Capping off a probe launched in 2015—instigated by reporting from Oregon Live—Tesla Energy Solutions has agreed to pay $13 million back to Oregon after the investigation concluded the cost of 14 solar power projects in the state had been in inflated to qualify for higher tax cred … | Continue reading
As history has repeatedly shown, political systems come and go. Given our rapid technological and social advances, it's a trend we can expect to continue. Here are 12 extraordinary — and even frightening — ways our governments could be run in the future. | Continue reading
Google has dropped out of the competition for a Pentagon cloud computing project that could be worth as much as $10 billion and last up to a decade, citing a possible clash with its corporate values, Bloomberg reported on Monday. | Continue reading
The Department of Homeland Security released a statement this weekend supporting Apple and Amazon’s denial of an explosive Bloomberg Businessweek report claiming that a Chinese military unit inserted microchips into Super Micro Computer Inc (Supermicro) server motherboards in wid … | Continue reading
Neanderthals cared for their sick and wounded, and new research suggests this well-documented behavior was more than just a cultural phenomenon or an expression of compassion—it really did help them survive. | Continue reading
The internet has entered into a new era, forcing us to second-guess virtually everything we see, hear, and read. In their new book, LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media, P. W. Singer and Emerson Brooking explore the disturbing ways in which the internet is transforming news … | Continue reading
Silicon Valley has pissed off a great number of people, particularly in 2018, so promising to grab Mark Zuckerberg by the short hairs and rein in his company’s misuse of personal data seems like a pretty good way to rally the troops. It’s not Facebook alone, of course, but every … | Continue reading
As I was driving from Malaga to Cadiz for the unveiling of the first full-scale Hyperloop capsule, I got stuck on a simple math problem: “If it takes me two and a half hours to travel this 150-mile route, then the Hyperloop would take...” Oh, what does it matter? The road is stee … | Continue reading
A new technology in which insects are used to genetically modify crops could be converted into a dangerous, and possibly illegal, bioweapon, alleges a Science Policy Forum report released today. Naturally, the organization leading the research says it’s doing nothing of the sort. | Continue reading
Law enforcement could soon be able to shoot down citizen drones, thanks to a new bill that will likely be signed into law by Donald Trump within days. | Continue reading
Get ready for the next generation of wifi technology: Wi-fi 6 (for so it is named) is going to be appearing on devices from next year. But will you have to throw out your old router and get a new one? And is this going to make your Netflix run faster? Here’s everything you need t … | Continue reading
Using an airborne laser mapping technique called lidar, an international team of archaeologists has uncovered an astounding number of previously undetected structures belonging to the ancient Maya civilization—a discovery that’s changing what we know of this remarkable society. | Continue reading
The U.S. Capitol Police on Wednesday announced the arrest of a suspect accused in the online doxing of “one or more” U.S. senators. | Continue reading
The Trump administration’s ambitious plan to speed up 5G deployment across the country—namely by curbing the decision-making power of local governments in its construction—may be headed for a legal roadblock. Multiple U.S. cities are now debating whether to seek relief from the c … | Continue reading
After a long and winding journey that’s spawned a rejected pilot and close calls after close calls, Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time book series is finally coming to television, thanks to a deal between Sony and Amazon Studios. | Continue reading
Scientists Arthur Ashkin from the U.S.-based Bell Labs, Gérard Mourou from École Polytechnique in France, and Donna Strickland from the University of Waterloo in Canada shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work in laser physics. Strickland is the third female p … | Continue reading
It’s been a few years since Japan’s AIST updated its HRP humanoid robot line. While the last iteration, HRP-4C, strived to make the robot seem as human as possible with a realistic female head, the new industrial-looking HRP-5P looks like it escaped the factory before its bodywor … | Continue reading
If e-ticketing startup MoviePass isn’t quite dead yet, there’s been no mistaking the telltale signs of a dead man walking for months now. After months of reports that the service was about to hit a financial brick wall, it suddenly ceased paying for major new releases, nuked its … | Continue reading
Facebook’s stunning disclosure of a massive hack on Friday in which attackers gained access tokens to at least 50 million accounts—bypassing security measures and potentially giving them full control of both profiles and linked apps—has already stirred the threat of a $1.63 bill … | Continue reading
If e-ticketing startup MoviePass isn’t quite dead yet, there’s been no mistaking the telltale signs of a dead man walking for months now. After months of reports that the service was about to hit a financial brick wall, it suddenly ceased paying for major new releases, nuked its … | Continue reading
Despite having a domestic workforce of around 200,000 employees, fewer than 300 Samsung employees are part of a union, which seems a little curious. So South Korean regulators decided to dig a little deeper, and after a five-month investigation spurred by officials from South Kor … | Continue reading
Digital security and its discontents—from Hillary Clinton’s emails to ransomware to Tor hacks—is in many ways one of the chief concerns of the contemporary FBI. So it makes sense that the bureau’s director, James Comey, would dip his toe into the digital torrent with a Twitter ac … | Continue reading
Last week, I ran an ad on Facebook that was targeted at a computer science professor named Alan Mislove. Mislove studies how privacy works on social networks and had a theory that Facebook is letting advertisers reach users with contact information collected in surprising ways. I … | Continue reading
Last week, I ran an ad on Facebook targeted at a computer science professor named Alan Mislove. Mislove studies how privacy works on social networks and had a theory that Facebook is letting advertisers reach users with contact information collected in surprising ways. I was help … | Continue reading
Amazon, the country’s second-largest employer, has so far remained immune to any attempts by U.S. workers to form a union. With rumblings of employee organization at Whole Foods—which Amazon bought for $13.7 billion last year—a 45-minute union-busting training video produced by t … | Continue reading
The new and improved macOS 10.14 Mojave is rolling out to compatible Macs everywhere today. Here’s all the cool new stuff you can get busy with once you’ve installed the upgrade on your laptop or desktop. | Continue reading
A federal judge ruled last week that the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission (currently chaired by Donald Trump appointee Ajit Pai) must release records related to millions of fraudulent public comments filed before the agency repealed net neutrality guideline … | Continue reading
When humans take the drug MDMA, versions of which are known as molly or ecstasy, they commonly feel very happy, extraverted, and particularly interested in physical touch. A group of scientists recently wondered whether this drug might have a similar effect on other species—speci … | Continue reading
Chrome OS, itself based on the Linux kernel, can now run Linux apps—the circle is complete. If you’ve got the latest version of Chrome OS, and a fairly new Chromebook, you can now install some of the best applications Linux has to offer. Here’s how to go about it, and why you mig … | Continue reading
Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have glimpsed a neutron star unlike any seen before. | Continue reading
Once upon a time, instant messaging was king. Before social media apps and smartphones rose to prominence, these free-to-use services ruled. AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo! Instant Messenger, ICQ, you name it—everyone had their drug of choice. There was just one problem with … | Continue reading
A California court will soon decide sentencing for a man who posted the entirety of Deadpool on his Facebook page. If the U.S. government gets its way, the man will spend half a year in prison. | Continue reading
Ever since the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, was evacuated and visited by the FBI on September 6, the organization that runs the facility has been mum on the “security threat” that led to the closure. | Continue reading
Google’s widely reported search engine prototype for China, which is allegedly code-named Dragonfly, not only blacklists search terms to comply with the wishes of government censors but ties all searches to devices’ phone numbers, according to a report on Friday from the Intercep … | Continue reading
The House of Representatives passed the National Quantum Initiative Act yesterday. When signed into law, the bill will outline a 10-year plan to push forward applications using the counterintuitive science of subatomic particles. | Continue reading
A quiet debate has been brewing in the coding community for years that’s forced programmers to ask if using the terms “master” and “slave” are insensitive. Now, Python, one of the most popular high-level programming languages in the world, has ditched the terminology—and not ever … | Continue reading
Japan’s Hayabusa2 project experienced a (hopefully) minor setback yesterday when the spacecraft failed to complete a practice session during preparations for its much-anticipated touchdown on the Ryugu asteroid. | Continue reading
Deepfakes, ultrarealistic fake videos manipulated using machine learning, are getting pretty convincing. And researchers continue to develop new methods to create these types of videos, for better or, more likely, for worse. The most recent method comes from researchers at Carneg … | Continue reading
Sure, smartphones and smartphone apps can waste our time and bring out the worst in people, but they can most definitely also be a force for good: They can educate, inform, and inspire. With that in mind we’ve put together a list of our favorite apps that can teach you something … | Continue reading
A man is suing a cryonics firm for allegedly not respecting his late father’s wishes—or contract—to have his entire body cryogenically preserved. Instead, the firm severed and stored the man’s head, sending his cremated remains to his son. | Continue reading
He may be the most beleaguered and mistrusted CEO of any major tech company, but if an enormous new profile of Mark Zuckerberg makes one thing clear, he’s not as dumb as Twitter’s CEO. | Continue reading
Something strange is happening to the oceans. As coral reefs wither and fisheries collapse, octopuses are multiplying like mad. As soon as they perceive weakness, they will amass an army and invade the land, too. | Continue reading
On Thursday, authorities executed a search warrant at the home of a New Jersey couple who raised $400,000 to help a homeless man last year. | Continue reading
Bernie Sanders introduced a bill today that culminates weeks of feuding between the Vermont senator and Amazon, a company he views as indicative of a “rigged economy” that rewards the rich and harms workers. | Continue reading
Anyone holding out hope that the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules wouldn’t affect their internet better brace for some bad news. New research from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Northeastern suggests that all of the major U.S. tele … | Continue reading
Openly recognizing their companies’ past failures in rare displays of modesty, Facebook and Twitter executives touted new efforts to combat state-sponsored propaganda across their platforms before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, acknowledging that the task is ofte … | Continue reading
A recent research review suggests that white noise, the soothing, fuzzy soundtrack so many of us rely on to sleep or block out distractions, could actually be dangerous. It argues that exposure to the random, unstructured sounds that make up white noise can alter the brain’s neur … | Continue reading