Tech News

Report: Hackers Stole Social Security Numbers of Every Federal Employee

The largest government hack in history is even larger than officials have admitted, with some sources saying every single federal employee had personal information stolen, including social security numbers. In a letterobtained by the AP, American Federal of Government Employees president J. David Cox alleged that the data breach of the government’s civil service human…

This could get weird. Twitter is going to remove the 140 character limit on DMs. Wonder what Mark Zuckerberg thinks… Contact the author at [email protected]. Public PGP key PGP fingerprint: 91CF B387 7B38 148C DDD6 38D2 6CBC 1E46 1DBF 22

Fat-Hating Redditors Flee to Voat, Overload Servers, Demand Bitcoin

You’ve probably never heard of Voat, but the free-speech-loving little Reddit clone is the hottest website in Troll City today. After Reddit officially banned several abusive subreddits, a flood of Redditors fled to Voat, where similar subsites still exist. Voat is now drowning in the traffic and needs Bitcoin to stay afloat. In a sense,…

The Oculus Rift Has An Amazing Controller. Too Bad It’s Sold Separately

Were you hoping that Oculus’ big push for virtual reality would include a revolutionary controller? Something that would let you actually touch the virtual worlds? You’ll get it, but not for a while. Instead, the final Oculus Rift is going to ship with a standard Xbox One gamepad. Yawn. Don’t get me wrong—the Xbox One…

Awesome LED black hole water slide is like flying through a wormhole

The coolest water slide in the world and perhaps the universe is this black hole water slide in Bremerhaven, Germany’s Bad 1 Water Park. The slide starts off completely dark and then lights up with colorful LEDs throughout the journey that make it seem as if you’re traveling through some trippy wormhole or teleportation tunnel…

I Got To Be A Mountain Hardwear Designer For A Day

Mountain Hardwear designs some of the most technically-advanced outdoors apparel and gear on the planet. I just got to spend a day working alongside their designers. This is what their process is like. The invitation was intriguing enough: “Come be a Mountain Hardwear designer for a day.” Having graduated with a design degree (albeit not…

Recalling Another Famous Prison Break As The Search Continues For NY Duo

Behold “the Texas Seven,” violent convicts who escaped from Texas’ maximum-security John B. Connally Unit Prison on Dec. 13, 2000. You thought “Have a nice day” (with racist drawing) was an odd note to leave behind? The Texas Seven’s missive was far more ominous: “You haven’t heard the last of us yet.” They were right.…

Watch The Oculus Rift Announcement Here, If You Missed It Before

Did you miss Oculus revealing the long-awaitedfinal consumer version of its amazing virtual reality headset when it was streaming live? You can watch a replay of the entire presentation right now. Just skip to 35 minutes, 15 seconds in the video below. Or click this link. [Twitch via Road to VR] Contact the author at…

That Time a Young Girl’s Lemonade Stand Gave Her Neighbors Polio

This week police in Overton, Texas shut down two sisters (aged 7 and 8) who were operating an illicit lemonade stand. These kinds of stories have become an annual summertime tradition, complete with that cool and refreshing thanks Obama! subtext about government overreach. The part we seem to forget? America has always been at war…

Undying Love: Carl Tanzler’s Mummified Dream Girl

For one obsessed suitor, death and decaying flesh couldn’t keep him from his one true sweetheart. America has long been the land of fulfilling one’s hopes and dreams. Or visions, as was the case of a German transplant by the name of Carl Tanzler. Tanzler emigrated to Zephyrillis, Florida — his wife and two daughters…

How Much Steel Does It Take To Build a Floating Neighborhood?

Without much fanfare—and as quietly as a construction project can be—a new neighborhood is taking shape on the west edge of Manhattan. It’s the largest private real estate project the US has ever seen. But neither its size or cost are what make it interesting. We’re living in an age of gargantuan developments aimed at…

I Read This Mammoth Essay on Code To Make You 38 Thousand Times Smarter

Want to know enough about code that you don’t sound like a complete dunce? Bloomberg Businessweek has publisheda 38,000-word explainer/meditation/opus on coding called “What Is Code?” by programmer and writer Paul Ford. Here’s our TL;DR version. It is good! (“And thorough” – Maude Lebowski) But it’s SO long. Bloomberg takes a photo of your face…

Christopher Lee’s last message feels like a premonitory farewell

I’m a huge fan of Sir Christopher Lee. Not only did he have a wicked sense of humor and a great life philosophy, but he was a fantastic—and very underappreciated!—actor. After I saw his first film in Hammer’s Dracula series, he visited my childhood nightmares every day. He terrified me—and I loved every bit of…

The Tragedy Of The Gangster, The Gullible Girl, And The “Camera Gun”

It was December 1946, and 19-year-old Pearl Lusk was approached by a good-looking man in the Times Square subway station. He was a detective, he told the gullible lass, and he needed her help solving a case. Could she snap a photograph of a suspected thief with this unusual, uh, camera? As the vintage illustration…

He’s Probably Just Playing a Subway Simulator

[Gothamist]

Mind bending sculptures in nature make me question my reality

Whoa. Benjamin Ducroz’s Spinning Daggers installation places totally trippy wooden zoetrope sculptures next to trees and the effect is pretty mind melting. It’s really interesting to see nature next to these man made objects that move in ways that are totally unnatural and yet so very natural all at the same time. Ducroz writes: a…

This Millennium Falcon Multitool Is a Suitable Wookiee Replacement

You think it’s an inconvenience when your car breaks down on the side of the road? Imagine that happening to your ship in the vacuum of space. That’s why you always need to keep the right tools for emergency repairs on hand, whether it’s a handy walking carpet named Chewbacca, or this Millennium Falcon-shaped multitool.…

Behold, Our First Official Look At The Force Awakens Toys

First, there was the eBay leaks, and then,the packaging. But now we can confirm that The Force Awakens’ inevitable merchandising Tsunami is beginning a little earlier than expected, with a plethora of Stormtrooper toys hitting the convention next month. Star Wars fans, ready your wallets! Entertainment Weekly have revealed three Stormtrooper-themed toys that will be…

Kickstarter Scammer Settles With FTC But Won’t Owe a Dime to Anyone

For the first time, the FTC has laid the smackdown on the proprietor of a Kickstarter that failed to deliver on its promises. It’s about goddamn time—but it’s not exactly good news for the backers who, three years later, are still out some cash. Erik Chevalier settled with the FTC over a complaint concerning his…

This Tangled Mess Is Helping Scientists Study the Early Universe

Is this the Gordian knot of the 21st century? Or a high-tech Medusa? Or maybe both? Well, this photograph was taken inside the Very Large Telescope (VLT) operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal, Chile. It shows the very complicated cooling system of one of the instruments of VLT, as ESO explains: The…