Category Archives: Blog

A meteor seared over Australia on Tuesday night, lighting up the sky over Perth. 

According to the ABC, the local Department of Fire and Emergency Services received calls from “more than one concerned caller” who thought the meteor could be a UFO.

The meteor’s fiery descent was captured on several dash cams. 

CCTV footage shows how bright the meteor was — in the clips in this broadcast, it illuminates the entire frame.  Read more…

More about Space, Australia, Science, Meteor, and Dash Cam

League of Legends developer Riot Games wants to share what it’s learned over the past month.

The studio came under fire after Kotaku’s Cecilia D’Anastasio delivered an investigative report on Aug. 7 that exposed what the story referred to as a “culture of sexism” at the company. Riot responded the next day with a statement that pledged to step back and take some time to listen and learn.

“We recognize we still have work to do to achieve our goals, which starts with listening to feedback from Rioters and others, and providing Rioters with the guidance and resources they need to uphold our values,” the statement read (in part). Read more…

More about Entertainment, Gaming, Sexism, League Of Legends, and Riot Games

Seemingly from the very first moments of #MeToo, survivors and women were made to answer the same questions, over and over and over again, always asked with an air of accusation.

How long must an accused abuser suffer? What does redemption look like for them? What is the correct punishment? How much time is enough? What does an accused abuser need to do to redeem themselves?

The answers to those questions, which many women gave in abundance, appear to have been irrelevant.

Though it is not our jobs to do the emotional labor of fixing the problems abusers created — though we would rather have focused on what redemption looks like for those who suffered the abuse — we did it anyway. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Comedy, Stand Up, Michael Che, and Louis C.K.

DNA test kits like AncestryDNA and 23andMe have become increasingly popular over the past few years and were a surprisingly popular gift item during the holiday season. 

Though DNA tests are being added to more and more people’s bucket lists, the sheer number of kits you can choose from is overwhelming. The result? A lot of interested folks opt out simply because they’re not sure which kit to buy. (Even DNA tests for your dog exist. Yeah.)

And that sucks, because finding out the whos, whats, and wheres that made you into the person you are is way too awesome to pass up. Read more…

More about Adoption, Genetics, Family Tree, 23andme, and Mashable Shopping

At Facebook, some employees have joined an online group to complain about what they say are the company’s left-leaning politics, reports the New York Times. 

It’s named FB’ers for Political Diversity, and was created by Brian Amerige, a senior engineer at the social media giant.

Amerige wrote a post called “We Have a Problem With Political Diversity” on Facebook’s internal message board, which was shared with the Times.

“We are a political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views,” reads the post. “We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.” Read more…

More about Facebook, Politics, Social Media, Social Media Companies, and Big Tech Companies

Ah, the old flux capacitor prank.

Kathryn Burcham with Boston 25 news was reporting live from the scene of a plane crash at Cranland Airport in Hanson, Massachusetts, when it appears she accidentally made a Back to the Future reference. In the clip, Burcham claims that Jacob Haselden, the 20-year-old pilot who crash-landed the plane, told her a “defective flux capacitator” was the possible cause of the crash. 

Great Scott! We may have a troll on our hands.

As many of you know, a “flux capacitor” is a component in Doc Brown’s time machine from the Back to the Future franchise. It’s unclear if the plane was a time machine.  Read more…

More about Funny, Back To The Future, News Bloopers, Culture, and Web Culture

Jaguar Land Rover wants pedestrians to feel safer about its self-driving vehicles, and it’s hoping a pair of “virtual eyes” will do the trick. 

The thing is, it’s kinda creepy.

Think about it: A shuttle pulls up to a stoplight at an intersection that you’re waiting to cross and suddenly its cartoonish, drooping eyes are looking directly at you. Would you feel comforted? 

The idea is that you would, and it’s the latest attempt to replicate the human interaction that can occur between a driver and a person crossing the road. Ford, for instance, is working on a self-driving “language” that uses various patterns on a windshield-mounted light bar to communicate what the car is doing. Drive.AI is developing a less subtle method with digital images and captions on the side of its shuttles that explain what the car is doing, such as, “Waiting for you to cross.” Read more…

More about Autonomous Vehicles, Self Driving Cars, Jaguar Land Rover, Pedestrians, and Tech

The blueprint files to print your own 3D gun are now being sold — despite a ban issued by a federal judge.

Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, a group that distributes the files necessary to print your own “wiki weapons,” held a press conference on Tuesday announcing the release of the 3D firearm blueprints.

This comes one day after a federal judge in Seattle extended a temporary ban placed on the 3D gun files just before they were to be released online last month. That ban, handed down in July, was issued after attorneys general from Washington and several other states jointly filed a last minute lawsuit against the Trump administration in order to stop the 3D gun files release. The federal judge on Monday granted a motion to extend that ban until that case is resolved. The issue came to public attention after the State Department reached a settlement with Defense Distributed in June, paving the way for the group to release the files online.  Read more…

More about Politics, Guns, Gun Control, 3 D Printer, and Defense Distributed

The internet is invested in the tale of Johny, Papa, and their sugary deceit. 

“Johny Johny Yes Papa” is probably one of the more terrible things to curse your timeline recently. The nightmarish nursery rhyme went viral over the past week, drawing hundreds of thousands of new people into its lore. 

In the most shared version, a child with an absurdly large head sneaks out of bed to gorge on sugar cubes when his father — known only as “Papa” — sternly calls out “Johny” and breaks into a Gangnam Style-type dance. 

More about Youtube, Kids, Wtf, Culture, and Web Culture

Puerto Rico was ravaged by Hurricane Maria one year ago next month. 

Since the island’s long recovery began, the government and independent institutions have worked to figure out exactly how many lives were taken by the effects of the extreme storm.

Today, we have a new, better estimate — and it’s more than 46 times the old one. 

According to a new study released by George Washington University (GW), 2,975 people died as a result of the hurricane. The government of Puerto Rico now accepts that number as an accurate death toll, updating their previous official estimate of 64. Read more…

More about Extreme Weather, Disaster Relief, Puerto Rico, Hurricanes, and Hurricane Maria