Technology

National

How An Idea To Develop A Safer, Smart Gun Backfired

4:26pm April 07, 2016

by Joel Rose

If we can lock and unlock our smartphones with a fingerprint, why can't we do the same with guns? One company tried to make a safer so called smart gun and found itself hated by everyone.

A "new" Rembrandt portrait is actually the creation of a 3-D printer — and a statistical analysis of 346 paintings by the Dutch master.

Arts

A 'New' Rembrandt: From The Frontiers Of AI And Not The Artist's Atelier

11:26am April 07, 2016

by NPR Staff

A newly unveiled portrait bearing all the hallmarks of the Dutch master is actually the result of 18 months of analysis of 346 of his paintings, plus 150 gigabytes of digitally rendered graphics.

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Mother and daughter discuss cell phone usage in a diner

What Special Ed Teachers and Parents Need To Know About Social Media

10:00am April 07, 2016

by Byrd Pinkerton

The internet can be a dangerous place, especially for kids who may struggle with communication. A psychologist offers some guidelines to help kids with special needs stay safe online.

WhatsApp Adds End-To-End Encryption To Its Communication Services

7:06am April 06, 2016

by Aarti Shahani

That means only the sender and recipient of a message can view it. The people who run the popular messaging service cannot, and they cannot hand data over to law enforcement.

Arts

Laid-Off Tech Journalist Joins A Start-Up, Finds It's Part Frat, Part Cult

2:14pm April 05, 2016

Dan Lyons was in his 50s when he lost his job reporting on the tech industry. He took a job at a start-up, where he was the old guy. His new book is Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble.

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At the Heartland Biogas Project, millions of tons of food waste are collected and converted into usable methane gas.

How Colorado Is Turning Food Waste Into Electricity

1:28pm April 05, 2016

by Luke Runyon

At the Heartland Biogas Project, spoiled milk, old pet food and vats of grease combine with helpful bacteria in massive tanks to generate gas. It's all thanks to anaerobic digestion.

Nigel Bradham of the Buffalo Bills celebrates a touchdown in the October game against Jacksonville Jaguars in London. Yahoo's online stream of the event was one of the NFL's digital tests.

Twitter Wins NFL Deal To Stream 2016 Thursday Night Football

1:07pm April 05, 2016

by Alina Selyukh

The NFL hopes to reach a broader audience, including those who don't have cable, while Twitter is looking to attract and keep new users.

The anonymous Web surfing system Tor is run by volunteers — and sometimes they get caught between the police and criminal suspects.

When A Dark Web Volunteer Gets Raided By The Police

10:52am April 05, 2016

by Martin Kaste

What happens when law enforcement is frustrated by encryption that's run by private citizens? In one Tor volunteer's case, they showed up with a warrant and asked for computer passwords.

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SolarReserve's Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Plant, located near Tonopah, Nev., features an array of 10,347 mirrors arranged in a circle 1.75 miles across. A 640-foot-tall tower glows when the sun's energy is concentrated and directed to the top.

Solar And Wind Energy May Be Nice, But How Can We Store It?

9:19am April 05, 2016

Renewable energy is taking off across the nation, but storing the energy is still a problem that is challenging companies to innovate, with solutions ranging from molten salt to ice.

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First Mention: Computer Scientists Develop 'Virtual Reality'

4:28pm April 04, 2016

Our First Mention feature finds the phrase "virtual reality" on All Things Considered on Aug. 8, 1989.