Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Turns out, dropping a giant concrete block onto a car ends exactly like how you would imagine it would: the car gets completely obliterated and smashed to smithereens. Crash Zone pulled off this incredibly silly stunt and filmed it in slow motion so you can see the damage in lovely, exacting detail. The concrete block…
By using a message board with three icons, scientists have shown that horses can use symbolic language to convey their preferences. They now join an elite group of animals that exhibit communications once thought exclusive to humans. Others in the group include primates, dolphins, and pigeons. In a new study published in Applied Animal Behaviour,…
Most toy drones come with a couple of spare propellers to get you flying again after a crash. But with Flybrix, even after a catastrophic collision with the ground, you can rebuild and get airborne again within minutes since the drone is mostly made from Lego. Flybrix aren’t officially affiliated with Lego, but they are…
Tilt-shift lenses can make whole cities look like desktop miniatures through some amazing optical trickery. Unfortunately, we don’t have any of them up in space, but it hasn’t stopped some cosmic creatives from trying to mimic the effect on photos taken by NASA, ESO, and other space research groups. A collection of these excellently doctored…
The conservative website DCLeaks, which just leaked former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s hilarious and embarrassing emails, claims it’s gotten ahold of an image of Michelle Obama’s passport. But there’s one small problem: It looks super fake. Why is her picture outside of the border? And why is it so close-up? The State Department’s requirements…
A familiar tale has emerged from the bowels of Silicon Valley of late. A startup—usually based on some fancy, technology-heavy concept—woos investors and customers, raises a ton of money, and seems poised to take over the world. But then someone does some digging and uncovers a bunch of crooked numbers and shoddy business practices, and…
If you have any Blue Bell cookie dough ice cream in your freezer, put down the spoon. The ice cream company just issued a recall for possible Listeria contamination—the ice cream company’s second Listeria scare in as many years. Last year, Blue Bell had a huge recall of its ice cream (across flavors) for a…
In a vat of liquid nitrogen on storage platform 17, the youngest person ever to be put into cryogenic storage has been waiting for the future for one year and eight months. Matheryn “Einz” Naovaratpong was two when she was diagnosed with a rare form of terminal brain cancer. “She showed fighting spirit since she…
Refreshingly, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile are all inching back towards “unlimited data plans” (restrictions most certainly apply). But Verizon? Verizon insists that its customers don’t need that shit. At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference in New York on Thursday, Verizon CFO Fred Shammo was asked about unlimited plans and according to CNET, nixed the idea,…
New research shows that all present-day non-Africans can trace their origins to a single wave of migrants who left Africa 72,000 years ago, and that indigenous Australians and Papuans are descended directly from the first people to inhabit the continent some 50,000 years ago. That makes them world’s longest running civilization. A genetic and cultural…
In 2006, then-New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg issued an executive order establishing the Office of Special Enforcement, a citywide agency responsible for enforcing “quality of life” regulations—a nebulous, ideologically charged concept that refers to anything from music venues with too many noise complaints to nightclubs that facilitate prostitution to decrepit structures that pose a…
It’s easy to become desensitized to the never-ending procession of data hacks in news headlines, but once someone starts stealing your identity or taking control of your social media accounts, you’ll probably give it your full attention. If you ever want to find out if one of your accounts has been compromised, there are some…
A report by veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher at Recode says that Yahoo is preparing to confirm a massive data breach that has impacted over 200 million users. The extent of the breach, or whether hackers were able to gain access to users accounts, is unknown. From Recode: Earlier this summer, Yahoo said it was…
Last weekend, Oliver Stone’s hump-filled reenactment of the life of NSA leaker Edward Snowden opened in theaters across the country. You might not know it, though, as audiences overwhelmingly opted to watch Tom Hanks plow through some geese instead. https://gizmodo.com/the-snowden-review-too-much-humping-not-enough-hackin-1786661084 And why wouldn’t they? Two hours is a long time to sit watching a story…
The music video for Lorn’s song Anvil doubles as a short animation about the future where the year is 2100 and overpopulation is dealt with a mandatory postmortem social network. That is, a social network where people are forced to plug in and die. Yeah, it’s a wee bit dark. The animation style is wonderful…
Back in December, Donald Trump suggested fighting terrorism online by “closing the internet in some way,” openly mocking potential First Amendment concerns. Since then, the alleged computer user seems to have changed his mind, joining Ted Cruz’s bizarre crusade for an American takeover of the internet’s address book in the name of freedom of speech.…
Video game characters have it easy: they never have to change clothes. Whether they’re saving the world or just catching Pokemon, our heroes—Master Chief, Link, Mario, Samus Aran—are always wearing the same damn thing. But their outfits aren’t always cheap. Master Chief’s get up can cost over a 100 million dollars. Even Link’s elf get…
The Air Force’s latest high-tech bomber is officially called the B-21 Raider, but there were lots of options. The name was chosen from over 4,600 names submitted to the US Air Force earlier this year, and we now have the complete list of entries, including everything from “Americas Revenge” to the “Wobbly Goblin.” Oh, as…
New York City basically already looks like a living, breathing movie set in real life but this surreal video transforms the city completely by turning the buildings into fake facades that don’t actually house anything. Claire & Max gave the busy streets of New York an eerie sense of calm in the video by stripping…
Earlier today, The Financial Times reported that Apple was interested in buying supercar maker McLaren . Since then, McLaren has denied those rumors—though the Financial Times stands by its reporting—but that doesn’t mean the idea is without merit. When I first heard the rumor, I thought “this is insane,” but the more I thought about…
