Dmitry Itskov's Immortal Robots Hit the Big Stage, in Name Only

Itskov wants to bring robotic telepresence to the masses, and eventually allow humans to download digital copies of themselves into android bodies, which he calls avatars. We caught up with the 32-year-old Russian multimillionaire at the recent Global Future 2045 Congress. Full story

NYC's Mayoral Candidates Aren't Sure What 3D Printing Is

Wooing New York's Silicon Alley startup scene during a forum on tech policy in Queens on Monday night, four mayoral hopefuls had the opportunity to weigh in on the city's growing 3D-printing industry. "Makerbot?" Anthony Wiener said. "It sounds like a beer they serve in a William… Full story

Cluster Headaches: Inside the US Army's Would-Be Mind-Control Bombs

How do you covertly dose a mid- to full-size enemy brigade with mania-inducing incapacitants? Cracking open the M43 and M44 cluster bombs, the short-lived weapons technology at the center of America's post-World War II psychowars. Full story

It’s Lavish, Bitch: The Internet's Celebrity Bashing Brat King

Param Sharma is just a normal 17-year-old living in California’s Bay Area. But on the internet, he’s known as Lavish—the disgustingly rich brat who goads celebrities like Rihanna and Soulja Boy into pissing matches with scathing insults. I gave him a call to hear what the little… Full story

Nicaragua's $40 Billion Canal Would Fulfill Two Centuries of Ambition

Nicaragua's 200-year-old plans to build a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are back on the table. The National Assembly has reportedly given a Hong Kong-based company a 50-year concession to investigate, design, and potentially build the Inter-Ocean Nicaragua Canal. … Full story

Why the Biotech Industry Is Rejoicing Over the End of Gene Patents

Last week’s Supreme Court ruling that human genes can't be patented looked like a huge blow to the biotech industry, which collectively holds thousands of patents on isolated DNA sequences and has a vested commercial interest in protecting these intellectual property rights. But… Full story

Why Bottled Water Is Insane

If you are over 30 years old, you can remember a time before bottled water. While that bottle now goes for $1.79, your tap can spit out water for $.00063 for the same 20 oz. And that is at the upper end of the municipal-water price range. This, folks, is the power of marketing. T… Full story

When Caskets Occasionally Explode

It is not uncommon for us to shell out thousands of dollars in order to preserve the corpses of those we love. Unfortunately, these attempts to stifle the natural process of decay can backfire in bizarre ways, one of which is exploding casket syndrome. Full story

Hiding Your Calls and Texts from Big Brother

The Encryption Start-Up Silent Circle Says It Can Restore Your Privacy

Silent Circle is a company that offers a way for individuals and companies to protect their communications from everyone from the NSA to run-of-the-mill identity thieves. They say they don't store your data and that their system is so secure that even the FBI is a customer. Full story

Get Off Your Computer and Come to Our Social Media Day Party on June 29

For the past four years, Mashable has been celebrating the way social media has changed our lives and our industry with Social Media Day. This year, VICE is partnering up to throw the biggest Social Media Day party yet. It will be a day-long festival showcasing social media's imp… Full story

A Eulogy for Skeuomorphism

With its new OS, Apple is finally killing those leather-bound calendars, wooden bookshelves, and tech's most quietly controversial design element. But skeuomorphism deserves a proper send-off. Full story

Unicode Is the New Internet Gold Mine

When Dutch expat Pim Roes heard about Vietnam's plans to oust Google as the country's primary search engine, he didn't stand aside for Hanoi's captains of industry. Instead, he put himself right in their way, registering the domain name www.cốccốc.com, which, unlike the official… Full story

How to Build a Secret 'Facebook'

For years, William Binney, a retired NSA cryptographer, has been telling anyone who will listen about a vast data gathering operation being conducted by his former employers that could build a "social graph" of nearly any user of the American internet, like some massive, secret s… Full story

The Man Behind the Push to Ban Killer Robots

Depending on who you ask, armed robots that can discern when and how to stage attacks without guidance from humans present either an unprecedented danger to humanity or its greatest mechanism of defense. But both sides agree that such "lethal autonomous robots," as they're known,… Full story