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Tarte Cosmetics, a cruelty-free cosmetics brand carried by major retailers like Sephora and Ulta, exposed the personal information of nearly two million customers in two unsecured online databases. The databases were publicly accessible and included customer names, email addresses, mailing addresses, and the last four digits of credit card numbers, according to the Kromtech Security…
Facebook tests of a major change to the way its News Feed works in at least six countries have once again raised fears the social media giant—a powerful gatekeeper between publishers and audiences—could be preparing to doom parts of the media, the Guardian reported. Per the Guardian, Facebook has tested a new layout in which…
Two Amazon customers who purchased 27 gallon plastic storage bins earlier this year were surprised to find their UPS delivery weighed 93.5 pounds, approximately 65 pounds of which was tightly compacted bales of marijuana. Per WFTV, the Orlando couple who had placed the Amazon order somewhat understandably deemed this precious gift unwelcome and immediately contacted…
A Palestinian construction worker was arrested by Israeli police after Facebook incorrectly translated the text of one of his posts. Haaretz reports that the man uploaded a picture from his job at a construction site with the text “good morning” in Arabic. When officers used Facebook’s automatic translation service to read the post, the text…
If you’ve ridden the New York City subway, you know the feeling. You buy a flimsy plastic card that lets you ride the train, and when you try to swipe it at the turnstile, it doesn’t work. You swipe again. The machine asks you to swipe again. You swipe again. The machine asks you to…
Using a small robotic sub, scientists from Columbia University have captured rare video of arctic jellyfish slithering along the bottom of the Chukchi Sea near Utqiaġvik, Alaska. The footage came as a complete surprise to the researchers, who weren’t expecting to see jellyfish during the Arctic winter. The scientists’ research, published in Marine Ecology, shows…
Some numbers don’t change. These values are deeply connected to the very fabric of the Universe and our human existence. Until they aren’t, of course. Then we change them—for good reason. Scientists around the world just recommended changes to four fundamental constants. The tiny updates are important for the most accurate and precise measurements, but…
The proposal deadline has come and gone on Amazon’s unusually public search to plant a second headquarters in one of North America’s metropolitan areas. Among other factors, Amazon’s stated “preference” for candidates cities with a population over 1 million should have whittled possible HQ2 locales down to a few dozen. Instead, the final tally of…
Back in March, Gizmodo published an investigation into what was “almost certainly” former FBI director James Comey’s Twitter account. At the time, he was still the FBI director and his very public falling out with president Donald Trump was still a ways off. Now that Comey is free, he has decided to let the world…
Never in the past century has the FBI ever had greater access to consumer data than it does today. It has never been easier to locate a person of interest—be it a terrorist, a counterfeiter, or a child predator. The quickening pace of technology has given rise to new forms of surveillance, the likes of…
An international team of researchers has uncovered tell-tale signs of Alzheimer’s disease in dolphins, marking the first time that the age-related disorder has been detected in a wild animal. Until very recently, scientists thought that only humans were susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease. That changed back in August of this year when researchers from Kent State…
Years ago, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission realized that blowing up mannequins was the most effective way to demonstrate the importance of fireworks safety. The city of Poznań, Poland, has taken a similar approach when it comes to teaching kids about fire safety, but using an incredibly detailed miniature doll house that can simulate…
This is kind of a sad story. In November, Snap Inc blew everybody’s mind by releasing a surprisingly interesting piece of hardware. The camera-equipped sunglasses called Spectacles worked with Snapchat and looked cool. But a year later, the company reportedly has “hundreds of thousands” of unsold Spectacles sitting in warehouses in China. It’s unclear if…
President Bill Clinton and Apple cofounder Steve Jobs were buddies before Jobs died of cancer in 2011. Jobs even gave Clinton advice in the middle of the Lewinsky scandal. But the details of the relationship between the two men have been pretty scarce. Newly released documents from the Clinton Presidential Library help shed some light…
Right now, as autumn descends upon the Northern Hemisphere, many animals are preparing for the frigid and lean winter months. Bears are going through a serious bulking phase. Hares and stoats are changing the colors of their coats. Oh, and shrews’ heads are shrinking. New research shows that the skull of at least one variety of…
We live in a universe filled with weird stuff that we don’t really understand: dark matter. Physicists have observed its spooky effects but have’t seen it directly. Even scarier: There seems to be around six times as much dark matter in the universe as regular matter. Tonight, we’ll be broadcasting a discussion on this mysterious…
A suit filed Friday in the US District Court in Los Angeles by four South Korean banks alleges “massive fraud” with an outstanding debt of at least $230 million, and California-based electronic parts seller Newegg has been named as a defendant, along with wholesaler ASI Corporation and its officers. The Industrial Bank of Korea, Keb…
Did you know a cheap red laser pointer is good for more than just annoying people at a movie theater? As YouTube’s Styropyro, aka Drake Anthony, demonstrates, by focusing the beam you can actually use it to lift and levitate tiny specs of diamond dust, similar to how Star Trek’s tractor beams seemingly work. The…
Profuse sweating can lead to embarrassing pit stains and discomfort, sure. But you are sweating sweat. This Italian patient sweats blood. The 21-year-old patient entered a medical ward following three years of bleeding from her palms and face. She didn’t have any cuts and nothing seemed to cause or trigger her bleeding episodes. Her condition…
Smart TV features are for the most part terrible, so if you’re looking to pipe Netflix or whatever service into your television, you’re best off buying a smart box or dongle. We would never suggest that you shouldn’t invest in a big beautiful new screen—you cannot watch Game of Thrones on an Apple TV alone—but…
