Aliens in the Valley The complete history of Reddit, the Internet's front page by Seth Fiegerman Aliens in the Valley The complete history of Reddit, the Internet's front page by Seth Fiegerman For months leading up to his resignation, Yishan Wong looked beaten down. Employees say he was noticeably…

Framed: Chapter 1 The cop wanted her car keys. Kelli Peters handed them over. She told herself she had nothing to fear, that all he’d find inside her PT Cruiser was beach sand, dog hair, maybe one of her daughter’s toys. They were outside Plaza Vista School in Irvine, where she had watched her…

A very, very small quadcopter, one inch in diameter can carry a one- or two-gram shaped charge. You can order them from a drone manufacturer in China. You can program the code to say: “Here are thousands of photographs of the kinds of things I want to target.” A one-gram shaped charge can punch a…

A young piabeiro (aquarium fisherman) heads out to collect Cardinal Tetras using a simple hand net. (All photos: Mike Tuccinardi) Deep in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, the tiny city of Barcelos stands as a slowly crumbling monument to the country’s colonial past and centuries of hard-fought struggle…

Most Americans can recite their share of jingles. Perhaps they can’t remember their partner’s cell phone number, but they know every digit required to reach Empire carpet . Or every word of “I’m a Toys ‘R Us Kid.” Or that the best part of waking up is Folgers in their cup. And yet, despite its…

Signs of a journalism crisis abound. The newspaper industry is in a downward spiral, and cable television offers little beyond campaign-driven commentary. Reporting that “ afflicts the comfortable ” can find little sustenance within the vast wasteland of American news media. But Gawker seemed…

Enlarge / The RATAN-600 radio telescope, in Zelenchukskaya, Russia. Wikimedia commons It remains only the barest of probabilities that astronomers have just found evidence of extraterrestrial, intelligent life. Nevertheless, in the community of astronomers and other scientists who use radio…

The FBI has uncovered evidence that foreign hackers penetrated two state election databases in recent weeks, prompting the bureau to warn election officials across the country to take new steps to enhance the security of their computer systems, according to federal and state law enforcement…

Researchers building soft robots have been hampered by finding alternatives for control systems and electric power for the robots. Circuit boards and batteries are rigid and previous models of soft robots have either had these hard components rigged, or have been tethered to an off-board system. A…

Nuclear test explosion in Mururoa atoll, French Polynesia, in 1971. The official expert group says the Anthropocene should begin about 1950 and is likely to be defined by the radioactive elements dispersed across Earth by nuclear bomb tests.Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Humanity’s impact on the Earth…

From a networking perspective most Internet providers are generally not very happy with BitTorrent users. These users place a heavy load on the network and can reduce the performance experienced by other subscribers. In addition, the huge amount of data transferred outside the ISPs’ own networks is…

They arrived in their thousands. Hardened by months of war with ferocious natives, near-starvation and exotic diseases, Hernan Cortez and his Spanish army marched into the great city of Cholula expecting a fight. But this was a sacred city. Instead of investing in weapons, its inhabitants built…

In April of 1958, Hunter S. Thompson was 22 years old when he wrote a letter on the meaning and purpose of life when asked by his friend, Hume Logan, for advice. In just a few paragraphs, Thompson’s letter offers deeply thoughtful ideas, and what makes it all the more profound is the fact that at…

Matter on Medium/Business Insider A version of this post originally appeared on Matter . It's becoming harder and harder to communicate the most urgent crisis facing Louisiana. According to the U.S.G.S., the state lost just under 1,900 square miles of land between 1932 and 2000. This is the rough…

How can we help you? You can also browse the topics below to find what you are looking for. Frequently Asked Questions General Updating WhatsApp Changing the app's language Lost and stolen phones View all questions Android Verifying your number Restoring your chat history Configuring your…

Authors: Bill Marczak and John Scott-Railton, Senior Researchers at the Citizen Lab, with the assistance of the research team at Lookout Security. This report describes how a government targeted an internationally recognized human rights defender, Ahmed Mansoor, with the Trident, a chain of zero-day…

The astonishing story of how two wrestling teammates from Miami came to oppose each other in the cocaine wars -- one as a drug smuggler, the other as a DEA agent.

On the morning of August 10, Ahmed Mansoor, a 46-year-old human rights activist from the United Arab Emirates, received a strange text message from a number he did not recognize on his iPhone. "New secrets about torture of Emiratis in state prisons," read the tantalizing message, which came…

US engineers have built the first ever self-contained, completely soft robot - in the shape of a small octopus. Made from silicone gels of varying stiffness, the "octobot" is powered by a chemical reaction that pushes gas through chambers in its rubbery legs. Because of this design, the robot does…

Google looks to have done a great job with The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks, a 360-degree interactive documentary celebrating this month’s 100th anniversary of the National Parks Service. “The U.S. National Parks are full of wonders, but most people don’t get the chance to visit in person,”…

A CIA-linked firm has joined forces with Amazon in a bid to use "computer vision" to snoop on the Earth in unprecedented detail. CosmiQ Works, a firm closely associated with the US intelligence agency, is working with the online retail giant and the satellite mapping firm DigitalGlobe to train…

Finding and addressing Twitter and Facebook threats requires a thorough understanding of how they're accomplished. Social media threats are at an all-time high, ranging from account hijacking to impersonation attacks, scams, and new ways of distributing malware and executing phishing attacks.…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Global messaging service WhatsApp says it will start sharing the phone numbers of its users with Facebook, its parent company. That means WhatsApp users could soon start seeing more targeted ads on Facebook — although not on the messaging service itself. The move is a subtle but…

People convey meaning by what they say as well as how they say it: Tone, word choice, and the length of a phrase are all crucial cues to understanding what’s going on in someone’s mind. When a psychiatrist or psychologist examines a person, they listen for these signals to get a sense of their…

Present-day farmers with donkeys in the Zagros Mountains in Iran, one of the two places in the Fertile Crescent where farming was originally developed. Credit: JTB Photo/UIG via Getty Images Two Middle Eastern populations independently developed farming and then spread the technology to Europe,…

Alpha Centauri, the closest star to the sun, is the target of a new plan to send laser-powered mini spacecraft for a flyby visit. Credit: ESO /Digitized Sky Survey 2 Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin For Yuri Milner, the Russian Internet entrepreneur and billionaire philanthropist who funds the…

In a mouse brain, cell-based detectors called CNiFERs change their fluorescence when neurons release dopamine. Credit: Slesinger & Kleinfeld Labs When a single neuron fires, it is an isolated chemical blip. When many fire together, they form a thought. How the brain bridges the gap between these two…

Sidewalks in Switzerland are about to get a little bit more crowded. Swiss Post, the national postal service in Switzerland, will test robots next month in three cities to deliver food and medicine. The robots, which are small, six-wheeled pods, travel slowly on sidewalks. They're designed to avoid…

Steve Bannon runs the new vast right-wing conspiracy—and he wants to take down both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. It’s nearing midnight as Steve Bannon pushes past the bluegrass band in his living room and through a crowd of Republican congressmen, political operatives, and a few stray Duck Dynasty…

Transportation cybersecurity to go under the microscope Former Intel chair warns about Huawei — Cyber firms have money to burn Senators sound alarm over Huawei grid threat States swap voting security risks — BabyShark attacks DNC updates cybersecurity checklist Congress offers many cyber bills,…

I magine a habitable planet orbiting a distant star. You’re probably picturing a variation of Earth. Maybe it’s a little cloudier, or covered in oceans. Maybe the mountains are a little higher. Maybe the trees are red instead of green. Maybe there are scantily clad natives … OK, let’s stop there.…

City dwellers spend nearly every moment of every day awash in wi-fi signals. Homes, streets, businesses, and office buildings are constantly blasting wireless signals every which way for the benefit of nearby phones, tablets, laptops, wearables, and other connected paraphernalia. When those devices…

eso1629 — Science Release Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star Pale Red Dot campaign reveals Earth-mass world in orbit around Proxima Centauri 24 August 2016 Astronomers using ESO telescopes and other facilities have found clear evidence of a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth,…

Paperback: $17/£13 E-book: $10/£8 Print + E-book: $25/£20 FAQs and shipping information Bitcoin is an international, decentralized digital currency. Learn more at bitcoin.org . Print: $17 Bitcoin E-book: $10 Print + E-book: $25 FAQs and shipping information Real democracy and the Internet are not…

For many people, the days of wandering into a store, browsing the shelves, and walking out with music stored on plastic are a distant memory. In Japan, however, the CD is still king. Globally, 39% of all music sales are physical CDs and vinyl, but in Japan, the figure is double that. It helps make…

The sky over the Circuit Court for Baltimore City on June 23 was the color of a dull nickel, and a broad deck of lowering clouds threatened rain. A couple dozen people with signs—“Justice 4 Freddie Gray” and “The whole damn system is guilty as hell”—lingered by the corner of the courthouse, watching…

Singapore will segregate public servants’ computers from the internet.Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo Singapore is planning to cut off web access for public servants as a defence against potential cyber attack – a move closely watched by critics who say it marks a retreat for a technologically…

NASA NASA has reestablished contact with its STEREO-B spacecraft , nearly two years after losing communication with the vehicle. The space agency has been trying to get in contact with the spacecraft since October 1st, 2014, when the last signal from STEREO-B was received on Earth. Finally on…