Category Archives: Blog

Uber is a ride-hailing app, but lately it’s become an app for riding an electric bike or scooter, renting a car, and even checking when the bus is coming.

In an interview released over the weekend in the Financial Times, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi emphasized his goal of turning Uber into a diverse mobility platform. Translation: He wants the app to offer passengers as many different ways to get around as possible. It’s not just about ordering a car.

In the interview, Khosrowshahi said, “During rush hour, it is very inefficient for a one-ton hulk of metal to take one person 10 blocks.” Instead, he’d like passengers to get on a bicycle or an e-scooter. It’s quicker and easier. Read more…

More about Uber, Lyft, Ride Hailing Apps, Jump, and Bike Sharing

Seeing excessive dorm room makeovers fills me with a rage I can’t quite describe. Thankfully, there’s a meme that pokes fun at super extra before and after posts. 

Everyone knows that college dorm rooms are sad, barren spaces for nightly existential crises, not glamorous Instagram-friendly #goals photo ops. After all, you’ll stay in a room for less than a year. Do you really plan on taking all of these decorations down, put them in storage, and then do the whole thing over again next August?

The wildly extravagant decor doesn’t even account for RA inspections! Most college residence halls don’t even allow coffee makers, much less fire hazards like curtains and upholstered furniture. It’s a housing code violation waiting to happen. Read more…

More about Twitter, Memes, Dorm, Culture, and Web Culture

Wait, Milo Yiannopoulos is still on Facebook?

Late Friday night, former Breitbart golden boy and rallying figure for the alt-right, Milo Yiannopoulos, complained in the comments section of a Facebook post about how hard his life had become.

“I have lost everything standing up for the truth in America, spent all my savings, destroyed all my friendships, and ruined my whole life,” Yiannopoulos wrote. “At some point, you realize it’s occasionally better to spend the money on crabs and cocktails.”

Yiannopoulos later characterized the comment as “casually snapping” at someone, but his words highlight a greater point: that de-platforming hate-mongering internet celebrities actually works. It reduces the influence pernicious trolls like Yiannopoulos can have on national discourse. And makes their speech, though still hateful, and free, do less harm.  Read more…

More about Facebook, Breitbart, Milo Yiannopoulos, Alt Right, and Alex Jones

It might be one thousand degrees and 450 percent humidity now, but autumn is closer than we think. And with autumn will come beautiful fall foliage.

If you’d like to do some leaf peeping this fall, consider checking out the 2018 Predictive Fall Color Map from SmokyMountains.com. Using an algorithm involving historical temperatures, precipitation, leaf trends and forecasts, the map predicts when peak foliage will hit across the country this year.

Of course, there’s no way for a tool like this to be 100 percent accurate. Still, it should provide you with a general idea of how the best part of fall will pan out this year. If you’re on the East Coast, for example, get excited for two months from now! Read more…

More about Fall, Culture, and Web Culture

Google is worried about your digital health. More specifically, your addiction to watching hours upon hours of YouTube videos. 

The search engine giant’s video giant, YouTube — the second most trafficked website in the world, right after, you guessed it, Google — is rolling out a new feature on iOS and Android devices that will track how much time you spend watching videos on the platform.

In an announcement post titled Tools to Take Charge of Your Digital Wellbeing, YouTube states that its “goal is to provide a better understanding of time spent on YouTube, so you can make informed decisions about how you want YouTube to best fit into your life.” Read more…

More about Mobile, Youtube, Health, Time Management, and Tech

Zafar the dolphin just wanted to find love. And maybe a quick hook up. 

The sexually frustrated dolphin has been wreaking havoc in Landévennec, Brittany, a seaside town in the north of France. The town had to ban swimming because the dolphin, who locals nicknamed Zafar, wouldn’t stop rubbing up on boats and innocent beachgoers. According to the Telegraph, Zafar even “used its nose to push one woman out of the water and up into the air.”

The playful dolphin used to delight locals and tourists alike by cruising alongside boats and letting swimmers hold onto his dorsal fin for a ride.  Read more…

More about Summer, Beach, Dolphins, Culture, and Animals

This is You Won’t Regret It, a new weekly column featuring recommendations, tips, and unsolicited advice from the Mashable culture team.

Perhaps you’re familiar with “finstas,” the secondary Instagram accounts used primarily by Teens™ to post photos they don’t want to share on their primary accounts. (The word “finsta” is a portmanteau of “fake” and “Insta.”) 

Finstas can house a wide variety of pics, from shitposts to risqué selfies to hyper-specific memes the user only wants their best friends to see. They’re generally private, with highly curated followings — it’s not uncommon for finsta accounts to only have 10-15 followers. Unless you’ve been invited to follow someone’s finsta, it’s generally impossible to tell who the account belongs to. It’s essentially a secret, unfiltered Instagram oasis. Read more…

More about Instagram, Social Media, Teens, You Won T Regret It, and Culture

The following article contains spoilers for the season finale of HBO’s Sharp Objects and its post-credit scene. 

First of all, if anyone happened to miss the post-credits scene in Sharp Objects, that’s OK. It’s tacked on waayyy at the end of the credits after the production company stingers and it’s entirely forgivable that the ending was so traumatizing as to dissuade people from watching to the end. 

That said, definitely watch it. 

The spooky scene shows Amma Crellin (presumably in flashback) standing at the edge of the woods in a white dress, staring at the camera as if to lure it to follow her into the forest. Even though the scene is only a few seconds long, it confirms a few things about her short-lived career as Wind Gap’s resident child-killer.  Read more…

More about Sharp Objects Killer, Sharp Objects Post Credit Scene, Sharp Objects Finale, Sharp Objects Post Credit, and Entertainment

Nearly three weeks ago Bentley, a one-year-old Goldendoodle, was thrown from a Jeep that crashed in Colorado. The pup’s family, friends, and strangers have been searching for him ever since. Finally, Bentley was spotted this weekend and successfully reunited with his grieving family. 

The Kansas family was visiting Colorado when the accident happened on Aug. 7, leaving the driver, Jennifer Orr, dead and her grown daughter, Samantha Orr, injured. Bentley was nowhere to be found at the site of the crash, alive or dead.

People in the area mobilized to search for the white, fluffy dog when word got out that he was lost. Flyers were distributed and a Facebook group went up with tips and advice for searching and tracking down a scared, traumatized puppy. Read more…

More about Rescue, Dog, Culture, and Animals

A 1960s race car that originally cost $18,000 (that’s $151,203.60 in today’s money) shattered records with a nearly $50 million auction sale this weekend.

The valuable 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, a two-seater coupe, sold at an RM Sotheby’s auction in California for $48.4 million. This is the highest auction price ever for a vehicle. A 2014 auction previously held that title, for a $38 million Ferrari.

Only 36 of the Ferrari 250 GTO were made between 1962 and 1964, making it a rarity and highly desirable for collectors. This particular Ferrari raced in the 1962 Italian GT Championships — and won. The car has a top speed of 174 mph. Read more…

More about Record, Ferrari, Auction, Race Car, and Tech