Science and Technology

Legendary Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras's Last Ride

Ersatz Space Doc Europa Report Only Looks Realistic

New York Gets Its Own Domain: Dot NYC

In the context of Christine Quinn's State of the City speech delivered in 2009 at the height of the economic downturn, promising to get New York City its own Internet domain registration name was a trifle. After all, she was pitching a recovery plan to salvage each of the city's major agencies. Whi ... More >>

Downloaded Breezes Through the Story of Napster

How to Make Your Dumb Phone Smart

As of last autumn, more than half of the people with a mobile phone in this country use a smartphone. By August of next year, smartphone users are expected to make up 80 percent of the market. The writing is on the wall in an extremely legible typeface: Those of you pathetic luddites still trudging ... More >>

After Hackers Pwn Twitter, New York State Beefs Up Its Cyber Security

"In the 21st century, almost all of our daily activities are linked to the internet - from banking to shopping to using our telecommunications networks and physical infrastructure systems," Governor Cuomo said, announcing the creation of an all-star New York cyber security advisory board last week. ... More >>

State Senate Deputy Majority Leader With Fracking Connections is Taking Heat

A Bloomberg story blew the lid on one state senator's ties to the fracking industry yesterday. Turns out state Senator Tom Libous (R-Binghamton), who said in March that he'd "make sure no [fracking moratorium] bill passes the Senate," has deep ties to a real-estate company leasing underground natura ... More >>

DEC Hired Fracking Lobby for $50 Million to Assess...Fracking?

Update: See statement from the DEC, and a letter from E&E explaining its relationship to IOGANY, at the bottom. New York State might just have to scrap the latest draft of its environmental impact study on hydraulic fracturing. The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) and state lawmake ... More >>

Okay, Illegal Downloads Probably Are Hurting the Music Industry

By Dan Moore This would have surprised me no matter who had turned it up, but there was a special irony in learning that illegal music downloads "aren't hurting the music industry" from a beleaguered print magazine's free-news arm: Illegal downloads aren't hurting the music industry, new study cla ... More >>

The Crucial Mistake Most Bands Are Making With Facebook

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls' Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you ... More >>

Lunching on the International Space Station

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is on a five-month mission aboard the International Space Station, where he is currently mission commander. Here is a video he made recently in the space station, where he demonstrates how to make your own lunch in zero gravity. See other Clips of the Day. [Thanks ... More >>

What is .art? Financiers and Artists Vie for the Power to Define the Domain Name

The internet is about to change, radically, and hardly anyone knows it. Think about it like a phone system: the internet operates on just a handful of top-level domains -- like .com and .org -- that function like area codes. Right now, the internet needs more of them. And pretty soon it's going to ... More >>

The Energy Industry Gets Needled In Greedy Lying Bastards

UPDATE: A Drone Flies in Brooklyn? Pilot Reports Unmanned Aircraft Sighting

Cue the heavy drums and eerie science-fiction score. It looks like drones have already made their way to New York City skies, according to a CNN report. The pilot of an Alitalia passenger jet heading in to John F. Kennedy Airport for landing yesterday afternoon reported sighting a small unmanned ai ... More >>

White House Words with Woodward More Proof of Obama Tyranny, Say Rightbloggers

Last week we learned that a White House official got into an argument with Bob Woodward. Woodward is the biggest name in Washington journalism; he has survived seven Administrations (counting the one he helped take down with his Watergate reporting), and will probably continue to publish bestsellers ... More >>

Advice For Aspiring Music Writers: Don't Quit, Just Don't Suck

The funny thing about Luke O'Neil's article earlier this week (titled "Advice For Aspiring Music Writers: Quit Now") is that "quit now" was the exact answer I gave when someone asked me last year what I would tell to a high school class of aspiring writers. My "quit now" was borne from a frustration ... More >>

Challenges to Internet Freedoms Remain With Anniversary of SOPA Defeat in the Books

A year ago Sunday, Congress shelved the Stop Online Privacy Act and the Protect IP Act after millions of concerned Internet users expressed outrage over a bill they believed threatened the freedom of the Internet. The most memorable of those expressions of outrage against SOPA came a year ago Fri ... More >>

Free Will Astrology: December 26, 2012 - January 1, 2013

Promised Land's Hard Sell

For Matt Damon and company, the message is the message

New Yorkers Still Slightly in Favor of Fracking Even as More Shady "Studies" Emerge

New Yorkers believe that the economic benefits of drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale outweigh the risk of potentially harmful environmental repercussions, according to today's Quinnipiac University Poll. The poll finds that 44 percent of New Yorkers think the economic pros of hydrauli ... More >>

Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop

Does Spotify Mean the End of the iPod and Your Music Collection?

By Dan Moore When I bought my first iPod--this was the first iPod, when the scroll wheel actually spun around--it was a severe blow to my nerd-cred, which I guarded pretty jealously at the time. (It was the only cred I had.) Relying on iTunes and its untouchable database to maintain my MP3 collecti ... More >>

Here's Some Old-Timey Video of New York's 1938 Hurricane -- Which Was Not Caused By "Global Warming"

The Global Warming crowd is claiming that climate change is part of the reason that a hurricane is about absolutely crush New York City."Substantial evidence indicates that global warming may be responsible for the recent increasing intensity of Atlantic hurricanes, including increasing their size a ... More >>

Should New York Bullies Face Criminal Charges?

As the story now goes, 15-year-old Felicia Garcia threw herself in front of a train in Staten Island as dozens of horrified students watched on Wednesday afternoon after getting tormented by several members of her high school's football team.The alleged bullying followed a weekend party, at which sh ... More >>

Gasland

Spaceman

Mayor Bloomberg, Fracker-in-Chief?

In the late 1980s, George Mitchell, owner of Mitchell Energy & Development Corporation with a degree in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M, wanted a method that could find and extract formerly unseen deposits of natural gas. With a combination of horizontal drilling and something ... More >>

Q&A: Danielle Henderson, Author of Feminist Ryan Gosling : Feminist Theory (as Imagined) from Your Favorite Sensitive Movie Dude

Despite launching a website featuring Ryan Gosling that became an overnight hit, and recently publishing a book filled with Gosling's broodingly sexy photos, Danielle Henderson is not a Ryan Gosling fan-girl. The New York native is actually a graduate student in women and gender studies at the Unive ... More >>

Hydraulic Fracturing: Is There Bad Science in The Fracking Debate?

Does fracking make people sick? The jury is largely still out on that one. However, new info indicates that some claims about hydraulic fracturing's reportedly significant health risks appear to have been based on bad science.

Hydraulic Fracturing: Can Environmental Regulators Handle a Fracking Boom? (UPDATE)

Can New York's environmental regulators keep up with fracking? This is the question raised in a report recently published by Earthworks, a group that monitors the petroleum and mining industries. Earthworks' new accountability project charges that New York's Department of Environmental Conservati ... More >>

Andrew Cuomo Throws Lipstick On A Pig; Claims Enormous Increase In Texting-While-Driving Tickets Means Law Is Working

We were under the impression that Governor Andrew Cuomo's law making texting-while-driving a primary traffic offense in New York was designed to prevent people from, well, texting while driving.That said, the gov's now crowing about how successful the law is by announcing that there have been more t ... More >>

Just Like Being There: The Economics Of Livestreaming Concerts

Tonight, at 10 P.M., you can see the Dirty Projectors live. They're playing here in town, in support of their just-released new album, Swing Lo Magellan, at Music Hall of Williamsburg. If you didn't get a ticket, or just don't feel like leaving your apartment, you can cruise over to the YouTube home ... More >>

Space Shuttle Enterprise Will Be Sailing Around the City Today

Remember when we told you guys that the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the Hudson was being blessed with NASA's non-flight space shuttle, Enterprise? And then remember when fellow Voice-naut Steven Thrasher and photographer C.S. Muncy saw it being flown in over New York? &nbs ... More >>

All Along The File-Sharing Front: Will New York Affect The Rest of America?

Good news, New York file sharers! Verizon has apparently decided to protect your privacy, despite demands that the internet service provider ID subscribers suspected of copyright infringement. And the company's decision -- as well as other recent developments intellectual property realm -- might ... More >>

Can You Get Sued for File Sharing on Your WiFi Network?

If you own an open WiFi connection, you might have worried whether you're liable for any copyright infringement taking place on that network -- even if you didn't do it. In a ruling that has caught the attention of lawmakers and attorneys worldwide, a Finnish court just ruled that owners of open Wi ... More >>

The Pirate Bay: Soon To Be Banned?

The Pirate Bay has taken some hard hits in the past few months. Though the file-sharing site announced in February that it would delate torrents and move entirely to magnet links, law enforcement has continued to mobilize against the operation. In March, for instance, a leaked doc suggested Swed ... More >>

Fracking Rules: Obama Administration Guidelines Don't Affect Most U.S. Land

As the fracking debate rages on in New York, Barack Obama's administration hasn't hidden the fact that it's pro-fracking, and widely publicized its decision to release environmental guidelines for the practice. Indeed, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's announcement Tuesday that his department had OK ... More >>

Utah Will Get Fracked!

There's so much fracking news across the country, it's hard to keep up with! As the debate over hydraulic fracturing in New York continues, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar just OKd a major gas drilling project in Utah, The Associated Press reports. Though some fracking is already taking plac ... More >>

Seeing Space Shuttle Enterprise From the Q Train: A Close Encounter of the Manhattan Bridge Kind

Knowing the Space Shuttle Enterprise was going to be arriving today in New York City, I was extremely pissed off to realize I had a doctor's appointment which would preclude me from actively viewing it, and I'd most likely be underground in the subway when it flew over the Hudson, guaranteeing I wou ... More >>

Will Fracking Spread Across America?

The Prez has hardly made it a secret that he supports fracking as part of his push for domestic oil and natural gas development, with the Obama administration announcing last week that it plans on setting environmental standards for hydraulic fracturing. And what happens in D.C. does not stay in D ... More >>

New Yorkers Have to Wait to See Their New Spacecraft

It looks like we're going to have to re-mark our calendars for the arrival of Enterprise in our own backyard. And not the one from Star Trek, the one from NASA.Due to an overcast prediction for Monday's weather, the space agency is holding back on its transfer ("until further notice") of t ... More >>

NY Post Goes Fracking Crazy in Pro-Hydraulic Fracturing Editorial

The Post is a bit beside itself this morning, unable to process the position of fracking opponents. It's not simply that the editorial board disagrees with them and published an opinion piece explaining why -- the board can't wrap its head around the fact that dissenting opinion should have weight ... More >>

Fracking Secrets: Hydraulic Fracturing Still Shrouded in Mystery

As Albany pols weigh the pros and cons of hydraulic fracturing, it seems like full disclosure of fracking practices remains iffy. Shortly after reports surfaced that physicians in Pennsylvania couldn't publicly discuss info about fracking chemicals, some New Yorkers have started to begging Departm ... More >>

Are Fracking Chemicals a Secret? (UPDATE)

The health risks of hydraulic fracturing have been key in policymaking debates, with health advocates calling on legislators to assess fracking chemicals before allowing the polemic practice to take place. Friends of fracking, however, have pushed back against full disclosure: in Pennsylvania, for ... More >>

HYDROFRACK OFF

The pros and cons of the practice

Water Wars: What's Up With The Upstate-Downstate Debate?

The Times reports today on the "slow boil" over water issues now playing out between Upstate communities and New York City. Ulster County, for example, has been pissed at the City for years. The county says that it's unfairly had to endure "development bans, flooded basements and ruined crops" just ... More >>

Will Woodstock Criminalize Hydraulic Fracturing?

From a report earlier today, it looks like Woodstock might try outlawing hydraulic fracturing -- the highly controversial natural gas extraction method that many fear will pollute New York's water supply with carcinogenic chemicals and radiation. The Town Board has decided to consider a proposal t ... More >>

Sen. Chuck Schumer Champions Push To Protect Privacy Of Smartphone Sexters

​Bad news, smart phone users: those penis private pics you snapped with your iPhone aren't as private as you'd probably hoped.Senator Chuck Schumer to the rescue.Schumer today announced that he's asked the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation into whether smart phone apps on Apple a ... More >>

Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention: Inside the World of Wank-Craft

The main virtual hall​ Most conventions are pants-mandatory kinds of affairs -- even those of the adult nature. For the world's first virtual porn convention, however, I'm not wearing any (relax...I'm in my PJs). This past weekend, XBiz and Red Light Center hosted the Adult Entertainment Virt ... More >>

Hydrofracking Can Be Banned in Dryden, NY

​A court decided yesterday that the upstate town of Dryden -- located in Tompkins county -- can bar hydrofracking -- marking a major win for fracking opponents. The New York Times reports that Dryden's battle began in August, when the town's board passed a zoning law that bans gas drilling w ... More >>