Wired Top Stories

Introducing El Grando, the Fire-Breathing Dragon Robot

Alice Vincent, Wired UK — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 13:05:00 GMT

Twenty-six feet long, 5 feet wide and throwing flames from both ends, El Grando is an "endearing" dragon robot created by artists Dan Peppiatt and Paka.

Buyer Beware: Rating Nintendo 3DS Launch Games

Chris Kohler — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:55:00 GMT

Developers clearly cut corners on this first wave of $40 titles. Read Wired.com's hands-on impressions.

LawPivot Seeks To Slash Startup Legal Fees

Ryan Singel — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:15:00 GMT

A server might cost only $100 a year for a startup these days, but legal fees for new companies can run five times that ... per hour. Something's got to give, according to a new site aiming to partner lawyers and startups.

Sub With Tank Treads Imagined for Ocean Floor Drives

Duncan Geere — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:40:00 GMT

A Brit designs a submarine equipped with tank treads that would drive across the seabed. You know, for fun.

Pop Surrealists Spin South Park's Little Angels

Scott Thill — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:20:00 GMT

South Park redefined pop culture as we know it. Now, 15 pop artists are redefining South Park for the animated show's 15th birthday.

Gadget Lab Podcast: Amazon Wants You to Buy Android Apps

Gadget Lab — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:16:00 GMT

We bring you the gadget news of the week in episode #109 of our surprisingly popular podcast. We cover Amazon's app store, a new photo-sharing app called Color, and Skullcandy's Roc Nation Aviator headphones.

Amazon App Store Requires Security Compromise

Brian X. Chen — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:30:00 GMT

Some security experts say Amazon’s new app store reduces overall security for Android devices.

Waiting for Nintendot: The Quest to Buy First 3DS

Jason Schreier — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:08:00 GMT

Camped out at a Best Buy, dedicated gamer Isaiah-Triforce Johnson looks to become the first Manhattanite to get his hands on a Nintendo 3DS.

OMG! OED Adds LOL

Mark Brown, Wired UK — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:04:00 GMT

The storied Oxford English Dictionary announces the latest batch of words and phrases deemed worthy of etymological conservation, including "tinfoil hat" and internet-era initialisms like LOL and OMG.

Curation Nation — Fall of the Machines

Madhumita Venkataramanan — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:10:00 GMT

In the curation nation, author Steve Rosenbaum says, computerization is on its way out, and people are marching in.

From the NASA Archive: Life on Mars

Betsy Mason — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:45:00 GMT

Artists' renderings of space can be pretty impressive, and sometimes hard to distinguish from the real thing when based on hard science. But sometimes renderings based on the absence of science, like these 1975 illustrations of life on Mars, are far more interesting.

Aviators Headphones Offer Audiophiles Food for Thought

Michael Calore — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:40:00 GMT

Famously fashion-first Skullcandy cranks out a pair of surprisingly decent-sounding cans. Skateboard not included.

Flawed Diamonds Could Store Quantum Data

Devin Powell — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:00:00 GMT

Scientists have developed a new way to manipulate atoms inside diamond crystals, so that they store information long enough to function as quantum memory, which encodes information not as the 0s and 1s crunched by conventional computers but in states that are both 0 and 1 at the same time.

Dr. Sudoku Prescribes: Borderlines

Thomas Snyder — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:30:51 GMT

This week Dr. Sudoku continues to experiment with a new kind of loop puzzle, with harder challenges than last time.

Mongolian Hunters Buy Xanadu on Wheels

Keith Barry — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:30:00 GMT

When you're hunting wolves with eagles, you simply must have heated marble floors, two big televisions and a custom-made dinner service for eight.

Backups For a Snoozing Air Traffic Controller

Jason Paur — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:14:00 GMT

Falling asleep on the job is pretty much a no-no anywhere. But as the air traffic controller who took a 24 minute nap late Tuesday night has found out, falling asleep at certain jobs makes national news. As bad as it was for the person inside the tower at Reagan National Airport to take a snooze, he was just one of many air traffic controllers that an inbound airliner would have talked with on a flight to the airport near Washington D.C. that night. And as was demonstrated, there are several options for aircraft should the situation arise when there is nobody answering inside the tower.

Sucker Punch's Jena Malone Strikes Blow for Sexy Fighters

Hugh Hart — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:00:00 GMT

They dress like strippers but fight like ninjas. Swinging swords, firing bazookas, stabbing, slashing, kicking and machine-gunning rafts of robotic bad guys into oblivion, Sucker Punch's plucky heroines wreak havoc while dressed in fishnet stockings, high heels and corsets. Zack Snyder's new movie represents the most visually sensational blow against Hollywood's guy-heavy action formula in some time.

Tools of Tradecraft: More Spy Gear From CIA, Others

Kim Zetter — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Every good spy story needs a sequel. So in the wake of our recent popular gallery of CIA spy tools we offer Part Deux, which expands the gallery to include tradecraft tools from the former Soviet bloc.

March 25, 1916: Ishi Dies, a World Ends

Randy Alfred — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Ishi, the last survivor of the Yahi tribe of American Indians, dies of tuberculosis in San Francisco. His story lives on.

How Much Money Do Spammers Rake In?

Julie Rehmeyer — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:00:00 GMT

A team of computer scientists hijacked a botnet to find out how much junk emailers make. Here’s the total.

Alt Text: Protect Yourself From Positivity With the Cynic's Movie-Rating System

Lore Sjöberg — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Plenty of websites attempt to shield you from Hollywood staples like sex, obscenity, violence and nonstop ninja action. But what we really need is a foolproof guide for avoiding the types of cinematic mainstays that can really ruin your day.

Dr. Sudoku Prescribes: Borderlines

Thomas Snyder — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:30:00 GMT

Thomas Snyder experiments with a new kind of loop puzzle, with harder challenges than last time.

Web App Makes Kindle a Universal Translator

Charlie Sorrel — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:00:00 GMT

The 3G Kindle can now serve as a nearly universal language translator, thanks to a website called Kindlefish, an easy-to-use front end for Google Translate.

Anthrax Redux: Did the Feds Nab the Wrong Guy?

Noah Shachtman — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 20:40:00 GMT

Ten years after the deadliest biological terror attack in U.S. history, feds say they may have nabbed the wrong guy.

Price Is Right for Toshiba's Bare-Bones Netbook

Christopher Null — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:00:00 GMT

The Toshiba N505 is underpowered, but it's also under $300.

A Few Android App Developers Rake in Millions

Christina Bonnington — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:55:00 GMT

The iOS platform isn't the only way to make money on the mobile apps scene. In fact, several developers have parlayed their Android apps into 6-figure revenues.

At Edge of Invasion, Possible New Rules for Evolution

Brandon Keim — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:44:00 GMT

Just as Galapagos finches are icons of evolution by natural selection, Australia's cane toads may someday be icons of "spatial sorting" -- a dynamic that seems to exist at the edges of invasion, altering the standard rules of evolution.

Google Books Deal Not Dead, Only Resting, Authors' Lawyer Says

Sam Gustin — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:42:00 GMT

U.S. Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin’s rejection of Google’s legal settlement with authors and publishers was not only a setback for the search giant’s plans to digitize and make available 10 million books, but also for the dream of a universal online library. So where do we go from here? Is this deal dead? "There's nothing dead about the case or the settlement," says Michael J. Boni, lead attorney for the Authors Guild.

Re-Creating the First Human Spaceflight Experience

Mark Brown, Wired UK — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT

A collaboration between ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli and filmmaker Christopher Riley hopes to show what Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin -- the first human to go into space and orbit the planet -- saw on April 12, 1961.

Sleepwalkers Replay Day's Learning

Brandon Keim — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:53:00 GMT

A video of what appears to be a sleeping woman doing a modified, slow-motion funky robot dance in bed may represent the most direct evidence yet that minds replay a day's learning during slumber.