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Giant Flare Around Proxima Centauri May Kill Hope for Planetary System

Scientists have discovered a flare off of the sun’s closest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri. Many are reporting that it could spell trouble for any hope for life on its exoplanet, Proxima b—but it might also kill off a presumed set of other planets around the star. Last fall, lots of folks, including me, reported on…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum Feb 27 '18

I Feel Like I’m a Part of This Jazz Band Captured With a Depth-Sensing Microsoft Kinect Camera

Microsoft’s Kinect, the depth-sensing, motion-tracking technology, might be dead as a product, but the hardware lives on, and is being used for far more than just video games now. This experimental film by Marcin Nowrotek mixes 3D footage of jazz musicians with 3D animations to create a music video where the musicians almost appear to…

Sploid Andrew Liszewski Feb 27 '18

Justice Department Drops $2 Million to Research Crime-Fighting AI

The artificial intelligence craze isn’t just hitting Silicon Valley—the Justice Department wants to get in on the action, too. The agency announced today that it will put $2 million towards research on AI, which it believes could be used to fight human trafficking, illegal border crossings, drug trafficking, and child pornography. National Institute for Justice,…

Privacy & Security Kate Conger Feb 27 '18

Facebook’s New Face Recognition Features: What We Do (and Don’t) Know [Updated]

Editor’s Note: After this post was published, Facebook provided more specific details about how their face recognition system works. The following post has been updated to include the additional information given to Gizmodo, and the headline has been updated to reflect that. Being on Facebook means being seen, and recently some users have spotted a…

Tech News Sidney Fussell Feb 27 '18

Annihilation Is Actually a Warning About How Dangerous the World of Pokémon Really Is

To everyone marveling at how imaginative and wondrous all of Annihilation’s fantastical, mutated creatures are, you realize they’re all just Pokémon, right? We’ll explain below—but it will involve a great number of spoilers for the film, so beware. The vast majority of Alex Garland’s Annihilation takes place within the Shimmer. It’s a mysterious area around…

Movies Charles Pulliam-Moore Feb 27 '18

Iowa Researchers Accuse Russia of Injecting Anti-GMO Propaganda Into U.S. Media

Researchers from Iowa State University are claiming that US versions of popular Russian-funded news media are littered with articles and links casting genetically modified organisms in a negative light. It’s an effort, say the researchers, to discredit American agricultural practices and to portray Russian crops as an “ecologically cleaner” alternative to GMOs. ISU sociologist Shawn…

Tech News George Dvorsky Feb 27 '18

What You Should Know About the EPA’s Proposal to Close Its Environmental Research Center

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to reorganize some major offices that could potentially result in the cutting of a research program that funds work on the ways chemicals and pollutants are messing with the health of children and tribal nations. The research itself, though, would continue. The Hill first reported Monday night that the…

Environmental Justice Yessenia Funes Feb 27 '18

One Strike Away From YouTube Ban, Alex Jones Begs Parkland Survivor to Come on Show

If Alex Jones’ Infowars YouTube channel gets one more strike within the next three months, it will be banned from the site, where it has 2.2 million subscribers. Infowars—a far-right media outlet that often suggests mass shootings like those at Sandy Hook and Marjory Stoneman Douglas are orchestrated, staged events—claims it got its second strike…

Tech News Jennings Brown Feb 27 '18

Asus Basically Made a More Affordable iPhone X Ripoff with Android

While better known for its various PCs and gaming products, Asus has been making smartphones for quite some time. Over the previous four generations of Zenfones, Asus had always skipped the world’s largest smartphone trade show, MWC in Barcelona. The reason? According to Asus’ head of global marketing Marcel Campos, “[We] just weren’t ready.” But…

Gadgets Sam Rutherford Feb 27 '18

Democrats Unveil Plan to Save Net Neutrality (or Make Republicans Look Bad While Trying)

Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday formally introduced legislation to save net neutrality from the corporate-greased mitts of the Federal Communication Commission. The measure is likely to fail to reverse the FCC’s bludgeoning of the open internet—but if so, it comes packed with a ticking time bomb for Republicans. At least, that’s the plan. Led by Massachusetts…

Tech News Andrew Couts Feb 27 '18

Revisiting A Wrinkle in Time, the Book That Defined My Own Beautiful Girlhood

It’s been about 15 to 20 years since I’ve read Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. I’ve carried the 1962 novel with me throughout my entire life. It’s traveled across four state moves, from coast to coast, forever a reminder of the girl I once was and the person I became. Now, as director Ava…

Books & Comics Beth Elderkin Feb 27 '18

Strange Pole-Shifting Physics Conjures a Truly Alien World

Perhaps there’s a life-supporting, Earth-like planet orbiting close to a red dwarf star many light years away. Perhaps this planet orbits so close to the star that only one half of it ever faces the light. Maybe some sentient species evolved during that infinite day, on some massive supercontinent. And maybe one day, the sun…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum Feb 27 '18

A Collector Is Trying to Bring a Rare, “Previously Unknown” Apple-1 Back to Life

The Apple-1 is the very first product from the minds of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and when one of the 50 or so boards known to still exist sells at auction it’s a big deal. These fragile pieces of computing history regularly fetch upwards of $300,000. Jimmy Grewal recently acquired one such board (the…

Tech News Avery Ellis Feb 27 '18

Episodes From Doctor Who‘s Revival Are Getting the Old School Novelization Treatment

Doctor Who fans who grew up in the classic era of the show are more than familiar with the nostalgic legacy of the Target (no relation to the retail store) novelizations—in an era before repeats and home releases, they were often your only chance to re-experience an episode. These days episode novelizations are no longer…

Books & Comics James Whitbrook Feb 27 '18

The Essential Phone Finally Makes Sense

The Essential Phone was supposed to be the one. Envisioned by Andy Rubin, the father of Android itself, and expertly crafted from a luxurious combo of ceramic, titanium, and Gorilla Glass, the PH-1 had the kind of pedigree you rarely see from a startup, let alone one that was trying to put out its first…

Smartphones Sam Rutherford Feb 27 '18

A Judge Denied Facebook’s Attempt to Kill a Privacy Suit Over Biometric Face Prints

In 2o15 and 2016, a rush of class-action lawsuits were filed by people in Illinois against tech companies. The impetus was an unusual law in the Prairie State. In 2008, the state passed the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, making it, along with Texas, one of only two states at the time with laws on…

Social Media Kristen V. Brown Feb 27 '18

Cashier-Less Shopping Startup Takes Aim at Amazon Go With System ‘Orders of Magnitude Bigger’

Amazon is on a mission to redefine the brick and mortar businesses that it disrupted out of existence. With its Amazon Go convenience store, Amazon is pioneering locations with no checkout lines. But innovators spawn imitators and an emerging startup thinks it can retrofit any store with its AI-powered item tracking system starting next year.…

Tech News Rhett Jones Feb 27 '18

Climate Action Is Coming to Museums Across America

For decades, in an attempt to fight climate change misinformation, science communicators have focused almost exclusively on fear. And experts at San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences (Cal Academy) are starting to worry all those doom-and-gloom stories of melting icebergs, rising sea levels, and dying polar bears are adding up to a public that has…

Climate Change Erin Biba Feb 27 '18

This Handcrafted Commodore PET 2001 Is the Most Elite Retro Device that Money (Probably) Can’t Buy

The Commodore PET 2001 was already one of the better-looking dinosaurs from the early desktop days, but this one-of-a-kind retro rebuild, handmade from American walnut, takes it to another level. The gorgeous little game machine was first spotted by The Verge and comes to us from Swedish designer Love Hultèn. The meticulous craftsman is known…

Tech News Rhett Jones Feb 27 '18

Artificial Intelligence Directed a Music Video and the Results Will Melt Your Eyes

Even if you don’t care for the actual song, the music video for Hardcore Anal Hydrogen’s track Jean-Pierre is a visual feast, taking advantage of several recent breakthroughs in artificial-intelligent image processing that’s quickly gone from creating nightmares, to revolutionizing how modern visual effects are created. The behind-the-scenes processes that went into making this music…

Sploid Andrew Liszewski Feb 27 '18

Giant Flare Around Proxima Centauri May Kill Hope for Planetary System

I Feel Like I’m a Part of This Jazz Band Captured With a Depth-Sensing Microsoft Kinect Camera

Justice Department Drops $2 Million to Research Crime-Fighting AI

Facebook’s New Face Recognition Features: What We Do (and Don’t) Know [Updated]

Annihilation Is Actually a Warning About How Dangerous the World of Pokémon Really Is

Iowa Researchers Accuse Russia of Injecting Anti-GMO Propaganda Into U.S. Media

What You Should Know About the EPA’s Proposal to Close Its Environmental Research Center

One Strike Away From YouTube Ban, Alex Jones Begs Parkland Survivor to Come on Show

Asus Basically Made a More Affordable iPhone X Ripoff with Android

Democrats Unveil Plan to Save Net Neutrality (or Make Republicans Look Bad While Trying)

Revisiting A Wrinkle in Time, the Book That Defined My Own Beautiful Girlhood

Strange Pole-Shifting Physics Conjures a Truly Alien World

A Collector Is Trying to Bring a Rare, “Previously Unknown” Apple-1 Back to Life

Episodes From Doctor Who‘s Revival Are Getting the Old School Novelization Treatment

The Essential Phone Finally Makes Sense

A Judge Denied Facebook’s Attempt to Kill a Privacy Suit Over Biometric Face Prints

Cashier-Less Shopping Startup Takes Aim at Amazon Go With System ‘Orders of Magnitude Bigger’

Climate Action Is Coming to Museums Across America

This Handcrafted Commodore PET 2001 Is the Most Elite Retro Device that Money (Probably) Can’t Buy

Artificial Intelligence Directed a Music Video and the Results Will Melt Your Eyes

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I’ve Tested a Lot of Bad Smart Glasses and These Are the Worst Yet

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