Category Archives: Blog

There’s a magical mountain on the Colombian coast, said Lina Valencia, a biological anthropologist and Colombia conservation officer at Global Wildlife Conservation. The 18,700-foot peak, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, is the tallest coastal mountain on Earth. At different elevations, the peak hosts life found nowhere else.

At about 6,500 feet up, a black toad, spotted in white like an impressionist night sky, inhabits the mountainous land. It’s the starry night harlequin toad, or Atelopus aryescue, and conservationists hadn’t spotted the ornately decorated species since 1991. 

But the indigenous Arhuaco people knew the toad was there, all along. “It was never lost to them, it was lost to science,” said Valencia. Read more…

More about Science, Animals, Conservation, Science, and Climate Environment

Ninja tried to keep up with Bon Appétit chef Carla Lalli Music in the latest episode of “Back to Back Chef.” 

It did not go well.

Music planned a relatively simple bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. Tyler Blevins, known by his professional gaming handle “Ninja,” tried to follow along based on verbal instructions only. 

Despite Ninja’s cooking background — he told Music that when he worked at a restaurant for three years where his duties included “sautéing, cooking at the noodle station, and prepping noodles” — he couldn’t fathom sliced bread. When Music instructed him to cut two slices from the loaf of bread in front of him, Ninja couldn’t grasp how one slices bread.  Read more…

More about Viral Videos, Ninja, Bon Appetit, Culture, and Web Culture

Bust out the brain bleach, because you’re gonna need it. 

In an amazing feat of not being able to see what’s right in front of them, on Dec. 11 Bloomberg Businessweek published a well-reported dive into the privacy concerns surrounding Amazon’s family of Alexa products. And, to drive the article’s point home, someone on the company’s art team created cover art that, shall we say, implies customers are doing more than just talking to the digital assistant. 

I mean, just look at the damn thing. It’s a Fleshlight! 

And we’re not the only ones who immediately made this rather unfortunate connection. Read more…

More about Amazon, Alexa, Fleshlight, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

There is a unique joy that comes with being deliberately and unapologetically annoying. It it a feeling that cannot be replicated — a conspiratorial giggle in your soul, both diabolical and innocent, conniving yet straightforward, obnoxious yet affectionate. Glee in its purest form.

Developer House House harnessed this delicious delight earlier this year in its viral hit Untitled Goose Game. Released on Sept. 20 for PC and Switch, the indie game places players in the webbed feet of a horrible goose who wants nothing more than to ruin people’s mornings. And oh, how it ruins them.

Now, other console gamers will soon know the pleasure of causing problems on purpose. Australian developer House House announced on Tuesday that their antagonistic waterfowl will arrive on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on Dec. 17, just in time for Christmas. Read more…

More about Video Games, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Untitled Goose Game, and House House

Unless you’re a super conscientious internet user with password managers and two-factor authentication out the wazoo, it’s highly likely you’re still using a couple of logins that have been compromised in data breaches. 

You know you should use unique passwords for everything all the time, you’ve checked HaveIBeenPwned.com when you read about a major data breach, changed your Gmail or Facebook password when prompted — but ultimately you’ve kind of accepted a certain amount of regular pwnage as a fact of your digital life.

Now, Google has announced that Chrome will make it a bit easier to clean up your compromised credentials as you find them. Read more…

More about Google Chrome, Password Security, Tech, and Cybersecurity

If one thing was made clear today, it’s that Congress is woefully unequipped to be debating encryption and backdoors for law enforcement with the major tech giants. But that surely didn’t stop them from doing so anyway!

On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing titled “Encryption and Lawful Access: Evaluating Benefits and Risks to Public Safety and Privacy.”

In plain speak, the Congressional hearing was about big tech’s security protocols to protect your personal data and the police’s frustration in not being able to access that data.

Apple’s Manager of User Privacy, Erik Neuenschwander, and Facebook’s Product Management Director for Privacy and Integrity in Messenger, Jay Sullivan, were both on the panel representing their respective employers. Both of these privacy professionals explained (numerous times) how each of their products worked. They patiently walked through how, in some cases, it’s literally impossible for Apple and Facebook to provide information to law enforcement because the companies themselves don’t have access to the information in question either. Read more…

More about Facebook, Apple, Politics, Encryption, and Congressional Hearing

Just because you’re fraudulently raking in hundreds of millions of dollars doesn’t mean you have to be such a jerk about it. 

It’s clear no one passed this message along to the three men arrested today for their alleged part in a $722 million globe-spanning cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. In a Dec. 10 press release from the Department of Justice, the men stand accused of a years-long effort to fool investors into believing they ran a bitcoin mining pool — all the while disparaging anyone stupid enough to believe their supposed lies.   

Starting in 2014, Matthew Brent Goettsche and Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks, both of Colorado, along with Joseph Frank Abel of California, allegedly ran BitClub Network — a service that promised to take investors’ money and put it toward mining cryptocurrency.  Read more…

More about Bitcoin, Scams, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Tech

Created by La Fábrica de Inventos, Stop and Safe seeks to prevent users from injuring themselves while working. Read more…

More about Tech, Mashable Video, Safety, Future Blink, and Work Tools

Oil behemoth Exxon won a big climate trial on Tuesday. 

But critically, while New York State Supreme Court judge Barry Ostrager found the company did not deceive investors about the risks posed by sinking money into future oil projects, Ostrager emphasized this doesn’t excuse Exxon from its role in warming the planet. 

“Climate science wasn’t on trial, and the judge acknowledged that,” said Carroll Muffett, a lawyer and president of the Center for International Environmental Law.

“Nothing in this opinion is intended to absolve ExxonMobil from responsibility for contributing to climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases in the production of its fossil fuel products,” wrote Ostrager. “ExxonMobil does not dispute either that its operations produce greenhouse gases or that greenhouse gases contribute to climate change. But ExxonMobil is in the business of producing energy, and this is a securities fraud case, not a climate change case.” Read more…

More about Science, Lawsuit, Climate Change, Exxon, and Science

Playing a real person like Rob Bilott can be difficult for any actor. Mark Ruffalo talks about what he learned from Rob and how Anne Hathaway helped him get out of his head.  Read more…

More about Mashable Video, Golden Globes, Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, and Dupont