Stare into the abyss of a swirling black hole with this LED monolith installation

Enlarge / Screengrab of Jesse Woolston's latest piece, The Dynamics of Flow, debuting at Art Basel Miami Beach later this week. (credit: Jesse Woolston) Multimedia artist, composer, and sound designer Jesse Woolston has had a recurring dream for much of his life about encountering a black hole, "falling inward, and waking up terrified."...

14m

Microsoft shareholders back protest vote over sexual harassment claims

Enlarge / The shareholder revolt comes in the shadow of recent cases and the revelation that co-founder Bill Gates had a relationship with a company employee. (credit: Jeff Pachoud | Getty Images) Microsoft’s shareholders have backed a protest vote calling on the company to reveal more about its handling of sexual harassment claims,...

40m

Womp, womp: Efficacy of Merck’s Thor-inspired COVID pill crumbles, vexing experts

Enlarge / A Merck sign stands in front of the company's building on October 2, 2013, in Summit, New Jersey. (credit: Getty | Kena Betancur) In a 13-to-10 vote, advisors for the Food and Drug Administration narrowly supported authorizing Merck's Thor-inspired antiviral pill molnupiravir for use against severe COVID-19. The FDA's panel...

1h

Why hundreds of thousands of bots descended on one Steam arcade collection

Enlarge / 400,000 bots can't be wrong. (credit: Capcom) Monday night at 11 pm EST, there were 18 players logged on and playing the Steam version of Capcom Arcade Stadium (according to SteamDB data sourced from the Steam store itself). Ten hours later, on Tuesday morning, the game peaked at over 488,000 concurrent players, putting it...

1h

The 2022 Porsche Taycan GTS first drive

Enlarge / This is Porsche's $131,400 Taycan GTS electric sedan, which goes on sale in the US in Q2 2022. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin) Porsche provided flights to Los Angeles and two nights in a hotel so we could drive the Taycan GTS and another variant you'll be able to read about in two weeks. Ars does not accept paid editorial content....

1h

Asteroid-sample return turns up water on its rocks’ surface

Enlarge / Itokawa, the original source of the dust grains examined in a new study. (credit: ISAS, JAXA) About a decade ago, we were surprised to discover that there's a fair amount of water on the surface of the Moon. Given that the Moon has no atmosphere and receives enough solar radiation to boil any water off, how that water got...

2h

Lawsuit: Google employees were fired for upholding “Don’t be evil” code

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images | The Tonight Show) Three former Google software engineers who sued the company yesterday claim they were fired for following Google's famous "Don't be evil" mantra. "Google terminated each plaintiffs' employment with it for adhering to the directive 'Don't be evil' and calling out activity...

2h

Labor board orders a do-over in Amazon warehouse union election

Enlarge / An Amazon warehouse in Germany on April 2, 2020. (credit: Patrick Pleul | picture alliance | Getty Images) A regional official at the National Labor Relations Board has called for a new union election at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama, fulfillment center following recommendations issued in August by a hearing officer. The Retail,...

6h

Users revolt as Microsoft bolts a short-term financing app onto Edge

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Microsoft is taking a lot of flak for planning to integrate a short-term financing app into the company’s Edge browser. The app would allow users to make purchases immediately and pay for them at a future date. In recent years, Edge has built a following of users attracted to the security of the Microsoft...

7h

UK orders Facebook to sell Giphy, rejects Meta’s proposed merger conditions

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Anadolu Agency ) The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) today ordered Facebook owner Meta to sell Giphy, saying the merger "would reduce competition between social media platforms and that the deal has already removed Giphy as a potential challenger in the display advertising market." Facebook...

7h