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Over the last 150 years, the males of certain invasive mongooses have undergone some serious tweaks to their sexual anatomy. New research suggests that the mongooses’ anal pads—which produce a scent that is apparently very alluring to female mongooses—have become comparatively shrunken, while th…

Over 55 scientists have signed an open letter rebuking Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden’s claim that the climate plan rival contender Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders supports, the Green New Deal, isn’t supported by anyone in the scientific field.

Sande…

From the perspective of the early 21st century, it’s safe to say that computers have been a privacy nightmare. Our world is so interconnected by machines, that corporations, governments, and almost anyone can find out almost anything they want about an average citizen thanks to our digital footp…

With a statewide marijuana decriminalization ordinance set to take effect at the start of 2020, Cook County, Illinois is slated to automatically clear “tens of thousands of cannabis convictions” with the assistance of an algorithm, the Chicago Tribune reported on Wednesday. Cook County is the na…

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, prescribes strict regulations around the use of automatic telephone dialing systems or other artificial or prerecorded messages. The bill specifically requires any entity making robocalls to first…

Microsoft announced in April that it would stop selling ebooks and that any books the company already sold would stop working in early July because the DRM servers were being shut off. Yes, you read that correctly. Those books that you “bought” are going to disappear. Even the “free” books that …

That would be a significant step above and beyond moves already taken by the White House which is locked in a trade war with China and has begun imposing sanctions on Chinese tech companies on allegations that they pose a security risk (most notably Huawei, the world’s largest manufacturer of te…

That number is all but certain to continue climbing in the second half of the year. Last week, the CDC warned that U.S. measles cases had reached a 25-year high—with more measles infections reported than any year since 1994, when 958 cases occurred. The CDC said at the time that if the outbreaks…

One of the strongest economies in the Middle East, the UAE has for years invested heavily in being in the cutting edge of surveillance and repression. The government has spent millions of dollars buying and building hacking capabilities that they’ve used to target victims like prominent UAE-born…

The TRACED (Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence) Act was introduced in November by Massachusetts Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat. In keeping with the bipartisan spirit of everyone loathing robocalls, the bill …

If using the law to corral antivaxxers doesn’t work at first, try, try again. At least, that seems to be the lesson learned by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. On Tuesday, he declared a state of emergency and mandated residents of the Williamsburg neighborhood, where an outbreak of measles ha…

During the push to repeal net neutrality in 2017, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made a lot of big promises. At the top of the list were assurances that if America would only revert back to “light-touch” regulation of the broadband industry (as the two-time Courage Award winner put it), we’d all see huge…

Italian schools have begun turning away children who have not received mandatory vaccinations after a temporary waiver expired, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, with at least 300 children told they could not attend kindergarten in the city of Bologna this week.

A 2017 law mandated…

Democrats in the House and Senate introduced companions bills aimed at reinstating the Obama-era net neutrality rules that prohibited broadband providers from blocking or throttling websites or offering preferred businesses higher-quality service for additional fees.

At a press conferen…

It’s no secret that the workforce tasked with reviewing the most offensive content on the web is underpaid, overworked, and poorly supported. A new story from The Verge on Facebook moderators in Phoenix, Arizona further illustrates the disturbing reality of life for these workers—who reportedly …

On Tuesday, news broke via TechCrunch that Facebook ran a sketchy “Research” program involving paid participants who downloaded an app onto their phones that was capable of monitoring virtually everything that they did—including in some cases teens as young as 13, who were recruited via social m…

Toronto’s Pearson Airport has an important message for would-be stem-pickers: The weed there is not up for grabs.

Last week, Canada legalized recreational cannabis, becoming the second country in the world to formally do so. While cannabis is legal within Canada, however, it is illegal t…

Poor TiVo. The pioneer of live TV recording was just minding its own business, muddling along in a world it doesn’t recognize when news broke that Amazon is looking to start a fight. That’s all it takes to send investors fleeing. But why does Amazon reportedly want in on this antiquated market?<…

Days after Microsoft came under intense scrutiny for working with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a report from NBC News revealed that a number of major tech firms have been raking in millions of dollars from the government agency that has, under the advisement of the Trump administr…

Elon Musk’s underground transportation business, The Boring Company, has won a bid to create an underground high-speed rail line from downtown Chicago to O’Hare International Airport. The company beat out at least four other developers for the project, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is expected …