As I write this, a pixelated little goose is dragging a bad meme onto my desktop and tracking mud all over my Google doc. The screen is cluttered with terrible cartoons, including one of the goose smoking a pipe while floating smugly in a pond. When I pushed the period key at the end of… Continue reading An ‘Untitled Goose Game’ Tribute Unleashes Chaos on Your Desktop
Author: Wired Magazine
UK Has a Plan to Corral Huawei. But Security Concerns Linger
The UK government ruled Tuesday that Chinese telecom giant won’t be banned outright from selling equipment for mobile 5G networks there, though it will face severe limits. The question is: Will the restrictions provide the security protections that policymakers want? The decision is the latest in a series of partial successes for Huawei in the… Continue reading UK Has a Plan to Corral Huawei. But Security Concerns Linger
The World’s Most Traffic-Choked Cities, Ranked
If you had to drive somewhere in Bengaluru, India, last year, your best bet would have been to make your move on April 6. That Saturday, the average drive in the city formerly known as Bangalore took 30 percent longer than it would have had the roads been empty. No easy trip, sure, but far… Continue reading The World’s Most Traffic-Choked Cities, Ranked
Probe of the Kobe Bryant Crash Will Examine If Fog Played a Role
While the investigation into the helicopter crash that killed basketball star Kobe Bryant and eight other people Sunday morning is just beginning, a likely focus of attention will be the fog that limited visibility in the Los Angeles area. En route from Orange County to Bryant’s youth basketball academy in Thousand Oaks, pilot Ara Zobayan… Continue reading Probe of the Kobe Bryant Crash Will Examine If Fog Played a Role
An Origin Story, Smart Headlights, and Other Car News
The future comes in fits and starts, and we buckled up and went through a few this week. Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving unit, hosted a big party in San Francisco to launch Origin, an electric six-seat, steering wheel-free vehicle that it says is the future of shared autonomy. The vehicle will go into production…sometime, and… Continue reading An Origin Story, Smart Headlights, and Other Car News
Scientists Predict Wuhan’s Virus Outbreak Will Get Much Worse
As more data on the new coronavirus circulating in China emerges, it’s becoming clear that whatever the country is experiencing now—dozens of deaths, hundreds of people hospitalized, cities of millions quarantined—is just the tip of the outbreak. On Friday, a team of researchers based in the UK and US reported in a preliminary paper that… Continue reading Scientists Predict Wuhan’s Virus Outbreak Will Get Much Worse
No, the Wuhan Virus Is Not a ‘Snake Flu’
Sharing data during an outbreak is vital for public health. But it can also lead to sensational, and even spurious, research, like a controversial new paper claiming that people probably picked up a novel coronavirus from snakes. One of the many mysteries behind the outbreak of a new respiratory-tract-attacking virus that’s now infected nearly 650… Continue reading No, the Wuhan Virus Is Not a ‘Snake Flu’
Germany Rejected Nuclear Power—and Deadly Emissions Spiked
On New Year’s Eve, while the rest of the world was preparing to ring in a new decade, employees of the German energy company EnBW were getting ready to pull the plug on one of the country’s few remaining nuclear power plants. The license to operate the two reactors at the Philippsburg nuclear facility expired… Continue reading Germany Rejected Nuclear Power—and Deadly Emissions Spiked
A ‘Captain Marvel’ Sequel Is in the Works
Good day! Welcome to The Monitor, WIRED’s roundup of all the biggest pop culture news around. This week’s biggest news so far has been a bit of a grab-bag, spanning everything from Studio Ghibli to Radiohead and of course, streaming services, because in 2020, there’s always something happening with streaming services. Here we go. Marvel… Continue reading A ‘Captain Marvel’ Sequel Is in the Works
Spot the Robot Dog Trots Into the Big, Bad World
This autumn, after years of dropping view-amassing videos of Spot the robot dog fending off stick-wielding humans and opening doors for its pals, Boston Dynamics finally announced that the machine was hitting the market—for a select few early adopters, at least. BD’s people would be the first to tell you that they don’t fully know… Continue reading Spot the Robot Dog Trots Into the Big, Bad World