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Thearrest, trial and conviction of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht — and his sentence of life in prison — was a stark reminder that 21st century policing is a different game. And judging by the shitshowthat was the Silk Road investigation, it’s one that the police need to get better at. Interpol is trying to…
‘Because you can’ has long been the rationale of mountain climbers, but it also works pretty well for Robbie Maddison, who used a tricked-out dirtbike to surf waves in Tahiti. Maddison’s bike uses small skis to provide enough floatation while moving, and the tread on the rear wheel is enough to drive the bike forward…
Isaac Asimov and other classic sci-fi writers envisioned a future in which great vats of yeast or bacteria could feed humanity. We’re not there yet, but today’s startups are using yeast cultures to produce milk, egg whites, and even coffee. And if you’re not sure about yeast-brewed egg whites, you can always try lab-grown cultures…
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s website now redirects to an LGBT chat room and forum. That’s because when Hutchinson’s domain registration expired, it was quickly grabbed up by college student Dylan Hailey, who set the site to redirect to the forum. It’s a response to, among other things, Hutchinson’s February refusal to veto a bill which…
Between the western shores of Alaska and the northeastern tip of Russia, the Bering Strait is so narrow that you could drive across it in an hour, if only there were a tunnel beneath the sea. And Russian Railways wants to build one, as part of a massive road and rail project that would stretch…
When surgeons listen to music they like, they’re more efficient at closing incisions, and their technique improves, according to a new study. Researchers asked 15 plastic surgery residents at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) to close incisions in pigs’ feet. In the first trial, half the residents worked in a silent operating room,…
These astronauts bopped around Cape Canaveral in a phalanx of distinctive red, white, and blue corvettes while training for Apollo 15, but their true pride and joy was the very first lunar rover. The crew of the Apollo 15 moon landing were a distinctive group, working patriotic colours into everything from their personal vehicles to…
Not content with simply beating the shit out of LGBT people, Russia is now reportedly thinking of banning “gay emoji”, a move that I’m sure will prove instrumental in removing all gay propaganda from technology and the internet. According to a report in Izvestia newspaper, Russia’s media regulator could ban emoji which depict same-sex couples…
When hitchBOT the hitchhiking robot started his journey in Boston two weeks ago he wanted to see the entire country. Unfortunately, he never made it out of the Northeast. The researchers who built hitchBOT announced today that they need to stop the experiment because hitchBOT was vandalized in Philadelphia. From the researchers who built hitchBOT:…
Yesterday, Beijing was awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics. Here is a photo of the mountain that will host the skiing courses, taken in the middle of January this year. You may notice a slight lack of white stuff. Beijing narrowly beat out Almaty, Kazakhstan, for the right to host the 2022 Games, becoming the first…
The internet might be all aflame with talk of an Apple Car, but according to documents obtained by the Guardian, Google Auto is really where it’s at. Set up as a distinct company back in 2011, Google Auto has been officially responsible for all of Google’s self-driving car experiments to date. That includes theself-driving Lexus…
Chernobyl is obviously well-known for one particular thing, but as it turns out, the town is hiding things other than two-headed squirrels. YouTuber Tom Scott has been documenting his trip around Chernobyl with a great series of videos, but this one is particularly fascinating. It tells the tale of the ‘Russian Woodpecker’, a gigantic Duga-3…
Last month, we received the cool and totally non-alarming news that drug infusion pumps manufactured by Hospira could be easily hacked over a network. The company has stopped making the pumps, and now the FDA has concluded that yes, hospitals should probably stop using them too. The FDA has issued a full statement on the…
The Mean Tweets genre — whereby a celebrity reads a sampling of their Twitter abuse — is well established by this stage in the internet life cycle. So it’s about time that Bill Nye shared his worst. Contact the author at [email protected].
Mark Karpales, the former CEO of scandal-hit Bitcoin trading emporium Mt. Gox, has been arrested this morning by Japanese police. They suspect he had something to do with the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin. Specifically, Tokyo police are alledging that Karpales manipulated his own account at Mt. Gox to show an…
Windows 10 is good, sure, but don’t be in such a rush to upgrade that you get suckered in by this (fairly obvious) email scam. As spotted by Cisco, some scammers are taking advantage of the reservation system for Windows 10 to send out malware-ridden emails, posing as Microsoft. The email pretends to contain the…
It’s been nearly a year and a half since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared and investigators finally have their first big lead in the search. A piece of an aircraft’s wing—a flaperon, to be specific—washed up on Réunion Island, east of Madagascar, some 3000 miles away from where investigators were looking. But we’re still a…
It’s no secret that scientists are incredible, unrepentant geeks, so we really shouldn’t be surprised that the tentative maps for Pluto and Charon read like the most awesome mishmash of exploration history and popular culture to ever grace a planetary system. And every single place holds a story. The New Horizons science team is busy…
How did I just do that? I’m using Windows Hello, a new feature of Windows 10 that can log you in with your face instead of a password. It gets better: Microsoft plans to let you log into all kinds of things the exact same way. Once your computer knows that it’s actually you sitting…
The good news yesterday that California cut urban water use by 27% came with a sad asterisk. In their frenzy to disable their sprinklers and eradicate every inch of water-sucking grass from their drought-plagued yards, Californians are accidentally killing their trees. And some of them are falling over dead. The Associated Press brings to light…
