Category Archives: Blog

Elon Musk, “pedo guy.”

While the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and the Boring Company has decidedly not been accused of anything that would merit the rather distasteful moniker, Musk did just win a defamation trial about his calling someone else a “pedo guy” on Twitter. And, in celebration of that fact, the internet is returning the favor. 

Immediately following the ruling, “fans” of Mr. Musk shared in his joyous victory by calling the CEO a “pedo guy” on Twitter. 

More about Elon Musk, Tech, and Elon Musk

The president made a bizarre claim that people flush their toilets “10 times, 15 times” per visit, and now the internet is concerned about his digestive system. 

During an event with small business owners on Friday, Trump complained that in homes with low water pressure, showers, sinks, and toilets don’t work. Among discussions of other regulations he wants to roll back, he said he ordered a federal review of water efficiency in bathroom appliances. He particularly had issues with environmentally friendly low-flow toilets. 

“You turn on the faucet, you don’t get any water. They take a shower and water comes dripping out,” he said in a video clip from the event. “People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to only once. They end up using more water.” Read more…

More about Twitter Reactions, Trump, Epa, Culture, and Web Culture

I knew my mission was dangerous, but I didn’t think it would go sideways so quickly. 

The plan, outlined by a hologram of the Resistance’s resident Force-wielder Rey, was to fly off the planet of Batuu and rendezvous at our secret new base. Nobody knew that the First Order was expecting our egress from Black Spire Outpost or that the Star Destroyer was lurking in orbit, ready to trap our shuttle in a tractor beam. Those intelligence failures could turn out to be fatal mistakes.

“You are now prisoners of the First Order,” a uniformed officer barks at my rebel companions, “proceed to your cell for interrogation.” I look around, thinking about making a run for it, but an entire legion of Stormtroopers is standing at the ready, waiting to put a blaster bolt through anyone unwise enough to defy their detention. I know there’s a way out of this, but I certainly can’t see it yet. As the First Order marches me through the Star Destroyer and seals me in the dark interrogation chamber, a thought hits me: I’m not even on the ride yet.  Read more…

More about Star Wars, Disney World, Star Wars Galaxy S Edge, Star Wars Rise Of The Resistance, and Entertainment

More about Tesla, Pedo Guy Trial, Tech, and Elon Musk

Microsoft has discovered 44 million user accounts are using usernames and passwords that have been leaked through security breaches.

As ZDNet reports, the vulnerable account logins were discovered when Microsoft’s threat research team carried out a scan of all Microsoft accounts between January and March this year. The accounts were compared to a database of over three billion sets of leaked credentials and resulted in 44 million matches.

These accounts were spread between regular user accounts used by consumers (Microsoft Services Accounts) and enterprise accounts in the form of Microsoft Azure AD logins. In response, Microsoft explained, “For the leaked credentials for which we found a match, we force a password reset. No additional action is required on the consumer side … On the enterprise side, Microsoft will elevate the user risk and alert the administrator so that a credential reset can be enforced.” Read more…

More about Microsoft, Passwords, Data Breach, Tech, and Cybersecurity

On the whole, games almost always tell stories of people with power.

That doesn’t mean that protagonists don’t start off weak (like Link in Legend of Zelda or really any RPG), or aren’t presented as powerless. But as a general rule, video game narratives are power fantasies, requiring main characters to grow increasingly badass through inhuman strength, abilities, or literal superpowers.

One of the many boundary-pushing accomplishments that sets apart Life is Strange 2 (which just released its final episode this week) is its commitment to telling the story of a person who grows only more disenfranchised.  Read more…

More about Entertainment, Video Games, Immigration, Oppression, and Life Is Strange 2

It looks like Magic Leap’s sales numbers are just as disappointing as their early demos. 

The much-hyped augmented reality startup, which has raised billions of dollars in funding, has only sold a fraction of the headsets it had hoped for during its first six months. The company sold 6,000 headsets, far short of its target of 100,000, according to a new report in The Information.

While it’s not clear from the report if sales have improved since then — the headset began shipping last fall — the early numbers suggest that the $2295 Magic Leap One has fallen far short of the company’s initial expectations. Actual shipments were so low that the company reportedly began giving away free headsets to employees due to the surplus supply. Read more…

More about Tech, Augmented Reality, Magic Leap, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

Back in the 1980s, the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea would have been largely frozen over by early December. But times, and climes, have changed.

Local authorities in the Russian village of Ryrkaypiy, located on the far northeast coast of the country and bordering the Chukchi Sea, have reported to the World Wildlife Fund and other organizations that 61 polar bears (up from initial observations of 56) have amassed just outside of town. 

It’s strange for often-solitary polar bears to congregate here, yet the iconic marine mammals have little choice: They require sea ice to hunt for seals, but the Chukchi sea ice is hovering at near-record lows.  Read more…

More about Science, Arctic, Global Warming, Climate Change, and Polar Bears

Well, color us shocked. 

A new Instagram feature, billed as a boon to users’ well-being, might in fact — purely coincidentally, we’re sure — increase the amount users post. Who could have ever possibly seen that coming?

According to a Dec. 6 story from CNBC, former employees of the Facebook-owned Instagram have speculated that the plan to hide likes might have a side effect that, for some unknowable reason, remained unheralded by company executives. 

“There’s also a hypothesis within the company that hiding likes will increase the number of posts people make to the service, by making them feel less self-conscious when their posts don’t get much engagement,” the story reads.   Read more…

More about Facebook, Instagram, Likes, Tech, and Social Media Companies

With the 2020 Democratic primaries right around the corner, Bernie Sanders released his plan to bring high-speed internet to all corners of the United States. 

Dubbed “High-Speed Internet For All,” Sanders’ plan calls for high-speed internet to be considered “a public utility that everyone deserves as a basic human right.” Citing successful programs in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Lafayette, Louisiana, Sanders heralds the idea of “municipality-owned, high-speed internet.”

With municipality-run services, the city either partners with a provider like Google Fiber to distribute internet access through a city-owned system or the city owns its own network outright. In these cases, internet access is often cheaper and of a higher quality with more transparency (i.e. no nefarious, mysterious fees tacked on to your bill). Read more…

More about Verizon, Bernie Sanders, Comcast, 2020 Presidential Election, and Broadband Internet