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On Thursday, a 45-year-old man wielding a hammer reportedly smashed through a glass screen protecting one of only four copies of the original Magna Carta. The incident, which predictably has a lot of people making National Treasure jokes, happened at Salisbury Cathedral in the UK. The man, who is not Nicolas Cage, is now in…
It’s not unusual for construction workers to find historical objects inside of walls. But the team renovating the T.B. Converse Building in Valdosta, Georgia, were caught off guard when they found an estimated 1,000 teeth buried in a second-floor wall. The weirdest thing is that the same thing has happened in two other Georgia towns.…
Every year, various members of the illusion community—which is made up of scientists, neurologists, researchers, and even artists—get together to decide which of their recently created mind-melters deserves the honor of Best Illusion of the Year. This year, Japan’s Kokichi Sugihara claimed the top prize with a deceptively simple illusion that plays with how our…
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is suing Ecuador, the country that has been protecting him ever since he jumped bail in London on sexual misconduct charges in 2012. Assange claims that Ecuador is violating his rights of asylum by limiting his internet access in the London embassy, but the suit is already off to a bumpy…
Instagram has pulled from its platform a post by former Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos that seemingly praised the apparent pipe bombs sent this week to a number of top Democrats—including former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—as well as CNN. The post, shared Thursday, said it was “sad” that the…
While this should seemingly go without saying, it turns out that “kill it with fire” is not a great idea when it comes to ridding your home of pests. Nonetheless, there is no shortage of failed cases of people attempting to kill spiders or insects with blowtorches, and it doesn’t often end well. In what…
A painting made by an artificial intelligence program sold at Christie’s in New York auction on Thursday for $432,500—far more than the estimated $7,000 to $10,000. An anonymous phone bidder bought the painting, Portrait of Edmond Belamy, which was created by an algorithm developed by the Paris art collective Obvious. The three-person team fed the…
Toronto’s Pearson Airport has an important message for would-be stem-pickers: The weed there is not up for grabs. Last week, Canada legalized recreational cannabis, becoming the second country in the world to formally do so. While cannabis is legal within Canada, however, it is illegal to transport it across the country’s borders. To address this,…
Earlier today, a report from the New York Times described in excruciating detail the latitude given to one of Google’s former golden boys, Andy Rubin, better known as the “father of Android,” after an investigation into sexual misconduct. A hollow statement from current CEO Sundar Pichai notably does not deny any detail of the story.…
The conditions under which early lifeforms originated and exploded into the many animal groups we see today is a mystery that has confounded scientists for decades. New research suggests shallow marine environments were a critical testbed for these early animals, providing the perfect space for them to evolve the physical characteristics required for them to…
The nation’s most vocal privacy advocate in the U.S. Senate is pressing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this week to implement new technologies that would stop foreign hackers from identifying which U.S. government website Americans are visiting, including U.S. government employees. In a letter Wednesday to Under Secretary Christopher Krebs, head of DHS’s risk-reduction…
The iPhone XR hits stores on Friday, and everybody is flipping out about it being the most affordable new iPhone. Starting at $750, however, the XR isn’t actually that cheap in the grander scheme of things. And yet, to the casual observer, the device also looks a heck of a lot like the undeniably expensive…
These are scary times for the web as we know it, and a new petition before the United States Supreme Court could have broad implications for how we’ll interact online. One of President Trump’s go-to lawyers has made it his mission to get the highest court in the land to reconsider a landmark defamation case…
In a blow to manufacturers that use digital rights management (DRM) protections to prevent consumers from tinkering with their own property, the Library of Congress has adopted new rules allowing anyone to hack the software of their devices for the purpose of performing repairs. The changes officially go into effect on October 28th. Advocates in…
More than a century ago, a teenager named Abigail Roberson had her photo taken at a professional studio in upstate New York. The photo wasn’t particularly scandalous—Roberson is pictured from the shoulders up, looking away from the camera—but it achieved the 1890s version of virality and set off a legal debate about privacy that remains…
President Trump regularly uses his iPhones to tweet and, reportedly, to make phones calls. And according to the New York Times, Chinese and Russian spies are listening, especially to his unsecured cellphone. But President Trump would like you to know that he “rarely” uses his cellphones. He says so in this morning’s toilet tweets, sent…
A month after Apple revealed a new smartwatch and a new iPhone lineup that finally does away with the home button once and for all, the company will hold a follow-up event next week that’s tag-lined, “There’s more in the making.” A new, home button-less iPad Pro seems likely, but what else does Apple have…
The Chinese government, no stranger to mass censorship, has halted a stopgap approval process it has been using to vet video games before they can be released to the public amid a broader crackdown on the market, Bloomberg reported this week. Some Chinese officials are apprehensive about gaming, viewing it as a potential threat to…
The New York Times published a troubling report yesterday alleging that President Trump uses off-the-shelf iPhones to talk with friends and that both Russian and Chinese spies are listening to Trump’s phone calls to figure out how to manipulate him. But China would like the American president to know that if he’s worried about security,…
Facebook has been fined £500,000 ($645,000) by the United Kingdom today over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The miniscule fine was the most allowed under the law, but Facebook can probably find that kind of money in its couch cushions. Based on last year’s revenue, Facebook makes $645,000 in less than 9 minutes of operation. Facebook…
