the digest (Page 166)

Latest in the digest

In this deepfake, former U.S. president Barack Obama takes over for Chadwick Boseman as the Marvel superhero Black Panther.

Someone Deepfaked Barack Obama Into “Black Panther”

By Victor Tangermann

A cyberstalker used a reflection in his target's eye in a selfie to determine her location, and then went to her house and attacked her.

Cyberstalker Locates Victim by Enhancing Reflection in Her Eye

By Kristin Houser

After a public feud, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk seem to be on better terms, and they plan on hanging out on Thursday.

NASA Boss Ends Feud With Elon, Plans SpaceX Factory Tour

By Dan Robitzski

Navy "UFO "scientist Salvatore Cezar Pais has filed another bizarre patent. This time, it's for a compact nuclear fusion reactor.

Navy Scientist Known For “UFO-Like Tech” Patents Fusion Reactor

By Dan Robitzski

Citizens in China will have to have their face scanned by facial recognition when signing up for internet services or a new number.

China Will Make Citizens Scan Faces to Sign Up for Internet

By Victor Tangermann

You can now visit the control room where the decisions leading up to the Chernobyl disaster were made. But only for five minutes.

Daring Tourists Can Now Visit Chernobyl’s Control Room

By Victor Tangermann

Airplane pilots are abandoning their gigs captaining rich folks' private jets for more steady work at commercial airlines.

The Mega Rich Are Having Trouble Finding Pilots For Private Jets

By Dan Robitzski

Cybercriminals have use a bit of malicious code to hack the official Sesame Street online store — and potentially 20,000 other e-commerce sites.

Criminals Hacked the “Sesame Street” Store, Stole Credit Card Info

By Kristin Houser

Electric car company Tesla has given its customers a heads up: charge your cars. Almost a million Californians are about to lose power for five days.

Tesla Screens Flash Warning: Charge Your Cars Before CA Blackout

By Victor Tangermann

A woman tried to call for help via a Knightscope security robot covered in "police" markings, just to be told to step aside.

Police Robot Ignores Woman Trying to Call Police

By Dan Robitzski

Starting Wednesday, the utility company Pacific Gas & Electric will turn off customers' power to prevent its aging infrastructure from causing wildfires.

California Is Cutting Power For Nearly a Million Homes

By Dan Robitzski

In a paper, NASA scientist Jeremy Schnittman argues that it's pretty unlikely planets that orbit black holes could harbor life.

Science & Energy

NASA Scientist Ponders Life on Planets Orbiting Black Holes

By Victor Tangermann

Gravity Industries added a shoulder-mounted toy rifle to its Iron Man-style flying jet suit, and then took it for a spin above a parking lot.

Advanced Transport

Oh Good, They’re Adding Guns to the Flying Iron Man Jet Suit

By Kristin Houser

The AI used by the UK government to review people's passport photos contains built-in biases against people with darker skin. The gov. deployed it anyway.

Artificial Intelligence

The UK Knew Its Passport AI Was Racist — and Used It Anyway

By Dan Robitzski

Two Canadian parents are spearheading a class-action lawsuit against Epic Games because they say its popular video game "Fortnite" is addictive.

Lawsuit: “Fortnite” Is as Addictive as Cocaine, Ruins Lives

By Kristin Houser

In case the world collapses and modern gadgets fall into disrepair, a developer is making an operating system to run on salvaged computers.

Someone Built an OS for Computers Salvaged After the World Ends

By Dan Robitzski

Startup Anduril has built an anti-drone quadcopter for the U.S. military that kills other drones by slamming into them at 100 miles per hour.

See a Drone Kill Another Drone by Slamming Into It at 100 MPH

By Kristin Houser

NASA astronauts were treated to an amazing sight on June 22, 2019 when the Raikoke Volcano in Eastern Russia erupted into a massive cloud of dark smoke.

Science & Energy

Watching This Volcano Erupt From Space Is Absolutely Epic

By Victor Tangermann

Scientists discovered 20 more tiny moons orbiting Saturn, meaning the gas giant is the new record holder within the confines of our solar system.

Science & Energy

Astronomers Just Found 20 More Moons Around Saturn

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists are learning more and more ways to gene-hack new traits into animals, including genetic alterations that could enhance their intelligence.

Fringe Idea: Should We Gene-Hack Animals to Make Them Smarter?

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists figured out how to breed hornless bulls by editing their genes, providing a painless alternative to horn-removing procedures.

Science & Energy

Scientists Use Gene-Hacking to Breed Hornless Bulls

By Dan Robitzski

Elon Musk regrets calling Vernon Unsworth a "child rapist" in an email to BuzzFeed, according to court documents filed by British diver.

Court Documents: Elon Musk Called Himself a “Fucking Idiot”

By Victor Tangermann

Transhumanist Winter Mraz has modified her body with a number of implants, including a pair of LEDs that light up under a magnet.

Prosthetics and Devices

This Transhumanist Implanted Magnet-Triggered LEDs Under Her Skin

By Kristin Houser

Farmers in China are breeding pigs that weigh as much as 500 kilograms in response to the African swine fever that recently devastated its pig population.

China Is Breeding Massive Pigs That Weigh More than a Grand Piano

By Kristin Houser

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration may investigate Tesla over how it handled its exploding battery issue.

A Federal Agency May Investigate Tesla Over Faulty Batteries

By Dan Robitzski

The U.S. Space Development Agency is seeking over $11 billion to deploy up to 1,200 low-orbit satellites to monitor next-generation hypersonic missiles.

The US Plans to Track Hypersonic Missiles With 1,200 Satellites

By Victor Tangermann

Based on rover findings, NASA scientists envision Mars' Gale Crater to once have resembled the Altiplanos, the high altitude regions of South America.

Science & Energy

NASA: Rover May Have Found Remnants of Ancient Martian Oasis

By Victor Tangermann

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station grew meat from bovine cells — and the experiment could help feed people in space and on Earth.

Astronauts Just Grew Meat in Space for the First Time

By Kristin Houser

Porn deepfakes featuring actresses and musicians from the entertainment industry account for the vast majority of the manipulated videos currently online.

Artificial Intelligence

Study: Porn Accounts for 96 Percent of Deepfakes Online

By Kristin Houser

Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO who's accumulated a nice $69.8 billion, suggests that maybe no one needs a billion dollars after all.

Mark Zuckerberg, a Billionaire, Says Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist

By Dan Robitzski

Musk revealed that the Tesla will soon be getting "customized horn and movement sounds,"— including "goats" and "farts" according to a Sunday tweet.

Elon Musk: Teslas Will Soon Make “Fart” and “Goat” Noises

By Victor Tangermann

Toyota, Japanese tech giant, is using virtual reality to teach a home helper robot how to fulfill random tasks around the house.

Toyota Used VR to Teach a Home Helper Robot How to Clean

By Victor Tangermann

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just took questions from employees during a Q&A session, and for the first time, the company livestreamed the event.

Facebook Just Livestreamed an Employee Q&A With Mark Zuckerberg

By Tag Hartman-Simkins

The Hong Kong government has announced a ban on any face masks or paints that are "likely to prevent identification" during public demonstrations.

Artificial Intelligence

Hong Kong Bans Surveillance-Thwarting Face Masks

A team of researchers have figured out a way to implant memories in the brains of young zebra finches, thereby teaching them how to sing.

Science & Energy

Scientists Zap Birds’ Brains With Light to Implant False Memories

By Victor Tangermann

Flying car startup Kitty Hawk has revealed Heaviside, an electric aircraft that's "roughly 100 times quieter than a regular helicopter."

Advanced Transport

Kitty Hawk’s Extremely Quiet Flying Car Has a 100-Mile Range

By Victor Tangermann

Maria Elena Gimeno has turned herself into police after a video of her keying a Tesla Model 3 was captured by the car's Sentry Mode feature.

“Famous” Tesla Vandal Caught by Sentry Mode Turns Herself In

By Victor Tangermann

A French man was able to regain control over all four of his paralyzed limbs again thanks to a mind-controlled exoskeleton suit, the BBC reports.

Robots and Machines

Watch a Paralyzed Man “Walk” Using a Mind-Reading Exoskeleton

By Victor Tangermann

Six of the 10 authors behind a controversial mosquito study are calling for its retraction, saying they never approved the version that was published.

Science & Energy

Gene-Hacked Mosquito Researchers Are Battling Amongst Themselves

By Kristin Houser

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk paid a convicted felon $52,000 to investigate Vernon Unsworth, the man that Musk called a "pedo guy."

Elon Musk Paid Convict to Investigate Man He Called “Pedo Guy”

By Victor Tangermann

Scientists finally managed to directly observe the cosmic web, a vast network of hydrogen gas that connects and feeds galaxies.

Science & Energy

Here’s the First-Ever Pic Of “Cosmic Web” Connecting All Galaxies

By Dan Robitzski

Early observations of the interstellar object 2I/Borisov suggest that the comet's home solar system might not be that different from our own.

Interstellar Object’s Home Solar System May Resemble Our Own

By Kristin Houser

Astronomers from the Event Horizon Telescope are upping the ante: they just announced plans to capture real-time video of our galaxy's central black hole.

Science & Energy

Scientists Plan to Capture a Feasting Black Hole on Video

By Dan Robitzski

Strange balls of fire rained down on a Chilean island last week and astronomers have no idea what they are. Geologists have already ruled out meteorites.

Science & Energy

Flaming Objects Falling From Sky Were Not Meteorites, Experts Say

By Victor Tangermann

A team of researchers from the University of Colorado State University have found "strong links" between air pollution exposure and "aggressive behavior."

Study: Higher Air Pollution Linked to Increases in Violent Crime

By Victor Tangermann

Internet experts are tracking the bizarrely-coordinated #WeVapeWeVote campaign on Twitter that's trying to convince politicians to abandon the vape ban.

Robots and Machines

Hardcore Vapers Are Trying to Lobby US Politicians

By Dan Robitzski

Astrobiologist Samantha Rolfe says that Elon Musk's plans to colonize Mars are more of a "moral catastrophe" than a noble aspiration.

Astrobiologist: Elon Musk’s Starship Is a “Moral Catastrophe”

By Dan Robitzski

A new video uses deepfake tech to turn recorded footage of New York City into a bizarre, stylistic Picasso-like landscape.

Artificial Intelligence

Watch a Deepfake Turn Footage of New York Into a Cubist Painting

By Dan Robitzski

The Founders Fund has announced the creation of Hereticon, a new conference where attendees will explore everything from UFOs to immortality.

New Conference Invites “Troublemakers” to Discuss UFOs, Doomsday

By Kristin Houser

A team of researchers found traces of organic compounds in plumes that burst from Saturn's moon Enceladus. A sign of life if all the conditions are right.

Science & Energy

Scientists Find Building Blocks of Life on Saturn’s Icy Moon

By Victor Tangermann

Portugal's navy recently demonstrated prototype weapons created out of remote-controlled toy cars modified to house grenade launchers.

Robots and Machines

Portugal’s Navy Has a Unit That Turns Toys Into Grenade Launchers

By Kristin Houser

YouTubers systematically tested over 15,000 keywords to demonstrate that YouTube is automatically demonetizing LGBTQ content.

Is YouTube Demonetizing Videos That Mention LGBTQ Words?

By Dan Robitzski

In what's perhaps one of the most frivolous lawsuits in recent memory, a Russian man is suing Apple for having his iPhone drive him to homosexuality.

A Russian Man Is Suing Apple for “Turning Him Gay”

By Victor Tangermann

On Tuesday, the United States' first cannabis cafe opened in West Hollywood, California — and seven similar establishments are already in the works.

America’s First Cannabis Cafe Is Open for Business

By Kristin Houser

A Yahoo software engineer hacked 6,000 people's accounts in a systematic, far-reaching hunt for nudes and other sexually-explicit media.

Science & Energy

Yahoo Engineer Admits He Hacked User Accounts to Hunt for Nudes

By Dan Robitzski

After the members of a car group ICEd Tesla Superchargers in September, its organizers went out of their way to ensure the incident wouldn't happen again.

Car Group That ICEd Tesla Superchargers Makes Amends

By Kristin Houser

New calculations of the universe's outward expansion only make sense if it turns out that some black holes are actually giant blobs of dark energy.

Some Black Holes May Actually Be Blobs of Dark Energy

By Dan Robitzski

China just revealed the spacecraft it wants to use to ferry astronauts to the Moon. In other words, a new Space Race is heating up.

China Reveals Spacecraft Built to Ferry Astronauts to the Moon

By Victor Tangermann

The newly discovered exoplanet NGTS-10b has set a new record for shortest orbit, zipping around its star in just 18.4 hours.

Science & Energy

Doomed Exoplanet Sets Record for Shortest Orbit Around a Star

By Kristin Houser

NASA's Mars InSight lander just detected some "peculiar sounds" thanks to its onboard seismometer that's capable of picking up on the tiniest of vibrations.

Science & Energy

NASA Mars Lander Detects Creepy “Dinks and Donks” Sounds

By Victor Tangermann

Using a camera-equipped drone, police were able to track down a fugitive living in a tiny cave after escaping from a prison camp 17 years ago.

Police Drone Catches Fugitive Living in Remote Cave

By Kristin Houser

Newly-shared pictures of the cotton plant China briefly grew on the Moon shows that it fared a little bit better than previously thought before freezing.

Science & Energy

China Shares Photos of Its Doomed Moon Plant

By Dan Robitzski

Members of the Thailand-based group UFO Kaokala believe they can talk to aliens through a portal on the Khao Kala mountain.

Cult in Thailand Claims It Has a Portal to Talk to Aliens

By Kristin Houser

A nuclear engineer in Russia was just fined $7,000 for using his top-secret lab's supercomputer to illegally mine Bitcoin at work.

Science & Energy

Russia Punishes Guy Who Mined Bitcoin at Top-Secret Nuclear Lab

By Dan Robitzski