Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Each summer, public health officials in California make the rounds to “sentinel chickens” in semi-secret locations all over the state. These ordinary chickens just puttering around in their coops have an important job—without them, we’d be more clueless about where West Nile virus is. “The chickens are the stars of the show,” Levy Sun, a…
In a statement today, Ferguson’s police department announced that it is committed to buying vest cameras for its officers. When it finally happens, it’ll be a great first step. And it’ll happen even faster if we ditch the bloated, expensive wearable cam tech cops use today for something accessible to every U.S. precinct. It seems…
Self-driving cars are coming, some people are freaked out about them. Here’s something that might not put those people at ease: According to a Google engineer, the cars are designed to exceed the speed limit. Don’t worry though! There’s actually a good reason for it. Dmitri Dolgov, the lead software engineer on the project, says…
Thanks to the internet’s amazing capacity for self-recycling, articles about Soviet pirate recordings made of X-rays pop up frequently in my feeds. These popular, widely-shared posts explain how, in the 1950s and 60s, music fans in the Soviet Union fabricated bootlegged recordings of banned western music—and they used old X-rays to do it. In reality,…
Maersk’s Triple-E line of supersized cargo ships are already among the largest sea-faring vessels to ever set sail. Now the Danish shipping group can add another feather to its cap with the successful transport of more than 17,600 TEU containers. No other ship has ever carried that much on a single trip. https://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-biggest-ship-is-assembled-like-a-lego-model-5991418 The Mary…
Since 2005, designer Nicholas Felton has been documenting his daily activities—meals eaten, miles traveled, people met—and publishing the results in the form of an annual report. He even built an app, Daytum, to help other people track their every moves. In this video, Felton shares how and why he lives a quantified life. The ex-Facebook…
Berlin-based artist Michael Lamoller uses analogue editing techniques to create super trippy timelapse portraits of people in a series called “Tatochronos.” The portraits are collaged upon one another from several printed images, cut up, and then layered. The look results in a cutaway-style collage of a person. Lamoller takes several photos as the subject changes…
Pope Francis. Haim. An inspirational Little League coach. You’ve likely seen these stories on Facebook today, along with ice buckets and your friends’ babies. I know that because they’re sitting atop the social network’s “trending” list. What’s not there at all? Ferguson. Welcome to Facebookworld, where everything’s wonderful all of the time. There’s been no…
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System has a problem. The myriad mirrors that reflect the sun’s searing rays onto towers that generate electricity also create a death ray that fries anything in its path, namely poor innocent birds flying through the desert. But don’t worry. They’re working on it. Following a rather alarming Associated Press…
If you’re pining for a new set of headphones, these GOgroove Bluetooth on-ears have 14 hours of battery live, a folding design, and solid reviews. They have consistently sold for $80 all year, but a promo code today knocks them all the way down to $30. Get them before they’re gone. [GOgroove BlueVIBE Bluetooth Headphones,…
Bad news, dudes. After unwelcome spring frost in decimated nearly a quarter of Turkey’s hazelnut crop, there is real fear that we’re now facing a Nutella shortage. That’s because the production of Nutella consumes 25 percent of the world’s hazelnut crop. And naturally, less crop means less Nutella. Don’t freak out just yet. Since Turkey…
Back in April, Mailbox promised it would be bring a beta version of its popular mobile email client to Mac. Today, it delivered on that promise. Users who’ve signed up for the public beta as well as select Mailbox users will be given access to the beta in a rollout process. The team hasn’t announced…
Yesterday we first got a look at Sharp’s surprisingly beautiful smartphone, and today we’re learning that, huzzah, it is coming to America on Sprint. The phone will cost $240 when it’s available at an unannounced date in the future. https://gizmodo.com/sharps-new-phones-have-so-little-bezel-its-ridiculous-1623239389
Since making its debut on Android a little over a year ago, Photo Sphere has been one of those “Hey, look what my phone can do!” things that Android users have lorded over their non-Android friends. Today, though, Google is opening the doors to iPhone users with the Photo Sphere Camera app of iOS. This…
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a high-tech way to track people who enter the country illegally: Instead of putting them in jail as they move through the court system, officials outfit them with ankle bracelets. And most of the people who are currently wearing the devices in the U.S. are moms. Since 2004…
Spanish illustrator Luis Pastor draws one vignette per day in his pocket-sized Moleskin journal. He put together a video that shows his tiny illustrations so far in 2014, making subtle animations using different digital tools. I wish there was a way to magically do this to my sketches in real life. Luis Pastor is a…
We’ve been raving about the Philips Hue smart lighting system since it first dropped. Well we’ve been raving about everything except its outrageous pricing—$60 a bulb, are you serious? But with the new Hue Lux, you can get a basic white smart light at a fraction of the price. The Hue Lux is just like…
While Africa’s backyard space program has yet to get off the ground, the continent’s first (arguably) homegrown aircraft has already taken flight. Throughout the continent, these ultralight two-seaters could soon fill the skies where long-range surveillance UAVs are too expensive to fly. Precious few governments in Africa can afford the state-of-the art Predator UAVs that,…
Engineers unfolded the James Webb Space Telescope’s spine in the world’s largest clean room in preparation for decking it with mirrors like a giant, glittering Christmas tree. Pathfinder deployed in the Goddard clean room. Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn The James Webb Space Telescope is part of the next generation of space-based telescopes. This optical telescope…
The world of Guardians of the Galaxy is filled with characters of uncertain biological origin defying the laws of Earthly physics. Which is why you’d be forgiven if you didn’t notice the incredible UI design in the film, which shows off some of the most bonkers movie graphics in recent memory. It’s all the work…
