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Here’s a riddle: If a Trump policy targets random locations in the Middle East, and nobody can explain it, does anybody really know what’s happening? It’s a tough riddle because it’s practically impossible to answer. Yet, this is our reality now. In a little less than 72 hours, the Trump administration’s ban on allowing electronic…
Propagandists ramming verifiably false information into the eyeballs of credulous internet users—now dubbed “fake news”—is one of the most daunting, complicated issues facing social platforms today. Even the richest, most powerful tech companies with the brightest talent pools have yet to deploy anything resembling a solution. The great equalizer of the internet age is everyone’s…
Hey, remember Congressman Jason Chaffetz, the guy who said poor people should stop buying so many dang iPhones if they want healthcare? Well, the dingus has done it again: During a congressional hearing about the government’s use of use of facial recognition technology on Wednesday, Chaffetz suggested using that same technology to track undocumented immigrants.…
Since it debuted nearly a year ago, Facebook Live has been rife with content moderation problems. The latest in a long line of horrific examples comes from Chicago, where the Associated Press reports that a missing 15-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by up to six people while about 40 people watched the stream. A police…
There are lots of places to go off-road mountain biking if you’re looking for a cheap thrill (or the chance to break your neck). But one of the most dangerous has to be riding into an abandoned mine shaft. If your flashlight dies as you’re pedalling deep into the earth, you’re probably screwed. After countless…
North Korea was pretty proud of itself earlier this month when it was able to perform four times in a single day. But much of that enthusiasm has waned overnight as North Korea has found it hard to get one up. “U.S. Pacific Command detected what we assess was a failed North Korean missile launch…
Last week, the McDonald’s Twitter account got into a bit of trouble when it sent a tweet to President Trump calling him a “disgusting excuse for a president.” We still don’t know what happened (McDonald’s said its account was “compromised”) but Fortune magazine noted that it wasn’t the first time that McDonald’s had been aggressive…
Neil Gorsuch is poised to be the next Supreme Court justice of the United States, filling a spot that’s been vacant for over a year. Gorsuch will wield enormous power and help shape the country’s laws for generations to come. And Republican Senators aren’t afraid to ask him the tough questions: Like would you rather…
Hell, it might be important today. I’m a little out of touch with the kids these days. But I definitely know that there are young people who are completely unaware of the existence of VHS tapes. For those of us who grew up with them, there’s a strong feeling of nostalgia for the ritual of…
Catnip has long been the preferred fix for cats. Given just a tiny whiff of the plant, most cats will temporarily turn into an approximation of a fully loaded, 1970s era Dennis Hopper. But for some cats, it’s as pointless as an O’Douls. A new study has found three new options that could allow all…
In a mind-bogglingly dangerous move, conservatives in the Texas Senate have passed a bill that some say would make it legal for doctors to lie to pregnant women about discoveries made during prenatal testing. Texas Senate Bill 25 makes it illegal to sue a doctor for what’s known as a “wrongful birth.” Though rare, doctors…
Today the mobile version of Gab.ai—the invite-only free(ish) speech social network that has become the de facto home for many of the alt-right ecelebrities banned from Twitter—was not approved for placement on Apple’s App Store. CEO Andrew Torba isn’t taking it well. In an eight-minute Periscope stream, Torba, in a green MAGA hat and unlicensed…
Chances are you’ve signed up to at least one streaming service—but are you making the most of the best-quality music on offer? A quick audit of your apps can boost both streaming and downloaded bit-rates, so you’re always assured of the highest fidelity audio flowing through your pricy headphones to your eardrums. Which means you…
Benedict Evans is an investor who works at famed Silicon Valley venture capital fund Andressen Horowitz. Today, Evans made a tweet snitching to Apple about adult-oriented content on its platform and deleted it shortly afterward. Here it is: Strangely, Evans’ Twitter followers found that when they tried searching “evelyn” on their own phones, they—unlike Evans—were…
Microscopes let us observe some of the smallest objects in our universe, but with limitations when it comes to movements that can take hours, days, even weeks to play out. So a team of Austrian scientists developed new software that allows microscopes to not only track a slowly-moving object, but also capture incredible timelapse footage,…
According to several reports, Microsoft’s online services have been suffering through some pretty major outages this afternoon. Xbox Live, OneDrive, Outlook, Skype, Azure, and the Windows Store have all had issues letting users log into accounts. The site DownDetector.com shows a surge in outage reports for Microsoft services beginning around 2 p.m. ET, and continuing…
Funnel web spiders are a perplexing bunch. The eight-legged Australian creatures can kill with their venom, but are simultaneously required for creating the antidote. Now, it turns out their venom might have another purpose—protecting the brain from the damaging effects of a stroke. Most strokes are ischemic, meaning they result in a lack of blood…
After heavy criticism in the UK and Europe, Google announced today that it has begun implementing some striking changes to its advertising systems. According to a blog post by Philipp Schindler, the company’s chief business officer, the changes will make it easier for advertisers to exclude content they don’t want their ads anywhere near. They’ll…
Since its creation, Reddit has always been a network of communities. The individual users carry far less weight than the health of the subreddits they contribute to. Starting today, Reddit is debuting a feature that might turn that decade-long ethos on its head. A post yesterday in r/modnews—a community for moderators to learn about and…
A night at a local pub isn’t complete without a few rounds of darts, but as your blood-alcohol level rises, your ability to hit the bullseye greatly diminishes. Unless you’re playing with Mark Rober’s motion-tracking dart board that automatically repositions itself so you’re guaranteed to hit the bullseye every time. Rober, an ex-NASA engineer, spent three…
