This Virginia county is trying to use blockchain-like tech to store land titles

Among possible applications for blockchain technology, real-estate titles—a bit of land legalese that many people may only think about as they plod through paperwork to buy a house—might not seem high on the list.

Land titles don’t involve digital goods or cryptocurrencies, but those records do have features that can lend th

How browser cookies make people more cautious online

Website cookies are online surveillance tools, and the commercial and government entities that use them would prefer people not read those notifications too closely. People who do read the notifications carefully will find that they have the option to say no to some or all cookies.

The problem is, without careful attention those notifications become an annoyance and a

This VR gallery highlights famous stolen works of art by Rembrandt and Van Gogh

A new virtual art gallery features works by painters Caravaggio, Manet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Rembrandt that you won’t see any time soon in any real-world museum.

That’s because the five paintings in question were famously stolen from museums around the world, their current whereabouts unknown. But with a new app called The Stolen Art Gallery, art lovers can get up close to digitized versions of the paintings using a Meta Quest headset, and can hear spoken descriptions o

Why founders need to think hard about where their money is coming from

“A rising tide lifts all boats,” as the phrase goes. But perhaps more importantly, it also hides any jagged rocks.

Over the last few years, many of those sharp rocks in the startup ecosystem have been covered by the rising tide of mammoth

This is how playing video games can be good for teams, according to science

Somewhere in the evolving zeitgeist of the last few decades, video games got a bad rap. The prevailing narrative is of concerned parents hovering over their pale, pubescent sons and daughters as they decay in dark basements in front of flickering screens. Zoom out much further, and it’s apparent that video games have fallen victim to the same 

4 easy ways to make your Zoom meetings look better

For some, Zoom may have been a stop-gap during the early days of the pandemic. For others, it’s now a way of life.

Should you find yourself in the latter camp, there are a few very simple and effective settings you can tweak to ensure that the video you’re sending out to all your coworkers, friends, and family looks the best it can.

Most of the controls you’ll need live in the Settings > Video section of the Zoom desktop app for Windows and Mac, which you ca

Why 7Taps is the best microlearning tool out there

This article is republished with permission from “Wonder Tools,” a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.

7Taps is the best tool I’ve encountered for creating a quick microcourse. A microcourse is

The science of fireworks colors, explained

In the earliest days of the United States, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, about the celebration of independence: “It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” “Bonfires and illuminati

Here’s what the first six months of 2022 have looked like in space innovation

We’ve made it halfway through 2022. The year has flown by, but it’s been filled with big news and firsts for the space industry. Here’s our recap of the off-Earth goings-on during these last six months.

Q1

The year started off with a bang as JWST unfolded successfully, reach

Google has been sharing user data with a sanctioned Russian company, according to ProPublica

As recently as late June, Google was sharing user data—which could include IP addresses, geographical locations, and details about users’ identity, interests, and search activity—with an advertising company owned by Russia’s largest state bank, according to a report shared with ProPublica.

The company, RuT


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