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What the Recession Did to 255 Different Industries, in One Chart

The Recession hit hard, but unevenly, taking out some industries almost completely, while some prospered. Here’s a chart looking at the impact of the Recession on 255 different industries — and how well they recovered, if at all. Jeremy Ashkenas and Alicia Parlapiano over at The Upshot put together this chart using data on the…

It’s Time to Embrace Congestion Pricing

An ambitious new transportation plan for DC announced last week includes a massive public transit expansion, additional subway line, and beefed up network of bike lanes. But the proposal that’s getting the most attention is the introduction of congestion pricing. Yes, DC wants to charge cars to enter its downtown. And more cities should. As…

You’re Worrying About GMOs For the Wrong Reasons

Scientists have demonstrated that genetically modified organisms have no measurable negative impacts on human health. Indeed, they may hold the key to feeding a world impacted by climate change. But does this mean GMOs are completely without risk? Nope. Here are some good reasons to be concerned. Humans on planet earth face a serious dilemma.…

An Ultra Minimal Keychain Born From Recycled Bike Chains

It doesn’t matter how ultra-thin your wallet is, your pant pockets will still be overflowing if you’re cramming a huge set of keys in there. But even if you move everything onto a single ring, there’s still no way your current set of keys will get as compact as the TIK keychain. Made from a…

Should You Eat An Artificial Sweetener That’s Also An Insecticide?

A new study has found that the popular artificial sweetener, Truvia, is toxic to flies. But we’ve been told not to worry — the active ingredient of this substance, which Coca-Cola uses as a sugar substitute, is apparently safe for human consumption. Indeed, it feels weird to be told that we can eat something that…

Google Brings Its 3D-Modeling Project Tango to Tablets Too

Google just announced a Project Tango tablet development kit that expands the company’s 3D modeling experiment. The project comes to you from ATAP, Google’s research team that works on crazy projects. This is future tech we’re not even sure about yet. The new dev kit is packed with an NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor, 4GB of…

Kylie and Kendall Jenner’s YA Novel Has Nothing But 1-Star Reviews

Kylie and Kendall Jenner, two of the younger Kardashian sisters, published their long-awaited dystopian young-adult novel, the double-colonic Rebels: City ofIndra: The Story of Lex and Livia. And the early reviews are… not exactly raves. You can read the first two chapters online at MTV, but meanwhile, the Amazon page for the book, which has…

Berkeley Lab’s 2D Transistor Could Supercharge Tomorrow’s Electronics

Graphene is regularly touted as a “super material” in electronics manufacturing—one able to do everything that silicon does, except better. But that isn’t good enough for one team at Berkeley Labs. They’ve combined graphene with two other cutting-edge materials to create the world’s first 2D field effects transistor. Your gadgets are about to get much,…

Saucy Coder Scheduled His Github Activity to Spell Out “BUTTS”

Github, a wildly popular social network for coders and their open-source creations, likes to keep track of what you’re doing around its little corner of the internet. And one Belgian coder took advantage of this fact in the most phenomenal way possible—by spelling out “BUTTS.” The brilliant prankster, Steve De Jonghe, apparently has quite an…

Firefly, Super 8, Discount iTunes Credit, $5 Amazon Credit

If you somehow don’t already own Firefly on blu-ray then today is your day. It’ll look great next to the Firefly card game, Firefly board game, and Firefly graphics novels we’ve had recent deals on. [Firefly, $17] Want a Playstation 4? Waiting for an E3 price drop that isn’t coming? Waiting for a new bundle…

Japan Copes with Heat Wave by Inventing the Cooling Aluminum Kitty Pot

A severe heat wave has swept over Japan, with temperatures in parts of the country hitting a 90-year high. As people look for creative ways to keep cool, the most popular item is not for humans, but for their fur-covered companions. As RocketNews24 reports: While it may look like an everyday bowl, this is actually…

Internet Vulnerability Left Encrypted Data Exposed For 10 Years

It’s been just a few months since the HeartbleedOpenSSL security flaw was discovered, and we’re again learning about gaping hole in the widely used security protocol. The good news is that there’s a fix. The bad news is that the vulnerability has existed for a decade, and we’ll never know how much it was exploited.…

US Army helicopter drops an entire boat full of Navy Seals in the sea

Here’s a US Army Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopterdropping a US Navy boat into the sea while a guy—apparently Navy SEAL—is descending into the boat from the chopper. A reader gave a description in the comments: From a distance, it looks like a SWCC crew being dropped (I believe there would be a ladder hanging in…

LaCie’s New Rugged Thunderbolt Drive Has an Integrated Cord

If you were a filmmaker who spent a lot of time on the road, LaCie’s new rugged Thunderbolt drive would be on your wishlist. It’s wrapped up in a neat little IP-54-rated water- and drop-resistant package, with the cord already attached. And it’s about as fast as they come. LaCie claims the USB 3.0 drive…

Tinder Just Upped Its Sexting Game With a Snapchat-Like Photo Feature

Tinder, everyone’s favorite aggressively superficial, swipe-based dating app, just cut out the middle man. Whereas before you’d have to use actual words to make first contact, you’re now free to jump straight into self-destructing-sext land. Ah, to be young and in love. The new Snapchat-esque feature, dubbed Moments, allows users to share annotated photos with…

Is It Time to Give Up on the Singularity?

Some futurists and science fiction writers predict that we’re on the cusp of a world-changing “Technological Singularity.” Skeptics say there will be no such thing. Today, I’ll be debating author Ramez Naam about which side is right. A recent article by Erik Sofge in Popular Science really got my hackles up. Sofge argued that the…

Oh Sweet, You Can Use the Xbox One Controller on PC Now

For all its flaws, I’m a pretty big fan of the Xbox One . But while the voice control can occasionally miss the mark and sometimes the Kinect won’t recognize you, there’s one thing that’s flawless: that controller. And now Microsoft has released the drivers for download so you can use it on PC. I’ve…

Stir‘s Kinetic Desk, the smart sit-and-stand hybrid that learns the way you work and adjusts its height based on your habits, will now connect seamlessly to your FitBit. The two devices will communicate about how many calories burned while surfing the web all day long. [Stir Kinetic Desk]

Control VR Mitts Are Like the Powerglove You Always Wanted

So let’s say you’ve got your Oculus Rift headset on and it’s pretty awesome, but what could make it more immersive? How about looking down and seeing your hands. There are already some (sorta janky) solutions to that problem, but Control VR’s new glove controllers look like the best so far. Essentially the Powerglove you…

Are Warming Arctic Temperatures Spawning New Hybrid Whales?

As Arctic temperatures rise and the ice melts, animals that once had separate migration patterns are suddenly encountering each other — and that could lead to some new animal hybrids. Tim McDonnell over at Nautilus has written a piece about just what the increased interaction between Arctic species could mean. Sometimes it’s as simple as…