Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Everyone say hello to Mai Mai the parrot.

Mai Mai has a big heart and, in this ridiculously cute video, a special, young friend to dote on. The video’s creator explains that the affectionate parrot “rushes to relatives when they arrive,” but adds “I have never seen [Mai Mai] do this before.”

Parrots are known for mimicking the behaviors of their human caretakers, and that’s probably what Mai Mai is doing here. The whole thing is too cute. Just watch. Read more…

More about Parrot, Culture, and Animals

Apple’s tech-oriented credit card is at the heart of a new investigation into alleged gender discrimination.

New York state regulators have announced an investigation into Goldman Sachs, the bank that issues the Apple Card, after a series of viral tweets from a consumer who shared the vastly different credit limits that were issued to him and his wife when they both applied for the card.

“The department will be conducting an investigation to determine whether New York law was violated and ensure all consumers are treated equally regardless of sex,” said a spokesman for the New York Department of Financial Services in a statement provided to Bloomberg. Read more…

More about Apple, Credit Card, Goldman Sachs, Gender Bias, and Apple Card

For a while, Rick and Morty seemed like the kind of show that was almost too enamored of its horrible protagonist. Rick’s narcissistic assholery was the show’s calling card, and the idea of a self-destructive genius whose ultimate assessment of the universe is that nothing matters and everything sucks propelled him to destroy everyone who even attempted to get close to him.

As the show progressed over three seasons, however, the show’s view of Rick’s nihilistic genius dimmed in favor of recognizing the toxic brokenness his character exudes. Instead of equating cosmic genius with the realization that nothing matters, its plot and characters curved towards a different idea: that people have the agency to choose what matters, even if life is ultimately meaningless.  Read more…

More about Rick And Morty, Entertainment, and Movies Tv Shows

In the early 2000s, Pat Giles worked on MTV’s Daria. Then he redesigned Count Chocula.

These days, the 52-year-old animation vet works at a New York City start-up that creates animated emoji stickers.

On a Friday afternoon, Giles gathered seven millennial animators in a conference room tucked behind a ping-pong table. He presented sketches of small mice playing with food  — something he had drawn up earlier in the day for one of his latest projects as head of studio at Holler, which creates animated emoji for iMessage, Android, Viber, LinkedIn, and other apps. 

More about Tech, Advertising, Emoji, Animation, and Messaging Apps

Why settle for just one Roku remote control, when you could have two?

That is the bold question posed by the latest addition to the Apple Watch ecosystem: the brand new Roku app. The app, which Roku writes became available for Apple’s wrist computer on Nov. 8, does all kinds of neat things — like, as we already mentioned, acting as a remote control. 

“Control your Roku device directly from Apple Watch,” explains the above-linked Roku blog post. “It’s the same easy to use remote from the mobile app – just sized for your wrist!”  

How fun! 

To get the app on your Apple Watch, all you need to do is download the Roku app on your iPhone (or, if you already have it, update to version 6.1.3) and you should be good to go.  Read more…

More about Apple, Roku, Apple Watch, Streaming Services, and Tech

Nine months till blast-off.

NASA’s latest car-sized, six-wheeled Mars rover, currently dubbed the 2020 Rover, is in the final stages of testing before launching to the red desert planet. 

On Thursday, NASA released footage showing researchers transferring the rover into a vacuum testing chamber at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. There, NASA subjected the rover to a simulation of Mars’ frigid atmospheric conditions to ensure the rover’s antennas, ground-penetrating radar, cameras, and equipment work under such extreme, extraterrestrial environs. 

More about Space, Science, Mars, Science, and Space

Technological obsolescence isn’t any less annoying when it’s unplanned. 

Scores of smart TVs owner are about to find that out the hard way come Dec. 2, when Netflix will stop supporting their devicesAccording to Samsung, the streaming service will no longer work on “select” 2010 and 2011 smart TVs sold by the manufacturer in the U.S. and Canada. 

The stated reason, notes Samsung, is “due to technical limitations.” However, the company is quick to point out that “there are many other devices that can be connected to a Smart TV to continue enjoying the streaming service.”

You just, you know, have to buy some compatible stuff.  Read more…

More about Samsung, Netflix, Roku, Smart Tvs, and Tech

Westworld‘s third season is slated to premiere sometime in 2020, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait until the new year to be fully creeped out. 

HBO dropped its latest teaser for the new season on Nov. 8 in the form of a video advertising a fictitious company, Incite, that presumably plays a large role in show. There’s even an accompanying website that promises “to make ‘impossible’ a thing of the past.”

“Here at Incite,” the website reads, “your data doesn’t work for us — we work for you.”

Which, having watched the first two seasons of Westworld, we’re going to reserve judgment on the veracity of that claim.  Read more…

More about Hbo, Westworld, Entertainment, and Movies Tv Shows

In a cavernous Los Angeles County cleanroom, Northrop Grumman and NASA engineers have pieced together the space agency’s prized next-generation telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope.

It’s big. 

How big? NASA tweeted a picture of a human standing on a crane beside the behemoth cosmic-sleuthing satellite, for reference. 

More about Space, James Webb Space Telescope, Science, and Space

What’s more disconcerting than watching MIT’s dog-like Mini Cheetah robot cavort around? Nine of them doing it in unison.

We’ve had concerns about MIT’s robots for some time now, but a new video from the school’s biomimetic robotics lab opens into new levels of terror. After a playful bit of robot soccer, the nine Mini Cheetahs gather together like a military unit and start playing a dystopian version of “Simon Says.”

The synchronized stretches and backflips are creepy enough, but the leaf piles will really mess up your day. This is what the eventual, clearly inevitable robot uprising will look like right in the moment it happens. Read more…

More about Robot, Mit, Cheetah Robot, Tech, and Innovations