Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Sports are fun, right? You get to go outside, smell the dirt, use your muscles, hear the wind in the trees. It’s all fun and games until a goddamn bear shows up to eat you. That’s exactly what happened to a pair of mountain bikers in Slovakia recently. Out of nowhere, a rather large dog-shaped…
Last week, Jimmy Kimmel made an emotional and personal plea about health care in America. He told the story of his son’s life-threatening experience at a hospital in Los Angeles, and said that all children, regardless of their parents’ income, deserve medical treatment. But last night he apologized for his “offensive” comments. “I would like…
Remember when FBI Director James Comey threw a bomb into the election by announcing that the agency was reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails? Remember his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about those emails, just last week? Well, his statements may have been wildly inaccurate and he’s apparently trying to figure out how…
Microdosing weed has become a minor trend with humans lately, but the science on its actual benefits is fairly shaky. Now, in a newly published study by a group of scientists in Germany, evidence shows that older mice may experience a reversal of brain aging and a restoration of the ability to learn. https://gizmodo.com/hospitals-deny-patients-organ-transplants-for-smoking-w-1794019593 Published…
New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has released this year’s map of popular dog names based on legally required registrations. It’s an annual tradition to encourage people to register their dogs. But it also has an amazing way of solving debates. Debates like whether or not Bernie would’ve won. He would have,…
In her highly-anticipated appearance before a Senate subcommittee on Monday, former acting attorney general Sally Yates testified that she had warned the White House that disgraced former national security advisor Michael Flynn had made misleading statements about his contact with a Russian official—and that those lies had been repeated to the American people. Yates was…
Last night, John Oliver told his viewers to go to the FCC via a domain they bought, gofccyourself.com, and submit comments in favor of net neutrality. It was funny. A larf. A light-hearted jape with a serious point. Even funnier: Not long after the segment aired, the FCC’s website crashed. Many believed that the Oliver…
James Comey may have an account on Twitter, but, as the FBI director made perfectly clear on Monday, he is certainly not a filthy “tweeter.” https://gizmodo.com/this-is-almost-certainly-james-comey-s-twitter-account-1793843641 “Now some of you may have read recently that I am on Twitter,” said Comey at an Anti-Defamation League event in Washington today. “I am not a tweeter.” Comey…
Let’s make a statement: Gyms are not appropriate places to find dates. Sure, there are a lot of fit people in tight clothing, sweating and grunting. But any normal person probably wants to be left alone and suffer through their workout without a stranger ogling at their beautiful body. This is exactly why Gymder, self-described…
Think your office is cool and progressive because there’s a ping pong table in the corner? You’ll still be stuck at your soul-sucking cubicle desk most of the day, which is why these engineers created a giant slot car track that races across everyone’s desk, letting you compete while still getting some work done. (Theoretically.…
Fueled by imagination, this 27-year-old Lego set—the Solo Trainer—flew thousands of hours in the hands of kids and collectors. But Adam Woodworth, an aerospace engineer and hardware designer at Google, wanted to see just how aeronautically sound Lego’s design really was, so he built a giant RC version of it. Made from various types of…
In what sounds like a clichéd horror movie premise, a recent investigation suggests as many as 7,000 bodies are buried across 20 acres at the Mississippi Medical Center Campus—the former site of the state’s first mental institution. Officials at the university now face the grim task of pulling 100-year-old bodies out of the ground for…
Weather’s a bitch. Back in 1984, a vicious storm stripped the sand off of a picturesque beach in northwest Ireland. And then, around Easter, a freak tide brought it all back. Locals seem thrilled. The town at the center of this Easter miracle is Dooagh on Achill Island in the County Mayo. When the Great…
Touchscreen smartphones and tablets are so intuitive that even babies can easily learn how to use them. So why can’t any object work like a touchscreen? Everything from guitars to Jell-O might soon be able to, thanks to scientists at Carnegie Mellon University who came up with a way to use conductive spray paint to…
Yesterday, protesters and counter-protesters gathered around Lee Circle in New Orleans, the site of one of the state’s many monuments to Confederate figures which are now scheduled (over 150 years after the Civil War ended) to be torn down. Since the election of Donald Trump, we’ve seen many images like the one above from demonstrations…
With Microsoft’s Build developer conference just two days away, the company has revealed one of the most anticipated announcements from the event: A new Cortana-powered speaker made by German audio giant Harman Kardon. Now, it’s fair to see this speaker for what it is: An answer to the Google Home and Amazon Echo. Both assistant-powered…
A box of rare daisies dating back to the mid 19th century has been destroyed by Australian biosecurity officials after a paperwork mix-up. Upsettingly, it’s the second such incident to happen in Australia in recent months. As reported by ABC News, the pressed plant samples were shipped from the National Museum of Natural History in…
Last time the FCC took on net neutrality, comedian John Oliver’s video about the issue was a turning point. The clip Went Viral, and led to thousands of public comments with the FCC in favor of rules enforcing net neutrality. Now that the FCC is seeking to smash those rules, Oliver is back again with…
Like an athlete trying to push their body to its extreme limits, artist Damien Henry was curious what would happen if you asked a predictive algorithm to calculate the next frame of video in a sequence, again and again and again, over 100,000 times. The results are a fascinating music video that looks like overly…
Following the terrorist attack in San Bernardino in December of 2015, there was a lot of controversy over whether Apple should help the FBI open one of the terrorist’s phones. Ultimately, the FBI found a private company that helped crack it open, but we had no idea how much that effort cost the government. Until…
