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A blast at an Indian research laboratory on Wednesday left one dead and three severely injured, according to Indian news reports. The Hindu newspaper reports that the incident occurred around 2:20 pm at the Indian Institute of Science’s (IISc) Laboratory for Hypersonic and Shock Wave Research in Bengaluru. Seemingly, a cylinder exploded, sending a shockwave…
It’s disorienting enough to have you seeing stars. David Chesley Goodyear, a 44-year-old man from El Segundo, California, has been sentenced to 26 months in prison for a cyberattack against the world’s largest astronomy forum, Cloudy Nights. Goodyear was apparently angry about getting banned from the website. Goodyear was found guilty in February of distributed-denial-of-service…
AirPods aren’t going anywhere, but there’s a lot of rumors swirling around what shape the next generation of Apple’s wireless earbuds will take. While it’s not likely we’ll see a refresh this year, a new patent awarded to Apple suggests interchangeable AirPods with at least one biometric sensor could be on the table for future…
It’s simultaneously an exciting and terrifying time to be alive. The driverless car revolution is upon us, and on Wednesday, Waymo announced that it has launched the world’s first commercial autonomous taxi service. Unfortunately, only a select group of people will be able to take it for a spin. It’s been a little over eight…
Internal Facebook documents published today by the British Parliament give us more insight than ever into the mind of the largest social platform’s CEO. Among those revelations: Zuckerberg’s cavalier attitude towards the possibility of data leaks. The circumstances by which the parliament obtained these documents from U.S. software firm Six4Three were extraordinary, but so too…
Despite a few high-profile disappearances, plenty of iOS apps have companion apps for the Apple Watch—but only some of them bring genuinely useful functions and features to your wrist. Here are our picks for the Apple Watch apps that go above and beyond the basics to add real value to your Apple-branded timepiece. 1) Things…
With Tumblr’s decision this week to ban porn on its platform, everyone’s getting a firsthand look at how bad automated content filters are at the moment. Lawmakers in the European Union want a similar system to filter copyrighted works and, despite expert consensus that this will just fuck up the internet, the legislation moves forward.…
Artificial intelligence in its current form is mostly harmless, but that’s not going to last. Machines are getting smarter and more capable by the minute, leading to concerns that AI will eventually match, and then exceed, human levels of intelligence—a prospect known as artificial superintelligence (ASI). As a technological prospect, ASI will be unlike anything…
Russian state media published video earlier today of its latest laser weapons system, the Peresvet. The move comes just a day after the U.S. said it would likely pull out of a key arms treaty between the two countries, and the timing of the video’s release doesn’t appear to be a coincidence. “Peresvet laser systems,…
The heyday of the pager is long since over, but the devices themselves have continued to be used for specialized purposes like search-and-rescue teams and emergency workers. In Japan, however, the funeral bells are officially ringing. According to a recent report in the Japan Times, Tokyo Telemessage Inc., the nation’s last remaining pager service provider,…
The Secret Service is testing a facial recognition system in public areas of the White House and surrounding grounds with the stated goal of “identifying known subjects of interest prior to initial contact with law enforcement at the White House Complex,” according to Department of Homeland Security documents dug up by the American Civil Liberties…
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has mostly been in the news as of late for his legal work for Donald Trump amid the ever-spiraling federal investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Namely, that said work has been so wildly erratic that his former law firm cut ties with him and even the president reportedly…
On Monday, Tumblr announced plans to ban sexually explicit content starting December 17, and it’s already (badly) flagging offending posts. The new policy is a sucker punch to creators and users, particularly those who had come to appreciate that platform’s uniquely inclusive environment, including its linchpin of sex-positive content. But Tumblr’s sanitization directly impacts one…
Yesterday Tumblr committed to making its social network, which is full of boobs, dongs, and teens openly fantasizing about the two, a more child-friendly place. The announcement, shared via the Staff account, promised a “better, more positive Tumblr” free of things like sexual acts, genitalia, and “female-presenting nipples.” “We won’t always get this right, especially…
The New York Police Department has acquired an arsenal of 14 drones to help monitor the city. The additions include 11 DJI Mavic Pro quadcopters for “tactical operations,” two workhorse DJI M210 RTK quadcopters for 3D mapping and search and rescue, and one DJI Inspire 1 quadcopter for training. According to the New York Post,…
Does the Federal Communications Commission believe that more than half a million comments about net neutrality originated from Russia last year? It depends on who you ask. Remarks offered by Chairman Ajit Pai as recently as yesterday appear in stark relief to claims the FCC recently filed in court. In a memorandum published Monday to…
During the impending robopocalypse, humanity will have to ward off freakishly agile androids, robotic dogs, whatever the hell this is, and, as new research from MIT suggests, quasi-autonomous, mobile robot-plant hybrids. Introducing Elowan, a robot-plant hybrid designed by Harpreet Sareen and Pattie Maes, both from MIT Media Lab. The system is a true cybernetic organism,…
Today, New York’s City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission approved measures to enact minimum pay requirements for app-based for-hire vehicles (FHV) like Uber, Lyft, and Juno. The new pay structure is set to take effect early in the new year. The $26.51 per hour gross pay floor (estimated to amount to $17.22 per hour, less expenses)…
Oath, the Verizon subsidiary born of the fusion of AOL and Yahoo, has agreed to pay $4.95 million to settle charges that it violated children privacy. It is the largest penalization ever to come from enforcement of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), according to the New York attorney general’s office. The New York…
The oversized jeans bunched up comically and uncomfortably around my waist as I tightened my belt last night, and I realized that I’d totally fallen for a diabolical scheme. I believed a brand and had been owned very hard. This past summer, Japanese clothing retailer Zozo, formerly Start Today, publicized their polka-dotted ZOZOSUIT. It looks…
