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Kindle Fire HD: Better, Faster, Cheaper—Bigger! (Updated: HOLY CRAP)

The original is now $160. That’s absurd. But the real news is the new HD model—and its big brother. The Fire HD is a little sleeker and a little rounder—a nice change from the overly boxy first Kindle Fire. The large version of the HD has an 8.9-inch screen, to go along with the 7-incher.…

Kindle Serials Brings Back Dickensian-Style Book Installments

Back when Charles Dickens and his cohorts were publishing, books didn’t come fully formed; instead, they came out in regular installments; that’s why each chapter tends to end with a cliffhanger. Today, Amazon announced that it’s bringing that proud tradition back with Kindle Serials. The way Serials will work is that you pay upfront for…

Kindle Paperwhite: Amazon’s New Amazing eReader

Here’s Amazon’s new E-Ink Kindle. It’s stunning. It’s $119 and ships October 1st. We’ll update with all the details as Amazon provides them. The Paperwhite is a frontlit reader, which we knew it would be, but it’s also got a new display—based on E-Ink’s XGA display—that bumps its PPI to 212, up from 169. That’s…

So-called ‘Junk DNA’ could be keeping you alive

Yesterday we told you about ENCODE, the recently concluded mega-project that created a kind of Encyclopedia Britannica of human gene function. Among the initiative’s many findings was that so-called “junk DNA” — outlier DNA sequences that do not encode for protein sequences — are not junk at all, and are in fact responsible for such…

The 5 Most Unpleasant And Undignified Ways To Die In Ancient Times

Antiquity was the pits. For every advancement in philosophy or mathematics, you had half a dozen crazed aristocrats high on mercury potions trying to remove your limbs in bold new ways. Here are five particularly egregious ways to kick it centuries ago — they involve (among many things) honey, wine, eels, and inappropriate touching. 1.…

Dedicated Pepper Prep Tool Rescues Utterly Incompetent Chefs

Before the Food Network, it was Julia Child’s cooking show that encouraged America to ditch their TV dinners and get back to experimenting in the kitchen. And it worked, although it encouraged inventors to come up with a glut of overly-specialized food prep tools that promise to make life in the kitchen a lot easier.…

Science says underpaid people enjoy their jobs more!

Why don’t doomsday cults break up when their apocalyptic predictions fail to come true? After all of that suffering and inconvenience, people want to make the best of a situation. And this same phenomenon will allow you to treat people like crap, and pay them a pittance — and they’ll thank you. We’ve all heard…

Scientists Discover Method to Control Cockroaches Remotely

Researchers have been working on this for a very long time and now they have finally achieved it: scientists at North Carolina State University have successfully remotely controlled cockroaches. Watch the video. It’s both disgusting and impressive, but it could save your life one day. https://gizmodo.com/remote-controlled-roaches-the-next-front-line-in-nucle-5474179 According to lper Bozkurt, assistant professor of electrical engineering…

Music Is Still Too Expensive To Be Free, Too Free To Be Expensive

In this corner, we have recording artists – those beleagured believers clinging dearly to the notion that they can quit their day jobs, just like their tune-slinging forebears did. As many have pointed out, they don’t make much per stream from even today’s most popular streaming services – about $0.003 from iTunes Match and $0.001…

Our Amazon Kindle Liveblog Hoopla Starts Right Now

Greetings from Los Angeles, home of the second-place Dodgers and a host of brand-new Kindles. Amazon’s mega major event starts in an hour or so, but we’re firing up the liveblog now to get you up to speed on what the scene is like and what we’re expecting to see. Join us, won’t you? On…

New treatment reduces a key Alzheimer’s Disease protein by a staggering 90 percent

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most terrifying things that can happen to people: staying physically healthy but losing their mental capacity. And now, a new treatment shows great promise in attacking a key building block of the disease. Researchers found that eliminating a single enzyme from mice with aggressive symptoms of Alzheimer’s drastically reduced…

Astronauts repair space station with toothbrush

Yet another reason to never leave home without your toothbrush. As Gina Sunseri of ABC reports: A $100 billion space station saved by a simple $3 toothbrush? It was the brainstorm of astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihido Hoshide and NASA engineers on the ground: a tool to clean a bolt that gave them so much…

Cassette-Themed Moleskines Are a Lovely Obituary For a Dead Medium

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the compact audio cassette tape—which was invented by Philips back in 1962—Moleskine is releasing a line of notebooks featuring debossed color graphics on the cover making them look like tiny recorders. It’s a lovely gesture, but it would have probably been more meaningful were cassettes still in wide use…

Big Apple Apocalypse: 200 Years of Destroying New York City

Futurist thinkers have rarely been kind to New York City. In fact, writers and artists have spent the better part of two centuries destroying the Big Apple. Whether by flood or fire, nuclear explosion or alien invasion, New York more than any other city bears the brunt of our most apocalyptic futures. And perhaps no…

Here’s a Full-Body Rock Climbing Harness For Pregnant Women Because Apparently That’s a Good Idea

Pregnant rock climbers of the world rejoice! Mountain Mama, Inc, the outdoor outfitter for expectant mothers, now offers a full-body climbing harness specially designed for the unique geometry of pregnant bodies. Why would you let that fetus inside you keep you from extreme sports? The climbing harness, which will be available in January for $120,…

Modern Architecture that Revolutionizes Everyday Life

While modern architecture is characterized by general, overarching themes like simplicity of form and the notion that form follows function, seeing these ideas come to life is something that’s unique to every building or structure. Never has there been a better time to witness this than now. Modern architecture is changing the way we work…

The Missile That Targets Radio Signals Just Got A Deadly Tune Up

Invading enemy airspace is a lot easier when they can’t see you coming. So the US military typically targets enemy radar stations using a supersonic air-to-surface weapons called the AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM). If it emits radio waves, it’s in HARM’s way. The potential targets, beyond radar installations, include early warning systems, jammers, and…

After months of deal-closing and regulatory whatnot, Instagram has officially been assimilated by the Facebook Borg.

The Pope Wears These Socks on Fishing Trips

A… friend… has always wondered what the pope wears on his day off because he can’t wear that giant hat everywhere. Does he have a papal track suit? Holy but not holey jeans? White tees for the Holy See? This… friend asked the question when she visited the Vatican and was not given a conclusive…

Rumored Leaked iPhone 5 NFC Chip Is Just an Earpiece Speaker

We were pretty positive this allegedly leaked iPhone 5 chip was not actually an NFC chip. We weren’t sure what it actually was. Now, MacRumors is claiming that, according to RepairLabs, it’s just a boring earpiece speaker. https://gizmodo.com/rumor-new-iphone-5-leaks-show-nfc-chip-maybe-sorta-5938123 The hope was that the new iPhone would have an NFC chip that would allow iOS 6’s…