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The Microsoft Privacy Pro the NSA Turned into a Conspiracy Theorist

Caspar Bowden spent nearly a decade working for Microsoft, where he held the position of chief privacy adviser. He says he knew nothing of the PRISM data sharing scheme while there, a fact that’s turned him into a code-examining member of the paranoid elite. Bowden claims to have lost all trust for Microsoft in the…

How Do Gas Pumps Know When to Stop?

If you’ve ever put gas in a car, you’ll know that the pump magically knows when to stop spewing fuel into the tank. That’s super useful, and safe too. But how does it know when to stop? Is it witchcraft? Psychic powers? Clever guesswork? Or, you know, some simple but incredibly smart engineering? Watch this…

How to Help a Friend Choose a Computer

Buying a new computer can be a stressful experience if you’re not constantly reading tech blogs. But when it comes to advising friends on what t0 get it, things aren’t always straightforward. The golden rule: actually ask about what they need it for. Then ask them again. Ask them until they actually know what they…

A Full View of the Gigantic Asteroid Vesta

At 330 miles in diameter, Vesta is the second most massive object in the asteroid belt. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has been orbiting it for some time now, but it’s finally generated an image which shows the asteroid in all its glory. https://gizmodo.com/first-image-of-asteroid-vesta-captured-from-its-orbit-5822336 Dawn is the first man-made object to visit the asteroid belt, and this…

Google Drive has just received a nice little graphical update, with document editors now neatly compressed to maximize space on the content itself. Go check it out.

BitTorrent Thinks It Can Make Your Online Chat Secure

The fallout from the NSA spying scandal has left many people unsure about what they should and shouldn’t share across the tubes. But now BitTorrent has an answer: an instant-message chat client that uses decentralized data transfer to keep your communications safe. Just released as a private alpha—that means you need to visit the BitTorrent…

GoPro Hero 3+ Hands On: A Nice Bump, But Not a Huge Jump

Last year, when GoPro’s Hero 3 Black edition emerged victorious from our intensive Action Camera Battlemodo, we noted that while it won, we had some gripes that nearly cost it the crown. This year, GoPro is releasing the Hero 3+, and it address almost all our concerns. https://gizmodo.com/gopro-hero-3-black-edition-review-yes-its-the-best-u-5959046 Did you see the plus sign in…

TWTIT: If I Had a Heart (NSFW)

This grisly tale of violent revenge pits the champion of South Korea’s underground fighting circuit against the mob bosses that disfigured and left him for dead. If I Had a Heart, an 11 minute live-action short film from Rook Films, follows in the proud Korean Neon Noir cinematic style of bloody revenge flicks like Old…

Watch NASA’s Predictions About Climate Change for the Next 87 Years

News alert! The world is going to get hotter. NASA combined dozens of climate models from around the world to estimate temperature and precipitation patterns for the next 87 years. That’ll get us right to the year 2100. There are a lot of fascinating changes. NASA describes the climate model: To produce visualizations that show…

Do You Still Have an Unlimited Data Plan?

Over the weekend, Verizon, which famously executed unlimited data plans last year, had a software glitch that allowed customers to upgrade their phone and keep their grandfathered unlimited data plans. Most of us probably didn’t take advantage. Which means you’ll have to shell out full, unsubsidized prices for your next phone to stay unlimited on…

Haim: Days Are Gone

The band Haim—made up of three titular siblings—is a rare thing in today’s music scene: Unlike so many other musicians who shun their pop culture roots, Haim revel in Top 40 classics—and their music is the better for it. For proof, look no further than Days Are Gone, the trio’s first full-length album, which debuted…

Here’s a Closer Look at What the Nexus 5 Might Look Like

As far as heavily anticipated upcoming phones go, we’ve got a pretty good handle on what the Nexus 5 will look like. We’ve seen it accidentally leaked by Google, spotted it at a bar and seen it cross through the photo friendly desks of the FCC. https://gizmodo.com/did-google-accidentally-leak-the-next-nexus-phone-1247836161 So this new image, which apparently comes from…

These Breathtaking Cliffside Walkways Will Give You Vertigo

Humans have been scrambling up mountainsides for thousands of years, using some seriously precarious walkways to reach their destinations far above sea level. Here are some of the most hair-raisingly narrow cliff paths that humans have created. They are both terrifying and gorgeous. The 700-year old Chang Kong Cliff Road with a 12 inch (30…

This Map Shows Whether Your State Restricts Drone Use

This map, from Mother Jones, shows which states have laws that restrict the use of drones by private citizens and law enforcement. Most states let the air above them remain free while nine states have passed laws to keep drones grounded. You can check out the full map at Mother Jones. Gotta wonder when this…

Comment of the Day: Headless Horseman Edition

Today’s comment of the day emerged from deep inside a misty forest, riding upon a terrible steed, and decapitating all other comments that stood in its path. In response to this post, on the very best that your television has to offer you this week, commenter Captain Max and Jinx has a series of suggestions…

We have seen clouds on a giant planet beyond our solar system

On the left is an artist’s recreation of what the clouds look like on a planet called Kepler-7b, a hot Jupiter in orbit around a large, aging star in the constellation Lyra. And, for the first time in history, scientists are certain that cloudy atmospheres exist beyond our solar system. It’s our first glimpse of…

Confirmed: Underwater sonar linked to over a hundred whale deaths

The deaths of over 100 melon-headed whales, which stranded on the shores of a lagoon in northwest Madagascar in 2008, were likely primarily triggered by a form of sonar being deployed by an ExxonMobil survey vessel, according to a scientific review panel. This is the first known marine mammal mass stranding event to be closely…

Are there any realistic scifi scenarios for space travel that could come to pass in the 21st century? Futurist Peter Schwartz says there are — and over at Forbes, Elise Ackerman lays them out for us.

Ancillary Justice is the mind-blowing space opera you’ve been needing

First-time novelist Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice is a tale of war crimes whose astropolitical scope is stunning. It’s a military thriller, a mystery, and a very complicated love story about sentient starships and hive minds in an alien civilization that looks a lot like something out of Earth’s history. What’s immediately impressive about Ancillary Justice…

Steven Moffat “Probably Done” with the Weeping Angels on Doctor Who

Steven Moffat has written three Doctor Who stories featuring the Weeping Angels, those statues that only move when you’re not looking at them. And now, he says he’s probably done all he can with them. Talking to the OfficiallyNerdcubed Youtube channel [above], Moffat explained: I’m probably done to be honest on what you can do…