current-events

Article

What You're Missing at TED2012 Right Now

As you and I sit here like dopes in front of our computers, a swarm of alpha nerds are basking in the Long Beach sun and enjoying TED2012. Only two talks from the show have been released so far, and they have somewhat differing messages: Abundance is Our Future (by Peter Diamandis) and The Earth is Full (by Paul Gilding). I'll go ahead and embed the latter, as it's a bit more depressing: But I Want More! Well, it's a tough gig, but somebody's gotta liveblog the entire conference. No,... READ ON

Big Question

Why Don't Valentine Hearts Look Like Real Hearts?

Heart image via ShutterstockLove is in the air today, and images of two-lobed hearts are all over everything: candy, cards, decorations, you name it. That the heart is symbolic of love and passion isn’t surprising. Ancient Greek and Roman thinkers, including Aristotle, thought the organ was the center of all emotions. Why the heart symbol you see everywhere in February doesn’t look anything like an actual human heart is a little less clear, though.The symbol goes at least as far back as the... READ ON

Article

The Big Squeeze: Scientist Catches Bear-Eating Snake in the Act

Burmese Python image via Shutterstock Earlier this week a team of scientists from several universities and the US Geological Survey released a study documenting the dramatically declining numbers of small and medium-size mammals in Florida - including raccoons, opossums, white-tailed deer, bobcats, rabbits and foxes. These population drops all occur in the same areas where pythons and other large, non-native snakes have taken up residence after escaping from one stop or another in the wildlife trade... READ ON

Article

Why is Wikipedia Down?

If you're in the US you speak English and you visit Wikipedia today, you'll see a glimpse of the page you were trying to access, then you'll see the blackout message above. You'll see similar messages from Google, Reddit, and others. Why? Although each of these sites does a good job of explaining its position, here's a rundown of the issues involved in today's shutdown. An Extremely Brief History Lesson In 1998, the US Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a bill that, among... READ ON

Article

What's Wrong With PROTECT IP and SOPA?

You may have heard about some new bills making their way through the U.S. Congress, related to piracy on the internet. But what are they and what's the big deal? Here's a simple guide to what the laws are and why so many internet nerds (like myself) are against them. Executive summary: the new laws could make you, as an individual, liable for a five-year prison term for posting any copyrighted work; they would hand massive new power to the entertainment industry (and other content-owning interests)... READ ON

Article

Andy Rooney, Re-Edited

As we've all heard, Andy Rooney has retired. But his body of work is vast, including 1,097 of his iconic 60 Minutes commentaries. I have a love-hate relationship with those commentary pieces -- I've actually watched 60 Minutes for many years, and while I'm tempted to turn it off when Rooney comes on (because it generally strikes me as "a few minutes" of crotchetiness), I generally stick around to see what cranky weirdness he's on about. Part of what makes Rooney's commentaries appealing is that they're... READ ON

Article

A Telephone Explains the Meaning of Life

Reporter Joshua Topolsky at This is My Next decided to ask the new iPhone's voice assistant some unusual questions. While my favorite is the (creepily helpful) response to Topolsky's statement "I need to hide a body," I thought I'd show you the response offered by a smartphone regarding the meaning of life. Adams and the Pythons would be... READ ON

List

The Ancient Websites of 8 Republican Presidential Candidates

The race for the 2012 Republican nomination is in full swing. During the last few months, we’ve spent a lot of time learning about the candidates' records, their personal histories, and the qualities that make them fit to be America’s commander in chief. But there’s a far more important issue we haven’t perused: Their websites. Their OLD websites. With the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, we can see what the candidates were doing online long before this election cycle. Most of the links... READ ON

Article

Neal Stephenson's Latest: REAMDE

It takes guts to title your blockbuster novel using an intentional misspelling. But fortunately for readers, Neal Stephenson has guts, a killer story, and -- for the first time since Cryptonomicon -- a thriller I can thoroughly recommend to any reader, not just the King Dorks of the crowd. Expect to see REAMDE enjoyed by regular human beings on airplanes, in coffee shops, and in geek-dens (the hive-like underground warrens where computer programmers go to sleep). I can only begin to tell you how... READ ON

Article

Netflix Splits DVD & Streaming Businesses

Something pretty remarkable happened this morning: I, and zillions of other Netflix subscribers, received an email from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Now, I'm not exactly pals with the guy, but I'm a fan of his company, as I watch movies that come in little red envelopes and stream on my TV and stuff. The email (also posted as a blog entry, linked above) was a mea culpa from Hastings, apologizing for "arrogance" and a failure to "communicate" about the recent Netflix pricing changes, in which the company... READ ON