We want to see what South By looks like through your eyes, so this week we’ve teamed up with Esurance to bring you a SXSW-inspired Mashable Photo Challenge . Whether it’s endless taco trucks and tech talks, or late-night dance parties and crazy concerts — we want to see it.

In 2010 Lim became director of sport science for Team RadioShack—which was led by Lance Armstrong, around whom doping allegations had been swirling for years. “Up to that point,” Lim says, “I had spent my whole career despising Lance, actively hating everything he stood for.” Lim believes it was Armstrong who inspired Floyd Landis to cheat, Armstrong whom Slipstream’s methods were implicitly challeng­ing. So how could Lim possibly work for him? At the time, Lim spoke of wanting a more focused role—concentrating on science and technology and working primarily with Armstrong—but there was money as well. After the ’09 Tour de France, Lim told Slipstream he wanted to reduce his commitment; as a result, he says, Slipstream wanted to halve his $120,000 salary. Soon after, Armstrong offered him the job for roughly double what Lim had been making. “I felt like I had been taken advantage of,” Lim says. “The cleanest team in the world wasn’t going to take care of me—but the dirtiest guy in the world was.&#

Image: Tracy MacKenzie Reimagining our education model... I am a firm believer that public education in our country is in desperate need of smart, strategic innovation and, to be blunt, change. When I was first introduced to New Classrooms, I was impressed by how the team was thinking big and didn't shirk away from completely reimagining how students in our country could best learn . Our co-founders, Joel Rose and Chris Rush , were plunging in head-on to build a new model of K-12 education — one that is bringing truly personalized learning to the students who need it most and critical support to leverage teachers' time and experience. I knew immediately that I wanted to be part of this solution in whatever capacity I could best help. The organization combined my love of education with my belief in innovative solutions to social issues. All it took was one phone call, and I knew this was where I needed to work. It's passion, not size, that matters... Given that I was invested in the idea of New Classrooms from the start, the size of the organization didn't matter as much to me.

Originally published by Infocom, Adams' game was a text adventure — meaning the online way to interact with it was by typing in commands such as "open door," or "turn the light on." Now, for the game's 30th anniversary, the BBC has re-launched it as an online game that's free to play.

The marriage of mobile and contextual search is still in its honeymoon phase—there are plenty of big ideas, but relatively few solid executions. If Yahoo does indeed capitalize on bridging its mobile services with contextual search, you can bet it will be a direct result of one of the many companies it has picked up in the last two years—bringing the technology, and recognition that went along with it, in house. 

Noecker found that King was a better match than any of the other men. But he says that it was impossible to be sure King was Satoshi, because it wasn’t possible to say that those men are the only candidates. The problem is akin to a police lineup: If the culprit isn’t there, a witness might pick the best match from the lineup anyway, even though that person is innocent. “If we were trying to identify the Unabomber with a group of writings by President Obama, the works of Shakespeare, and Beowulf, we would expect that President Obama would show as the most likely candidate to be the Unabomber, simply because both authors write in modern American English,” he says. So Noecker did nothing with his finding.

AUSTIN, Texas — In what is sure to be just one of many unscheduled celebrity appearances during South by Southwest this year, Justin Bieber gave a surprise performance at sausage and beer joint Banger's on Sunday night.

A thin disk of dark matter running through the Galaxy might be behind the large meteorite strikes that are thought to be responsible for some of Earth’s mass extinctions, including that of the dinosaurs, two theoretical physicists have proposed.

In the south-east section of Berlin lies Plänterwald, a borough that sits along the Spree river. This wooded area is home to Spreepark, an old amusement park that once attracted hundreds of thousands. Today, the ferris wheel is at an eerie standstill, and the rollercoaster that used to thrill attendees is now covered in graffiti.

That's the message Mayhew Animal Home is sending in its new dog adoption PSA, "Unloved." The video follows stangers having a terrible day, due to others' unkindness and ignorance. But at the end of the day, as long as there's a dog in your life, you have something that unconditionally loves you.

At 2:05 PM EST today, Twitter went down. It’s not clear whether all users are affected or just a subset, but the social network is not accessible via the desktop site, mobile site, or its multiple apps. TNW staff from all around the world were suddenly logged out and weren’t allowed to log back into the site.

And you know the perfect place to commission such an outstanding piece: Etsy . Comprised of creative, crafty and often kooky shop owners, the ecommerce platform houses nearly any handcrafted item you could possibly imagine.

That’s why Siegle and Jakob Voigts of the Moore Lab at Brown University founded Open Ephys , a project for sharing open source neuroscience hardware designs. They started by posting designs for the tools they use to record electrical signals in the brain. They hope to kick start an open source movement within neuroscience by making their designs public, and encouraging others to do the same. “We don’t necessarily want people to use our tools specifically,” Siegle says. “We just want to build awareness of how open source eliminates redundancy, reduces costs, and increases productivity.”

While we still don’t condone using your iPad to record video at concerts, we do think the tablet is, in general, a great tool for shooting, editing, and sharing videos. The larger screens, the plethora of apps, and the built-in cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity make iPads ideal for seasoned videographers and newbies alike. But ultimately, tapping into the tablet’s true video-shooting potential means using the right combination of tricks, apps, and hardware.

It was announced last year that iPlayer will be moving to a 30-day catch-up window (from 7-days) as standard, something that’s currently only enabled if you make shows available offline. But the timing of this big shift wasn’t part of today’s announcement, though it was noted that it will happen soon. And, as we knew already, more and more new content will be exclusive to iPlayer, as the BBC is looking to push iPlayer front-and-center, rather than serving as a secondary service.

In a deal with Sony, Comcast will now sell its subscribers access to the first season of the political drama through its own Xfinity Store, Variety reports . In Hollywood terms, the arrangement might not be anything remarkable — just a new way of syndicating reruns. But cutting Netflix out of the picture for its signature show sends a clear signal that the entertainment and cable industries aren’t about to let some Northern California tech company change television without exacting a price.

Google's head of Chrome and Android, Sundar Pichai, announced today that the company would release a new software developer kit for wearable gadgets within the next two weeks. Speaking with John Battelle at a panel discussion at SXSW 2014, Pichai mentioned that new SDK was coming from Google to help developers create Android apps for devices like smartwatches and fitness bands. 

There’s a chance that MH370 flew for hours on autopilot after we lost radar contact with it. The idea is that some kind of decompression event incapacitated the passengers and crew, while also somehow disabling Satellite and Radar communication systems.

Herrick, the healthcare policy expert, said the administration must avoid what he called the "adverse selection death spiral." In this scenario, insurance companies receive older and less healthy enrollees than projected, and in turn raise their prices after year one. In turn, younger and healthier people are even less inclined to sign up for coverage during year two, causing a unsustainable situation for the system.

One thing that iTunes, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu have proven is that content makers can fight piracy by providing a better, easier service to paying customers. But what happens when piracy fights back with something just as convenient? A new app called Popcorn Time raises that very question. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux, Popcorn Time lets you stream the latest movies — including American Hustle , Gravity and Frozen – with just a couple clicks. The software uses BitTorrent to find and download movies, but eliminates the usual hassle of wading through sketchy torrent sites and waiting for the file to finish downloading. Basically, it’s the version of Netflix that you’ve always wanted — and maybe have been willing to pay extra for — but that Hollywood may never allow. It’s also a flagrant enabler of copyright violation, at least in the United States. Popcorn Time Popcorn Time’s creators are quick to acknowledge the legal dangers. A disclaimer, warning that it may be illegal in your country to download copyrighted material, appears on the Popcorn Time website and again in the app itself.

The song has garnered some serious traction lately, and it hasn't done so by accident. The Chainsmokers, a D.J. and producer from New York, N.Y., used a simple, yet powerful strategy to expand the video's reach online. The electronic dance music duo included selfies from dozens of social media influencers in the video, a strategy that ensured the video would be shared online by those carrying the most weight.

Beyond the tease of a Flappy Bird return, Nguyen also talked extensively about the inspiration for his game and how the culture of his home city of Hanoi influenced the game's simple mechanics. Citizens rush through the city, eyes trained on their phones — and thus the simple "tap" control made a lot of sense to Nguyen. And as for the low scores that plague most players, Nguyen apparently was influenced by "one of the most masocore analog creations ever: paddleball." For the whole story on Nguyen and 2014's surprise breakout hit, read on at Rolling Stone .

Below we've collected some of the wackier designs to cross the U.S. Patent Office in the 19th century. Ranging from an animatronic creeping baby to a diving dress that transforms you into a deep-sea bullet, these patents will make you wonder what their creators were thinking.

Themer, pictured here, is one of thousands of Android personalization apps in the Google Play Store. These apps are getting more and more popular, according to a new report.

Over a period of years, investigators pored over more than 6.2 million classified records furnished by the CIA, using a search tool that agency technical experts agreed to install. But U.S. officials said the committee gained access to a set of documents that the agency never intended to share, files that were generated at the direction of former director Leon E. Panetta as part of an effort to take an inventory of the records being turned over to Feinstein’s panel.

Next, the app simulates the actual painting process. Instead of transforming the whole thing in a single pass, it creates each painting layer by layer, as a real artist would. The app simulates the spreading and bleeding of the pigment onto the canvas, with dedicated properties for the virtual paper, the pigment, the brushes, the water and so on. When he was fine-tuning the app, Balestrieri eventually accepted the how-to books’ recommendations and programmed Waterlogue to paint scenes light to dark. The reason? He found his simulation was so accurate that when darker colors were put down first, they had too much time to bleed into the virtual canvas, ruining the final image.

Sebuh Honarchian, a developer from Los Angeles, showed up at the South By Southwest Interactive trade show in Austin, Texas on Saturday because he heard there would be a Bitcoin ATM and he needed to pay rent. He found the machine in a corner of the trade floor, flashed it a QR code on his phone, and retrieved $3,000 — less than five BTC at current prices.

Behind the closed doors of restaurants and hotels, there is another monetary ecosystem that keeps companies coming back and spending on events, restaurant buyouts and hotel suites.

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is the most popular sporting event in Alaska, and has long been a test of human and animal endurance. Traveling a 1,000-mile path across Arctic tundra from Willow to Nome (with a ceremonial start in Anchorage), mushers and their teams of 16 specially-trained dogs must withstand some of the most extreme winter weather on Earth: blizzards and whiteout conditions, along with freezing temperatures, are commonplace.

I'm serving as Product Marketing Manager for Plex Systems, a leading provider of Cloud-based ERP systems for manufacturers where my responsibilities include new product introductions, messaging, marketing strategy, business development, and competitive strategy. Previous positions include senior analyst at AMR Research (now Gartner), marketing and business development at Cincom Systems, Ingram Micro, a SaaS start-up and at hardware companies. I am also a member of the Enterprise Irregulars. My background includes marketing, product management, sales and industry analyst roles in the enterprise software and IT industries. My academic background includes an MBA from Pepperdine University and completion of the Strategic Marketing Management Program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. I teach MBA courses in international business, global competitive strategies, international market research, and capstone courses in strategic planning and market research. I've taught at California State University, Fullerton: University of California, Irvine; Marymount University, and Webster University.

During a planned deploy in one of our core services, we experienced unexpected complications that made Twitter unavailable for many users starting at 11:01am. We rolled back the change as soon as we identified the issue and began a controlled recovery to ensure stability of other parts of the service. The site was fully recovered by 11:47am PDT. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Our first report tied to the anniversary looked at the present and the past of the Internet, marking its strikingly fast adoption and assessing its impact on American users’ lives. This report is part of an effort by the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project in association with Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center to look at the future of the Internet, the Web, and other digital activities. This is the first of eight reports based on a canvassing of hundreds of experts about the future of such things as privacy, cybersecurity, the “Internet of things,” and net neutrality. In this case we asked experts to make their own predictions about the state of digital life by the year 2025. We will also explore some of the economic change driven by the spectacular progress that made digital tools faster and cheaper. And we will report on whether Americans feel the explosion of digital information coursing through their lives has helped them be better informed and make better decisions.

The interactive map below tells the story of the North Yungas and 21 other deadly roads throughout the world. Drivingexperiences.com created the map using data from the World Health Organization's 2013 status report on road safety, in addition to numerous other sources of information.

Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul now known as Diddy, has bid about $200 million for the Fuse cable-TV channel, said three people with knowledge of the situation.

Yes, Boll apparently came out on top in the match, which was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, but there's no way to know if it was one continuous match or a series of scripted shots. It's also unclear how the robot is tracking the Ping-Pong ball. Kuka's website does not list visual sensors as part of Agilus's feature set, which may mean the robot used external sensors to track the tiny orange ball. Based on the video (and the not-very-informative "making of" clip the company released later), it looks like the 114-pound, six-axis robot has the speed, mobility and reach (nearly 3 feet) to hold its own against Boll. In the video, it goes six-up before Boll comes roaring back to beat Agilus by one point. Kuka created the video to promote the opening of its new robot-building facility in Shanghai, China. Mashable contacted Kuka for more information about the "match" and Agilus, but has yet to receive a response. In the meantime, let's score one for humankind, or at least one very athletically gifted man.

A Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) employee in a protective suit and a mask visits the suppression chamber area at the basement of the No. 5 reactor building of the TEPCO's tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan, Monday, March 10, 2014.

As the report notes, the performance improvements in iOS 7.1 likely represent the last set of changes that will bring any meaningful enhancement for iPhone 4 users. The phone is almost four years old, and Apple typically ends support for the most recent version of iOS after a multi-year period; it's expected the iPhone 4 won't be supported by iOS 8.

But Apple 's new starlet is a little more selective than you might think about who gets to configure her startup disk. So, who is good enough for Mac Pro? Is she looking for a classic egghead type, or someone who has the apps that can challenge her?

Try your hand at duct taping someone to a wall in less than 41 seconds, or spend three minutes putting more than 202 grapes in your mouth. Who knows? With a little luck, maybe you'll be a world mini-record holder before you finish your salad.

Google is facing a class action lawsuit filed by parents in the US whose children downloaded a free or modestly-priced game on Google Play, and then chalked up charges for in-app game currency without the parents’ knowledge or authorization, according to a  press release  issued by law firm Berger & Montague.

The AI center developed Charlie for space missions, said Project Leader Daniel Kühn. The robot is particularly well equipped for moving on uneven, shifting ground, so that it can, for example, walk into craters on the moon to search for water. Its feet are equipped with 60 sensors each so that they can feel the surface, so Charlie can adjust its steps on uneven, or even moving, surfaces. It can also pick itself up if it falls over, thanks to a “smart spine.” It also has collision and distance sensors.

Liberally dress chicken thighs with salt and pepper. In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on high. When oil begins to smoke, place thighs skin down. Cook for 3 minutes, and flip chicken, cook for 3 more minutes. Remove chicken from pot and lower heat to low, cook one sliced onion for about 4 or 5 minutes or until translucent. Return heat to high, and add 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar to onions, scraping the bottom of the pan for any bits stuck to the bottom. Add chicken, 2 cups of chicken stock and 2 bay leaves. Bring to a boil. After 2 minutes, add 1 cup of rice and cover. Simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is cooked through.

What’s next? Beleaguered chief executive Anne Wojcicki delivered a keynote at SXSW to address the company’s plan of action, and I caught up with her for a one-on-one immediately after her session. Wojcicki made it clear that her number-one priority is to resolve any issues with the FDA and resume to business as usual. “We’re not going to switch gears and become another an ancestry company,” she said. [ Editors' Note: We'll be publishing an excerpt of that interview in due course. ]

Prizes include an original sketch from Final Fantasy character designer Tetsuya Nomura, a custom Xbox 360 console & controller, $1,000 cash, among others.  Each winner is also featured at the top of deviantArt’s homepage for a full day. Check out the  complete submission gallery .

This isn't the first time we've seen changes like this to ads in search results. Google first rolled out this same new look for ads to mobile users in September when the company announced it was changing the look and feel of ads and search results on mobile.

If the iOS 7.1 is not available over the air, you can update your device manually by downloading the iOS 7.1 firmware file. We’ll update the post with direct download links shortly.

NASA is calling on coders to help in the hunt for potentially dangerous asteroids. Over the next six months, the agency will be offering a total of $35,000 in prizes in a contest series that aims to improve the way telescopes detect, track, and analyze incoming space rocks.

Artist Heather Rooney gave the famed selfie one of her excellent drawn renditions, as she's known for on YouTube . In this time-lapse video, watch Rooney reproduce the picture in astonishing detail using colored pencils.

Whether it's served in a demitasse mug or a venti mochachino bucket, coffee is an essential, eye-opening morning ritual for many of us. But at what point does throwing back another vente doing you more harm than good?