The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the organization behind CES, doesn’t exactly have an admirable reputation when it comes to its treatment of women and products designed for women, specifically sexually-oriented ones. It appears the organization is attempting to cover its ass when it comes to this reputation,…Read more...
Fancy algorithms capable of solving a Rubik’s Cube have appeared before, but a new system from the University of California, Irvine uses artificial intelligence to solve the 3D puzzle from scratch and without any prior help from humans—and it does so with impressive speed and efficiency.
Following yesterday’s Prime Day strike at a fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota, over a dozen progressive lawmakers—including Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ro Khanna—co-signed a letter to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to request a…Read more...
by Cheryl Eddy on io9, shared by Andrew Couts to Gizm on (#4KA34)
Stranger Things 3 has been out for a few weeks, and now that we’ve had time to really digest the things we liked and didn’t like, our minds have drifted toward what’s next. So far, the Duffer Brothers have only offered some vague teases for season four—which Netflix has yet to officially confirm, though it sure feels …Read more...
It’s been a wild past year for the camera industry. After years spent focusing on DSLRs or smaller-sensor mirroless cameras, Canon, Nikon, and Panasonic have finally all entered the full-frame mirrorless market with their EOS R, Nikon Z, and Lumix S1 camera lines. However, despite all these new challengers, Sony…Read more...
New research has demonstrated that edible insects are high in antioxidants—and whether or not you buy into the health benefits of eating antioxidants, it’s an important finding from a nutrition perspective.Read more...
by Yessenia Funes on Earther, shared by Andrew Couts on (#4K9YW)
It’s no secret that corals are dying at an alarming rate. While climate change heating up the oceans is understood to be screwing over corals, a new study points fingers at a different culprit: pollution.Read more...
In the aftermath of Trump’s major changes to the tax code, some of TurboTax’s customers no longer had to pay for many of its services, instead finding that the company’s free product would suffice. To offset this loss, the online tax service made changes that reportedly had an adverse impact on elderly, disabled, and…Read more...
by Brian Kahn on Earther, shared by Maddie Stone to G on (#4K9NM)
A staggering 2 billion people around the world don’t have enough nutritious food to eat, and climate shocks like drought, heat waves, and extreme rainfall have played a large role in their plight, according to a new United Nations (UN) report. At the same time, the world also has an increasing number of people who are…Read more...
Following debate about whether a graphic depiction of death by suicide in the Netflix original series 13 Reasons Why was suitable for young and potentially vulnerable audiences, the streaming giant has decided to re-edit the scene from the show’s first season. The decision comes ahead of its Season 3 premiere in the…Read more...
Within the past 24 hours, Facebook was granted a patent for “Moderating content in an online forum,†which it first applied for in February of 2015. Unfortunately, the most accurate term to describe what it covers is shadowbanning.Read more...
by Shep McAllister on Kinja Deals, shared by Ana Suar on (#4K9G2)
The Google Home Max is Google’s high-fidelity answer to the Sonos Play:5 and Apple HomePod (while being significantly smarter than both), and while it’s a bit of a stretch at its usual $400, it’s a great value at $250. That’s the best price ever, but it’s only available during Prime Day.
Investigators looking into the cause of the SpaceX Crew Dragon explosion back in April are now blaming a faulty valve for the anomaly, which allowed leaking fuel to come into contact with titanium. Officials with SpaceX say they’ve already got a fix, but it’s still not clear when the company will be able to resume…Read more...
Tanya Gersh has faced anti-Semitic harassment since late 2016—calls, tweets, emails, and texts demeaning her and saying she was going to die—upending the once-peaceful life she had in a quaint Montana town.
The human body has plenty of nifty tricks to keep itself alive for as long as possible, and scientists still haven’t come close to figuring them all out. Case in point, a team of researchers this week describe a previously unknown type of cell near the heart that helps it heal from injury. The discovery could lead to…Read more...
I don’t know if there is a single holy grail for keyboard nerds. Every nerd is different. But some switches, the IBM Beam Spring, are so beloved that even the most curmudgeonly keyboard fan thinks of them wistfully. “It’s the ultimate clicky switch as far as I’m concerned,†one member of the keyboard enthusiast forum…Read more...
by James Whitbrook on io9, shared by Andrew Couts to on (#4K99B)
We’ve met Geralt of Rivia. We’ve met some of his closest allies. Now, it’s time to meet the most important character of all in Netflix’s adaptation of the Andrzej Sapkowski fantasy series The Witcher: this horse.
by Matt Novak on Paleofuture, shared by Andrew Couts on (#4K8Z3)
Conspiracy theories about the Moon landing have been around for years. Decades, in fact. And while it’s easier than ever to spread false stories thanks to the internet, the belief that humans never landed on the Moon is way older than the web.
Amid renewed interest in UFOs following a series of articles detailing strange sightings by U.S. military pilots—and recognitions of those concerns by the Navy—over 1.2 million have signed up for a “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us†Facebook event slated for Sept. 20, 2019. Attendees are asked to breach…Read more...
by James Whitbrook and Gordon Jackson on io9, shared on (#4K8T0)
The Barbie movie has found some very interesting writers. Filming has begun on A Quiet Place 2. Melissa Benoist will slip into the director’s chair for Supergirl’s next season. Plus, what’s to come on Agents of SHIELD and Legion, and a new look at the direct-to-video Doom movie. Spoilers now!
by Shep McAllister on Kinja Deals, shared by Ana Suar on (#45SPN)
Microsoft Office. Do people still use Microsoft Office? People with kids and school projects maybe? Anyway, if you still use Office, you can buy a year’s subscription to Office 365 Home (with licenses for up to six people) for its usual $100 today, and Amazon will toss in a $50 gift card. The deal is only available…Read more...
by Maddie Stone on Earther, shared by Andrew Couts to on (#4K8NH)
Although we’re wiping them out with little consideration of it, big herbivores matter. Hippo poop helps Africa’s largest lake flourish; bison wallowing can enhance insect diversity in the prairie. And Africa’s imperiled forest elephants might just have a role to play in the fight against climate change.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has donated thousands of dollars to Democratic presidential hopeful and U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard, according to newly released documents from the Federal Election Commission. Dorsey donated $2,800 to Gabbard’s primary campaign fund and $2,800 to her general election fund, the maximum…Read more...
by Tom McKay on Earther, shared by Tom McKay to Gizmo on (#4K80G)
A federal judge in one of the lawsuits between pharmaceutical giant AG Bayer, which bought agrochemical giant Monsanto in 2018, and plaintiffs who claim its Roundup herbicide caused their cancer has slashed an $80 million payout, Reuters reported on Monday.Read more...
The Italian General Investigations and Special Operations Division (DIGOS) seized an arsenal of weaponry ranging from bolt-action rifles and automatic weapons to a “combat-ready†air-to-air missile from a neo-Nazi group in a series of raids supported by police in Milan, Varese, Forli and Novara, the BBC reported on…Read more...
Yes, Richard Spencer is now temporarily in charge of the Pentagon. No, not that Richard Spencer, though you could be forgiven for being momentarily confused given how things are going. Per Chris Geidner, the acting SecDef is Wall Street banker Richard Spencer, “not the white supremacist neo-Nazi who got punched on…Read more...
Some members of the United States House are concerned the Pentagon may have unleashed disease-infected ticks that caused the spread of Lyme disease.Read more...
Facebook’s plan to launch its Libra cryptocurrency is facing considerable pushback from federal officials who’ve raised concerns about the prospect of it being used to skirt anti-money laundering rules and fund other illicit activities.
A power outage swept New York City this weekend, leaving streets and metro stations without lights, individuals trapped in elevators, and homes without electricity. Certainly less endangering but still pretty shitty, the blackout also meant that many events in the city were canceled, and StubHub shelled out $500,000…Read more...
Welcome to another edition of Amazon Prime Day, an event described in earnest by the everything store as “a 2-day parade of epic deals.†If you can stomach scouring the website and mostly wading through a lot of hot garbage, you may land on something actually useful. But mostly, you’ll find deals on a lot of shit you…Read more...
Amazon made waves when it announced late last week that it planned to spend $700 million to retrain one-third of its U.S. workforce—100,000 employees—as part of its ‘Upskilling 2025’ initiative. The sizable commitment, which the Wall Street Journal notes is “among the biggest corporate retraining initiatives†yet…Read more...
Mars’ surface, as far as we can tell, is not habitable to humans—it’s far too cold. But eventually, humanity would like to put an outpost on the planet. That will require warming things up a bit, but how?
Around one hundred New Yorkers took a page out of Amazon’s book this afternoon and made a one-day delivery to the $80 million penthouse apartment of CEO Jeff Bezos: 275,000 signed petitions demanding broad change from a company which is becoming more closely associated with brutal working conditions, surveillance, and…Read more...
An analysis of soil samples, ocean sediment, and fruits from the Marshall Islands—the site of nearly 70 nuclear weapons tests during the 1940s and 1950s—has revealed alarmingly high levels of radiation, with some regions at levels exceeding areas affected by the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters.
Apple killed a laptop that had a lot more fans than I expected last week. Around the Gizmodo office, my colleagues groaned when news broke that following a refresh of its laptop line, there would no longer be a standard MacBook Pro without a Touch Bar. Apple, in their eyes, was going all in on the little…Read more...
Right now, it’s peak road trip season. And while that means there’s a lot of things to consider when planning your next vacation like the price of gas, lodging, and food, Waze has a new feature that could help make budgeting for your next adventure slightly less of a headache.Read more...
Barely missing a fatal slap at a bothersome fly might be a headache for both of you, according to new research from scientists at the University of Sydney. They say they’ve found evidence that insects are capable of feeling chronic pain after an injury, much like we do. What’s more, studying why and how insects…Read more...
President Trump’s attack this Sunday on four first-term congresswomen was widely viewed as one of the most racist he’s ever produced. Not everyone agrees, however. Twitter, whose platform serves as a catapult for Trump’s bigoted attacks on migrants, has ruled internally that Trump’s words on Sunday were not racist at…Read more...
As many reasons as there are for loving my smartphone, there are just as many reasons I hate it, but they all boil down to how dependent I am on this device that devours my attention. I’m bombarded by annoying notifications, and then when the phone dies because I’ve been futzing with it all day, I’m helpless to do…Read more...
Instacart has a checkered past when it comes to fair and dignified labor practices, and now dozens of its contract workers are claiming that the company app torments them into accepting shitty jobs or suffering the consequences.