This Angry Birds ‘Venting Machine’ is made for you to attack

It's all part of Rovio's "Bring the Anger" campaign, which also includes the "Rage Rider" electric scooter. In Angry Birds 2, Rovio is pushing players to take out as many pigs as they can during November, which will lead to a $100,000 donation to UNICEF's Education in Emergencies fund. It turns out, those irate birds…

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The best tech toys and STEM kits

Bandai Tamagotchi OnAdults now probably remember how Tamagotchi were all the rage when they were young, but now those tiny little eggs and their black-and-white LCD screens seem quaintly outdated. Enter the Tamagotchi On, a Bluetooth-enabled version of the '90s fad that adds a large, full-color screen; creature breeding; and app connectivity. It should keep…

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The $189,000 DBX SUV Is Here to Save Aston Martin

For all the indignities James Bond suffers in the opening scene of The Spy Who Loved Me—a mustard yellow snowsuit, a disco version of his theme song, being shot at by Soviet assassins—at least he didn’t have to start his day on the slopes in cold boots. And neither will you, if you make your…

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Feds Pin Uber Crash on Human Operator, Call for Better Rules

The Uber self-driving car crash that killed a pedestrian in March 2018 was the fault of the vehicle’s operator, who wasn’t paying attention at the time and was likely looking at her cell phone, the National Transportation Safety Board has determined. But the safety watchdog didn’t end the blame game there. At a board meeting…

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Astronomers Detect Water Vapor Around Jupiter’s Moon Europa

In the search for life in our solar system, Mars tends to steal the spotlight (thanks, David Bowie). But in recent years Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Europa, has emerged as a promising extraterrestrial nursery. Planetary scientists have long suspected Europa may harbor a vast liquid water ocean beneath its thick, icy crust. If Europa’s ocean…

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To See the Future of Disinformation, You Build Robo-Trolls

Jason Blazakis’s automated far-right propagandist knows the hits. Asked to complete the phrase “The greatest danger facing the world today,” the software declared it to be “Islamo-Nazism,” which it said will cause “a Holocaust on the population of Europe.” The paragraph of text that followed also slurred Jews and admonished that “nations who value their…

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With #Fartgate, Twitter Was a Gas Once Again

OK, boomers—and by “boomers,” I mean anyone over 25 years of age—hear me out. Last night was marvelous, wasn’t it? At around 7:02 pm Eastern, US representative Eric Swalwell appeared on Hardball to talk about the ongoing impeachment hearings against President Trump. During his response to host Chris Matthews, what can only be described as…

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The Messy Legal Fight to Bring Celebrities Back From the Dead

Last week, independent production company Magic City Films announced that it would be bringing James Dean back from the dead. Not literally, but digitally, using full-body CGI and existing footage and photos. The Rebel Without a Cause actor will become the secondary lead in a new Vietnam War film called Finding Jack. The two directors,…

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The Most Iconic Space Movies Get a Very Grounded Fact-Check

Before Stanley Kubrick melted everyone’s brains with the unprecedented scientific realism of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hollywood directors had a lot more creative leeway in their space adventure films. Francis Ford Coppola wants to make a movie about giant genitals fighting in space? Sure, why not. Adam West and his pet monkey hanging out on…

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Google Shakes Up Its ‘TGIF’—and Ends Its Culture of Openness

Last week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email blast to his 100,000 or so employees, cutting back the company’s defining all-hands meeting known as TGIF. The famous free-for-alls had epitomized the company’s egalitarian ethos, a place where employees and leaders could talk freely about nearly anything. More recently, however, the biweekly meeting had become…

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