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We all know Apple’s game by now. Wait in the wings while all of the other companies fuck up while trying to innovate, and then, just when it seems almost too late, introduce a product that does the same thing as everybody else’s product, but better. This is bound to be true with the rumored…
Who among us hasn’t claimed censorship from “the man” at the slightest inconvenience? On Friday, political strategist and former Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson took to Twitter to suggest the site was “suppressing” her tweets about Kathy Griffin. Given the absurdity of whining about a comedian while the president is selling out planet Earth to…
Female dumpling squids just can’t catch a break—mating is awful for them. Insemination can induce physical trauma, take a long time, and sometimes the male will just keep boning the female while predators are around. Poor, tiny little boning dumpling squids. Given the apparent horrors of sex, some scientists from Australia and the United States…
Researchers at the University of Washington are developing tech to detect the use of a controversial device used by law enforcement to track and surveil cellphones. Recently, the researchers conducted tests in Seattle and Milwaukee over a two-month period, paying rideshare service drivers $25 a week to haul around a device which may detect cell-site…
When The Lost World (the first sequel to Jurassic Park) came out, audiences weren’t really interested in another sermon on the risks of cloning. All we wanted was more dinosaurs, ideally fighting, which is what this CG simulation mostly delivers. After all, chickens are just tiny dinosaurs, right? You might think that 20 of the most ferocious…
Narwhals are empirically cute—they’re the closest we’ll ever get to seeing real-life unicorns. However, new drone footage from the WWF in Canada suggests these “unicorns of the sea” are also pretty hard core. The video illuminates what narwhals actually use their “horn” for, and let me tell you, folks, it’s not fuzzy happy times. Based…
White House press secretary Sean Spicer will answer questions this afternoon about President Trump’s decision to exit the Paris Accord, a move that was wildly unpopular with people who care about the continued existence of life on Earth. And today’s edition of Spicey Time™ even includes a special guest: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. The briefing…
Compression tights are touted as enabling athletes to run faster and farther, while reducing injuries, but a new Nike-funded study—one that appears to have backfired on the clothing manufacturer—suggests these trendy items don’t work as advertised. The idea behind compression tights is that they greatly reduce muscle vibration, which in turn reduces muscle fatigue. But…
On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that the sound emitted from the NYPD’s Long Range Acoustic Devices—portable sound cannons that blast noise—could be considered a use of force, contrary to the police department’s claims. The LRAD can blast sound as loudly as 136 decibels. That’s louder than a jackhammer or a jet engine and above…
Last night was game one of the NBA finals, and anticlimactic as the game itself was there was no shortage of action off-court. As our colleagues at Deadspin wrote this morning, Rihanna was the highlight of Game 1, allegedly getting into a staredown with the Warriors’ Kevin Durant and, in general, kicking up a fuss…
Meteorologists can predict, with surprising accuracy, when a storm will roll through your town. But predicting exactly how severe it will be can still be hit and miss. That’s why it took filmmaker Chad Cowan six years to capture the spectacular timelapses he assembled into this awe-inspiring compilation. If you’ve got access to a 4K…
On Monday, Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC, kicks off, and that means we will soon learn more about the company’s newest and most exciting products. This year, the event runs from June 5-June 9 and is expected to serve as the launching point for major updates to iOS and macOS, as well as some new…
Okay, so technically they’re not GIFs, but “cinemagraphs,” short, seamlessly repeating videos. Either way, these incredible loops of dramatic waves from Ray Collins and Armand Dijcks are endlessly soothing. Just watch and watch and watch and forget that the Earth will soon be one giant ocean. Collins captured the photographs these loops are based on…
As the internet’s preeminent archive of loud, naked people so often does, Pornhub reminded the world this week that, yes, they’re logging all the weird shit we look at to get our kicks. This time, the porn site released a cheerful infographic mapping out America’s most frequently misspelled pornographic search terms by state. According to…
Yesterday was a big day for Xbox One owners. After a couple of years of knowing they bought an Xbox One when twice as many of their friends bought PS4s, Xbox owners got to feel vindicated in their choice as Microsoft launched the first true Netflix for digital games. Xbox Game Pass is a subscription…
Before yesterday, Claire&Max’s latest short film—which shows what New York City would look like if climate change continued, unabated, and sea levels rose high enough to flood it—was already unsettling. But with the US officially abdicating the Paris Agreement, this is now looks like a peek at a future that seems more and more likely.…
Films and TV shows like Blade Runner, Humans, and Westworld, where highly advanced robots have no rights, trouble our conscience. They show us that our behaviors are not just harmful to robots—they also demean and diminish us as a species. We like to think we’re better than the characters on the screen, and that when…
Ricky John Best was one of two men who died at the hands of a white supremacist on a Portland train last week. Best intervened when he saw the terrorist, 35-year-old Jeremy Christian, shouting hateful things at Muslim teen girls on the train. But Best suffered another indignity after being stabbed to death by the…
Although storing passwords in plaintext anywhere online is fundamentally the opposite of security, routine data breaches at some of the world’s biggest companies haven’t dissuaded some users from engaging in this obviously terrible practice. Case in point: As Vocativ reported on Thursday, the company behind Trello, the popular workplace app, was forced to implement privacy…
Minions sit next to Guy Fieri atop my list of uncool things I’m not supposed to like that I’m actually an enormous fan of. A team of scientists must have heard my call: Science NEEDS more minions. Scientists at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation have discovered a tiny new protein they’re calling…
