Afghan rugs depict twin towers

Timnit Gebru, an AI ethics researcher at Google, was fired this week after sending an internal email complaining that marginalized voices at the company were being silenced. Google, for its part, claims that Gebru failed to follow Google's requirements for a paper submission and that she subsequently threatened to resign. Ms Gebru is a well-respected… READ THE REST

Scotty H created this spectrographic animation of a classic dial-up modem's startup noise. Here's a breakdown, by Oona Räisänen, of what each section concerns: READ THE REST

Apple's Chief Security Officer Thomas Moyer was charged with bribery Tuesday after allegedly giving 200 iPads to local officials in exchange for concealed-carry gun licenses for Apple's security team. The Morgan Hill Times reports that others indicted included Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Undersheriff Rick Sung, Capt. James Jensen, and local businessman Harpreet Chadha, also… READ THE REST

Sometimes, you'd really rather just boost the temperature in your bedroom or home office by a few degrees without firing up your central heating and paying to pump that heat throughout the entire house.  In that case, you just need a portable heater that can wrap a cocoon of warmth around a relatively small, contained… READ THE REST

Earlier this month, stargazers were dazzled by a rare celestial event as The Great Conjunction offered a view of Jupiter and Saturn huddled close together in the night sky. The planets themselves aren't actually in closer proximity to each other, but just the idea of seeing this optical convergence that hasn't been viewed from Earth… READ THE REST

None of us are getting any younger. And while the ravages of time work differently on everyone, there seems to be one area where everyone from seniors down to the way-too-young start feeling discomfort first. Oh, that aching back. A lot of that may have to do with how many of us spend huge portions… READ THE REST