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Donald Trump attacked senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Twitter this morning, calling her a “flunky” who once begged him for campaign donations, and “would do anything for them.” It was vintage Trump—an incendiary attempt to belittle and shame a female adversary by insinuating that she did something degrading and unseemly, yet vague enough for his press […]Read More

After a thinly-veiled criticism of the company for “ripping apart the social fabric” by a former executive went viral, Facebook has decided to weigh in. Ex-vice president of user growth Chamath Palihapitiya said in November that he felt “tremendous guilt” about being involved in building tools that exploit human psychology—”program you,” in his words—and undermine […]Read More

The family of drugs that have given local morgues more business than they can handle may have finally found a place in America on death row. Nevada, which hasn’t executed an inmate since 2006, is planning to administer a combination of a sedative, a paralytic drug, and fentanyl to a convicted killer. Scott Dozier, found […]

On Saturday night, Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield picked up a Heisman Trophy, the annual award given to the best player in US college football. He deserved it. He led the Sooners through an epic season, taking the school to a Big 12 title and a spot in the College Football Playoff. If Mayfield had spent […]

63 words One paragraph from Obama’s policy that was removed, shown below, included specific goals and deadlines: “Set far-reaching exploration milestones. By 2025, begin crewed missions beyond the moon, including sending humans to an asteroid. By the mid-2030s, send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth;”

What is artificial intelligence? We have an answer for you, but apparently it wasn’t good enough for the United States Congress. A new bill (pdf) drafted by senator Maria Cantwell asks the Department of Commerce to establish a committee on artificial intelligence to advise the federal government on how AI should be implemented and regulated. […]

Prince Harry is having a pretty good month. Two weeks ago, the British royal announced he was engaged to American actress Meghan Markle, and today (Dec. 12), he confirmed what had been rumored for more than a year: He and his brother, William, are in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. You won’t exactly recognize them […]

San Francisco has a reputation among commuters for its terrible traffic, and it’s no wonder: A study by Washington-based traffic data company INRIX earlier this year found that San Franciscans spent an average of 82 hours stuck in traffic in 2016, making the city’s congestion the fourth worst in the world among 1,064 cities across […]Read More

The San Francisco branch the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has been ordered by the city to stop using a robot to patrol the sidewalks outside its office, the San Francisco Business Times reported Dec. 8. The robot, produced by Silicon Valley startup Knightscope, was used to ensure that homeless people […]

1. Me, myself, and in focus The other day I saw an in-store display that featured a model taking a selfie using a high-end digital camera with a flip up LCD screen. It struck me as the perfect metaphor for America in 2017. But, of course, I was being narrow minded. It’s really a perfect […]

Today Donald Trump will sign Space Policy Directive 1, an order to send humans back to the moon and beyond. A draft copy of the order seen by Quartz declares that “the United States will lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and […]

The theory of quantum mechanics supports the basis of modern technology, for everything from supercomputers and ultra-precise timekeeping to digital encryption. It describes the movement of photons, electrons, and other subatomic particles. Understanding how subatomic particles function helps us understand physics on a much larger scale. Just after World War I, Max Born, a German […]