I use Siri while driving for sending texts, at home (especially for web searches and setting timers), and sometimes in public if I have microphone-headphones on. I just wish they'd extend its functionality - I'd use it a lot more if you could open and control all apps with it. Why the hell can't you use it with email,…

That being said (and mind you, I don't believe that low intensity microwave radiation such as this is remotely dangerous), you also have to consider the intensity and rate of absorption of the various EM wavelengths. Visible light has shorter wavelengths (and thus higher intrinsic energy) than infrared, but a 1-watt…

Thaaaat would explain it (he said sheepishly). Thanks!

For some reason, Gizmodo has gotten this wrong in at least two articles (to be fair, maybe one of them was io9....): It's not landing on August 5th, it's landing on August 6th. It's hard for me to forget, because it's my birthday — which is an additional reason I want the thing to not crash!

I've been thinking about the Fermi Paradox since I was a kid, inventing half-assed science fiction scenarios. I wonder if the reason we haven't detected signals from the rest of the galaxy might be due to some feature of the solar system (or other star systems, for that matter) we have yet to suss out; a "radiopause"…

I thought so too, but no (Google Translate is a many-splendored thing)... [weibo.com]

I don't find the controls stiff, per se. Movement is just designed to be more realistic in Arma 2. It takes a realistically long time to change from prone to crouch to stand, and depending on what weapon you're holding, you'll have a harder time turning around in close quarters (it's motivation to switch to a pistol…

Are you saying this is misinformation because the device's output is not technically laser light ("simultaneously streaming ultraviolet light, X-rays, and all wavelengths in between"), but high harmonic generation? While there are a range of wavelengths produced, the article does say that coherent x-ray beams are…

It was a good catch, and it's good to have a more accurate idea of what's going on. That being said, this is still an incredible experiment. The fact that they were able to create, in vitro, an entirely synthetic cell which actually expresses proteins with a directed function is huge..

No, of course I don't think diet was the only factor governing lifespan, and I agree with Grglstr — if we're going to reevaluate our diet, we should take a closer look at pre-1950s food before resorting to raw Ibex meat. The real problem isn't hard to suss out; everybody's eating way too much over-processed,…

For all the people talking about how the life-expectancy of a paleolithic person has been skewed by high infant mortality, and they actually commonly lived into their 70s - no. That's corrected for in any study of *adult* mortality. In the paleolithic era, you could expect to live to about 55, assuming you survived to…

The infuriating thing about this, at least with Comcast (gag), is that it's not enough to subscribe to both Comcast and HBO — you also have to subscribe to their Xfinity bullshit, which is a separate service on top of standard cable, the premium channel, AND your net connection. Revolting.

They're not being abandoned — they're colonists! How many of the first American settlers returned to Europe? I

Actually, it's supposed to land August 6th (not the 5th), which I only remember because that's my birthday. They're doing it all for meeeee!!

I don't think it can generate text - it uses crowd sourcing ("Mechanical Turks") to come up with the text. A much more interesting version of this device would be something that uses image recognition software to produce descriptions of its subjects generatively. I wonder if anyone's working on that...

Well said.

Soooo, it's absolutely their prerogative if they want to go live out in the woods. If they're happy, super. But the problem is, if EVERYBODY lived like this (unless people were dropping dead in droves - not unlikely, actually), people would start encroaching on each others' territory. Resources would be bickered over,…

System Shock 2 was incredible. No game has scared me like that since...I don't know whatever happened to Looking Glass, but they really need to reform and do a Kickstarter project or something...

The Romans used to put Garum (their particularly...fragrant...version of ketchupy-fish-sauce) on absolutely everything. It was popular throughout the ancient world (exported as far as India), and I wouldn't be surprised if the Imperial British actually *re*introduced a version of it to the West when they brought it…

This is absolutely dead on. I think the backlash against his original article stemmed from the fact that many gamers who were offended by it (myself included) have a myopic impression of the gaming world precisely because they tend to play smart games and ignore the rest. While there are many thoughtful,…