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Afraid of PRISM? Think it sounds like a horrible government-sanctioned infringement on your privacy? You’re just thinking about it wrong. It’s a social network! It’s for sharing! And accounts are mandatory! https://gizmodo.com/what-is-prism-511875267 Whipped up by the folks at Datacoup—a service that aims to let you “reclaim and unlock the value of your personal data”—GetPrsm pitches…
Last week, you showed off your monochrome skills in classic silver. This week, you’ll take a photo in a different way: Find a scene that’s predominantly one color, and capture that color to its fullest. The Challenge Photograph a scene that’s predominantly one color. You can find something natural, manmade, or even lit or painted…
Just as world’s most famous off-center landmark has ever-so-slowly started to straighten up, a new structure on the Peruvian coast just might nab the sought-after title of Best Spot To Be Photographed Looking Like You’re Holding Up An Entire Building. The Unbalanced Hotel comes from the minds of Madrid-based architecture firm OOIIO, whose architects felt…
People are idiots! But not you, of course. You’re not like the others. You know how to read! Also, you are a conspicuous consumer of printed matter sold by publishing corporations. Post some pictures of yourself with your carefully messy bookshelf and you’ve got the latest trend to warn other people away from you. https://jezebel.com/bookshelfies-are-selfies-for-people-who-can-read-1175293372
As the number of cyclists in New York grows each year, more and more bike shops have popped up around the city to meet demand. A growing group of them specialize in entirely handmade, custom bike frames—like six-year-old Horse Cycles, a custom steel frame workshop in Brooklyn. This week Horse’s founder, Thomas Callahan, gave me…
Necessity is the mother of invention, and invention is the father of designing things that you can fit into your butt to sneak them into prison. And so a phone shaped exactly like a small butt plug has come into our world, and the UK government is trying to ban it. The phones in question…
A terrifying and disgusting dead sea serpent washed up on Spain’s southeastern coast last week, spooking vacationers and bringing military officials to the tiny beach town of Villaricos. What is the 13-foot-long beast? And what sea monsters will August deliver next? http://gawker.com/what-the-hell-is-this-horned-sea-monster-that-washed-as-1177984154
Kate Dries says the Pure app is “for people who want casual sex but don’t want the bullshit of Craigslist or the hours it takes to online flirt with someone on OkCupid.” A Seamless Snapchat hybrid for sex. https://jezebel.com/the-endless-quest-for-a-hookup-app-women-will-actually-1177735667
In a not-so-startling revelation, the declassification of three secret court opinions on Wednesday show that the NSA hasn’t just been collecting communications related to terrorism investigations. It’s been collecting all kinds of stuff from unsuspecting Americans. The details don’t exactly instill confidence in our nation’s intelligence sector. As the Associated Press explains, the NSA “scooped…
Of you look close enough and for a long enough time, you will see this uncanny and extremely rare lights in the sky. They are called red sprites. What are they? https://gizmodo.com/ethereal-photos-capture-rare-red-lightning-phenomenon-1177809208
Many iPhone and Android owners dream of having the Nintendo classics for their touch gadgets, but as this Kotaku article demonstrates, a Mario game reinvented for touch screen only will be really terrible. Especially if it’s free. https://kotaku.com/the-horror-if-super-mario-bros-3-was-made-in-2013-for-1168392829
No one wants to be told what they can and cannot do in their home, even when it comes to lamps. So someone has finally found a way to stick it to ‘big lighting’ with a lamp that you can install almost anywhere. Our deliverer of illumination freedom is an artist named Simon Frambach who…
If you’re looking to put a decent computer on your desk and not spend much in the process, this Haswell i7-packing Radeon-equipped Dell XPS 8700 certainly deserves your consideration. Windows 8, 8GB Ram, 1TB HDD, 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0. Lock it up for $650 at Dell using promo code 0H9Q3PQ6L3744C [Dell] Today is the last day…
At this very moment, NASA’s Fermi space telescope is up in the sky, zooming around Earth, and doing space stuff like sidestepping Soviet space junk and spotting mysterious galactic soap bubbles. For its (roughly) five year anniversary, NASA put out a little montage of the ‘scopes stellar achievements so far, and the list is impressive.…
In the most recent bit of Russian bizarreness, a 550-ton military hovercraft carrying sophisticated weaponry casually pulled up onto a crowded, seemingly public beach. Because, apparently, Russia wants to become Europe’s own personal prison planet. These giant Zubr vessels are purportedly the largest in their class (which consists of the world’s largest hovercrafts) and—when fully…
Over the past decade there’s been a big push for cheaper alternatives to space travel. Blasting man-made objects into orbit has never been a cheap endeavour, and a company called Titan Aerospace thinks gigantic solar-powered drones could even be a far more affordable alternative to launching satellites. Circling the globe at an altitude of 65,000…
Google Keep isgetting updated with location-based and time-based reminders. Now you’ll be able to pester yourself about the stuff on your todo list with ease, and there’s even a menu where you can see all your upcoming pings. Remind yourself to check it out.
Back in June after the first reports based on Edward Snowden’s leaks were published, President Obama boldly defended the NSA spying programs. He even called them “transparent.” But boy oh boy have the folks over at the NSA let him down on that count. Before getting into the latest with the agency, it’s important to…
If you couldn’t get your first choice @Outlook email address, fear not! Starting today, you can turn any of your aliases into your account’s primary. This option rolls out over the next few days. [Outlook Blog]
Field Trip is Google’s tour guide of a mobile app that automatically pushes you tips and information about your surroundings. It’s now available for Google Glass Explorers, which is a very smart, near perfect use for the augmented reality specs. https://gizmodo.com/google-field-trip-explore-the-hidden-history-in-your-o-5947109 In fact, it’s so obvious that apparently Niantic Labs, which created Field Trip, originally…
