Matt Novak

Tech News

How Americans of the 1960s Really Felt About Nuclear Fallout Shelters

If you had to guess the percentage of American households that had a fallout shelter in the 1960s, what would you say? Fifty percent? Twenty-five percent? As low as 10 percent? In reality, just 1.4 percent of Americans had a nuclear fallout shelter in 1962. And the study that gave us that figure provides a … Continued

Tech NewsFakes

The ‘Lottery Winner’ Promising $5,000 for Every Retweet Is a Hoax

Have you seen this viral tweet? It looks like it’s from Shane Missler, a 20-year-old lottery winner in Florida, and he’s promising $5,000 to every person who retweets the account. But it’s 100 percent fake. The fake tweet reads: “Hey guys! I am the lottery winner of $451 Million. With this incredible opportunity I am … Continued

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This Venice Beach Robot From the 1930s Will Ease Your Case of the Winter Blues

Winter weather gotcha down? How about some sweet vintage robot pics to cheer you up? Vintage robot pics on the beaches of Venice, California, no less. In my book, there’s just about nothing cooler than robots from the 1930s. This one didn’t appear to be capable of much outside of posing for pictures. But at … Continued

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Ecuador Officially Adopts Large Adult Son Julian Assange

Julian Assange, who has been living in Ecuador’s embassy in London for the past five years, is officially being granted Ecuadorian citizenship. What does that mean for Assange’s future? It’s still very unclear. Assange has been in self-imposed exile since 2012 after it was clear that he may have to face charges that he sexually … Continued

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South Carolina Lawmakers Have Found a Reason to Bring Back the Electric Chair

South Carolina hasn’t killed anyone on death row in six years. Not because the state wouldn’t like to kill people, but simply because drug companies won’t sell them the lethal injection drugs to do it. In response, frustrated lawmakers in South Carolina held hearings today about bringing back the electric chair for when lethal injection … Continued

Tech NewsSploid

I Can’t Stop Watching These Soap Bubble Snow Globes Get Made

The news can be pretty depressing these days. Sometimes it feels like you need to just wash your brain out with soap. And have I got the brain soap for you: There’s a guy in Regina, Saskatchewan who’s really good at making outdoor snow globes out of bubbles. I could watch him make these all … Continued

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Pfizer Halts Drug Research For Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Because It’s Too Expensive [Updated]

Pfizer, one of the world’s largest drug companies, announced over the weekend that it would stop work on new drugs to fight Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The reason? Pfizer believes that research on the two diseases doesn’t make sense financially. Pharmaceutical research and development is notoriously expensive. And high-risk research doesn’t make a good … Continued

Tech NewsFakes

We Regret to Inform You That Donald Trump’s ‘Gorilla Channel’ Is Totally Fake

Journalist Michael Wolff released a book today with some explosive claims about the Trump regime. Fire and Fury contains stories that seem almost too incredible to be real. And in the case of one excerpt you may have seen on social media, it’s indeed too good to be true. Twitter user PixelatedBoat is an Australian … Continued

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Predictions for the Year 2018 From the 20th Century

It’s the year 2018. And while we have some very cool tech that we take for granted, we’re still waiting on quite a few things that we were promised. But what did the people of yesteryear imagine 2018 would be like? People of 20th century had a lot of ideas about what the year 2018 … Continued

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North Korea Accidentally Hit Its Own City During Missile Test According to New Report

North Korea conducted a missile test on April 28, 2017 that didn’t go quite as planned. In fact, we’re now learning that the Hwasong-12 missile that the country launched actually went astray and may have hit the North Korean city of Tokchon. The Diplomat reports that a US government source with knowledge of the launch … Continued

Tech News

Americans Played Football in the Nuked Remains of Nagasaki For the ‘Atom Bowl’ in 1946

The US and North Korea seem to be on the brink of starting a nuclear war almost every single day here in 2018. But even if a nuclear bomb is used and millions die, whatever humans left surviving will try to achieve some level of normalcy in the aftermath. How do I know that? In … Continued

Tech News

Hooters Investor Whispers ‘Blockchain’ and Its Parent Company’s Stock Soars 50 Percent [Correction]

Chanticleer Holdings, which owns nine Hooters restaurants and other regional burger chains like Little Big Burger, announced today that it was putting its loyalty programs on the blockchain. And just like other companies that have recently issued press releases with the word “blockchain,” its stock price shot through the roof. The Nasdaq-listed stock, BURG, was up … Continued

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How to Watch Every Episode From Syfy’s Twilight Zone New Years’ Marathon

What’s your favorite holiday? Some people say Christmas, while others might say Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day. But for me, the best holiday is New Years’. Not because I go out partying or anything. I can drink heavily any day of the year, especially after a year like 2017. No, New Years’ is fantastic for one … Continued

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New York Removes Old Nuclear Fallout Shelter Signs in Move That Seems Premature

Experts on nuclear confrontation say that a nuclear war is a very real possibility here in the 21st century. The US and North Korea are just one misstep away from nuclear destruction. But that hasn’t stopped New York City officials from beginning to take down outdated nuclear fallout shelter signs posted at public schools. And … Continued

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Tech Nerds Who Predicted an Internet Utopia Are Sorry For Being So Wrong

You probably remember those tantalizing tech predictions from the 1990s. The world wide web was going to become a paradise for access to information and civil discourse. The internet would allow people of different cultures to come together and learn from each other. The information superhighway was supposed to make our lives so much easier. … Continued

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Library of Congress Gives Up Collecting All Tweets Because Twitter Is Garbage

In 2010, the Library of Congress started archiving every single public tweet that was published on Twitter. It even retroactively acquired all tweets dating back to 2006. But the Library of Congress will stop archiving every tweet on December 31, 2017. Why is it stopping? Because tweets are trash now. The Library of Congress issued … Continued

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The Monster Mash Guy Rushed Out a Christmas Version of the Song in 1962 and It’s Super Weird

Every year around Halloween, you can’t turn on the radio without hearing the novelty song “Monster Mash.” Released by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers in August 1962, it was such an instant hit that Pickett rushed out a Christmas version of the song called “Monsters’ Holiday” by December of that same year. If you … Continued

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Racist 1920s Article Worried That ‘Savage’ Styles Were the Wave of the Future

When you comb through old newspaper articles looking for predictions for the future like I do you can start to become numb to the racism of the 19th and 20th centuries. But I just stumbled upon an article from 1927 that was pretty damn racist, even for the time. The article, published in the January … Continued

Tech NewsFakes

29 Viral Photos and GIFs From 2017 That Were Totally Fake

It’s that time of year again when we look back at the photos and GIFs that went viral over the past 12 months. We did similar year-end round-ups in 2014, 2015, 2016 and I must say that 2017 was even weirder than usual. How so? There were so many fake images swirling around the internet … Continued

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Rich People Have Installed Anti-Bird Spikes in Trees to Keep Bird Poop Away from Cars

Nobody likes it when a bird poops on their car. But the residents of a wealthy neighborhood in Bristol, England seem to have taken this dislike to another level. They’ve installed anti-bird spikes on local trees. Humans really are the worst. Anti-bird spikes aren’t new. The spikes prevent birds from landing and you can see … Continued