Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Red states and blue states might not agree on much, but they do find some common ground on one topic: Porn. Americans really like porn. And apparently, according to PornHub data, Americans really like lesbian, stepmom, and stepsister porn in particular. The porn site just revealed the most popular porn search terms by state. Lesbian…
There are two types of keyboards—analog and digital. Analog is mostly found in musical instruments, where the weight placed on a key often defines amplitude. Digital ones are the keys most often found packed away in your laptop and are either on or off. There’s no middle ground. But Wooting’s analog keyboard wants to be…
If your jerky co-workers make you feel bad about eating donuts for breakfast, point them towards master chef Hiroyuki Terada’s latest creation. He turned a few boxes of Dunkin’ Donuts’ finest into a sushi roll you’ll want to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and every meal in-between. If you endeavor to make them yourself, instead…
It’s no secret that the US government wanted to kill Fidel Castro many times over the years. But there’s a crazy story about a possible CIA assassination attempt that I’d never heard before: Giving Castro a diving suit that would be contaminated with tuberculosis. The National Security Archive has a new post about lawyer James…
Tourists, man. They’re the worst. Before you get all snooty about the fact that you only take selfies with your own arm and your ass-sized iPhone 6 Plus: This is not real. Well, I mean, it’s like wink-wink real. MacBook Selfie Stick is the project of artists Moises (Art404), Yuyi John, and Tom Galle, who…
Most of the letters that chef Bruno Albouze says are vowels, and eeeeiiit souwnduhs ieencrayedaboulh. I think this is a video where he teaches you to make a baguette-like bread, but honestly I’m too blissed out on his voice. He’s like Bob Ross but from some fictional European country. Did you hear he just said…
Behold WR 31a, a massive star surrounded by a rapidly expanding cloud of gas and dust. This gorgeous celestial structure emerged just 20,000 years ago, and is currently growing at a rate of 136,700 miles every hour. WR 31a is a Wolf-Rayet (WR) star located about 30,000 light-years from Earth. These stars are particularly large,…
We all understand that the discovery of gravitational waves was a really big deal, but do you really understand what they are, why they’re important, or how LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, found them? After watching this brilliant bit from last night’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, you will. Theoretical physicist Brian…
Apple is currently embroiled in a momentous legal battle against the government, but they’re also staying on top of what really matters: dicks. Twitter user Dan Leech recently pointed out a curious little detail about the source code for Apple’s OS X webpage: The catchphrase for El Capitan, “more to love with every click,” seems…
Self-driving cars bring many promises like fewer deaths, smarter navigation, and no more ugly parking lots. But a new study highlights a critical disclaimer: Unless these vehicles are shared, we’ll probably see a dramatic increase of the number of cars on our streets. The study published in Transportation Research Part A today by the University…
There is no shortage of fan-built Lego BB-8s across the internet, but Mark Smiley and James Garrett have managed to build a tiny one that actually rolls, while keeping its head floating on top, using nothing but Lego components available in standard sets. This custom Lego build is very reminiscent of Sphero’s tiny version of…
Freestyle competitive jump rope is a real sport. It’s badass and has almost nothing in common with its schoolyard predecessor. Let that sink in. And then feast your eyes on Nick Woodard—one of the sport’s luminaries and multiple-time world champions—as he performs a routine that involves standing back flips, corkscrews, and hand stands. It’s like…
A team of surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic have performed the first uterus transplant in the United States. A 26-year-old woman underwent the nine-hour operation on Wednesday, setting the stage for a future pregnancy—and what might possibly become a routine procedure in US hospitals. The unidentified woman, who received the transplanted uterus from a deceased…
Last summer, the internet was overrun with six-eyed dog faces, human legs that are actually slugs, and other images reminiscent of the day you ate magic mushrooms and feverishly explored your kitchen floor. In fact, these were the dreams of an AI developed by Google. And it was only a matter of time before the…
Microsoft’s newest operating system is getting better all the time, and if you’ve already updated, you’re no doubt wondering how to get the best software experience you can. These tips should help you improve performance on your computer by cleaning the clutter you don’t really need. Here are four things you can do to streamline…
Unless you’re a model maker who works for Industrial Light & Magic, your skills at gluing bits of plastic together probably never turn out like this. But you don’t need skills to put this magnificent replica of the 2009 USS Enterprise on your fireplace mantle—just $7,000. If 2015 was all about the return of Star…
The Association of Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques might not have the most exciting name, but every year Siggraph draws the most talented programmers, engineers, and artists to its conference to show off their brilliant CG creations and developments. The conference also hosts an annual computer animation festival, which…
After undergoing a decade-long restoration that cost $5.86 million, the Flying Scotsman, the most famous British locomotive in history, has been brought back to life. The legend rolls again. The 70-foot-long, 100-ton machine was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, one of Britain’s most famous steam locomotive engineers. It ran long-distance express trips from 1923 to…
A journalist conscripted into writing propaganda. A sad pharmacist compelled to make drugs used in lethal injections. A doctor FORCED TO GIVE SOMEONE CANCER. While Apple tussles with the government over whether it will comply with a court order that would require it to help law enforcement break into an iPhone, it’s busy winning first…
As part of a wide-ranging, two-year-long attack, hackers managed to breach the systems of a number of hospitals, exposing critical patient systems to wide-ranging attacks. Luckily, the hacks were just a drill, but the flaws exposed are scary as hell. In a paper published by Independent Security Evaluators, white-hat penetration testers examined the systems of…
