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How This Revolutionary Industrial Glass Made Its Way Into Your Kitchen

You might not know it by name, but chances are you have a Pyrex dish in your kitchen right now—most Americans probably do. A fascinating history over at Collectors Weekly traces the ubiquitous supermaterial as part of an exhibition which opened this week at the Corning Museum of Glass. Pyrex was invented in 1915 after…

Twitter and Medium Announce They’ve Invented Email

As Twitter and Medium modernize for the new age known as the third quarter of 2015, they’ve both made announcements about the astonishing new directions the companies are taking. Both will be letting users have access to something extraordinary and magically powerful. Today Twitter announced that the company would at last be relaxing its 140…

Mosquito-Sucking Drones Could Detect Outbreaks Before Anyone’s Sick

The idea that drones could provide medical care has been around practically as long as drones have existed. Microsoft is working on using drones for medical purposes, too—but long before people are ill. For the most part, the idea of using drones to help in medical emergencies means delivering supplies or direct care to patients.…

Our Favorite Android, iOS, and Windows Phone Apps of the Week

Welcome to another week of apps. Android gets a DIY smartphone kill switch, iPhones can now use one of the best photo editors ever made, and Windows Phone gets a new browser for your internet viewing pleasure. Let’s take a look. Android Flipd Sometimes, you need a break from smartphone-ing, and in a 21st-century example…

9 Misconceptions About Drones That Engineers Wish You’d Shut Up About

They’re robots. They fly. They’re watching you. And they’re increasingly found everywhere: Yup, they’re drones. You may think you know exactly what they are and what they do. You don’t. Like lots of emerging technologies, drones are often misunderstood, especially early in their existence. To help you navigate our brave new world filled with swooping,…

Watch a Boeing 787 Dreamliner takeoff almost perpendicular to the ground

Wow. Watch the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner pull off an amazing aerial display in preparation for the 2015 Air Show. You can see the big bodied jet pretend it’s like a stunt plane and basically do tricks in the air. The most impressive has to be the take off though, the jet almost immediately goes nearly…

That VR Guy Riding the Subway NOW WITH VIDEO Update: We Found Him

Earlier today, I casually posted a tweet which featured a man from the future riding the L train into Manhattan. We know he’s from the future because he’s wearing a VR headset and he’s, like, totally having a VR experience. Now, we are proud to share EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of the future. The video comes to…

The complicated and fascinating life of farming leafcutter ants

Here’s an interesting look at the life of leafcutter ants, the tiny little farmers of the world. They cut off the leaves of trees and essentially use it to farm the fungus they need to feet their little ant colony. It’s an impressive undertaking, carrying the leaves as they do is the equivalent of humans…

The First-Ever Cat Convention Pretty Much Broke the Internets

Last weekend, CatCon took the internet by storm. 10,000 people descended on the convention in L.A., which featured appearances by celebrity cats, cat-centric panels, and all the cat swag you could shake a stick with a dangling feather at. The internet’s love affair with our cat friends is long documented (and we’ve been posing cats…

A Rare Look Inside The Formation Of A “Worthington Jet” Of Water

Worthington jets are the reason we must live in fear of splashback during all our water-related activities. A small object hitting the water can create a jet of water that shoots up. Here you can see it happening from both below and above the water. When an object hits the water, the liquid doesn’t always…

The Ancestor Of The Menstrual Cup Was More Like A Menstrual Canteen

The first modern-style menstrual cup was patented in 1932, but that wasn’t the first time inventors turned their skills to the problem of keeping bloody goo off women’s clothes. Take, for example, this little gem from 1884. It’s a menstrual cup, attached to a reservoir big enough to last for days. Here’s how it worked.…

These Are the 19 Most Obnoxious People You’ll See Riding Public Transit

Let’s face it, garbage humans are everywhere—and that doesn’t even include the dude having a VR experience in the subway seat next to you. Here are the most obnoxious people you’ll probably run into on a public transit system near you. We asked, you answered, and guess what? Manspreading is not the worst thing you…

Google’s New City Startup Needs to Find the Autonomous Car of Housing

Yesterday, Google announced a new incubator exclusively focused on urban issues. While more maps and apps are great, let’s hope the startup can use this platform to work on a solution for the biggest problem facing cities: Housing the 2.5 billion people who are going to move into them by 2050. Google needs to create…

Report: Hackers Stole Social Security Numbers of Every Federal Employee

The largest government hack in history is even larger than officials have admitted, with some sources saying every single federal employee had personal information stolen, including social security numbers. In a letterobtained by the AP, American Federal of Government Employees president J. David Cox alleged that the data breach of the government’s civil service human…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: Recon Mission

In this week’s Concept Art Writing Prompt, by artist Yunior Guerra, we’ve got a recon crew inspecting a downed plane. If this inspires you to write a story, tell us: Who are these characters? And what do they find out in the sand? In our weekly writing prompt, we share an interesting image and invite…

This could get weird. Twitter is going to remove the 140 character limit on DMs. Wonder what Mark Zuckerberg thinks… Contact the author at [email protected]. Public PGP key PGP fingerprint: 91CF B387 7B38 148C DDD6 38D2 6CBC 1E46 1DBF 22

These Are Some Of The Longest Movies Ever Made

Was The Dark Knight Rises a little too long for you? Do you find yourself consulting that peebreak app before going to see one of these three-hour Hollywood blockbusters. Pffft. That’s nothing. Here are some of the actual longest movies ever made, with videos you can watch right now. Resan (The Journey), a 873 min.…

Fat-Hating Redditors Flee to Voat, Overload Servers, Demand Bitcoin

You’ve probably never heard of Voat, but the free-speech-loving little Reddit clone is the hottest website in Troll City today. After Reddit officially banned several abusive subreddits, a flood of Redditors fled to Voat, where similar subsites still exist. Voat is now drowning in the traffic and needs Bitcoin to stay afloat. In a sense,…

The Oculus Rift Has An Amazing Controller. Too Bad It’s Sold Separately

Were you hoping that Oculus’ big push for virtual reality would include a revolutionary controller? Something that would let you actually touch the virtual worlds? You’ll get it, but not for a while. Instead, the final Oculus Rift is going to ship with a standard Xbox One gamepad. Yawn. Don’t get me wrong—the Xbox One…

Awesome LED black hole water slide is like flying through a wormhole

The coolest water slide in the world and perhaps the universe is this black hole water slide in Bremerhaven, Germany’s Bad 1 Water Park. The slide starts off completely dark and then lights up with colorful LEDs throughout the journey that make it seem as if you’re traveling through some trippy wormhole or teleportation tunnel…