all-the-other-stuff
Everybody Run: We've Created a Self-Aware Robot (But Also It's Kind of Cute)
It's often easy to find advances in robot technology a little bit unsettling, if not downright scary. Practically as long as man has been making machines, we've been worried that they'll evolve and one day take over everything. Of course, for this to...
The iPhone 5 Line Was Filled With Occupiers, Urban Campers, and Pro-Line Waiters
Standing outside the Apple's 5th Avenue Flagship store with Caitlin, Motherboard's press-savvy intern, I'm overcome by a contact high from sleep-deprived iPhone fanatics. The layers of sweat and dust, the jitteriness of the first dozen overnighters...
Science Confirms: The iPhone Is the New Pacifier
We've all seen it happen. You're standing in line at the grocery store, perusing the latest Us Weekly and thinking about buying a pack of gum, when here comes the 21st-century mom, basket full of kale and kombucha, pushing a stroller with a little one...
The Enemy Can't Run From These Brain Wave-Powered Binoculars
In the wars of the future, solider's eyes alone won't be enough to hunt down insurgents. They'll need a little bit of extra help from the new brain wave-powered binoculars that DARPA just invented. Nicknamed the "Luke Skywalker" binoculars when they...
How Romanian Hackers Stole $10 Million From Subway Customers
Two Romanian hackers have fessed up to their involvement in a three-year-long credit card conspiracy that targeted over 150 Subway sandwich shops and as many as 146,000 of their unsuspecting customers. From 2008 to 2010, Iulian Dolan and Cezar Iulian...
This is the Banned 1945 US Army Documentary That Inspired "The Master"
In _Hard Eight_, Paul Thomas Anderson's first feature, John C. Reilly becomes the gambling protege of Phillip Baker Hall. Like some of Bret Easton Ellis' returning characters, Anderson scripted Phillip Baker Hall, in _Boogie Nights_ and _Magnolia_, to...
Scientists Can Now 3D Print Blood Vessels in Seconds
3D printing was already impressive. I mean, this is technology that can take a computer file and turn it into a real life thing. Pretty much anything, too — sculptures, burritos, human fetuses, bicycles, bones, cars, kidneys, assault weapons. One big...
How Twitter's Epic Fight to Protect One Guy's Data Crashed Into Money
Twitter really gave it the old college try with the Malcolm Harris case. The Occupy protester was arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge last fall, along with about 700 other kids trying to stand up to the banks. Like those hundred or so other protesters...
The Awful Film That's Ignited Anti-American Fury in the Middle East
Amateurish films funded by religious fundamentalists aren’t uncommon. But translate them into the language of other religious fundamentalists, and you can spark a hell-storm of murderous fury. Yesterday a chanting crowd of approximately 2,00...
One Day, the Pentagon's Robo-Beast Will Rule the World (Or Just Be Your Pet)
DARPA's four-legged, load-bearing robotic mule was already impressive. AlphaDog could trot around on all fours for 20 miles without refueling. It could carry up to 400 pounds of gear up hills. It could even pick itself back up if it got knocked over...
The 9/11 Memorial on Mars
Of all the tributes to the victims of 9/11 – from the small and personal to the national and epic – few will prove as enduring as the one created by JPL and employees at Honeybee Robotics: two small pieces of the World Trade Center towers currently...
The Hot Girl That Just Added You On Facebook Is a Terrorist
A few months ago, I was using that sleazy Badoo site, trying my damnedest to find a girl that I might meet in real life. If you recall the feature, I was unsuccessful. After the site spammed my mom -- asking her for her birthdate -- I ended up talking...