Adam Clark Estes

SubPac M1 Review: A Subwoofer You Wear Like a Backpack

Picture this sexy cyborg future: Bored of headphones and hungry for bass, people roam the city with speakers strapped to their bodies. You don’t listen to music any more; you feel it. Well, thanks to a partnership between musicians and engineers, this is all already possible. What Is It? Quite literally, the SubPac M1 is…

Army 3D-Prints Futuristic Electronics In Its Own New Jersey Mini-City

Defense Systems reports on the Army’s 3D printing operation at the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, describing how they’ve been using additive manufacturing to print antennas into helmets, sensors into clothes, and even whole functioning batteries—among other things. Gizmodo was at the lab last week to see these machines in action, and to photograph the…

Somehow, Everyone’s Password Is Still “123456”

A team of security researchers just stumbled across a massive cache of two million login credentials for sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, and ADP payroll. Shockingly, a large number of the passwords were overwhelmingly dumb. Like “123456” dumb. Guys. We’ve been over this again and again and again and again. It’s a really bad…

Why Don’t We Design a Better Wheelchair?

What’s the difference between using a wheelchair and wearing glasses? Both take advantage of technology to adjust or enhance human capabilities. Yet we tend to consider people in wheelchairs as disabled, and people with glasses as, well, relatively normal. It’s all about perspective. The Atlantic’s Rebecca Rosen recently interviewed Sara Hendren, who runs a blog…

Some Good Things Drones Can (Actually) Do

While everyone is freaking out about Amazon’s plan to unleash an army of delivery drones on the world, it’s important to remember that these flying robots can do much more than just move packages. As the technology has improved and dramatically dropped in price, people have been coming up with all kinds of crazy and…

Accused of Spying, Huawei CEO Says Company Is “Exiting the US Market”

It looks like China’s Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, is sick and tired of the United States accusing it of cyberspying. In an interview with the French press, the company’s founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said they’re throwing in the towel stateside. Ren did not mince his words. “If Huawei gets in the…

Volvo Plans to Put Self-Driving Cars on City Streets by 2017

Volvo’s hitting the gas on its plan to sell self-driving cars. The Swedish (but Chinese-owned) company just announced a trial that will put 100 driverless cars on the streets of Gothenburg in 2017. They’ll navigate traffic, dodge pedestrians, and even park themselves. Pretty futuristic! Actually, it’s about time. It’s been almost a decade since DARPA’s…

Exploding Hog-Manure Foam Is Costing Farmers Millions

Hog farmers across the country are dealing with a pretty shitty problem. A mysterious fecal foam has begun bubbling up from beneath barn floors, down in the darkness where pig manure falls, burping dangerous quantities of methane and hydrogen sulfide. Sometimes, though, it ignites, blowing up not just the barn but all of the pigs…

This Incredible Portrait of Morgan Freeman Was Painted on an iPad

Remember iPad art? Like those New Yorker covers that look, well, basically just okay? Or the hobby that David Hockney had for like ten seconds? Well British artist Kyle Lambert’s been practicing, and he’s gotten good. Like, photorealism good. The latest Lambert creation is this jaw-dropping portrait of Morgan Freeman. You almost feel like you…

Marching into the Future of 3D-Printed War

We all know by now that 3D printing is the future of manufacturing—even the president says so. The march of progress doesn’t always move as quickly as we’d like, however, especially when the military-industrial complex is involved. While 3D printing machines are becoming steadily cheaper and the possibilities incredibly sophisticated, the disparate branches of the…

Check Out These Vintage Cameras Turned Into Handsome Lamps

Now that film is almost obsolete, you’re probably wondering what to do with that beautiful old Minolta taking up precious space in your desk drawer. Well, have you ever considered building furniture out of it? This crew of crafty Chinese designers has. Y Studio prides itself on turning found objects into useful tools and that’s…

How Many D Batteries Does It Take to Cook a Turkey?

Sometimes, when the holidays roll around, things go wrong and you need to get creative. How creative? Well, that’s up to your family and their own zany ways. Wired’s Rhett Allain imagined the zaniest of scenarios for Thanksgiving Day. What if you had no oven—but an unlimited number of D batteries? How many would it…

It’s hard not to marvel at French artist Benedetto Bufalino’s recent work “La caravane dans le ciel”—literally, “the caravan in the sky.” A small camper sits on top of a hydraulic lift, providing enough room for a person to live in the clouds. It’s kind of like The Jetsons, only trashier. [designboom]

How Airlines Know If It’s Safe to Fly

As a Nor’easter heads towards the east coast just in time for the busiest travel day of the year, you’re probably wondering how bad it has to get before your plane gets grounded. Well, as a new National Geographic feature explains, figuring that out is more an art than a science. Suffice it to say,…

Scientists Accidentally Discover Incredible Bacteria-Killing Surface

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you never had to worry about germs crawling around on your kitchen countertop? Well, thanks to a new discovery by Australian scientists, that could soon be a reality. And it doesn’t require a drop of disinfectant. It’s called black silicon. While the material itself was discovered back in the 1990s…

An emergency clean-up crew was dispatched to a full-size replica of the Space Shuttle Independence in Houston earlier this morning after some miscreants covered it in graffiti. “Houston We ARE the Problem” is almost a political statement, sure—but vandalizing a national treasure with racial slurs? That’s a serious problem. [KHOU]

​Some Fool Threw Away a Hard Drive with $7.5 Million of Bitcoin On It

Ever accidentally lose a dollar? Then you count what’s in your war chest, realize it’s a dollar short, and kick yourself for being careless? Well, a British IT worker knows what that feels like—except times 7.5 million. James Howells did a really smart thing back in 2009 and started mining Bitcoin before anybody had ever…

This New Polymer Regenerates Large Parts of Itself, Like Lizards Do

Call it whatever you want—the Wolverine plastic, the Terminator material, the Doctor Who ingredient—but this new regenerating polymer is amazing. A team at the University of Pittsburgh has developed a formula for a novel substance that uses nanorods to rebuild itself when part of it has been severed. Essentially, the nanorods are embedded in a…

The Military Is A/B Testing the Future of Warfare

Down some spookily-lit corridor at the Pentagon, there are surely soldiers dreaming about the future of warfare. But, at the National Defense University, some of the nation’s top brass are actually playing out the scenarios. In fact, a group of generals just finished a rather innovative year-long wargame. ArmyTimes has all the details. The exercise…

This Robotic Sea Turtle Is Built to Find Hidden Treasure in Shipwrecks

Thanks to millions and millions of years of evolution, sea turtles work. They work well. They can swim stealthily around the ocean, sliding between chunks of coral if necessary. That in mind, it’s no wonder the sea creatures are the inspiration for the latest underwater robots. The U-CAT hails from Estonia, but it’s bound for…