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In an open letter to investors on Wednesday, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes announced that the company was shuttering all of its labs and wellness centers, “impacting” around 340 employees—presumably by putting them out of work. “We are profoundly grateful to these team members, many of whom have devoted years to Theranos and our mission, for…
The 75-story Sulafa Tower skyscraper in the Dubai Marina is so tall that it’s essentially above the clouds. So this guy is not just BASE jumping off a super high balcony, he’s also jumping straight into a cloud of fog below. That thick blanket of mystery basically covers the world, hiding everything that’s underneath it…
John Legere, the CEO of T-Mobile, has promised to give away a trip to Mars if this tweet gets a million retweets by October 11th. That’s right, the CEO of a major American company is promising something that doesn’t exist using the tactics of a common chain letter. Remember chain letters? We used to get…
Man, this Costa’s hummingbird legitimately looks like it has a shiny purple baby octopus attached to its face like the facehugger in Alien. I mean, look at how wacky it looks, it almost seems as if the octopus was digitally slapped onto the face. But it’s not. It looks that way because male Costa’s hummingbirds…
As rescue workers begin to grapple with the destruction in Haiti following the nation’s worst hurricane in fifty years, Matthew is now steering a course directly for the southeastern United States, prompting widespread evacuations. Matthew weakened somewhat during its trek over mountainous Haiti and eastern Cuba yesterday, but it remains a powerful, Category 3 storm…
Daft Punk has only toured twice—once in 1997 and once 2007. So when there’s any chance that the robots could be booking new shows, fans typically freak the fuck out. It should be no surprise that when the mysterious website Alive2017.com popped up this week, fans freaked the fuck out. Before we begin to decode…
You know what’s nice? Seeing someone work hard at, and eventually accomplish a goal, even if that goal is something as semi-useless as popping a 100-meter wheelie on a bike. For that reason, Mike Boyd is the human embodiment of motivational clams guy. Not only does he spend a lot of this video falling off…
If you subscribe to a service online you should be able to cancel that service online, right? Well, according to consumer complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission, Jessica Alba’s Honest Company not only makes it virtually impossible to cancel subscriptions, the company sometimes signs you up for recurring payments without even telling you. Gizmodo…
The oldest human to have ever lived died at the age of 122—and that was nearly 20 years ago. A recent analysis of global demographic data suggests this may very well be the maximum age attainable by humans, and that it’s extremely unlikely anyone will ever live much beyond this advanced age. That is, unless…
When it comes to choosing a smartwatch, do you really need to spend $370 on a device that almost does more than your phone—including reminding you to breath? No. The Pebble has always been about simplifying the smartwatch, and even with improved fitness features, the Pebble 2 remains exactly as much smartwatch as you really…
Yet another Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone has exploded in a public place—an airport, in fact!—in the wake of an official recall from US regulators last month. The latest incident of an exploding Note 7 phone happened during the boarding process of Southwest Flight 994 to Baltimore at Louisville International Airport on Wednesday. The worst…
An NSA contractor was arrested by the FBI and investigated for possibly stealing secrets, the New York Times reported. Much like Edward Snowden, this contractor was employed by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, though the nature of the information he took is quite different. It’s believed what he allegedly took from the NSA were hacking…
Wow. After spending the last few days telling us that its New Shepard rocket was almost certainly going to be destroyed in today’s in-flight launch escape test, Blue Origin surprised everybody—even itself—with a clean landing of both booster and crew capsule. Moments ago, Blue Origin conducted an in flight test of its launch escape system,…
Featuring sneakers in movies is a fun way to blend fiction and reality and adds another layer of geekery to any film (what are those?). But the best movie sneakers either give them a personality of their own, like the Nike Mags in Back to the Future or the Reebok Alien Stompers in Aliens. Or…
It’s a great time to be an Amazon Prime member. Why? Because you can get free shipping on this $50 bucket filled with 13 different kinds of plastic animal poop. Bear, elk, dog, your kids will undoubtedly be overjoyed when they unwrap all the surprises hidden inside this bucket on Christmas morning. We were so…
Until I had my hands on Playstation VR I couldn’t understand the need for any VR that wasn’t mobile. Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard are both “good enough” experiences with price tags a mere fraction of those of hulking VR systems like HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. For most people the only VR you…
A new medical breakthrough could have major implications for thousands of US women without a uterus. According to a Time report, the first living-donor womb transplant in the US was performed at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas last month. The living-donor transplant was one of four surgeries performed on four different women with a…
The 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to a trio of scientists for their pioneering work in developing molecular machines. These gadgets measure just a thousandth of a human hair in width, and they’re poised to revolutionize everything from manufacturing and materials to medicine and the functioning of the human body. The winners…
OurMine, the hacking group that has previously taken credit for hacking into the social media accounts for Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, has apparently gained access to BuzzFeed’s systems and published on its website. On a post (which has since been removed), OurMine appears to have successfully published under BuzzFeed News writer Joseph Bernstein’s byline.…
To help understand just how destructive earthquakes can be, researchers could spend years examining the aftermath. But displaced residents need to begin cleanup, and return to their homes, as soon as possible. So researchers at Brigham Young University came up with a way to preserve the destruction caused by an earthquake so it can be…