Gizmodo

Canon versus Nikon. Dell versus HP. Microsoft versus Apple. Tech companies have been battling over their piece of the pie for years, that ain’t new. But recently, tech and non-tech companies alike have started changing up their business models so that instead of simply selling you a device and calling it a day,…Read more...

Donald Trump called off a military strike on undisclosed Iranian assets this week after reports Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shot down a RQ-4A Global Hawk surveillance drone, the incident itself following accusations of Iranian responsibility for attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. But U.S. Cyber Command…Read more...

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If you go to the beach, you’re likely to see some form of plastic pollution scattered in the waves or sprinkled among the sand grains. A bottle cap fragment here, a transparent piece of packaging there. But researchers have identified a new, and perhaps more permanent type of plastic pollution, one that incorporates…Read more...

The Seventh Doctor was a mastermind of fiendishly clever plans that really pushed not just the Doctor’s famous intelligence to its limits, but often involved his infamous dark side, too. And in his next audio adventure, he’s going to need all the fiendish cleverness he can muster—and perhaps even just some…Read more...

The Oregon Department of Corrections [DOC] has barred inmates from reading dozens of books about technology and programming—many of which teach basic skills for many entry-level jobs.Read more...

Even as Homeland Security officials have attempted to downplay the impact of a security intrusion that reached deep into the network of a federal surveillance contractor, secret documents, handbooks, and slides concerning surveillance technology deployed along U.S. borders are being widely and openly shared online.

Earlier this month, New York’s state senate passed S1637, a bill to establish “the crime of criminal possession of a flamethrower,” described by some as a ban on Elon Musk’s Not-A-Flamethrower. Here are some things you should know about that proposal:

The quality and speed at which videos can now be faked using neural networks and deep learning processes promises to make the upcoming presidential election even more of a nightmare. But by exploiting something overlooked in current deepfake techniques, researchers have found an automated way to spot fake videos.Read more...

The gender gap in computer science research won’t reach equality for more than a century, according to new research released Friday that showed computer science isn’t just lagging behind, it’s also going in the wrong direction.

The former CEO of an Anchorage-based telecom was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding New York investors of more than $270 million.

Listening to grey seals recite vowel sounds and sing the melodies to Star Wars and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” makes for excellent entertainment, but for the researchers who trained these aquatic mammals, it’s serious science.Read more...

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Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes sure is an interesting person to talk to about Facebook.

In a welcome bit of news as water shortages hit major cities worldwide, scientists have discovered an enormous low-salinity aquifer off the U.S. East Coast. The researchers say it could indicate other such aquifers trapped beneath the salty seas in ocean sediments across the planet.

In a blog post yesterday evening, social media giant Facebook announced several changes meant to mitigate the effects of misinformation and hate speech causing real-world violence, including the formation of a Strategic Response team meant to stop a repeat of what happened in Myanmar.

Astronomers captured a first look at radiation emitted directly by Uranus’ rings.

If you own a Dell, now would be a good time to update your system. Even if your PC wasn’t manufactured by Dell, it’s possible that a new vulnerability affecting millions could apply to you.

It’s hard to know precisely when the electric fan was invented, but Thomas Edison was probably involved. In the century-plus since then, the basic idea hasn’t changed: spin a propeller really fast, wind results, room cools down. The performance of your average table fan, however, has evolved quite a bit. Now,…Read more...

It’s amazing what a set of wheels can do. What was once a vague chunk of metal, wires, and circuit boards is now finally starting to look like an actual rover.Read more...

It’s become abundantly clear that Amazon is interested in incorporating surveillance into many of its products and services—through the internet, in our homes, and from the sky.Read more...

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What were those two strange objects flying over Kansas City, Missouri last night? Plenty of people took to Twitter yesterday to speculate that they might be anything from internet balloons for Google’s Project Loon to slimy green aliens. But in reality, they’re almost certainly Darpa’s new test balloons. What was…Read more...

Something odd happened in Hong Kong last week. Protestors against a controversial proposed extradition bill were afraid to use their metro cards. Instead of swiping their cards through the turnstiles of the city’s subway system, they lined up to buy single-journey tickets with cash, apparently worried about “leaving a…Read more...

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Mark Hamill hopes The Rise of Skywalker will be his final turn in Star Wars. It seems like Halloween 2 is all but ready to start shooting. Peter Parker has a superheroic heart-to-heart in new Spider-Man: Far From Home footage. Plus, new snippets from Midsommar, and what’s to come on the next season of The Terror.…Read more...

Thanks to the internet and all the apps and services that run on top of it, we can now ping someone on the other side of the world instantly—but that person doesn’t necessarily want to hear from you in the middle of the night. The same goes for social media sharing, because the time when inspiration strikes may not be…Read more...

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A massive fire rocked an oil refinery in South Philadelphia early Friday morning, causing explosions that could be felt as far away as New Jersey, according to early news reports. No evacuations have been issued for the area, but those in neighborhoods near the blaze were ordered to shelter in place.Read more...

The Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency order overnight barring U.S.-based airlines from flying over some airspace controlled by Iran. The FAA order came just as news broke that President Donald Trump had ordered a military strike against Iran on Thursday, but had called it off at the last minute.Read more...

House Republicans and Democrats came together on Thursday to put forth comprehensive legislation designed not only to help end the scourge of robocalls but prevent U.S. consumers from being forced to foot the bill.

Democrats hold supermajorities in both houses of Oregon’s legislature and the governorship. That means that they can pass basically whatever the hell they want unless, of course, Republican legislators decide to desert the capital.Read more...

You might have heard recently, from publications like the Washington Post, NBC, and of course, Newsweek, that some people are growing a “horn” or a “spike” out of the back of their skull from using a smartphone too much.Read more...

A Christian group known as Return to Order has been running a campaign to urge Netflix to remove the show Good Omens, which was released on Amazon.Read more...

Google isn’t killing all tablets, but it will no longer be making its own tablets. It’s a crying shame as Google’s merging of Android and Chrome OS for last years abysmally reviewed Pixel Slate was perhaps the perfect tablet OS.Read more...

With the historic Rosetta mission now firmly in the rear view mirror, the European Space Agency has set its sights on a different kind of comet, that is, a comet that’s never visited the inner reaches of the solar system. Called Comet Interceptor, the mission will include a mothership and two “daughter” spacecraft.

In its first day on the New York Stock Exchange, workplace messaging company Slack leapt over 50-percent above its reference price of $26 per share despite employing an unusual, less costly strategy to debut on the market. The past few hours of trading have sent Slack’s total value soaring to $23.1 billion, while…Read more...

I’ve spent most of my day thinking about the video going around describing the absurd, 12-part process that’s required to reset GE C-Life smart bulbs. So I bought some and performed the Sisyphean ritual myself.Read more...

Trond Larsen was night-searching for rare frogs and insects in the Lost City recently discovered within Honduras’ Mosquitia Rainforest when his headlamp illuminated something surprising: a curious black puma. Larsen, a researcher who led this February 2017 expedition into the so-called Lost City of the Monkey God,…Read more...

It’s no fun being a fan of retro gaming if you grew up a fan of Sega consoles. Emulators and game-bundled throwback consoles have been notoriously bad, but recently things have improved—as long as you’re a Sega fan happy to throw money at your passion. The $190 Mega Sg console plays classic Sega games flawlessly, and…Read more...

If you thought the heat wave-induced melting of half of Greenland’s surface last week was alarming, wait until you hear the long-term projections for its ice sheet.

Facing overheating batteries that “may pose a fire safety risk,” Apple launched a voluntary recall and replacement program on Thursday for the 15-inch 2015 MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

It seemed virtually inevitable that I would be thrown out of AutismOne, a yearly conference that has been accused of being a hive of anti-vaccine sentiments, bad science, scaremongering and worthless products. The conference has, after all, ejected several science bloggers who have previously attended, as well as a…Read more...

A London student was just convicted for using a 3D printer to make a gun—but not just something that looks like a gun. On Wednesday, Tendai Muswere pleaded guilty to manufacturing a lethal firearm with a 3D printer. The weapon in question resembles a pepper-box revolver, popular in early 19th century America. Muswere…Read more...

Plenty of people around the world, it turns out, are willing to return a stranger’s lost wallet—especially if it’s filled with cash, according to a counterintuitive study.Read more...

The U.S. Justice Department argued in federal court this week that government agencies like Customs and Border Protection have no responsibility to provide toothbrushes, toothpaste, and soap to migrant kids who are currently held in America’s vast network of concentration camps. Human rights organizations have…Read more...

You can get a very capable smartwatch for a few hundred bucks now, as long as you’re not overly concerned with aesthetics. Following luxury watchmakers like TAG Heuer, Garmin’s new MARQ line strives to finally bridge the gap between stylish analog timepieces and less stylish smartwatches. But with a price tag ranging…Read more...

The leaders of Riviera Beach, Florida, this week voted to authorize a payment of $600,000 to criminals who crippled the city’s computer system after targeting its police department with ransomware.

At the end of the day, everything about climate change is a choice. And among the most serious choices are the ones we’ll face are along our coasts.Read more...

It’s probably a bad idea to buy used connected devices because it can be difficult to determine who could still be connected to that device.Read more...