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Wearables are like hacker candy. They represent a new category of technology that’s capable of storing data—including malware—that people don’t expect to get pwned. But that’s exactly what just happened: Hackers figured out how to remotely upload malware to a Fitbit. It only takes ten seconds. Hack.Lu conference in Luxembourg tomorrow, said hackers will demonstrate…
It’s become an annual tradition. Every year in autumn, we ask you to send us your best photo of the foliage. It can be taken this week, or any time in 2015. The Challenge Take a photograph of the leaves of fall. I know, I know, for some it’s already over! And that’s OK. Any…
Storyboard illustration for the May 14, 1958 episode of the Disneyland TV show, “Magic Highway, USA.” [via anonymous email contributor]
We’ve already seen how beavers can save California from its seemingly endless drought. Now it looks like they can save the world from industrial farming by changing the chemistry of the water, making them natural biochemists. For quite some time, the world starved for nitrogen. It’s a necessary component for life, and essential for growing…
ASAP Science attempts to explain what life and humans would be like 1000 years in the future. Nanobots would help us limit human weaknesses, buildings would be able to disassemble and reassemble like Transformers, the number of languages would decrease, our skin would get darker, we’d be able to artificially select desirable traits, and so…
This is the first of just seven main welds necessary to create the Orion spacecraft. The weld holds together the forward bulkhead and the tunnel astronauts will use to enter or exit the capsule. This spacecraft will be used for the second uncrewed test. Image credit: NASA Contact the author at [email protected] or follow her…
Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee began safety hearings with a proposed bill to reform the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That bill contains a provision which completely outlaws car owners from hacking their own cars. Which a giant mistake. The draft of the bill is here, and the current language is a threat…
I can’t believe it’s really real! Universel Picktures Entertainment just released this teaser trailer (above) for the new Back to the Future movie! Apparently good old Marty and Doc go to the year 2045 to a world where flying cars are unnecessary because everybody has uploaded their brains into computers! That’s right! The Singularity is…
What you put where for your backpacking adventure will determine how comfortable you are and how far you can walk. We made a little video to show you how to get it right. IndefinitelyWild is a new publication about adventure travel in the outdoors, the vehicles and gear that get us there and the people…
Blood donation in the 1800s was not an easy process. Often doctors had to use whatever they had to hand during house calls — and what they had on hand, usually, was an egg-beater. Here’s how it was used. The earliest transfusions were done in the 1600s, but the practice failed to catch on. This…
Hey taco fan! The latest version of iOS is out, and you should download it so that you can send your friends that new taco emoji. You can also send a burrito, robot, unicorn, nerd, cheese, and scorpion emoji—among others. The iOS 9.1 update also includes a tweak for Live Photos that senses when you…
It’s hard to enjoy the holidays when you’re expecting a house full of guests and Christmas dinner is entirely your responsibility. So forget about waking up early to toss a turkey in the oven, and just serve everyone what looks to be an elaborate holiday meal, but is actually just a giant $25 marshmallow. It’s…
If you’re one of the millions of beachgoers who slathers yourself in sunscreen before hitting the surf, here’s an additional reason to feel personally responsible for the sixth mass extinction. Your sunscreen, my sunscreen, all of our goddamn sunscreen is contributing to the death of Earth’s coral reefs. Did I mention we suck? Climate change…
YouTube’s taking big steps towards transforming itself into a media service that you pay for like you pay for Netflix. Fancy YouTube! Aren’t you psyched? YouTube made a bunch of announcements today promoting its new subscription service, YouTube Red. For $10 a month, the service banishes ads, and allows you to save videos offline, and…
Urban Outfitters, one of the largest vinyl sellers, began a new push last week to sell cassettes, including exclusive pressings from Run the Jewels and Halsey. I see this sentimentality-fueled cash grab and I do not respect it. Urban Outfitters peddles all sorts of flotsam, but cassettes are an especially obnoxious genre of junk, offering…
Thanks a lot, everyone. You’ve taken a perfectly fun movie reference and turned it into a sinister circle jerk, manned by money-hungry marketers. I loved the Back to the Future trilogy when I was a kid. Now, I just want to strap fake hoverboards to my chest and drown myself in overpriced Pepsi Perfect while…
October 21, 2015, is finally upon us, and what futuristic wonders do we have to show for it? Awful 3D movies, hoverboards with wheels, and Pepsi still sold in cans. At least Hot Wheels has come through with a hover version of Doc Brown’s time-traveling DeLorean. The basic Hot Wheels version, aka the 1:64-scale $1.09…
Doing things at night is always a little more edgy, a little more scary, and a lot more fun. Doing things at night while lighting up entire forests in the Pacific Northwest and moonscapes in Utah in different colors is all of that night fun with a giant load of awesome added in. It looks…
In late 2010, a stunning series of events across the globe showed how fed up millions are with political corruption, inequality, and social injustice. Technology played a key role in rallying support during the Arab Spring, and in Morocco, an open online platform that allowed citizens to help revamp their country’s constitution four years ago…
This is a purely functional photograph revealing the condition of the solar panels outside the window on the International Space Station, and you need to stop thinking it’s pretty right now. This photograph was taken on April 3, 2013 as part of an external survey of the International Space Station conducted entirely by peering out…
