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This Zombie Printer Was Hacked To Broadcast Radio Waves

All electronic devicesemit radio waves when they’re powered on, even if they don’t connect to the internet or Bluetooth. Governments have been using these accidental waves to spy on each other since the 1960s—but this week, a computer scientist at the Black Hat hacker conference took the idea way further than we’d thought possible. If…

Ken Liu Explains Why The Social Messages In Fiction Depend on the Reader

Ken Liu’s debut novel The Grace of Kings has sparked lots of interest with its coinage of a new genre, Silkpunk. But is it a novel of social commentary? Does it comment on contemporary social issues? The New York Times asked Liu, and he delivered an interesting perspective on the ability of fiction to critique…

Another Android Bug That Lets Hackers Control Your Phone With One Text

Just when the world was starting to chill out about Stagefright, some Israeli hackers announced more bad news. Just like Stagefright, there’s another Android vulnerability that lets hackers take control of a phone with a single text. What’s worse is that there’s not an easy fix. Announced today at the Black Hat security conference in…

Sprawl Is Making Wildfires Worse 

The dry, hot weather of our warming planet doesn’t just mean drought—it also means the fire season is getting longer. Almost six million acres have burned in the US this year, with 45 active large fires currently burning right now. You’d think this would inspire humans to take a look at making our own habitats…

For Some Items, Buying Online Can Actually Add to the Shame Factor

The privacy that comes from buying things online allows people to purchase all kinds of things they normally wouldn’t, right? Not quite. In some cases, buying something online can make you try even more strenuously to avoid the purchase in future than you would if you bought it in public. Online purchasing lets people buy…

You’ll Want These Star Wars Dog and Cat Toys More Than Your Pets Do

With a new Star Wars movie on the horizon, do you really think that Disney and Lucasfilm would limit their marketing efforts to just humans? Of course not. Dogs and cats are also in both company’s promotional crosshairs with this massive collection of costumes and toys designed just for pets from Petco. On the outside…

Lanterns Have Bluetooth Now

Ever thought to yourself: “This lantern is great, but I sure wish I could control it from my smartphone?” No? Well no matter, Princeton Tec just made it anyways. The flashlight firm’s new foldable LED lanters are actually pretty sweet. They weigh just 313 grams and the plastic lens squishes down while the legs fold…

Shooting Challenge: Creepy Crawlies

We’re in the thick of summer now, which means one thing. The creepy crawly bugs are out. But don’t be afraid. For this week’s Shooting Challenge, grab your camera and take some photos. The Challenge Photograph a bug. Insect, arachnid, no matter. But I prefer you photograph something living. Gorgeous images of dead bugs are…

A Forensics Expert Explains Just How Far Removed CSI Is From Reality

Stand back behind the yellow tape, everyone! The CSI techs are on their way and they are coming to science—and it’s driving the real forensics experts crazy. Dawnie Steadman is a forensic anthropologist and the director of the University of Tennesee’s “body farm”—the facility where they do the research that enables a crime tech to…

What exactly is dark matter?

We don’t know what dark matter is but we do know it exists. We know what it’s not though and Kurz Gesagt does its thing with another animated video explainer trying to break down what dark matter and dark energy is. Which is basically, we know something is out there, it interacts with gravity and…

This isn’t helping your case…

Turns Out The Fantastic Four And X-Men Movies Are In Different Universes

Remember how Bryan Singer started teasing the potential of a “Fox Cinematic Universe,” where the new Fantastic Four and the cavalcade of X-Men movies crossed over? Well, apparently someone at Fox desperately shook him and told him to shut up, because now the movies aren’t even in the same universe as each other. Given that…

Watching the Soyuz Dock to the ISS Is Almost Unbearably Tense

Shot from almost every angle imaginable, these combined takes of the Soyuz spacecraft launching, flying through space, and then going through incredibly fiddly process of trying to dock itself to the space station is straight up hair-raising. (Spoiler! The Soyuz makes it—but not without some drama.)

Exclusive Excerpt From Robin Hobb’s Fool’s Quest: Will Fitz EVER Learn?

FitzChivalry Farseer just can’t resist taking in orphans and creatures in need. And that trait will continue to get him into major trouble, judging from our exclusive excerpt from Fool’s Quest, the second book in Robin Hobb’s Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Excerpted from Fool’s Quest, book II of the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy,…

The Deep Influence of the A-Bomb on Anime and Manga

At the end of Katsuhiro Otomo’s dystopian Japanese anime film Akira, a throbbing, white mass begins to envelop Neo-Tokyo. Eventually, its swirling winds engulf the metropolis, swallowing it whole and leaving a skeleton of a city in its wake. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – along with the firebombings of Tokyo – were…

This Lego Model Reveals the Beauty of a Crashed Star Destroyer

The second teaser trailer for Star Wars – Episode VII – The Force Awakens opened with a haunting shot of the deserts of Tatooine slowly swallowing a crashed Star Destroyer. And Lego builder KevFett2011 succeeds in capturing all the beauty in that destruction with this 12,000 piece diorama. It’s ruin porn at its finest, because…

iTunes, an Obituary

Consider this an obituary for iTunes. The death comes just weeks after the arrival of Apple Music, its apparent heir, which was not well received by the typically loyal public. iTunes was just 14 years old. Most people know iTunes from its lengthy and celebrated tenure as the best music app in existence. Its heyday…

This Small Radar Device Can Track Your Sleeping Patterns

In our quest for ever-better sleep trackers, we may have to turn to an older technology for results. If you’ve ever gone to a sleep lab, you know you have to get annoying EEG sensors stuck all over your body, attached to wires. Even if you’re just trying to use a simple FitBit to track…

Will This Adorable Patrol Robot Ever Find What It’s Looking For?

This little patrol robot was recently spotted at a transformer substation in Chuzhou, China. But will it ever find what it’s looking for? Maybe it’s over to the right. Nah, not there. Maybe it’ll find what it’s searching for over to its left. Not there either. Well, what if it gets a little closer while…

Vin Diesel’s Fake Beard Steals The Show in the Last Witch-Hunter Trailer

There’s a lot of silly fun going on, in this first look at The Last Witch Hunter—a movie where immortal Vin Diesel teams up with Rose Leslie and Elijah Wood to kill Witches and skeletal monsters. But seriously, the real highlight is his glorious, glorious beard in all the sequences set in the past. Look…