Moss Survives 9 Months in Space Vacuum
Mosses are already known for coping with harsh radiation, dehydration, and long freezes. Now scientists have pushed them even further by exposing their spore capsules to open space for nine months, and most of them survived. The team worked with spreading earthmoss (Physcomitrium patens), a small moss species used widely as a plant model by […]
On the Death of Tech Idealism (and Rise of the Homeless) in Northern California
Fuckers. I couldn’t get the word out of my head, because he wouldn’t stop saying it. I was sitting in the tiled courtyard of the Mediterranean-style home of an old acquaintance, a venture capitalist and serial tech entrepreneur, who lived a few blocks from Zuckerberg in Palo Alto. Next to us was a massive stone […]
Explaining, at some length, Techmeme’s 20 years of consistency
Please clap for Techmeme Techmeme turns 20 freaking years old today. This is our self-congratulatory post marking the occasion. Please share, retweet, and offer your sincerest congratulations. And thanks to so many of you for reading us all these years. Now if Techmeme is new to you, here’s a short definition: Techmeme is a news […]
Apple’s Problem with Bodies
Building for iOS sometimes feels like archaeology: brush away enough guidelines and you hit something older and stranger. A system that can classify violence with forensic precision still can’t decide if the human body is health, lifestyle, or sin. One day I tried to ship a private intimacy tracker–nothing scandalous, just a journal for wellbeing–and […]
California DMV approves map increase in Waymo driverless operations
CityLivermore CountyAlameda County CityAlameda CountyAlameda County CityAlbany CountyAlameda County CityBerkeley CountyAlameda County CityDublin CountyAlameda County CityEmeryville CountyAlameda County CityFremont CountyAlameda County CityHayward CountyAlameda County CityNewark CountyAlameda County CityOakland CountyAlameda County CityPiedmont CountyAlameda County CityPleasanton CountyAlameda County CitySan Leandro CountyAlameda County CityUnion City CountyAlameda County CityAntioch CountyContra Costa County CityBrentwood CountyContra Costa County CityClayton CountyContra Costa […]
How the Atomic Tests Looked Like from Los Angeles
Between 1951 and 1992, the United States conducted 928 atomic tests at the Nevada Test Site about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the city of Las Vegas. Exactly one hundred of these tests were atmospheric, whose mushroom clouds could be seen for almost 100 miles (160 km), drawing fascinated tourists to the desert city […]
Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?
20 November 2025 When it comes to blogging there are few rules. Write content that is somehow meaningful might be one of them though. I think it’s down to the individual to determine what constitutes meaningful. In the hey-day, the so-called golden age of blogging, there were plenty of people prepared to offer definitions of […]
We Remain Alive Also in a Dead Internet
Now FREE a text Welcome to the desert of the real! If you desire the comfort of neat conclusions, you are lost in this space. Here, we indulge in the unsettling, the excessive, the paradoxes that define our existence. So, if you have the means and value writing that both enriches and disturbs, please consider […]
Pixar: The Early Days A never-before-seen 1996 interview
To mark Toy Story’s 30th anniversary, we’re sharing a never-before-seen interview with Steve from November 22, 1996—exactly one year after the film debuted in theaters. Toy Story was the world’s first entirely computer-animated feature-length film. An instant hit with audiences and critics, it also transformed Pixar, which went public the week after its premiere. Buoyed […]
We Induced Smells With Ultrasound
We pointed an ultrasound probe at the scent-processing region of the brain to obtain different sensations. Different focal spots corresponded to different smells, which we’ve replicated first-try on two people and validated with a blind trial. The sensations we obtained are: The sensation of fresh air, with a lot of oxygen The smell of garbage, […]