Listen to David Bowie's First Album in 10 Years for Free Online (Legally)

You don’t have to wait until March 12 to find out whether David Bowie’s first album in a decade is more Tin Machine than Low; the long-awaited The Next Day is already available, streaming in full on iTunes for a limited period pre-release.The stream continues Bowie’s current interest in previewing content from the album for free online before release; videos for both...

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Nerd Fail: President Obama Mixes Up <em>Star Wars</em> and <em>Star Trek</em> in Sequester Comments

Oh, Obama. For so long you have come off as One of Us with your Vulcan salutes and bringing Wookiees to the White House. How could you possibly have confused Star Trek and Star Wars? We find your lack of nerd nuance… disturbing.For those that don’t know — i.e. those not on the internet Friday afternoon — during a press conference about his discussions with Congressional leaders to avoid the...

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This Electronic Temporary Tattoo Will Soon Be Tracking Your Health

FitBit too bulky? Why not glue a sensor array to your skin?The quantified self goes nanoscale with a stick-on silicon electrode network that could not only change the way we measure health metrics, but could enable a new form of user interface. And the researchers behind it aim to have the device available in the next few weeks through a spinoff company, MC10.The development takes wearable...

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<em>Game of Thrones</em> Director: Online Piracy Doesn't Matter &mdash; Wait, It Does

The television adaptation of Game of Thrones isn’t just a success for its parent channel, HBO; it also holds the dubious honor of being the most pirated television show of last year on TorrentFreak and other public bittorrent trackers, something that one of the show’s directors, David Petrarca, didn’t seem to mind … at least until his comments on piracy at a recent panel discussion...

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Music Sales Have Biggest Jump in MP3 Age

Music sales are going up for the first time in 14 years and piracy is going down, largely because it is stupid-easy to hear any song you want without being a digital thief.“The music industry has adapted to the internet world, learned how to meet the needs of consumers and monetised the digital marketplace,” according to IFPI executive Frances Moore. Two reports released...

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Online Jihadi Forums Fear a U.S.-Israel-Iran Alliance Will Take Over Syria

There is a conspiracy to destroy Syria, fear the jihadis and jihadi-wannabes on one of the internet’s most prominent extremist forums. Pose as they might as enemies, the U.S. will team up with Iran to take advantage of the Syrian civil war. “With time, everyone will be exhausted, all weapons in Syria will be destroyed, and all signs of civilization will be obliterated and cast back to what...

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Wired Space Photo of the Day: Glowing Gas in Omega Nebula

This image is a colour composite of the Omega Nebula (M 17) made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximatelly 4.7 x 3.7 degrees. Image: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin. [high-resolution]Caption: ...

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That Syncing Feeling

“Smart, or stylish?” That’s the question facing casual watch aficionados looking for a new, high-tech addition to their collection.On one hand (er, wrist), you’ve got the Pebble and other smartwatch upstarts, which come with built-in smartphone connectivity, customizable screens, and burgeoning developer communities eager to feed their app ecosystems. They also, by and large, look like uninspired...

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Welcome to 'The Deconstruction,' a Competitive Sport for Makers

There was a time when skateboarding and snowboarding were counter-cultural activities, but today Shaun White is a gold medalist, and Jason Naumoff is one of the big reasons why. Now, this former X-Games marketer is trying to turn “making” into a competitive sport with a project called “The Deconstruction” — a 48-hour DIY competition/telecast happening this weekend.Naumoff, who got his start developing...

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Sony Will Lose the Console War With PS4's Lame Video-Streaming Strategy

Congratulations, Sony, you just lost the console war.Sony held reporters hostage for two hours Wednesday as it unveiled a new PlayStation controller, made a lot of promises about the PlayStation 4 and showed all the demos in the world. What it didn’t show us, aside from an actual PlayStation 4, is any kind of streaming-video strategy aside from the obligatory nod to Netflix. And thus it sealed...

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Curiosity Rover Ready to Analyze Martian Time Capsule From Inside of Rock

After a long and careful hole drilling operation, NASA’s Curiosity rover has collecting powdered rock representing the first sample ever acquired from the interior of Mars.The tablespoon of crushed rock will be sent through the rover’s suite of state-of-the-art instruments, which will provide important information about the ancient landscape at Gale...

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Sailboat Crew Breaks Speed Record in NY-to-SF Voyage

Famed Italian skipper Giovanni Soldini and his tireless crew of eight sailors obliterated the record for sailing the “Golden Route” from New York to San Francisco, shaving a full 10 days off the previous record around the tip of South America.The crew pulled into San Francisco Bay aboard the VOR70 Maserati on Saturday, precisely 47 days and 42 minutes after leaving New York and sailing around...

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New Whale Species Unearthed in California Highway Dig

By Carolyn Gramling, ScienceNOWChalk yet another fossil find up to roadcut science. Thanks to a highway-widening project in California’s Laguna Canyon, scientists have identified several new species of early toothed baleen whales. Paleontologist Meredith Rivin of the John D. Cooper Archaeological and Paleontological Center in Fullerton, California, presented the finds Feb. 17 at the annual...

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<cite>Halo</cite> Creator Unveils Its Next Masterpiece, a Persistent Online World

"Citadel": Concept art from Bungie's Destiny.BELLEVUE, Washington — Destiny, the new game from the creator of Halo, isn’t just another shooter. It’s a persistent online multiplayer adventure, designed on a galactic scale, that wants to become your new life.“It isn’t a game,” went the oft-heard tagline at a preview event on Wednesday. “It’s a world where the most important stories are told...

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The Quirky World of Competitive Snow Carving Comes to California

Team Truckee entered the competition late, after Team Russia was unable to get visas in time. Their sculpture: "Rising Tide."The weekend at Northstar ski resort in Truckee, California, is beautiful, sunny, and in the 30s. For eight teams of snow carvers from around the world, though, it’s terrible — the melty snow is sloppy, hard to carve, and even dangerous.Teams of three from Finland, Japan,...

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Feds Say Megaupload Entrapment Claim Is 'Sensationalist Rhetoric'

Calling it “sensationalist rhetoric,” federal authorities took the offensive late Thursday for the second time in as many months to blast Megaupload for its contention that the authorities entrapped the now-shuttered file-sharing service.Federal authorities 13 months ago seized Megaupload’s domains and arrested its chief executive Kim Dotcom and his top lieutenants for running what the authorities...

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Finding Holes in Tesla's Data, <em>New York Times</em> Assertions

Tesla’s late-night data dump might have refuted some of the claims surrounding John Broder’s ill-fated drive in the Tesla Model S. But there are still questions for both the automaker and The New York Times.To begin with, there’s one massive chunk of the data missing from the puzzle: GPS. According to a Tesla spokeswoman, the automaker didn’t have GPS data turned on in the car, which makes...

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Defense Nerds Strike Back: A Symposium on the Battle of Hoth

So. You guys have really, really strong opinions about the Battle of Hoth. Many took issue with my argument that Hoth represented a military debacle for the Galactic Empire. Some questioned the (meta)factual premises of my case (are TIE Fighters even capable of in-atmospheric flight?). Others argued that Vader was deliberately trying to lose, rendering my essay myopic. Still others desired...

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Intel Teases Set-Top Box to Compete With Cable

Intel is developing a set-top box that delivers video on demand and live TV over the internet, a move that would place it in competition with the likes of Roku and your local cable company.There’s no word on who’ll provide the all-important content we’d see on such a box or what we’d pay for it when it appears later this year, but Erik Huggers, Intel’s corporate vice president of media, promises...

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Boeing Begins Flight Testing of 787 Dreamliner to Find Battery Faults

Boeing’s ill-fated 787 has once again taken to the skies for testing in an effort to find a solution to the battery issue that has left the fleet grounded for the better part of the past month. The Federal Aviation Administration granted the company a special airworthiness certificate on Feb. 7, giving Boeing the ability to perform flights related to research and testing to solve the battery...

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