Category Archives: Blog

Space station astronaut Christina Koch snapped a photo of Tropical Storm Barry on Thursday afternoon, as the developing storm headed for the Louisiana coast and its vulnerable city New Orleans.

The National Weather Service expects the storm to grow into a Category 1 hurricane by Saturday, with winds of around 75 mph. The short-lived storm won’t have a chance to develop into a Hurricane Michael-like beast with 155 mph winds, but the tempest will still bring serious threats to both southern Louisiana and Mississippi in the form of pummeling rains. 

“Any hurricane that hits you is a major hurricane for you,” said Mark Davis, the head of the Tulane Institute on Water Law and Policy in New Orleans. “A slow-moving, rain-producing storm can be every bit as damaging as a major hurricane.” Read more…

More about Science, Extreme Weather, Hurricanes, Tropical Storm, and Tropical Storm Barry

A new strain of Android malware has infected 25 million devices and modified legitimate apps with a malicious ads module, according to a report by the security company Check Point.

It’s believed the malware originated from a Chinese internet company that helps Chinese Android developers publish and promote their apps in foreign markets. The malware was disguised as Google-related updaters and “vending modules,” which hid its own app icons and automatically replaced already-installed legitimate apps with its own version without the user knowing. This lead the researchers to name the malware “Agent Smith” because its behavior is similar to the character in the film The Matrix of the same name. Read more…

More about Android, Malware, Tech, Smartphones, and Cybersecurity

Whether you’re flight’s been delayed or your Hot Pocket is just too hot, contacting customer service is, usually, a pretty bad experience. 

Things have gotten so dire that we’ve all collectively resorted to passive aggressively tweeting at brands to get them to pay attention. Surprisingly, sometimes it works well! Other times make you question if there’s an actually human behind the velvet brand Twitter curtain. 

YouTuber and former Vine star Drew Gooden decided to test the limits of what social media mentioning can actually get you in terms of a response. 

In the style of an indignant brand complaint, Gooden tweets at Delta Airlines, digging for a response due to his uh, unfortunate accident. Delta does not have the most stellar reputation for quick nor efficient customer responses, as comedian John Mulaney gleefully points out in his infamous Delta bit. Read more…

More about Twitter, Prank, Delta Airlines, Drew Gooden, and Culture

There’s a fun new entry in the #BottleCapChallenge. An MIT robot that can mimic humans tried out the latest trend that’s taking social media by storm.  Read more…

More about Mashable Video, Robot, Robotics, Mit, and Bottle Cap Challenge

This robot uses a camera to detect ripe fruit and the best way to pick it. Read more…

More about Mashable Video, Robot, Harvesting, Future Blink, and Tech

Just below the American Museum of Natural History large dinosaur bones are stored and researched in the Big Bone Room.  Read more…

More about Mashable Video, Dinosaurs, Dinosaur Fossils, Natural History Museum, and Whats In The Basement

Facebook is trying to shine a light on one of the more confusing  aspects of the advertising industry: how webs of seemingly unrelated companies use your data to serve ads.

The social network is updating its advertising settings to make it a bit easier to see how advertisers are getting your information, why you’re targeted for specific ads, and how to opt out of them.

To make this happen, Facebook is making a couple updates. The most notable change are new sections in Facebook’s advertising preferences that lets you see exactly how companies wind up with your info.

The first section, labeled “advertisers who have uploaded a list with your information and advertised to it,” includes businesses you’ve frequented (either online or IRL) that have uploaded your information to  Facebook.  Read more…

More about Tech, Facebook, Advertising, Social Media Companies, and Tech

As products jockey for your attention on Prime Day, some of them will be playing dirty.

Fake reviews on Amazon tend to surge around Prime Day, according to an analysis by the free review integrity analytics service Fakespot. This year’s Prime Day is right around the corner, spanning two days, July 15 and 16.

Fake reviews are always out in force in the world of e-commerce, not just on Amazon. But on Prime Day, when shoppers flock to the retailer, there’s an even larger push by companies seeking to feature their products to deploy fake reviews that boost ratings and visibility. 

“Companies publish fake reviews ahead of Prime Day because it helps move their products up the product ranking page,” a Fakespot representative said. “If anyone is searching for alternatives to Prime Day deals, they will see their products.” Read more…

More about Amazon, Reviews, Prime Day, Prime Day 2019, and Tech

TL;DR: If you love Stranger Things, then you’re going to flip for the new themed Monopoly game — available for pre-orders now.

Now that you’re done binge-watching the latest season of Stranger Things (well, most of us are, right?), it’s time to move on to the next big streamable TV show.

… Unless you’re like us and just cannot remove yourself from the town of Hawkins just yet. Like, how are we just supposed to jump ship and abandon our favorite crew of adventurous teens to go and watch The Office for the billionth time? (No offense to The Office fans — that show is still great). 

More about Netflix, Board Games, Monopoly, Stranger Things, and Mashable Shopping

Dystopian fiction is by definition a showcase of the worst case scenario. To write it, creators must take horrible realities and stretch them to their logical, if pessimistic, conclusion. In a lot of ways The Handmaid’s Tale does dystopia fairly well — it draws upon modern misogyny, extremist pseudo-Christian ideology, and observable human rights abuses and imagines a world where all of society is governed by those terms. 

The problem with writing a dystopia is that worst case scenarios are subjective. Everyone’s nightmare looks different to the person standing next to them. Margaret Atwood, who wrote The Handmaid’s Tale book even has a quote that speaks directly to this concept: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”  Read more…

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