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Nov 14, 2018 • 8min

Review: OnePlus 6T

OnePlus phones have always had one core selling point: they’re as powerful as the latest flagship Android phones, yet cost hundreds of dollars less. That winning combination made the OnePlus 6 and 5T two of our top recommended phones of the past year. The new OnePlus 6T mostly continues that trend, but this time it’s bringing some cutting-edge innovation with it.
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Nov 14, 2018 • 12min

12 Things You Learn Over Two Decades of Lunches With Stan Lee

For nearly two decades, I met Stan Lee for lunch about once every month or two. In the 1990s and into the 2000s I was writing for Wizard magazine, which at the time was kind of a catch-all, 800-pound gorilla in the comics business. And Stan, as we all learned from his many MCU cameos, knew the value of publicity. He liked seeing his name in print, which meant he was happy to sit down with a reporter—especially if I picked up the tab. So in 1999, we started meeting regularly for mid-day meals.
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Nov 13, 2018 • 4min

Booming Model 3 Sales Are Moving Tesla Beyond its Niche

Look at the latest data on US car sales, and you won't find much in the way of surprises. Ford's F-Series pickups reign supreme. SUVs and other pickups dominate the 20 most popular models in the country, along with cheaper sedans like the Toyota Camry and Honda Civic. Let your eyes fall to the bottom of the list, though, and you'll spot a newcomer: Elon Musk's Tesla Model 3.
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Nov 13, 2018 • 9min

How Board Game Designer Rob Daviau Built His Creepiest Game Yet

Board game designer Rob Daviau is shuffling through a deck of 3” x 3” cardboard tiles, each displaying a somber, aerial-view illustration of a room. He spies one, raises his eyebrows, and plucks it out of the pile. “This is the creepiest,” he says with a sly grin, turning the card’s face toward me. “There’s two things in here: The room is empty except for a crib and a teddy bear that’s been dismembered.” He studies the card a moment.
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Nov 12, 2018 • 6min

We Should Take Hollywood Disaster Movies More Seriously

Former intelligence official Richard A. Clarke says that Earth is virtually defenseless against incoming asteroids, and that an asteroid large enough to level a city could strike with almost no warning. “We do not have a plan for dealing with that,” Clarke says in Episode 334 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “We don’t have a rocket or a missile we can fire up right now, certainly not on 48 hours alert, but not even on six months alert.
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Nov 12, 2018 • 6min

The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line Gets New Trimmings for 2018

In November 1981, Butterball introduced a toll-free hotline with a simple mission: to help Thanksgiving chefs turn out top-notch turkeys. And while the phone call remains the beating heart of the Turkey Talk-Line industrial complex, it has in recent years branched out. In 2008, Butterball took its first tips to social media. In 2016, it added texting to its toolkit. This year, it’s adding an Alexa skill.
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Nov 9, 2018 • 6min

The Illusion Fueling the Post-Midterms Conservative News Machine

As gray clouds cleared Wednesday morning, the feed that broadcast out of Trumpland beamed a bright, bloody red. Unsurprisingly, the ostensible victory—a continued firm hold on the Senate and critical, if slim, gubernatorial wins—emboldened many Republican acolytes whose loyalties lie with the president’s camp. Amongst Trump supporters, news moves at a dizzying, disorienting pace.
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Nov 9, 2018 • 5min

Virgin Hyperloop One’s New CEO Could Make a Wooshy Future Real

Wouldn’t it be really, really nice to get places really, really fast? That’s the promise of the hyperloop, a transportation idea popularized in the 21st century by none other than its Chief Engineer/Magician/Dreamer, Elon Musk. Five years after Musk wrote a white paper on the concept of a maglev train inside a frictionless, air-free tube, hyperloop has become a sort of legitimate business. Four companies with more than $300 million in funding are competing to build the first real one.
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Nov 8, 2018 • 5min

Glamour Duck and the Internet's Rabid Love of Wild Animals

Earlier this month, people in Central Park noticed the presence of a majestic Mandarin duck. As quickly as he was there, he was gone. But he’s back. With his bright pink beak, mohawk of blue and gold, and proud chest feathers of royal purple, the mysterious visitor has returned—and quickly captured our collective heart.
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Nov 8, 2018 • 6min

A Carbon Tax Is Pretty Much Inevitable, Even if Voters Said No

The first statewide carbon tax in the United States almost certainly isn't going to happen. Washington votes by mail, so it ain’t over yet, but the No side of Initiative 1631 has just over 56 percent, with more than two thirds of the votes counted. It doesn’t look good. LEARN MORE The WIRED Guide to Climate Change That’s a disappointing end for a bill that some environmentalists and journalists had held out as a bellwether.

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