Politics

Pulitzer Prize Is First Official Vindication of NSA Whistleblower

The most prestigious award for journalism in the United States, the Pulitzer Prize, went this year to reporters who covered leaked documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. This award signals official recognition of the social good that grew out of Snowden’s leaks. Snowden is the government contractor who last year revealed documents that confirmed the…

Oklahoma Biology Teachers Don’t Understand Evolution

Much of the debate about evolution in public schools concerns the content of textbooks. But a new study points to another worrisome trend: teachers who have misconceptions about evolution might be passing those ideas along to their students. Researchers surveyed Oklahoma high school biology teachers, and found that 23 percent of them misunderstand several key…

Watch The Apocalyptic Short Movie That China Tried To Ban

This short film, “Hong Kong Will Be Destroyed In 33 Years,” has become a huge hit on Youtube in the past month, racking up over 600,000 views. But don’t try and search for it on the Chinese video search service Baidu — it’s been removed. According to the blog Fei Chang Dao, search results for…

The NSA Has Been Ordered To Disclose How Much Water It Uses

First came Edward Snowden, and now this: a Utah state panel has ordered the release of documents regarding water usage at a newly opened NSA data center in the city of Bluffdale. The decision is the latest installment in an ongoing controversy that began last November, when the Salt Lake Tribune revealed that Bluffdale had…

Here’s An Easy Way to Find Out About U.S. Government Spying Projects

A lot of the most bizarre and invasive surveillance technologies that the U.S. government uses to track its citizens are not secret. In fact, you can find out about a lot of these projects as they’re being developed, just by knowing what to search for on U.S. government websites. Over at Electronic Frontier Foundation, Dave…

​The io9 Manifesto: Science Is Political

io9 started out in 2007 as the germ of an idea for a site about futurism, with a name that was a joke about brain implants. Six and a half years later, we’ve grown in size — but we’ve also grown up. Our 2008 manifesto still holds true, but in 2014 we’ve got some amendments.…

Here’s Why This Year’s Cold Winter Doesn’t “Disprove” Climate Change

The latest scientific report on the state of climate change spells out a warmer, doom-filled future, yet for many, this has been the coldest winter in recent memory. Unfortunately, weather isn’t climate, and a regional cold winter isn’t a counter-argument to decades of data. AP Photo. Clockwise from top left: Jessica Hill, Jae C. Hong,…

A Major Shift In Views Toward The War On Drugs

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 67% of Americans say that the government should focus more on providing treatment for those who use illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine, while 26% believe that the government’s priority should be prosecuting users of hard drugs. Public support for a treatment-based approach now spans…

NASA suspended cooperation with the Russian Federal Space Agency on Wednesday, this following weeks of concern that political tensions here on Earth could extend into orbit. But analysts say the policy, while unprecedented, may be largely symbolic; and most agree that humanity’s orbital outpost will weather this political storm.

Bill Clinton Hopes An Alien Invasion Would Bring Humans Together

The White House gets spectacularly destroyed in Independence Day, one of the most famous movies of Bill Clinton’s presidency — but if that happened in real life, Clinton says it could be a good thing, if it finally ended the huge divisions among the human race. Last night on Jimmy Kimmel, the ex-POTUS was asked…

NASA Suspends Cooperation with Russian Space Agency

NASA instructed its staff to stop cooperating with the Russian Federal Space Agency. The agency claims this is a choice between funding Russia or developing our own rockets, but astronaut Ron Garan disagrees. In his view, we shouldn’t be bringing political conflict into orbit. Russia’s Soyuz rocket docked to the International Space Station after dropping…

The High-Tech Case For Bringing Back The Draft

As drones, cyberattacks and other high-tech developments change the nature of war, two prominent scholars argue that we must also rethink who fights our wars: the time has come, they say, to bring back the draft. The article, “Universal Conscription as Technology Policy,” appears in Issues in Science and Technology, a journal published by the…

The U.S. War on Science

When politics ignores science, everyone loses. We already talked about making little girls cry because South Carolina can’t handle a mammoth as the state fossil, but the federal House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology bumps it up a notch to far more depressing. https://gizmodo.com/south-carolina-and-the-mammoth-1554936545 https://gizmodo.com/this-is-what-the-gops-war-on-science-looks-like-1556202056

This Is What the GOP’s War On Science Looks Like

I’ve seen some surreal moments in our nation’s capitol, but few can compare to watching Republican members of Congress lecture John Holdren last week on the meaning of “science.” Here are some highlights. Holdren, the president’s science advisor, was the lone witness at a hearing held by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology…

Join the Debate: 3D Printed Guns or Government Regulation?

Here’s the question: in a world where the design of a 3D printed gun is freely available on the internet, can we—or should we–regulate open source design? Or are limits impossible in a world of anonymous file sharing? Does any attempt at control go against the whole spirit of open source, decentralized innovation? “We cannot…

OKCupid Website Blocks Firefox Because of Mozilla CEO’s Anti-Gay Beliefs

Mozilla Firefox users who try to use popular dating service OKCupid are currently being shown the above message, encouraging them not to use Firefox. The reason? Mozilla’s new CEO Brendan Eich opposes gay marriage. That’s how you play hardball. Here’s the full text of the message, which is followed by links to Google Chrome, Internet…

South Carolina and the Mammoth

Almost every state has a state fossils, but not South Carolina. Inspired by a letter from an 8-year-old girl, a pair of legislators in South Carolina are addressing its paleontological neglect by trying to honour the woolly mammoth. Alas, it isn’t that easy. Before getting into the painfully-predictable sticking point for South Carolina, this is…

Turkey Has Banned Twitter

Turkey’s Internet watchdog has blocked Twitter, following threats by its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan fuelled by the network’s ability to carry rumors about government corruption. It’s a bold and draconian move from a country desperate to join the EU—which means it joins the ranks of Syria, North Korea and Iran on a list of…

What Is the Most Evil Government in Science Fiction?

Big Brother. The Empire. The Borg Collective. Lord Business. Science fiction is brilliant at conjuring up evil governments and authoritarian dictators that would seem ridiculous if they didn’t strike so close to home. What science fictional government scares you the most — either because it’s realistic, or just plain horrible? Please include pictures, video, or…

Two Reasons That Explain Why We’re All Obsessed with Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones comes back to television in just a few weeks, and already we’re feeling the imperative: All Men (And Women) Must Freak Out. But why is Game of Thrones such a huge cultural phenomenon, among all other fantasy series? It comes down to two huge cultural trends, that are rooted in our widespread…