Ralph Breaks the Internet Wrecked It at the Box Office
It's time once again to turn on The Monitor, WIRED's roundup of the latest in the world of culture, from box-office news to release-date announcements. In today's installment: A new Ralph and a new Rocky dominate the holiday; Disney's Lion King trailer feels the love; and a premiere date for The Walking Dead comes alive.…
What Ligers, Grolar Bears, and Mules Show Scientists About Evolution
Click:Press Release Distribution In 2006, a hunter shot what he thought was a polar bear in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Closer examination, however, revealed brown patches on its white fur, uncharacteristically long claws and a slightly hunched back. The creature was in fact a hybrid, its mother a polar bear, its father a grizzly.…
The Best Halloween Shows and Movies for Little Kids You Can Stream Right Now
The people most excited about Halloween are little kids. For humans aged between 2.5 and 10 years old, there’s really nothing better. They get to dress up and go out—at night!—and strangers give them candy. There are leaf piles to jump in and fake skeletons to scream at. But it can also be a nightmare,…
Bored With Your Fitbit? These Cancer Researchers Aren't
If you’re trying to get in shape and you want a tiny, wrist-bound computer to help you do it, you have more options than ever before. Fitness trackers come in all shapes, colors, and price tags, with newfangled sensors and features to stand out to customers. But for doctors and scientists studying how exercise can…
How Searching Nails Our Online Anxieties
One of the more charming slices of ‘90s-era web-culture ephemera is Pizza.net, the fake pie-delivery site frequented by Sandra Bullock’s hacker in 1995’s The Net. Though glimpsed only briefly in the movie, Pizza.net was clearly among the chillest faux-online services of the Clinton era. Check out its easy-clicking interface, its friction-free payment plan! The experience…
Container Ships Use Super-Dirty Fuel. That Needs to Change
This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The platform overlooking the Panama Canal’s Pacific exit is buzzing with energy on a muggy October afternoon. Tourists cram together, jostling for the best views of the blue container ship gliding by in the gray-green water below. The ship’s crewmembers wave from aboard the 690-foot-long…
8 Sci-Fi Writers Imagine the Bold and New Future of Work
“In the early 21st century, perhaps the most important artistic genre is science fiction … [It shapes] how people understand the most important technological, social, and economic developments of our time.” —Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century Half of being human, give or take, is the work we do. Pick up a…
Google’s Academic Influence Campaign: It's Complicated
Update: Google's Transparency Project has posted an addendum to its Academics Inc. report. Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal published a detailed investigation showing that Google has been systematically paying academics to publish research favorable to the company’s policy and business positions—often without disclosure of the financial relationship. Concurrently, an organization called the Campaign…
The First Captain Marvel Trailer Will Pummel You with '90s Nostalgia
Hello, fellow kids, do you remember the '90s? Flannel? Riot grrrls? Pulp Fiction? Lacing up the ol' Doc Martens and going to the comics shop? Don't worry if you don't; Marvel is here to remind you. Yes, the long-awaited first trailer for the MCU's long-awaited Captain Marvel is finally here, and it's full—nearly too full—with…
High-Res Satellites Want to Track Human Activity From Space
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, is normally a mid-size town, home to 32,000 people and a big bowling ball manufacturer. But on August 21, its human density more than tripled, as around 100,000 people swarmed toward the total solar eclipse. Hundreds of miles above the crowd, high-resolution satellites stared down, snapping images of the sprawl. These satellites belong…