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As our world becomes more connected, criminals can exploit that connectedness for their own gain. One of the primary tools of attack is ransomware, which locks up your files and lets you access them again only if you pay the ransom. Last year more than a billion dollars in ransom was paid to criminals. Hospitals and businesses were the primary targets. However, hackers have increasingly started attacking local governments. Late last year, the city of San Francisco became a target when hackers locked the computerized subway fare systems....

Now that’s Thanksgiving is behind us, it’s time to focus on the important things in life—getting prepped for your next outdoor adventure. Luckily, today is the best day to do it as REI is taking up to 50 percent off tons of camping gear that you’re going to want on your next excursion. The best of all? It’s on sale all week.Here’s a “best of” list of REI’s best deals (and what we’re adding to our online carts as we speak): Tents:BUY NOWMSRMSR Hubba Hubba 2-Person Tent: $300, down from $400 ( best backpacking tent) Kingdom 6 Tent: $329, down from $439 (best tent for families) Yakima Skyrise 3 Rooftop Tent: $1,000, down from $1,500 (best rooftop tent)....

AUSTIN, TEXAS—At a huge festival like SXSW, it can be hard to get people’s attention. That leads to companies coming up with some pretty outlandish demos, and by far the most bizarre gimmick I’ve seen this year was another invention at Chaotic Moon, the same company behind Shark Punch and the Kinect-powered cart tested in Whole Foods that could follow shoppers around a store. This afternoon, on the third floor of its studio offices here in Austin, company representatives flew C....

Not many people need direct access to what the U.S. military calls “space situational awareness,” a fancy term for knowing what man-made objects are in space, and where. But those with an eye on Earth’s orbit now have access to a trove of never-before-seen data about space objects that before now the government has kept secret. The declassification effort, announced in October, yielded another release of data last week. “This is us being transparent, leaning forward and trying to enhance that spaceflight safety through data sharing,” Col....

The U.S. Navy’s colossal destroyer the USS Zumwalt is a marvel of modern stealth technology. The 600-foot, 15,000-ton ship—with its electric propulsion and a surreal design that shrugs off radar signals—can do an incredible job of seeming much smaller than it actually is. While out on its Builder’s trials, the Zumwalt showed off its ability to shrink down its 610-foot profile to appear as little more than a 50-footer on radar....

Media Platforms Design Team(Rendering by Sinelab)a) FinIt gives the car straight-line stability, but to do so the fin itself must be straight. The team aims for a maximum variance of 2 mm from top to bottom. b) Upper ChassisTo withstand the stress of supporting the fin and jet engine, the stringers and upper skins are made of titanium.c) JetThe EJ200 turbofan is also used in the Eurofighter Typhoon. The airplane is only rated for Mach 1....

A team led by NASA Ames researcher Andy Gonzales has an idea to get dirt back from Mars, but it’s going to need SpaceX’s help. The “Red Dragon” team wants to use the Dragon cargo capsule on top of a Falcon Heavy Lift to get to Mars, send the capsule down to grab samples from the Mars 2020 rover, and send them back to Earth. The Red Dragon is all on paper, and hasn’t been endorsed by either NASA or SpaceX yet....

A new AI processor has extended the traveling salesman solution from 16 nodes to 22.The traveling salesman is an age-old exercise in optimization, studied in school and relevant to “real life.“Rearranging how data feeds through the processor allows more than one thread to compute at a time.Scientists in Japan have solved a more complex traveling salesman problem than ever before. The previous standard for instant solving was 16 “cities,” and these scientists have used a new kind of processor to solve 22 cities....

The commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe claims that Russia broke longstanding rules on military exercises to avoid outside inspections. Gen. Ben Hodges said that the Zapad-17 exercises, held earlier this month Belarus and Russia, should have outside overside but didn’t because Russia rigged the numbers.Most European countries (and the United States) are members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The OSCE was established in 1994, designed to coordinate security, arms control, terrorism, and even human trafficking efforts....

I’m wearing a Hollywood disguise—a baseball cap and fake glasses (and my tee bears a picture of Bigfoot being beamed up by a flying saucer)—talking to two women dressed from head to toe in various metallic fabrics (including a cape), and beginning to wonder if I’m not as open-minded as I think. After all, these are the fourth and fifth people I’ve talked to today who believe aliens have visited Earth....

CalTech researchers have released a working concept of what Earth may look like from other exoplanets.The two-dimensional alien map in the image above depicts Earth as an exoplanet.To make the map, the researchers captured about 10,000 images of Earth from NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite.Humans are narcissists when it comes to space. Earth is the center of the universe because, well, we live on it.While astronauts have seen the blue planet first-hand from the vacuum of space, we still have no idea how other potential lifeforms view our little blueberry of a home....

Scientists in Australia have allegedly captured video evidence of post-mortem movement in a decomposing body.Researchers suggest in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that contracting ligaments may be responsible for the arm movement.Body donation facilities—or body farms—provide forensic scientists with an unrivaled opportunity to study the decomposition of human remains in natural environments.Our bodies undergo strange changes after we die. But this may be the strangest: Scientists say they’ve captured footage of a decomposing body moving in its grave....

You’ll be able to see the largest of this year’s supermoons if you look skyward tonight, February 19. So look up and hope for clear skies! What is a supermoon again?A “supermoon” happens when a moon reaches its full phase at or close to perigee—the point in its orbit when it’s closest to Earth. Because the moon’s orbit changes orientation relative to the Earth’s orbit around the sun, supermoons don’t happen every year; 2019 has only three....

It’s hard to miss the rainbow wall in the hydration section of your local REI, replete with an array of colors, sizes, and special edition bottles. Walk the sidelines at a youth sports tournament and you’re bound to see those powder-coated bottles of “lemon yellow” and “tangerine” shine through. Suddenly, Hydro Flask seems to be the outdoor world’s water bottle of choice, having joined brands like Yeti in the “premium outdoor” space—that is, gear that’ll cost you, but will also last forever....

Media Platforms Design TeamView full post on YoutubeIt was the case that everyone in the drone industry was watching, in which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), insisted it has the right to regulate drones—even RC toy aircraft—in the national airspace. This week, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) agreed. It’s a ruling that means the FAA can indeed fine operators of model aircraft and drones for flying recklessly. But the future of drones in American airspace, including the Obama administration’s ban on commercial use of unmanned aerial vehicles, is still up in the air....

The proposed retirement of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is off the table. The announcement, made yesterday by Vice President Pence, countermands a decision by the Navy to retire the carrier early to save money. Earlier this year, the U.S. Navy proposed retiring the USS Truman 25 years early rather than pay for an expensive midlife refueling and overhaul. The retirement was allegedly part of a deal hashed out by former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, which agreed to a two-carrier purchase Vice President Mike Pence made the announcement yesterday while touring the Truman....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: March 18Price: $35,605 to $45,085Competitors: Lexus ES350, Infiniti M37, Audi A4, A6 and BMW 3 SeriesPowertrains: 3.5-liter V6: 280-hp, 254 lb-ft; 3.7-liter V-6: 305-hp, 273 lb-ft; 5-speed auto or manual; FWD with optional AWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 18–20/26–29What’s New: Acura is 25 years old this year. In the past quarter-century they’ve had huge hits (Integra, Legend, NSX, MDX) and made a few gaffs (CL, for instance)....

In a press conference held at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, NASA officials announced that that space agency has awarded a pair of contracts to build commercial spaceships that will send astronauts to the International Space Station. Boeing and SpaceX stand to be awarded a total of $6.8 billion to build spaceships capable of carrying at least four crewmembers at a time. They are scheduled to begin ferrying astronauts to the space station by 2017....

View full post on YoutubePhysicist Enrico Fermi once asked the question that haunts those searching for intelligent life in the universe: if the universe is ripe for life, and some of it is intelligent, then why haven’t we heard from them? First posed in the 1970s, the question has become known as the Fermi Paradox.But Bill Nye the Science Guy doesn’t think the question is a fair one. In a new YouTube video, Nye issues his own answer to the paradox: be patient....

Two years ago, a Rubik’s Cube-solving machine set a new record for inhumanly fast speed-cubing by solving a cube in .637 seconds. That record has not only been beaten but shattered by a new record of .38, so quick that frankly, you might miss it if you’re not ready. View full post on YoutubeAs creators software developer Jared Di Carlo and MIT Biometrics Lab Master’s student Ben Katz explain in a blog post, the machine is essentially just six motors and some PlayStation Eye cameras all fine-tuned to incredible precision....