Happy Friday and welcome to Replay, WIRED’s rundown of all of the week’s big videogame news. What’s happening this time around? For one, Covid-19 is impacting a couple upcoming gaming conventions. Also, No Man’s Sky now has living spaceships. Let us explain.Sony, Facebook Drop Out of Conventions Due to Covid-19 ConcernsThe outbreak of Covid-19, the…
The Federal Communications Commission is once again seeking comment on its repeal of its Obama-era net neutrality rules. But the new comment period isn’t focused on the usual issues that underpin the net neutrality debate, such as blocking or throttling content. Instead, it will focus on less-noticed aspects of the agency’s decision with regards to…
This looks crazy. I mean, it’s a cool invention—the idea of the HoverGlide pack is to reduce the awkward bouncing and jolting you get with ordinary backpacks. But watching it makes my brain freak out a little. It kind of messes with your sense of how things should move.The trick, I think, is that the…
As Richard Grenell, the current US ambassador to Germany, starts his second day on the job as the nation’s acting director of national intelligence, his arrival also marks the ouster of not only his predecessor, Joseph Maguire, but reportedly also of DNI principal executive Andrew Hallman. By the end of the day, almost all of…
It’s me again, Steven Levy, WIRED’s editor at large, with another Plaintext newsletter. I hope reading this every Friday is becoming a habit with you all. If this isn’t in your inbox—we’re still trying to entice stragglers with a web version, but that won’t last forever—make sure you never miss an issue by subscribing to…
Yes, we know—many of you have already gotten in a few good snow days over winter break or when storms rolled in. But now is still a great time to upgrade some of your gear, if you busted it over Christmas or if you have plans for balmy spring skiing. It’s also prime time for…
Many companies say they want to diversify their workforce. Far fewer have actually succeeded in doing so, even if they’re earnestly trying. And one of the first hurdles can come before any candidates have even been interviewed: The language used in recruiting emails or job postings is often full of unconscious biases—phrases like “gentlemen’s agreement”…
Tracking down marine life isn’t easy. Ocean scientists drag nets through the water to find the fish or plankton they are looking for, tag whales with harpoon-like devices, or scuba dive with an erase-proof whiteboard and hand counter to tally reef fish. That’s how you count creatures underwater. But an emerging technology called environmental DNA,…
Your organs are a lot of things—a powerful computer (in the case of your brain), detoxers (your liver and kidneys), breathing devices (your lungs). But there’s one thing they’re decidedly not: transparent.That’s unless you’re Kevin Bacon in The Invisible Man, or if your organs end up in the lab of Ali Ertürk, director of Helmholtz…
Garry Kasparov is perhaps the greatest chess player in history. For almost two decades after becoming world champion in 1985, he dominated the game with a ferocious style of play and an equally ferocious swagger.Outside the chess world, however, Kasparov is best known for losing to a machine. In 1997, at the height of his…
