Now that we have all the fancy gauges and buttons modern life provides to us, we may have gotten a little bit overdependent on them. As it turns out, many of these gadgets are scarily inaccurate or even deliberately configured to lie to and appease us.
I've spent so much time on the Internet that I can now recognize the worst times of the year to be on it (you probably can too, because it's the day after Thanksgiving, and you're here, reading this silly column).
The cancer thing seems to have been overblown, but apparently the jury is still out on a whole host of much weirder effects your phone could be having on you right now.
Every once in a while a website for a famous, successful actor, (or popular film, or service), will show up, and even though the subject is worth lots of money and has a whole team of people to worry about its image, the website is shockingly terrible.
In some offices, the IT guys wield more power than the owner of the company. And if you want proof, just look at what happens when they get pissed off.
We tend to think of escape pods as a science fiction trope: They jettison off of Star Destroyers or launch out the top of giant mechanical spiders just before Will Smith destroys them with a pun. But they're not all fictional: When everything has gone to hell, when the ship is sinking, when the shuttle is exploding, when that natural disaster is be
There are certain jobs where making the same mistakes can cost companies billions of dollars, and sometimes costs people their lives.
Beyond just not wearing pants while typing this (though that certainly helps).
Recently, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and go offline for a week. That's right. One week with no personal email, social media, or Internet use of any kind.
Right at this moment, scientists and engineers are in the process of building -- or using -- instruments that look like the engine for a Star Destroyer.
The Internet's trailer park garage sale.
Sure, these potential power sources we're tapping into would normally be considered ridiculous, cartoony or just plain evil. But are they worse than coal?
When we think of criminals, we tend to think of two types: The street-level thug committing his crimes with a gun or a fist, and the upper-level management, dictating orders to the thugs below. But there's a third type: The guys who picks up the phone and decide that crime sounds like a fun thing to do today.
Naturally, the results were often ridiculous (but kind of awesome).
Before you go trading in your medical degree and stethoscope for some whiskey and an Internet gun, there are a few things you should know about this place first.