New data indicates a once-in-a-generation eclipse is a pretty surefire way to convince people to finally log off the internet—at least for a few minutes. According to estimates from cloud-computing provider Cloudflare, yesterday’s online traffic dropped between 40-60 percent week-to-week within the April 8 eclipse’s path of totality. In aggregate…
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Smugglers melted and spray painted $10 million in gold to look like machine parts
It could have been the perfect crime, had they used better spray paint. Recently, authorities have seized over 320 lbs worth of suspected smuggled gold during a cargo freight search at Hong Kong International Airport, according to yesterday’s customs announcement. Bound for Tokyo on March 27, investigators recovered the roughly…
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How cryptographers finally cracked one of the Zodiac Killer’s hardest codes
An international team of cryptographers has published a new whitepaper detailing the massive amounts of work, crowdsourcing, and computational programming that was required to translate a notorious serial killer’s half-century-old mystery message. Although one cryptographer uploaded a video rundown of their methodology to YouTube in 2020, the team’s new whitepaper further shows…
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Watch this robotic slide whistle quartet belt out Smash Mouth’s ‘All Star’
The slide whistle isn’t known as a particularly difficult instrument to play—there’s a reason they’re usually marketed to children. But designing, programming, and building a robotic slide whistle quartet? That takes a solid background in computer science, a maddening amount of trial-and-error, logistical adjustments to account for “shrinkflation,” and at…
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Online porn restrictions are leading to a VPN boom
Internet users in a handful of states across the US are finding it more difficult to browse parts of the web anonymously. Over a dozen states, including Texas and Louisiana, have enacted legislation forcing Pornhub and other purveyors of streaming online adult videos to verify the identities of its users…
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NASA is designing a time zone just for the moon
What time is it on the moon? Well, right now, that’s somewhat a matter of interpretation. But humanity is going to need to get a lot more specific if it intends to permanently set up shop there. In preparation, NASA is aligning its clocks in preparation for the upcoming Artemis…
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Melting ice makes Arctic a target for a new deep sea internet cable
Each day an estimated 95 percent of the world’s data travels across the roughly 900,000 miles of submarine fiber optic cables criss-crossing the ocean floor. Modern life as we know it—from internet communications to video calls to streaming services—would look significantly different without this massive infrastructure. To keep up with…
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Gmail debuted on April Fool’s Day 20 years ago. The joke is still on us.
A completely free email service offering 1 GB of storage, integrated search capabilities, and automatic message threading? Too good to be true. At least, that’s what many people thought 20 years ago today, when Google announced Gmail’s debut. To be fair, it’s easy to see why some AP News readers…
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Researchers unlock fiber optic connection 1.2 million times faster than broadband
In the average American house, any download rate above roughly 242 Mbs is considered a solidly speedy broadband internet connection. That’s pretty decent, but across the Atlantic, researchers at UK’s Aston University recently managed to coax about 1.2 million times that rate using a single fiber optic cable—a new record…
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Japan’s SLIM moon lander survives a second brutal lunar night
SLIM, Japan’s first successful lunar lander, isn’t going down without a fight. After making history—albeit upside down—in January, the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon continues to surprise mission control at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) by surviving not one, but now two brutally frigid lunar nights. “Last night, we received…
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