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Yesterday, Gizmodo and other outlets signal-boosted recent statements from former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya saying that social media sites are “ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.” Many of his incriminating assessments echoed analysis made a few days earlier by former Facebook president Sean Parker. Today, Facebook responded directly to what Palihapitiya said.…
Call them content creators, influencers, or maybe just fellow narcissists with a camera, but whether you like it or not, the people you follow on social media are how you get introduced to things like news, memes, or trends. But in an update scheduled to start rolling out later today, Instagram is trying to change…
There’s not a ton we can do now but watch in horror as the FCC’s Republican leadership guts net neutrality. You should, of course, join the ongoing online protest. And if your representatives in Congress don’t support strong net neutrality protections, write them and explain how you won’t forget their stance next time they seek…
Halfway between Brooklyn and Montauk, a steel cupola propped up on wooden legs once looked out over the Long Island Sound and beyond the horizon. Built in the first years of the 20th century, Wardenclyffe Tower served as the centerpiece of a real-life mad scientist’s laboratory. Lever pulling, lightning bolts, maniacal laughter—this is where that…
I generally don’t care for the poetics of life. When I’m walking down the street and something poetic happens—sunlight piercing rainclouds, golden leaves dancing in an autumn wind—I just go “ehh.” But human emotion is quantifiable, meaning it can be taught to computers. A collaboration between MIT’s Lab for Social Machines and McKinsey’s Consumer Tech…
If you would like to take niacin, a B vitamin that is believed to lower cholesterol and the chance of having a heart attack, you could buy a month’s supply online for about $5. Or you could get a prescription for a bottle of virtually the same pills for almost $300, thanks to a pharmaceutical…
Last week, a Google security researcher announced that he’d be releasing the goods that are needed to jailbreak the latest iPhones. For years, it was pretty easy to get all the customization options of Android on iOS, but the developer scene has since dried up. Even if you don’t plan on jailbreaking your phone, there’s…
In a blog post on Tuesday, Soylent founder Rob Rhinehart announced he was resigning as the company’s CEO. “If you love something, set it free,” his goodbye post began, which may not be the standard way to announce one is stepping down, but is still one of the more grounded statements from a man whose…
In January of last year, the Dutch National Police announced they were training eagles to take down misbehaving drones. More than a year later, police have determined that perhaps sicking massive birds of prey at rogue contraptions in the sky isn’t an ideal solution. NOS reports that Dutch police are retiring the project due to…
Back at WWDC 2017 in June, Apple teased us with the iMac Pro, its most powerful desktop yet. But for months, there was barely a peep about when it might available. Now we know it’s definitely going to be available before the end of the year (unlike the HomePod), when it goes on sale later…
Scientific progress doesn’t always exactly look like, well, progress. Progress comes in fits and starts. Sometimes things get in the way—be they harassment, politics, or just plain bad science. These were the worst setbacks to science in 2017. Donald J. Trump Or more specifically, the battle that the Trump administration has led against science through…
It’s no exaggeration to say map apps like Google Maps and Apple Maps have transformed the way we get from A to B, replacing paper maps, guesswork, and friendly strangers with the power of our smartphones. But if you’re using these apps in default mode, you may not be getting to your destination as quickly…
As the year draws to a close, we’re not going to pretend that 2017 is going to be fondly remembered by everyone around the country. But instead of taking the easy route and simply pretending that 2017 never happened, let’s instead focus on the fact that lots of awesome people did some really amazing things…
Robots are already coming for our jobs, and now it looks like they’re coming for our treasured cultural ceremonies, too. On Monday, the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s Hubo robot carried the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics relay torch for a stretch of the relay in Daejon, South Korea. Even more impressively, as shown in…
The Republican-dominated Federal Communications Commission and its chair, industry-adjacent hack Ajit Pai, have been charging towards a vote to repeal Barack Obama-era net neutrality rules on Thursday that seems all but guaranteed to result in a victory for ISPs. Part of the plan involves cutting a deal with ISPs to have them put net neutrality…
For years, Uber systemically scraped data from competing ride-hailing companies all over the world, harvesting information about their technology, drivers, and executives. Uber gathered information from these firms using automated collection systems that ran constantly, amassing millions of records, and sometimes conducted physical surveillance to complement its data collection. Uber’s scraping efforts were spearheaded by…
After months of tension over what, if anything, the Securities and Exchange Commission was planning to do about cryptocurrencies and the billions of dollars people have sunk into initial coin offerings—a form of barely regulated investment vehicle in which investors trade real cash for tokens in crypto-backed startups—the agency’s chairman Jay Clayton has finally weighed…
It’s that time again. It’s time to break the internet in order to raise awareness about net neutrality. The FCC vote to repeal Title II protections is on Thursday, and web-based protests are kicking off in response. Some of the biggest pioneers of tech jumped in on Monday to give the protests a bump, but…
Like bankers on a balcony, sipping champagne and sneering at a growing crowd of protesters angrily chanting from the gutters below, Verizon has taken to openly giving the finger to the throngs of Americans online desperate to defend net neutrality. Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, drew laughter and applause from a crowd…
Back in the early 1950s, a ventriloquist named Paul Winchell had a TV show that featured his dummy named Jerry Mahoney. The program was a hit and is perhaps most notable today for featuring Carol Burnett’s TV debut. But even if you’re not interested in ventriloquism, one episode from December 20th, 1953, will be amusing…
