Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
How does a dirty creep like Anthony Weiner stay married to such a lovely and intelligent woman like Huma Abedin? Right-wing commentators have figure it out: Huma grew up in Saudi Arabia, where sinister Islamic magic is used to make women stand by their men. Magic! https://jezebel.com/new-dumb-theory-huma-abedin-stays-with-anthony-weiner-950526747
Should You Friend Someone on Facebook Before Your First Date? No.
It might not feel like it, but air travel’s a steal compared to what it was a half century ago. Since the American airline industry was deregulated in 1978, ticket prices have fallen by about 40%. Of course, air travel isn’t quite as luxurious as some postwar dreamers imagined, but you can’t beat that price.…
Neolithic farmers may have been new to the whole “raising crops” game but they quickly figured out how to increase their agricultural efficiency: literal bullcrap. And we’ve gotten hellaciously good in the intervening thousands of years at the art of compost. Here’s how you can get in on the goods. Recent archeological finds have confirmed…
When Google Reader finally closed its doors, it shoved thousands of teary-eyed RSS fans into cyberspace, adrift, where we flailed around desperately for a suitable replacement. Many services rose to the challenge, but the incoming wave was a lot to handle. Too much for one of our favorite alternatives—The Old Reader—which is taking a page…
We’ve already adjusted to the consumer utopia of buying just about everything online with a single click, but waiting for it to show up is still the hardest part. eBay Now pulled it off in a few places, and it’s not easy; just ask the couriers who are making it happen. https://gizmodo.com/en-garde-amazon-ebay-rolling-out-same-day-shipping-ser-5931975 Fast Company decided…
Even if you haven’t seen one in person, you’re probably at least familiar with the concept of a scratch-off world map—it hangs on the wall, you scratch off each country as you visit it, etc. But Lego Cuusoo user TPNK came up with a brilliant, far more tactile version made entirely out of—you guessed it—Lego…
New York City apartments are small, so to make the most of my space, I’m mounting my 46-inch TV to the wall. One problem—which mount do I get? Is your TV wall mounted? Tell us which mount is your favorite. Do I go cheap? Any landmines to look out for? And go ahead regale us…
As electronic devices get increasingly tiny, heat management becomes a bigger and bigger problem. In gadgets that can’t practically house a fan, heat sinks do the job of keeping sensitive electronics cool. So far, the best-performing heat transfer material has been diamond, which any rap video will remind you is crazy expensive. Now, physicists have…
We’ve heard a lot about how OLEDs are poised to change everything from televisions to smartphones. But a group of researchers at MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group are applying OLEDs too more mundane objects, too—like plain old rulers. And the results are surprisingly cool. Glassified is a prototype by Anirudh Sharma, Lirong Liu and…
Hey—Texas did something smart!1 By sending fake GPS data to a superyacht’s navigation system, University of Texas students were able to override the actual GPS signals and send an $80 million ship veering off course without rousing any suspicions whatsoever. The group, led by professor Todd Humphreys, used a device directed towards the ship that…
What’s the use of a fast car if you’re just sitting in traffic? Get that car out of gridlock and onto these incredibly beautiful roads where it’s just you, your wheels, crazy scenery and a whole lot of roadway. https://jalopnik.com/the-worlds-greatest-road-actually-sucks-here-are-fo-944904488
Gary Shteyngart, novelist and fond admirer of Koreans, wrote maybe the best explanation of what it’s like to use Google Glass for The New Yorker this week. Shteyngart was one of the first to receive Glass, as part of the Glass Explorers program, and he writes about a week’s worth of the telling little moments…
These days we’ve got plenty of ways to visualize data within our cities, from car crashes to Flickr photos. But there aren’t many tools that let us compare information about multiple cities at once—until now. Meet Urban Observatory, a site that compares data from 16 global metropoli. The Observatory is the work of Richard Saul…
Many of you have expressed some, um, concerns about a few of the bots we’ve covered in recent weeks. ATLAS, for instance, is quite frightening, but it’s not yet self-aware. This tiny hexapod, however, is and it’s rather unsettling. With all “limbs” intact, the hexapod gets along pretty quickly at 26 cm/s, but once you…
Slingshot master Joerg Sprave has shown off not only the most powerful, but also the most gleefully insane slingshots during his time as reigning rubber band madman. But even a slingshot devotee as loyal as Sprave had to ask himself whether or not the weapons can hold their own against handguns. The short answer? Yes.…
If you’re a participant in the iOS ecosystem, then we’ve got some free money for you. OfficeMax is prepared to sell you 2 $25 iTunes gift cards for $40, and we think you should take them up on the offer. We see discounts on iTunes credit in the $100 range frequently, but that can be…
Over the past few years, manufacturers have been packing more and more features into their televisions—from 3D picture to web browsing—in an industry-wide arms race to differentiate. It hasn’t added up to much more than bloat. Google Chromecast offers relief in the form of a little dongle that puts whatever’s on your laptop, phone, or…
The political genius Barack Obama credited with “nailing” the 2012 presidential election has left the New York Times for sports giant ESPN. But why did FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver go? Ask him yourself, right now! https://deadspin.com/espns-nate-silver-is-here-to-answer-your-questions-951328525
Somewhere in the bowels of iOS 7 Beta 4 is a folder labeled “BiometricKitUI,” which lends a bit of credence towards the rumors that the next iPhone might have a biometric sensor embedded in the Home button. https://gizmodo.com/apple-wants-to-use-your-fingerprints-to-unlock-your-iph-5950916 First spotted by Hamza Sood, a look at the code reveals the following: Photo of a person…
