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In 1845, Sir John Franklin led two British Royal Navy ships on an ill-fated expedition through the Northwest Passage—a famous and hazardous corridor connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. None of the crew members returned, spawning a mystery that has endured for more than 150 years. A new analysis explores the various ways in which…
Ryanair is having a tough time. As Brexit threatens to turn its entire business upside down, passengers can’t stop getting drunk on its flights, doing something stupid on camera, and causing all kinds of chaos when the video hits the internet. Now, Ryanair is trying to restrict how much people drink at the airport. This…
As if making up for for having to read a civil and restrained statement finally condemning the domestic terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, President Donald Trump has gone off the rails on Twitter. In the span of a few hours, the President retweeted a Pizzagater, a meme of a train plowing into a CNN logo…
Based on prior reporting from field work and various sources, this reporter can confidently conclude that magic mushrooms are very chill. There’s more than college weekends to back that stance up, though. Past research has suggested they can help with the existential anxiety of cancer, positively change personalities, and even help kick nicotine addictions. You…
Spreading my arms and taking to the skies like an eagle has always been my biggest fantasy. The closest I’ve ever come is piloting a two-seater Cessna, which was fun, but nowhere near as exhilarating as Jarno Cordia’s latest stunt involving a wingsuit and a pair of jet engines strapped to his ankles. A hot…
On Monday night, Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich announced his resignation from President Donald Trump’s American Manufacturing Council, making him the third chief to bail after Trump did not take a strong enough stance against the domestic terrorism that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend. The exodus began when Kenneth C. Frazier, the…
Internet personalities Baked Alaska and Millennial Matt had a lot of fun at this past weekend’s white supremacist rallies. Well, until Baked Alaska was maced, I guess. They used tools like Twitter and YouTube to bring their online followers into the heart of the racist action. But curiously, the two still insist that they’re not…
Weeks after the US Army told personnel to immediately shelve all drones made by Chinese manufacturer DJI, citing unspecified “cyber vulnerabilities associated with DJI products,” the company has introduced a new “local data mode” for its apps. “We are creating local data mode to address the needs of our enterprise customers, including public and private…
This weekend, at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a horde of Nazis, white supremacists, neo-Confederate militiamen and other members of the so-called alt-right ran rampant, brawling in the streets and toting a veritable arsenal of weaponry. One alleged member of a neo-Nazi group called Vanguard America, James Alex Fields Jr., was arrested…
A web hosting provider has revealed the US Justice Department’s efforts to obtain records about an activist website established to coordinate “mass protests to shut down the inauguration of Donald Trump.” In a blog post titled, “We Fight for the Users”—but which sadly contained not a single Tron GIF—DreamHost said it was opposing a broadly-worded…
There are many reasons not to buy a smart lock, but high on the list is the risk of getting remotely locked out of your shit. For hundreds of customers using Lockstate’s smart locks, that potentiality became a reality last week—with some Airbnb users getting screwed the hardest. https://gizmodo.com/are-smart-locks-secure-or-just-dumb-511093690 Lockstate CEO Nolan Mondrow wrote a…
Boston Dynamics’ founder, Marc Raibert, recently gave a TED Talk where he trotted out some of the company’s recent innovations. The talk mostly features robot tricks we’ve seen before, except for a brilliant outtake of ATLAS trying to help out in a cafeteria that probably serves as the most accurate look at what life with…
For fear of its screen shattering, you probably do everything you can to prevent your fragile smartphone from falling even just a few feet. But Blake Henderson accidentally tested the limits of a Samsung Galaxy S5’s durability when he dropped it from a plane, only to later discover it recorded both the skydive, and its…
Benchmark Capital, one of Uber’s largest investors, is trying to explain its legal feud with former CEO Travis Kalanick to the ride-sharing company’s employees. Benchmark sued Kalanick for fraud last week, adding another controversy to the company’s already disastrous summer. In an open letter to Uber employees, Benchmark slammed Kalanick’s leadership of the company and…
Scientists have identified nearly 100 previously unknown volcanoes in West Antarctica, which, in addition to the 47 already known to exist in the region, makes it one of the largest concentration of volcanoes in the world. New research released in a special Geological Society publication series identifies 91 new volcanoes in a region known as…
When someone is as obsessed with controlling the narrative as Julian Assange is, it’s almost to be expected that they would view a cuddly pile of fluff as a means of propagandizing. Such was the destiny of Embassy Cat. In a newly published profile of the WikiLeaks founder, the New Yorker reveals that Assange may…
Microsoft is in full-on damage control mode after Consumer Reports removed its recommendation of Surface laptop and tablet products last week. According to a purportedly leaked internal memo, the company acknowledges the issues that its Surface products have had, but executives say the main criticisms have been resolved. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-best-surface-ever-made-but-its-still-no-la-1796081934 Published on August 10th, the Consumer…
In the last few months, North Korea’s ability to launch a warhead beyond its backyard has improved exponentially. Its rapid development of intercontinental ballistic missile tech has left many confused. Now a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies claims he might have solved the mystery. North Korea may have received its new souped…
Bored hackers who aren’t getting paid tend to get restless. And so, on Sunday, the cyber thieves behind the recent HBO breach leaked several unreleased episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which was scheduled to return in October after six years off the air. HBO, understandably, seems annoyed. We’re now in week three of the standoff…
Julian Assange sent his first tweet ever from a personal account back in February, and has been tweeting away since. But there’s an imposter account that has been gaining steam recently. How much steam? Donald Trump Jr. just retweeted it. The tweet from the fake Assange account reads, “Trump condemned hours ago. Did Obama denounce…
