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This Beer-Sampling Robot Tongue Can Tell a Coors from a Guinness
The inevitable evolution of beer-drinking robots. Image: Screenshot, Futurama.Watch out, Gordon Ramsay. Gustation might seem like one of those things that's so thoroughly human that it'd be difficult...
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The UN Says Dead Elephants Are Funding War
A Congolese ranger investigates the skull of a poached elephant in Province Orientale. Image: Matchbox Media CollectiveIn the last couple years, increased attention has been paid to the connection...
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Australia Will Dump Tons of Mud on the Great Barrier Reef to Expand Coal Mining
Image: Flickr/Paul ToogoodHere’s a catastrophic environmental doubly-whammy out of Australia today: The government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has voted to allow a massive sand-dredging...
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The Unflappable Brilliance of "Flappy Bird"
Flappy Bird is a lot of fun. It will also probably drive you insane. Image: screenshot, Gears StudioI've had an overwhelming urge to hurl my iPad at the wall for the past week. As someone who plays a...
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Reviving the Dream of Quantum Energy Teleportation
Image: Ho Chi Minh City/FlickrHow’s this for a technology dream? Energy transported over distances with no need for conductors/carriors. Electricity (for example) goes “in” at some centralized power...
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A UK Head Shop Owner Would Like His Bitcoins Back from the FBI
Image: Zach Copley/FlickrPeter Ward wants his bitcoins back from the FBI. The Devon, England head shop owner is claiming that 100 out of the thousands of bitcoins seized from the Silk Road raids are...
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Trolling the Unheard Depths of Spotify with Forgotify
Image: Romanovsky & Phillips/Valarie SantagtoThe founders of Forgotify are embarking on a project that, if successful, is doomed to self-destruct. Their Spotify-based program plays you the songs on...
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Cai Guo-Qiang and the Fine Art of Blowing Shit Up
The Chinese New Year is upon us, which means two weeks of fireworks: fireworks to terrify our pets; fireworks to illuminate and exacerbate chronic air pollution; fireworks to create fine art. That last...
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Behind the Gorgeous Microorganismal Art of Nurit Bar-Shai's 'Chemical Tweets'
Nurit Bar-Shai’s Objectivity [tentative] is a movement inspired by the biochemical work of Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel Aviv University in the artist’s native Israel. The project celebrates the...
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The Quiet, Rare Voyeurism of Craigslist Mirror-For-Sale Ads
Here's something odd: at some point over the past five or so years, the internet ceased to be the voyeuristic wonderland once promised. Maybe it's just that we're all so used to it by now, but the...
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After the Flood: A Photo Tour of Reservoirs in a Time of Drought
Image: Cougar Reservoir/Robert AshworthWhere I lived in Colorado in the very early '00s, dust storms were common in the warm dry months, painting the western sky over with a thin layer of swirly tan....
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Europe Is All Confused About What E-Cigs Actually Are
Image: Shutterstock/Marc BruxelleWith various talks on the table regarding the regulation of e-cigarettes in the UK and Europe, the status of vaping is getting increasingly confused. Just like in the...
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A Torrent Site Wants to Be the New Academic Library
Image: Flickr/SLU Madrid CampusAfter arguments over whether scientific research should be open to all rather than stuck behind paywalls, a new initiative in the UK is granting online access to journals...
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Why Criminal DNA Records Should Be Public
Image: WikipediaNew technologies in law enforcement are often mismanaged, with the result being waves of collective fear. The FBI released a report in January about the National DNA Index System...
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Let's Talk About Internet-Connected Cyberflora
Image: PLEASEDThe internet of things. Cybernetics. The quantified self. Brain-computer interfaces. We're wiring more and more of the physical world and the human body. But should we really extend the...
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The Home of Olive Oil and Mozzarella Is Still the Mafia's Toxic Waste Land
The Gerlando family, profiled in Vice's "Toxic: Naples," below, are farmers originally from Naples who moved far south of Campania after their sheep began giving birth to mutated and deformed...
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Why Are Bitcoiners Going to Jail for Money Laundering While Big Banks Walk?
Image: ShutterstockBitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem, along with alleged co-conspirator Robert Faiella, was arrested by federal authorities last week for allegedly laundering more than $1 million worth of...
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Farting Angels and Ass-Slapping Aristocrats: A Web Archive Reveals the Weird...
This angel's trumpet-fart is one of 14,000 newly released documents from French Revolution Digital Archive.Shackles broke, kings fell, and heads rolled. The French Revolution was one of the most...
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The World's Fastest Glacier Is Speeding Up
The calving front of the Jakobshavn glacier. Image: NASA/DMS team/FlickrAs scientists have watched it for decades, Greenland’s semi-famous Jakobshavn glacier has been speeding up. In a study released...
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What Every Habitat on Earth Sounds Like
Image: Centroclinal/Wikimedia CommonsThe snow is coming down wet and heavy here in Brooklyn. If I could just get away for a minute to someplace warm and quiet, save for the lulling drone of an insect...
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