Gadgets & Tech – Spoken Edition

Have you ever been using your iPhone and found yourself wishing it was heavier and more prone to viruses? Well, have we got a gadget for you. In the same way that Reese’s Peanut Butter cups brought together too disparate worlds, the Eye Smart iPhone Case crams a whole other phone on your phone.

There’s a video doing the rounds of a woman harassing White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer at an Apple Store. The usual suspects are disgusted with the fact that she repeatedly says Spicer works for a fascist.

Chicken farmers in Tennessee are about to shed a lot of blood. After noticing an unusually high death rate in a flock, some Tyson Foods-suppliers discovered that they were dealing with a new bird flu outbreak. Don’t worry too much, though: The USDA says humans should be safe. The flock, however, will not. As one does when dealing with an outbreak of a dangerous disease like bird flu, the farmers are slaughtering the entire flock of 73,500 chickens.

In Thailand, it’s believed that throwing coins onto a turtle will bring longevity and good fortune. For many years, a female green sea turtle in the eastern town of Sri Racha had to endure this superstition while wading in a public pool. She consumed 915 coins in the process. Early today, veterinarians in Bangkok operated on the 25-year-old turtle, removing each coin one by one.

When 14-year-old Daniel Kristiansen was assigned a World War II project for history class, his father jokingly suggested he look for a German plane that had allegedly crashed at the family farm. Well wouldn’t you know it, he actually found the damned thing—along with the dead airman’s remains. It’s being called one of the most sensational discoveries in recent times. Armed with metal detectors, father and son descended on the farm near Arabybro in northern Denmark.

Ah, that fresh smell just after it rains. It brings a sense of calm to the world. But did you know that it could kill you? That’s right, rain launches (mostly harmless) bacteria into the air and in rare cases it can spread disease. Scientists didn’t fully understand how the process works until now. A group of mechanical engineers published a paper in Nature today that explains how that earthy smell manages to get from the ground to your nose.

For the past few months, dozens of Airbnb users have enjoyed a rare privilege: sleeping in the same building as the President of the United States. This is thanks to a discrete listing for an apartment “in a luxury building” that happens to be Trump Tower. The listing is now gone, and it’s all The New York Times’s fault. A Times reporter recently booked the Airbnb—using Instant Book in fact.

While trojans and email phishing still feature prominently in hacker toolkits, getting into a system IRL is one of the most effective methods a truly determined hacker can use. Using a USB firewall could be your best defense.

Uber, man… what are you doing? You keep fucking up so much. First there was the #deleteUber campaign, with more than 200,000 Uber customers deleting their accounts over Uber’s position on Trump’s economic advisory council. Next, the revelations from a former Uber employee detailing the culture of sexual harassment at the company.

Here in New York City, it was a beautiful spring day with temperatures hitting 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Life was good, and it almost made you forget all the troubles the world faces at the moment. Then, you find out that it was basically the same frickin’ temperature in Antarctica this time last year and the planet is screwed.