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On July 7th, 2016, just one day after Diamond Reynolds streamed video of a police officer shooting and killing her boyfriend, Philando Castile, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension began working to obtain records from Reynolds’s phone. The BCA, which was in charge of investigating Castile’s death, submitted a preservation request to Facebook for Reynolds’…
Employees at Uber are apparently circulating a petition demanding that Travis Kalanick be reinstated as CEO of the company, despite how royally he fucked it all up this past year. Kalanick resigned this week after pressure from five major Uber investors following the release of a report on Uber’s internal culture and a seemingly endless…
The vast majority of infectious human diseases come from animals, yet we know surprisingly little about which animals pose the greatest risk. A new study helps resolve this shortcoming, ranking the mammals that are most likely to spread infectious diseases to humans. Scientists call them zoonotic diseases—pathogens that can spread from one species to another.…
Last night in an interview with CNN, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a major overhaul to the largest social media company on earth, one that might finally fix many of the lingering issues its leadership has been hesitant to address. I’m kidding, it’s a new mission statement. “To give people the power to build community…
Some of life’s simplest questions get swept under the rug for a long time—after all, the most widespread phenomena often require the most data to understand. Take the shape of the boring egg, for example. You probably thought eggs are was shaped the way they are so they won’t roll out of the nest or…
Remember when 4Ks used to cost a damn fortune? Those days are quickly coming to an end, and if you need proof, look no further than Amazon’s new line of budget televisions, manufactured under the Westinghouse and Element brands. They come with all the smarts of Amazon’s excellent Fire TV set-top box as well as…
Where there are landfills there are seagulls. An estimated 1.4 million of these opportunistic feathered critters feed on these vast tracts of waste across North America. And as a new study from Duke University shows, the voluminous amounts of poop from these gulls is compromising the water-quality of nearby lakes and reservoirs. Landfills provide sustenance…
In his new book The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone, Brian Merchant gives us a rare look inside Apple, chronicling the development of the iPhone with details about everything from the selection of raw materials to the product’s famous launch event. In the past, we’ve heard a few scraps of information from…
After weeks of working in secret, Senate Republicans finally unveiled their bill to repeal much of Obamacare on Thursday, legislation that would likely leave tens of millions of Americans uninsured. President Trump, however, attended to more pressing matters on Twitter—namely, his persistent, inexplicable belief that Russia’s interference with last year’s election is “a big Dem…
We’ve all seen the grade school science experiment where sticking a couple of electrodes into a potato produces enough current to power a small light bulb. But engineer Marek Baczynski took that experiment several steps further, building what could be the world’s first autonomous potato—and the ultimate housepet. A single potato doesn’t generate a lot…
Humans are pretty jaded these days. We can write most of the strange phenomena we see off as science (or we honestly don’t care). But when Roman philosophers like Pliny the Elder witnessed moonless nights glow bright like the day, it definitely made an impression. Others since then have been awestruck by these “bright nights,”…
If Microsoft wants a guaranteed way to sell a million Hololens augmented reality headsets, it should listen to Abhishek Singh and pitch the hardware as the ultimate way to get in shape by playing the first level of Super Mario Bros. in real life. Unlike the Wii’s balance board accessory, this might actually help you…
There’s no shortage of things to be mad about in late capitalism. Pretty high on the list, though, is the Eat, Pray, Love brand of pseudoscience promoted by Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop. Somehow, Goop—which previously encouraged women to shove eggs up their vaginas—has out-Gooped itself: the brand is now promoting stickers called “Body Vibes.” The product,…
The Nintendo Switch is a tiny console with tiny controllers all powered by tiny batteries with tiny capacities. Charging is just part of life with the Switch, which is why it’s spawned hundreds of power accessories, including this portable battery that looks like the most boring Switch game you can play. But while Bionik’s Power…
Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times reported on a 6.8 earthquake that struck Santa Barbara at 4:51pm. Which might be surprising to the people of Santa Barbara who didn’t feel anything. The big problem with the story? The earthquake happened in 1925. How could reporters get something so wrong? Well, the “reporter” who wrote yesterday’s news…
In 1911, a monument was erected in Orlando, Florida in honor of the Confederate traitors who fought to uphold slavery in the South. This week that monument was moved from its prominent position (despite protests from local losers) to a nearby cemetery, but the controversy hasn’t died away yet. A local chapter of the Daughters…
Jack Ma, the billionaire businessman and chairman of the Alibaba Group, believes that automation will help workers of the future enjoy more leisure time. In fact, he sees a future where people will be working just 16 hours per week by 2047. “I think in the next 30 years, people only work four hours a…
Mylan is one of the most loathsome companies on Earth. Usually, they are hated for charging people with life-threatening allergies extortionate amounts of money for the only drug on the market that can help them. But a new report points out that there are many other reasons hate the company. Namely contributing to air pollution…
Viewers of BBC’s News at Ten were entranced last night when a glitch in its system produced over four minutes of surreal beauty. As the program began, the usual opening rush of clips from around the world accompanied by dramatic music played. A breaking news graphic flew up onscreen and then there was silence. The…
Mitch McConnell and his tiny cabal of fellow senators are finally ready to unveil their plan to take away health insurance from millions of people. The official presentation of the new bill will happen tomorrow morning but some outlets received a preview of what it contains on Wednesday. It sounds ever so slightly less “mean”…
