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New Method For Analyzing Fingerprints Uses Tiny Patterns of Sweat

Fingerprints, as most of us know, are composed of whorls, loops, and arches. But keep zooming in, and you’ll find tiny, tiny sweat pores arranged in patterns equally unique. Scientists in Korea have found a new way to map those pores that could help identify decade-old fingerprint fragments. The sweaty creatures they are, humans leave…

Dreamworks Predicts That In The Future We’ll Buy Movies By The Inch

Would you be willing to pay for your movie based on the screen size you’re watching it on? Via Variety, Jeffrey Katzenberg, head of Dreamworks Animation, envisions a future 10 years from now where you “pay by the inch you watch” of a movie: I think the model will change and you won’t pay for…

Coke’s Arcade Machine Accepts Plastic Bottles Instead of Quarters

Sometimes all that’s needed to encourage people to recycle is a little incentive. That’s why pop cans and beer bottles have deposits, and why Coca-Cola built an arcade machine that runs on empty plastic soda bottles instead of quarters. Sure, it’s also a way to advertise sugar water, but that doesn’t make this recent initiative…

You Can Watch Hulu For Free on Your Phone This Summer

Even if you’re not a Hulu Plus subscriber, you’ll be able to watch select shows on its mobile app for free this summer, the company just announced. We’re unclear on just what shows and for how long, but for a short time at least, Hulu will let you stream on the app in an ad-supported…

Fox Cancels Almost Human

Fox is pulling the plug on its A.I. cop show, as. Almost Human human has been canceled. No real surprise here as the ratings were not great. However, we did enjoy the pilot. So long Karl Urban and your robot friend Dorian! [Via EW]

Car-Sized Hunk From Satellite Launch Found in the Amazon

A Brazilian fisherman floating down the Uriandeua river in northern Brazil bumped into perhaps the last thing you’d expect to find in the Amazon: a huge chunk of metal that the UK Space Agency says came from the launch of Europe’s largest telecom satellite last year. How in the hell did it get there? As…

A Functional Cork Keeps This Coffee Table From Collapsing

If there are any Ikea engineers reading this post, please take note. Your system of using hex bolts and wrenches to assemble your flat-pack furniture is OK, but things would be a heck of a lot easier for everyone if all of your pieces were held together with giant wine corks. Clearly designer Hyeonil Jeong…

Up in the Air: Using Tethered Balloons to Photograph the Future City

Sometimes even the most visionary architects need a little perspective—a way to see what’s just over the horizon. To show them what’s coming, photographer Curt Westergard delivers a peek at the near-future using one of the oldest, most low-tech solutions on the planet: Balloons. Westergard is founder of Virginia-based Digital Design & Imaging Service, which…

23 Amazing Landscape Photographs That Are Actually Renderings

It can be difficult to know what’s real and what’s fake when it comes to digital art these days. But don’t torture yourself worrying about it now: Here are 23 of the most amazing photorealistic 3D renderings of landscapes on the web. Each one is completely synthetic; every single detail generated by madly talented 3D…

First Looks At Amazing Spider-Man‘s Sinister Six! Plus Gotham Details!

Marc Webb explains why all the villains in Amazing Spider-Man 2. Find out how Maze Runner changes the book. Norman Reedus calls The Walking Dead season 5 “totally insane.” And Assassin’s Creed closes in on a director. Plus, Bridesmaids director Paul Feig is doing a space adventure. Spoilers now! Top image: Donal Logue as Harvey…

These Lamps Blow Up Just Like Balloons

These LED lamps don’t have much to them—because most of their integrity is supplied by the air from your lungs, which fills their polyethylene skins. The brainchild of German graduate designer Theo Möller, the Blow lamps are inflated by blowing into a valve at one one end of the aluminum-coated polyethylene tubes. At sufficient pressure,…

Fish Learn To Use Tools, So Let’s Rethink the Definition of Tool Use

When you think of Atlantic cod, you probably think of a strip of fish, battered and fried. But new research suggests that the fish might be able to use tools, and that might cause us to rethink how we evaluate tool use in other animals. In a recent study, a group of researchers led by…

Possible News on Kidnapped Girls in Nigeria

An unspecified number of the schoolgirls kidnapped from their final exams in Nigeria have been forcibly married to strangers, but Boko Haram might peacefully release the rest. This is painfully low on confirmed facts, but at least it’s not being reported that they’re dead. Mothers of the kidnapped daughters demonstrate for their return. Photography credit:…

PS4 Update: Enhanced Video Editing, Advance Downloads of Games, More

Sony’s PlayStation 4 console gets its first major update since its November launch today, with the release of the 1.70 system software. For those that love compiling brag clips, this one will be just what you’ve been waiting for, as it brings the comprehensive SHAREfactory video editing and sharing suite to Sony’s new console. SHAREfactory…

This Japanese House Is Entirely Clad in Aluminum

Talk about tin foil hats: this house is for the truly paranoid. Sitting in a small provincial town near Tokyo, this house is clad entirely in a soft metallic coat of aluminum. The brainchild of Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori, Soft-Hard Aluminium House is covered in a kind of quilted aluminum. Flanked by normal residential dwellings,…

DreamWorks: Films of the Future Will Be Paid For By the Inch

Watch films on your TV instead of your tablet? It might cost you—at least, that’s if Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation, is right about a future where films are priced according to screen size. Speaking out about his vision of the future of movie consumption, he explained that “a movie screen will be…

When It Comes to Technology, It’s Best to Bow Out Gracefully

Maybe you should stop using Facebook while the going’s good? [XKCD]

Who is Murphy of Murphy’s Law?

For those not familiar, Murphy’s Law states: “Anything that can go wrong will.” Early Origins Pessimists have existed long before the Murphy whose name today graces this fundamental law. One of the earliest instances of this “law” being stated explicitly happened in 1877 where Alfred Holt is believed to have said in an address to…

This Hack Gives Your DSLR 9 Hours of Battery Life

Take a 10,000mAh Anker battery and a DC coupler from Amazon, add a hot-shoe plate and some industrial strength velcro, and throw it all at your DSLR. Nope, it’s not a craft project—it’ll give your camera an amazing 9 hours of battery life. This hack, by Chris Winter, gives a standard DSLR about 9 times…

Chromecast has been updated to show Google Drive presentations. Which is pretty handy: shove the dongle into your projector, make sure you’re on the same Wi-Fi network, and go present like a corporate rockstar. Perhaps.