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The Outer Space Country That the United Nations Ignored
via NASA / Goddard Among other things, ownership and statehood both require that the right people take notice. If Iran doesn’t recognize the existence of your nation-state, oh well. If the United...
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Nanosponges Flow Through the Bloodstream to Absorb Toxins
The UCSD nanosponge features a polymer core, red blood cell covering, and is shown here absorbing toxins (small colored balls). Image: Zhang Research Lab Medical nanobots that cruise through your...
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People Are Logging On to TurboTax Just to Explain Why They Can't Pay Their...
Image: Flickr, CC/TurboTax logo Happy Tax Day, people. It is an ugly day, one spent scrutinizing the too-small amount of money we are making and the too-large amount the government is taking away. For...
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What It Takes To Actually Sink A Cruise Ship
Maybe you remember the video below — it went fairly viral — but imagining how badly that ship must be getting tossed to create that kind of chaos got me thinking about well, what could actually cause...
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Why Ford and GM Think Your Car Needs 10 Speeds
ZF's nine-speed (above) was the world's first. Now Ford and GM think they can do 10. Image via ZF. Ever since the first gasoline-powered car went up for sale, cars have nearly unilaterally been sold...
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When All Else Fails During a Cyber Attack, Shoot Down a Satellite
Image via Flickr / DVIDSHUB Everybody in the United States government seems basically horrified about the destructive possibilities of a major cyber attack hitting our infrastructure. President Obama...
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Two-Year-Olds Grasp Grammar Better Than the Most Eloquent Chimpanzee
Photo: Sharat Ganapati/Flickr Over the years I've written countless times on how the living difference between humans and the great apes is thinner than even the genetic similarities indicate. But a...
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Conun-drum: Jai Paul's Mysterious 'Album' Leak is a Riddle Wrapped Inside a...
Via NOISEY — Last week we published an article titled “Is Jai Paul’s Debut Album Coming Out This Month?” and on Saturday night the album slithered unto the Internet. Did we predict the future? Like,...
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Yoani Sánchez Is Cuba's Digital Enemy Number One
"I'll tell you where she's staying," Yoani Sánchez's friend told me over the phone. "But this is top-secret, okay?" He'd been helping me set up an exclusive interview with Sánchez -- Cuba's premier...
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What Happened to Boston's Cell Phone Network After the Marathon Bombing?
Aftermath (Image via YouTube / Boston Globe) Everything changed in a matter of seconds. At the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, the recreational runners were finishing up just before 3 p.m....
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Daft Punk Is the Apple of Dance Music
Image: YouTube screenshot Daft Punk is everywhere. If you can't hum the first few bars of "Get Lucky" by now, then you haven't been on the internet for the last two months. Each snippet of the song...
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Lessons from the Second Great Bitcoin Crash
Only a week ago, it seemed like bitcoin could do no wrong. The digital currency’s value against the U.S. dollar surged past $200, at one point reaching $270. Then, suddenly, as many expected, the...
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Behold, the First Page of Thomas Pynchon's New Novel About Pre-9/11 New York,...
For the Thomas Pynchon fanatic, novel release dates are extraordinary events. But the spaces, the years between those rare occasions are filled with the pushing of the hermetic author's works on...
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See the Boston Marathon Bombing Hit the Blogs In Real-time
Image: Twitter It's always said that everyone comes together during a disaster, and blogs are no different. Tragedies of a certain magnitude—and there have been too many of them lately; Sandy,...
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By Banning Ads from Glass, Is Google Changing Its Business Model?
Image via Maria Chily/Flickr Yesterday evening, Google made a big announcement to developers who hope to sell third party apps to Google Glass users: Not only will developers be prohibited from...
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This Computer Program Can Teach Itself to Beat Super Mario Bros.
It's fairly well known that the first part of the first level of Super Mario Bros. was designed to teach new players how to jump on bad guys, eat mushrooms, and so forth. But what about players that...
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Game Change: OkCupid and High-End Porn Monger MetArt Now Take Bitcoin
Image via Flickr Some people just can't seem to get their heads around bitcoin. But last week, the digital, untraceable, autonomously minted, and decentralized currency hit a new plateau. After a...
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Douglas Rushkoff's Five Tips for Fighting 'Present Shock'
Image: Flickr Douglas Rushkoff's new book Present Shock argues that the future we've been waiting for is already here; it's just left us all too overwhelmed and distracted to realize it. And...
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Magnetic Silly Putty Is More Than Just an Awesome Toy
For the past couple of weeks, the geekiest corners of the web have been gawking at a strange but simple new phenomenon: magnetic putty. It's like Silly Putty but infused with millions of black iron...
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Moths Are Surprisingly Indiscriminate Sex Machines
Image via Flickr Ever wonder why there are so many crossbreeds of moths out there? There are a ton of them, and a study a team at the University of California Riverside may explain why. After a...
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