Category Archives: Blog

This post is part of our High-tech High series, which explores weed innovations, and our cultural relationship with cannabis, as legalization in several U.S. states, Canada, and Uruguay moves the market further out of the shadows.

It’s not easy being green — especially at CES, the world’s largest consumer electronics convention. Marijuana tech companies are grumbling about how difficult it is to participate in CES 2019 because organizers will not allow them to exhibit.

“We’re not allowed on the showroom floor, and it’s apparently because [organizers] say they haven’t created a category for cannabis vaporizers yet,” says Jeff Brown, vice president of public policy and communications at PAX Labs, an electronic vaporizer company.  Read more…

More about Ces, Marijuana, Weed, High Tech High, and Ces 2019

The only people left on Facebook are the people who are worst at using it.

A new study from Princeton and New York University delves into how much people share fake news online, and who’s doing the sharing. It largely confirms what some previous studies have indicated, and what you might have already suspected: the people who share the most fake news are your grandparents.

More specifically, the largest determinant to sharing a fake news article was being over the age of 65 — regardless of political orientation.  Read more…

More about Facebook, Study, Fake News, Tech, and Politics

Here’s another reminder to stop flushing your wet wipes down the toilet.

Water authorities discovered a huge fatberg, measuring a dizzyingly large 64 metres (69.9 yards) long, lurking in a sewer beneath the English coastal town of Sidmouth.

It may not be as large as the 250 metre (273 yard) long one found in London in 2017, but boy, it’s certainly as gross looking for sure. 

South West Water posted pics of the fatberg on Twitter.

More about Uk, Fatberg, Culture, and Climate Environment

Nissan is adding range and power to its well-known Leaf all-electric vehicle. 

At the CES tech show in Las Vegas, Nissan unveiled the Leaf e+ on Tuesday with 40 percent more range than its predecessor. The car will now run up to 226 miles on a single charge, easing range anxiety from the current Leaf’s roughly 150-mile range.

It still looks like a traditional Leaf vehicle, but the “e+” hints at the car’s battery pack with a higher energy density. Yes, there’s some nominal changes to the design like the front of the car has blue highlights and there’s an “e+” logo plate on the backside of the charge port lid.  Read more…

More about Ces, Nissan, Electric Vehicles, Ces 2019, and Ces 2019

Malala Yousafzai captured the world’s attention after she was shot by the Taliban for her advocacy of gender equality. In her latest book, We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World, Yousafzai writes about being forced to live in England and then devotes the remaining space to the stories of girls and women who also fled their homes. 

Those stories portray a range of feelings and experiences: guilt and gratefulness, death and survival, loss and opportunity. A refugee’s journey, simply put, is complicated. Contributors, who are from Colombia, Iraq, Syria, and other countries, use only a first name.  Read more…

More about Refugees, Trump, Malala Yousafzai, Social Media, and Politics

PewDiePie just surpassed a new YouTube milestone, and he has T-Series to thank for it.

Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie just hit 80 million YouTube subscribers on Monday. The achievement marks the first time any YouTuber has reached this milestone. PewDiePie, the platform’s most well-known (and most controversial) video game vlogger, has been embroiled in a fierce rivalry in recent months with a music video channel from India, T-Series. Both want to be YouTube’s most subscribed channel. His fans have waged war against the Bollywood channel and have taken drastic measures trying to help PewDiePie. Read more…

More about Youtube, India, Creators, Pewdiepie, and Subscribers

Museums are having a field day with these duck pics. 

The Museum of English Rural Life, whose Twitter account is the internet equivalent of a hot cup of tea on a rainy day, asked the British Museum to give them their “best duck.” 

Instead, museums from around the world started submitting their own ducks, of all shapes, sizes, and designs, for consideration. 

Dr. Rhi Smith from the University of Reading tweeted a photo of this gorgeous carved duck, which doubles as a jug for all the thirst tweets. Read more…

More about Twitter, Museums, Ducks, Culture, and Web Culture

New year. New tech!

Like every January, Mashable’s Tech Team came to Las Vegas for CES to preview what’s coming in the world of consumer tech, and boy were there are lot of shiny new gadgets to see.

8K TVs dominated the Las Vegas Convention Center show floor, laptops got interesting again (remember how they were supposed go extinct a few years ago?), and VR saw a much-needed revival.

So much of what’s shown at CES is often conceptual and might never see commercial release. But that’s OK, because that’s what pushes innovations forward. We need crazy dreamers with wild, forward-looking ideas. Without them, tech would be pretty darn boring every year. Read more…

More about Mobile, Gadgets, Ces, Highlights, and Smartphones

CES 2018, last year’s massive tech show in Las Vegas, played host to the debut of Lyft’s self-driving car. Powered by autonomous car startup Aptiv, the car was available to eager riders who waited hours to experience a robot-controlled drive.

Jump ahead a year, and self-driving Lyfts ordered through the ride-hailing app are a fairly typical part of Las Vegas life. Brightly labeled cars from other companies let everyone know the rides are autonomous. Heads still turn to see the futuristic vehicles in action, but the gawking is slowing down. 

More about Ces, Lyft, Autonomous Vehicles, Self Driving Cars, and Ces 2019

Those boycotting Trump’s national address on border security Tuesday night have plenty of alternative viewing options. It’s primetime, after all. 

But if you’re still looking for something else to watch, Stormy Daniels will also be folding laundry in her underwear for eight minutes on Instagram Live.

More about Instagram, Donald Trump, Social Media, Stormy Daniels, and Culture