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Every few years, the US Surgeon General issues a recommendation for the country, like encouraging Americans to use sunblock or breastfeed their kids. These are usually public health no-brainers, where the science has determined that Americans would absolutely be better off if they all followed this medical advice. Today the Surgeon General said that simply…
We tend to think of losing consciousness as an abrupt shutting down of our awareness of the world, like flicking a light switch. But it’s actually more of a gradual process. The best way to understand it is to brew a cup of coffee. A new theoretical model described in Physical Review Letters suggests that…
The big surprise in this legitimately bonkers biking video is that there is absolutely no surprise in what happens. You see everything happen before it happens even though you’re in disbelief as it is about to happen and question if this could really happen. I mean, the bike rider, Primož Ravnik, rides straight down the…
Please never buy a phone on specs alone. In the grand scheme of things, most don’t matter. But if you’re looking to see how well Apple’s playing the specs game with its two new iPhones, you’ve come to the right place. Before we get to the competition, you should probably see how little the iPhones…
We’ve got an amazing gallery of cosplay from last weekend’s massive Dragon Con convention, taken from the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Project Secret Identity. EFF activist Dave Maass says: Cosplayers get it: anonymity can be a form of speech. What we learned this weekend is that the fandoms understand the importance of encryption and the dangers…
We humans pride ourselves on our cultural diversity, but we’re not the only creatures that form unique societies. Turns out, two clans of sperm whales living near the Galápagos Islands speak different dialects — offering yet more evidence that animals have culture, too. Sperm whales — massive, deep-ocean hunters that live in hierarchical social networks…
On Monday night, someone stole my iPhone 6. I had it in my pocket as I ran up the stairs to catch the soon-to-depart train, but when I sat down, it was gone. After the requisite frantic bag search, I resigned myself to the phone being gone. I thought a kind citizen would surely return…
I can’t be the only one in the mood for some phone-smashing stories. Once in college my friend had a few too many, and his phone slipped from his hands and suffered an untimely death. Many of us have been there. But he decided to turn the unfortunate incident into a piece of performance art,…
As we all learned from Game of Thrones (and definitely not sitting through high school history), when there’s a chance to sit on a throne and rule a kingdom, everybody who can sit seemingly wants to be king and queen, even if it means fighting your family members for the chance. Here’s a really fun…
Since all of the electronics in an electric car are reliant on the same battery as its motor, driving around in the winter with the heater blasting can greatly reduce its range. But a new type of ultra-thin, and ultra-efficient, heating panel covered in carbon nanotubes might change that. The heating requirements for electric vehicles…
Using the same science that makes fiber optics and modern communications possible, these ultra-flat LED lamps look like they’ve each got a shade attached to them, but it’s all just an optical illusion. Created by Israel’s Studio Cheha, these new lamps are actually an updated version of an older design that looked like a giant…
Wifi networks aren’t ubiquitous yet, and other wireless communication protocols like Bluetooth can suck battery life. So researchers at Disney have come up with an alternative way for devices to talk to each other using LEDs blinking faster than the human eye can see. The applications seem a little toy-focused at this point (this is…
Those of us considered adults now didn’t grow up playing video games exclusively in the living room. We often traveled to far away rooms called arcades that were full of giant one-game consoles. And if you think back to being a little kid, Jason Camberis’ 14-feet tall arcade cabinet is probably exactly how you remember…
Instagram filters really do make bad photos look better, but there’s more to the world of photography than Hudson and Lark. Here are four novel, filtered photos you submitted for this week’s Shooting Challenge. The results? Surprisingly tasteful. Winner: Ocean Moonrise I shot this photo Labor Day weekend as the moon rose over the Atlantic…
In a footnote to its big new product reveal, Apple announced a new iPhone Upgrade Program that looks very enticing. Extra emphasis on the word “looks” because some basic math reveals that the Apple’s new deal is not necessarily all that good. Here’s Apple’s description of the new upgrade program: Exclusively at Apple’s retail stores…
A well-maintained smoke detector is a must for every home, but often, smoke isn’t the first byproduct of a smoldering fire. So researchers have developed a new kind of fire alarm that detects carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide instead, to identify fires at an earlier stage. The new sensors work by shining blue LED light…
Of the many new experiences you might have during a high-risk pregnancy, one of the least fun is a fetal monitoring test called a Non-Stress Test, or NST. It really should be called a High-Stress Test because of the anguish it puts parents through. Apple just made it a little bit better. An NST is…
It’s official: The new iPhone 6S will have force feedback. But the new feature, called 3D Touch, won’t be quite like any other haptic feature Apple has used before. While a few Apple products and competing smartphones have featured forms of force feedback before, make no mistake: Apple throwing the weight of the iPhone behind…
Today we got our look at the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. They’ll be available at exactly the same prices as last year’s models. Here’s the breakdown. First the two-year contract prices (then full price). iPhone 6s: 16GB: $200 ($650) 64GB: $300 ($750) 128GB: $400 ($850) iPhone 6s Plus: 16GB: $300 ($750) 64GB:…
When the iPhone 6S goes on sale, the cheapest model you can buy will be 16 gigabytes. Does it mean you should buy it? Hell no! Apple shouldn’t even sell it. A 16 GB iPhone in 2015 is the hand job of the iPhone world. It still works, it’s relatively easy to come by, but…
