warriors Will Look at the Unexplored Dark Ages of the Future DC Universe

FCC Almost Does Something Right, and It May Give Google Fiber a Boost

The Cost of Buying a $100 Phone

The Futuristic Invisible Wall That Was Supposed to Protect Entire Towns From Missiles in 1959

We May Finally Know How Notorious Pregnancy Drug Thalidomide Hurt Thousands of Babies

Christopher Robin Won’t Release in China, and It Could Be for a Very Odd Reason [Updated]

A Top Medical University in Japan Has Been Lowering Women’s Test Scores For Years: Reports

Google Lifts Ban on Addiction Rehab Ads

Here’s How an Absurd Primate Ended Up With Squirrel Teeth

You Don’t Have to Spend Hundreds to Get a Really Good Keyboard

I Went to Die Hard’s Nakatomi Plaza and Not a Single Hostage Was Taken

Trump’s Fuel Efficiency Rollback Could Start a Legal War

Samsung, U OK?

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