The PowerSquid Surge3000 Calamari, one of three power strips designed to fit the gadget-hoarder's lifestyle. Photo courtesy PowerSquid

Power strips need a reboot. Look under your desk: wall warts the size of doorstops, massive AC power bricks, phone chargers with too-clever sideways designs that cover adjacent sockets. Buy a standard six-plug strip and you’re lucky to be able to use four of them.

Necessity being the mother of invention, manufacturers have been turning out power strips with adjustable and flexible designs that offer more accommodating approaches at a range of prices.

Of course,...

The troops have come home, the flag has been been lowered, and the Iraq War is officially in the past for the U.S. military. But the military is holding on to a major souvenir of the war: a massive database packed with retinal scans, thumb prints and other biometric data identifying millions of Iraqis. It will be a tool for counterterrorism long after the Iraq War becomes a fading memory.

U.S. Central Command, the military command responsible for troops in the Mideast and South Asia, confirms to Danger Room that the biometrics database, compiled by U.S. troops over the course of years, will...