The first signs of distress came not with panic, but positivity. “Hope you all are feeling safe and at peace hunkered down with your family,” one influencer wrote, paired with a selfie featuring her adorable children in pajamas. Another posted a photo of her “mini oasis,” a selection of well-kempt houseplants, along with the caption…
In the early 1960s, a NASA engineer by the name of Steve Papell dreamed up a career for modern-day artist Eric Mesplé. Well, at least not directly. Papell was trying to figure out how to move fuel around an engine in zero gravity, and hit upon the idea of a “ferrofluid.” By adding magnetic nanoparticles…
A California woman in her seventies was dreaming of a grocery store. Her cat had instructed her to buy a specific brand of chicken, but it was too expensive. When she got to the register with her cheaper chicken in tow, the cashier told the woman she’d have to submit the proper paperwork for the…
There are signs that the pandemic peak has passed in New York City, and maybe in other hot spots of infection too. While there will be much more suffering to come, both in these places and elsewhere, talk has turned in recent days to how we’re going to get people back out into society. Central…
Skyrocketing smartphone prices do have a side effect—better affordable phones. Most people can’t (and probably shouldn’t) buy a $1,000 phone every few years, and that’s why the budget to midrange market is thriving. Motorola’s Moto G Stylus and Moto G Power are the latest Android phones to add to the not-too-expensive pile.These are good phones,…
As the coronavirus pandemic exploded across the world earlier this year, another even more conspicuous plague was tearing through East Africa: locusts. The voracious little beasts are particularly fond of carbohydrates like grains, a staple of subsistence farmers across the continent. Back in January, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicted the worst was…
Hello, and welcome to today’s edition of The Monitor, WIRED’s entertainment news roundup. This time around, we’re looking at theater chains amid the coronavirus pandemic, the new Dune adaptation, and a new Mandalorian documentary series. Let’s dive in.Cinemark Is Planning to Reopen Its Theaters July 1If you, like us, are missing movie theaters during your…
The Snoo Smart Bassinet pitch focuses on safety and sleep. Its purported ability to help babies—and their caregivers—get more shut-eye has fueled its popularity with those who can afford the $1,300 retail price. But the Snoo is ultimately another internet-connected gadget. And new research suggests that, like so many internet of things devices before it,…
What makes a person a prepper? Is it how many rows of cans are stacked in their basement? Intimate familiarity with the finest brands of water purification tablets? Or is it the glint in their eye when they talk about the impending collapse of civilization? Mark O’Connell has a theory. “Preppers are not preparing for…
There are two groups of car owners: those who’ve broken down and those who will. It’s an inevitability of life that one day you’ll turn the ignition key and nothing will happen, or you’ll hear a pop and a hiss as your tire does its best impression of a sad hot-air balloon. But you’re a…
