Tech 9: Stories From the Week You Need to Read Right Now

The most interesting tech news from the week that you probably missed.

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Complex Original

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This week the movie world celebrated the date Marty McFly set for his hoverboard-driven adventures in the future (September 26, 2013), yet nary a hoverboard was to be found. The reading world celebrated Banned Book Week, taking time to appreciate the bizarre and not especially offensive in hindsight number of books that have been met with censorship. In the tech world, Apple continued to help strip mine far-off islands of their minerals, Japanese researchers sewed new hearts into mice then made them listen to Mozart and Enya, and someone invented invisible graffiti. Here's a round-up of all the news you might have missed from the week but shouldn't have.

Michael Thomsen is Complex's tech columnist. He has written for Slate, The Atlantic, The New Inquiry, n+1, Billboard, and is author of Levitate the Primate: Handjobs, Internet Dating, and Other Issues for Men. He tweets often at @mike_thomsen.

Mining Tin for Smartphones is Destroying Two Islands in Indonesia

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The White House Tries to Sell ObamaCare With Animal Memes

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You Can Read These 4 Fonts But Your Computer Can't

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NASA's Curiosity Rover Just Found Water in Martian Soil

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How Music Helps the Body Heal

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Finally, We Won't Have to Power Off During Takeoff and Landing

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Valve Tries to Reinvent the Video Game Controller

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Kids Using Minecraft to Stay In Touch With Deported Friend

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Graffiti That Can Only Be Seen When It Rains

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NeverWet is a clear liquid that repels water and other fluids meant to protect homes and industrial machinery from water damage. An artist in Atlanta, Nathan Sharratt, decided to make art out of it instead. Sharratt used NeverWet to stencil patterns and messages into concrete sidewalks, which are invisible when dry, but when it rains the difference in wetness and the drier areas where the NeverWet has been sprayed makes the patterns visible. After experimenting with small sidewalk projects, he's now set his sights on bigger projects, including a massive drawing on the side of a 14 story building, and a series of drawings for the middle of street intersections.

Read the story here.

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