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January 2019 is nearly over and—for now—so is the month-plus federal government shutdown that blanketed national parks in filth and destruction, played with disturbing consequences for the nationwide “air safety environment,” threw off disaster preparation efforts, broke federal websites, and disrupted scientific conferences. But just like an illegal Airbnb, the shutdown may come back in…
Our plastic pollution problem is absolutely out of control. We know it’s bad, and the companies selling us shit know it’s bad. Samsung Electronics on Sunday announced that it will join a growing number of companies kicking plastic packaging as they shift toward more sustainable options. The company said that among other initiatives, it will…
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has fired the country’s ambassador to China, John McCallum, for saying that the detained chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei could make a strong case to avoid extradition to the U.S.—and that perhaps it would be really good if Canada just backed down on the matter, the Guardian…
A good thing to do if you ever happen to find a grenade is to immediately call the authorities, as one man has evidently just learned. A Taco Bell in Ocala, Florida was evacuated on Saturday after a man reportedly stumbled upon a hand grenade while magnet fishing and then drove it to a local…
Officials at Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas airport in Spain are trying to locate the owner of an abandoned McDonnell Douglas MD-87 that has been taking up costly space at the facility for years, CNN reported this weekend. According to CNN, airport director Elena Mayoral published a notice in the Boletín Oficial del Estado, Spain’s official gazette,…
Authorities said this weekend that the death toll from an industrial disaster in Brumadinho, Brazil in Minas Gerais state has climbed to at least 34, with some officials saying that the true toll could reach the hundreds, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. That’s a sharp increase from a prior count of 11 deaths…
“International undercover operatives” have been hounding members of the internet watchdog Citizen Lab, whose researchers helped reveal that an Israeli cyber-intelligence firm named NSO Group may have played a role in dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder at the hands of state-employed goons, the Associated Press reported Friday. According to the AP, at least twice…
A man was reportedly arrested this week in connection with a recent bank robbery after his credit card that was used to rent a Jump e-scooter linked him to the scene of the crime. The Austin American-Statesman reported Friday that the incident occurred in Austin on Dec. 18, when a hooded man approached a bank…
Remember Tesla’s production tent, the one it erected to help crank out Model 3s last year? Apparently, it didn’t sit well with California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and the company now faces fines totaling nearly $30,000 over violations of labor laws. Business Insider reported Friday that Cal/OSHA inspected the assembly line known as…
Noise-cancelling headphones, like Sony’s excellent WH-1000XM3, do an impressive job of silencing the world around you—assuming you’re actually able to wear them. Wearing headphones to bed to silence a snorer next to you isn’t practical or comfortable. So researchers at Northern Illinois University are integrating similar technology into a pillow that’s custom-designed to reduce the…
An expert tasked with helping the Food and Drug Administration weigh potential new opioid drug approvals is openly calling out the agency for what he alleges are its continued missteps in handling the opioid crisis. In an interview with the Guardian Thursday, Raeford Brown claimed that the FDA has failed to learn from its past…
Scientists have devised a way to communicate secretly by sending laser-transmitted messages directly into the area around a person’s ear. Humans enjoy talking with one another, and often do so in ways that prevent eavesdroppers from listening in. This new research could have potential military applications—but who knows where else it might find use? “The…
So, you’re one of the thousands of people currently stuck in airport limbo as the FAA grapples with staffing shortages. You’ve watched in dismay as flight boards flip from green to red. You’re tired and just want to get where you need to go. What do you do? Step 1: Cry. It’s okay. Let it…
Newly unsealed court documents show that Facebook was aware that underage children routinely used their parents’ payment information to spend large sums of money on in-game purchases, and the company chose not to fix the problem. For years, it allowed for what it called “friendly fraud” because it feared implementing protections would harm revenue, according…
Tinder is supposed to dish out $17.25 million dollars worth of cash and in-app features to users over the age of 29 who were required to pay extra for their subscription services. In 2015, the Tinder dating app launched Tinder Plus. While the basic Tinder service remained free, it limited the amount of profile-swipes someone…
Three days after announcing its “Shot on iPhone Challenge,” Apple has updated its official rules page for the photography contest following a burst of outrage from artists on social media. While the “shot on iPhone” marketing campaigns aren’t new, Apple has previously reached out to photographers through its ad agency instead of putting out a…
At CES earlier this month, Nvidia and AMD traded words, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying his GPUs would “crush” AMD’s newly announce Radeon VII. AMD CEO Lisa Su was more measured in her response, but she didn’t pass up the opportunity to make a dig at Nvidia, noting that when her company finally adopts…
It’s day 35 of President Trump’s government shutdown with no end in sight. And it’s only getting worse. The latest: flights at New York’s LaGuardia airport, New Jersey’s Newark airport, and Philadelphia International Airport have been delayed due to staffing issues at air traffic control centers, according to the FAA’s website. NBC New York reports…
Facebook, you may have heard, had a year riddled with scandals, data breaches, dwindling user trust, slowing growth, scrutiny from regulators, and plummeting morale among its own staff. Clearly the social behemoth needs a major comeback. But according to a report in the New York Times, Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to link messaging capability between Messenger,…
Sometimes it feels like the operating system doesn’t matter. Sure, the fans will always be there ready and willing for a debate, but for most of us, there’s little difference between using Windows or macOS. Most of our day-to-day computing is happening in a web browser—and those are pretty universal at this point. The really…
